Kerela was amazing! We gotta lot of sun. For some religious/governmental reason, the 1st of August is a alcohol free day in the state. This was the first night we were there, and we were in the resort ready to party. This was a bit upsetting for most since most people enjoy the act of drinking on their vacations. We ended up making a bonfire and playing some interesting/sexual games lol it was hilarious. Before we went on the house boat, a few of us were exploring the forest areas and we ran into this lady in a hut/house who was rolling bidis!! (Bidis are a type of cigarette but with a quarter amount of tobacco inside and wrapped up in a tobacco leave with string). It was so cool! We offered her some money for them, but she refused to take our money and just gave us some. So nice.

I am going to miss Manipal! Even though I'm excited to be home and see you guys again, I am really going to miss the people here. We've all made connections here, be them minor or major and it will be tough to go our separate ways. Once Peter and I are gone, the original small batch of interns will be no more. I told everyone that the next few days were going to stock up on beer and play American drinking games! :D Like beer pong, flip cup, survivor, kings, etc. It's gonna be awesome.

This is my last Indian post, so I'll post my final pictures so you guys can see what I've been doing. See you in the USA!!!

We (Peter n I) arrived in Manipal from 3 days in Delhi!!! Ole n Ehsan are on their ways home... We had a good time though, saw A BUNCH of sites in Delhi like the India Gate n the Fountain, Gandhi's memorial tomb, a crap tone of temples, and the city life of India. There are seriously people hassling you every other step you take while walking the streets. There are pick pocketers, dudes wanting to help you get somewhere then charge you for their "kindness," people charging you AT LEAST double the normal price, and debating on prices for the goddamn rickshaws. When certain people see foreigners they jump at the chance to get money. Straight up... For example, we were all on our way to see the Taj Mahal (which is in Agra 5 hrs away from Delhi) and our cab driver wants to get some stuff from a local vendor. SO! while were waiting for our driver, wer see guys on the side of the street doing tricks with monkeys n all this cool stuff!! So we take pictures of course, who wouldn't. Well, the moment we stopped taking pictures and just watched them, they ALL came rushing our cab tapping the windows and yelling at us for money (compensation for the pictures we took). We full heartedly refused because we thought it was obsurd to pay them money for a sad monkey taken from its home in the jungle and used on the street for tricks. These guys were seriuosly pissed at us so we locked the doors, yelled for our cab driver, and got the hell outta there! Here's a sad monkey picture:



The Taj Mahal was amazing.. I can't describe how beautiful it was to see in person. It's all marble and the curves and shapes the Taj has are really stunning. It's crazy to think that people built this so long ago. I hear it took 22 years to construct! Crazy. It was balls hot in Delhi n Agra (+40 deg. Celcius) and FULL humidity. THE hottest weather I've been in since I was in Arkansas in the summer time... To get into the Taj, you have to take off your shoes and walk up these stairs and across a clearing, so by the time you're halfway there your feet are cooking on the walkway. We had to run to the enterance and even that wasn't very helpful. The Taj Mahal, for how large and elaborate, is relatively small inside and serves as only a tomb for two. This shocked me a lot! The Taj Mahal was built by a famous Muslim king for his wife; the Taj Mahal is a symbol of love. AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!




Now I am back in Manipal. WOOO... We're all going to the state of Kerala this coming up weekend and are renting house boats for the trip!~!!! We will be taking trains to the area and then begin our travels of the lands. This will be my last big trip before I head home... Our flat is being slowly replaced with new people and it is sad. Paul, Ole n Ehsan are all gone, and their rooms/beds have already been replaced. Taygun leaves tomorrow and Peter n I leave next week. I AM GOING TO MISS THIS PLACE!!!

There has been a lot of stuff going on lately! A flock of interns arrived the last week, so now our total count is 35+ interns. Crazy... It's so hard to remember names, the only way to do it is by getting their phone numbers (reminds me of freshman year lolz). We've all been eating/drinking/talking PLUS the new IAESTE Indian crew has arrived so we have doubled our Indian friend tally. WOO!



This last weekend a bunch of us went to Bangalore to see what the fuss is about. Seriously, I love the city life. It made me miss Seattle a lot!! There was a McDonalds across the street from our hotel, but it wasn't the same :( They have a chicken Big Mac that was actually REALLY good.. Anyways, it was a very inspiring trip. Three years ago when I read about Bangalore and the development of India in The World Is Flat, I had no idea I would one day be visiting the city. I had a tingly feeling. It is a definite melting pot city with a lot of different ethnicity's (mainly Indian and Chinese/Japanese). I really liked it! Except the hotel we stayed in woke us up at 8 AM for check out the day we were to leave because we checked in at 8 AM the previous day (we only wanted to stay a night in the hotel). I guess in India your check out time is 24 hours after the exact time you check in... WTF. It was a rude awakening. Another thing to add: we took a bus to and from Bangalore (each lasting 10-12 hrs) and it was fucked. The roads are like FULL of potholes and you are seriously flying out of your seat/bed during the ride. Zero sleep.

A group of us (business/finance/engineer majors) are planning to develop our own start-up company. We've been talking about it for the last couple of weeks, and it is very realistic with our current network. We seriously have sooooooo many connections through networking that we would be stupid not to use them, especially since we all want this and we're all here at the same time. IT"S VERY EXCITING!!! A lot of work though for sure...

My project is, again, almost done! I have finished developing a Principle Component Analysis algorithm for Matlab and now I am almost done with Independent Component Analysis. ICA is MUCH more complex than PCA, due to it's non-linearity, so I've found algorithms online through the GSL Scientific Library for Matlab. I still have to tailor it to my project's specific needs, but I can see the light and it is bright and beautiful.

I am OFFICIALLY returning to Seattle on August 9th around 3:30PM. It's will be bitter sweet b/c I know I'll miss everyone here but I can't wait to see home again! FOOOOOOOOOD!! I've lost a lot of wait....

Yo. So things have been moving along pretty well. My professor gave me another task involving more signal processing, but now I'm learning about Principle & Independent Component Analysis. This is pretty cool. Example: Three people are talking in a group at a party, and there are three or more microphones all around the room. Let's say there are other people talking in the room. Using PCA n ICA I can pull in those 3 peoples voices (signals) and record them individually. Spy-tech shiz.

Lately we've just been partying and kickin it. A group of us went to Mangalore which is a 2hr bus ride out of Manipal to go see Ice Age 3! Good movie. The other night we met these sketch Indian dudes, but for some reason went to go kick it with them and ended up bein HELLA fun. These people know how it's done. The suns been peaking through the clouds here n there, so we've been beachin it too.

My professor's cool with me bouncing out of the university Aug. 7th, so I'm leaving town the day after to go travel India for about a week then head home. Most likely move farther east to see what's up over there. Mysore, Madurai, and maybe Chennai! Pumpd.

LISTENING TO: Hi-Tek's High Teknology 2

Shiiiiiiiit the rain never ends, seriously! Monsoon's getting annoying... Anyways, I've virtually finished my project, so I'm reading the New York Times front to back every morning n surfing the net like a fiend. I am very current with the world affairs mmmmmmmmh.. After work we either get drunk, play football (soccer..), hang out n chill, or all three. All in the rain of course lol. It's beginning to hurt troop morale, especially the people who had zero chance of seeing nice Indian weather. I had 2 weeks of brutally hot n humid weather and went to the beaches so that was nice. My morale is high cuz I can pretty much laugh at anything now. It's seriously the only way to survive this place n all the stuff it has to throw at you!! That and cigarettes.




(I live in this building)



A few of us are planning a sweet trip to Delhi to visit the Taj Mahal n other sites, prolly make a stop off in Mumbai, then get our asses back to the university to go on a huge trip with the entire intern group to Kerala.

Right now the lab is full of Indian children for some weird reason. The guys who "monitor" us must have brought them in for daycare. American universities are seriously amazing. You don't know what you have in the states until you go to a TOP school in a developing country n see the facilities. Not they are bad facilities, they are just MUCH different. There toilets are amazing! Holes in the ground with no toilet paper. If ur lucky you have a nice seat but you'll never see TP. I love Western...

Since my project is virtually over, I am heading home earlier than previously planned. Most likely August 9th. LOVE!!

Last weekend the boys n I went to Goa via train, which was pretty sweet. Just imagine the beaches of Hawaii while raining cats n dogs. Monsoon season is ridiculous... Still fun though, we went to a couple local historical sites and partied a bit. Good little vacation within a vacation. Goa is a very Christian based state because back in the 16ish century the Portuguese took over the surrounding lands and brought Catholicism too. We saw St. Francis Xavier's relic (coffin), and I went to the Church of Santa Monica! :) It was a chill time. We were in this town called Panaji and we wanted to get a bite to eat n some coffee, so we see this cafe FULL of Indians so we assumed it was good and walked in. SO WEIRD! We were standing in the middle of this super busy "mess hall" just scoping to find a seat, and while this was happening everyone was just staring at us tough. We felt SOOOO lost at that point!.. but we found a seat and had coffee n samosas mmmmmmmh.. Another thing, the prices for a hotel in India are INSANELY cheap! We slept in this baller hotel for $25 for two nights... Seriously, a dollar goes a LONG WAY in India. Same goes for transportation.






My work for my professor is virtually done. I have written a few Matlab scripts that do some niffty stuff, so in the future he won't need an intern to do his grunt work. I don't think he expected me to finish this early, so now I sit in the lab n do whatever. Pretty chill.

I was deathly ill for a good 36 hours a few days ago, and I haven't been that sick since I had the flu as a child. I'm noticing my energy going down (same with the others) cuz we have no red meat or anything that sticks to our guts. My appetite is soooo low!!! The reason being is that when you eat food, you only snack a bit. Throughout the day you snack about 5-6 times a day, so you never really eat a lot at a time. When I get home: Big Mac super sized meal...

TO CHAD:
Happy to hear about your move in situation in bham. I'm pumped to see the new place! I know we haven't talked, but I know what you;ve been up to through mom n dad. ENJOY THE BHAM SUMMER!!!! MISS YOU!

LISTENING TO: Pink Floyd - Astronomy Domine

We went camping in Coorg at a coffee plantation. Amazing! Once in a lifetime experience. Everyone became very close (thanks to campfire n booze) and we hiked the tropical forest to eventually arrive at a beautiful waterfall! Our guide let us rope down the waterfall, which was tight, but then he dared us to climb it!! Ehsan was the only one to do it, and everyone wanted me to do it too, but I thought my wrist wasn;t strong enough. :( I took my first hot shower at the plantation. I can't describe my feelings at that moment. It was like my own moment of clarity for those 10 minutes. We went to a buddhist temple called the Golden Temple, and we also went to a elephant training camp. It's actually pretty sad seeing the elephants being hit and chained up... But we we're told this is normal. We swam in the same river the elephants swim, drink, and poop in. It was awesome! The Golden Temple was freaking awesome! The architecture is simply beautiful and the attention to detail is unparrelleled. The temple is actually a buddhist school, so walking around you see a bunch of young boy monks mixed with all these old men monks. Pretty interesting! We sat in on a musical class, and the sounds that were exiting that room were pretty weird/creepy. The statues and sculptures are HUGE and covered in gold. The buddhists do it right.





Last night, our Indian friends got the school to sponsor a "group party" by RENTING OUT AN ENTIRE NIGHT CLUB!!! Free booze, music, food, and fun. Eric, you would have loved it. The DJs love American hiphop n stuff like that, so it was freakin sweet.

Monsoon season has definitely settled in, so the rain comes down like cats n dogs now. Seattle's got nothing when comparing the rain fall here in south India during the monsoon... It's still hot though, so you can't really wear a raincoat, so we rock the umbrella. ella. ella.

I realize that my work here is NOT going to take me 3 months lol, so I'm going to travel India with a couple people for a week or so. It seems most interns here finish their work early and then either bounce early to home or travel India. I think I may do both. FUN!!! The boys n I are headin to Goa this weekend via train, and so far we haven't fully planned ANYTHING... Just how to get there. It doesn't matter though cuz we're good at improv at this point.

Living in India thus far has definitely made me question a lot on how I perceive myself at home, how I perceive others, how I think toward others, and my actions in response to my emotions. I'm learning more and more that there are people who just want to have constant chaos in their lives such as mindless bickering over minute details, placing the last word in a conversation just to stand a bit higher, and WANTING things that may be unnecessary. The purchasing of material goods that have little practical value or buying it because "It's too good a deal to pass up," are things that will soon be conflicting when I return home. Since I've been here, I have almost been in a constant state of uncomfortableness. When I am around others hanging out or reading or working or playing sports; these times are excluded. I am talking about cold showers every morning, sleeping in dreadfully hot weather, stomach pain, food that begins to taste all the same, child poverty everywhere, non-stop honking in the streets, and trying to communicate to others w/little to no English skills. I am getting use to the latter, but the rest are still a bit daunting. I miss my mom's cooking, my dad's talks, and my brothers presence.



Do not take this post as a sad one, but a learning one! I am grateful to be here in India with the people I am here with!! :)

Last Sunday we went to Kapu Beach which is right on the Arabian Sea. I haven't seen beaches like that since Hawaii! The water was warm and they had rocks to climb so you can see miles out to see. We go into town (Udupi) usually to browse the market and try all the local foods, and I just recently got over my stomach hating me. I fell ill about the third day I was here but now I can pretty much eat/drink anything I want, EVEN THE LOCAL WATER :) The fruit here is amazing! I eat mangoes and bananas all the time. The food is definitely spicy, but honestly when they say it's more spicy, they really mean that "Yah it's a little more spicy, but the flavor's gonna rock your tongue." It's funny b/c EVERY meal has a hint of spice and/or curry lol




In Udupi, a group of us went to the Sri Krishna Temple which houses the original Blackstone carving of the Lord Krishna! There are 5 main Krishna temples throughout India, and this is the top one. We were given a personal tour by one of the main priest, and were told the entire story of Krishna. I love it! Hinduism is actually pretty cool and a very tolerant religion. They allow all types of viewpoints and the religion is, supposedly, always evolving to appropriately fit the times. I like this. You can see the parallels b/w Christianity and Hinduism through the stories they tell.

I live in a flat with 5 other engineers: Ehsan (Iran), Ole (Norway), Peter (Norway), Taygun (Turkey), and Paul (Ireland). We hang out with all the other interns including a group of French guys n girls from all over the world (Jordan, Turkey, Czech, Austria, Scotland, Spain, Tanzania). We also play A LOT of football (soccer). I'm getting better everyday for sure. It's funny b/c coming here I thought I would be only learning about India n my work, but EVERY intern here is from a different county. So I've been knocking down LOTS of stereotypes/assumptions I've made of the cultures I'm learning of now. There are a lot of questions aimed toward me about America b/c I'm the only intern this whole summer here that's American. Kind of intimidating... We are all going to camp out on a coffee plantation in Coorg this Monday and Tuesday, and some of us are going to Goa next weekend to visit the beaches/parties. PUMPED!

FOR THE NERDS:
I finally met my employer! It was probably the most awkward situation giving him his gift. I don't think it's normal to receive gifts on unofficial occasions here in India... Either way, I'm researching madly on SIGNAL PROCESSING!!!! It's pretty bad ass because I already know Fourier Transformations, but I'm just learning of a new mathematical approach to signal processing called Wavelet Transformations... If you apply this method followed by a FT, it decreases the signal-to-noise ratio DRAMATICALLY and increases the resolution to optimal levels. This is perfect for EEG (biomedical in general) because you must be very precise and confident in your data if you're going to cut open someones brain and work on it. My research is based off findings of the local medical school and hospitals! The research is aimed toward helping epileptic children and developing adults receive non-invasive forms of treatment, i.e. EEG conditioning of the brain. PRETTY AWESOME!!

There have been so many things going on that I really can't tell them all, but I'm keeping a day-to-day journal so that later I may recall all the little things that went on in this crazy county.

SKYPE USERNAME: crazycuban22
TIMES I'M ON: 8pm-11pm, 1am-4am Pacific Time (hours I work)
PHONE #: 00-91-9686124319

So I have arrived and its already has been an experience. There are so many bazaar things that have happened I cannot describe them now. I live in a flat with Peter (Norway), Ole (Norway), and Essan (Iran). Our 5th flatmate is from Ireland and he arrives today. We've all made Indian friends and they;ve been showing us around their city! We are all very good friends already and it is going to look better as time goes on. There are some hard things to swallow, however, such as child poverty, poor waste management, and personal hygiene. It has rained, but for only minutes out of the day and very hard. Otherwise it's scorching and muggy like crazy! I shaved my head because I am in a constant state of sweat!!



Working in India is Mon-Sat with Sundays free! This is weird, but our employers allow us to have four days each month to take time off. We (flatmates and I) have decided to save our days and make a huge trip to Delhi, India's capitol. I have yet to start work, but I have been told it's immensely relaxed. MOM: I can wear sandals to work... :)

To Mom & Dad: The university computers are way too slow, but the internet cafe's are right outside the university and are very fast. I am using one now. We are allowed to download and they provide headsets! Skype maybe? The reason I mention is because our phone calls, even though free for me when you call, are costing you A LOT! At least that's what my Indian friends say. OR we can stick to me recharging my phone minutes and I can just call you. I think skypes nicer because we have no rush to talk.