CAP Asia Travel Log: Ahmedabad (Day 11-13)

DAY 11
Wed 01/19/05 writing at 2:11PM in the CEPT studio, 01/21/05

When you start doing the same things again and again everyday. You will start seeing it as nothing. This is happening to me like now. I can't come up with anything that I think it's interesting. What I remember is that since we are having seminar class like this everyday, I need to speak up to make Nihal notices and gives me the participation points. I think back to the time that I first started the master program in Ball State, I had a real problem speaking and asking questions. I don't say now I'm good but at least I've got better.
Anyways, I think I don't have anything more to tell. See you tomorrow.

DAY 12
Thu 01/20/05 writing at 3:22PM in the CEPT studio, 01/21/05

Ahmedabad also fell into the fast food franchise realm just like any other cities and countries around the world. Today I'm gonna talk about my first experience with Indian McDonald. It happened to us because Nihal dismissed the class earlier than usual. Matt is the one who found it and he also brought an idea to get a lunch over there together.
The McDonald that we went is located on the Ground floor of the cinema complex which I can't recall the name. We were so excited to see what they will provide us on the menu, do they have the Maharaja Burger like Nihal told us? No, they don't but they do have the regular menu just like the store in USA. The only mere difference is the names that they put on each item. Oh..hey!! They don't have beef here, so they have only chicken and fish for the meat. The service was fine just little bit slow because of the language barrier. The store is clean. In fact, it's cleaner than a store in Muncie.
After the lunch, I had a chance to do a little shopping, yeahh..!! We went to the local souvenir store running by government. I was thinking about buying a Shawl, a piece of cloth in rectangular shape using to cover the body from the cold temperature, for myself several days ago. The weather in Ahmedabad was getting colder and colder everyday. In that shop, there are many many things to look around most of them are quite beautiful and authentic. I went to the basement to get a Shawl for myself and also for my girlfriend. It ended up that I got just one piece for myself. It's a very nice piece with more pattern and better fabric. Everyone keeps asking where did I get that Shawl. I feel bad that I couldn't get one for Nan but I tried already. The ones for women that a sale person showed me don't look nice at all. However, when we were heading back to school Emily showed a Shawl that she got. It's so so nice. I'll go back and get that one for sure.
Then we were back to the class. All the discourses in the class still go on but I can bear with it. The trip to Veraval is coming. We are looking forward for this trip.

DAY 13
Fri 01/21/05 writing in RM 217 Hotel Park, Veraval (10:33PM)

The days of my CAP Asia trip passed by. I don't wanna say that they are passing fast or slow. It doesn't matter. What matters is I learn new experiences everyday. Things have got busy after we came to Veraval. I have less time to keep track of what I did and the name of the places that we went to. Furthermore, I have less time to write this journal. Therefore, I think I can't maintain the same amount of writing as I did in those very first days. I will try to be more specific in what kind of data that I want to communicate to the reader.
Today is the last day before we go to Veraval to do our town planning project. Things seem to be wind down a bit. The discussion in the morning was not so intense. Instead, we put our focus into the preparation in regard to what we will do both on the way to and in Veraval. There are two parts of this trip. One is a field trip before the CEPT students join us, from Sat 22nd to Mon 24th, which we will travel in 4 different cities; Rajkot, Jamnagar, Dwarka, Porbandar, and Junagadh. Another one is a research part, which we have to do the 'Land Use' survey and 'Household' survey, from Tue 25th to Sat 4th of February.
After the class and meeting, I went to the Mint to check my email and clear out my internet stuff because I don't know that I can an internet access or not. Also I need to have a chat with Nan as well. No luck, she wasn't there. Anyways, I tried my best to make a contact with her before I left. Finally, I made it. I made a call using S.T.D., long distance call service. I had a good conversation with her. We were so happy to hear each other voice again. But..yeah.. who knows when I will be possible to contact her again during this trip.
I don't feel like having much thing to say. I remember that at that day I was happy to get out of Ahmedabad. I eager to go back to the flat for packing my stuff. Now it's time to use my Gregory backpack alone in the trip. I think it's worth for the price that I paid. Everything had been packed and everybody went to bed early because I need to get rolling very early on the next day. See you tomorrow.

(to be continued)

BiGGa