continued4

Not much happened today, I'll be going to a temple nearby in a short while. The results for the test will be out on the net tmr. If i don't get selected, i'll have to rely on some private tuition. I'll now continue and try to finish the journey: Keeping to the daily schedule there was quite tough, but i got used to it after the few days. There is this bell that rings at 4am in the morning and everyone is expected to wake up, shower and attend morning prayers in a big hall, seperate venues(halls) for male and female. The weather is quite cold, but it is tolerable with casual wear. For me, the 3 people in my room(incl. me) are competing for the same bathroom. My mom, ususally wakes up first and goes to bath, after which i'll wake up and bathe and rush down. Then, my grandfather will bathe and join me in the hall. During the prayers, i was quite ashamed some times since the westerners there could say the prayers more fluently than i could; i took a looong time to figure out the pronounciation and ended up saying only the front part of each line. Maybe, i'll be better when i'm as old as them. On one of the days, my grandpa was in the lift with a guy (and me) and he asked the guy where he was from. Well, he was from germany and has decided to stay there as long as he could. we met quite a lot of such people. And i noticed one more thing: Cakes here taste much better, mainly because there is a lot if icing and a lot of sugar in that icing. And needless to say, they are cheaper too. My mom spent a lot buying the cds and vcds there. Vcds that cost more than $30 in singapore only cost less that $10 here. After the morning prayer, there's tea and (for me) back to sleep. On some days i went exploring (with my mom, so that i won't get lost). Breakfast was at 8am, quite filling. You only need $1 a day to get 3 decent meals here (add 50cents for drinks). Then, there are religious lessons, which we didn't attend. After that, we have to rush for darshan, we managed to get 3, as we wished, during our stay. The people there were extremely kind. And then, when we came back, we got off the island by a boat ride. i took a few photos:

View of the newly built bridge from the shore

The bridge standing behind me Me standing infront of the bridge (with 58+59 steps)

(you can guess the time by looking at the shadow on my neck)

This is how the boat system works: The man (behind) has this super long stick(that's why it's out of the frame) , which he places on the riverbed and pushes the riverbed behind. By N3L, the riverbed exerts an equal and opposite force on the boat, so that the boat moves forward. Also, by looking at the shadow on my pants, you can workout that i'm facing the direction of travel of the boat (the angle of the stick is ambigous and thust cannot be used here).

The train's spring system

Merry christmas, everyone