April 13, 10:58 pm, Vellore
Another day down. Today was registration. We found our way over to the
CMC college campus this morning and met Sheela from the principal's
office. She was very nice and friendly, which put me in a good mood. I
love meeting happy people. The campus is a little ways out of town and
it is beautiful, a stark contrast from the madness of the city. It is
very well manicured and well kept. It almost seems out of place in
this town. We filled out some paperwork and got registered, which took
pretty much all morning. We visited the canteen and got some pineapple
juice, which was delicious.
Oh, I almost forgot about breakfast. Katherine and I had dosas here at
the hotel restaurant. Dang. So good. They are kind of like big crispy
crepes. I'm not sure how else to describe it. But then there is stuff
inside it, like potatoe and stuff. Then you have 3 different sauce
things you can dip it in. One of them is like hummus but with more of
a peanut flavor. It was great.
Anyway, we also signed up for Internet access at the campus, but
apparently it takes a couple of days to get the account set up? We'll
give it a shot tomorrow.
We took the bus back from the campus to the hospital. It was stuffed
pretty well but hey, Rs 3 beats the Rs 50 that we paid for an
autorickshaw on the way out. When I was getting off I had to squeeze
through a bunch of people and apparently my CMC ID fell off. I didn't
realize it until the bus was starting to pull off and this guy runs up
and hands it to me and says "excuse me, this belongs to you", and then
he ran and got back on the bus. Can you believe that? I thought that
was awesome that he would do that.
We talked to Beulah (also SUPER sweet... she was so concerned about us
getting some lunch and staying out of the sun and telling us what to
eat and not... very funny. again, made me happy) at the hospital when
we got back and found that there really is no campus housing
available. Apparently it fills up months in advance. So I guess we're
going to stay here at Aavana. First impressions of the CMC hospital?
It's very big, and seems fairly well kept and clean... but it is just
so far from what we would consider a decent hospital in the States. It
was somewhat sobering to think that this is one of the best hospitals
in India. It is an open campus and the buildings and rooms do not have
AC. They just have windows open to the outside. Of course, the quality
of the hospital cannot be judged based on the building. They could
still provide great care. It's just very different than what we're
used to.
We went and strolled down gandhi street this afternoon. Lots of little
shops. The girls bought some Indian clothes. Unfortunatley, the guys
pretty much dress similar to us, so I don't know if I'll buy many
clothes here. It was good to get out into the town a little though.
Well, I think I'm going to wrap this up for now. Until tomorrow...
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