Day 1-3: I was very lucky to travel to India for work with 5 colleagues. The Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai (Tamil, South India) is the largest eye hospital in the world. They will be recruiting patients into the Sjogren's syndrome study I work on. My colleague took pix at the hospital, so i wish i could add those to my album. We took almost 2 full days to get to Madurai and I worked for 3 days. The staff wasn't as prepared for us as we'd hoped. Working with some of the staff was very frustrating since there were language barriers and problems seemed to be solved a lot slower than we preferred. The hospital seems so chaotic in the large numbers of patients they see and the assembly line-like ways they examine patients. But somehow it all works and they win awards and grants year after year to expand. The hospital's responsible for building up the community and employing a large percent of locals, including women.

New building for Aravind.

But Madurai was definitely still a rural town. Farm animals roamed the partially paved streets and it was a big mistake wearing my grown up slacks and heels since it was so HOT.

We stayed at the Aravind Guesthouse, which was dorm-like. The cooks use Western standards to prepare meals and we were fed 3x a day. It was so delicious.

Laundry service, ironing!

After finishing with work, I took my first tuk-tuk ride. They usually call them "autos"

We visited the colorful Meenakshi Sunareswarar Hindu Temple, which Madurai is most well-known for.

The vivid colors were recently repainted.

Non-Hindus aren't allowed in the actual areas for prayer.

Dentist colleague, Ava

After the temple, we shopped for scarves. I desperately needed light clothing and bought some tailored Punjabi pants and shirts, which weren't very cute but breathable. Apparently, I got ripped off (the manager of the guesthouse said the man was "very very bad" for charging me so much). Most of the women in the south wore saris, so when I went to other parts of India, I realized how unattractive the clothes i bought were compared to the cuter, contemporary outfits Indian women wore.

Day 4: I had a late night stopover in Bangalore. After a stressful work experience in the south, I found refuge with Matt and Maddy (roommate, Deb's bro-in-law and niece), where they were temporarily living in a luxury condo. The last time I saw Maddy was almost a year ago and she was still bald. I loved seeing all that hair!

I had a nice Western shower in the morning and then we headed to breakfast at the fancy Oberoi Hotel, a true oasis.

rush hour traffic

Metro expansion

2nd helping of yogurt that morning. After only Indian food in the south, i welcomed the Western breakfast at the hotel.

a little temperamental since she's teething

After a 1 hour flight, I made it to the west coastal state of Goa for some R&R.

The beach town, Calangute, was almost an hour from the airport.