Victor Feinman

Yesterday was cool, we got to go into downtown Mysore. As soon as we left the campus, we were able to see the huge differences of quality of life. The distance between the two are short, but the conditions are vastly different. The driving was nothing short of amazing. The bus stops for nothing but cows. To sum up the driving rules in one line: only yield for things you don’t want to hit or get hit by. Sounds logical, but these people are crazy and seem to want to get hit by anything.

First we stopped at a Temple on top of a mountain. The Temple was beautiful in all of its artistic decorations built into it. There was a long line going into it so we just walked around it instead. Whilst walking around the temple we saw wild monkeys, which was an interesting site to see. Some pictures were taken.

Second stop was the luxury shop. It proudly displayed a sign stating “rite of admission reserved.” I guess we were lucky enough to be admitted. Seeing that we all are Americans carrying relatively large sums of USD, admittance was not an issue. The prices seemed to be a little high, however, the quality and validity of the products are assured. I suspect I will be returning to that store for some gifts to take back.

Lastly we stopped at the Mysore Palace. This was the highlight of this little excursion. The palace is absolutely stunning – inside and out. I swear there is half of the worlds supply of gold in that palace. I guess it helps that the palace resides in the town with the deepest gold mines in the world.

Training started today. Today was one presentation after another; ranging from company policies and mission statements to anti sexual harassment and diversity. We started at 8:30am and were free to go at 8:30pm. As you can imagine, by the last presentation we were all zoned out. You can only hold twenty-something year olds attention for so long.