Safari

Hellooo everyone! So it's been quite a busy weekend. We got our first project assigned to us last week and we've been literally work on it nonstop ever since. My particular group seems very determined/hard-working (3 of the 4 of us are small Asian girls...dunno if that has anything to do with it...haha). We worked all of Saturday and the girls finished all of our code that day. Which was a good thing because we all had to wake up at 3:45AM the next morning. Why you ask??? Because of our "safari" trip to Bandipur National Park.

I say "safari" in quotes because no, I unfortunately did not get to spot any lions and tigers and bears, oh my. Let's just say it's a good thing I went in with low expectations because even though we didn't see tigers, I still had a good time! (By the way, tigers is what this national park is supposedly known for. There are supposed to be around 70 tigers in the park itself). Part of the problem was that we were expecting to be able to take jeep tours through the more interesting parts of the park. However, we arrived at the reception area only to discover that there was only ONE jeep and 21 of us. Oops. We had to settle instead for a van tour which wasn't terribly interesting. We saw a few monkeys and some jungle squirrels (LOL). But the fun stuff happened after we finished the van tour. Near the reception/ village area, there were even more monkeys just roaming about the area. Of course, we started feeding them. And then they started expecting more. And then they started jumping for our bags of food. Meep.

But after we ran away from the monkeys, we explored the area as we waited to see if we could do elephant rides (which we didn't end up doing that day, poo). Some of us played with/ observed more monkeys and ran with the deer. But then we found the elephants and started feeding/ petting them instead. THEN, when we tried to get our driver to take us away, he got freaked out because a small family of elephants started walking down the road. After we finally got out of the park, a smaller group of us went to a temple on a hill that was on the way home. The temple itself was neat and all, but what was really nice was the view. We took a small hike over some hills and got to see everything around us. It was awesome.

And with that, I finally uploaded pictures for you all to see!

http://picasaweb.google.com/lizlam.ca/

The first album is really tiny and are just random pictures I took at random times. Some of them are from Mysore Temple and some others are from riding rickshaws into town. The second album is all from Sunday's safari adventure. Check 'em out!

In other news, the fast track people who got assigned to ES are leaving this week. Wow, that was quick! It kind of boggles my mind that these people that I just met and became friends with are already leaving. We're hoping to make every last moment count so hopefully this week will be fun. At least they should be there to greet us when I head to Hyderabad myself! This weekends plans consist of going-away events, Chamundi Hills, and shopping, hopefully! I want a sari! My plan is to drag along my new Indian friend from Chennai to help me out. =)

P.S. I miss playing taiko dearly. It's so exciting hearing about performances and practices and newbies...I'm jealous!!! TAIKOOOOO!!!