Greetings From India

Thank you to all of the well wishes. I am doing fine here in Manipal. It's always raining here, but I don't mind since it kept the weather cold enough for me not to waste my money on air-conditioning. But it does get a bit too cold at night. Had to use two thick blankets, a pair of socks AND a sweater to keep me comfortable.

The food is good, alhamdulillah. I've been eating a lot of vegetarian foods lately. Fish is quite scarce, but I ate one two nights ago at Fish Point. It was really tasty. I still miss my sambal belacan and kangkung belacan. I get good (and cheap) laundry service and good housekeeping here. I was initially given a single room that I applied for beforehand. However, the price they quoted was a lot more expensive than the one they had included in the booklet. In the end, I shifted to a double standard room, which is a lot cheaper, and Maziah, my classmate in INTEC, becomes my roommate. The room is not luxurious, but it's good enough.

I get to meet a lot of new friends, and I instantly bonded with two girls from KMB and KTT, Hani and Najwa, respectively. We tried foods from Snack Shack, Saiba, the food court, Fish Point and various other places. They're relatively cheap as compared to Malaysia, with Fish Point being the cheapest so far. 7 of us had our dinner there, and that only amounts to Rs 127, which is roughly about RM12. Snack Shack has good food, but unfortunately, it is too loud at times. The lecturers here are very nice and helpful. My mentor, who is my "parent" here, is Dr. Maneesh. He teaches Biochemistry, and he is extremely nice and calm. My seniors (from the March batch) are also nice and friendly, and they helped us around with buying things (and bargaining), finding good food, registration with the police and things like that.

I had my first lecture yesterday on the subject of Biochemistry, where we learnt about amino acids, and then another lecture on Anatomy, in which we were introduced to the anatomical positions and movements. This morning I had my first encounter with the cadaver and we had a lecturer who showed us the basic things we should know, like nerves, veins and the likes. The time difference between here and Malaysia is about 2 and a half hours.

Unfortunately, the mosque is quite far from our hostel. Not only that, there is no allocation for women at the mosque. I do see Muslim Indians from time to time here. We have not been given a surau for our prayers, so we had to settle for prayers in the room. My friends and I are making our effort to perform as many solat jamaah as that we can afford. I reminded a male friend of mine to convey whatever they get from the mosque to us girls. Insha-Allah, when things are totally settled down and established, we would begin an usrah.

So far so good. I'm loving it here.