It is hard to believe that another week has already passed since the last time I sat down to write. Time is starting to fly. Somehow, this marks the end of my fourth week in India. A quarter of my time abroad is over. On Facebook, I see pictures of the beginning of fall, football games, and ArtPrize. Messages from friends remind me it is the beginning of lease-signing season. It is strange not to be experiencing these things with all of my friends back home. I do miss home, but it does not make me love being in India any less.

It is as if I am on an entirely different plane of life. I am experiencing an entirely different world.

Here, it remains as hot as ever, feeling like it is still the dog days of summer in Michigan, as it will for the duration of my stay. A week of school has gone by, or rather, two days of it. Monday, Thursday, and Friday were holiday. We found ourselves thankful for the break as we are all becoming exhausted from the heat and adjusting to the new world we’re calling home.

On a couple of the days, we’ve attempted to help teach the girls in the house English, which helps reinforce my profound respect for teachers and students who are learning such a vastly different language. Their English is already quite good, but it is still difficult to teach, particularly without knowing much Malayalam.

Although I’m not sure they fully understand our answers, they ask about our families and our studies. Their lack of understanding does not diminish their excitement nor deter their efforts to speak with us. They help us with our Malayalam probably more than we can help them with their English.

On Friday, Allyson and I went to Kovalam beach with our professor’s assistants who are also our mentors and friends – Raghi and Anusha. Sarah stayed back at the house, resting away her sickness. We took the bus there, which is an experience in and of itself. The writing on the buses is in Malayalam, so it is difficult to know which to get on; I don’t know how we would get around without the help of Raghi and Anusha. We probably wouldn’t.

Kovalam is a beautiful, tourist-oriented, foreigner-friendly beach in Thiruvananthapuram. Used to the cold fresh water of Lake Michigan, it was my first real experience swimming in warm, salty, ocean water. While it wasn’t quite the same, spending time at the beach felt more like home than anywhere else.

With Saturday came a trip to the museums in downtown Thiruvananthapuram. There is an area that contains the zoo, some museums, and large green areas and parks where people go to relax and enjoy the day. The building and grounds there are actually the old palace. One of our professors was kind enough to take us all out to lunch, the art museum and the natural history museum. Being a giant nerd, I loved the museums, and that they’re part of what used to be a palace makes them all the more interesting. The rest of the day was spent reading and running around the house with the girls.

So ends another week, and another part of my grand adventure.