Frisbee soccer, Indian cooking and the Bundh

The past week has been a whirlwind of classes, seeing the city of Bangalore and believe it or not classwork. Today I finally get a chance to write because of the Bundh. The state of Karnaktaka (probably spelled incorrectly) has essentially shut down today to protest an interstate dispute that the State lost involving water rights. So today all public transportation, shops and pretty much everything else is closed and people (especially foreigners) are encouraged to stay inside which gives me an opportunity to write this blog. I walked down the street to my host families relatives this morning and the streets were mostly vacant a far cry from the usual commotion.
The Bundh also gave me an opportunity to watch my host mother cook. We also had a cooking/ Indian nutrition lesson on Saturday so maybe when I get home I'll try to make a South Indian dish or two.
On Saturday I went to play frisbee with the Bangalore frisbee club. After somehow finding the field I was surprised to find them playing a combination of ultimate and soccer with goals and a goalie and the rest of the rules similar to ultimate. I had a good time playing and it was good to meet some people from Bangalore not affiliated with our program. I told one of them that I was here to study health policy and he looked at me incredulously and said, "We have a health policy?"
On Sunday I went to a national park which was more like a zoo, poorly maintained but I can't complain because I saw tigers and Elephants walking around. I also went to a human rights film festival and saw a couple interesting movies including an incredible one about the Hmong people living as fugitives in Laos. The same group as the protaganists from "The Spirit Catches you and You fall down."