Settling In

So, the second day in India.  The jet lag's hitting pretty hard, waking me up at four thirty in the morning and making me hungry at odd hours.  But the coffee here in delicious, so everything is ok.  We went to breakfast at the nearby hospital's canteen, which was good (even though the french toast was made with onions and tomatoes).  The rest of the day was an orientation to the SCILs programs at PHRII and shopping.  The SCILs program is an outreach program that helps connect pregnant women in rural areas of Mysore with high risk pregnancies and/or several harmful infections with government help.  I'm going to go out with them either tomorrow or thursday.  In the afternoon one of the administrative staff (Bhavani) took us shopping for traditional clothes.  I bought five salwar kameez in different colors and patterns.  I'll spare you the pictures for now but you'll see them later, promise :-).  Today was the last rest day, tomorrow the real work begins, with an early meeting with Dr. Mahesh at the hospital to discuss my research project and IRB application.