The people who work nearest to me: Madeeha (Ph.D. student) and her underlings Neha and Costab (post-masters students) helped me figure out where things are and gave advice when I could not remember some basic procedural stuff.
After work, we went to the local hopping hang out Priya. This is a shopping area that has everything one could need. Grocery store, Reebok, McDonalds, movie theatre - lots of clothing and food.
Costab had a friend coming to town, so he bought him a shirt. That sounds like a cool culture if you get a shirt when you visit your friend. One thing that everyone took into consideration was what color would look best with a given shade of brown. In the case of Costab's friend, he looks really good in white.
Anyway, it was good to go and look around and be protected from beggars and children by my lab com padres. India is a very pleasant place when beggars do not grab you. The stores are very compact and if they do not have much to sell, like and electronics store or a bank, then the store may only be three or four people deep. About 6 ft from the door to the back wall. Neha ran into a friend who was visiting India. Her friend was a grad student at SouthernCAL. While at an 'authentic' italian barista her friend gave her a 1$ bill. Everyone was so intrigued by it. I fished in my backpack and gave everyone a quarter, dime, and penny. I had forgotten grabbed a bunch of change on my way out the door to the airport in case anyone in India wanted that instead of rupees. They really liked it.
I told them all about the great american hero george washington. They all knew Lincoln. No one seemed to know about FDR. Oh well, I guess that's why he gets the tiniest of coins.
I plan on bringing back lots of coin rupees - so be prepared if I say I got you a souvenir.
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