Hyderabad

Yesterday, Sunday, all of the exchange students at ISB - about 40 in number - went on a day-long tour of Hyderabad. The school itself is located on the outskirts of the city in one of the wealthier suburbs, dominated by technology firms. This was our first real taste of the city.

The first stop was a temple atop a hill overlooking Hyderabad. Like most temples in India, cameras and shoes were prohibited - I can feel the hookworm. Next, we spent two hours at lunch, enjoying our first taste of meat (lamb and chicken) in days. After lunch we walked around the city for a bit and saw the Charminar - some sort of religious building that dates back to the 1500s. To finish our tour in true Indian fashion, we stopped at a fort that was closed. All forts in India seem to close at 5pm. For me, this was the third fort I missed going in due to the time. Unfortunately, the students who led the tour failed to look at the hours of operation beforehand. Again, nothing in India is easy.

Charminar

I decided it would be a good idea to get up to watch the Green Bay Packer playoff game. Because of the time difference, that required me being awake from 3am to about 7am. I was able to watch a basketball game last week, but the internet wouldn't cooperate this morning. So, after watching the play-by-play updates, I decided to call it quits at halftime when the Pack was down 24-10. Upon waking up, I learned that Green Bay had lost in overtime in the highest scoring post-season game in NFL history. Hello Monday morning.

Another week of school begins. Woodson and I booked travel for the next few weekends, so we'll be gone for a few days each week exploring areas of India. Upcoming destinations include Varanasi, Agra (again for me), Goa, Udaipur and Kerala.