Monday, October 31, 2016
It's Halloween and I didn't even realize it until I just wrote the date. I was awoken very early in the morning to stomach pains. I've been very careful, so I'm not sure what could have caused me to get sick. I started taking some medicine right away and haven't really felt sick after the initial few hours. I went back to sleep for a long time after that, so maybe it helped.
After the anxiety and experiences of the first few days, I thought I would take it easy today. I'm still not used to the environment and chaos here. To be honest, I'm not sure I'll ever get used to it. Life back in the US is so calm and easy compared to India. I'm learning to really be thankful and appreciative of what I have back home. After sleeping in extra, I got ready and took an Uber to Phoenix Market City. It's a really huge and modern mall. I shopped there for nearly three hours. I bought a gift for my nephew, an Indian cricket jersey, and a couple Indian-made button-up shirts. I was surprised to see a Dunkin Donuts in the mall. I went in there to wait in line, and then I realized we have those back home and there probably isn't any difference between them. After I walked away, it occurred to me that there probably is a bit of a selection and flavor difference. Oh well. There were lots and lots of cute women at the mall. I didn't exactly try the hardest, but I said hi to a few and didn't get much of a response in return. I wonder if it's a communication barrier, or if I'm really just that bad with women?
After the mall, I met up with Jay and we went to Kapaleeshwarar Temple. You are not allowed to wear shoes in temples, so I had to go in barefoot. I've been wearing shoes my entire life and my feet were feeling every spec of dust and dirt I walked on. You also can't take pictures of the Hindu gods, I guess. So I just followed Jay's direction. I basically followed him around that temple like a lost dog. As part of his prayers there, he would walk in a circle around all the monuments to each god. It took me a while to figure out he was doing that. I really was just following him like a lost dog. He would explain a bit about each god or saint as he walked a circle around their monument. It was a lot of info and I don't remember much of it.
After the temple, we went to a mall called Citi Centre. I realized I was mostly out of cash, so I exchanged some USD for INR (Indian Rupee) at a money exchange there. I bought some cookies, and for some reason the minimum you had to buy was 20 cookies. Maybe I was scammed, who knows, but Jay didn't say anything. I was trying to play cute with the woman at the cookie stand, but she was resilient to my charm. I'm beginning to see a pattern here with talking to women... Anyway, we met up with one of Jay's friends whom he hadn't seen in over 3 years. Jay's friend, whose name I won't attempt to spell, was fascinated with my interest in Indian women. We went to the rooftop of the mall and "enjoyed" the cookies. I say "enjoyed" because the few cookies I had were like eating rocks. 240 Rupees down the drain. We stayed up there and chatted for a while then headed to that guy's house. He owned a few cows and had them outside the stairs to the entrance of his house. The guy had a wife and an eight-month-old daughter. What really surprised me the most about this guy's house was that it was barely big enough to fit a bed. Maybe I just don't understand how houses work in India, and there was more to it somewhere.
We later went to the home of another of Jay's friends. His house was pretty small, too. It was bigger than the other friend's, but still so compact. My apartment back in Indianapolis may seem like a mansion compared to these homes. I wonder if most of Chennai or India is like that?
That is pretty much it. Nothing too exciting today. Kind of a relief from the past few days. Oh, I did install and set up Tinder to try meeting women here! I haven't had much luck. Only one match so far, unfortunately. However, I have a feeling lots of these profiles are fake because I keep seeing lots and lot of repeats.
