The Saturday of all Saturdays!

Saturday began - and I decided to wake up at 7:30 am. I was supposed to have b-fast with my nutrition conference friends - but I compromised and didn't go quite as early as usual. (7:30 instead of 7:00! Still early!) I told myself I could nap later, but it was important to cherish the relationships I had built. So I arrived there and my one friend was no where to be seen (he prob. went earlier). The man behind me in line said something to me and appeared to be nice. I sat down before him and thought he may join me. He, however, sat by his friend from Nutrition conference, so I thought, "What the heck?" and picked my tray up, turned around and asked if I could join them! Ha!

This delightful table grew and grew and we had a jolly 'ol time chatting. I was able to meet people I have seen around but not spoken to, and some I knew were with us also. Then a man came over and said the car was waiting. They were confused, but I knew what was going on so I said, "Ok, ok, thank you!" One woman just sat down with her breakfast and I explained to them how apparently their car was ready but it was no problem and it would wait for them . . . it wasn't even 9 yet and that was the planned time for their excurion. (They were scheduled to have a final excursion into Hyderabad to end their conference.) So I walked with them towards my room and the guestel - their destination, until the turn-off for my dorm. I then said how nice it was to meet them and they were like, "Aren't you coming with us?!!"

This was a special excursion planned just for them b/c they were bigwigs so I was like, "Oh no! I don't think so!" They were like, "Oh, do you have other things to do?" To which I responded, "Not really . . ." And then they insisted, "You should come! Come along!" So I said I would run up to my room first. I hastily put on a nicer sweater, ran my fingers through my hair, grabbed my purse stocked with a couple chapati and a Rs. bills, and headed down. I then got down there and we waited until 10:30 am for the whole thing to work out with our driver coming. It was so funny because these people had been waiting the entire conference and experiencing funny things with misorganization. Why change that on the cultural excursion day?

I met a wonderful woman - Francesca! She is from Italy, and then there are others I met as well. Alex is from DC but now is resident of Australia and has been there for the past 7 yrs. He is so nice - very charming personality and so fun to be with. A man from the Netherlands, one from Israel I think it was, and many more countries were represented on our cultural excursion. . . .

So as the excursion finally began we piled into 2 vehicles - ours was bigger - we had 4 of us in the back where there are seats facing each other. . . Anyway, we began to plan our excursion, talking about where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see.



This progressed to a rather lively and fun gathering at the table as some others joined us. I got to meet people I had seen around but not formally met and we had a nice time. Then I walked them back to the office where they were gonna wait for their car for the cultural excursion planned.