Make Fun of the Situation Before the Situation Makes Fun of YOU!

I think I've definitely grown in my ability to adapt to chaos, problems, and unmet expectations while living here as there are daily situations that provide excellent practice! However, I still get irritated by some changes and last week was a perfect example. I take a shuttle van from Calicut to Perinthalmanna (a two hour journey) every Monday and Tuesday and lately there have been all kinds of issues with our transportation. Usually it's a bumpy ride, over taking vehicles left and right which usually makes me totally carsick but at least it's a comfortable van and has A/C. However, with these recent problems a whatsapp group has been started for the doctors, drivers and other faculty that travel daily to the other campus. (in order to improve our communication!!) This past Monday I was waiting at the normal time (7am) at the hospital with one other doctor that typically goes with us each week. No one informed either of us that the shuttle driver would be late and by 7:20, we were both getting a little irritated.

So the doctor started to send a message to the HR department on our whatsapp group saying that once again we were waiting for the shuttle to arrive and and that we would give it about 15 more minutes and then we would leave and go back home. I was on board with that plan since I didn't want to be waiting any longer. So I waited while he was continuing to send messages and they eventually told us that another shuttle was going to be coming for us. What pulled into the hospital was what I can only describe as a Bronco that looked like it had been on one too many camping trips. It was all beat up with broken seating, dirt every where and of course no seat belts. I laughed as we climbed inside and the other doctors immediately began making jokes about our "airplane" that would carry us to the other campus. It was rainy that day and I thought I'd take a chance of wearing my hair down cause I rarely have days here where I can. Within 5 minutes of pulling out of the hospital like a bat out of hell where I literally had to tell the driver that although we were now in a hurry, he had better not gamble with my life! We fogged up the windows and I asked him to turn on the A/C. Well of course, there was none. I don't know why I had even thought for a second it would have had it. I ought to know by now! He said he had gotten a good discount on it and I laughed as I thought, "Well, I bet you did! It's a piece of junk!"

So he rolled all the windows down and I was shoved in the middle seat in between 2 doctors and my once semi-nice hair was now flying around everyone's faces like I was in a wind tunnel. I always keep a hair tie with me cause odds are, I'll always want one by the end of the day or within the first 5 minutes of stepping outside. I looked in my first spot and there were gone. Irritated, I went for the next place I usually keep one and again, I had not replaced it! Slight panic setting in, I am now scrambling through my purse and backpack trying to find this illusive rubber band! I started yelling, "I'm getting so pissed off!" not even caring that I was in a professional environment and I reached into my last spot, my last hope...and victory was mine! I found one tucked into a pocket and I desperately tried to gather all the pieces of my crazy hair into a ponytail. I got a majority of it tucked away and Dr. Manish, one of my colleagues who always finds the bright spot in any situation said, "Michelle, you've got to make fun of the situation before the situation makes fun of you." That broke my bad mood and I started laughing as he went on saying, "This kind of wisdom comes for free every day here in India. It's all around you...on the side of the road." That made me laugh ever harder as that statement is so very true. There are hundreds of situations that happen all the time that I can choose to either laugh and adapt to it or I can let it drive me absolutely mad! I wish I could say that I am not able to choose the former each and every time but India is still teaching me these lessons.

We tore through the towns trying to reach our destination and at one point, Dr. SMA in the front seat noticed a CD/movie player that was attached to the ceiling of the car with its flap hanging down broken and probably unusable. There were 2 small screens like on an airplane on the back of the driver and passenger seat and Dr. Manish turned one on and said, "Hey maybe we can have an in-flight movie on the way." I noticed as he turned on the blue little screen, that flashing across it were the words, "No singal" and so I piped in, "Well, we might except that there's no SINGAL" He has a great grasp of English and began laughing super hard saying to me, "Oh dear. You truly are an English teacher, aren't you!" We all laughed and kept on with our drive. After a half hour or so, it started to rain heavily and the guy sitting next to me asked the driver to roll up the windows. The driver was so focused that he didn't hear him and so the teacher then took the window with his hands and tried pulling it up since he was getting drenched. Dr. SMA in the front seat piped up and said, "They're 'semi-automatic."We all laughed even more about the ridiculousness of the situation. We managed to survive the rest of the journey and it was the talk of the day among the hospital. I opted to take the bus back to Calicut after my classes finished. I had had enough adventure for one day!

Revitalize and Refresh!

Early in the morning after a long night of chatting with Dinny, I headed to the airport for a short flight to Bali. I had planned to take a long nap and enjoy the hotel/beach and maybe a massage before my friends arrived in the evening. However, that got shifted a bit when I learned that it was a 3 hour drive from the airport to the area we had booked our stay. I settled in for a long ride asking if we could stop for coffee at the earliest convenience as we sadly hurried by the Starbucks at the airport. I had hoped there would be another on the way but instead, they stopped at an interesting place that was simply called Coffee Stop. Half awake I got out of the car and placed before me was a tray of cups with about 10 different labels. I learned that this was a place where you could sample all the different types of coffee or teas that are made locally and then of course if you like any, you can visit their shop and purchase some to take back with you. I sipped on all types of drinks from ginseng coffee to mangosteen tea and was offered their famous "carowak" coffee which is a type of coffee bean that first passes through a chicken or rooster and they collect the beans from the poop. Gross...yeah maybe a bit. But it's supposed to be the best coffee and it very costly! I didn't try it there because they had no milk or sugar but I purchased some at the gift shop to try at a later date. I'll keep you posted lol.

I arrived at the room and was very pleased with the view, however, I was starving and the food and service from their restaurant was lacking to say the least. I also found that the townhouses had their own massage therapist on hand and could be sent to your room so I asked for her to come at three. Massages in other countries are always a bit of risk...some can be amazing experiences and others will provide a laugh and not much else. This one was somewhere in between. A lady arrived at 3 with her child in tow and I wondered how that was going to go over. At first it appeared she had brought nothing with her and so I wondered if I was going to climb on the bed, on the floor or what? But she went around the corner and brought a mat into the room. No sheet of course so I got undressed as discreetly as possible with a small random child watching my every move and laid down on the mat. The massage was neither great nor bad. It felt a bit awkward with the daughter there but to her credit, she didn't make a peep during the massage. I used a t-shirt to cover up when she had me flip on my back and decided once was enough for this experience. I knew there had to be tons of other places around town that might be a bit more professional.

I spent some time in the pool and went to dinner to watch a "traditional Balinese dancer" who was basically a dressed up waitress who did a 2 minute number after serving the food. It was not anything real special but I did get invited to join a table with a traveling brother and sister from Canada. They ended up being great company for the remainder of my time there. My friends arrived very late that night and we spent some time catching up in the middle of the night and then slept in a bit the next morning. We decided to rent a small boat that would take us out to a great spot for snorkeling and spent a few hours on the water. It was lots of fun being in the ocean and seeing all the tropical fish. Plus I loved the boat ride where we could see the coast. Bali is truly beautiful and has glorious mountains and lots of green hills with flowers everywhere. After our boat ride, we rested for an hour or so and then closer to sunset, we drove up to the base of the volcano and took some photos in this little park as the sun was coming down. We had some good food for dinner and then went to our room to play some games and go to bed.

The next day we decided to do a white water rafting trip and it was a blast. Very much a bumper boat kind of tour and the scenery was exquisite with lots of tropical trees and animals around. There was even a 5 meter drop towards the end that was a thrill. That trip basically took most of our day and Steph went to rest since she wasn't feeling that great and Justin and I attempted to find a place for a massage. We rented scooters to travel around the small village area but unfortunately I had a small accident with mine since I have very little experience and I got some major road rash on my leg...which then put me in no mood for a massage. Which turned out fine since the place we tried to go was already booked up for the day. Defeated we came back to the room, I cleaned all the gravel out of my leg and then I went for a swim. Since my friends were flying standby, they needed to take a flight with the least amount of tickets booked and they both weren't feeling super great, so they decided to leave that night to catch a flight back to Dubai instead of leaving with me the next day. So they took off for the airport and I met up with my Canadian friends for dinner and then we went to an outdoor reggae style bar that had live music. The band was actually really good and it was fun to just be outdoors and listen to live music. Some Irish guys soon joined our table and they kept us laughing. It was such a fun night of normalcy and it did my soul good. I left feeling incredibly grateful and slept peacefully.

The next morning, I met the Canadians for one last snorkeling adventure before they had to move on to their next destination. They planned to travel all around Bali for a month (of which I was immensely jealous ;) and as I said goodbye to them, I went for my scheduled massage at this place I had found at dinner the night before. 10 minutes into it, I could tell I was in for a treat and I asked her to change from a one hour to 90 minutes! It was well worth the extra $4 I paid lol! She was excellent and it was private and clean while still being right on the beach. I felt so relaxed and happy, grabbed some lunch, showered and got packed up. The drive back to the airport was a little less time than going and I enjoyed the scenery much more since I was not half asleep. I had just enough money for a junior whopper from Burger King at the airport before boarding my flight. I happened to be traveling on a short puddle jumper flight with about 40 traveling students in which I can only guess that this was their first time ever being on an airplane as they broke out in spontaneous clapping after every flight attendant announcement. You'd have thought they'd won the lottery as we landed. I was cracking up at their enthusiasm! And then after landing, while we all waited in this tiny baggage claim area, each of them went up to each person in their group and gave them a hug. While sweet, I was laughing to myself since we had all been together for the entire flight. They kept me entertained that's for sure!

I spent one last night in Semarang at a hotel near the airport and then left the next morning for Jakarta, my heavenly 4 hour layover in Malaysia and then on to India. This time around at the airport in KL, I stumbled upon an international grocery store that literally had me in tears. It was like being reunited with long lost friends. I walked every inch of that store, not once, but twice, trying to determine what I could fit in my carry on, what wouldn't spoil before I got back to Calicut and what I could eat in the next four hours before I boarded my flight. It was very serious business! I arrived back in Cochin late in the evening and spent the night at a friend's home before getting the train the next day to Ooty. I spent two more days in the mountains with my friends from the UK before heading back to Calicut. It was the perfect combination of beaches and cool weather and the refreshing feeling has lasted long after returning back to normal life here. I'm incredibly thankful for the chance I had to realign my heart, body and soul in order to finish out the last few months here with renewed determination. My friends helped me tremendously and blessed me in many ways throughout the trip and I can only pray that they reap such benefits themselves by their generosity. Bali, I hope we meet again one day! <3