Victor Feinman I found it on some guy's site

India Entry 8 – 8/6/07

Ok, so I haven’t written in a while, but not a lot has happened in that time. I mean a lot has happened, but stuff you really don’t care to hear about.

This weekend proved itself to be bad. I must have caught a bug or drank some tainted water or something cause I was not feeling good at all Saturday night. Saturday night I had a feavor, cold spells, stomach ache and sore all over. I took two Tylenol, drank a lot of water and went to bed. Sunday morning everything was gone except for the stomach ache. It stayed with me all day Sunday and half way through Monday.

With my stomach feeling the way it was, I was not about to eat at the food courts. This was my chance to go to the grocery store and pick up some food. I got a lot of good stuff: bread, peanut butter, jelly, nutella, bananas, apples, raisins and more. As soon as I started walking home it started to rain. This is not uncommon and I was prepared. I took out my umbrella and started walking on my way back when I found a volley ball hit astray and rolled conveniently to my feet. Naturally I trapped the ball, pulled my foot back and just as I was about to bring my foot down to strike the ball, my left foot lost traction on the slippery wet walkway and I went up in the air as if I just slipped on a piece of ice. Groceries and all went flying… me too. I landed on my left side, smashing my elbow on the stone ground. The US trainees watching, waiting for the volleyball, all laughed. To my surprise a very nice Indian who witnessed this whole fiasco rand to my rescue with a caring, genuine, “are you ok?” He helped me up, then proceeded to pick up my bag. As I was assessing my damage and picking up my umbrella, the nice guy started to walk off with my recently purchased groceries. I politely said, “sir… my bag please.” I was responded with an embarrassing smile and, “I’m sorry.” He then told me to sit down for a while. I was still a little shaken up so I complied. My elbow is still bruised, looks a little swollen, and hurts to lean on, but at least my stomach is feeling better 

Classes aren’t too difficult. From 9am to 12ish we are sitting in class listening to a lecture, going over about 80 or more slides. From 12:30-2 we have lunch, then we come back and do assignments until we are done. I haven’t left class earlier then 6 o’clock yet. We usually have 10 assignments. These assignments are not difficult but take a while to complete.

Today was pretty cool, in that during lunch we had a live videoconference with Senator John Ensign (R-Nevada), who was for one reason or another visiting the Bangalore campus. So whilst he was in town, he gave a small address followed by a short Q&A session. Guess who had the first question for Mr. Senator? Yup you guessed it, yours truly. My question was “What is the US Government doing to prepare the citizens, in terms of acceptance and mentality, for the equalization of economic power from countries such as India and China?” He gave a smooth talking typical-of-a-senator answer, which was so much fluff, I don’t even remember.

Looking back on it, that was really cool. Lol I am already luck enough to get an expensed paid + salary trip to India AND I get to talk to a US Senator. Who would have knew.