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Study Abroad India

Mysore and Infosys

Today we woke up super early (5 am!!) to leave for Mysore! On the way we all had a lot of fun on the bus, and stopped at The Big Banyon tree! It was the biggest tree I’ve ever seen with roots going into the ground all over the place. We had so much fun feeding bananas to all the monkeys, and there was one with a tiny little baby holding on to its belly! One monkey even stole a banana out of my hand! After this we made another stop at a company that makes giant machines to grind up rocks into gravel! This place was really nice because they opened early just for us to come, and they gave us free hats and roses! After this we went to professor Rama’s sisters house. The breakfast was amazing and their house was beautiful. I can’t believe how much I am in love with Indian food, it really makes me want to move here! We saw an awesome temple here and a bunch of school kids who ran around with Juanita.

INFOSYS Mysore
INFOSYS Leadership Campus, Mysore

After breakfast we visited the Infosys leadership training center which was crazy! It was like its own little city! They had everything you could ever want like restaurants, gyms, movie theatres, tennis courts, shops, and a giant library. It is awesome how hard they work to make the employees feel at home, and they must give them really great job training here as well. During one of the lectures we had at the company, the man told us that at the end of the employees training they have to pass a test, and if they do not pass this test then they do not get hired! I thought this was interesting because they still put a lot of work into making sure all of their employees are qualified at the highest level. This company is definitely the best I have seen on the trip.

After Infosys, we got back on the bus and on the way home we stopped at some crazy place, I’m not even sure what it was. There was a giant dam and we walked over a river on a bridge to see a light/water show that was pretty crazy. We were very rushed by Rama during this and it was hard to keep our group together because we had so many people. On our way out it started raining and we all got soaked! On the way home we made a pit stop at McDonalds and I got a hot fudge sundae, and shared another chicken maharaja mac with Pete that was delicious. It was such a long night and me and Juanita had to pack all of our bags when we got home.

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Study Abroad India

Evenings in Bangalore

Well after a looong day of 3 lectures and several hours spent at a company called Accenture we were all very happy to get a small break and go by autorickshaw to a mall near by called Forum. The autorickshaw rides are so much fun and scary at the same time because the drivers are going so fast and weaving in and out of all the traffic! When we got to the Forum mall we went to the Pizza Hut because we were all craving some American food! A lot of us had the cheesy bites pizza, I am not sure whether they have this in the US or not right now but it was good! Then a couple of us went down to a place near the pizza hut called the Cookie Man, where we got ice cream with warm cookies crumbled on top mmmm. Then we split up and walked around to do some shopping for a while, and while we were waiting outside we saw a GIANT grasshopper that jumped about 20 feet! After that our trusty driver Mark showed up and we had a very adventerous drive home with him, and now we are all hanging out and typing away on the computers!!!!!!

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Study Abroad India

First Day in Bangalore

Today was our first day in Bangalore and we had a great breakfast made specially for us!! I especially liked the tiny bananas that they have here! Then we sat in two classes and listened to the Indian student perspectives on business. We got to meet the XIME faculty and listen to them talk about themselves and introduce ourselves to them, and then we had an awesome lunch! The cook here is great!!!

Bangalore

After lunch we went to visit a company called Maini and listened to them give a lecture about what they do and then we got a tour and saw all the golf carts they build and got a little drive in a solar powered one!! We were all very excited to see a really cool red and yellow lizard and a pomegranite, mango and papaya tree!!! When we got pack to the campus we talked with the students here for a while and watched a painting contest they were having with little children, and me and Juanita were invited to color with them so I drew an awesome flower and she made a peace sign hahah.. they all enjoyed watching us color and a man took several pictures of us. Now we are all hanging out in the computer area of dorm and everyone is going to dinner in a little bit yaay!! Tomorrow is Indian Independance day and there should be some interesting festivities to see!!!