On Sunday we went on an excursion to St. Mary’s Island, an Island located just off the coast in the Arabian Sea. We took a bus to Udapi and another bus to Malpai before hopping on a ferry to the island. The island was small but beautiful. It has some of the most unique basalt formations found in the world along with Madagascar, suggesting India and Madagascar used to be connected before the continents shifted. The island is one of the only places in the area it is safe to swim because the rocks break the waves and the riptide is not as strong. Most people don’t swim though, but rather they wade in the water and hang out on the shore. There was not much shade so it was pretty hot. We all eagerly got in the water but wore full clothing to be culturally appropriate. The water felt so good and we spent at least an hour just floating in the waves. We wandered around the island a bit afterwards taking pictures and enjoying the scenery before hopping on the ferry back.
We had lunch in the upstairs of the dining hall on campus which is more food court style with a variety of different types of food including a subway, a Mexican(ish) type place, a pizza/pasta place, a few Indian food places, etc. It was the first “non- Indian” meal any of us have had since being here and although all the food was not what we were used to at all, it tasted so good. We rested for a few hours after lunch and then four of us met up to attend a Sikh religious service called a Gudwara in the evening. The service was a lot of singing and reading and was really cool to be a part of. Afterwards we had a community meal with the other people attending the service in the lower floor of the building and got to speak with people sitting nearby. When it was over we were kindly invited back for any other services, which take place every Sunday evening.