Home Sweet Home!

Hey everybody! I made it home safely on Thursday and even finagled a three seat row to myself for the 15 hour flight from Delhi to New York (so got in a good 9 or 10 hours of sleep). I only had a two hour layover at JFK to get through immigration, pick up my luggage, get through customs, recheck my luggage, change terminals and get to my gate. My heart sank when I entered Immigration and saw at LEAST 1,000 people. I figured there was no way I'd make my flight. But due to my "short" connection they moved me towards the front of the line, so I made it through in 30 or 40 minutes. Unfortunately, I then had to wait another 40 minutes or so for my luggage to show up for me to get through customs. By the time I got to my gate they were already boarding. Unfortunately, my luggage didn't make it, so they put it on the next flight and delivered it to my home that afternoon - which was quite nice/painless.
My largest adjustment (well, other than the time adjustment/jet-lag) has been driving. I hadn't driven in a month, and the two things that struck me here at home were a) how quiet the roads seem here. (I didn't think I'd noticed all the honking in India- maybe I subconsciously tuned it out- but IDifinitely noticed the LACK of honking in Charlotte. It is really nice, but was a little unsettling at first) and b) that everybody seems to stay within the lanes here!!!  If there are lines painted on the road, people seem to stay in them. What an amazing concept!

Ok. I expect this to be my last post. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this trip as much as I did!  Please keep in touch: sheribrillhart@yahoo.com. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays (and New Year) to you! 

Goodbye India. Thanks for a fantastic experience!

I'll be hopping on a plane and heading back to the US in less than five hours. I've had a terrific time here, as I hope you can tell, but I'm ready now and excited to go home. I expect to post a couple of more things once I'm stateside just to wrap up my final thoughts on this entire experience. Talk to you soon from "the other side"!

T minus 36 hours until departure - plus Weddings

I will be leaving India in about 36 hours.  I feel ready to go, but as I explained before I think that's mainly just because that's the plan, so once the departure date started closing in I mentally/emotionally started checking out a bit.  This is not unusual for me when I travel anywhere for more than a couple of weeks.  I've done better than I expected with the crowds, etc here but then again I've been largely sheltered from them > usually just observing from the inside of a car.  But I've hit a point where even that is starting to wear on me.  I have not yet been out at any point in time, whether it was 6am, 10am, 6pm or midnight, where there have not been huge masses of people out and about.  Seeing the poverty in Mumbai sort of "in my face" really wore on me emotionally as well.  I know that it exists everywhere, but it seemed more visible and therefore more prevalent there.

On a lighter and super cool note, I had the awesome opportunity last night to attend part of an Indian wedding.  It was the wedding of a very close family friend of one of my colleagues.  For those of you that don't know, Indian weddings are a BIG deal.... and they don't just occur on weekend nights - they are all throughout the week, especially during this "wedding season".  An ideal night is selected for the couple based on alignment of the stars, or moon, or zodiac signs or something like that.  I haven't quite caught on to that piece yet - but I know there's a method! The weddings often occur in a HUGE (often open) "tent" (think Oktoberfest sized "tent" for those that have been there!) When I arrived, there were approx. 400 or 500 people milling around.  There was food EVERYWHERE.  On one side of the tent were "appetizers" and on the other side was the "dinner" (they opened the dinner/dessert section a bit later than that appetizers section).  Of course I tried 3 to 4 appetizers and was completely full by then so never got to the dinner section, other than to check out it's vast array of options.  The event supposedly started at 8.  I arrived around 10 and the bride and groom were no where to be found.  Around 10:30pm fireworks started going off nearby, which was an indication that the groom was making his way to the tent.  He was seated on "throne" at the end of a procession that included his party dancing constantly with lots of lights and loud music.  I have a very short video (and a number of poor quality pics) so that you can hear the noise from the music and get a feel for the procession.  It took about an hour for him to make it about a city block!  At that point I had to leave, so I never even got to see the bride arrive but I did get a shot of a poster that was up of a picture of the bride and groom together.  The brides father pays for the wedding, and also gives a large sum of cash to the groom/his family, this is essentially his daughter's portion of her inheritance.  So when the father passes on, his "estate" will actually be divided only amongst his sons.  It's traditional to offer the father of the bride an envelope with cash in it, I think between $50 and $100 (which is ends up covering your cost of being there, which is often about $70/person or maybe even more!)  Below, I'll post some pics and that video that I mentioned.  Sorry they are such poor quality - I elected not to take my iPad to the wedding, but I immediately regretted it.  The quality on the iPad is much better than on my phone.  Anyway, I'm also posting a picture of a small container that I received on the flight back from Mumbai that had cashews in it.  Notice what's written on the front - I felt like they'd personalized it for me! :-)

 The groom's party outside proceeding down the street dancing

 That's the groom sitting in his carriage at the end of the procession

 Here's the video just to give you a small/short taste of the loud music of the groom's party

 Just inside the wedding "tent"

 Some of my colleague's relatives in their gorgeous sarees

 A poster of the wedding couple

 This Audi is the wedding gift.  Nice, eh?

 

Pics from Grocery Store and Mumbai

OK folks I'm going to try and upload some pics for you from both the Grocery Store/sweets shop and from Mumbai/Bombay (despite how cramped the grocery store is, look how much shelf space seems to be devoted to "Tang" in the second picture).  

 The round "balls" on the middle shelf are called "Ladoo", and there are many different versions of it (sort of like how you can get all different kinds of donuts!)

 The dish below is known as "Pani Puri".  A spicy liquid (you can ask for it as spicy or non-spicy as you'd like) is poured into the middle before you eat....

 This is the Police HQ.  Notice the beautiful colonial architecture.

 Below is a picture (unfortunately not too close) of some of the Mumbai slums nestled in the middle of the city

 A Mumbai beach

 The Mumbai beach, just a few minutes later as the sun is setting....

Grocery shopping (cont'd), Mumbai and Dabbawalas

Since there is demand for International products as well, the shelves in this small space are packed with things from all over the world. I noticed a 12 or 16 oz bottle of coffee creamer from the US, available in just one flavor, selling for about $12!! And non Indian cheeses selling for $15 for about 8 oz. overall, it was a fascinating experience.

Mumbai:
EARLY the next morning ( the driver picked me up at 5:45am. Thanks largely to my friends in the US that agreed to give me wake up calls around 6:15pm EST I managed to be ready when he got there!) I headed to Mumbai (flight time of 2 hours).  I met with colleagues there for work on Friday then stayed to see a bit of the city on Saturday, getting "home" to Gurgaon late Saturday night.  I mistakenly thought that Mumbai would be a lot like Delhi, but it has a completely different feel. For starters, it's on the water. I can't tell you how ecstatic I was to see a large body of water - that's alway very calming to me. Sadly, Mumbai is even more polluted than Delhi, despite there being more cars in Delhi, so you often couldn't see very far out before the smog blocked the view. Mumbai also has a number of beautiful gardens and palm trees, etc lining the streets. Overall it felt more "green" to me, which was nice. Finally, there is a lot of colonial architecture there that I found very beautiful - the central train station, the police headquarters, a university, etc. I'll try and post pics of all the things I've described in this paragraph when I can. Unfortunately, despite seeing Slumdog Millionaire, I still was not prepared for the masses of makeshift shantytowns everywhere. There is such a stark contrast between the really rich (I passed the 40 story building that serves as the home for one of the worlds richest men) and the really poor, who live under blue tarps held up by wooden poles, scattered anywhere throughout the city. I think I unconsciously turned off my emotions temporarily because I was just overwhelmed and unable to process what I was seeing, because my brain automatically tried to imagine what daily life my look like for the folks living under those tarps. Before this blog site kicks me off again I want to share with you a link that I'd ask you to please check out. It's about the Dabbawala's who are a predominately illiterate and uneducated group of men that perform a service to pick (from a business persons home) their home cooked meal and deliver it to them at the work place. It's a fascinating six sigma business that navigates the complex public transportation system to deliver the meals correctly and on-time with incredible accuracy (an amazing study of six sigma principles carried out by these uneducated individuals with very little use of technology). Here's a Wikipedia link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabbawala.
I have more to say about a few other observations I've made about lifestyles here and the labor market, but I'll address those either later today or tomorrow. I've also been invited to part of an Indian wedding tomorrow night, which I'm super excited about. I think I've mentioned that it's wedding season here. There are a lot of large wedding halls along the major roads and I've heard and experienced that this can lead to HUGE traffic jams as people trying to get to the wedding will eventually just leave their car on the side of the road. It's quite an "Industry" here. 

Grocery shopping

I know I've been out of touch for the last few days so I wanted to take a few minutes to catch you up. But before I jump in I wanted to let you know that although I likely won't be posting any pictures today, I'll try to figure out how to do so over the next couple of days. Worst case scenario I'll post a bunch of pics and videos of some of the scenes I'll be describing to you today once I get home to the US later this week. I've felt a bit handicapped this last week since my computer died and even though I have a loaner it's capabilities are inhibited. I must say that my iPad (which I'm using to write this post) has been a life saver. Thank you, McGladrey, for giving these out to your employees earlier this year - what a difference it's made! It's also what I use to take all of the pics and videos that I post, yet somehow I can't figure out how to upload them directly from the iPad!
Before I forget: as I've glanced back over past blogs I've seen a ton of typos. Sorry about that! Please just mentally spell check as you read - I obviously type too fast sometimes without stopping to re-read.

Grocery shopping:
(note: the blog below cuts off, so I'll continue it on the next one)
One thing that I love to do when visiting another country is wander around the grocery store. It's so interesting to me to see the types of food available, the brands that are popular, and the flavors of things that are available. I'm sure that many of you have heard of the "Big Mac index", which includes comparing the price of a Big Mac in different countries to get a feel for the cost of living differentials. Well, I also believe there's a "Snack food Index" that tells you a whole lot about the flavor preferences of a population. As an example, I've noticed that Lay's potato chips are common here and the flavors that are most prevalent seem to be Masala (mixture of Indian spices), Tomato Ketchup (yup, that's what I said!) and now Sour Cream & Chives is growing in popularity. In other parts of Asia there are a lot of shrimp and/or seafood flavored chips.  Wasabi peanuts seem popular across the board! Looking at this stuff has always been of interest to me, dating back to my teenage years when I first started traveling internationally. But now that I spend a lot of time working with a client that is a snack food manufacturer, it's even more interesting to me.
Anyway, on Thursday night the wife of one of my colleague's was going shopping, and they knew this was of interest to me, so I tagged along. As you can imagine, land/space are at a premium in India. So the grocery store we went to was in an outdoor shopping center that has all kinds of stores and restaurants - an outrageously priced fresh produce only shop, various shoe, clothing and home goods/appliance stores, a newly opened "the Body Shop", bakeries and traditional sweets shops and restaurants of various ethnicities. The grocery store itself was on two stories. There are no carts, only limited baskets. Everything is SO crammed in that there would be no way a cart would fit in there. I would say the width of the aisle was probably the length of my leg (and at 5'7" that's not very long/wide!) There is barely room to move as people are trying to maneuver to get the things they are looking for. I was surprised at all of the options available. Divya explained that there is demand for imports as well as Indian brands, so 

Computers, mornings and home sickness

So, my computer is officially dead. That has thrown a bit of a wrench into my productivity this week. There is a loaner here that I'm using but due to various security protocols that my Firm has in place I can't access a number of things back in the US. So I guess that's just another way to ensure that I'm not "overdoing it" over here.

I have been successful at being able to get up in the mornings and exercise this week. That's a much better start to my day than the past couple of weeks where I'd wake up late still feeling groggy from the over the counter sleep aid I took the night before just to be able to fall asleep at all.... Though I have to admit. I'm VERY nervous about this coming Friday. I have a 7:30am flight out of Delhi to Mumbai. I have been afraid to ask what time I'll have to leave the hotel in order to make that flight!  It's gonna be rough!

While I was writing this the power went out briefly. This reminded me that I don't think I'd mentioned on here that the power goes out anywhere from 3-8 times a day in this city. Most places have their own back-up generators to deal with it, so it's never usually out for more than about 20 seconds as it switches to the generator, but it's a strange sensation nonetheless.

As I write this it's 10am on Wed 12/5 here. I leave at the end of the day one week from today (technically my flight departs at 1:30am next Thursday am/ Wednesday pm).  I'm sure that you can tell from my blog that I'm having a great time and the folks here are taking excellent care of me. But I learned long ago that whenever I'm on a trip that's longer than a week I start to get homesick and feel ready to go home that last week. If the trip is two weeks then with one week left I'll start to want to go home. If the trip was five weeks somehow I'd be fine until the end of week four. So, based on my history, and I can sense it starting now, I'll begin really looking forward to going home over the next few days.

Oh yes. One last interesting tidbit that you might find interesting. I've realized that it's completely normal in the work place over here for folks to speak English to each other rather than Hindi, the National language. At first I thought this was just for my benefit but I've realized that's not the case. It's not uncommon at all to hear Indians speaking English to each other with no foreigners around.

Ok, that's all for now. Have a good day/night!

Adjusting

Well, now that I've been here 2 1/2 weeks I feel like my body is finally settling in and getting adjusted. Better late than never! I seem to be starting to sleep normally without sleep aids (which means that I'm getting tired and falling asleep a little earlier than I had been and therefore waking up a little earlier). This morning I actually woke up feeling well rested 20 minutes before my alarm went off. That NEVER would've happened last week! I've also been able to start working a run (on a treadmill, not outside) into my routine occasionally (I'm sure that's been helping with my sleep).

After I'd written the subject line I stopped and thought about and it made me chuckle. One of my colleagues here explained to me that you'd hear Indians often say "Adjust, adjust". With all of the people here they learn to adjust to accommodate others. That's what happens constantly on the roads - rather than honking because a car might be trying to move into their space, cars/rickshaws and mopeds just move, or adjust, slightly to make room for them. Or if there is a packed bus or rickshaw someone else might just cram on and say "adjust? Adjust?" and next thing you know there's another passenger crammed in like a sardine :-). Anyway, there's a small lesson there for me in learning to be more flexible and adjusting to what life or people throw my way...

The Taj Mahal, "family" and other observations

For those of you that saw my earlier blogs you know that I was a bit overwhelmed earlier this week.  I tried to take things a bit easier the second half of the week and took Friday off to make up, a little bit, for the Thanksgiving weekend/holiday that I missed.  Friday morning a driver arrived at 10 to take me to the town of Agra, home of the Taj Mahal.  The Taj Mahal ("TM" henceforth :-) ) is closed on Fridays so my only task that day was to get to Agra and check into my hotel so that I could go see it "early" Saturday morning.  (I use the term "early" rather loosely because a couple of months ago I would've defined early as 5 or 6 am, but since I've been here, early has shifted to 8 or 9am!  Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things when I get back to the US!).  The trip from Gurgaon to Agra can take anywhere from 3 to 7 hours, depending on the day, time of day, etc.  For us it took 5 1/2 to get there.  That probably sounds long and horribly boring, but I have to admit - it flew by.  I finished a good book that I was reading and then I spent a lot of time just looking out the window and taking it all in.  As I've mentioned before, I could spend all day people watching here because it's so different from what I'm used to.  There are SO many people and they are all just going about their business living life.  I don't feel like I see people looking frazzled and rushing about their day (which is how I envision myself and many others in the US).  Often, they are just sitting around at their vegetable cart or tire shop waiting for what life is going to bring them next.  I wish I could adopt more of that attitude.  It seems like if life doesn't hand me chaos/craziness the peace and quiet will unnerve me and I'll make up my own chaos!  Anyway, I took a ton of short videos and pictures on the way to Agra... all were very typical of the sights on the way there.  I often don't speak in the videos so as not to create any biases but pay attention to some of the following:

• There's a picture of some women on the side of the road in their gorgeous sarees.  As I've mentioned, the women's clothing is just beautiful, EVERYWHERE, along dirt roads, crammed on the back of mopeds or in an auto rickshaw, etc.
• There were a ton of tractors on the "highway", pulling carts full of grain or vegetables, or maybe just by themselves
• There are tire shops EVERYWHERE.  At first I couldn't figure out what was up with all the tire shops, and how they could all stay in business and then I realized, "DUH, Brillhart, there are rickshaws, bikes and cars everywhere and they ALL need tires!"
• Anywhere you go it seems like there is endless unfinished building construction.  I'm not sure if the builders just run out of money, or, if I understood correctly, it seems like builders may start projects illegally and the local gov't may turn a blind eye at first, but once construction is really underway step in and look for bribes to allow the construction to continue... so some builders just walk away

One of thousands of tire "shops"

A number of folks (note the ladies in their sarees...) crammed onto an auto rickshaw

Some older folks crammed on a moped

Some ladies in their sarees

I've also taken some videos during the trip, just trying to capture the typical sights and sounds as you drive through a "town"

And here's one that shows some unfinished construction as well as a makeshift shantytown on the side of the road.  That's the worst "housing" arrangement I've seen since I've been here, but who knows what I haven't seen.

Agra:

I arrived in the town of Agra around 3:30 in the afternoon on Friday.  I was staying at a huge, beautiful hotel (the JayPee Palace Hotel for for those of you that know the area).  When I got there my first impulse was to sign up for Wi-Fi at the hotel so that I could get on-line.  I realized that this constant need to be/feel "connected" had been a bit of my problem earlier in the week, so I decided to stay completely off the grid until I got back to Gurgaon the next day (other than a pre-arranged phone call to catch up with a friend).  It proved to be a good decision > I used that time to read, watch some videos I'd saved on my iPad, think and generally just "veg".  It was surprising to me to realize how almost addicted I am to being "connected" whether it's through e-mail, cell phone, Skype, FaceBook, etc.  What a wake up call!  Where did the days go, thinking back to my time living in Budapest 18 - 20 years ago when I managed just fine with no landline, no cell phone, no internet connection and no FaceBook!  (Though I was thankful that the office had a fax machine so my family could reach me with critical/important news if need be).  I think I'll need to start taking a "technology break" a bit more often. 

I was also surprised to realize Friday evening that all I'd eaten all day was some fruit for breakfast around 9am - yet I  didn't get hungry until about 7pm that night.  I experienced the same thing on Saturday.  As I mentioned before, I don't know if it's the food here or (much more likely) my malaria medication, but something is overloading my system.....So the break from food other than fruit and veggies for two days was a welcome change.  (I'm also thrilled to say that - in accordance with my doctor's orders - yesterday was the first day that I was allowed to exercise again so I got in a short 5km run in they once I got back to my hotel in Gurgaon. I'm hopeful that being able to exercise again will be helpful).

OK, I'll get to the Taj Mahal soon, but there's one last thing "pre-Taj" thing that I wanted to talk about.  I'm not entirely sure, but my guess is that my driver, Manish, that brough me to Agra, after dropping me off at the hotel took the car somewhere more "acceptable" and slept in the car while I slept in the hotel (he wouldn't have been allowed to sleep in the car in the particular hotel I was staying in).  I didn't quite know how to process this information when I first heard it.  It seems absurd.  Yet it's quite normal nnd accepted here. I still don't know how to process it.

Taj Mahal:

Manish picked me up at 9am and we headed to the Taj Mahal.  They say it's absolutely gorgeous during sunrise, so many people try to get there for that.  If I didn't struggle so much to get up every morning (really, how many different things can I reasonably to blame on my "malaria medication"???? Heck, I'm gonna take advantage of it while I can) I probably would've done that too.... but instead, I opted for a 9am pick-up time :-)  Anyway, after we got to the parking area, I didn't know he was going to do this, but Manish went with me to the TM.  First we had to get tickets.  I've heard that they've only charged for admittance for the past 10 years or so.  Entrance for an Indian national is 20 rupees (less than $0.50) and Entrance for a foreign national was 750 rupees ($15).  With the $15 you get a bottle of water, shoe covers (you either need to wear the booties, or take your shoes off before entering the TM - all of the marble can get hot in the sun, which is one of the reasons nationals like to go early), and a "tram ride" to get you about 1km closer to the TM.  Manish bought his own booties and tried to tell me to take the tram and that he'd meet me there.  That obviously seemed like a ridiculous idea to me.  After sitting in a car for 5 1/2 hours the day before a walk sounded good.  So we walked.  About 1/4 to 1/2 mile from the TM all vehicles are denied entry so everyone must walk from that point.  Once we got inside the "gate" there were often signs showing that "regular" ticket holders were to go one way and "high value" ticket holders were to go another.  It really made me a little uncomfortable and  left a bad taste in my mouth.  Here's an example:

Anyway, by way of brief history, for those that don't know (I didn't....) the Taj Mahal is a mausoleum to memorialize "Mumtaz Mahal" (the nickname for the third and favorite wife of Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor.  Mumtaz Mahal means "Jewel of the Palace" and she died giving birth to their thirteenth or fourteenth (I've read differing accounts) child.  Legend has it that she asked the Shah to build her a monument so beautiful that the world would never forget their love.  It took 20,000 laborers  17 years to build the marble monument.  It's absolutely beautiful and completely symmetrical, other than the Shah's tomb.  (His wife's tomb is in the exact center of the inner chamber, which is smaller than I anticipated - it seemed to me to be just smaller than the size of a little league baseball diamond, and his is next to it. Though actually, they are both buried in a crypt below those structures that appear to be tombs).  The whole place, the gardens outside, the entrance the outside of the actual Taj - with the various flower carvings (flowers were believed to symbolize paradise on earth) and calligraphy (see pics below), and the inside of the monument are all just breathtaking.  I'm sure that my pictures don't capture it, but I tried!  Please see below:

The picture of above is the Taj Mahal from the front (you can tell by the tree leading up to it. Now here's one from the side, which will look amazingly similar!

I tried to get some close-ups of the beautiful detail on the outside of the structure:

This is some of the calligraphy, and below are some of the flowers:

Here's a video of the inside of the Taj.  I know it's not great quality, but I wanted to give you some sense of the size:

Heading "home":

After visiting the Taj Mahal Manish and I headed back to Gurgaon.  It's funny, I've only been here 2.5 weeks, but I'm make my hotel room here in the Courtyard Marriott in Gurgaon my home away from home.  I actually missed it when I was in Agra and I'm sure I'll miss it this coming week when I spend Friday night in Mumbai (I'll be working there on Friday).  When I went down to the restaurant to grab some soup and grilled vegetables (in various forms) for dinner, one of the guys that worked there was walking by, saw me, stopped and said "Hi.  It's good to see you.  How are you?  I didn't see you a breakfast this morning?"  I told him that I'd spent the night in Agra.  He asked which hotel and when I told him he said "Oh, that's a very nice hotel!"  I agreed, but explained that I really just missed it here.  He smiled and said "Of course you did, you are like part of our family now.  We know you, you know us, we know what you like, your preferences.  You are a part of us."  It's true.  It made me think back to the job I had years ago in Pittsburgh where I would often travel overseas for 3-5 weeks at a time.  Without fail there were always one or two people that worked either at the hotel or at a restaurant that I frequented that I'd connect to, that somehow made me feel at home - at what an amazing feeling that is.... In Glenelg (Adelaide) Australia it was the lade that made my to go latte each morning, in Buenos Aires, it was "Luz" who brought me my room service breakfast - and would let me know if my co-worker (who wasn't always the most responsible) was up yet or if he needed some "nudging", in Brazil it was a bartender who taught me how to make an authentic Brazilian Caipirinha (and who is still a friend of mine today, probably reading this blog).  I know that I often underestimate the difference that a sincere smile and a kind, genuine word can make.  I was telling a friend of mine about this a week or two ago:  I hope that I can manage to take a little more of that home with me > to get less stressed about getting done all of the work or other things I feel pressure to accomplish and take more time to just slow down, smile more, show a genuine interest in people and just be a little bit kinder.  When I get stressed or frazzled, those are the first things that go out the window.  I hope and pray I can learn for them to be so much more a part of me that they are not easily shaken.

OK, I'm sure I had more observations, but that's all that I can muster up for now.  Besides, I'm sure you are tired of reading this novel!

 I know that for many of you the comment section of the blog page does not work for some reason.  Always feel free to e-mail me (at whatever e-mail address of mine you have) or message me on Facebook if we're connected there.

All the best! 

Sheri

Food, food and more food

I have quite a treat for you all today. The team that is doing some work for me here invited me to share their lunch with them. I've been told that Indians learn from a very young age at school to share most things, and at least when it comes to food I have found this to be true for sure.  I'm attaching a short video and snapshot of my lunch, which included paratha, and then various combinations of veggies and spices. The new thing for me was trying curd.  Not sure I'd choose it on my own but it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be :-)

And here's my plate.....

Then, not too long after that another co-worker stopped by to see what I was doing for lunch. After I told him I'd already eaten he said he was going out to the street vendor on the corner to get noodles. Well, I decided that I had to go with him to get a video of the vendor and the noodle (and paratha) making process. Turns out the noodles are just Ramen noodles (the brand is "Maggi" for those who know it) with an Indian spice packet. Then they throw in veggies or egg or both depending on what you order. I'll include a pic of the final product. Bon Appetit!

The video below is the guys cooking the parathas.  To his right is the guy boiling the ramen noodles and the stir-frying veggies for it with spices in a wok.  Unfortunately,  I didn't get a good shot of the noodle guy...

And here's the noodles that were end result of what we bought at the vendor...

Tomorrow I head to Agra, town of the Taj Mahal.  I'll visit the Taj early Saturday morning (I've heard it preferable since you have to take your shoes off and the marble gets quite hot as the day goes on) so hope to have a good update for you after that!

Quick update and pics from lunch

Wanted to send a quick note (it's 5:30 pm here) that today seems to be doing much better.... so hopefully I can start/keep managing my schedule and priorities more pro-actively to not work myself up into a stressed out tizzy!  Anyway, there seems to be interest in what I eat over here, so here are a few more pics from lunch.  We always start with watered down buttermilk (yup, that's what I said!) with some herbs in it.  My colleagues drink it like a shot, but I have to take smaller sips.  It's supposedly good for digestion.  You know, "when in Rome....".  Then, I have a pic of what my colleague Rohit ate.  I had it the other day. No idea what it's called, but you get a bunch of bowls of various dips, stews and soupy-type things then a few different kinds of bread/crunchy bread/rice that you use for dipping.  I seriously don't know what I'm eating half the time!  Then I have a pic of the two dosas that another colleague and I split/shared today.  One was filled with spicy potatoes and the other with various vegetables (cauliflower, beans, carrots, etc).  It was the first time the restaurant had this "Veg Dosa" (things are often just referred to here as "Veg" (for "vegetarian") or "Non-Veg" (for meat) and it was delicious.  You can see my colleagues hand in the background as he's dipping the dosa to get ready to eat it.
OK, I'm off to try and be productive again.  Have a good morning/day/evening!

The potato dosa (front) and "veg" dosa (rear, being dipped)

Here's the watered down buttermilk (it comes free with lunch, but if you want thicker stuff you can pay for it)

Rohit's lunch with the bready things, rice, dips, etc

Hitting a wall....

The past two evenings here have been the most difficult by far.  Monday evening I knew I was struggling and a bit frustrated but it took me until last night (Tuesday evening), when I was quite frustrated and tired, to really figure out why.  My first work week here was the week of Thanksgiving in the US, so communication (from a work perspective) was rather light, but then everyone came back to work this past Monday all refreshed.  I, on the other hand, worked Thursday (really, I only worked a few hours, went to Kingdom of Dreams for 4 or 5 hours, then went back to the hotel and worked more, so it wasn't quite a full work day) and Friday, and also all day Sunday to get/stay caught up.  So I started Monday rather tired, worked on "India" work at the office all day Monday, then as I was getting ready to leave there, e-mails started coming in from the US and I had a number of phone calls (that I'd set up!  What was I thinking!) that kept me on the phone or otherwise working until about 11pm.  Same thing happened yesterday until I finally cut it off at 10pm because I hadn't even had a chance yet to eat dinner at that point.  So, needless to say, I'm working through how to better manage and prioritize my schedule so that I don't burn out, because that doesn't do me, or anyone else, any good.  I'll fill you in later this week on how I've done in that regard!

Food and other misc.

I was thankful to have slept soundly through the night last night with no hallucinations (well, OK, when I woke up this morning there was a split second where I hallucinated that there was giant spider on my bed > but I got past that pretty quickly). 

During my first week in India I would try a little bit of everything at breakfast, but I've determined that I was just eating too much!  The malaria medication seems to have decreased my appetite and when I'd override it and just eat what I considered a normal amount, I'd feel stuffed (and therefore tired) all day.  So I've adjusted my regime so that for breakfast I only eat fruit, and maybe a little muesli in the morning (along with my "South Indian Coffee" which I think is just normal filtered coffee with milk, but it tastes much better than the weak stuff you get if you order just "coffee"), then for lunch a few days a week I'd just have fruit and a "Lara bar" (a sort of power bar made with just dates and nuts > I brought a pile of them from the US) for lunch, and then a "normal" dinner at the hotel.  This has been working well the last few days.  On days when I'm a bit hungrier, I'll eat lunch with co-workers.  We either go to the restaurant upstairs or we send the office boy out to pick up food for us from the street vendor.  Yes, I said "office boy" and yes, I also said that I'm eating from a street vendor (I have antibiotics with me in case that doesn't work out too well for my digestive system and I end up with the runs....).  The responsibilities of the "office boy"  (I know, it sounds terrible and doesn't feel right/great to me either, but it's completely normal here.... ) include: opening the office in the morning, making sure all guests sign in and out, making sure that whoever needs/wants it (like me!) always has bottled water, bringing us coffee in the morning and afternoon, cleaning the kitchen after everyone has lunch, being last to leave and locking up, and then any other tasks anyone asks of him, such as: washing and cutting up fruit brought for lunch, or going out to pick up whatever anyone wants for lunch. 
Today my co-worker and I had "paratha" for lunch.  It's similar to Naan, for those of you that know that delicous flat-bread you get at a typical Indian restaurant.  The only difference I've been able to figure out between the two is that Naan is made with white flour and Paratha with whole-wheat flour.  You can have them plain, or get them stuffed.  For lunch we got two Paratha's > one stuffed with cauliflower and one stuffed with potato, and then split them.  You can use them to dip into other "saucy" dishes with beans or cheese (paneer), but that's when I find I get over-the-top stuffed.  So today we just put a little butter on them, ripped them up and ate them.  Delicious!
I have not been comfortable eating raw vegetables here (and I'm a HUGE salad/raw vegetable eater at home, so that's been a big adjustment), so I try to get cooked veggies in my system wherever/whenever I can.  It hasn't been hard because they seem to be available all day long.  It's not unusual for me at breakfast, along with my fruit and cereal (or whatever else I might eat if I'm splurging) to decide to also throw in a side of roasted pumpkin or sauteed zucchini. Seems weird, I know, but I don't care as long as I'm getting some veggies in my system!
I'll attach a picture of my lunch.  I'll also try to attach at least one of the videos that didn't upload the other day.
Talk to you all again soon.
Sheri

Here's a video of the auto rickshaw ride last week to the Kingdom of Dreams.  I can't stop being fascinated by riding on the roads here...

Malaria Meds and videos

So, after sleeping really poorly about every other night for the past 5 or 7 days I realized that rather than it being due to jet-lag I think it's a side effect of the malaria medication I'm taking.  I'm on Malarone, which typically has the least side effects, but it is different person by person.  Last night I am sure I never slept more than an hour at a time and when I was awake I was somewhat paranoid and my skin felt very itchy (as if mosquitos were biting me - imagine that!  Of course there didn't appear to be any mosquitos in the room but I was forever scratching at my skin, and tossing and turning in bed).  Oh well.  At this point all I'm going to do is hope it gets better.  If it doesn't I'll have to make the decision of whether to keep taking it or not (though I'm pretty committed to continuing to take it, esp with a four day trip to Mumbai coming up next week....)

I'm experimenting with the best way to upload videos.  Not sure why it's so difficult, but I do know that while over here, I can't seem to watch any of CNN's US videos, but can watch the videos from their International version, so I'm assuming whatever is driving that is part of the difficulty I'm having uploading videos from here that those of you outside of India/Asia can view......

Gotta run.  Have a great end of the weekend and/or start to the week!

Sheri

Kingdom of Dreams, Delhi, Weddings, etc

I've had the chance to get out and about over the last few days and have so many things rattling around in my head that I want to share with you all.  I hope I can both remember and adequately express them all.  Also, it appears that the video didn't properly upload and post last time so I'll try again today.  (No promises though....).
As mentioned, I went to Kingdom of Dreams on Thursday afternoon.  (The picture of me on a camel is just outside of it.)  Inside, there were two main components: An area that I'll refer to as the "mini Indian Epcot Center", which has food and shopping from all of the major areas of India, and then the theater, which houses two large productions.  The Epcot center area was awesome.  Since I won't have time while here to visit all of the areas of India that I'd like, at least I was able to see some of the food and typical products, and my colleague was able to tell me about some of the primary characteristics of each area.  We ended up eating some delicious Punjabi food, which is from northern India.  Ironically, I am in Gurgaon, just outside of Delhi, which is also northern India, yet I find myself eating a lot more Southern Indian food, both in the hotel and in the restaurant at the office.  My colleague theorized, and it seemed reasonable to me, that since everybody here eats Northern Indian food at home, when they go out they want something different.  While at the Kingdom of Dreams we also saw a show called Zangoora.  I can only describe it as a mix between Cirque du Soleil and a Bollywood movie.  There was constant singing, dancing, costume changes and performers flying all over the theater (for those of you that have seen Spideman on Broadway - this show gave them a run for their money as far as the flying around the theater aspect and spraying the audience with things...)  I loved it!  The costumes were expecially fascinating to me.  One of my favorite parts about India is the beauty of the women's clothing.  The Sarees, scarves, etc are so vibrant and just fascinating to look at.  I could sit and people watch all day.....

That brings me to my next point.  Yesterday I was out an about in Delhi.  A driver picked me up at the hotel and we met up with a colleague who took me shopping in a large outdoor market (Dilli Haat > you can google it for good pictures), then to some local monuments (India Gate, Parliament, the President's house, a beautiful Hindu Temple) then on to a yummy lunch.  While all of those were very interesting, I really loved the time that I was just sitting on the car seeing the different neighborhoods of Delhi.  The streets of Delhi seemed to be a bit more organized than the streets of Gurgaon, and I have to admit - I missed the chaos!  Now, if I was the one driving, that would be a different story > I'd have a heart attack from the stress, regardless of the location, but as a passenger, I love riding in the midst of it. 

I regret not getting some better pictures to share, but most of the interesting moments would come and pass too quickly for me to capture it.  I can't tell you how many times I tries to snap a picture of a family on a moped/small motorcycle.  Usually a male would be driving, then a female sitting side-saddle on back, often in her saree, looking quite relaxed/comfortable.  Then their might be a small child wedged between them and even a baby in her arms.  It was amazing how comfortable they'd look crammed on that tiny motorized bike in the midst of chaotic traffic.

There was one neighborhood in particular that was extremely interesting to me.  I would have loved to snap some pictures, but it felt invasive, as if I were gawking, so I just tried to imprint the memory in my brain.  Along this one street, right on the side of the street were a number of street vendors selling off of carts.  It looked like they were mostly selling vegetables.  All of a sudden next to a cart there's be a large pile of trash with cows and dogs grazing in it (cows are sacred in this society, so you often see them just wandering around).  Then there'd be an empty cart with a stray dog sleeping on it (I've seen a number of dogs, but I think they're mostly strays.  I'm not sure who really has the room or money to keep them as pets). Then behind the carts was a row of two story buildings that were really pretty, each one painted in a different pastel color.  There were makeshift ladders going from the ground up to the second floor.  On the second floor were one-room "houses", where I'm quite sure entire families lived.  I saw a teenage boy scrambling up one ladder and an old lady in a beautiful saree walking around on the second floor of another building.  Picturing that older lady just trying to get up and down that rickety ladder pained me...., but the concept of folks with very little making the best of it was a really beautiful picture.

I think it might be wedding season over here right now.  Driving around yesterday we saw a number of different wedding tents being set up.  I was told that it can take up to a month to set up (at a cost of $10,000 - $20,000 USD!!!).  Then when I got back to my hotel I realized that there was a wedding, or at least a wedding party here.  Looking out my room last night there music, decorations and dancing on the hotel property just in front.  It was really fun.  On the same theme, while we were visiting the Hindu temple my colleague explained that that's a very common place for a potential bride and groom to meet for the first time prior to an arranged marriage.  So he would point out couples to me who were walking around, talking quietly, with the female often looking a bit shy/timid and say "I think that's a couple meeting for the first time"....  Quite different from what we're used to in the US.

The last thing I'll mention before I try to upload a picture or two and that video of my ride to work in the morning is that I'm delighted at what a small world it is.  For those of you that don't know, I taught English for three years in Budapest right after college.  One of my prior students from that time happened to be on a business trip to India this past week and was also staying in Gurgaon, so we got to have dinner together on Friday night!  What fun it was to catch up > even if it did make me feel really old!

Hope everyone's had a restful and enjoyable holiday weekend!

So the camel picture worked, now let me try the video again!!!!  Hmmm.... I can see it, but I don't think you'll be able to see it.  I'm going to send it to my Blog Guru in the US and see if he can properly load it for me instead.....

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I know that we each have much to be thankful for.  I hope you have a great day with family and friends as you consider all your blessings.  I wanted to share with you a quick video I took from the car on my way to work this morning, just to help you visualize what it looks like here.

Talk to you again soon!

P.S. Sorry I'm a little late but I thought I'd posted this yesterday and just now realized that it was still in draft form. 

Follow up to 2008 Mumbai Bombings

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/20/world/asia/india-mumbai-execution/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

I hope the link above works (I'm not sure I copied the entire thing properly), but I just saw on CNN that today India executed the last terrorist associated with the bombings in Mumbai in 2008. The reason this struck me as interesting was because just yesterday I asked Rohit (the General Manager and my colleague here) why all of the security at the hotel (our car is thoroughly searched - trunk opened, dogs sniffing, mirrors under the car before it is allowed on the hotel property each time, and then I must go through a metal detector and my bag through a scanner before I'm allowed in the hotel). He reminded me of the Mumbai bombings and that higher end tourist hotels were one of the targets and said that ever since then it's been like this.

On just as solemn a note, I happened to glance down at the paper while I was typing this and saw an article on the front page that 23 Delhiites die every day due to respiratory ailments from the poor air quality/pollution. That number is double what it was four years ago! 

Wow, I didn't intend this to be a downer of a blog. I was really just trying to share information that I'm seeing and learning that's interesting to me!  I am continuing to have a fantastic time and really adore the folks over here. Happy Thanksgiving!

Taking it all in

I continue to really enjoy my time here in India.  I'm still living a fairly sheltered existance: I eat breakfast at the hotel (they have a fantastic buffet that includes typical Indian, British, European and American breakfast items - and I try them all!), I'm picked up at the hotel for work in the morning (not until 10am, which is an adjustment in itself), dropped off at the office, normally have lunch at the 1 restaurant in the building which specializes in South Indian food (that's always an adventure - I'll start posting pics of a few of my lunches - typically eaten with my hands!) and then dropped off again at the hotel around 7, where I choose one of the two hotel restaurants for dinner.

It sounds pretty simple, but there's still plenty that I see and experience that fascinates me, and that will grow as I get out about more, especially on the weekends.  I'll try to take a video of the trip to the office one morning so that you can see the chaos of the roads, the various rickshaws (there are manual ones - in which the driver is pedaling a bike, and automated ones, where a moped is essentially powering it), the food vendors on the side of the road, and this morning I saw a makeshift "barber shop" on the side of the road - with the guy sitting on a pile of wood and another guy giving him a shave.

Today the head of Consulting for my Firm (Gary Sturisky, for those of you with McGladrey) is visiting.  He's a big supporter of giving folks the opportunity to travel and was one of the key drivers in allowing me this opportunity. I believe he's heading home tonight (well, on a 4am flight!) to try and spend time with his family for Thanksgiving, but it's been great to have him here.  It's a shame he can't stay for tomorrow because a co-worker will be taking me in a rickshaw (one of the automated ones, thankfully) to a huge entertainment venue in the area called "Kingdom of Dreams".  Here's the link if you want to check it out.  http://www.kingdomofdreams.in/  We have tickets to see a show there called "Zangoora", which I've heard is spectacular.  I'm envisioning the Indian version of Cirque du Soleil, but we'll see if I'm right.

Typically when I travel overseas for the first few nights I take an over the counter sleep medication to help me get onto a proper sleep schedule. That seemed to have been working well here and I felt like I was adjusting just find, so last night I decided to not take it and see how I did.  I was fine, until I suddenly woke up around 2:30am.  My iPad was on the bed next to me, so I picked it up to check the time (OK, and to glance at e-mails to make sure there was nothing too pressing).  I picked it up by the case, as I often do, but apparently I hadn't snapped my iPad back in correctly yesterday (after I'd removed the case to take a video) because when I picked it up, the iPad promptly fell out and clocked me on the bridge of my nosing, leaving a small cut and a larger bump.  Ouch!  That was enough to jolt me awake for a while, so it took me a good hour to fall back asleep and my sleep was fairly restless the remainder of the night.  Not that I can really complain - this is where a later start to the work day really comes in handy!

All the reasonably priced hotels at the Taj Mahal were sold out both this Saturday and next Saturday, so it looks like I'll be sight-seeing in Delhi this weekend and then heading to Agra (where the Taj Mahal is) next Friday and visiting the Taj on Saturday, 12/1. Oh my goodness, it just struck me as I wrote the date - how is it possibly almost DECEMBER already.  This year has flown by!

I'll try to start posting a few more interesting pics and/or videos of food, the roads, etc.  Thanks to those of you who've posted comments.  For those of you in the US (or Americans abroad) have a wonderful Thanksgiving and I'll talk to you again soon!
Sheri

First work day

So, I've officially survived my first weekend in India. I didn't do a whole lot other than relax, acclimate to the food and time, catch up a bit on reading, etc. My hotel is on a road that I wouldn't want to be out walking on by myself, and I wasn't yet up for the taxi experience, so I stayed put most of the weekend. I did go out to dinner on Saturday night with Rohit, the General Manager of our office here, and his wife Divia. Together we tentatively planned the rest of my weekends here (and collectively realized that three weekends is really not much time!). I'll spend one weekend in the Delhi area, taking a tour led by one of Divia's friends, visiting another main attraction with one of the guys from the office who just moved back from the US and wants to visit it himself, and then of course - shopping!
The next weekend I'll be arranging a trip from Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon to Agra, home of the Taj Majal. And the third weekend will be spent in Mumbai. My firm has what they call a "Network Firm" in Mumbai and they thought it would be good if I came and trained them on some of the types of project work we might use them to assist with, so I'll head there on Tuesday or Wednesday for work, spend the weekend sightseeing and then head back to Gurgaon for three more days of work before I fly home at the end of the day on Wed December 12th.
Alright, although I've only been in a car here twice so far, they've both been very interesting trips. I feel very confident making the statement that I do not think I'd EVER be able to drive in India. Lines on the road to establish traffic patterns mean absolutely nothing. There could be three lanes painted out, yet five cars (or four cars and a random moped), or even, as I experienced Saturday, a pig with us on the road.
The only "rules" I was able to work out were that:
a) if there's space ahead of you on the road it is yours to either grab or lose to someone (or something) else and
b) just because you are in a space on the road and traffic is moving, doesn't mean you have to be moving. If you are lost, just stop exactly where you are and ask someone (no need to pull to the side), or if your rickshaw needs repair, again, no apparent need to get it off the road before you try and fix it.
OK, the other interesting thing that happened returning from dinner was that we went through a roadblock where they stopped every car and had the driver blow into a breathalyzer on the spot (apparently no concerns about sanitation). Rohit had only had one beer over multiple hours, but that is apparently the limit. Had he had two, I have no idea what would've happened.

I'm going to sign-off now and get ready for my first day of work. I don't start until 10, and then we'll work a little later so that we overlap with the US a bit.

Before I go, I did want to share with you a picture of Gurgaon from outside my 10th story hotel window.  It will probably help you understand why Rohit suggested that I bring an extra inhaler to help me better manage my asthma/lungs... :-(

For those of you on the road early for Thanksgiving, safe travels and have a very wonderful holiday!
Sheri

Made it!

So, I made it safely to Delhi and then on to my hotel in nearby Gurgaon. In fact, despite a late departure from JFK (supposedly because we were waiting for Air Force One to land) we still arrived close to an hour early. I was through immigration, had my luggage, was through customs, found my driver and we were off the airport property all before the flight was even scheduled to land.

As for the flight itself, three things of note happened:
1) I was in the aisle seat in a section with three seats. I was initially very excited because the middle seat next to me was unoccupied & said a silent thank you to my trusty travel angel. However, within about 90 seconds of the doors closing the elderly Indian lady on the other side claimed that middle seat as her own (in addition to her aisle seat). She literally sprawled out across both seats for most of the flight, often nudging into the little space I had left of my own. I let it piss me off for about three minutes but then decided that this older lady  just wanted to try and sleep/relax & being pissed off wasn't going to help.
2) At one point the flight attendant made an announcement saying there was a passenger that needed medical attention and asking any doctors or nurses on board to contact them, or to go to seat 22h. For those of you that know my history you can breathe easy. I was NOT the passenger in 22H :-). For those of you that don't know, I got sick on the plane while flying to Italy in May and they discussed landing the plane and taking me off of it. Anyway, on today's flight, as soon as they made this announcement, a HUGE crowd gathered around the sick person to see what was going on. I felt badly for that ill passenger and was thankful to have been surrounded by discreet passengers (or maybe just to have been too sick  to notice if they were gawking) on my flight in May.
3) Despite Grandma crowding my space I had a number of 1-3 hour periods when I was able to get some shut eye. When I woke up from the last one we were about 90 minutes from landing. While I was asleep that last time a number of the women seemed to transform. When I fell asleep less than 20% of the women were wearing saris or even scarves, and when I woke up that number to seemed to jump to more than 80%. I, on the other hand, just stayed in my stinky t-shirt and sweats....

T-minus 48 (round 2)

OK, so now that we got the dress rehearsal for my departure to India out of the way I'm optimistic that this second time around will become the real deal!  I just got back from my final check-up with my doctor and he has cleared me to head to India, so I'm rebooked for Thursday morning, arriving in India at 3pm on Friday, 12/16.  I feel great and I'm ready and excited to go! 

I am not sure if I had shared this previously that despite my many years of international travel I recently seemed to have lost my expertise in the "art of packing lightly"  (my former colleagues would be so disappointed in me!).  However, the doctor visit did help out a small bit in this regard.  He said it will be many weeks before I should exercise (run in particular, which is my exercise of choice), so I can now unpack many of the excercise clothes that I'd managed to stuff into my suitcase....Now if I could just unload all of the mosquito repellant I'm having to schlep over there I think I could cut the weight of my suitcase in half!  However, we all know now that mosquito repellent is my new best friend and we're going to be attached at the hip from November 16th at 2:59pm (the minute before I get off that plane) until December 13th at 01:35am (yes, my flight home departs at 1:35am!!!).

Hopefully this will be my last entry until I arrive in India.  Talk to y'all soon!  Also, if you haven't noticed, there should now be a link for you to sign-up to receive e-mail notification when I post something, in case this is easier for you.

Take care!
Sheri

Trip slightly delayed :-(

Hey everybody,
I have a disappointing update today. I had a medical issue come up this morning and had to make the difficult decision to postpone my departure until I got that issue taken care of. Things are looking good now and I will rebook my flight either tomorrow or Monday, hopefully departing either Thursday (11/15) or Friday(11/16). Since I was so excited to get over there (and experience the holiday they are celebrating this weekend and Monday/Tuesday) it's certainly disappointing to still be here in the US, but I'm confident I made a wise decision and also strongly believe that things happen for a reason, so I'm just gonna roll with it! Talk to you soon!!!!  Sheri

T minus 48 hours!!!!

Well, I leave for India in just under 48 hours.  I'm finally in that phase where I'm just excited, rather than nervous or stressed! 

• I'm relatively packed (though there will be some more work in that regard either tonight or tomorrow). 
• I have my military grade bug repellent (since my new #1 and #2 enemies are mosquitos and water!)
• I have all the medication I'll need for the trip, including an extra inhaler to help my lungs adjust to the supposed pollution, and my malaria medication.  Taking malaria medication will be a first for me, and I'd historically heard nightmares about it causing bad dreams, hallucinations, etc.  Thankfully, I believe that my prescription is for the stuff with the least known side-effects.  I start it tomorrow > so I guess time will tell!
• I've been practicing a bit with my iPad to make sure I could take videos and post them (OK, so first time around the video ended up upside down, but I'm sure I can figure that out)
• I've also set up a Skype account to hopefully use that for some phone calls back to folks here in the US (or Germany)
• There is a HUGE holiday/festival (Diwali) going on when I arrive (I planned it that way, since I arrive on Sunday afternoon and the office will be closed on Monday/Tuesday, it will give me a couple of days to get acclimated and caught up).  I've been forewarned not to be scared when I get off the plane, because the constant fireworks for the festival will supposedly be VERY loud.  My contact there did not want me to think that it was gun fire and just try to get right back on the plane and go home! :-)
• I'll check in with you all once I arrive safely. 

Talk to y'all soon!

Sheri

Hi.
I'm finally in the stage where I'm super excited to head over to India.  The trip came up so suddenly that at first I was just stressed about all of the details that had to be taken care of in a short amount of time - visa, immunizations, hotel, plane ticket, how to get around in India, setting up the work aspect, learning about the culture, etc.  I've gotten much of that taken care of and in the last week I was able to speak to a couple of colleagues from India in order to get more up to speed on the culture.  As a result I went shopping this weekend and bought some lightweight (modest) clothes (since I learned that I shouldn't wear sleeveless tops or skirts above the knee), comfortable flats to wear both to work and on weekends (since it seems I'll be walking A LOT), and a Fodor's travel guide (I hope to make the most of my weekends and get to various parts of India so that I can learn as much as I can about the culture). 
One of my friends and colleagues that comes from India mentioned to me when he first learned I'd be going to India (thanks Nikhil!) that "It would redefine my definition of crowd".  I thought of that while I was at a mall this weekend to stop in at a Barnes and Noble to buy a travel guide for India.  The crowds at the mall made me ridiculously crazy with their slow pace.  I'm always in a rush.  For no reason other than being on a mission to accomplish my current goal/task for no reason other than moving on to the next one (which might be just going home and hanging out!).  Maybe India will teach me patience and to go with the flow. That seems like a monumental task, but a lesson I would gratefully learn, no matter how painful. I am not a patient person, yet I would love to be one - for the sake of my friends, my family and my colleagues.  If that is the only lesson I take away from this trip, it would be a life-changing one....
I don't know what this trip will bring, but I'm very sure that there are some life changing times ahead of me, and I'm thankful for the opportunity.....  Stay tuned for what I'm learning, or experiencing yet failing miserably to really learn and incorporate into my life.  Time will tell.....
All I know is that right now I have way too many clothes picked out to take, so the next few days will include the "trimming" process.....
Talk to you soon....
Sheri

Welcome to Sheri's India Blog

Hi Everyone!
A friend of mine was gracious enough to set up a blog spot so that I can keep you all posted while I'm in India from 11/11 through 12/12.  This trip came up quite quickly and the following things have transpired over the past two weeks:

• After a whole pile of paperwork, I've obtained my one-year multiple entry work Visa for India,
• My flight is now booked and my hotel room (Courtyard Marriott) is reserved. 
• Last Saturday I got my only outstanding immunization (thank you PPG for taking care of so many of my immunizations during my employment with you - they came in quite handy!).  This last shot kept my shoulder sore for literally three days - what the heck is in that thing? 
• With Malaria and Dengue Fever, both of which are carried by mosquitoes, seriously on the rise in Gurgaon (where I'll be staying, it's just outside of New Delhi) I have purchased what feels like a year's supply of military-grade mosquito repellent (and have my six weeks of malaria medicine, as well as antibiotics in the event that my stomach doesn't agree with the food, in hand!  Don't worry, I'm WELL versed in the knowledge of only drinking bottled water that has not previously been opened)
• I've been able to touch base with my primary contact in India and I know that he and the rest of my colleagues will be taking good care of me.

I'd been wondering how I'd do for five weeks without much mobility (for safety reasons, I likely won't be able to just go out and wander around on my own without a driver or some other known escort.)  The past 24 hours has given me a small glimpse into that.  I'm currently "stranded" in Hanover, PA as Hurricane Sandy is passing through.  The company's office has been closed for the past day and will not re-open until tomorrow, so my team has been stuck in the hotel working for what will end up being 1.5 days.  I'm embarrassed to report that I have not handled it extremely well.  Of course if you'd normally told me I'd get to plant myself in a hotel for a day and half I'd be psyched, thinking it sounds super relaxing!  But the minute you tell me I CAN'T leave, I naturally go stir crazy. 

I'd also been a bit nervous about the frequent power outages that I hear occur in Gurgaon, but I don't think they are long-lasting.  I'm confident they are NOTHING compared to what many of our friends, loved ones and colleagues will be experiencing in the next week (or more) as a result of "Super Storm Sandy".  My heart goes out to you all.  You're troopers!

Once I get over to India, I'll try and post regular updates to let you know the cultural side of what I'm experiencing.  Talk to you soon!
Sheri