Hyderabad

I had a crazy morning at school Tuesday, October 12 as there had been a parent meeting in the morning so all the kids were in one classroom the first hour. Several of the Littles were wailing as I tried to find some way to control the chaos. We sang a few songs with parents peeking in at the windows and door which only increased the volume of some of the crying which increased the volume of some of the singing...it was crazy!!! After class, I had 30 minutes to clean up before the car arrived to take me to a "housewarming" where I was to join Prabhudas and Ruth for lunch.

Arriving back to campus after lunch, I had about 2 hours to finish packing and be ready to hit the road to Hyderabad. I think it was closer to 5pm by the time we pulled out, so we were running on Indian time, but that's okay! We arrived at Ruth's sister's house about 10pm where we had dinner and dropped off their mom. Then we headed to Ruth's brothers house where we stayed for a few nights. I was EXHAUSTED!!! I slept straight through until about 6:15am when I had to make some adjustments before laying back down for a little longer.

My first day in Hyderabad, we went to the Birla temple, planetarium and science museum before having lunch at the Chinese restaurant I'd been to the last time I was here. Then we headed to the Muslim district of Charminar to do some shopping. I really enjoyed my day with Das' family and Ruth's nieces. They took excellent care of me on the crowded streets as we wandered from shop to shop.

Birla Temple

Charminar

 

Shopping

Perfect end to a great day!!!

Thursday morning, Prabhudas had a wedding so I got to relax until he came back in the afternoon. After I'd eaten the McDonald's he brought me for lunch, we headed to Ramya's house where the whole family was gathered awaiting the arrival of the man she is going to marry and his family. I was only there a couple of hours before going into town to meet up with a friend I made last year in Kansas City. We had a great time getting caught up and I got to meet a couple of American at a small concert at her friend's house. It was a great night!!!  Sadly, I left the house without my camera and have no pictures of our time together!  But I hope to see her again before leaving!

Friday morning, 8 of us headed to Golconda Fort! It was quite impressive and we had a great time!!! It took us a little more than 2 hours to wander through the whole thing and the tour guide we'd hired had some interesting information along the way. It cracked me up because he would gather us in close and practically whisper like he didn't want any one else to hear and occassionally he'd spell out words - "Let's G-O, go!" Hilarious!!! There were some great views of the city from the top of the fort, but it was a very foggy/smoggy day so it's hard to tell in the pictures!

We stopped by Pizza Hut to pick up my lunch and then the rest of the gang had a snack at Hungry Jacks before we went back to the house where Prabhudas was waiting for us. After we'd all had lunch, we loaded up to head back to Chillakallu.

Ready to hit the road!!!

We made several stops on the way out of town looking for a gift which was finally purchased and amazingly fit into the back of the car like a puzzle piece with all the baggage that was already back there! It was pretty late when we got home and I was happy to crawl into bed!!!