February 19, 2024

I had so much fun!

Honestly, it’s been a rough two weeks since my last blog post. I’ve been sick, from coughing to mysterious bug bites to rashes, I really thought it could be the end of the line.

I feel differently after one of the top 20 weekends I have had in my life. That’s top 1.8% of weekends I’ve ever done and that’s pretty impressive. The GCIL class headed to Pondicherry for the weekend, a territory on the Bay of Bengal. It was our first and only full on choose your own adventure trip.

We started off with a sleeper train for 11 hours there; initially I was nervous for the weekend due to seeing cockroaches crawl around. But I survived and maybe even conquered a fear. We arrived in Pondicherry by 7 AM, where the squad got ready quickly to go to the beach. I was there for around 7 hours, just baking, R&Ring, and watching the other students fall off their surfboards or glide through the water. I ended the night with one of the best bowls of Pad Thai I’ve ever had. You know how sometimes you have that perfect meal that you’ll probably think about once a month to a year for the rest of your life? That’ll be me with that meal.

Oops, I fell asleep. It’s 6:11 AM and Sneha just woke me up. Back to my blog!

The following day, Arielle, Monika and I headed to Serenity beach for sunrise. Since Pondicherry faces the east, the beaches are best for sunrise. They rented surfboards around 7:30 AM, and I stayed back reading a fire book on the shore. Arielle asked me to join the surfing activity, and I hesitantly joined. Honestly it was fun, and I’d do it again.

Later in the day, believe it or not I went to another beach. It was hot, and I got sunburned for the first time in many years. Maybe not bringing sunscreen was a bad idea. Also, waves/currents like those are humbling, making me remember while the ocean is nice, she’s unforgiving, and I should never underestimate her.

Everything after that second beach of the day was kind of a blur. Eating, showering, stressing about the train. It’s all good now; we’re back in Bangalore. Oh, how I’ve missed this place. I’m tired, but this is GCIL, and I have to read this to everyone in 2 hours so I must trek on.

By Kiara