Mmmm whatcha say. Mmm that you only meant well? well of course you did.

Well, lets see, we left Coimbatore on Saturday to leave for Cochin. We took a train, the trip was about 5 hours. That pretty much took up the entire day. We sat near some people from California that talked to us quite a bit. I also really like our new tour guide he talked to us a lot on the way from the hotel to the train station, about anything we wanted him to. He's nice, and very helpful.

Today we went to an Ayurveda Hospital. We learned about and saw a bunch of different ophthalmology procedures. I noticed that it was actually much cleaner than the hospital I was in the last time I was here. We also went to the factory where they make their medicines, that was more sterile than the OR I was in (though the regulation flip flops were the same...)We spent the morning there, and had lunch and then headed back to our hotel. We just got done eating dinner at the Upstairs Italian Restaurant.

Kochi is the only place on this trip that I have been to before, so that has been really strange. Today we walked down the street that the hotel I stayed at is on, which is the same street as 2 restaurants we ate at, and a coffee shop that made us miss our ferry, at some point I plan on going to look at the wall that I ran the scooter into since that street is right next to our current hotel. Its just been weird. But nice.

Cochin (Kochi) is BEAUTIFUL, more so than I remembered, its much more developed than the places we've been, and cleaner. Almost no beggars, and a few tourists. Its been a nice change actually. The only annoying part is the rickshaw drivers, especially when they stood outside the restaurant waiting for us to come out last night. Other than that its green and pretty and comfortable.

Frustration of the day: Dan, the program director, who is impatient, uncaring, annoying, and unhelpful. and I'll spare you the rest of the rant for tonight, but....really... AND people taking pictures of children in the clinic, lets use our heads people. How would you feel if that was your child, or even you.

I'm really looking forward to going down to see my host mom, Its really unfortunate that we're all having so many problems with Dan, it takes a lot away from the trip, which in turn is taking a lot of people away from India. The times we all enjoy the most are when we are on our own trying to get around and do things, and we aren't being herded and rushed for no reason. I'm trying to be more positive about him, but his blatant lack of caring about anyone is really causing me to lose the sliver of respect I had left for him.

Wow, that was pretty negative, I didn't mean for it to be, I truly am having a good time, that being said, since I hate ending these on negative notes (and since they have to be transformed into a class assignment, I am still enjoying India, and I really have learned a ton, and the people are still like they were last time, welcoming and amazing. I still love it here.