The main languages spoken in Vellore are still Tamil (tah-mull), English and Telegu (tell-eh-goo). I spent the weekend in Bangaluru (also known as Bangalore), which is in the state Karnataka. The main languages spoken in Karnataka are Kannada and English.
Instead of dollars, we use Indian Rupees in India. One U.S. Dollar is worth approximately 70 Indian Rupees. There are rupee bills worth 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 2,000 rupees. There are also rupee coins, which are worth 1, 2 and 5 rupees.
A bottle of water costs 35 rupees at room temperature (“no cooling”) or 37 rupees if it is refrigerated (“with cooling”). In American money, this means a water bottle costs between $0.50 and $0.53. When I buy a bottle of water, I now have to remember not to throw it away with other trash. The bottles have to go with plastic trash to be handled separately because of Tamil Nadu's ban on single-use plastics.
The best meal I ate this week was my breakfast in Bangalore on Saturday. I ate at a school where another member of the Fulbright Program works. They fed me dosai (dough-saw) (South Indian rice-based crepes), chutney (coconut-based sause for dosai), and a sweet Bangalore bun.
