Who's Afraid of the Ahmedabad Wolf?

The flowers reminded me of Home. I found out today what bougainvilleas look like. Heh.

There is something seriously wrong with my writing. Or my speech pattern, cause every time I type a sentence out on this blog, and begin to read what I just churned out, I am completely baffled. I wonder to myself how anyone can possibly understand what the hell I'm going on about, because reading my own drivel I can barely profess to understand my own words.

The sentence structure is essentially not reader-friendly. It's more like a blog with a secret code language meant only for me to understand.

ANYWAY. Today Leigh and I went out to Ahmedabad City on our own, without the Indian or French students to help haggle or orientate. We had decided to go to town today to get Leigh's pair of sneakers for the trip to Dasada. Dasada is a safari place somewhere here in Gujarat. We're going to have a 2-day course there with the school director PAT.

Due to several reasons, Kash and Nuria stayed back in MICA, the French students had their own programme (save money, went to town yesterday), and a current odd avoidance of the Indian student guides (one of them started to act weird after his moves on Nuria were rebuffed), it was just Leigh and I.

We were excited as hell, considering that this was the first time we'd be doing everything on our own, and from all the overprotectiveness of the student guides and the school admin, the entire experience of Going-to-Town has been infused with feelings of fear and trepidation. ANYWAY, we headed to the guardhouse, hailed an autorikshaw (how they spell it here, just like CAUSAL is casual in department stores and EXTRA ORDINARY Holy Qurans lie under lock and key in historical mosque/museum, they were additional prints, come on...) and embarked on our Wonderful Journey Into the Unknown.

CG Road Is Their Orchard Road Here (No One Can Tell Me What CG Stands For)

So we head to CG Road to see the shopping district of Ahmedabad. So far we've not been able to visit this area because we've only managed to go to Reliance Mart which is the standard closest supermarket for all your MICAn student life needs. We walk around dusty roads looking for a decent shop but find only local brands and overpriced shoes. Every time we exit a shop we have to scurry along the walkway because scooters weave into the way and there's no where to walk, so stressfully we plodded from one shop to another.

I spotted a Malaysia Airlines signage and exclaim in glee "Something from home! Or at least nearby." Leigh looked at me and gave a polite smile.

Walking some distance ahead, I spot the nicest sight in all of Ahmedabad. The Singapore Airlines trademark. And there and then we endeavored to visit the office once every few days just to have a semblance of home.

After walking awhile more we decided to give up and head for the real reason for our outing:

The Upper Crust Restaurant

This was Chicken Sausages that tasted like Venison from zhi-char stalls.

The Upper Crust Restaurant is the place where our campus MICAfe gets its chocolate delicacies from. The Upper Crust Restaurant serves continental-like food, with a very well-written and creative menu with dishes like "Chuck Norris Recommends" (kudos all the nerds out there) and some dish named after Jackie Chan. The only problem was that all the non-veg dishes were made of Chicken. It was chicken in this sauce, chicken cooked in this manner, chicken with potatoes, chicken with spaghetti, etc. But oh man! The sight of dishes that hailed the promise of a possibility of meat cooked in a different way from the stuff I get on campus made me euphoric.

(She's going to kill me for writing this) This is what I've got to spend my days with.

She didn't want to allow the happiness of Meat manifest itself. But I know better.

Food, Glorious Food! And The Ravenous Face.

Apparently I've been scaring Leigh a little with the amount I eat here in India, cause it seems like I'm always hungry and looking for the next meal. I was actually really stoned on the Auto on the way from CG Road, but once I took a look at the menu in Upper Crust I was smiling uncontrollably to myself. Leigh decided to capture my happiness.

Leigh's Chicken Burger with loads of onions and 2 fabulous chicken patties.

My Chicken Steak with Black Pepper Sauce called All Peppered Out or something.

WOOT! (Supposedly the word of 2007)

So after we sat there discussing the reality of Non-Time and what lies behind the veil of Reality, we decided to go next door to The Chocolate Room for desserts. This despite the fact that we had Sausages, Burgers, Fries and Steaks.

I didn't take any photos of the food we ordered at The Chocolate Room this time round, and I'm not sure if Leigh did, but here's an example of the kinds of stuff we ordered from a previous visit.

The Other Day After Law Garden We Headed to The Chocolate Room

This time round we ordered 2 Hot Chocolates in the form of the cuddle mug found at Max Brenner's, one Marshmallow pancake and one Truffle Special Sundae. The Sundae is special because they're new on the menu and also because it has NO ice-cream whatsoever. It's made entirely of cream, strawberries, bananas and a truffle cake in the center of it all. Great stuff there. And oh, it cost us both about SGD15. For the WHOLE meal.

After that we headed to the ISCON megamall where I bought a jacket (stupidly my inability to do math led me to mistake 40% discounts) and Leigh got a shirt, jacket and shoes. Not to mention a previous trip where she bought a pair of bright red track pants.

And then we bargained our way with the Auto driver(s) for a Rs. 90 ride back to school. The standard price was supposedly Rs. 80, but it was the late-night fare so I think we did fairly well for a first-time.

Joie de vivre,
Erwin