Day 4 in Chennai

Greetings from Vishakapatnam, India!

I'm already at my host family's house but I'll get to that later.

I never got to talk about my 4th day in Chennai; instead of going on a tour, my dad and I asked our driver to take us to a famous church and a museum.

St. Mary's Church is famous for its association with Mr. Elihu Yale, the founder of Yale University!

I'm not sure if I should write this here... but Yale is my DREAM SCHOOL!

I was really excited to see his portrait and a carving (?!?! sorry I don't know what they are called..) that "commemorates" the naming of Yale University!
So I'll start with the church building itself.

As you can see, it is a beautiful white building that catches people's attention.

There were a few visitors inside the building.

ST. MARY'S CHURCH! :)

The interior was truly beautiful; in fact, I have taken about a hundred pictures at the church but due to the slow internet connection, it will be hard for me to put them up. I'm putting up about six pictures today. The process itself is time consuming and my host family is taking me to a beachside park today within an hour or so!!!!

So here is the "carving" that I've been raving about. You might want to click on the picture to see the enlarged one. It basically talks about how Yale University was named after Mr. Elihu Yale.. There is a Latin phrase at the end but I don't know anything in Latin.. So readers, if you happen to know Latin please help me out!

and.. yes... THIS is the portrait of Mr. Elihu Yale! I was actually expecting something more elaborate, but it was quite modest. But I was still excited to see it!!!

This artist of this painting is unknown; according to the person that works at the church, it is assumed that the painting was imported from some other country...

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So I think we had enough of Chennai!

It's time for VISHAKAPATNAM!

I think I have mentioned in previous posts that Vishakapatnam is a port city that is in the state of Andra Pradesh.

I got here on Friday the 29th. At the Park Hotel (if you're planning on visiting Vishakapatnam, this is the hotel to stay at. It is AMAZING!) I met my host parents and sister.

They were very welcoming but I think I was still nervous then..

When we came back around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, my host family showed me my room; when I first walked in, I was a little confused because I saw men's shirts, belts, and sunglasses on the shelves..

It turned out that the room that I'm using at the moment used to be my host brother's room.

His name is Priyesh and he's in 11th grade (but he's only 15!)

He came back around 5 and I met him for the first time at the house.

The first day at Vizag was a blur... I think I was too caught up with everything going on that I don't remember much..

It's been exactly a week at my host family's house.

My host mother is a great cook; frankly speaking, I thought that I would lose weight here because of the food, but I think I'm going to GAIN weight!!!

My host father is a marketing manager of a steel company; he told me all about his job.. He apparently travels a lot and when he's home he's pretty much resting the whole time.

Shreya, my host sister, is 11 years old and she's a sweetheart. She's in 7th grade at Visaka Valley School so she's been helping me a lot around school.

Priyesh is really nice as well. He's been trying his best to help me assimilate into the Indian culture; I've met his friends and been to their houses!

I'm so thankful for my family's hospitality. I live far away from the rest of the group so I thought that I was going to be a little lonely, but I'm not.

My host family's originally from Delhi, so they speak Hindi; it's great for me because the regional language of Vizag is Telugu but I'm learning Hindi at school.

Classes start next Monday. I got my uniforms and actually wore them today for the "ribbon cutting." Here the uniform system is unique. From Monday to Thursday, I have to wear these blue uniforms and wear black shoes. However, on Fridays, I have to wear ALL white, including shoes. So today, I wore my white skirt, but not my shirt because I haven't gotten one yet. I think it's going to take me a few days to get used to the uniform.