Auflauf in India?!

I have been in India for 2 full weeks now and it's finally beginning to sink that I'll be here for a little while. Robert left us today to head to New Delhi and then back to the States. We are officially on our own now. I have about 3 months left which seems short since that means I've been here for 2 weeks already but long in the same sort of sense.
Two of my flatmates got sick this morning and we think it's from drinking the ice in our drinks last night. They are doing much better it seems than they were this morning. So two down-three more to go. Oy vey. Before the girls got sick, we did have a good dinner at a place called 'The Village' and I think if it were in America, many girls would get proposed to there. It's outside with the breeze flowing in, it has a nice fountain, palm trees overhead and it's classy enough. But the best part was the menu. Annie (my roommate, she lived in Germany for a year) was looking at the menu when she screamed 'Shut Up!'. We all glanced over quickly. "They have mmdmdfmsdm" I couldnt hear her or understand her because she was so excited. "They have auflauf"!! At this point we were both in shock and smiling nad laughing and sooo excited. I had never seen it on a menu before and was no expecting to see it there at all but it made my day. It made me think of the farm and Omi & Opa and eating a delicious, non-spicy meal :) Needless to say, we didn't order it because we didnt think it would go well with the dosa bread, rice, spicy chicken and whatever spicy fish sauce we were ordering but Annie and I have full intentions on going back there.
Before the food last evening we went to a cultural event where we got to see a few dances and hear songs that are from the Mangalore history. It was very interesting and fun to see. Tomorrow the 5 of us girls and 2 students from Roshni are heading to a few communities so that we can write a paper on the NGOs and how they are imapacting the lives there. I think that is for my Weaker Sections Class.
Recently we also went to a hospital where they have all sorts of centers and a huge chapel and a rehab center as well. We got a tour of the rehab center and it was really neat. They had all sorts of people working in there but they were making little toys and designing bags and cloths that people buy to hang on their walls. Those people put so much effort into their work. I could totally see them sending their stuff to 10,000 villages and in fact Alison asked if they sold their stuff overseas and they said they were trying or at least looking into it so maybe they will.
We got to see the solar eclipse today! Did any of you? Many people here it seems are very superstituous about it and some schools didn't have school because they didn't want their children to go outside at all today. Shanthi nad Joselyn told us that they let their kids stay inside and watch a lot of TV today because they didn't want them outside.
Well, tomorrow is the NGO visit and then Sunday is church. I think we are going to one right next door with Ajith, Robert's nephew, and hopefully it won't be 3 hours long like last week. I think I have another interesting week next week as we are on our own, in India nad taking classes and I suppose, possibly starting field placement :) So much to do. I hope you all continue to live up the cold and ice for me, a break from the heat would be nice every once in a while but I usually can get that from a nice chocolate ice cream slab so no worries.