Sandalwood, this century?

This morning we woke up, and didn’t have class- Woo Hoo! (No offense professors). Instead we visited a factory where they manufacture sandalwood oil. The factory looked much like a museum and didn’t look like it had been used in over 40 years. None the less they gave us a tour and described the process of how they extract oil from the wood. Sandalwood is a hot commodity. The tree supply is limited so it can be sold at very high prices. We stopped by the gift shop, where many engorged in sandalwood products.

Next we made out way to the Mysore Silk Factory. Mysore is famous in India for its silk, especially a special type called a Crape (I don’t know how to spell it). The silk factory was very interesting, although no cameras were allowed in. We watched them wind spools of silk thread, and then weave it into fabric. As a decorative accent they used thread made of real gold for designs. Some of the fabric we saw was being sold for about 50,000 rupees (about 1,500 us dollars). I ended up buying some beautiful silk. All in all it was a great morning.

For the afternoon, a few of us (without computers) headed back to the institute to use the internet and catch up on some blogs. With all of the blogging we have had to do online, I’ve been thinking a lot about “informing” from “The World is Flat”. Now that we have a globally connected way to communicate, the internet has become open for anyone to explore. We have the ability to search for any piece of information, article, study, video, song (and much more) that we would ever want to find. You can find directions to and from almost anywhere in the world. We have the ability to be informed about so much, but we limit ourselves to hearing only what we WANT to know about. We hardly know what’s going on in our own backyard, let alone across the world.