Bay of Bengal

Sunday, was another designating shopping day. The weekend of the Pongal festival restricts a lot of activities we can do, so we played tourists. We started by visiting a spice shop, because tons of members of our group had requests from relatives to bring home Indian spices. People back home are getting really picky about souvenirs, and its hard for us to buy  something for friends and family from India, because it really won't mean much to someone who hasn't been here, where it means so much to us. A lot of us have expressed our difficulty in buying something so special when it won't be as appreciated because no one will really know where it came from. I know we are all having trouble figuring out what to get everyone, so don't be offended! One girl has a list of things she has to get everyone with specific colors and everything! And saffron was on her list, so we went looking for authentic Indian spices. I decided to opt out on that one, because I don't want to deal with customs. Saffron is sold up with the cigarettes, in these teeny tiny boxes because it is the gold of spices. I'm sure native Indians don't even cook with it that much because its like 200 rupees for a teaspoon. Ridiculous. Once we finally got back onto the bus, we headed to the Ft. George Museum, which has artifacts from when the British occupied India with the East India Company. Indian museums are a lot less strict than the US, each item had a lot less description, the lighting was terrible, and the building was not that nice. It puts development into perspective though, we have had a few hundred years to develop, where India has not been on its own for very long, and already they have advanced technology, and generations of smart children rising up. They just need some more time to catch up, and I don't think it will take very long. After we left the museum we went to a catholic church, and then an Armenian church. The Armenian church was very old, and I will post some pictures on facebook.
        After eating lunch, we went to the beach. The beach is huge, and there are vendors everywhere. We went at a time where the beach was not as crowded, but even so there was a loud speaker blaring the whole time in Tamil. Translated, it gave continuous warnings about valuables, chain snatchers, etc. It also reminded everyone that you are NOT permitted to wear a bathing suit, or revealing clothing. All the people we saw were wearing native dress, which isn't really that hot in the sun. You aren't allowed to swim in the Bay of Bengal anyways, because the undertow is so strong. We all went to the waters edge and waded around and took pictures. Absolutely everyone was staring at us, but we are totally used to it. The beach we were on is right next to the slums, and it was completely flooded by the Tsunami. When the water receded before the tsunami came a lot of the children from the slums ran out onto the tide flats to collect pebbles, and a lot of children died when the water came in with little warning.
       The water was very warm, and now my feet have stepped in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans! We were bombarded with begging children as we were leaving, and the kids are harder to ignore because they tug at you. Vidya bought us all jasmine flowers for our hair, and then we left. You have to cross over a huge amount of sand to reach pavement again. There is a famous statue of Ghandi by the entrance of the beach that we went over to see. Unfortunately, we had to leave quickly because we were causing too big of a scene and people kept trying to take our picture. It must have been the type of demographic that visited the beach, they were much less accustomed to Westerners. We ended up eating a room service dinner last night, and ordered hot chocolate because we are absolutely craaaaving cake, ice cream, and chocolate! We can't eat cold dairy here, and we can't really find cake! The hot chocolate tasted soo good. I hope I can get my hands on some dessert soon.