A Battle for World Domination and Beer

Greetings all.

We haven't done a whole lot the last few days, as Sunday and Monday were dedicated to finishing our assignments. Having submitted the assignments, we felt our efforts called for a celebration in the form of a whole night of playing Risk II on Sigurd S' computer and drinking beer (when you dine out three meals every day it doesn't really count as celebration). Around 2 am, when everything is closed in Pondicherry, we ran out of beer. Determined to acquire some more, we left our flat and climbed over the gate to our hostel (so as not to disturb the security guard who was sound asleep in a chair right next to the gate). This night it was raining cats and dogs, proper monsoon weather, and we had a bit of a 'Vanilla Sky' experience when we entered the otherwise so vibrant streets of Pondi's Indian side, now deserted and dead quiet. This, of course, did not deter us from continuing our quest. After a short jog in the rain we found some friendly gentlemen sitting on some stairs in the middle of the night, and they were more than happy to help. I went with one of the guys to scrounge for some beer, while Sigurd S stayed behind and conversed the other guys about sports and chess. A motorbike ride, a sleepy restauranteur, some bargaining and some happy Indians and equally happy Norwegians later, we had beer enough to last us a short lifetime. Merrily, we climbed back over the gate, this time lugging a rather large box of rattling beer bottles. Reassuringly, this did not wake our security guard. The celebration - now also over our successful expedition - continued till well past dawn, our Risk strategies growing increasingly bold and decreasingly clever. Needless to say, Tuesday was highly unproductive.

Beyond this little anecdote, there's not much to tell. Yesterday we went to the beach, today we're going sightseeing. The Austrians mentioned in earlier posts have come to Pondi and moved in with us. School starts Monday.

Oh, and I got my bag back.

Sigurd B


"Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory"
- Gandhi