So, I am finally back in Chicago, at my own place, with my own computer and own bed. It's great to be home!
The flights over were fine - I ended up sitting in a middle row with no one next to me on the flight from Hyd to Frankfurt, so that was nice. I got uber excited when the stewardess was coming around with bread and jams, and I scored some Nutella.... sometimes, it's the small things.
I slept almost the whole time over, which was great. I've never been able to sleep on planes: 1. because I am usually super uncomfortable and 2. because I'm afraid something will go wrong with the plane while I'm sleep. I think I'm starting to get over my fear of flying, but seeing as I want to stay put in Chicago for a while, it may go to waste till next July when I go to the motherland.
The stop in Frankfurt was quick, and I was 'specially selected' to have my carry-ons screened by an agent - I'm not sure what set it off, but they wiped down objects in my carry on, looking for some sort of residue or something - but I happily obliged since the last thing I need right now is to be blacklisted by the Frankfurt airport.
The flight to Chicago was a bit uncomfortable, mainly since I was so anxious to get the heck home. Sat next to a very attractive (and OF COURSE married) guy, but that was ok since we didn't really talk (but it was that comfortable silence kind of thing). Watched a bunch of non-US movies (Sarkar Raj, Non Pensarci, Robert Zimmermann wundert sich über die Liebe), ate like there was no tomorrow, and thought of all the things I was going to do when I got home.
Got home, unpacked, shared my stories, and fully knocked out around 8pm. Saturday I got my hair cut (I sort said "Just chop it all off') and got a facial (which was followed up with a "you should get a face peel" - UM,NO) and then did my grocery shopping and dropped off about 75% of all my stuff back at my place. Chilled the rest of the night, and again knocked out super early.
Today I went to church with my parents, and now I am finally finally back at HOME. I need to upload my billion pics, sort through all my gifts and figure out how I'm going to get the energy to get into work tomorrow. :S
All that said, the experience was tremendous. Viraj, our expat in Hyd, made a comment that I "drank the Kool-Aid" while I was there, which I think is stretching it just a bit. I did enjoy my time overall, but I think I'm done with the Far East for now. Next stop? Who knows, but my passport is ready!
Peace out -
-b-
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Final Days
So, today is my last full day in the office, and I am wrapping things up, and doing final things related to my rotation here. Tomorrow will be busy with debriefs, a new hire orientation, and probably crying.
I really don't feel like working (and I've been avoiding somethings like the plague!) so I'll share my random thoughts about being here.
Things I will miss
1. Buffet breakfast - I like the fact that I can have eggs OR pancakes OR phulkah OR sambar everyday. Gawd, if you just had decent COLD milk and yogurt here, I'd be set!
2. Meeting people - I've met so many people from so many regions, and my whole network has really grown while I've been here. Meeting the Hyd staff has also been great, and being able to put a face to a name is really the best part of coming out here.
3. Travel - I've flown more here in 7 weeks than I have in some past years. 2008 in general was a huge travel year for me, and being able to see Taj Mahal, the backwaters of Kerala, and even Singapore, has truly been a blessing.
4. Bollywood - Now I understand the potency of this film style. I've got like 15 different soundtracks now (thanks Sana!), I've seen Dostana and am purchasing all sorts of movie goodies tomorrow. I'm obsessed with all things Abishek (see below) and I now want to be a back up dancer in one of his films. I think I can pull it off! :P
5. Missing people - as weird as it sounds, I'm going to miss missing people. The old verse "you don't know what you've got till it's gone" is so true here when access to people is impossible due to location and time zone. Expect me to be calling you to hang out or just chat more often.
6. Missing things - Plays, movies, concerts, museums, non-corporate coffee shops, local markets - oh dear, how I have taken you for granted! I promise to go to more of you instead of putzing around in my house, debating what to do today.
7. The weather - oh, I hear it's snowing in Chicago?..... and here I am, working on my tan by the pool. Pity......
Things I won't miss
1. Ginger Court - I'm sorry but if I have to eat Ginger Court food one more time, I will freak. I can't wait to gorge myself on Chipotle, my dad's cooking and Cozy Noodle. That and milk - I am going to get SOOOOOOO sick I can feel like, but it will totally be worth it.
2. Lack of sense of direction - there are no street signs here ANYWHERE. I only know where I am because of landmarks (McDonald's, City Centre, the Puma Store). I don't know north from east (since I don't see the sun rise or set) and I've seen maybe one star since I've been here.
3. The lounge singer at the hotel bar - If I hear you sing 'Besame Mucho' one more time, I'm gonna take that microphone and.....
4. Sales people - just stop following me please, and stop selling me sh*t I don't want. I asked for one thing, you didn't have it, end of story. Goodbye.
5. My hotel room - my box of a room was fun for the first 3 days, and then, I just really sick of being in it! I need more space!
6. Boiling my water to brush my teeth - supposedly the water is ok, but I don't trust it!!
7. The personal conservatism - I can't handle living somewhere in which it's illegal to be gay, where kissing on TV is blocked out and where married people can't hold hands. Isn't India the birthplace of the Kama Sutra?! I don't get it!
So there it is in a nutshell. I'd be happy to share all my deepest darkest thoughts with you when I am back in two short days. Even this blog is censored.....
Peace out.
-b-
I really don't feel like working (and I've been avoiding somethings like the plague!) so I'll share my random thoughts about being here.
Things I will miss
1. Buffet breakfast - I like the fact that I can have eggs OR pancakes OR phulkah OR sambar everyday. Gawd, if you just had decent COLD milk and yogurt here, I'd be set!
2. Meeting people - I've met so many people from so many regions, and my whole network has really grown while I've been here. Meeting the Hyd staff has also been great, and being able to put a face to a name is really the best part of coming out here.
3. Travel - I've flown more here in 7 weeks than I have in some past years. 2008 in general was a huge travel year for me, and being able to see Taj Mahal, the backwaters of Kerala, and even Singapore, has truly been a blessing.
4. Bollywood - Now I understand the potency of this film style. I've got like 15 different soundtracks now (thanks Sana!), I've seen Dostana and am purchasing all sorts of movie goodies tomorrow. I'm obsessed with all things Abishek (see below) and I now want to be a back up dancer in one of his films. I think I can pull it off! :P
5. Missing people - as weird as it sounds, I'm going to miss missing people. The old verse "you don't know what you've got till it's gone" is so true here when access to people is impossible due to location and time zone. Expect me to be calling you to hang out or just chat more often.
6. Missing things - Plays, movies, concerts, museums, non-corporate coffee shops, local markets - oh dear, how I have taken you for granted! I promise to go to more of you instead of putzing around in my house, debating what to do today.
7. The weather - oh, I hear it's snowing in Chicago?..... and here I am, working on my tan by the pool. Pity......
Things I won't miss
1. Ginger Court - I'm sorry but if I have to eat Ginger Court food one more time, I will freak. I can't wait to gorge myself on Chipotle, my dad's cooking and Cozy Noodle. That and milk - I am going to get SOOOOOOO sick I can feel like, but it will totally be worth it.
2. Lack of sense of direction - there are no street signs here ANYWHERE. I only know where I am because of landmarks (McDonald's, City Centre, the Puma Store). I don't know north from east (since I don't see the sun rise or set) and I've seen maybe one star since I've been here.
3. The lounge singer at the hotel bar - If I hear you sing 'Besame Mucho' one more time, I'm gonna take that microphone and.....
4. Sales people - just stop following me please, and stop selling me sh*t I don't want. I asked for one thing, you didn't have it, end of story. Goodbye.
5. My hotel room - my box of a room was fun for the first 3 days, and then, I just really sick of being in it! I need more space!
6. Boiling my water to brush my teeth - supposedly the water is ok, but I don't trust it!!
7. The personal conservatism - I can't handle living somewhere in which it's illegal to be gay, where kissing on TV is blocked out and where married people can't hold hands. Isn't India the birthplace of the Kama Sutra?! I don't get it!
So there it is in a nutshell. I'd be happy to share all my deepest darkest thoughts with you when I am back in two short days. Even this blog is censored.....
Peace out.
-b-
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Last Weekend!!!
So my trip is coming to an end, and this weekend I stayed in Hyderabad for once!! :P
Saturday we went out to the movies with some of the staff and rotators (Anand, Mary and Johnathan from Belgium)and saw Eagle Eye at the IMAX. The first 5 minutes made me slightly uncomfortable, but the rest of the movie was good. There's lots of stuff blowing up, and I had no idea that Billy Bob Thorton was in the movie, so I was pleasantly amused. Seeing the Chicago skyline and Quincy and Wilson stops made me all "awwwww, I miss home", but I'll be seeing that skyline in just 6 days!! :)
After the movies, we tried to go to the Salarjung Museum and our stupendous driver got lost TWICE. The Salarjung Museum is one of the most well known places in Hyd, and it's even in our expat "Need to Check this out" booklet, and this guy had no idea where it was. After Jonathan and I both yelled at him to just take us back to the hotel, we took a much needed break, and then headed out the F Cafe to celebrate the birthday of one of the executive managers. She was turning 4 and was so ridiculously adorable - I bought her coloring books and Jonathan bought were a marker/crayon stationary type thing, and Mary, Anand and Katrina from Indy bought her books and stuffed animals. She had a cute little toy train birthday cake that was tasty too, and a good time was had by all.
After dinner, Jonathan was itching to go out, and after the Mumbai stuff, none of us were to keen to go out. I gave in though, and said ok. So we got ready and headed out. All the clubs we tried were closed, so we took it as a sign to just go back.
We get into the Novotel, and hear crazy music coming from the bar - looks like all the Tollywood/Banjara Hills kids came to our freaking hotel to chill! So after getting over the fact that we wasted time looking at other spots, we joined the crowd and had a nice time dancing like no body would ever see us again, since it's the honest truth!! :P
Today I went to church for the last time, chilled at Ravindar's house and had breakfast with him and his wife, and then spent WAY TOO MUCH on some do das and trinkets, and a lovely blue pashmina that I couldn't say no too. :/
So tonight me and Jonathan are going to meet up with Rakesh and his wife Aditi to see the long awaited Dostana movie. There are no subtitles, but I think I can get through the general concepts of the movie. If the soundtrack is any indication, I am going to dance throughout the whole movie.
Peace out!
Saturday we went out to the movies with some of the staff and rotators (Anand, Mary and Johnathan from Belgium)and saw Eagle Eye at the IMAX. The first 5 minutes made me slightly uncomfortable, but the rest of the movie was good. There's lots of stuff blowing up, and I had no idea that Billy Bob Thorton was in the movie, so I was pleasantly amused. Seeing the Chicago skyline and Quincy and Wilson stops made me all "awwwww, I miss home", but I'll be seeing that skyline in just 6 days!! :)
After the movies, we tried to go to the Salarjung Museum and our stupendous driver got lost TWICE. The Salarjung Museum is one of the most well known places in Hyd, and it's even in our expat "Need to Check this out" booklet, and this guy had no idea where it was. After Jonathan and I both yelled at him to just take us back to the hotel, we took a much needed break, and then headed out the F Cafe to celebrate the birthday of one of the executive managers. She was turning 4 and was so ridiculously adorable - I bought her coloring books and Jonathan bought were a marker/crayon stationary type thing, and Mary, Anand and Katrina from Indy bought her books and stuffed animals. She had a cute little toy train birthday cake that was tasty too, and a good time was had by all.
After dinner, Jonathan was itching to go out, and after the Mumbai stuff, none of us were to keen to go out. I gave in though, and said ok. So we got ready and headed out. All the clubs we tried were closed, so we took it as a sign to just go back.
We get into the Novotel, and hear crazy music coming from the bar - looks like all the Tollywood/Banjara Hills kids came to our freaking hotel to chill! So after getting over the fact that we wasted time looking at other spots, we joined the crowd and had a nice time dancing like no body would ever see us again, since it's the honest truth!! :P
Today I went to church for the last time, chilled at Ravindar's house and had breakfast with him and his wife, and then spent WAY TOO MUCH on some do das and trinkets, and a lovely blue pashmina that I couldn't say no too. :/
So tonight me and Jonathan are going to meet up with Rakesh and his wife Aditi to see the long awaited Dostana movie. There are no subtitles, but I think I can get through the general concepts of the movie. If the soundtrack is any indication, I am going to dance throughout the whole movie.
Peace out!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Black Friday
I enjoy the day after Thanksgiving because it means that Christmas is ever so close.
I tried to find "Biały Śnieg" on YouTube, but couldn't find it, so here, enjoy this little Piotr Rubik ditty instead.
I tried to find "Biały Śnieg" on YouTube, but couldn't find it, so here, enjoy this little Piotr Rubik ditty instead.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Unprecedented
So, I'm in Hyderabad, which is just under 400 miles away from Mumbai.
I was watching TV (Friends) after coming to the Novotel after work and started flipping through channels. I got to the news channels "section" of the remote, and every single channel had the activities going on in Mumbai on. Most of the channels are in Urdu or Hindi, but by the images, I could tell that not all was well.
Once the BBC had the story, I could understand what was going on, and the sheer horror of what had (and still is) taken place. It's scary to be away from home for any amount of time, but to be a clear foreigner in a country that already has political and religious instability just emphasizes the situation.
Hyd is clearly on alert - the security at the hotel has been increased, there are more police and men checking cars coming in and out of the complex our hotel is in, even at the office, they are doing bag checks and more detailed checks of the vehicles and people coming in.
I don't have much else to say except that this is senseless and my heart goes out to anyone affected by it.
I was watching TV (Friends) after coming to the Novotel after work and started flipping through channels. I got to the news channels "section" of the remote, and every single channel had the activities going on in Mumbai on. Most of the channels are in Urdu or Hindi, but by the images, I could tell that not all was well.
Once the BBC had the story, I could understand what was going on, and the sheer horror of what had (and still is) taken place. It's scary to be away from home for any amount of time, but to be a clear foreigner in a country that already has political and religious instability just emphasizes the situation.
Hyd is clearly on alert - the security at the hotel has been increased, there are more police and men checking cars coming in and out of the complex our hotel is in, even at the office, they are doing bag checks and more detailed checks of the vehicles and people coming in.
I don't have much else to say except that this is senseless and my heart goes out to anyone affected by it.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Nothing ever goes the way you expect it
So it's been a crazy four days of weddings, travel, birthday celebrations and the Taj Mahal. Let's recap.
Thursday
Thursday was Srinivas' wedding ceremony. I came to work dressed to go straight to the hall and people freaked because I was wearing a dress. I suppose I should do it more often. Anyway, I left the office a little after 6 as the wedding invitation stated 7:16 as the time. I found that weird, but it's based on the stars and birthdays and I went with it. Traffic was completely atrocious and it took me almost 2 hours to get there. I got there around 8:30 and found out that I had pretty much missed the entire thing. I went up to Srinivas and his wife Kalpana and said my greeting and congrats and such. Baki and Vijay popped out of nowhere and joined me (thank goodness since I wouldn't know what to do otherwise). People stared and randomly came up to me to take a picture. Then Baki and Vijay ate dinner, I tried some ice cream (still wasn't feeling 100% after last Saturday) and we trucked back home.
Re: the time on the invitations - so I guess the whole ceremony starts like 2 hours before, and they do pooja and lots of ceremonial stuff, and at 7:16 they start the official process of getting married. It's like saying "come see X & Y say "I do" at 3:47" in the U.S. (but of course we want you to be there for the whole thing, so we just say come at 3).
Friday
Friday was my birthday so I decided to not work and instead putz around the hotel and then go to the spa, and then get ready for the reception for Srinivas since the whole office was coming.
Sana took me to lunch and we had tasty pizza and these things called Snappers which is apple juice, cranberry juice and ginger ale - not bad! I went to the Nirva spa at the Ellaa and had some issues with the services I wanted/got. First, they don't do hand mendhi, even though they said they did on the phone. Hmph. Second, they couldn't do "anything" with my hair except blow dry it straight, when I wanted to have it a bit fancy for the reception. What they could do was tell me that I had a lot of split ends and that I needed a haircut. Right.
So I ended up only getting a mani/pedi which really wasn't soothing and spa-like at all. Maybe the Nirva is nice in Indian standards, but holy hell, if I got this service in the U.S. I'd flip. My nails are already chipped and it's only been like 3 days. Booo.
So it took me almost 2 hours to get the mani/pedi (when my girls in Niles can do both in less than an hour - LOVE EFFICIENCY) and I was a bit late in getting my stuff together for the reception. I grabbed all my stuff, and got ready at the office.
So the group also got me a cake for my birthday, which was very nice of them! This part wasn't so nice:
I still don't get the cake smearing thing, but supposedly it's obligatory...whatev. :P
So after cake and birthday wishes ("Many happy returns on your day") we headed out for Srinivas' reception. It was fun - we ate, chatted and finally danced after I started grumbling that I can't go to a reception without dancing. :P We left around 11 so that people could get home, and I went back to try and pack for the Delhi/Agra trip.
Saturday
We had a 6am flight, which meant we needed to leave a little after 4 am. After a quick nap, we headed out (me, Sana, Maura from Minneapolis and this guy John from the UK who works for UBS). We are on our way, on a new road to the airport, and something (of course) is wrong with the car. I don't have the pic yet, but the front tire somehow got flat along the way, but the driver tried to keep going to try and make it to the airport. At a certain point, there was a speed hump to get onto the main road, and he couldn't jump it. We had torn the rubber off the wheel and were pretty much driving on the steel where the tire once was. After sitting on the side of the road for about 15 minutes, counting the seconds we had available to still get on the flight, we got to the airport at about 5:40. We run to the check-in and find that Sana booked the wrong date and couldn't get on. Me, Maura and John all look at each other and say - um, I dunno? We figured out that we were still going to try and make the flight, and that Sana would try all the other airlines to get in soon after us. We run through security, down the hall to the gate like madmen, and make our flight with 4 minutes to spare. We land in Delhi and find that Sana was able to make it on a flight about 30 minutes after us, so we waited and were finally off to Agra.
Agra is about 4.5 hours away from Delhi by car, so we wasted no time in trying to get there. Our driver Dara was good and we mostly slept on the way there. We stopped at a tourist trap for lunch (which is fine with me - I'd rather eat where everyone else is) and sped towards Agra.
We visited some spots before the Taj, but really wanted to get to the Taj ASAP as it was closing at sunset. We made it, and it was simply SPECTACULAR. I had a great time seeing the Taj and learning about all the history of it, and just gazing at all the workmanship that went into building it. This is also where the "random men asking me for photos" thing started. First, two Iranian guys wanted pics with us "holding" the Taj (ala below) and later in the day, a bunch of Indian guys wanted a pic of me. It was really awkward, and I'm probably on a weird fetish/porn site somewhere. :P
After Taj we did some shopping, I bought a black star gemstone ring (I dig it) and then we had some grub. Our hotel was OK (hey, at this point, a bed and hot water were all that we needed) and then went to sleep.
At about 2am, we hear the fire alarm going off. Sana is dead to the world, while Maura and I are freaking out. I grab my hoody and camera bag and run for the door screaming like a banshee and Maura's right behind me but still trying to get Sana to wake up. It smelled like someone burned a toaster or something, but the hotel was like "Oh, no- it's cool, someone was just smoking". RIGHT. So we go back to bed still a bit freaked out. Sana has no recollection of any of this. Thank goodness there wasn't a real fire!!
Sunday
Sunday we drove back to Delhi and along the way, our driver Dara tried to disguise smoking breaks as random times to take pics of stuff. We went into a random temple that wasn't Muslim, Hindu or Christian (I think it was a Temple to a yogi or something) and we took another stop to get a few snaps of a statue of Shiva.
We got into Delhi and saw the Baha'i Lotus Temple, India Gate, North and South Block (political houses), the home of the President of India and Parliament (all in New Delhi). We took lunch, and headed out for the Red Fort (in Old Delhi), one of the last spots on the trip.
So Delhi is divided into two areas: New Delhi and Old Delhi. New Delhi was built by the Brits, and Old Delhi was built before by the former Muslim inhabitants of the city. New Delhi has nice wide roads, and is relatively (you guessed it) "new". Then, you pretty much cross a main road and are sucked into a crowd of like 20,000 people hawing their wares on the side of the road. It was the first time in India that I was scared for my life. Previous bombings happened in Old Delhi, and I wasn't about to make it on the 6 o'clock news. But when you are stuck in traffic, you are pretty much a sitting duck, so I tried to make the best of it but it was nerve wrecking.
We trek out into the crowd in order to cross the road to get to the Red Fort. We pass by "Pee Alley" since no one seems to have any problems peeing on the sidewalk here (and they aren't even DRUNK!) and check out the fort. It's pretty and historical and such, and I'm asked again for more snaps with random Indian guys (man, I hope I'm not somehow married now). Sana and Maura did a little more shopping and we were out of there.
Our last stop was a cute little tea shop (Xmas presents! For me! :p ) and then we were off to the airport. Our flight was delayed, but we made it back to Hyd safe and sound. On the way to the hotel, we saw an accident and our driver said "Don't look!" so I closed my eyes. Maura didn't and I don't know what she saw, but it must have been horrible. I just hope it wasn't a family on a bike that got hit. We got to the hotel around 12:30am and I think I fell asleep on the elevator up to my room. It was a really tiring experience, but definitely worth it to see the Taj.
So now I'm trying to catch up on work, come to terms with the fact that I have less than two weeks to go, and figure out where I'm gonna go from here.....
Thursday
Thursday was Srinivas' wedding ceremony. I came to work dressed to go straight to the hall and people freaked because I was wearing a dress. I suppose I should do it more often. Anyway, I left the office a little after 6 as the wedding invitation stated 7:16 as the time. I found that weird, but it's based on the stars and birthdays and I went with it. Traffic was completely atrocious and it took me almost 2 hours to get there. I got there around 8:30 and found out that I had pretty much missed the entire thing. I went up to Srinivas and his wife Kalpana and said my greeting and congrats and such. Baki and Vijay popped out of nowhere and joined me (thank goodness since I wouldn't know what to do otherwise). People stared and randomly came up to me to take a picture. Then Baki and Vijay ate dinner, I tried some ice cream (still wasn't feeling 100% after last Saturday) and we trucked back home.
Re: the time on the invitations - so I guess the whole ceremony starts like 2 hours before, and they do pooja and lots of ceremonial stuff, and at 7:16 they start the official process of getting married. It's like saying "come see X & Y say "I do" at 3:47" in the U.S. (but of course we want you to be there for the whole thing, so we just say come at 3).
Friday
Friday was my birthday so I decided to not work and instead putz around the hotel and then go to the spa, and then get ready for the reception for Srinivas since the whole office was coming.
Sana took me to lunch and we had tasty pizza and these things called Snappers which is apple juice, cranberry juice and ginger ale - not bad! I went to the Nirva spa at the Ellaa and had some issues with the services I wanted/got. First, they don't do hand mendhi, even though they said they did on the phone. Hmph. Second, they couldn't do "anything" with my hair except blow dry it straight, when I wanted to have it a bit fancy for the reception. What they could do was tell me that I had a lot of split ends and that I needed a haircut. Right.
So I ended up only getting a mani/pedi which really wasn't soothing and spa-like at all. Maybe the Nirva is nice in Indian standards, but holy hell, if I got this service in the U.S. I'd flip. My nails are already chipped and it's only been like 3 days. Booo.
So it took me almost 2 hours to get the mani/pedi (when my girls in Niles can do both in less than an hour - LOVE EFFICIENCY) and I was a bit late in getting my stuff together for the reception. I grabbed all my stuff, and got ready at the office.
So the group also got me a cake for my birthday, which was very nice of them! This part wasn't so nice:
I still don't get the cake smearing thing, but supposedly it's obligatory...whatev. :P
So after cake and birthday wishes ("Many happy returns on your day") we headed out for Srinivas' reception. It was fun - we ate, chatted and finally danced after I started grumbling that I can't go to a reception without dancing. :P We left around 11 so that people could get home, and I went back to try and pack for the Delhi/Agra trip.
Saturday
We had a 6am flight, which meant we needed to leave a little after 4 am. After a quick nap, we headed out (me, Sana, Maura from Minneapolis and this guy John from the UK who works for UBS). We are on our way, on a new road to the airport, and something (of course) is wrong with the car. I don't have the pic yet, but the front tire somehow got flat along the way, but the driver tried to keep going to try and make it to the airport. At a certain point, there was a speed hump to get onto the main road, and he couldn't jump it. We had torn the rubber off the wheel and were pretty much driving on the steel where the tire once was. After sitting on the side of the road for about 15 minutes, counting the seconds we had available to still get on the flight, we got to the airport at about 5:40. We run to the check-in and find that Sana booked the wrong date and couldn't get on. Me, Maura and John all look at each other and say - um, I dunno? We figured out that we were still going to try and make the flight, and that Sana would try all the other airlines to get in soon after us. We run through security, down the hall to the gate like madmen, and make our flight with 4 minutes to spare. We land in Delhi and find that Sana was able to make it on a flight about 30 minutes after us, so we waited and were finally off to Agra.
Agra is about 4.5 hours away from Delhi by car, so we wasted no time in trying to get there. Our driver Dara was good and we mostly slept on the way there. We stopped at a tourist trap for lunch (which is fine with me - I'd rather eat where everyone else is) and sped towards Agra.
We visited some spots before the Taj, but really wanted to get to the Taj ASAP as it was closing at sunset. We made it, and it was simply SPECTACULAR. I had a great time seeing the Taj and learning about all the history of it, and just gazing at all the workmanship that went into building it. This is also where the "random men asking me for photos" thing started. First, two Iranian guys wanted pics with us "holding" the Taj (ala below) and later in the day, a bunch of Indian guys wanted a pic of me. It was really awkward, and I'm probably on a weird fetish/porn site somewhere. :P
After Taj we did some shopping, I bought a black star gemstone ring (I dig it) and then we had some grub. Our hotel was OK (hey, at this point, a bed and hot water were all that we needed) and then went to sleep.
At about 2am, we hear the fire alarm going off. Sana is dead to the world, while Maura and I are freaking out. I grab my hoody and camera bag and run for the door screaming like a banshee and Maura's right behind me but still trying to get Sana to wake up. It smelled like someone burned a toaster or something, but the hotel was like "Oh, no- it's cool, someone was just smoking". RIGHT. So we go back to bed still a bit freaked out. Sana has no recollection of any of this. Thank goodness there wasn't a real fire!!
Sunday
Sunday we drove back to Delhi and along the way, our driver Dara tried to disguise smoking breaks as random times to take pics of stuff. We went into a random temple that wasn't Muslim, Hindu or Christian (I think it was a Temple to a yogi or something) and we took another stop to get a few snaps of a statue of Shiva.
We got into Delhi and saw the Baha'i Lotus Temple, India Gate, North and South Block (political houses), the home of the President of India and Parliament (all in New Delhi). We took lunch, and headed out for the Red Fort (in Old Delhi), one of the last spots on the trip.
So Delhi is divided into two areas: New Delhi and Old Delhi. New Delhi was built by the Brits, and Old Delhi was built before by the former Muslim inhabitants of the city. New Delhi has nice wide roads, and is relatively (you guessed it) "new". Then, you pretty much cross a main road and are sucked into a crowd of like 20,000 people hawing their wares on the side of the road. It was the first time in India that I was scared for my life. Previous bombings happened in Old Delhi, and I wasn't about to make it on the 6 o'clock news. But when you are stuck in traffic, you are pretty much a sitting duck, so I tried to make the best of it but it was nerve wrecking.
We trek out into the crowd in order to cross the road to get to the Red Fort. We pass by "Pee Alley" since no one seems to have any problems peeing on the sidewalk here (and they aren't even DRUNK!) and check out the fort. It's pretty and historical and such, and I'm asked again for more snaps with random Indian guys (man, I hope I'm not somehow married now). Sana and Maura did a little more shopping and we were out of there.
Our last stop was a cute little tea shop (Xmas presents! For me! :p ) and then we were off to the airport. Our flight was delayed, but we made it back to Hyd safe and sound. On the way to the hotel, we saw an accident and our driver said "Don't look!" so I closed my eyes. Maura didn't and I don't know what she saw, but it must have been horrible. I just hope it wasn't a family on a bike that got hit. We got to the hotel around 12:30am and I think I fell asleep on the elevator up to my room. It was a really tiring experience, but definitely worth it to see the Taj.
So now I'm trying to catch up on work, come to terms with the fact that I have less than two weeks to go, and figure out where I'm gonna go from here.....
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Photos and Updates
Yes, yes, I haven't been posting photos. I've been using the big boy (I like to call him Franek) since I want some nice ones for my photobooks. :) Plus my point and shoot is sort of crappy (Santa, are you listening?) and I don't trust it.
Today I am going to Srinivas' wedding. I am really excited, and Franek is coming with me. Should be a blast. The reception is tomorrow and I am busting out my sari with the other expats.
And then, TAJ! Finally going north to hit Agra and check out my 2nd of 7 world wonders.
Cheers kids!
Today I am going to Srinivas' wedding. I am really excited, and Franek is coming with me. Should be a blast. The reception is tomorrow and I am busting out my sari with the other expats.
And then, TAJ! Finally going north to hit Agra and check out my 2nd of 7 world wonders.
Cheers kids!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
A follow up to NBC (and the U.S. in general)
I HATE YOUR SILLY COPYRIGHT LAWS!
**coughs**
sorry, but whatevs with this legal mumbo jumbo!! :P
**coughs**
sorry, but whatevs with this legal mumbo jumbo!! :P
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Singapore
Well, hello there.
So before I even came to India, I knew I wanted to go to Singapore. India is good in that it is fairly centrally located to other countries in the Asia-Pac region that I want to visit. My original goal was to go over Thanksgiving weekend since I get the days off. However, Sana came and she wanted to go to. So last Sunday, we booked our flights for the upcoming Friday, and off we were!
The trip on the way there was great. I can understand why I paid almost $600 for an economy class flight - tons of leg room, wide selection of meals (if you pre-order them), and the service really is nice. We took a red eye in, leaving at 11:30pm and arriving at 6:30 am (local time). There was no one sitting next to me, and I had an aisle seat (also pre-selected) and even though I couldn't really lay down, I got in a few hours of deep sleep.
We get in, and the MRT system (trains) is awesome - very much like Spain. I learned a good lesson from Kara traveling in Spain and made sure I knew I to get around from the airport to the hotel via train (so much cheaper!) and all the other places that I wanted to visit. We cruise along on the train, taking in what sights we could, and even got to check in early at the hotel. We got a smoking room, but didn't really care since we figured we'd be out most of the day, trying to squeeze in a Singapore experience in two days.
We are dead tired, but shower and decide to head out at around 10am. It started raining, so we took a boat tour around the river to see some of the sights - The Merlion, various hotels, some really cool bridges, ect. The rain stopped, so we sat outside for a bit and then hopped off near one of the Raffles statues in the city.
All the while, I was beginning to feel worse and worse. At first I thought I was just sleepy, or boat sick, but we went to a local spot for lunch, and it hit me. I wasn't quite sure what it was, but my stomach was in knots, and I just felt the need to lie down. I parted ways with Sana and trudged back to hotel, feeling myself dieing along the way. And then it really hit.
Food poisoning. :(
I freaking got food poisoning in Singapore of all places! 4 weeks in India and not one major sickness, and here I am, in paradise, sick as a dog in my hotel room. :( So much for all the plans we had!! I ended up tossing and turning, trying to sleep, with various episodes of ickiness I'll leave you to wonder about. I'm blaming it either on the cheese sandwich I had at D Block or the KFC at the airport - either way, I am staying clear of both forever.
So after laying around for almost 8 hours, trying to recover for "just a bit" more, and a little Starbucks to help along the way, we went to the Night Safari and had a good time. Then we hit Orchard Road to check out the Christmas in the Tropics displays (like the windows at Macy's) and marvelled at all the stores I wouldn't shop at anyway - Louis, Prada, M.A.N.G.O. and yes, even Gap! :P
Sunday I had every intention of waking up early to make up for the almost 8 hours we lost the day before, but I snoozed my wake up call for church, and ended up going to a later mass. I picked St. Andrew's Cathedral since it was the closest one to the hotel. The church is beautiful - white marble, very clean. The mass starts, the organs are playing, the choir is singing, and I'm like "Now this is what I was missing! Organs! Who knew?" I read through the bulletin really quickly, and see something about the Anglican community, and I think "Oh, that's nice - all the churches support each other here".
They start going through all the prayers, and some things are a little different, and I just think, oh well, every church can do things slightly different. And then the sermon starts and I start thinking, "Um, is this a Catholic Church?". The preacher is talking some good stuff about introducing your friends to Christ and such, and then he starts interspersing "Amen" and "Hallelujah" in the middle of his speech and I'm like "NOPE! This is def not a Catholic Church!!!" I try demising a way to leave nicely, and then the preacher asked who in the Church was visiting... I'm not about to lie in a church, during mass, so I get up along with the other visitors and everyone starts clapping and I get a bunch of stuff and now I really feel like a fool.
After about 5 minutes, I suck it up and leave. It was almost an hour after the Mass started, and they weren't but halfway done! DEF not Catholic. So I mope back to the hotel, disappointed that I couldn't even find the right church to go to while I was here, but press forward. We hit Chinatown, three temples (Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim) and grab some Chicken Rice for lunch on Maxwell Road. We did a little shopping, and then hit the Raffles hotel for a mandatory Singapore Sling.
By then, it's almost 5:30 and we trudge back to the hotel to pick up our stuff and head to the airport. The Changi airport is nice too - lots of shops (where I picked up 1 bag of mint chocolate Hershey's for S$10! - WTF) and then queue to get on the plane back to Hyd.
The flight back was annoying - there was a family of 5 split between two rows, and I had an aisle seat again. I managed to watch the new X-Files movie (it was good), bits of the Dark Knight (I could watch it over and over again) and the first half of Mamma Mia! (which is an injustice to all things ABBA) but all throughout had various members of this family climbing over me to get to the next row over. Everyone on this flight was sick, sneezing and coughing, and of course, not covering their mouths when doing so. Gross.
I experienced rain for the first time in Hyd, and it was POURING! I can't imagine having a rickshaw or bike here during monsoon season! We got back to the hotel dead tired, caught some of The Soup (Talk Soup), which I am glad they have here now and hit my pillow sleeping.
I wish I had more time there, but did see everything I was supposed to (Thanks Patrick!). I would totally go back to see the more 'everyday' things, but we'll leave that for another time. I still have Japan and Australia on my list, so till then, thank you Singapore for bringing my life back in check, and for making me ever more anxious to return to Chicago.
So before I even came to India, I knew I wanted to go to Singapore. India is good in that it is fairly centrally located to other countries in the Asia-Pac region that I want to visit. My original goal was to go over Thanksgiving weekend since I get the days off. However, Sana came and she wanted to go to. So last Sunday, we booked our flights for the upcoming Friday, and off we were!
The trip on the way there was great. I can understand why I paid almost $600 for an economy class flight - tons of leg room, wide selection of meals (if you pre-order them), and the service really is nice. We took a red eye in, leaving at 11:30pm and arriving at 6:30 am (local time). There was no one sitting next to me, and I had an aisle seat (also pre-selected) and even though I couldn't really lay down, I got in a few hours of deep sleep.
We get in, and the MRT system (trains) is awesome - very much like Spain. I learned a good lesson from Kara traveling in Spain and made sure I knew I to get around from the airport to the hotel via train (so much cheaper!) and all the other places that I wanted to visit. We cruise along on the train, taking in what sights we could, and even got to check in early at the hotel. We got a smoking room, but didn't really care since we figured we'd be out most of the day, trying to squeeze in a Singapore experience in two days.
We are dead tired, but shower and decide to head out at around 10am. It started raining, so we took a boat tour around the river to see some of the sights - The Merlion, various hotels, some really cool bridges, ect. The rain stopped, so we sat outside for a bit and then hopped off near one of the Raffles statues in the city.
All the while, I was beginning to feel worse and worse. At first I thought I was just sleepy, or boat sick, but we went to a local spot for lunch, and it hit me. I wasn't quite sure what it was, but my stomach was in knots, and I just felt the need to lie down. I parted ways with Sana and trudged back to hotel, feeling myself dieing along the way. And then it really hit.
Food poisoning. :(
I freaking got food poisoning in Singapore of all places! 4 weeks in India and not one major sickness, and here I am, in paradise, sick as a dog in my hotel room. :( So much for all the plans we had!! I ended up tossing and turning, trying to sleep, with various episodes of ickiness I'll leave you to wonder about. I'm blaming it either on the cheese sandwich I had at D Block or the KFC at the airport - either way, I am staying clear of both forever.
So after laying around for almost 8 hours, trying to recover for "just a bit" more, and a little Starbucks to help along the way, we went to the Night Safari and had a good time. Then we hit Orchard Road to check out the Christmas in the Tropics displays (like the windows at Macy's) and marvelled at all the stores I wouldn't shop at anyway - Louis, Prada, M.A.N.G.O. and yes, even Gap! :P
Sunday I had every intention of waking up early to make up for the almost 8 hours we lost the day before, but I snoozed my wake up call for church, and ended up going to a later mass. I picked St. Andrew's Cathedral since it was the closest one to the hotel. The church is beautiful - white marble, very clean. The mass starts, the organs are playing, the choir is singing, and I'm like "Now this is what I was missing! Organs! Who knew?" I read through the bulletin really quickly, and see something about the Anglican community, and I think "Oh, that's nice - all the churches support each other here".
They start going through all the prayers, and some things are a little different, and I just think, oh well, every church can do things slightly different. And then the sermon starts and I start thinking, "Um, is this a Catholic Church?". The preacher is talking some good stuff about introducing your friends to Christ and such, and then he starts interspersing "Amen" and "Hallelujah" in the middle of his speech and I'm like "NOPE! This is def not a Catholic Church!!!" I try demising a way to leave nicely, and then the preacher asked who in the Church was visiting... I'm not about to lie in a church, during mass, so I get up along with the other visitors and everyone starts clapping and I get a bunch of stuff and now I really feel like a fool.
After about 5 minutes, I suck it up and leave. It was almost an hour after the Mass started, and they weren't but halfway done! DEF not Catholic. So I mope back to the hotel, disappointed that I couldn't even find the right church to go to while I was here, but press forward. We hit Chinatown, three temples (Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim) and grab some Chicken Rice for lunch on Maxwell Road. We did a little shopping, and then hit the Raffles hotel for a mandatory Singapore Sling.
By then, it's almost 5:30 and we trudge back to the hotel to pick up our stuff and head to the airport. The Changi airport is nice too - lots of shops (where I picked up 1 bag of mint chocolate Hershey's for S$10! - WTF) and then queue to get on the plane back to Hyd.
The flight back was annoying - there was a family of 5 split between two rows, and I had an aisle seat again. I managed to watch the new X-Files movie (it was good), bits of the Dark Knight (I could watch it over and over again) and the first half of Mamma Mia! (which is an injustice to all things ABBA) but all throughout had various members of this family climbing over me to get to the next row over. Everyone on this flight was sick, sneezing and coughing, and of course, not covering their mouths when doing so. Gross.
I experienced rain for the first time in Hyd, and it was POURING! I can't imagine having a rickshaw or bike here during monsoon season! We got back to the hotel dead tired, caught some of The Soup (Talk Soup), which I am glad they have here now and hit my pillow sleeping.
I wish I had more time there, but did see everything I was supposed to (Thanks Patrick!). I would totally go back to see the more 'everyday' things, but we'll leave that for another time. I still have Japan and Australia on my list, so till then, thank you Singapore for bringing my life back in check, and for making me ever more anxious to return to Chicago.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Listening Skills
Those who know me well are used to me being very open and honest, and not the type to "beat around the bush".
People here don't listen very well. They just don't. They have their own agenda, and when you say something (repeatedly even), it just doesn't get through to them. We all speak the Queen's English here (and I've even picked up a broken English ala my mom to remove any indistinguishable words or phrases) so I am freaking clear as crystal. But problems prevail anyway.
Example 1# - Getting to Church
Sunday I didn't reserve a driver to go to Mass since in total it's only an hour and a half and you only need a reservation for trips more than two hours. I went to the driver desk and asked for a DT cab - none are there (which was a lie, I saw them leaving the parking lot, but that's a whole other issue here). So I take a hotel cab (that costs triple!) instead.
I tell the driver I am going to St. Alphonus Church in Banjara Hills.
"Eh, what is the street medam??
"I don't know - I'm not from here, but it's in Banjara Hills. You know where this is?"
"Ok, yes medam..... Church? Francis Church?"
"No, St. Alphonus.."
"Francis?"
"NO, AL-PHON-SUS."
"Oh yes, Francis Church - driver knows."
"No, it's not Francis, it's Alphonsus; AL-PHON-SUS, Catholic church in Banjara Hills".
At this point, it's 9:15am and the Mass starts at 9:30. I am getting pissed because these people clearly don't know what I am trying to say. Another driver comes up.
"You are Catholic medam?"
"Yes, Catholic. Do you know this church, Banjara Hills? Alphonsus Church?"
"Oh, yes, yes medam."
He goes to speak to the jerkface I was dealing with before, and they squabble about something, and comes back to me.
"Ok medam, this driver take you to Church".
"OK, thanks".
In the car, driving along. My driver is going really slow, and I know I am going to be late (which irks me). None of the streets have names on them, but I can recognize enough where I am by the stores and advertisements.
The driver turns off a road, and is going down a street, slowly and all I can think is "This guy doesn't know where he is going".
"Eh, medam, you know where church is?"
"No, I don't. I am not from here - I am expecting you to know this place".
"OK, medam."
He pulls up to a driveway, asks the security guard at the gate and comes running back.
"OK medam, here."
"Um, this isn't a church. This is houses."
"Yes, Church."
I get out and look around. This is clearly the wrong place. The guard comes up to me and says "Church, medam?"
"Yes, but is this the back way? I don't know this place."
"Yes medam, behind over there".
I start walking in this complex, and I'm like, WTF, am I coming in from the back way? I walk down to the end, and there is a fence. I turn around pissed as hell, and the guard runs up to me and points to the left.
"Church medam, right there".
I look and I'm like, that is not a church. That is some guy's house.
"Francis Church, medam - right here. You know him medam?"
I run back to the driver, fuming, and tell him to take me beck to the hotel because he took me to the wrong place. Along the way, I see the steeples of the church and tell him to turn. What a coincidence - it was St. Alphonsus....
Example #2 - Shopping
I wear a lot of dark colors with simple patterns. I just like streamlined things that are easy to wash and match with other pieces. I'd say half of my clothes are black, with the rest a mix of dark browns, greens, reds, purples. I hate pink on me (but on other people it can look cute) and I hate lots of design and pattern on things (again, not for me).
I went shopping with some girls from work to a new boutique that opened since I was looking for some Indian style tunics (kortas). At first I am just browsing, and then the shop owner comes in.
"Hi, how are you. What can I help with?"
"hi, good thanks. I am looking for some shirts, tunics."
"Oh, OK. What about this?"
She shows me a dress.
"No, not dress. Shirts, you know? Tunics - like this." (I show her a tunic).
"Oh, yes very pretty".
"Yes, I am looking for this, like, black, red, green - dark".
"OK, what about this". (shows me a orange one)
"Mmm, no, too bright. You know, black, dark".
"OK, what about this". (shows me a pink one with sequins).
"No, not pink. Dark, black, plain"
"OK, what about this". (shows me a white shirt with 3-D black flowers on it).
"Mm, no".
"But it's very pretty"
"Sure, but not for me".
After another 10 minutes of this, Zareen, who was there with me, busted out some loose fabric (dark blue and dark green) and saved me by having some shirts tailor made.
Example #3 - At Work
I asked someone if they could do a hypo calc for me. They said, yes, I can do this. I said, ok - here is the info. 5 minutes later they have a doubt. I come by the desk, and ask them to open the program.
They don't have the program.
THEN WHY DID YOU TELL ME YOU COULD DO THIS?!?!?
People here don't listen very well. They just don't. They have their own agenda, and when you say something (repeatedly even), it just doesn't get through to them. We all speak the Queen's English here (and I've even picked up a broken English ala my mom to remove any indistinguishable words or phrases) so I am freaking clear as crystal. But problems prevail anyway.
Example 1# - Getting to Church
Sunday I didn't reserve a driver to go to Mass since in total it's only an hour and a half and you only need a reservation for trips more than two hours. I went to the driver desk and asked for a DT cab - none are there (which was a lie, I saw them leaving the parking lot, but that's a whole other issue here). So I take a hotel cab (that costs triple!) instead.
I tell the driver I am going to St. Alphonus Church in Banjara Hills.
"Eh, what is the street medam??
"I don't know - I'm not from here, but it's in Banjara Hills. You know where this is?"
"Ok, yes medam..... Church? Francis Church?"
"No, St. Alphonus.."
"Francis?"
"NO, AL-PHON-SUS."
"Oh yes, Francis Church - driver knows."
"No, it's not Francis, it's Alphonsus; AL-PHON-SUS, Catholic church in Banjara Hills".
At this point, it's 9:15am and the Mass starts at 9:30. I am getting pissed because these people clearly don't know what I am trying to say. Another driver comes up.
"You are Catholic medam?"
"Yes, Catholic. Do you know this church, Banjara Hills? Alphonsus Church?"
"Oh, yes, yes medam."
He goes to speak to the jerkface I was dealing with before, and they squabble about something, and comes back to me.
"Ok medam, this driver take you to Church".
"OK, thanks".
In the car, driving along. My driver is going really slow, and I know I am going to be late (which irks me). None of the streets have names on them, but I can recognize enough where I am by the stores and advertisements.
The driver turns off a road, and is going down a street, slowly and all I can think is "This guy doesn't know where he is going".
"Eh, medam, you know where church is?"
"No, I don't. I am not from here - I am expecting you to know this place".
"OK, medam."
He pulls up to a driveway, asks the security guard at the gate and comes running back.
"OK medam, here."
"Um, this isn't a church. This is houses."
"Yes, Church."
I get out and look around. This is clearly the wrong place. The guard comes up to me and says "Church, medam?"
"Yes, but is this the back way? I don't know this place."
"Yes medam, behind over there".
I start walking in this complex, and I'm like, WTF, am I coming in from the back way? I walk down to the end, and there is a fence. I turn around pissed as hell, and the guard runs up to me and points to the left.
"Church medam, right there".
I look and I'm like, that is not a church. That is some guy's house.
"Francis Church, medam - right here. You know him medam?"
I run back to the driver, fuming, and tell him to take me beck to the hotel because he took me to the wrong place. Along the way, I see the steeples of the church and tell him to turn. What a coincidence - it was St. Alphonsus....
Example #2 - Shopping
I wear a lot of dark colors with simple patterns. I just like streamlined things that are easy to wash and match with other pieces. I'd say half of my clothes are black, with the rest a mix of dark browns, greens, reds, purples. I hate pink on me (but on other people it can look cute) and I hate lots of design and pattern on things (again, not for me).
I went shopping with some girls from work to a new boutique that opened since I was looking for some Indian style tunics (kortas). At first I am just browsing, and then the shop owner comes in.
"Hi, how are you. What can I help with?"
"hi, good thanks. I am looking for some shirts, tunics."
"Oh, OK. What about this?"
She shows me a dress.
"No, not dress. Shirts, you know? Tunics - like this." (I show her a tunic).
"Oh, yes very pretty".
"Yes, I am looking for this, like, black, red, green - dark".
"OK, what about this". (shows me a orange one)
"Mmm, no, too bright. You know, black, dark".
"OK, what about this". (shows me a pink one with sequins).
"No, not pink. Dark, black, plain"
"OK, what about this". (shows me a white shirt with 3-D black flowers on it).
"Mm, no".
"But it's very pretty"
"Sure, but not for me".
After another 10 minutes of this, Zareen, who was there with me, busted out some loose fabric (dark blue and dark green) and saved me by having some shirts tailor made.
Example #3 - At Work
I asked someone if they could do a hypo calc for me. They said, yes, I can do this. I said, ok - here is the info. 5 minutes later they have a doubt. I come by the desk, and ask them to open the program.
They don't have the program.
THEN WHY DID YOU TELL ME YOU COULD DO THIS?!?!?
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Week 3
Wow, did week 3 go by in a blur. I can't believe I've already spent three weeks here, hanging out, doing stuff.
So, my return flight home was confirmed Tuesday night, and I'm sure that made my mom happy (even though she would vote Republican if she could). I an eager to see what change will come, knowing full well that it will be a tough battle ahead.
I spend most mornings debating whether or not to work out, whether to eat breakfast or not, whether to watch MTV India or read - really tough decisions here. My snooze button usually wins, I gripe about the weight I'm not losing, and I am totally in love with this song.
Work flies by - training, side trip planning, lots of questions, lots of snacks. I was invited to a wedding, so I went crazy shopping over the weekend with Sana (yay - she's here!) - sarees, bangles, jewels - oh my! We also went to Charminar, where the Belgian King closed it down to the public (jerkface) and by the time it had reopened, we were finished. We checked out the new T.G.I.Fridays and we all had a ridiculous meal. Appetizers, soup, entrees, fab dessert - and I wonder why I'm not losing weight? We also gossipped about rotators and expats, and how some people seem to forget who they are when they come here.
This week is an Exec visit, so I need to be on my best behavior here. :P more training, a big project and side trip to Singapore (YES!) in the works. and of course, more of this malarkey. peace out.
So, my return flight home was confirmed Tuesday night, and I'm sure that made my mom happy (even though she would vote Republican if she could). I an eager to see what change will come, knowing full well that it will be a tough battle ahead.
I spend most mornings debating whether or not to work out, whether to eat breakfast or not, whether to watch MTV India or read - really tough decisions here. My snooze button usually wins, I gripe about the weight I'm not losing, and I am totally in love with this song.
Work flies by - training, side trip planning, lots of questions, lots of snacks. I was invited to a wedding, so I went crazy shopping over the weekend with Sana (yay - she's here!) - sarees, bangles, jewels - oh my! We also went to Charminar, where the Belgian King closed it down to the public (jerkface) and by the time it had reopened, we were finished. We checked out the new T.G.I.Fridays and we all had a ridiculous meal. Appetizers, soup, entrees, fab dessert - and I wonder why I'm not losing weight? We also gossipped about rotators and expats, and how some people seem to forget who they are when they come here.
This week is an Exec visit, so I need to be on my best behavior here. :P more training, a big project and side trip to Singapore (YES!) in the works. and of course, more of this malarkey. peace out.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Things I dig about Hyderabad
As promised.....
1. The currency - I am seriously a millionaire here. When I take cash out and check my balance, it's like Christmas. I could totally retire with the savings I have right now, and not worry about anything at all.
2. The weather - I haven't used a hair dryer since I got here, and I wear sandals everyday to work. Those sweaters I packed - never gonna use them.
3. The importance of family - everyone here seemingly digs their family, and lives with them forever and ever. The stigma of living at home is nonexistent (in fact it's almost mandatory). Everyone has huge families with lots of brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews - maybe I secretly wish I had a bigger family or something...
4. The schedule - we work 2pm - 11pm here, but it works for me since I like getting things done in the AM. I workout almost everyday, read, blog, chill with people at breakfast, maybe hit a shop and then I go to work. Fab!!
5. Meeting people - there is a tight little expat community here, and it's fun to hang out with people from all over the US. Just sharing a drink (or a cab) is fun and you get to learn from each other.
6. The invitations - everyone wants you at their weddings, their homes, to hang with you shopping and share their experience with you. I haven't had professional shots taken of me and I won't be hanging up in some one's living room (poor Katie!) but sometimes it's cool to be the center of attention.
7. Lack of responsibility - I don't cook, clean, grocery shop, drive or have to get my own water.. I'm gonna get spoiled by the time this is over.
8. India Standard Time - I am ahead of most of the foreign offices I work with, and can yell at them in real time.
9. F Cafe, BBQ Nation, Ginger Court - I am blessed to have decent take out options available. Can't say the people 3 years before my time that the luxury!
10. Free time - I am sometimes bored at work. My email is up-to-date like no other. I feel like I am in control of my work life, which I haven't felt in a couple of (gasp) years....
This week: Charminar, sari shopping (got invited to a wedding!!) and maybe a museum or temple....
1. The currency - I am seriously a millionaire here. When I take cash out and check my balance, it's like Christmas. I could totally retire with the savings I have right now, and not worry about anything at all.
2. The weather - I haven't used a hair dryer since I got here, and I wear sandals everyday to work. Those sweaters I packed - never gonna use them.
3. The importance of family - everyone here seemingly digs their family, and lives with them forever and ever. The stigma of living at home is nonexistent (in fact it's almost mandatory). Everyone has huge families with lots of brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews - maybe I secretly wish I had a bigger family or something...
4. The schedule - we work 2pm - 11pm here, but it works for me since I like getting things done in the AM. I workout almost everyday, read, blog, chill with people at breakfast, maybe hit a shop and then I go to work. Fab!!
5. Meeting people - there is a tight little expat community here, and it's fun to hang out with people from all over the US. Just sharing a drink (or a cab) is fun and you get to learn from each other.
6. The invitations - everyone wants you at their weddings, their homes, to hang with you shopping and share their experience with you. I haven't had professional shots taken of me and I won't be hanging up in some one's living room (poor Katie!) but sometimes it's cool to be the center of attention.
7. Lack of responsibility - I don't cook, clean, grocery shop, drive or have to get my own water.. I'm gonna get spoiled by the time this is over.
8. India Standard Time - I am ahead of most of the foreign offices I work with, and can yell at them in real time.
9. F Cafe, BBQ Nation, Ginger Court - I am blessed to have decent take out options available. Can't say the people 3 years before my time that the luxury!
10. Free time - I am sometimes bored at work. My email is up-to-date like no other. I feel like I am in control of my work life, which I haven't felt in a couple of (gasp) years....
This week: Charminar, sari shopping (got invited to a wedding!!) and maybe a museum or temple....
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Things I miss about Chicago
I've only been gone two whole weeks, but I really really really miss the following:
1. Walking - I get driven around everywhere here. I pretty much only get to walk from my hotel room to the lobby, from the car to my cube...
2. Spontaneity - You can't just get up and go somewhere. You have to reserve a driver (and hope that they actually come), make plans, make sure your phone has enough minutes to call in an emergency, blah blah blah.
3. The food - I am all about trying to get to know a culture through their food, but I can only take so much. I was born and raised on pierogi (and man, what I would do for some....). You can't really trust the milk here (lukewarm? no thanks) and the coffee leaves something to be desired.
4. Current U.S. television - I can't use Hulu, iTunes makes you swear the purchase is in the U.S., and YouTube only posts like 5 minutes snippets of current shows. Bollywood movies aren't subtitled, and if you watch HBO too much, you see the same 5 movies everyday. We have tons of extra free time because we aren't cleaning, aren't cooking, aren't doing laundry, so help us, we need sometime to kill the time!
5. The Choir at 11am mass at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel - the Catholic church here is nice, and the choir is 'quaint' but I swear the ensemble at OLMC channels in angels when they sing. I seriously can't wait to go back and hear them.
6. Central Standard Time - Now that daylight savings time is over, we are 11 1/2 hours ahead, which makes it difficult to connect with family while we are both awake. And you Pacific people - I miss you!!!!! Facebook only does so much to help keep in touch.
7. Saturday mornings on NPR - I used to get up around 9:30 on Saturdays, and listen to NPR all day (seriously, until like 7-8 pm). Wait Wait, Sound Opinions, Weekend America, This American Life, A Prairie Home Companion - what a soundtrack to the errands I run on weekly basis!
8. Chicago GES - not that everyone in Hyd isn't awesome, but they don't go drink with me, see concerts with me, have GA nights with me! :/ That, and the free access to pens, paper, scissors, push pins....
9. My friends and family - I know I would get crap for it if I didn't say it! But they know. :)
And not to sound like a whiner, I'll post the things I dig about Hyd tomorrow. :)
1. Walking - I get driven around everywhere here. I pretty much only get to walk from my hotel room to the lobby, from the car to my cube...
2. Spontaneity - You can't just get up and go somewhere. You have to reserve a driver (and hope that they actually come), make plans, make sure your phone has enough minutes to call in an emergency, blah blah blah.
3. The food - I am all about trying to get to know a culture through their food, but I can only take so much. I was born and raised on pierogi (and man, what I would do for some....). You can't really trust the milk here (lukewarm? no thanks) and the coffee leaves something to be desired.
4. Current U.S. television - I can't use Hulu, iTunes makes you swear the purchase is in the U.S., and YouTube only posts like 5 minutes snippets of current shows. Bollywood movies aren't subtitled, and if you watch HBO too much, you see the same 5 movies everyday. We have tons of extra free time because we aren't cleaning, aren't cooking, aren't doing laundry, so help us, we need sometime to kill the time!
5. The Choir at 11am mass at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel - the Catholic church here is nice, and the choir is 'quaint' but I swear the ensemble at OLMC channels in angels when they sing. I seriously can't wait to go back and hear them.
6. Central Standard Time - Now that daylight savings time is over, we are 11 1/2 hours ahead, which makes it difficult to connect with family while we are both awake. And you Pacific people - I miss you!!!!! Facebook only does so much to help keep in touch.
7. Saturday mornings on NPR - I used to get up around 9:30 on Saturdays, and listen to NPR all day (seriously, until like 7-8 pm). Wait Wait, Sound Opinions, Weekend America, This American Life, A Prairie Home Companion - what a soundtrack to the errands I run on weekly basis!
8. Chicago GES - not that everyone in Hyd isn't awesome, but they don't go drink with me, see concerts with me, have GA nights with me! :/ That, and the free access to pens, paper, scissors, push pins....
9. My friends and family - I know I would get crap for it if I didn't say it! But they know. :)
And not to sound like a whiner, I'll post the things I dig about Hyd tomorrow. :)
Thursday, October 30, 2008
An open letter to the Deloitte drivers
Please pass this out amongst yourselves as I'm getting irked by getting asked the same questions every morning.
My name is B. Yes, just B. People in the US have a hard enough time trying to figure out my real name, so I'll give you a break on it.
I am here for 7 weeks. First time in India. First time in Hyderabad. First time for everything here.
No, I don't want to give you my cell phone number.
No, I don't know anyone who needs a driver (I lie, I do, but I'm not helping you)!
No, I don't know what I'm doing this weekend.
No, I don't want to go shopping with you.
I am going to C block. Got it? C BLOCK!!! Stop talking on your phone or trying to hit me up for tips only to then have the nerve to drop me off at the wrong building. Seriously? seriously...
Sincerely,
B
My name is B. Yes, just B. People in the US have a hard enough time trying to figure out my real name, so I'll give you a break on it.
I am here for 7 weeks. First time in India. First time in Hyderabad. First time for everything here.
No, I don't want to give you my cell phone number.
No, I don't know anyone who needs a driver (I lie, I do, but I'm not helping you)!
No, I don't know what I'm doing this weekend.
No, I don't want to go shopping with you.
I am going to C block. Got it? C BLOCK!!! Stop talking on your phone or trying to hit me up for tips only to then have the nerve to drop me off at the wrong building. Seriously? seriously...
Sincerely,
B
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Diwali is the Festival of Lights....
Thank you Adam Sandler....
Anyway, I had the great luck of being in India while a major festival was taking place. Diwali is the Festival of Lights, and there are different stories on the historical significance of the holiday depending on which part of India you are from. Here, if you are Hindu, it's all about the goddess Lakshmi.
I started out the night before with big plan on what to do (our office was closed and I took full advantage of it) including going to some shops, working out and organizing my pictures. I ended up waking up at like 11:30, scrambling at the hotel gift shop to get an "Indian type" shirt, and not getting anything I wanted done. Again, just like being back home!
I was invited to a co-worker's home to celebrate (Rakesh), and the beginning of the trip started with a little confusion since the driver that was supposed to come and drive me never showed up. After many phone calls, I finally got a driver and we headed out to a part of town that I hadn't been in before. Rakesh lives in Secundrabad, which is almost the same distance (at least in minutes) from Chicago to Niles on a good day. I ended up at Rakesh's house a little early, and found that he was actually still out with his wife, Aditi, at some shops. So me and my driver watched some little kids play cricket, and made small talk about family and sports until Rakesh rolled up in his fancy ass Honda (seriously, this car was niiiice comparatively) and we headed out for some more shopping.
So, in terms of holidays, Diwali is a combo of Christmas and 4th of July. The 'light' theme of the holiday has people decorating their home in lights (the Christmas, and let's not forget the heavy advertising for getting Diwali gifts on TV) and tons and tons of firecrackers (the 4th of July). The first stop on our tour was to get some 'crackers' for later that night. Even though it was still daylight out, we were already hearing crackers go off, and everyone was getting jittery and excited about the forthcoming events. Then we headed to a grocery store, and Aditi and Rakesh were getting some things for their puja /offerings later that night.
So we rolled up to Rakesh's home, which is very big (I swear, property in India is the way to go) and chilled, listening to some Hindi music while Rakesh and Aditi were getting ready, which included decorating their home as such:
Again, all about the lights! After they decorated, and cooked up a couple of things, Rakesh and Aditi got ready to perform their puja/offerings to Lakshmi. First, they were rocking some really nice traditional wear (Rakesh and Aditi dress very Western) - Rakesh had a really nice red shirt/pant combo and Aditi had a really nice brown tunic/pant duo and some really nice jewelery on.
For the most part, every Hindu has a prayer corner/mini room for offerings in their home. Even Jill has a really really nice one at her home, with pretty doors leading to it. I don't really know what is involved but there was light again, incense, and cocunut offerings. Then, Rakesh had this huge ball of fire contained in a metal pot and he took the flame into all the parts of their house to offer the light in the whole home.
After the puja, we rolled out to Rakesh's mom's house, which is very close by. I met almost all of Rakesh's brother and sisters and nieces and nephews since they are all in the area. (Aditi's family is in Jaipur, up north near Delhi.) His nieces and nephew are all freaking adorable and the girls were having fun with some sparklers. Rakesh's nephew is 6 months old and really had no idea what was going on, but was smiling the whole time.
We had dinner, and everyone was amazed that I knew what I was eating.... aloo gobi, chickpea masala, mango chutney, paneer..... I compare it to visiting my family in Poland, who always seem amazed that I can still speak Polish and that I like golabki. I blame it all on living in Chicago, and having a wealth of culture and food around me, but yes, I speak Polish, and yes, I love aloo gobi! And dosas and sambar and idly too. :)
I was nearing the time when I told my driver I would be back (actually, I was totally late) so after dinner, they drove me back, and said our goodbyes (sans crackers) and I headed back. I still got my fill of crackers along the way home since everyone and their mother was out, blowing stuff up. My fave one is something like a Sparkler volcano, which spits out tons of little fireballs and I wasn't a big fan of the ones that just made noise (M-80 type deal). One thing that amazed me is that people were out on their motorbikes, whizzing past these crackers like nothing was going one, when at one point my driver stopped to wait for one sparkler volcano to stop. SCARY! and almost no one wears helmets! but that's another blog.... peace out!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Rock the boat
Got back from Kerala yesterday, which is a lovely resort town in Southern India and it was truly amazing. It's shocking how quickly a country can change in the course of a 90 minute flight.
We left Friday from the hotel around 10am and things were trucking along... and then this happened:
The car we were driving in (Michael's, who is a super cool long-term expat here) decided to poop out on us about 6KM away from the airport. It was interesting sitting on the side of the road with people staring, honking and randomly offering assistance. It seems that the fan cut a hole in the radiator, and the air conditioning was making it worse, so Michael and his driver worked their manly magic and got it going long enough to sputter to the airport to drop us off. Even with the delay we managed to get through check in and security in less than 15 minutes. The airport here is brand new, and I find it interesting that men and woman have to be searched separately. Men just walk through a metal detector, but women have to go into a curtained room and get searched with one of those wand things.
The flight to Kerala was a little rough. It's less than 90 minutes really, but my rampant motion sickness plus a great dislike for airplanes still made the flight long... our descent looked something like this:
I'm not sure what happened there in the middle, but I was fairly certain that I wasn't going to be able to make it... but alas, we did, and when we entered the airport in Kochin (near Kerala), I really felt like I was on set at the Darjeeling Limited movie. The terminal is old and quaint. There are only two boarding gates and the times for departure and arrivals are manually changed.... I wish I could have taken pictures!! We walked on the tarmac from the plane to the tiny arrival area (that had Western toilets - thank you Portugal!) and set off to the houseboat.
The houseboat freaking ROCKED.
I think the boat was bigger than all of our apartments back at home - 3 bed, 3 bath, kitchen, dining and rec room. :P The scenery was just amazing, and pictures do not do the area justice. Palm trees, calm water, the breeze and on/off rain storms were simply perfect. We spent the weekend reading, napping, gazing lazily at the surroundings, drinking, doing sing-a-longs with various iPods worth of music and pretty much did a good job of entertaining ourselves. I think the most fun part of the trip was heading out in canoes into some smaller tributaries around the area and checking out the local homes and inhabitants.
Sunday we docked and toured Kochin a bit. Our driver seemed hell bent on taking us to handicraft shops when all we wanted were spices, so he got docked points on that. When we asked to go to a shop that is government regulated, we were told that is was closed. After several phone calls, we found the shop and it was magically open! Who'd a think it.... After more heckling, and lunch breather, we finally found a delightful spice shop on "Jew Street" (for reals). We toured around a bit more, and ended up at the airport 3 HOURS early. Hmph. Well, at least I was able to get into one of my books so that was good. We had a decent flight back and ended the night with room service and passing out at my first attempt at writing this entry. ;)
This week: Diwali, shopping and hopefully some local sightseeing.
We left Friday from the hotel around 10am and things were trucking along... and then this happened:
The car we were driving in (Michael's, who is a super cool long-term expat here) decided to poop out on us about 6KM away from the airport. It was interesting sitting on the side of the road with people staring, honking and randomly offering assistance. It seems that the fan cut a hole in the radiator, and the air conditioning was making it worse, so Michael and his driver worked their manly magic and got it going long enough to sputter to the airport to drop us off. Even with the delay we managed to get through check in and security in less than 15 minutes. The airport here is brand new, and I find it interesting that men and woman have to be searched separately. Men just walk through a metal detector, but women have to go into a curtained room and get searched with one of those wand things.
The flight to Kerala was a little rough. It's less than 90 minutes really, but my rampant motion sickness plus a great dislike for airplanes still made the flight long... our descent looked something like this:
I'm not sure what happened there in the middle, but I was fairly certain that I wasn't going to be able to make it... but alas, we did, and when we entered the airport in Kochin (near Kerala), I really felt like I was on set at the Darjeeling Limited movie. The terminal is old and quaint. There are only two boarding gates and the times for departure and arrivals are manually changed.... I wish I could have taken pictures!! We walked on the tarmac from the plane to the tiny arrival area (that had Western toilets - thank you Portugal!) and set off to the houseboat.
The houseboat freaking ROCKED.
I think the boat was bigger than all of our apartments back at home - 3 bed, 3 bath, kitchen, dining and rec room. :P The scenery was just amazing, and pictures do not do the area justice. Palm trees, calm water, the breeze and on/off rain storms were simply perfect. We spent the weekend reading, napping, gazing lazily at the surroundings, drinking, doing sing-a-longs with various iPods worth of music and pretty much did a good job of entertaining ourselves. I think the most fun part of the trip was heading out in canoes into some smaller tributaries around the area and checking out the local homes and inhabitants.
Sunday we docked and toured Kochin a bit. Our driver seemed hell bent on taking us to handicraft shops when all we wanted were spices, so he got docked points on that. When we asked to go to a shop that is government regulated, we were told that is was closed. After several phone calls, we found the shop and it was magically open! Who'd a think it.... After more heckling, and lunch breather, we finally found a delightful spice shop on "Jew Street" (for reals). We toured around a bit more, and ended up at the airport 3 HOURS early. Hmph. Well, at least I was able to get into one of my books so that was good. We had a decent flight back and ended the night with room service and passing out at my first attempt at writing this entry. ;)
This week: Diwali, shopping and hopefully some local sightseeing.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Rush rush rush
Sorry I haven't been keeping up with the blogging. I had a schedule of blog day and exercise day that got a little messed up thanks to Hotel Bar night....
Anyway, India rocks and I am so excited to be here. Everyone is really super supportive and my first week has really flown by.
Weekdays pretty much consist of waking up, eating breakfast and strolling into work for 11+ hour shifts. There really isn't much else to do except work (at least during the weekdays), so really not a big deal (and not unlike my schedule in Chicago!).
Heading off to Kerala today, so trying to grab a quick breakfast and go get some houseboat action. :)
Pics on Sunday!!
Anyway, India rocks and I am so excited to be here. Everyone is really super supportive and my first week has really flown by.
Weekdays pretty much consist of waking up, eating breakfast and strolling into work for 11+ hour shifts. There really isn't much else to do except work (at least during the weekdays), so really not a big deal (and not unlike my schedule in Chicago!).
Heading off to Kerala today, so trying to grab a quick breakfast and go get some houseboat action. :)
Pics on Sunday!!
Monday, October 20, 2008
Getting into the groove of things....
So, the last two days were sort of a blur, but let's recreate the happenings:
SUNDAY
Sunday started with a group of us heading to church (St. Alphonsus), and it was a little slice of home in India. The Mass was surprisingly close to the pattern of Mass in the US (i <3 standardization), but with a few splashes of Indian culture here and there.... like this:
I need to get a clearer shot, but that's right, that's neon lighting around the cross. That's so.... I dunno! But it's neat. There is also a statue of Mary dressed in a sari that I have to snap for my mom, but there were tons of people around it, and I didn't want to seem tooooo touristy.
After churching, we chilled at Jill's house again for breakfast, and had some tasty iddly (rice flour cakes, really doughy and savory and super delish) and dosa (India's answer to a crepe), with some coconut chutney and tomato based soupy sauce type dish. And fresh squeezed juice, which was also tasty. We chatted a bit, and then Jill drove us back to the hotel.
Now, if you don't know, driving in India is, well, let's just say, a tad bit scary. For one, they drive on the opposite side of the road from the US, and I am still getting used to that. Two, it is very aggressive - there are markers on the road, but they are more suggestions than rules. Three, you are sharing the road with people walking, little motorbikes and electric rickshaws, and near accidents are a constant occurrence. Four, almost all the cars are manual, and at least I know that I would totally burn the motor or gears or whatever you burn when you can't shift correctly.
That being said, Jill gathered enough courage to take out her Scorpio (SUV type vehicle) and brave the road. And can I say, she did an EXCELLENT job. All along the way, people stopped and gawked when they saw a white woman behind the wheel, cranking it down the road, whipping past their rickshaws. It was freaking amazing.
So after the joy ride home, I did a good job of not napping - did some reading, worked out, toyed with the idea of chilling by the pool (but was deterred by the inflatable mini-bouncy house the hotel put up for the kids) and then headed down to dinner.
As I stepped out of the elevator, I was met by 8 woman dressed in uberfancy, sparkly saris. I looked down to my DePaul shirt and jeans and thought "ah, fuck, dresscode?!" Evidently, a Tollywood actor (like Bollywood, but in the local language of Telugu) was having his engagement ceremony at the hotel. Word on the streets is that our hotel is a local favorite for these types of shindigs since we are just outside the city, surrounded by security and not many local people stay here. The lobby was packed with fancy looking people, lots of flashy photography, and me, scuttling away, trying to not be noticed.
After that hoopla, a group of us met at the hotel bar, said our goodbyes to Elena who was leaving, and chilled the rest of the night.
MONDAY
*note - lots of names here, so I won't explain. Deloitter's know, the rest, well.. play along. :)
So Monday was Day 1 at work, and it went by pretty quickly. It was a blur of chocolate, names and faces. I sit by Rebecca, who is actually doing a rotation in Chicago next year, Naresh who works mainly for the Milwaukee office, and Murtuza who works mainly for Minneapolis. Everyone is super nice and I got invited to Rakesh's house next Tuesday for Diwali, a local festival, so I'm super excited.
I'm also found out that I am going to Kerela this weekend - nothing like trips on the fly! Evidently we are going to chill on a houseboat, so I am down for that!
I made it to 11pm, and we left right when everyone else was, so that was good. Thankfully, I can follow my nightly routine of watching 'Sex and the City' before going to bed (last night's episode was Charlotte's engagement party to Trey, so still have a couple seasons to go through), so I should be good until December. All right!
SUNDAY
Sunday started with a group of us heading to church (St. Alphonsus), and it was a little slice of home in India. The Mass was surprisingly close to the pattern of Mass in the US (i <3 standardization), but with a few splashes of Indian culture here and there.... like this:
I need to get a clearer shot, but that's right, that's neon lighting around the cross. That's so.... I dunno! But it's neat. There is also a statue of Mary dressed in a sari that I have to snap for my mom, but there were tons of people around it, and I didn't want to seem tooooo touristy.
After churching, we chilled at Jill's house again for breakfast, and had some tasty iddly (rice flour cakes, really doughy and savory and super delish) and dosa (India's answer to a crepe), with some coconut chutney and tomato based soupy sauce type dish. And fresh squeezed juice, which was also tasty. We chatted a bit, and then Jill drove us back to the hotel.
Now, if you don't know, driving in India is, well, let's just say, a tad bit scary. For one, they drive on the opposite side of the road from the US, and I am still getting used to that. Two, it is very aggressive - there are markers on the road, but they are more suggestions than rules. Three, you are sharing the road with people walking, little motorbikes and electric rickshaws, and near accidents are a constant occurrence. Four, almost all the cars are manual, and at least I know that I would totally burn the motor or gears or whatever you burn when you can't shift correctly.
That being said, Jill gathered enough courage to take out her Scorpio (SUV type vehicle) and brave the road. And can I say, she did an EXCELLENT job. All along the way, people stopped and gawked when they saw a white woman behind the wheel, cranking it down the road, whipping past their rickshaws. It was freaking amazing.
So after the joy ride home, I did a good job of not napping - did some reading, worked out, toyed with the idea of chilling by the pool (but was deterred by the inflatable mini-bouncy house the hotel put up for the kids) and then headed down to dinner.
As I stepped out of the elevator, I was met by 8 woman dressed in uberfancy, sparkly saris. I looked down to my DePaul shirt and jeans and thought "ah, fuck, dresscode?!" Evidently, a Tollywood actor (like Bollywood, but in the local language of Telugu) was having his engagement ceremony at the hotel. Word on the streets is that our hotel is a local favorite for these types of shindigs since we are just outside the city, surrounded by security and not many local people stay here. The lobby was packed with fancy looking people, lots of flashy photography, and me, scuttling away, trying to not be noticed.
After that hoopla, a group of us met at the hotel bar, said our goodbyes to Elena who was leaving, and chilled the rest of the night.
MONDAY
*note - lots of names here, so I won't explain. Deloitter's know, the rest, well.. play along. :)
So Monday was Day 1 at work, and it went by pretty quickly. It was a blur of chocolate, names and faces. I sit by Rebecca, who is actually doing a rotation in Chicago next year, Naresh who works mainly for the Milwaukee office, and Murtuza who works mainly for Minneapolis. Everyone is super nice and I got invited to Rakesh's house next Tuesday for Diwali, a local festival, so I'm super excited.
I'm also found out that I am going to Kerela this weekend - nothing like trips on the fly! Evidently we are going to chill on a houseboat, so I am down for that!
I made it to 11pm, and we left right when everyone else was, so that was good. Thankfully, I can follow my nightly routine of watching 'Sex and the City' before going to bed (last night's episode was Charlotte's engagement party to Trey, so still have a couple seasons to go through), so I should be good until December. All right!
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Day 1
So, Day 1 went by much better than I expected. It's just about 8:30 pm here now, and I am not overly tired or even in the mood for a nap. I don't want to jinx it, and it's probably just that my body hasn't caught up yet, but I was feeling much more tired on Day 1 of Spain than I am right now, so I'll just go with.
I spent much of the morning trying to unpack and decide on how to organize things. The hotel we are put up in is VERY nice - the bed is nice and big, the bathroom is very modern, and I even have a comfy armchair and ottoman to catch up on my reading. The closet space, however, leaves something to be desired. I really want to feel like I am living here, and not just temporarily on assignment, so I took everything out of my suitcases and stored them away. My bathroom looks like an end cap display at a Walgreens with all the body products and medicine i brought, but at least i feel like this is my space now. I even set up a mini book display (in front of the TV no less), so i think I've done a good job of marking my territory.
Then, I ate breakfast with one of the other 'expats', Brian. The food is decent and they have juice, so i'm all good. I will miss milk ( I could eat cereal breakfast, lunch and dinner) but they have good carby muffins and eggs, so I will survive. After more unpacking and bobbling about on the Internet, a whole group of us went out into some markets and drove about the city. I bought two pairs of flip flops for 400 Rupee (about 8 USD) since i totally forgot to bring any here with me. They are cute and I even haggled with the guy to drop the price by 60 Rupee, which I can use to get my eyebrows threaded TWICE here at the hotel's spa. The savings are really incredible.... :P
While we were about shopping, it dawned on me that barely no women work at any of the places we visited today. Almost all the people at the hotel are male, and I found it interesting that even the housekeeping staff are all men. I also find it amusing when a tough Indian man tries to sell me a soft, light pink pashmina. I suppose it's just one of the cultural differences between here and home.
After the shops, we went to the home of a long-term expat here from Chicago (Jill) and hung out a bit. Her house is huge and super nice. She brought over two cats and was telling us the silliness of getting pets over the border, including getting them ok'd with the USDA. Who knew that kitties could be certified?
So now, I am chilling in my hotel room. My room faces the pool and outdoor eating area, and Saturday nights are BBQ nights. The music they are playing is awesome. So far, I've heard Guns 'N' Roses, Bon Jovi (I can NEVER escape that man) and right now Led Zepplin. The tables are lit with these neon lights, and it looks pretty sweet from my room, but my camera won't take a good shot. So instead, I leave you with a shot from the Shilparamam Market. Adios!
I spent much of the morning trying to unpack and decide on how to organize things. The hotel we are put up in is VERY nice - the bed is nice and big, the bathroom is very modern, and I even have a comfy armchair and ottoman to catch up on my reading. The closet space, however, leaves something to be desired. I really want to feel like I am living here, and not just temporarily on assignment, so I took everything out of my suitcases and stored them away. My bathroom looks like an end cap display at a Walgreens with all the body products and medicine i brought, but at least i feel like this is my space now. I even set up a mini book display (in front of the TV no less), so i think I've done a good job of marking my territory.
Then, I ate breakfast with one of the other 'expats', Brian. The food is decent and they have juice, so i'm all good. I will miss milk ( I could eat cereal breakfast, lunch and dinner) but they have good carby muffins and eggs, so I will survive. After more unpacking and bobbling about on the Internet, a whole group of us went out into some markets and drove about the city. I bought two pairs of flip flops for 400 Rupee (about 8 USD) since i totally forgot to bring any here with me. They are cute and I even haggled with the guy to drop the price by 60 Rupee, which I can use to get my eyebrows threaded TWICE here at the hotel's spa. The savings are really incredible.... :P
While we were about shopping, it dawned on me that barely no women work at any of the places we visited today. Almost all the people at the hotel are male, and I found it interesting that even the housekeeping staff are all men. I also find it amusing when a tough Indian man tries to sell me a soft, light pink pashmina. I suppose it's just one of the cultural differences between here and home.
After the shops, we went to the home of a long-term expat here from Chicago (Jill) and hung out a bit. Her house is huge and super nice. She brought over two cats and was telling us the silliness of getting pets over the border, including getting them ok'd with the USDA. Who knew that kitties could be certified?
So now, I am chilling in my hotel room. My room faces the pool and outdoor eating area, and Saturday nights are BBQ nights. The music they are playing is awesome. So far, I've heard Guns 'N' Roses, Bon Jovi (I can NEVER escape that man) and right now Led Zepplin. The tables are lit with these neon lights, and it looks pretty sweet from my room, but my camera won't take a good shot. So instead, I leave you with a shot from the Shilparamam Market. Adios!
Friday, October 17, 2008
Safe and sound!!!
With no concept of time right now... it's 2:30pm Chicago, 1:00am Hyderabad.. it's gonna be a long weekend adjusting! Here we go!!!
Friday, October 3, 2008
Countdown......
Well, hello there!
So, I have less than 14 days left in the States, and the realization of that hit me hard yesterday. 7 weeks is nothing in the course of a lifetime, but it seems that a lot of things are going to be happening in the specific 7 weeks I am gone. A wedding, a major U.S. holiday (the first spent away from family EVER), my birthday, other close friends birthdays, a national election that may determine whether or not I just stay in India, the start of the Christmas season, various work and volunteering events I would have liked to have been at - all sacrificed for this chance to travel halfway around the world and have my life pretty much given over to individuals I have not yet met. I'm a very independent person and I pretty much like to take care of things my way (mmm, control freak). But, I'm confident in the abilities of those taking care of things for me overseas, so I suppose this work trip will also give me a few life lessons along the way (which may secretly be why I really wanted to go anyway).
So now, I'm scrambling to get as many loose ends tied up before I leave and shop and pack and finish projects at home and still hang out and still try to SLEEP (the latter has evaded me as of late), so I'm sure I'll still be scrambling on the morning of 16th when I leave. But my heart is a'pitter-pattering with the anticipation of visiting India and really being immersed in a culture unlike my own. Here's hoping I gain something bigger out of this.....
So, I have less than 14 days left in the States, and the realization of that hit me hard yesterday. 7 weeks is nothing in the course of a lifetime, but it seems that a lot of things are going to be happening in the specific 7 weeks I am gone. A wedding, a major U.S. holiday (the first spent away from family EVER), my birthday, other close friends birthdays, a national election that may determine whether or not I just stay in India, the start of the Christmas season, various work and volunteering events I would have liked to have been at - all sacrificed for this chance to travel halfway around the world and have my life pretty much given over to individuals I have not yet met. I'm a very independent person and I pretty much like to take care of things my way (mmm, control freak). But, I'm confident in the abilities of those taking care of things for me overseas, so I suppose this work trip will also give me a few life lessons along the way (which may secretly be why I really wanted to go anyway).
So now, I'm scrambling to get as many loose ends tied up before I leave and shop and pack and finish projects at home and still hang out and still try to SLEEP (the latter has evaded me as of late), so I'm sure I'll still be scrambling on the morning of 16th when I leave. But my heart is a'pitter-pattering with the anticipation of visiting India and really being immersed in a culture unlike my own. Here's hoping I gain something bigger out of this.....
Thursday, August 28, 2008
And so it begins.....
Ok, since everyone and their mother has a blog, I figured I may as well have one too. This particular blog is for my travel tales while I am in India this fall (ala Jacquelyn).
I leave on October 16th, but have already started getting ready for my trip by getting my immunizations today. Polio, typhoid and Hep A/B. My left arm hurts like hell, but such is the way to avoid getting any harmful waterbourne diseases!
Check in later to my flight date - then (hopefully) daily updates and pictures of my travels in Hyderabad and elsewhere!
peace,
-b-
I leave on October 16th, but have already started getting ready for my trip by getting my immunizations today. Polio, typhoid and Hep A/B. My left arm hurts like hell, but such is the way to avoid getting any harmful waterbourne diseases!
Check in later to my flight date - then (hopefully) daily updates and pictures of my travels in Hyderabad and elsewhere!
peace,
-b-
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