A nice cool drink

Hi Again,

Today we started off with a couple of site visits. We first went to University of Mysore's iSchool. This was by far my favorite site visit. We got brief overview of the school and then a few students showed us around their building. By the time we came back downstairs many students were out of class. We had a light snack while talking to many of the students. I made a new friend, Irene, who is from Tanzania, Africa, and is currently a student at the iSchool. I got to learn all about her background while telling her about myself and my education. One of the most interesting things I learned from talking t the students is that most people come from an engineering/IT background. It was odd to us since we all come from liberal arts backgrounds but very cool to learn about. While on campus we toured their museum which had a lot of dolls and puppets. We then had a discussion and told the students about our various programs while learning about those. Many students here in graduate school are being supported by their parents (they pay for the education) which was interesting. Mostly in America graduate school is self-financed. It as also interesting to learn that most don't work while going to school. The conversations were really great, but soon we had to leave.

We then visited the Center Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI). This was not one of the better visits. Their facility was super hot. I thought I was gonna pass out. I had to go sit down. Most of the group was kinda miserable since it involved a lot of standing and heat. We got to see how they reach out to rural communities and respond to disasters with nutritious food which was interesting. We were all ready to leave but we waited around for a half an hour to see if the bus could get into a different gate. It couldn't so we just walked to it.

We then visited the Brindaum Gardens and KRS Dam. It was soooo beautiful and peaceful. It revived all of us. Walking around in the gardens, taking goofy photos and just enjoying life made for a feel good time. Most of us ended up at the Big White House on the top of the hill. We set out on the balcony here we had spectacular views of the gardens. They also served alcohol there, which is one of the few places that do here. It was very ing watching the sun set. When we were walking down to meet at the designated time and spot, the fountain lights came on. All the fountains had different lights. It was gorgeous. Definitely something all should see.

We then headed back to Infosys for our last night. We had dinner in their nice restaurant. We called it the "Floating Pond Restaurant" since it had a moat with koi in it and you had to walk on stones in the moat to get to the restaurant. Then it was shower and TV time. I watched part of Hercules before falling dead asleep.

Much love,
KP