#4—Weekend 1 + Week 2 Begins
Saturday, June 2nd.
Today we went to a huge mall in Ernakulum, about an hour’s DukeMobile ride away (thank you again Prakash!). When I say big, I mean huGE—it had an amusement park and trampoline park inside, as well as a bowling alley. After exploring for a couple hours, I bought a really nice bag (and way too many books so I gotta get reading). We went to Paragon inside the mall for dinner, where I split an amazing paneer mutter and we all realized that our meals cost less than 4 USD per person. Mind blown. Ended the night talking to some friends and catching up on all my reading—excited for Jewtown part 2 tomorrow!
Sunday, June 3rd.
Today some of us returned to Jewtown (after another stop at Krisha Cafe for masala dosa and tea, of course). I haggled (relatively well, I think) for a bag and a pair of nice pants in various shops, and we went back to Mocha Art Cafe for more sizzling brownies. Afterward was debrief, where Arjun and I became weekly leaders—exciting but a little bit scary at the same time. Excited for the first week of project partner work and putting our lesson plans to work!
Monday, June 4th.
First day of project partner work!! Today we went to ESSS to present on mental health and wellbeing—we learned a lot about time-management and how to cross the language barrier, and are adapting lesson plans for the remainder of our workshops. After we returned, Arjun and I (as weekly leaders!!) led the debrief (more shoutouts, woohoo!) and then we went to dinner at Fusion Bay, a seafood place. Ending the night helping edit tomorrow’s lesson plan and catching up on reading.