Weekend adventures
Trip Start
May 05, 2004
1
9
14
Trip End
Jun 30, 2004
Chennai (Madras),
India
Monday, May 17, 2004
large animal surgery. It's not really surgery, more like treatments. We
had a baby goat with tetanus (and a broken leg, probably got the
tetanus from the wound) and a crazy cow with an eye infection. After
those two cases, we didn't have anything, so I wandered over to large
animal medicine. After clinics, we went to a museum of Indian culture
and art that is on town here. It's in a gorgeous complex that we have
sriven by before, so it was fun to get to go there. There were stones
with carvings in them from waaay back when, of Tamil and sanskrit, and
all these ancient languages. Then there was a zoology section with
preserved animals, and skeletons. The coolest things were the elephant
skeletons and the whale skeleton. He was massive! There were also
bronze sculptures of gods and goddesses, and art as well. All of it was
fun to look at. Sunday was really really fun!! We went to a
hindi wedding. The bride and groom were friends of Dr. Kumar's uncle,
so we went and crashed the wedding. (They knew we were coming ahead of
time) It was funny because once we got there, I think we were the
subject of almost as many pictures as the wedding party. Anyhow, these
weddings last for 2 days, and there is lots of carzyness to it. It was
really fun. First off, we saw some of the chants that are preformed
before the ceremony, for blessings and stuff, I assume. Next we went to
have breakfast, they fed us this great food! You sit at these long
tables, and they plop a big leaf in front of you, and then they come
down the row with buckets of food and scoop some onto your leaf. You
eat with your fingers, no matter what it is, so you get pretty messy.
After breakfast, there were some more rituals, one involving a swing
where the couple swings on it to symbolize the ups and downs of life.
There were lots of flowers involved, specifially jasmine. The bride and
groom wore these ropes of jasmine flowers as necklaces, and they kept
gettine more in each ceremony. Next we watched the actual marriage
part, it involved alot of priests, and fire, water and all the elements
of the earth somehow. Then there was the tying of the knot-seriously
this is where the expression comes from! The bride wears a necklace as
a symbol of the marriage (they don't wear wedding rings) and it must be
tied on. After the whole thing, they have a procession line, just like
we do, and we all went up to say "long life to you" in Tamil. And then
we had to have our picture taken a zillion more times. Next was
lunch, a 13 or 17 (I forget) course meal that was prepared by one of
the best chefs in the city of chennai! (we're eating well here) It was
another good meal. I like eating out, as we get some more spicy food.
Some of the people here don't like hot stuff, so it's tamed down for us
in the apartment. After lunch, the wedding was offically over, and we
all headed home to relax. This morning I started a new
rotation, it was alot of fun. I was in ultrasound, and we were really
busy all morning. I learned how to identify a bunch of organs on the
machine, where previously I had thought it was all a mess of grey and
black. I am in this rotation tomorrow also. The interns are really nice
and have been explaining everything to me, which I appreciate. It
rained last night, so the next few days are going to be cooler, which
will be nice. It hasn't been too bad since I've gotten used to the
heat. Though the a/c is mighty fine!Okey dokey, I'm going to
scoot as some people are heading home from the internet lab now. I'll
write again soon!! Love you all.
