An emu farm?

This weekend Liz and I were invited to visit an emu farm, run by one of the students currently in new-hire communication training with another trainer. We were both surprised to hear that there was such a thing in India, so we readily agreed to go...even though we had to leave at 6:30 AM to get there!! (Ugh! I haven't been up that early since I got moved off of the morning shift!) The farm was located about 2 hours away from Chennai, a bit across the boarder in the state of Andhra Pradesh, with only a smallish town nearby. It was a big occasion because it was the second anniversary of the farm and it seems as if they had really done quite a bit with the land in that time. Besides the emus, they also raise turkeys & cows as well as several fields of corn and rice. The place seemed quite scientifically run-we weren't even able to enter the hatchery because it was a sterile environment. [It has to be since the eggs can each run upwards of Rs. 1500 (~US$35)]. We were, however, able to go into the pens and pet the adult birds, which were a bit softer than they looked. After our tour of the farm, they treated us to a nice lunch (Andhra food is generally spicier than that in Tamil Nadu!) and we headed for home to find our own animals crying for dinner. :)

Meow, meow, meow, meow

So in addition to all the Christmas shopping, Liz and I have also acquired some company in our apartment. We have adopted two six-week-old kittens that were birthed on Liz' friend's porch. Pet ownership, especially of cats, does not seem to be very common here in India; although stray animals roam freely in the streets. It some areas, these animals cause big problems. Some celebrity here (Amitabh Bachan?) needs to take up Bob Barker's crusade ("have your pets spayed or neutered") Although, I guess it would have to be "have the strays in front of your gate sterilized!" :)

But I digress. Yes, we now have two lively kittens running around our apartment. We wanted to give them good south Indian names, so we have chosen Lakshmi and Priya. Apparently, this many of our friends are shocked by this-they feel that pets should only have cutesy pet names, not real person names. For the first couple of days, we also referred to Priya as "the noisy one". She was constantly crying from the time we put her in the box to take her to the apartment to the time we let them out in the living room. She hated to be picked up and hated to be put down. It was a long night and it made me repeat my mantra ("this is why I don't want kids") over and over. :) Lakshmi was much more pliant. She reveled in the attention and was calm about being handled. However, after a few days of settling in, it seems as if the personalities have been reversed. Priya still doesn't like to be picked up, but she settles in next to you on the sofa without too much protesting. Lakshmi is now loudly demanding more and more attention, as if she has just now realized that she's not going to get to go back to her mother.

It definitely has brought more life to our apartment...especially the amount of time we have to spend cleaning up the messes!!!! UGH!!!! :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Well, the cyclone seems to have passed us by or petered out somewhere before it hit much land. We all were a bit tense to know whether we would get stuck at work Friday night again, but luckily the rain didn't hit too hard.

Liz and I were quite happy because it meant that we could spend Saturday shopping for Christmas decorations for our apartment. One of our friends lent us an extra tree and we found a Christmas store in Egmore where we could buy trimmings for it. And buy we did! :) We got lights, garland, and ornaments to cover our 5-ish foot tree. Without planning it purposely, we ended up with a patriotic red, blue & white (the lights) tree. Hmm...maybe we are a little homesick!!!! We got stockings, a manger scene that lights up & plays 'silent night' and even mistletoe!!!! Afterwards, we went to dinner at the American diner that opened up recently. Sparky's diner is great-real American food at reasonable prices. I've been there twice now and had a real burger (with no extra spices added) and a meatball sub on homemade Italian bread. MMMMM!!! One of the best parts is the ambiance. It's decorated all over with Christmas lights and Christmas decorations. And they play real, honest-to-goodness Christmas carols the whole time. The owner of the place-an American himself-is even having a special Invitation-only event that we are planning on checking out on Christmas Eve. I never really thought of spending Christmas Eve in a diner, but I am really looking forward to it.

Please Pray!

This is an update that we are still being plagued by rain and flooding in Chennai. On Sunday, our pastor said that if the water rose another 3 feet, even our church building would be in the water. The water in the rivers is so high, officials are worried that any one of the bridges could give way at any time. Crowds were gathering on the bridges just to see the depth and the current in the river.

Not only is it a spectacle, but the flooding has already displaced the many people that lived in huts along the river. Our pastor pointed out that the more the flooding continued, the more money would have to be diverted for flood relief from other civic necessities.

Cyclonic storms are again predicted for the next couple of days, so I'm asking-PLEASE PRAY FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY!

Aloha!

I just got back from my quick trip to Hawaii and I'm feeling great! (Well, except for the jet lag, that is!) I guess a vacation to a tropical paradise is always good for the soul, no matter where you come from! :) I had a wonderful time in Hawaii celebrating the union of my friend Heather to her partner Alexis. They had a beautiful ceremony on the beach and all of the events were full of love from the family and friends surrounding the couple. They both made the guests feel loved and valued as integral parts of their lives. I greatly enjoyed getting to know Alexis' side as well as meeting Heather's friends that I had heard so much about during our time in college.

After the wedding, I was able to meet up with one of my close friends from elementary through high school. She now works as a dolphin trainer at Sea Life Park. I remember her saying that she wanted to work with dolphins from the beginning, so it is pretty exciting to see her now living out that dream! We even got to go "backstage" to meet one of the penguins and one of the dolphins and learn a bit about their training. It was such an awesome experience to be that close to both animals! I managed to survive my 7-hour layover in Singapore Airport, even though almost all of the shops were closed (which may not be a bad thing in terms of my budget!). Luckily I managed to find the movie theater to keep my mind engaged for some time. The trip back to India really reminded me of what I had been missing while I was gone. Indian Airlines has got to be one of the worst airlines ever! Everything about it was bad: the plane itself should probably have been retired at least 5 years ago-I was sitting next to the emergency exit and I could hear it rattle the entire time, the seat covers were all torn and falling off and there was no movie screen at all (for a 4 hour trip.) The food was horrible-completely unrecognizable and tasteless! I didn't know what to say when the steward who collected my tray said, "I hope you enjoyed your meal!" :)

One of the more amusing parts for me was that while we were descending for the landing in Chennai, the Indian passengers were all standing up in the aisles, opening the overhead bins for their carry-on luggage--completely ignoring both the seatbelt sign as well as the instructions from the crew! Then, the two people next to me got up and moved to seats in the front of the plane so that they could be sure to be one of the first ones to get off!

When I got through customs at the airport and was waiting for my luggage, the power went off! Welcome back to India! :)

In Transit

Well, I'm now about halfway through my journey to Hawaii. I'm currently in Nerita (Tokoyo) and I have to occupy the next 6ish hours here. All in all, the flights and transfers have, thankfully, gone smoothly and neither flight has been full. I left Chennai last night (I think!) :) and flew to Singapore via Singapore Airlines. That was a really great flight! I highly recommend Singapore Airlines (for those of you planning on coming to visit me!) ;) The food was good, the on-demand entertainment selection was quite extensive and there seemed to be a good amount of space between the seats-even in economy class. Singapore airport is great too; I'm glad because I have another 6ish hour layover there on the way back. There are plenty of restaurants and even several places to get a dayroom to sleep! One of the great parts is that the internet is free! (Unlike Heathrow, where you have to pay for it!)

Japan Airlines (my second leg-from Singapore to Nerita) is not bad either. There's a little less room between the seats and I don't recommend the Teriyaki eel for lunch. But the hostesses have been very helpful so far. However, Nerita is not an airport that I recommend for an extended layover; there doesn't seem to be many shops or restaurants, but at least the internet is also free here. I may take another trek around the terminal to see if I missed anything in a couple of hours. Or I may try to snag one of the reclining chairs around the corner and catch a few winks!

Speaking of sleep, I'm hoping that this has some coherence because I didn't really sleep much on either flight. But, I did catch up on some chick flicks that I had missed-Must Love Dogs and the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants-and I recommend both, as chick flicks. :)

I have one story for those of you that know me well. You know how I'm fascinated by the way Indians can find out someone's name and instantaneously know what part of the country he's from, what religion he is and what caste he is. Well, on the way here, I sat next to an Indian. When the stewardess came around, I found out his name was Ghosht (or however you spell that!) [Luckily I had just read an article about a Bengali author of the same name!] We chatted a bit, so I asked him if he was from Calcutta and he was. I was pretty excited to have been able to put it all together! :)

Leaving for Hawaii...

But, seriously, I'm glad that I was able to celebrate with Liz before I left. Tomorrow I'm flying off for almost a week in Hawaii to celebrate the wedding of my friend and college roommate, Heather. Tropical Paradise, here I come!!!! Hmmm...I think those words would have more effect if I was coming from a place where it was snowing already (see Sarah's blog) but I'm definitely looking forward to the event as it will be a very non-traditional ceremony. I'm honored to be in the wedding, as we've lived on separate coasts for almost 8 years now.


I'm hoping to be able to update pictures on here while I'm there, so stay tuned. :)

Happy Birthday Liz!

Isn't it great how some people like to stretch their birthday celebrations for more than one day? :) Well, we spent all weekend celebrating Liz' birthday, which is actually today. Saturday, we went out to a lounge in one of the big hotels here, Provogue. It was a fun time-the drinks were good (although a bit pricy) and another friend knew the manager, so they arranged for a cake for us to celebrate. We put out the word and people just kept showing up. The cake was good too-it felt more like an American cake than most of the ones that I've tasted here (Plus, it was chocolate!) Afterwards, we went to an after-party near the beach where the music & dancing were good. Sunday, we got up and went shopping to get Liz a saree to wear to work on Monday. We had a good time picking them out (she got two) and accessorizing them. After dinner, we went back to our apartment so that she could learn how to wrap the saree to wear into work. Let's just say that laughter was filling the apartment at the first couple of trials. :)

A few of us joined together and got a cheesecake and surprised her with it at midnight. It was a good time and such a fun weekend!

Festival season

It's still raining here. I read in the newspaper that the death toll due to the floods is now up to 148 in Tamil Nadu.

But the rains did not dampen the festival spirit that was here last week. Last Tuesday (November 1st) was Diwali (The Festival of Lights) for the Hindus and last Friday (November 4th) was Eid (the end of Ramzan, the month of fasting) for the Muslims, so everyone was experiencing the holdiay spirit. Liz and I celebrated Diwali, since we both had the day off of work. Diwali basically celebrates the triumph of good over evil from a story in (I believe) the Ramayana. It is, most probably, the biggest holiday in India (in some places the celebrations go on for 5 days!) and is compared to Christmas in the West. Most people try to be home to celebrate with their families. They traditionally mark the occasion by doing a pooja and putting on new clothes in the morning. Then, in the evening, lamps are lit along the outside of the home. Here is an explanation from an article my manager sent to us:

Diwali literally means a row of lights, and the main attraction is the candles and lamps, called diyas, that are lit in almost every home after puja (a ceremony where the lamps are made). The lights are meant to welcome Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and prosperity, and to bring joy, mirth and happiness in the new year, which starts the day after Diwali.

Liz and I celebrated by going shopping a few days previous to purchase new clothes to wear (like we needed an reason to shop!) :) We then watched a Tamil movie (Thirmalia? Something like that...) to feel culturally connected. :) We also took a walk down the street to the local temple to see the activities going on there. We came back home and lit lamps along our balcony rail and outside our front door.

The other thing that is done to celebrate Diwali is the bursting of crackers everywhere. It was so loud here for quite a few days! The kids started with pop guns the weekend before. Both the morning before Diwali and the morning of, I was awakened at 6 AM by people setting them off. I managed to sleep in a little bit, intermittently, but, for some reason, my dreams were filled with war images!

And the rains came to Madras...

As you might have heard, Chennai was in the news last week because of the major flooding that occurred here. It had been raining pretty much every day since I got back, so I didn't really realize that it had rained continuously for 24 hours, starting in the afternoon of October 26th. You might be thinking that a country that has monsoons should be prepared for something like this; however, I have been informed that Chennai doesn't actually have a proper monsoon. I actually once heard it described as a "reverse monsoon." The monsoons that hit the western coast of India head northeast across the country, but are driven back by the mountains. This backlash is what hits Chennai.

Normally, there is only moderate rainfall during this time. However, as I mentioned earlier, it had been raining almost every day since October 19th. The drainage here is not equipped to deal with a steady rainfall, which resulted in the flooding of October 27th. The parking lot in my apartment complex was covered with water up to my ankles. The road outside my apartment complex was covered up to my calves. In many other parts of the city, it was even worse. I heard 11 people actually died from stepping on downed power lines throughout the city. Needless to say, the company was unable to get a cab to pick me up for work. [Yes, I was still expected to turn up for work that day. In fact, I later found out that they wanted me to be there to help TRAIN the 90 or so students that actually made it to work then (that's less than half of the normal amount.) As if anyone was thinking about LEARNING in the midst of that! But that's what my boss was more concerned about, rather than the fact that we were facing an emergency situation. (Yes, let's bring in more people that we'll have to transport back, especially since they were unable to get the people that worked the shift that ended at 8:00 AM home until noon.) What a great company I work for!]

I did actually walk down the street in the afternoon to get some lunch, groceries and minutes for my phone. Boy, it was quite an experience-then only shallow part was in the middle of the road, which you had to share with the few cars, autorickshaws & bikes that were out. As you may imagine, I was completely soaked and ready for a nice, warm shower when I got back! :)

Lines/Queues-Part 2

So it has been a whirlwind time since I have been back in Chennai. I have many posts to write, but I'm trying to keep everything in order. Since I have been back, I have been assigned to work the morning shift (UGH!) Most of you can probably imagine how much work I actually get done starting at 8:00 AM. I've discovered this malt beverage called Boost that is helping me get through my mornings, but it was a hard adjustment-particularly since working night would've kept me on a similar schedule from being in the US. :)

But, what I really want to rant about first is my experiences flying back. Not that I want start a huge debate like the last time I brought up a similar topic. When I boarded my first leg of the British Airways flight in Chicago, they began boarding in a nice, organized fashion. First, they boarded people who needed assistance and families with young children. Second, the first class and premier world (or whatever.) Then, they began general boarding starting from the rear of the plane. Very organized. However, when I boarded the flight from London to Chennai, it was quite a different matter. First of all, they stuck us at a gate that was quite far from the main terminal-down a maze of hallways. Also, the PA system didn't work there, so even though they attempted to announce that the plane was delayed, it was ineffective. [I only heard it because I was at the counter verifying my boarding pass.] When the plane did arrive and boarding began, there was absolutely no organization; the British Air staff didn't even try! One woman began only boarding the passengers with small children and then ones who needed more time...but she didn't even say that out loud, just sent people away. The other line just started boarding general boarding, regardless of where your seat was in the plane. It was mass pandemonium-people were just headed en masse up to the ticket counter!

This is the second time similar incidences have occurred while flying to India on British Air. Has British Airways given up on trying to get Indians to board in an orderly fashion? Is this subtle discrimination? Or, is it an example of exemplary customer service in accommodating their Indian customers?

The fun part was, though, watching all of the other foreign tourists get annoyed with the Indians who tried to cut in line at customs. I think I've decided that the customs counter in the Madras airport is the only place where having white skin is not an advantage-the Indians go through much quicker than the foreigners do! (Yes, yes, I know the opposite is true when I hit customs in the US!) :)

I'm back...

Well, I've made it through the mess of airports and have arrived safely back in Chennai. I have many comments to make about the flights, but those will have to wait until I'm in a funnier mood. :) I arrived here about 4:15 in the morning, although it was almost 6:00 before I could make it through customs and collect my baggage to meet my friend outside.

I woke up later in the afternoon and managed to drag myself into work to check email. (Welcome back! The cab was an hour late! :) Some things never change...) There's nothing like sitting in a car decorated with flowers, party decorations and a statue of a cow on the dashboard [The only thing missing is that it wasn't blinking with little lights!] that's hurtling down a dark street (that's more like an alleyway) filled with people, bikes, and other vehicles coming at you from all directions while your driver swerves to avoid the potholes and other road work to welcome you back to India. :) Wow! I've missed this! :)

Reunion

There's nothing like a class reunion to bring out the cattiness and pettiness that you thought you had left behind in high school... :) The reunion was, in a word, disappointing. Before the reunion, we had a pre-party at the house of one of my friends, Noele. Mike, Sarah & I spent about 45 minutes driving up and down Main Street in Greensburg (which, let me tell you, is hardly exciting enough to merit one trip down it) looking for the cross street from the Google directions. We didn't have Noele's phone number to call; the only other person we could call was another out-of-towner, Shannon. We drove out to pick up Shannon at her hotel and used her directions to arrive at Noele's about an hour later than we said we would. :) Later, we discovered that Google was giving us directions to a street that ran parallel to Main St., not perpendicular. *sigh* My only consolation was to imagine how bad the directions would be if Google or Mapquest gave directions in India. :)

The pre-party was a lot of fun. Noele has three adorable kids, skinny and blonde, just like her. In fact, Noele's get-together was a lot more fun than most of the rest of the night-so much so that I propose that from now on all reunion functions should be held at her house. :)

We discovered the most disappointing fact soon after we arrived at the venue for the evening. Only 31 people registered to come to the event! 31! Our graduating class was approximately 300, so that's only 10% that registered. Actually, even less because there were about 6 guest (spouses/S.O.s) that weren't part of our graduating class! The turnout is especially bad since, according to classmates.com, about half of our class still lives in the area. Plus, about 4 people who registered didn't even show up! Can you imagine paying $60 for this thing and not even showing up?

Not that very many people felt that they got their $60 worth anyway. The buffet dinner was okay, but the DJ/host wasn't very good and it was a cash bar (which made very bad bloody marys, by the way!) Most of us skipped out early and went to a local bar (where, we were joking, we would probably see more alumni than at the reunion) where at least the drinks were more reasonably priced. All-in-all, most of us felt we saw most of the people that we wanted to see at Noele's. But would we have all planned to be in town in the same weekend otherwise to do our own thing? Probably not. At least I did get recognition for coming the furthest! My only competition was someone who was working in Norway!

Rochester

So I've managed to drive (safely!) back to Pennsylvania after FREEZING through my trip to Rochester. True to form, the sun managed to stay hidden for pretty much my whole visit there, reminding me (again) why I was so willing to leave for the warm temperatures of Chennai. :)

I was in Rochester to participate in the wedding of my dear friends, Stephen and Malinda. The wedding was very nice-small and intimate-which I think they were going for. Malinda was so calm, none of the detail that didn't go exactly as planned ever seemed to phase her. That's the way I want to be when (if?) I ever get married-full of grace and assurance that no matter what happens, I know I'm marrying a man who will help me get though the times that things don't go exactly as planned.


*Mental notes from the wedding: 1.) Make sure that if you are having the reception at the church that congregation is larger than your guest list because you don't want to have to be out buying flatware at Wal-Mart the night before the wedding. :) 2.) If you care about the bridesmaid's dresses being all the same, make sure that they are all stitched by the same person. Apparently there can be many interpretations to the same pattern. :) 3.) Remember that kids in the wedding party will be cute, but also unpredictable. Even the eldest one might need their hoopskirt tied in the middle of the ceremony. :)














It was great to meet up with people in Rochester again. I met many people and missed many as well. [Sorry guys!] But, I knew that was going to happen. It was hard to see people, get a little bit caught up on the past six months and then have to say good-bye all over again. *sniffle, sniffle*

But, hopefully, the next six months will fly by as well. Liz & I have many trips planned for our remaining time in India, so we have plenty of stuff to look forward to when we get back. Tonight, I'm getting ready for my 10-year high school reunion. Whoa, does that make me feel old! :) I can't wait to see many of my friends who I've only been in touch with through email, but I'm worried about recognizing others there. All I know is I better win the prize for who traveled the furthest to get here (especially since my friends from Guam & Hawaii aren't coming!)

Driving...

I was a little nervous about driving all the way up to Rochester alone, mainly because I've been watching cars drive on the opposite side of the road for six months now. Plus, I did experiment with driving once while I was in India. Actually, driving once while I was in India was one of my goals that I stated when I first got there. But, I did decide that I should wait and observe for at least three months before I attempted such a feat. One of my friends even offered to teach me...but he never came through on that offer!!!!

However, one night when we were leaving Fisherman's Cove another friend (Raghu) decided to let me try to drive his car (and no, this had nothing to do with the re-painting of his hood!). It was around 1 AM and it's a pretty deserted road between Fish Cove and ECR (East Coast Road.) I readily agreed! I was pretty happy because I didn't stall it out at all, even while shifting with the left hand and steering with the right! But I have to admit, the cows by the side of the road were a bit disconcerting!

Anyway, I think that I made the transition to driving in the US okay-the only problem is when I'm on an unlined road, I find myself drifting a bit to the wrong side. Hopefully I can correct that in the time that I'm here. :)

Visiting...

I'm home now...for a quick visit to the US. I arrived here Sunday night, overnighted in NYC and flew to Pittsburgh to meet my parents early Monday morning. Compared to India, NYC (at least around the airport seemed so quiet!!!!) The flight over generally was pretty uneventful, though. After flying Air India for my vacation last December, I'm always amazed when the flights are running on time, but I've had no problems thus far on British Airways. :) I ended up taking Independence Air from JFK through Dulles to Pittsburgh. Man, are they cutting back-they give you NO food on the flight-not even peanuts! *sigh* It was really rough coming from an international flight where they feed you something like every two hours, it feels like. :)

Anyway, I did manage to upload pictures from August and September and post them to my blog. Enjoy!

After staying with my parents for a couple of days (and trying to get on somewhat of a normal sleeping schedule!) I headed to Rochester for my friends' (Stephen & Malinda) wedding. Yep, I'm a bridesmaid...and I'm not thinking about the saying that goes along with that... :) Rochester is COLD right now!!!!!! I miss Chennai...the heat...now I remember what I was so happy to get away from in April! :) But it has been good catching up with people that I've been missing. Unfortunately (in some ways), I'll only be here for about a week, then I'll head back to Pittsburgh for a few days, then back to India!

Bangalore

Liz has been pestering me to visit Bangalore with her for quite some time now, so last weekend we made what I'm sure will be our first of many trips there. :) Bangalore is in the next state over, Karnatika, about a 7 hour drive from Chennai (I think). We ended up taking the bus both there and back. On the trip up, we took a bus run by a private company and on the way back we took one run by the state government of Karnatika. We left at 1:30 in the afternoon on Friday and arrived in Bangalore around 9:30. On the way up, we were treated to a Tamil movie for entertainment. Even though there were no subtitles, I had little trouble following the plot since it was almost an exact copy of the English movie "What about Bob?"

After getting there, we took an auto to Liz' friend's flat, where we were staying. It was quite a treat to find that the auto drivers actually use the meter if you ask them to. We ended up staying up for a while even though we didn't go out because the people on her street were still celebrating Ganesh's birthday by blaring loud music.

Even though they were up late the night before, her neighbors still managed to get up early and again start blasting loud music Saturday morning. We got up too and headed out to Martahalle (I have no idea how to spell that) where all of the outlet stores are. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to spend there as we had dinner plans with Liz' friends from Microsoft. We hoped to go out afterwards (all I've heard is how Bangalore has so much better night life than Chennai) but apparently there is a new police commissioner who has restricted dancing as well as the closing time for the clubs, so we were unable to go anywhere. We ended up hanging out in the room they had booked in the Leela Palace (a luxury hotel there.)

The next morning, we got up and had a fantastic brunch at the Leela Palace. Then, we were off to shop til we dropped in The Forum-the American-style mall there. I loved shopping there! But, after a while, the sheer number of people there got to us a bit. We stopped off to eat and have a drink at the 13th Floor. We stopped and visited another of Liz' friends who recently had a baby and then headed back.

The next morning we woke up and headed back to Chennai. The government-run bus was much nicer than the privately-owned one and a much better value. Unfortunately, they played two Hindi movies that I was not able to follow-one with Salman Khan (not that I minded missing THAT one) and one with a young Amitabh Bachan.

All in all I had a blast! Bangalore is such a nice city to visit-the climate is much more temperate than Chennai; the shopping was great (tho I've heard that I still need to go to Commercial Street!); and it was so relaxing to get away from the stress at work! I wasn't ready to come back!

Trainees

Somewhere along the way (last week) I finished up my second batch of induction trainees and started batch #3. Batch #2 was pretty fun and I liked the fact that there were only 12 of them instead of the usual 20. They all passed and were sent off to Microsoft & Dell. On the last day of class they surprised me by bringing in a cake and a gift-a model of the Taj Mahal. I was so touched!

My new batch runs again from midnight until 8:00 AM. I've decided that I actually like this shift better than the 4:00 PM-midnight shift I was just on. For me, it just interchanges my sleep time with my working times and still leaves me my evenings free to do things. Besides, I enjoy that fact that there are less people around the building and the temperature is usually cooler.

The weird part is that, on this least desirable of shifts, I have representatives from both of my previous batches. The ones I sent to HP from batch #1 are finishing their technical training; the Microsoft contingent from batch #2 are starting their product training and I have batch #3 for communications training. Kind of weird to see them all in juxtaposition.

Anyway, I am looking forward to the trip back home as a break from the teaching schedule. Hopefully my voice will recover during that time-I'm sounding pretty hoarse these days. Any seasoned teachers out there have ideas for recovering that?

I'm coming home!!!!

OK I knew that I got to come home after 6 months, but at first October seemed very far away. Now that I have my return tickets to the US booked it seems much more real! I'll be back in the US on October 2nd (and I have to overnight in NYC!) and then on to Pittsburgh the next morning. I'll head up to Rochester probably on the 6th and stay there for about a week. I then depart again to Chennai on the 17th.

I'm so excited!!! Much more than I thought that I would be! It will be wonderful to sink my teeth into a nice juicy hamburger (yes, Pete, I have tried them here-they're just not the same) covered in ketchup that is vinagary and not sweet! To travel in traffic that is neat and orderly. To have breakfast foods that I'm used to! Aaah, I can't wait... :)

Kanyakumari-Day 2

We actually were able to get ourselves out of bed early enough to see the sunrise this morning (I don't know when the last time I saw 6 AM was!) and boy was it worth it-especially after not being able to see the sunset the night before. Watching the colors change as the sun rose was indescribable.










After heading back to bed for a few more hours of sleep, we headed off for more sightseeing before catching the train back to Chennai. First, we stopped at the Sucheendram temple, dedicated to the blended form of Shiva, Brahma & Vishnu, but unfortunately that part of the temple was closed when we arrived. There is also a huge statue of Hanuman (the monkey god) in the temple as well. This is the first time that I've been to a temple with a statue of Hanuman; I found it interesting that they put a mixture of butter and paneer on the statue's tail because in the Ramayana the demon god Ravana sets Hanuman's tail on fire. The other interesting part was that we arrived at 'bath time' for the statue. There were 5 or 6 priests all involved in the task of washing the statue (which was probably 12 feet tall!)

After the temple, we headed off to Padmanabhapuram Palace, a tribute to the days when this area was part of Kerela. Unfortunately, we arrived during the time it was closed for lunch. Due to time constraints (of our train back to Chennai) and the onset of rain, we had to abandon the plan of seeing inside the palace.






Our last stop was Tripparappu Water falls. Here we found people bathing under the falls, while kids played in a very dirty looking pool nearby. Bathing under the falls would have been a fun experience, but we didn't bring enough clothes to change into. Instead, we visited a rather run-down aquarium that advertised with a huge garish fish outside of it. Inside we were treated to a personalized tour of the aquarium's various inhabitants. Not only did they have fish from all over the world, but they also had quite a few snakes. The 'tour guide', for some reason decided to only pull the poisonous ones out of their cages for closer inspection. Then he offered them to us to hold as well. Somehow I ended up holding a pittu viper (?). Ok, probably not the smartest move to make...but it ended up ok. (I only ended up breaking out in a cold sweat when the snake turned around to get a better look at me!)









Then we hurried back to pick up food and catch the train back to Chennai. As always, the vacation was much too short!!!

Kanyakumari-Day 1

But seriously, all toilet stories aside, the trip to Kanyakumari was WONDERFUL!!! It was so good to get out of Chennai and see a different part of India. (Yes, I know it's still Tamil Nadu, but the landscape was so different!) Seeing the greenery all around made me remember why I told everyone that I wanted to retire to Kerela when I came back from my vacation in December. It's so beautiful!!! (Pictures to follow soon, I promise...)

Upon arrival in Kanyakumari, we hiked to the station (traveling 3rd class does have it's disadvantages-we were in the almost last car!), and headed to check in at our hotel. We had our pick of rooms and after choosing one, we settled in, showered and headed off for a full day of sightseeing. First, we took the ferry to the island temple and statue. I hate to admit, but I was comparing the safety standards of the ferry with those in the US the whole time. The sea was a bit rough that day and they never firmly tied the boat to the dock, hence it tended to drift away from the dock a bit. That didn't seem to bother the staff, they just pulled or pushed you off as quickly as if it had been right up against it. :)









Not only is it the meeting point of the three bodies of water (Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal & Indian Ocean) at the southern tip of India, Kanyakumari apparantly is also quite the pilgramage spot, so we there are a lot of temples and shrines to visit. On the first island there are two-a temple devoted to Lady Kanyakumari, an incarnation of the goddess Parvathi (with what looks like a footprint in the stone) and a shrine dedicated to Swami Vivekananda. On the second island there is a 133-foot-tall statue dedicated to the poet-saint Thiruvalluvar.

We came back to shore, not much more safely, and decided to eat and rest for a bit. Unfortunately, when we set out to see the sunset, we realized that it was too cloudy to see much. However, on the way to sunset point, we passed by the Gandhi Mandapam, where the Mahatma's ashes were kept until they were submerged in the sea.








We also stopped by to visit the shore temple, dedicated to the goddess Parvathi. There is a story that two Americans were saved by rowing to shore by the light shining off of the diamond stud in the statue's nose, however the doors directly to the seashore are now closed. The "vendors" selling oil and other religous items in the temple gave me an interesting perspective on the story of Jesus and the moneychangers in the Bible.

Marking my territory in India

Well, I've successfully made my first railway journey in India. The trip to Kanyakumari was lovely...I will write more about it in an upcoming post...but I figured the train voyage deserved it's own separate posting. :) The trip to Kanyakumari from Chennai is approximately 15 hours. We traveled third class A/C, which means that there were three berths on each side of the compartment and no curtains separating the compartment from the aisle. The trip down wasn't too much of a problem. The train left Chennai at 5:30 PM. The people in our compartment were fine-nothing to complain about. We ordered dinner on the train (tho we had brought plenty of snacks), although train food is not really any better than airplane food...and the coffee is generally pretty bad. :) The amazing part was waking up the next morning seeing a completely different landscape. The scenery was much more lush and tropical. It was beautiful!!!! (Especially when opening the side doors of the train and leaning out...) :)









The trip back was also relatively uneventful. There were two young girls traveling with their father in our compartment. The 9-year-old enjoyed practicing her English (with a few translations by her father) with me; however, when it came time for us to go to bed the younger one, the 4-year-old, did NOT want to sleep at all. For us, it was entertaining...for her father, not so much! :)

The part of both trips that deserves mentioning, however, is the bathrooms. :) You might be thinking that the best thing to do would be to avoid them...but that is virtually impossible on a 15-hour trek. I should insert here the fact that there is no repository for train toilets-you just do your business and it ends up right on the tracks. (As you might imagine, there are many warnings NOT to use the toilets when you are at a station!) On the way down, we were lucky enough to have two 'western' style toilets (bring your own toilet paper). Unfortunately, though, one was dark and Liz realized too late that the drain in the floor was not working properly. EWW! Her pant leg was all wet and we had to devise many creative ways to alleviate the odor that lingered after washing them off... On the way back to Chennai, there was only one 'western' toilet at our end of the car. Once, when it was occupied, I considered using the Indian-style ones, but, as the train began rocking more vigorously, I wasn't sure about maintaining my balance while squatting (and I didn't want a repeat performance of attempting to wash out a my pant leg!). :)

Singleness

So this past weekend my church had a seminar for singles focusing on the topic (you guessed it) "Preparing for Marriage". No, I didn't go. :) But it did get me thinking....

Now, albeit, it was geared more towards the part of the congregation in their early 20s. And here in India, there is still a lot of pressure to be married young (culturally-I know there are exceptions). But still, is it any different in churches in America? Sometimes I feel like churches in American generally don't know what to do with their singles, especially their single females. Especially those of us in our late 20s or older. From my perspective, single males have it easier-they can usually fit in with the men's groups with no problem. But it's difficult for single females to fit in with the normal women's groups-because the topics are often catered to home, marriages or families. And if the church does have a singles program, too often the topics are focused only on preparing for marriage. Even though these programs are usually supposed to encourage the single during this period, it often has the opposite effect making you question yourself more.

What do I think should be done? I don't mind having separate singles events and married couples events within a church, but I don't always want to focus on that status. Can't we focus on being content with our status as it is without having to look at it as preparation for the "next stage" (which may or may not be marriage)? Can't we just work on following God regardless of our marital status?

OK. I'll get off my soapbox now! :)

Updating...

I keep forgetting to write about work on here. (Hmm...maybe that's not a bad thing...) :) Anyway, I have been moved back from the Dell floor to the COL (Center of Learning) where I am now training induction batches full-time. My first batch went from midnight to 8:00 AM. (Can you imagine?) , but that's over now. My trainees all passed their final assessments and I've sent them off to both Dell & HP. Now, I'm with my second batch which is in its second week (out of three). We meet from 4:00 PM to midnight and afterward they will be off to Microsoft and Dell. Training here is (mostly) fun...except when the technology and management doesn't cooperate. :)

Also, I've updated some of my April & May posts with pictures-now that I have regular access to a computer with a CD drive and a connection to the internet. :) Enjoy!

This weekend I'm off to Kanyakumari-this time with CONFIRMED train tickets!!! :)

Influence

Many times when I've felt that things here were out of control, I've found myself resorting to what I'm now calling "the Diva stage." "When exactly will it be finished?"; "How can you assure me that it won't happen again?"; "Why didn't you tell me this in the first place?" are questions that I find myself asking in vain attempts to reassert control over my surroundings. Most of the Indians around me usually tell me to just relax and everything will work out ok.

Therefore, I had to laugh when one of our friends who we hang out with a lot related his story of dealing with the car dealership here. He had given his car to the dealership to repair a dent in his hood. In the process they had to repaint it; however, when he went to pick it up, they had painted it a lighter color than the rest of car. The workmen claimed that there were many shades of 'satin gray'. My friend said, "That's why I gave it to you guys-I wanted it to match exactly. If I had wanted some variation, I would have given it to the shop down the street." They then said that would repaint it. I was so amazed when I heard his reply was, "How are you sure that this time you are going to get the right color of 'satin gray'?" It sounded so much like any phrase that I would have used in that situation. :)

Kidnapping

I was watching the show Six Degrees on Discovery Travel & Living the other day. (We don't have a set-top box, so we only get about 6 English language channels, so there aren't always a lot of choices for programming!) Basically, the host of the show travels to a city and his or her goal is to walk around, meet 6 people there and learn about what they do there. Anyway, this one was set in New York City and the host was (I think) British. One of the people (actually it was a group of people) that he met had a business where people in the city paid him to break into their apartment, kidnap them, and rough them up a bit. People PAY him for this service? It seems like it was a fairly lucrative business-he has several employees to help him undertake his "missions." Does this seem odd to anyone else??????????? One of the "victims" that the host interviewed was saying how a service like this helps people learn to deal with their fears. Talk about niche marketing...

We've got to get out of this place

Since Monday's holiday (India's Independence Day) gave us a three day weekend, we decided we needed to celebrate by traveling somewhere outside of the city. There were two problems with this decision: 1.) we didn't decide to actually start planning anything until Thursday, and 2.) many other people in India shared our same idea...

Our first idea was to go to Kanyakumari, at the southern tip of India. I've heard it is beautiful as you can see the meeting point of the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. The sunrises there are supposed to be magnificent. (Some of my trainees have sent me absolutely gorgeous pictures of it, reinforcing my desire to go.) However, by the time we booked the train tickets (on Thursday to leave Friday evening) , the train was full and we ended up on the waiting list somewhere around numbers 12 & 13. (I thought Indians didn't like to plan things???) :) We went to the station Friday evening and waited to see if we would get on...our numbers kept jumping up on the list-11 & 12...then all the way to 2 & 3...but, unfortunately, that's as far as we got. We didn't get on the train. :( :( :(

So, disappointed, we came home and began to consider our other options. We decided that it would be fun to go to Pondicherry with a couple of our friends. We started calling around to find a hotel...we made many calls, but all the hotels in Pondicherry are booked-WHAT? Not only was it a holiday weekend, but it was also the birthday of one of the founders of the ashram. WHAT LUCK! *sigh*

We all decided to stay in Chennai for the night and try to come up with something to do for the weekend. No good ideas, though. By Saturday evening, however, Liz & I were desperate to get out of the city-ANYWHERE out of the city for a change of pace. One of our friends said that we should head to Pondicherry anyway-if we were there in person, they wouldn't turn us away. We decided to head out, even though it was already 8:00 PM. We stopped at several hotels along ECR (East Coast Road) to inquire about rooms, but they were all booked.


This was a sign to us that we were not going to get a room here-there were already people sleeping in the reception area! :)





We eventually ended up in Mahabalipuram where we found a guest house with one A/C room and one non-A/C room. With the permission of the owner, we moved the beds from the non-A/C room into the A/C room and all piled in. (It was a bit cozy, but at least we were all able to sleep without sweating!)


We dragged ourselves out of bed the next morning...but Liz and I discovered that we were going to need to make several stops to the bathrooms throughout the day. After breakfast (which is hard to find after noon) we headed on our way for Pondicherry. We again stopped by several hotels and resorts along the way, but again they were all booked. We even stopped by Auroville to see if any of their guest houses were free. After driving around in search of many different people, we were told that they were all full-not surprising since it was The Mother's birthday. It was not late afternoon and we were starting to worry a bit about finding a place. One of the hotels we stopped at was able to "hold" rooms (non-A/C) for us at another hotel; however, by the time we found it, they had already released the rooms. Fortunately, they had two A/C rooms coming available at 8:00-about 45 minutes away (which seemed an eternity because we were all hungry and wanted to go somewhere to eat!) We did check in with no problems...except that we couldn't get any towels until the next morning. :) What luck!

We slept in late the next day (aaaahhh...restful sleep), got up and went shopping in the afternoon. We started back to Chennai a bit later than planned and I just barely scooted into work in time for my midnight shift.

I don't know; I think that if Pete has an anti-science zone around him, I might have an anti-hotel or anti-vacation zone around me. :)

Just when I thought I'd begun to settle in...

...I woke up Saturday morning around 10 AM to find that the power was out. Judging from the temperature in my room (very hot!), I'm guessing it went off around 9 or so. Actually, it wasn't just hot, it was stifling. UGH! And, by 10 AM, I had only been asleep for about 4 hours, after getting home from work sometime around 5:30. Grumpily, I pulled the couch directly under the fan in the living room (it runs on the generator) and managed to doze on and off for the next couple of hours. *sigh*

By 4 PM I'd had enough of that (the couch isn't really that comfortable for sleeping!) and the power still wasn't back on. "That's it!" I decided, "I can't take this-I'm going to stay at a hotel." I felt a bit of pampering was in order to restore my world back to some balance. After calling around to a few hotels and on the recommendation of one of my friends, I chose the Quality Inn Aruna. Not a 5 star hotel, but with A/C, room service and more than just basic cable (Star Movies here I come!), I figured it met all of my needs. And, it even had a bathtub! I checked in and then went to dinner at a nearby restaurant.

When I got back from dinner, I asked the front desk for bubble bath and they said they would send some right up. Oh, heaven!!!! :) While I was waiting for them to deliver it, I turned on the TV to see what movies were available. Wait a minute-Star Movies is not at all clear!!! This is so not a good sign! A call down to the desk to see if they could do anything about it. "We'll send someone right up." "Ok. And don't forget about the bubble bath." "No problem."
10 minutes go by and no one comes. Another call to front desk. "Yes, yes, we're sending someone." I decided to start filling the tub. The person comes to tell me that they have no bubble bath and offers shampoo instead (so not the same). :( Then, I notice that the bottom of my pant leg is wet-on top of everything else, the bathtub is now leaking. Now, I'm demanding a new room. They offer me the one next door, but the first thing that I check out is the TV-no Star Movies at all and the rest of the English channels are fuzzy. *Sigh* At this point, I decide I just want to leave. It's already midnight and I need to get up for church the next morning. The power is back on at my apartment and I can at least watch VH1 there at no additional cost. After a minor discussion with the management, who wanted me to look at yet another room, I was on my way home. So much for pampering myself.

But, after all that, there's something to be said for falling asleep in your own bed. Or, maybe I was just too tired at that point to think about anything else-either way I slept wonderfully!

Pondicherry

Yea! So I've been here 3 months now and I've finally made my first trip out of Chennai. (Well, I suppose I could count the trips to Mahabalipuram, but that's too close! :) ) Pondicherry is about 2 1/2 hours south of Chennai. It is noteworthy because it was originally a French colony and still retains some of the French influence there. (Malinda, when you come to visit, we'll have to take a trip there! :) ) It's not actually part of Tamil Nadu, but, along with a couple of other French colonies makes up a Union Territory. Pondicherry also famous for the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and nearby Auroville (the vision for international peace)-neither of which I visited on my trip. :)

I made the trip down with two of my co-workers-Raghu and Jeff (another American trainer). We conveniently took Raghu since he has family there and we could crash with them! :) Raghu's family lives in this traditional style family house-something that looks (to me!) like it would fit in at Dakshina Chitra (see my post on the same from April). There are two levels-with the family living on both, a big atrium-like place in the center, and a swing hanging from the ceiling on the lower floor. Staying with his family was nice-they stuffed us full with good South Indian food! The only bad part was the lack of A/C (can't imagine trying to A/C the house-too open air) and the mosquitoes that ate us alive! Oh, well, the price you pay for a vacation... :)

Like I said, I didn't visit either the ashram or Auroville-we just couldn't really seem to get our butts in gear in order to get there on time, but we did visit Sri Manakula Vinayager Temple, a temple dedicated to Ganesha (the elephant god). Jeff and I both tried to back away when the priest came around to put the ash blessing on our foreheads, but he very determinedly marked us anyway saying "Best of luck." I guess that's not too bad of a blessing. :)

Other than that, I spent most of my time shopping (much to Jeff's chagrin!) :) Yea! More salwars-and even I think they match! :) :) All in all it was a great trip and I hope to go back again soon!

Catching up

I know I've gotten a lot of worried emails lately, so I wanted to quickly let everyone know that I was ok. (And yes-will catch up with those emails soon.) Yes, there is severe flooding, but it is mostly concentrated around Mumbai (Bombay)-in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Here in Chennai, there has been some rain, but not torrential monsoon as there. In fact, here they are actually worried because the rains have not raised the water levels enough, which could make problems later on.

Other than that-just finished a hectic training session at work. Hopefully things will be calm for a couple of days so that I can recouperate-though there is a chance that I will have to change to days and do classroom training full-time. I have mixed feeling about that...

Be on the lookout for new posts, though, I will update you all on my weekend trip to Pondicherry! :) :) :)

Aesthetics

One of the things that I'm learning here is how different the Indian view of aesthetics is when compared with the American view. (To clear up any misunderstanding right off, aesthetics: a particular theory or conception of beauty or art : a particular taste for or approach to what is pleasing to the senses and especially sight.) One of the first examples that I had of this was when we first arranged our living room. At first, we had the typical arrangement of the sofa opposite the TV, flanked by two chairs. The "coffee table" that we were provided with was more of the size that I would use as an end table, but it was in the middle of the arrangement. However, once we receieved all of our furniture, Liz and I decided to be a little bit creative with the arrangement. We decided to leave the sofa opposite the TV but put the two chairs separated by the table on the perpendicular wall and leave their opposite open to the room. We liked the open feeling that it gave to the room. We also figured that a rug would tie the whole room together nicely. (Well, we still figure that, we just haven't purchased one yet. :) ) It was interesting to see the Indians react to our arrangment though. Our maid was the most concerned, trying to convince us to move one of the chairs back to the opposite side. Everyone else reacted with quizzical looks at the arrangement or the grudging comments of "I guess this arrangement is pretty ok."

The other instance where I've noticed this discrepancy is in shopping for clothing. I recently purchased a new salwar suit (pants, top and dupatta [scarf]) at Naidu Hall. When I went to try everything on, they handed me the pants and the top, but not the dupatta. I didn't think much of it since I figured that it wouldn't need to be altered like the other pieces. However, AFTER I had given them for tailoring, I noticed the dupatta and thought to myself "I don't think those colors really match." But I went ahead and purchased it anyway and took it home to ask Liz' opinon. She quickly agreed that it didn't match, so I, feeling better about my sense of color, decided to purchase material for one that I thought matched. Then the people at the matching center store [Indian] kept telling me that the colors on the original dupatta were "correct" and I didn't need to find another one. Interesting.

I guess this discrepancy may explain why I was unsuccessful in purchasing material to have another salwar suit made for me. For me, the problems were not only color, but also shapes ("No, the triangles on the top don't match with the paisley print on the pants!" or "Squares and circles just don't go together!") Is this proof that the American aesthetic is completely different than the Indian aesthetic? Or am I just too picky? :)

My First Tamil Movie

Today I watched my first Tamil movie (with subtitles of course) called Minnale (means "lightening".) We decided to watch this one because, apparently, it is more like the Hindi movie format that I'm used to. [For the uninitiated, the basic Hindi movie plot line: Boy meets/falls in love with girl, boy can't have girl for caste/family/previous engagement issue, issue gets resolved (usually through some heroics), boy and girl live happily ever after. It will also include lots of singing and dancing (think 1940s Hollywood musical), a scene with the heroine in a wet saree, and no kissing (unless the couple is married). I love them! :) ]

Minnale did not disappoint. It was wonderfully sentimental ("true love will prevail over all obstacles"). Rajesh, the hero, falls in love with Reena but finds that she's engaged (through their families) to his college rival Rajiv (whom she hasn't met in many years since he has been working in America.) He impersonates Rajiv in order to win Reena's heart. Of course, when she finds out the truth, she wants to have nothing to do with Rajesh even though she has fallen in love with him (after spending 5 days with him.) Every thing gets sorted out in the end (of course!) and Rajiv gracefully bows out of the picture. [In a love triangle, the anti-hero is removed from the situation by either 1.) death; 2.) the discovery that he's really a villain; or, 3.) his stepping gracefully out of the way.]

As compared to a Hindi movie, this movie had less singing and dancing (averaging one song/half hour compared to one song every 15 minutes!) but it had many more choreographed fight scenes. The other thing I found interesting is that it never seemed to matter that Rajesh was Brahmin and Reena was Christian. [In most of the Hindi movies I've seen, something like that in itself would be the issue separating the loving couple (Veer-Zahra comes to mind, although they also had nationality issues.)] But here it wasn't even addressed? Is the South more open-minded regarding this issue?

In any case, I look forward to seeing more Tamil movies during my stay here...

[By the way, for those of you who were wondering about the title, he first saw and fell in love with the girl when he saw her dancing with some kids during a thunderstorm. It was like lightening! :) Although she was wearing a salwar kameez instead of a saree... :)]

A Correction...

In order to clarify, the definitions that I used for kitsch were a combo from urbandictionary.com as follows:

1. kitsch
As an art movement, lifestyle, or literature and film genre, kitsch is pleasingly distasteful. It's melodramatic, overdone, gaudy and tacky or sentimental and folksy. It's so bad that it's cool. Your cat might attack it, but it's hot.And, no, Martha Stewart and Jerry Springer are NOT bad enough to be kitsch. At all. Paris and Nicole though...

and:

3. kitsch
art, decorative objects or design considered by many people to be ugly, lacking in style, or false but enjoyed by other people, often because they are funny.

I personally am not big on flashing lighted things, but I didn't mean it to sound that derogatory...sorry for the confusion... :)

The Search for a Bangle Box...

Poor Raghu. Little did he know what he was getting into when he agreed to take me shopping for a bangle box... :)

Liz and I have been talking about needing bangle boxes to store all of our bangles for quite some time now. Basically, they are jewelry boxes with removable bars, so that you can slide your bangles on them. Unfortunately for some people, this weekend, Liz headed off to do some other necessary shopping with another friend, so I convinced Raghu to take me to look for the bangle boxes. On the advice of a friend of his, we started off at Odyssey. They had leather-covered travel ones, with only one bar (not big enough) and carved wooden ones with two half bars (ditto). Neither was satisfactory or to my liking. We tried several more stores with only variations on the same. I was getting more and more frustrated (as those of you who have been shopping with me can imagine) and despairing that I would ever find what I was looking for. Then Raghu suggested looking at Pondy Bazaar. Initially I was very reluctant to go because it is always SO crowded on the weekends, but he ASSURED me that I would find something different there. And he was right!!!! In the first shop we tried, there was a velvet covered box with three bars that I liked much better than anything else I had seen. We tried a few more shops and found one that had a couple of different varieties and I picked out a similar, red velvet covered one with gold stripes (that Raghu described as too jazzy!) :) But I liked it fine. Yay! I'm so happy I have my bangle box-and I can now describe to Liz (and anyone else) exactly what types are available and where to find each type.

I'm so sorry for doubting you Raghu! :)

New Review

Saturday night I went out with some friends from work to check out a pub called Geoffrey's. My friends tell me that it was the first pub in Chennai. I guess it's a little on the outskirts of town, so it doesn't always get the attention that some of the more "trendy" places get, but it was my kind of place. It is definitely a pub instead of a disc (sp?) so there wasn't even a dance floor. It was more of a "home-town" bar- [Ok everyone hum the theme for Cheers!] :) -with good music (excellent, actually!) and comfy couches and tables around for people to hang out with friends and socialize. They even have a couple of pool tables. My only complaint was that the drinks were a bit on the pricey side...but I'll have to go during Ladies' Night sometime to make up for that! :)

Hmm...I feel like I'm doing a review on places in Chennai now.... :)

Nothing says India like kitsch :)

As I was driving to work tonight, my driver's dashboard was lit up by a figurine of the Virgin Mary in flashing red and green lights. I mention this because it is only too common here in India to see figurines of various faiths flashing brightly from passing cars and because, now that I travel alone to work, I have time to reflect on these topics. :) Actually, it seems to me, decking out your car (especially with some sort of lights) is much more prevalent here than back in the States-though I am sure that the frequency varies culturally and/or regionally there.

Anyway, this guy has been our driver for about a month now and, as yet, I haven't discovered a pattern as to when the figurine gets turned on: is it when the traffic is heavier? when he's sleepier and needs it to stay awake? or, when he decides to pull out into oncoming bike traffic (as in what happened tonight!)? [Let me tell you, I found it comforting to focus on it at that point in time-and I'm not even Catholic!] :)

I think my sense of humor is starting to come back... :) Random thoughts are a good start!

The Duo Is Split Up!

So, I'm missing my "other half." Liz has been sent to train the new-hire batch at a different location while I get to stay here for re-training techs already on the floor. It has been a hard adjustment coming to work all alone for the past few days! Everyone here at Tidel Park has seen us together since the beginning, so they are all asking me if Liz is ok and if she's ever coming back. (We're hoping she will when she finishes the batch in another couple of weeks!) They also think that we are incomplete unless we're together; I suppose because we were always introduced around as, "This is Liz and Lori, our American trainers"-no distinguishing between us. (Pretty funny when you see us-she's taller, with curly blond hair and I'm shorter, with straight dark hair.) I've been filling her in with news from here-telling her that most of the regular security guards have asked me where she is, why she's not with me, and when she's coming back. The other day, though, she texted me to tell me that one of our regular cab drivers asked her about me-even they are wondering! (Yes, you may think it strange that we text each other, but when your shifts start 4 hours apart you are rarely awake and in the apartment at the same time.) I guess as a duo, we made quite an impression!

Celebrating American Independence Day in India

It has been a rough week here. For some reason, the reality of living cross-culturally has been hitting me hard this week. It wears you out and sucks the life out of you-even to the point where walking down the street to recharge my phone was too much of an effort. I didn't have the energy to work at communicating with people who only speak some English. I'm tired of having to run to the bathroom every half an hour. (Need more Immodium!!!) Going anywhere is too much of an effort because of having to bargain with the autorickshaw drivers and then the shopkeepers themselves and then still wondering if I paid too much. Not knowing how much extra time to factor in when someone says "I'll be there in 10 minutes." Then, on top of all that, there is the self-condemnation of "You shoudn't take things so hard!" "You should have more patience!" "What are you doing here if you can't accept/deal with these things?" Yikes! Deep down I know it's a phase of living cross-culturally and that things will get better-just living through it now is hard!

So, with this all in mind, I was eagerly looking forward to the American Indpendence Day Celebration put on by the American Chamber of Commerce, the American Consulate General and the Taj Hotel group on Sunday. It was held at Taj Fisherman's Cove-which is roughly halfway down ECR (East Coast Road) between Chennai and Mahabs. I had two-no actually three-goals: 1.) To eat a REAL hamburger 2.) To see fireworks, and 3.) To RELAX!!!!! (Well, actually, a side goal was not to get hit by another cow while traveling down that road again....!) :) Fisherman's Cove is a beautiful resort (as are all the Taj Hotels that I've seen!) and it was good to get away with people I like to hang out with! It was a really nice event-family oriented with games and contests for both the children and the adults, lots of prizes, and lots of food. Unfortunately, the hamburgers were not so good. However, the hot dogs were decent. (They are also hard to come by here...) Liz enjoyed the potato salad, Patricia the potato wedges and I the fries. We missed the the fireworks while we were having a cocktail in the lounge. :( But it was a nice, relaxing evening.... I guess one out of three isn't bad! :) (And we managed to avoid any collisions with the livestock!) :)

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July to everyone back in the states! Have a good but safe weekend!

Missing you all...

Can't wait to hear about the Gravel Ponds picnic...I'll be missing the fireworks display there! :)

I've Got Mail!

Ok I've been here, what 2 1/2 months so far, and just yesterday I figured out where the mailboxes for the apartment are. :) Now this is not exactly my fault-when I first arrived here someone that helped set me up in my apartment told me that they would bring the mail inside and either slip it under the door or leave it stuck in the gate. In my jet-lagged state, this seemed reasonable to me so I just accepted it. (I must admit, I wondered what the small, unmarked key on the key ring they handed me was, but I assumed that I would figure that out in time.) :) And, to confirm this statement, several envelopes (usually bills) were slipped under the door at various times. But, then I heard that people from the US had sent me mail that had never appeared under my door. I was a little worried, but I still never even thought of asking about the mailboxes! :) But, yesterday I decided to do something about it. I had our friend, who often acts as our translator, ask the security guards about it and, lo and behold, there ARE mailboxes for the apartment complex...and, the small, unmarked key DOES open the one for our apartment. :) :) :) Geez, sometimes I wonder if I really am cut out for this cross-cultural experience!

Anyway, thanks to those that have sent me mail so far-it makes me feel so loved! :)

Criticism

According to m-w.com:

Main Entry: crit·i·cism: 1 a : the act of criticizing usually unfavorably b : a critical observation or remark c : CRITIQUE 2 : the art of evaluating or analyzing works of art or literature

I did not create this blog to start a debate over the pros or cons of one culture over another. (If you have doubts about this, please read the About section of my blog!) Like it or not, these are my experiences here and my personal interpretation of the same. While I'm flattered, Mr./Ms. Anonymous, that you love my blog and choose to comment on it, if I may say so, you may want to work on your interpretive tone for reading. The posts that I write are usually written with a light, humerous tone, which is often poking fun at my responses to culture-clash situations. This blog is not about promoting the superiority of one culture over another, merely to highlight the differences and similarities that I experience. You may want to go back and re-read and re-assess. If you choose to "criticize" my blog in the future, I would appreciate it if you would stick to actual criticizm, as defined by Merriam-Webster, and not to bland generalizations or assumptions of me personally.

Holy Cow!

I was wondering how long it would be before I had a reason to use this title.... :)

Ok so maybe it wasn't the smartest idea to convince my friend to drive down to Mahabalipuram on a bike. Mahabalipuram is about an hour and half away-a bit of a long drive, but the weather was nice (much cooler than it has been recently) so I thought it would be ok. I wanted to check out the Community Development Center that Vineyard runs there. They have been looking for volunteers to teach conversational English there, but it has been hard for me to commit while working nights. But finally, I decided to give it a try...

It all seemed to start out smoothly, despite the fact that it was morning and we had both just gotten off night shifts. Smoothly, that is, until we got HIT BY THE COW!!!! The thing was trying to cross the road in front of us. My friend (who is a very safe driver, let me assure you) swerved left to miss it at about the same time it decided to speed up to try to get out of the road. It knocked right into us-luckily we didn't fall-but both of our legs scraped against it. OUCH! It hurt me, so I have to believe it hurt my friend, who took the brunt of it, even more. We didn't end up stopping, but both of us later admitted to looking back and seeing the thing twitching on the side of the road. :(

So, we were a little shook up by the time we got to the Community Development Center and met people there. Despite that, I was really excited about what they are doing there. Basically, they are working primarily with children of fishermen with special emphasis on the children of widows. They support these children in their studies at the local schools-whether by providing tutoring classes or money towards uniforms or even food for the family to eat before the children head off to school. I'm very excited about helping out in whatever way I can there. Next week, I think I'll be taking a class there. (This terminology actually means that I will be teaching there.) The future vision is for them to open their own school, with their own fee structure, so that they can accept whichever students they choose.

Luckily, the trip home was much less traumatic than the trip down. That particular cow was no longer lying by the side of the road. But it still seemed, to me at least, that the rest of the cows were out to get us. (Of course, I was probably paranoid by this point in time!) I tensed up each time we saw one by the side of the road. (Which, you may imagine, is pretty frequent here...)

Culture Clash #1

Now no one will let us make coffee on our own. Everytime I even mention to any of our friends that I'm even thinking about making coffee, they immediately offer to come over and make it for us. I wonder why... :) I'm sure our maid, at least, appreciates it...

So, tell me, why aren't Indians used to waiting in line? I mean, I knew this from before, but I still don't understand why there is this difference. For example, today when Liz and I got to work, we stopped to get coffee in the cafeteria. We're standing in line behind the person in front of us, giving a normal (American) distance between us and him. Apparantly, that was too far because some other guy came up and placed himself directly in front of us. Now, this is not the first time that something like this has happened to us, so we weren't too surprised and pushed our way past to our original place in line, but it does make me wonder again what the root cause is. This is also apparant in observing the traffic flow all over the country. For those who don't know, at any red light in India, you stop, and then any vehicle that can will crowd around and past you to fill up any available space-any concept of individual lanes is gone.

In America, this is interpreted as rude behavior, but in India it is accepted behavior. Why this difference? Where does the difference develop from?

For the Love of Coffee...

Ok back to stories...

This afternoon, after we woke up, Liz decided it was time to experiment with the new coffeemaker. We've had the coffeemaker since the time we got our dishes, but what with "filter coffee" being so readily available here in South India, we hadn't actually gotten around to using it. I'm sure an instruction manual actually came with the thing, but somehow in the mess of unpacking everything it has disappeared... So, first there was the debate about how much water to how much coffee to use. (In terms of American coffee, we were a little off-it was a bit strong!) Liz was all focused on how to tell when it was finished cuz the carafe is metal instead of glass (so you can't see when it's done dripping.) Meanwhile, one of our friends and I were busy trying to figure out how much milk we would need to warm up for our three cups of coffee. (Of course warming the milk is a foreign concept to us Americans, but what can you do?-gotta please the Indian guys...) :) Anyway, we collected all the disparate parts needed...and began the assembly process. Liz led out first, but put in too much coffee and sugar for the milk and managed to spill it out into the saucer. She then thought that the best (?) plan would be to 'mix' it by pouring it back and forth between two mugs. [This is not as strange as it may sound-it is the common way the coffee-wallahs (sellers) mix the coffee when you order it here.] However, apparantly it requires a fair amount of practice or genetic disposition to do this without spilling all over the counter! (i.e. Liz should NOT become a coffee-wallah at any point in life!) While she was doing this, our friend and I mixed our own coffees safely with a spoon. Well, safely until I managed to knock my cup completely out of the saucer and all over the counter and floor. *sigh* I had just got the proportions right too...

I'm sure most of you are thinking (hoping!) that this is the end of the story...but no...it continues on... :)

As our friend and I were changing the water jug in the dispenser, Liz, deciding that her coffee still needed sugar, picked up the sugar canister and managed to drop it over the entire kitchen floor. I'm still not exactly sure how... YUCK! (Especially where it mixed with the coffee splotches already on the floor!) Unfortunately, our maid had already left for the day, so Liz and I were running around trying to get the mess cleaned up as quickly as possible so that we could get showered and dressed and ready for our cab to the office (which we expected in the next 45 minutes or so.) ACK! All this while we were laughing hysterically and trying to drink the remaining coffee. :) Nothing but good times in our apartment!

We did manage a sweeping and two moppings and to get ready before they called to say that the cab had arrived. Phew! Now we're just wondering if the ant colony that we had managed to (mostly) banish will have moved in again by the time we get back from work.... *crossing fingers*

I think we should stick to just buying coffee from the coffee-wallahs for a bit more time... Although probably this story emphasizes how much we actually NEEDED the coffee at that time... :)

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

So I went to buy a new pair of jeans here in India. Let me first say that I'd have to rank buying new jeans (in general, not only in India) right up there with buying a new swimsuit or buying new bras-two of my least favorite experiences of being a woman. *sigh* Am I alone in this?

In the US, I had a system: walk into Old Navy; pick out the low-rise, boot cut jeans in whatever color I liked; buy them and walk out of the store without having to go through the pain of trying them on. However, I didn't plan well enough before I left and I ended up in India with only two pairs of jeans. One quickly developed a hole in the butt and the other a hole in the knee, which perpetuated the need for the jeans shopping trip. Unfortunately, there is nowhere to buy Old Navy brand jeans, so I knew from the beginning that I would have to try on at least a few pairs to find a style I could live with. I hardly knew where to start-Pepe Jeans, Levis, Lee, Wranglers (do they still sell these in the US?) ACK! I have no idea what will fit properly! Then, to make matters worse, it isn't based on a numerical size like in the US, but on your waist size. Luckily I got measured for my bridesmaid's dress recently or else I would have no clue where to begin. :) Of course I couldn't find anything that I liked at the first store we stopped at, but finally at the second one I found a pair in a color I liked that fit well...except for the length of the pants. BUT-TII (This Is India) [I think this might be the first time I'm saying it without an accompanying sigh and exasperated shake of the head!] Here you can get things altered to fit you perfectly! Tada-the search is over! For at least one night... :)

Trying Really Hard To Like India

Ok Liz came across this article, so I'll pass it on to the rest of you. Be sure to read Thursday and Friday's entries so that you can understand some of the allure of India. Don't focus just on the first few days! And check out the slide shows so that you understand why, when I came back in January, I said I want to retire to Kerela.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2107063/entry/2107071/

Lori Rants!

I have been inspired by my friend Jay's blog (Sorry, Jay-had to do it!) to also write about my thoughts and feelings and not just anecdotal stories about life here-though I'm not sure if it will actually be ranting. It's probably better that I don't have regular access to a computer on the weekends-that's when I tend to get more philosophical. It's also when I tend to miss home the most, which I find a little strange. I guess it's because during the week a good chunk of time is taken up by work and I don't have time to think about the people and activities I'm missing back home. But the weekends, even when I'm out doing stuff with people here, I'm wishing that I could share my experiences with people back home. The weekends generally have been a little tough in that way.

This past Sunday, the pastor at Vineyard was talking about knowing your purpose. It was good to be reminded that I do have a purpose...and somehow being here in India is part of that...I still wish I knew exactly how it all fits in. I guess the same questions that were running through my head back in the States are plaguing me here: what is my purpose? why am I here (specifically here in India, not the general why am I here on earth?) how does this all fit together?

Hmmm...who knew that I could actually share my feelings online...that's so unlike me! :)

Idhu Romebo Karam

"This is too spicy"...for all the non-Tamil speakers. :)

I'm learning Tamil as necessity dictates. :) Today, our cook made the spiciest thing that I've eaten thus far-some shrimp curry thing. Whew! It was too hot! Just eating a plate full made my eyes water and my nose run. Liz was blowing her nose and panting as well. :) Yikes!

Luckily, our cook realized (She doesn't speak enough English for us to actually tell her.) that something was wrong and started apologizing and picking out the shrimp for us to eat apart from the sauce. I think that she's been slowly increasing the spice level in our food each day, but our attempt to tell her that we were approaching our limit was unsuccessful. (Thanks, Raghu!) :)

It's too bad because what I could taste of it, before my taste buds were fried, was really good! I could write something disparing about how I think I'll never adjust to Indian culture and the spiciness of the food, but I know that it was even spicy by Indian standards. (Thanks to the two who tried out some of her cooking and declared it spicy!) This makes me feel better-that I'm not just the white girl who can't handle spices! :) :)

Work

Ok, so I figured that I should probably tell a little about what I actually do here at work.... :)

After the tutor training, there was a little bit of a hiring freeze, which meant no new batches to teach, so the American trainers were all sent out to observe the various programs, week by week. It was good because it helped us understand more of the dynamics of the BPO business. The first week Liz and I observed at Dell and the second week we observed at Symantec. During observations, we were able to listen and give feedback to agents on calls as well as sit in on a few re-training and new hire classes. (For agents that had already been through the communications training.) It was good to visit and meet people at both processes.

Then, the third week, we were both sent back to Dell to actually help out with some communication re-training. Our schedules were changing daily and it was a little hard to keep up with everything. (Including sleep!) :) But, now things have settled down a bit. We are both working the 7PM to 4AM shift. My assignment is to monitor the agents who have low customer satisfaction assesments and then schedule and perform training sessions with them. I spent last week trying to figure out how the monitoring systems work and finding out what information I could get from which department here. :) So, we'll see how this week goes with actually training some people.

The Life of Luxury...well at least a taste of it!

Liz and I treated ourselves to pedicures and manicures at our local beauty parlor this week. Actually "treated" is a bit of a misnomer. Each procedure cost us 100 rupies (roughly $2.50 USD) quite a difference from the $30 or so it would cost me back home. :) This is actually our second trip, but the salon we went to last time was close to the guest house where she was originally staying. We decided that it was a must to find one close to our apartment, so we visited the Lovely Beauty Parlor. :) (What a name!) I have decided that I love getting pedicures! The manicures are nice, but there's just something relaxing about soaking your feet, then having someone massage and scrub them for you. :) And after wearing sandals and walking around quite a bit, it feels so nice!!!! I highly recommend them! In fact, I think I could get used to getting one regularly. Who knew coming to India would change me into a high maintenance girl!?!? :)

Anbagam Home for the Aged

Sunday I went to visit Anbagam CSI Home for the Aged & Allied Services. It's a senior citizen's home sponsored by a local church. My friend sponsored a lunch for them both to celebrate the purchase of his new car as well as a memorial on the anniversary date of his father's death and invited several of his co-workers along as well. We had lunch with the "inmates" (I explained the negative connotations associated with that word in English. :) ) and then walked around the campus and visited many of them in their rooms. I was almost completely useless in this situation, not knowing any Tamil. :) But the residents were happy to meet us and thanked us for the lunch and the gifts we brought. It was remarkable how spry they all were, even though many of them were in their 80s. I was amazed that most of them shared a room among 3 people very happily. They were all very eager to tell about how they were living independently (usually) until something happened (a fall, an illness, etc.) and they needed to come to this place. They all expressed thankfulness for having this place to come to. The home is run through donations from the families that can afford it, pensions, and sponsorship of individual residents by outside organizations. It was an interesting experience, but it left all of us thinking about what we will be like when we get that old. :)

I miss smoke-free NY!

Saturday was my first experience visiting the club scene here in Chennai. Before I came, many people told me that there weren't that many clubs here and the ones that were here weren't that good. (Chennai is generally thought of as pretty conservative.) However, most of the 5-star hotels here have at least one club. Liz, myself and a few of our co-workers went to visit Pasha at the Park hotel. It was actually very fun. When we first got there, it was pretty empty due to another club's opening gala across town, but as the night wore on, the dance floor became more & more crowded. The dance floor is on the bottom floor and on the balcony level there are couches and tables to sit back and watch the happenings downstairs. The music mix was pretty good-a mixture of hip hop and trance music-and people were crowding the floor the whole time. The only part I didn't like was that there are no smoking laws and everyone was smoking inside! Gasp! Choke! by the end of the night :) I miss NY's smoke-free bars & clubs...

Random funny experience: As we were sitting there, a photographer from the Deccan Chronicle took a picture of our group. "Let's take a picture of the white people enjoying!" Unfortunately, it isn't one of the ones they published. :)