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
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
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