‘Shop til we drop, then curry and bed!

 

Saturday 21st October

Our first full day in India has been very eye opening… 

After breakfast, we were given the opportunity to exchange our British pounds to rupees. Then we all got into the bus and made our way to Spencer’s. Here we all tried to haggle the prices of fake items that ranged from kohta and Louis’ fake chain to Dylan’s fancy shirt (we hope Mr Howells approves). Another bus journey took us to St Thomas Mount, where we took the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful views and connect with our religious side. In particular a statue of Jesus on the bench, the homeless Jesus, stuck out to us as it made us remember how lucky we are in our lives. After this we made our way down to an orphanage where we got the chance to play with the sweet children. The looks on their face as we handed them tiny teddies was priceless. So much happiness was brought to them from such a small thing. 

 

Our final trip of the day was to a cathedral named santon basilica (also dedicated to St Thomas) which allowed to further appreciate our religion and how much one man means to a large number of people. St Thomas was the man who introduced the Catholicism to India. After a few steps of entering the grounds, we were surrounded by people wanting to take photos of us. First we thought Sister Susan was famous but later realised we were most likely the only white, European people they had ever seen. After the first full day in Chennai, we’ve realised that the city is like a Manchester when relating it to the busyness. 

 

The last mission of the day was to eat. After an exhausting trip around some of the city, we were all overjoyed to be told chicken was on the menu (because previously we were told we’d have to get used to becoming vegetarians). Nobody could argue the effort the sisters went through to cook 5 delicious dishes up for us. The starter consisted of a vegetable soup and the mains a fried rice, lamb rice, cauliflower curry and a version of salt and chilli chicken. When we asked Maddie what the name of the chicken dish was called, all she could come up with was ‘lovely’. For dessert, we were offered a trifle and a selection of ice cream which we were forced to have seconds of. 

Today couldn’t have been more memorable.