After a very delayed flight from Delhi, we arrived in Goa right before dinner time to take a 3 hour adventure through the windy, bumpy, switch back roads to Hubli.  We fit in 4 vans and passed a lot of trucks and 2-wheelers on the way, but got to see the sun set over the country side and it was beautiful.  Most of us fell asleep for an hour or two after dark, but I was half awake as we drove through the city center of Hubli.  The lights, advertisements, businesses, and activities, even in my out-of-it state made me very excited to explore the city.  When we arrived at the BVB campus we were welcomed by the students we had come so far to meet and the long hours of travel were made worthwhile.  They helped us with our luggage, placed hand made, amazingly nice smelling flower necklaces around our necks and painted our foreheads symbolizing our energy centers and had our first meal from the new restaurant start-up on campus.  We were placed in our rooms with a roommate, taught about the shower heaters and we all gratefully crawled into bed.

The first two days were spend at our company sites, making observations and learning about the businesses.  Our team of 7 visited a prosthetic and orthopedics clinic.  At first it was a bit awkward.  There were several different language barriers between our team, the clinician, technicians, and patients, with 3 languages being spoken on site by different parties.  There were also a lack of exceptions from all sides on what exactly was supposed to happen on the first day and who was in charge.  Luckily, we were able to get on the same page rather quickly and start working together to learn the current process in the clinic and explain how our technology can assist the cost issues their patients face.

Our amazing team of BVB engineering students were able to discuss experiences and concerns of the patients and relay data to us so we could collectively discuss the patients needs and how we can aim to address them.  We hope to return several times during our trip as we have made adjustments for our device to fit with their socket technology for testing purposes.

We have been able to adventure into the city twice now to explore the malls and of all things, have Domino’s pizza.  We celebrated Jake’s birthday with very sweet, moist cake that was fed to him by several students, then to his surprise smeared all over his face, a tradition UML was unaware of!  To finish off the celebration many of us ended up at an arcade to play fooseball, shoot a Daisy air rifle, ride a mechanical bull, or just observe the craziness.

So far, I have been able to ride in a rickshaw/auto/3-wheeler, a 2-wheeler, a bus, just travel by foot, and ride in a student’s car which are entirely different experiences on the road.  Through these experiences have slowly developed an understanding for the horn honking patterns in India, which is basically an exciting communication system for passing different vehicles and pedestrians.

Last night I ventured to “The Hill” to see the sunset over the city as well as see the city light up.  It was beautiful weather (around 70F…sorry for all you folks back home :] ) and a great place to walk around with foliage and a children’s park (cause we are kids!).  I also got to do pull-ups on the top of the hill which I have been dying to do.

And a new addition I was not expecting to write today….Prof. Mehta and the other professors organized a humane wildlife re-locator to bring in two snakes to the class room!  We got to hold a 7ft rat snake and see a cobra out of a container!  It was really exciting and for those who were afraid of snakes (not me) it was a way to overcome a fear and become more creative in the process.

I will write again after our cultural visit on Sunday!