Day 10: A day off from everything...except Swine flu as it gets more serious

Plan: Sleeping in and going back to our Hotel!

So I woke up this morning in a strange house with a strange man sleeping in a bed beside me....KIDDING! We actually woke up at Lazy Rock, the residence where most of the other Canadians (who take part in the OMG program) are staying...and the guy beside me is Julian...he was nice enough to share his room with me. We got back from the trip at about 2am, tried to get a rickshaw but they were still on strike...then tried to call Cool Cab (the company that picked us up from the airport) but they had no taxis available in Pune. Then Yan went to talk to the guard who tried to call someone but there was no answer...so our only option was to sleep over at their place! There was only one bed left so Yan was nice enough to leave it for me and he would “sleep” on the couch...although I think he surfed the...free...internet more than anything!!

We checked our email (one last time for Yan!) and then headed back to our hotel. There was a rickshaw outside the gates but he did not seem to know where our hotel was situated so we decided to walk a bit to try to find another one. We only walked for about 5 minutes when another one pulled up and we hopped in.

When we got back to the hotel, the manager asked us where we had slept!!! Seriously, it’s like travelling with parents!! He had called Vaishali cause he was a bit worried since we had left at 5am and didn’t come back until 11 am the next day! We promised him we would call him next time, so he wouldn’t worry.

We went back to our room and decided to take it easy today...movies, room service and a lot of sleep! So we put on a movie and did just that...fell asleep!! Woke up a bit later and ordered room service...a cheese sandwich for Yan and a Veg burger for me...although when they brought up the food, they brought up the cheese sandwich and a stuff paratha...We tried to explain to him that we had ordered a Veg burger but he did not seem to understand so we gave up and decided just to have the Parathas, paid the waiter and he was on his way. Two minutes later, the English speaking waiter showed up asking us if there was a problem! We explained what happened but told him that everything was fine and that we just needed the change from the 100Rs we had paid him. We had lunch (really good!), watched another great movie and then it was time for supper!!

We ate at the restaurant again...had a cheese paratha and Gobi paratha this time (cheese one was AMAZING) and then had ice cream for desert...although Yan went the extra mile and got a sundae. It definitely wasn’t your typical north American sundae but since I didn’t have any, I guess I’ll let Yan let you know how it tasted!

Well the sundae was less than thrilling actually. It looked cool but tasted so so. It had waffles on top, jello, green jelly, a fake cherry, nuts, little ice cream :p But you can’t know until you try right?! :)

All in all it was a nice relaxing day after yesterday’s adventure. Probably the most notable thing today is the tv coverage of the swine flu. The news channel has been speaking about it non-stop with headlines like “In the Grip of N1H1” and they ran a special tonight where people could call in and ask questions about the flu, how it works, how to stay safe, etc. 7 people have now died in India, all over the past few days I think, and Pune is at the center of it with 3 deaths so far and the most confirmed cases. Keep in mind Pune is a city of 3 million people so it’s not like we’re in any great danger, but we’re now seeing more and more people wearing masks and we may have to buy some too. Also an issue is school. We’ve seen on TV that all schools and colleges in Pune are to be closed for the next 7 days. We’re not sure if this applies to us because we haven’t heard anything about Pune University and our Colleges is affiliated to it. We’ve decided to show up at school tomorrow and see what’s going on. Vaishali called us today too to check up on us since we hadn’t returned last night and she mentioned her boy had a fever and she was getting him checked. Hopefully everything’s fine with him. We will of course continue to be careful so no need to worry! :)