Folks: We are in Chennai, India!

It's been a hectic morning, woke up super excited. Walked into the dining hall and it was a mad house. Ate with the usual crew and found that Alex is also doing the Rotarian homestay with me... Kayla is doing the Welcome Reception tonight...Ahshok had tried to set Stephen up with coming along on the trip and crashing over Ajay's house, but Stephen agreed but remembered he had another SAS trip on the last day we get back (but didn't want to jeopardize it depending on the traffic) so that went out of the window. Pretty unfortunate since it was a great opportunity. Oh well. Red Sea was the first to be called to go through the passport and customs ordeal in the Glazer lounge so that was cool. We got them stamped and had to form a line in Tymitz Square to get our slips of paper where we filled out our electronics and estimated prices (if they were to get lost/stolen) also stamped. The ship just officially got cleared and it is almost 10:30 am. Pretty late, but it is a tedious process. I am actually not in a rush to go anywhere since my welcome reception is tonight. I am exhausted and will take a nap... grab lunch and while there perhaps meet with folks and leave for a few hours. The thing is we have to take the shuttle from the ship to the end of the port, not because we want to but because it is illegal to walk (unlike in Takoradi). This is similar in that it is a commercial port so there is a lot of cargo and just generally and unsafe environment haha. They are also working on having the shuttle access 24/7 so that we aren't pressured to come back before 11:59 (which is 'til the time it runs). Otherwise, you'd have to spend the night somewhere because the shuttle is the only authorized vehicle past the port and drops us near the gangway.

-Random stuff I forgot to mention in previous posts,
Ahshok and Ajay were awesome- so opinionated and funny, we had a blast with them. (They presented me with an Indian pouch yesterday which was awesome and so thoughtful).. They also were a part of our table wars (me versus Stephen) in which we would cram as many of our friends as possible... the person with the most won... haha. Certain people had an extraness...so the interport students for example was a big bonus and the first day they were here, Stephen got them during lunch. He won that round. Dinner came and he arrived a bit late and my table was full and he had to sit at a round table. He fervently tried to get people over to his but only garnered 3 or so people. It was awesome to win! Plus the interport students split up and alternated at our tables haha... again, they were awesome, talkative and college students. Ahshok is a senior as I am, Ajay is a sophomore. I believe both (or at least Ajay I know) is studying Mechanical Engineering. He told me how this is awesome being away from school but he has a major test the day after he gets back, womp womp. On thursday, they were also around to partake in our "cake day." Well we were originally celebrating Matt's acceptance into a grad school but that quickly changed into just ordering an ice-cream cake because we've denied junk food and would simply like a piece. haha. The icing read "Hakana Matata" for our newfound purpose of it- celebrating life. It took a while to decide the specifics of it since we would all be putting in money to get the biggest cake possible ($70). We had to decide at what point during dinner if it was the right time to request it... Linval got us when he said we wouldn't be getting it today/he had bad news hahaha.. we were all crushed... but realized he was joking ha!  While we waited we took a ton of pictures.. we also had a lot of false alarms since a lot of folks were getting cakes brought to their tables and "happy birthday" kept ringing off in different sections of the dining room... finally Linval brought out a ton of plates, utensils and napkins...and finally he came with it. It was a huge sheet cake with layered strawberry and vanilla icecream. When he set it down on the table, we started singing "Hakuna Matata, what a wonderful phrase..." you know how it goes... haha... Folks were laughing and some joined in. We were snapping pictures and stuff. Great moment, and then we got to eating as Courtney sliced and diced for everyone =)