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