Well, I spoke too soon. Friday afternoon just as I finished writing my "farewell Bangalore" post, Lily called us in for a meeting. Yoshi, Maria, Amanda and I grabbed our laptops and headed downstairs to one of the conference rooms, and as we came down the stairs, Lily and Rams were pulling out a cake and snacks as a little farewell celebration. They lit candles on the cake, and all four of us had to stand behind the table that the cake was on and each say something about what we had taken away from this internship experience. We were put on the spot just a little, and we were all able to come up with something to say (thankfully) and then we had to blow out the candles on the cake- but not by exhaling, by inhaling. Interesting. Later I learned that this was apparently a joke, but I inhaled to blow out the candles nonetheless. It was so sweet of the office to do everything, it was a complete surprise, and everyone took a few minutes out of their day to wish us well and thank us for what we did. After we all enjoyed some cake, Maria and I actually did meet with Lily and handed over our last few things. Lily gave us a couple more small things to finish up before we leave Bangalore, and then we headed out of the office. We left a little late on Friday so we got home around 7:30pm. After a quick dinner at the biryani place around the corner, a few of us headed back out to the Banana Beach bar for one last night. We had a nice time and then came back to the apartments where everyone else was, and stayed up until after 3am because we knew it was one of our last nights together.
Saturday (yesterday) we got up around 9am, had breakfast, and then Kristen, Kat and I went out to run some errands. We went to DHL and I shipped a box of goodies home, we stopped and printed out all our travel itineraries, and then we ran to a bookstore because we were all fresh out of reading material! On the way home we stopped and put more minutes on our phones and grabbed some granola bars to take once we start traveling. In the afternoon, Maria and I met and finished up our work (yay!!!) and then the packing began. Good god, what a mess. Around 4pm, the maids came to help us put on our sarees, which was so nice of them, but we didn't have to leave for the GSE celebration dinner until 6pm, which meant I had to make it through two hours in the saree without messing it up- this is actually quite a challenge. After they tied my saree I kept trying to pack, and then I guess I did mess up the saree, and one of the maids came over saying "No, no madam" and had to partially re-tie it. Oops. I finally admitted defeat and sat around until about 6, when Navee, Kristen and I left for the dinner. We were the first ones there, but we didn't have to wait too long for everyone else to come.
The dinner was quite something- there were so many people that came! It was all of the GSE group, some Lilly students, people from all of our host organizations, people from CSIM, other Wooster alum, there was probably 60 or 70 people there. We had a nice opportunity to talk to a bunch of people, have dinner and then visit some more before finally going home around 11. Last night was our last night all together, so we sat and visited until 2am or so, but we've all had a long week and yesterday was a busy day for everybody, so we didn't do anything to exciting. We had to start saying our goodbyes last night for the people that are leaving especially early this morning. It's never fun.
But nonetheless, here I am, backpack packed (and when I say packed, I mean its so stuffed full that I hope a zipper doesn't bust), and ready to catch a flight with 7 other people to Rajasthan! I'll post again when I have internet- probably toward the end of the week. So, bye for now!
Saturday (yesterday) we got up around 9am, had breakfast, and then Kristen, Kat and I went out to run some errands. We went to DHL and I shipped a box of goodies home, we stopped and printed out all our travel itineraries, and then we ran to a bookstore because we were all fresh out of reading material! On the way home we stopped and put more minutes on our phones and grabbed some granola bars to take once we start traveling. In the afternoon, Maria and I met and finished up our work (yay!!!) and then the packing began. Good god, what a mess. Around 4pm, the maids came to help us put on our sarees, which was so nice of them, but we didn't have to leave for the GSE celebration dinner until 6pm, which meant I had to make it through two hours in the saree without messing it up- this is actually quite a challenge. After they tied my saree I kept trying to pack, and then I guess I did mess up the saree, and one of the maids came over saying "No, no madam" and had to partially re-tie it. Oops. I finally admitted defeat and sat around until about 6, when Navee, Kristen and I left for the dinner. We were the first ones there, but we didn't have to wait too long for everyone else to come.
The dinner was quite something- there were so many people that came! It was all of the GSE group, some Lilly students, people from all of our host organizations, people from CSIM, other Wooster alum, there was probably 60 or 70 people there. We had a nice opportunity to talk to a bunch of people, have dinner and then visit some more before finally going home around 11. Last night was our last night all together, so we sat and visited until 2am or so, but we've all had a long week and yesterday was a busy day for everybody, so we didn't do anything to exciting. We had to start saying our goodbyes last night for the people that are leaving especially early this morning. It's never fun.
But nonetheless, here I am, backpack packed (and when I say packed, I mean its so stuffed full that I hope a zipper doesn't bust), and ready to catch a flight with 7 other people to Rajasthan! I'll post again when I have internet- probably toward the end of the week. So, bye for now!
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