It's like my first day of school......

So today was bizarre and awesome and crazy all rolled up in one. My roommates and I slept through our first Indian breakfast - which sounds like it may have been a wise decision since breakfast was rice and veggies; not sure that I am ready for that quite yet. So, after about 5 hours of sleep that was NOT enough, I got up and got ready in the very Indian bathroom for the first time. I'm not even sure where to start with my description of the bathroom. There is no shower spot or bathtub to speak of. Instead, the showerhead is just hanging off one of the walls betweeen the sink and the toilet. The hotel did provide us with a used bucket to assist in our bathing, should we need it. Also there is no hot water, but since it is hot and muggy here, that really isnt an issue. The exhaust fan in the window is a little rotary fan mounted into a rough hole in the wall that goes directly outside, so you can hear the cars honking while in there. (side note: cars honk constantly!!!!! and traffic blows my mind) It was difficult to remember not to let any water get in my mouth - trying to avoid dysentery, for now. The toilet comes with a little attached hose that most American sinks have for rinsing dishes.....interesting.
After getting ready in my weird little bathroom, we went for a tour of some interesting things in Chennai, since we are leaving here tomorrow for Pondicherry, where I will be most of the time I'm here. The largest tree in the world is supposedly here, but the guards wouldnt let 50 Americans in to see it......we couldn;t really discern why, but it wasn't happening, so we moved on. We went to the St. Thomas Basilica church here - one of three churches in the world built on the tomb of one Jesus Christ's apostles. Everyone reading this surely knows my opinion on religion, so I won't go into that. But the architecture and actual tomb were amazing. And, regardless of the religious implications, this was a really interesting piece of history. It was very eye-opening to me the number of Catholics that live here - it is much much more widespread than I thought.
After seeing the tomb and church, we went to one of the widest (i.e. from road to water) beaches in the world. Seriously - it is second only to Rio apparently.......That experience was intense. I think this is likely one of the first times in my life that I have really felt like a racial and ethnic minority. We were stared at, laughed at, touched........I think it was the first time a few of the kids had seen blonde hair. I did find a vendor that sold Coke - and I realllly enjoyed my liquid caffeine. There were hundreds of vendors selling everything from tea sets to jewelry to fans made of toothpicks on the way from the street to the water.....Unfortunately, part of Indian culture is not throwing much away in garbage cans. Rather, everything pretty much just goes onto the beach or ground, so there is trash EVERYWHERE. So, we took the long walk to the water and tried to avoid stepping on anything too hazardous.
After our adventures out int he city, we came back to the hotel and decided to walk to find a restaurant. Let me tell you....this was terrifying. There aren't traffic lanes here, and stoplights actually are only a suggestion. There also aren't sidewalks. You walk in the street with all the rickshaws, motorcycles, and busses coming at you from front and back. More so, it was getting dark out and only three of us went out for dinner, so it didn;t feel particularly safe anyway. We couldn't find the restaurant that a bellman had recommended, so we ended up just walking about a mile and turning back. We did somehow get caught up in a department store, and there were the most random things there.....tampons next to hair dryers next to fruit loops....i was confused. I also stopped by an ATM and pulled out 9,000 rupees. Doesn't that make me sound rich???? Too bad it's only about $180.......Then we went to our hotel restaurant and I learned the hard way that even when Indians SAY "no spice," they MEAN "I'm going to try to burn your tongue so you can't taste anything ever again." My entire meal (paneer butter masala, butter naan, and soda) cost 110 rupees....i.e. just over two dollars. And this was an upscale restaurant.
Ok, that's all I've got for now. It's only 9:30 p.m. here, but my body has no idea what is going on. Yay jet lag!