Great Day with my Dad!

Man... today has been a great day for so many reasons!  Partially because it started off kind of crappy...but let's skip that part!  It's boring anyway.  So today was my dad's first full day in Mysore. We had breakfast with my group mates at the hostel, and then we got ready and went shopping.  We went to my favorite clothing store- Parampare- where we stocked up on gifts and clothes and fun stuff for ourselves.  After a tea break we headed back to the hostel so I could attend a meeting about my upcoming trip to Northern Karnataka.  While I was there I got a wonderful piece of news-- the due date for the term papers that I have been stressing about has been pushed back to Dec 2nd from Oct 20th.  THANK GOD.  So I get to actually relax and enjoy my trip to Northern Karnataka and just BREATHE for a second.  I feel like I haven't taken a real breath in like three weeks... and that's hard to do in yoga.

So anyway, then we went downtown and got some street food-- samosas, pani puri, and juice.  Well... I forgot that they don't use filtered water in the juice, and in my valiant attempt to keep my dad from getting sick before his Himalayan trek, I chugged (literally) both glasses myself.  I am such a good daughter, plus the juice is really good, whatever.  But anyways, then we headed to Karanji Lake and walked around for awhile, saw some sweet birds and let our food coma settle in.  It turns out Karanji Lake seemed like kind of a hot spot for young couples to go and make out.  OK, hold hands.  But still, clearly not the best father-daughter excursion in the city.... moving on.

So then, like the old men that we are, Dad and I were totally beat so we bussed it back to the hostel in Hebbal and took naps before dinner.  We ended up being too tired to even go out for dinner so we just ate dinner with Sara, Justin, and Alex at the hostel.  It turned out to be a lot of fun and laughing.  I'm so glad that some of my friends here got to know my appa (not a typo) a little bit better.  He even got to meet a few of the Indian girls I am friends with.  Tomorrow I think we'll probably take it easy, and I'll show him my school and maybe have him sit in on some of my classes.  

But overall, even though his visit is so short, it's wonderful to see my dad!  I was worried that since I've been feeling homesick that seeing him would just bust the cap off that simmering pot and I'd break down into tears like the adult that I am.  But I'm ok.  I'm great actually.  And I can't wait to get out of Mysore!

Oh, another good thing from today.  My friends and I finalized our travel plans for our three-week long independent vacation.  The plan is to go Mysore to Goa to Jaipur to Delhi to Kathmandu and back to Mysore.  Preeeeeeeeeeetty exciting eh?

Love,
Julia