Well, I finally feel like a true Chennai-ite. I spent the last week suffering with a bout of viral fever that has been making the rounds here. Now don't panic-I think it sounds much worse than it actually was. From what my doctor was saying, it sounds like it is related to a bout of the flu. People tell me that it is actually very common here as we start to change seasons.
My doctor prescribed two courses of antibiotics to take care of the secondary symptoms. Here's my new favorite thing about India: AND HE CAME TO MY APARTMENT TO DO THE CHECK-UP! It was great-I didn't even have to get out of my pajamas to see the doctor (and when he left, I went right back to bed!) All for a mere Rs. 200 per visit (that's about $5). I don't even think I could get a doctor in the US to SEE me (in his own office) for $200 (without my health insurance that is!) AND the medicines were also delivered to my apartment as well! What a wonderful system!
09 July 2006
29 June 2006
Back to training...
What a cruel twist of fate...I have been sent back to the training department (for reasons which I may or may not choose to blog about later-I'm hoping that some time and distance will be able to take the bitter edge off of what I choose to say about the matter)
Anyway, here are some pictures from our last "fun day" at the program:
Anyway, here are some pictures from our last "fun day" at the program:
23 June 2006
Hmmm...yet another reason I don't want to be back in the training department...our office is in Perungudi
22 June 2006
Local Pictures
But now, since I FINALLY have an internet connection in my apartment (It only took 5 weeks- not bad considering they first said it would take 5 days!) I am going to post some pictures.
This is my new apartment:
This is my new apartment:
And this is the view of the racecourse from my balcony (during a rainstorm):
I would love to post the pictures from Google Earth of my new apartment (Chennai has finally been updated!) but I guess that's not a good idea...
Anyway, the first weekend I got back, I took a trip to Pondicherry. Do I still look jet lagged here?
"Sell crazy someplace else, we're all stocked up here."
"Am I crazy?" is a question I remember asking frequently when I was back in the US, mainly when I wondered if my viewpoint on something, which seemed so sane and rational to me, was not as apparent to someone else. They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. After returning to India for a second year with the same company, you’d think I’d know what results to expect, yet it seems that every day they are able to find new and better ways to let inefficiency and incompetence make me miserable.
WARNING: THIS IS SHAPING UP TO BE A VERY NEGATIVE RANT. Therefore, those of you who say that I do nothing but complain might want to ignore the rest of this post. Don’t say you haven’t been warned…
First, as mentioned in my last post, I arrived at work to find out that I had been deactivated in all of the systems, even though I had been in communication with my reporting manager about the delays in receiving my visa. It took two days to get it (mostly) sorted out, although I was marked absent for those two days (though I was assured that it would be fixed at the end of the month). The second week, I had to change my schedule to work days (which requires approval by my reporting manager-the one from the training department, not the program I am currently working with). I sent an email to my reporting manager explaining why I needed my attendance altered, which was promptly ignored. Halfway through the month of May and I’m already looking at a Loss of Pay for four days-not so encouraging for coming back. Then, when I attempted to register with immigration here, I found out that they had not given me the proper documents that I needed to do so. Also, they realized at the end of the month, that I had not had a proper orientation and needed to do so IMMEDIATELY, in the daytime (because HR gets to work days). Guess I didn’t need to sleep or anything!!!!! What they didn’t tell me at the time was that I would again be “deactivated” and reassigned a new employee ID. Imagine how happy I was to arrive at work, minus a couple of hours of sleep, to find that, once again I couldn’t log in or mark my attendance. Two hours of repeated calls to my HR representative finally elicited the new number from him…all to find out that I still didn’t have permission to log into certain sites that I needed for work. Sigh…another two days before that was straightened out.
Supposedly we get paid on the last day of the month. I say supposedly because, as you may already be imagining, I also didn’t get paid on time. (What would I get paid for? According to the company records, I only joined on the 26th, not on the 1st of May.) The worst part is that they knew this would happen, they just didn’t bother to inform me; I didn’t find out until I tried to pick up my paycheck. It took another two weeks for them to issue a special check and open a local bank account for me.
I guess the question remains: Am I crazy?
WARNING: THIS IS SHAPING UP TO BE A VERY NEGATIVE RANT. Therefore, those of you who say that I do nothing but complain might want to ignore the rest of this post. Don’t say you haven’t been warned…
First, as mentioned in my last post, I arrived at work to find out that I had been deactivated in all of the systems, even though I had been in communication with my reporting manager about the delays in receiving my visa. It took two days to get it (mostly) sorted out, although I was marked absent for those two days (though I was assured that it would be fixed at the end of the month). The second week, I had to change my schedule to work days (which requires approval by my reporting manager-the one from the training department, not the program I am currently working with). I sent an email to my reporting manager explaining why I needed my attendance altered, which was promptly ignored. Halfway through the month of May and I’m already looking at a Loss of Pay for four days-not so encouraging for coming back. Then, when I attempted to register with immigration here, I found out that they had not given me the proper documents that I needed to do so. Also, they realized at the end of the month, that I had not had a proper orientation and needed to do so IMMEDIATELY, in the daytime (because HR gets to work days). Guess I didn’t need to sleep or anything!!!!! What they didn’t tell me at the time was that I would again be “deactivated” and reassigned a new employee ID. Imagine how happy I was to arrive at work, minus a couple of hours of sleep, to find that, once again I couldn’t log in or mark my attendance. Two hours of repeated calls to my HR representative finally elicited the new number from him…all to find out that I still didn’t have permission to log into certain sites that I needed for work. Sigh…another two days before that was straightened out.
Supposedly we get paid on the last day of the month. I say supposedly because, as you may already be imagining, I also didn’t get paid on time. (What would I get paid for? According to the company records, I only joined on the 26th, not on the 1st of May.) The worst part is that they knew this would happen, they just didn’t bother to inform me; I didn’t find out until I tried to pick up my paycheck. It took another two weeks for them to issue a special check and open a local bank account for me.
I guess the question remains: Am I crazy?
15 May 2006
Back to Chennai
Well, I have arrived safely and soundly back to Chennai. The heat hit me full force (even though it was only 3:30 AM) the minute I stepped off the plane. Aaah...welcome back. :) It quickly reminded me why I wanted to spend May back in the US instead of April, but oh well... :)
As I said, I landed early Monday morning and managed to head back to work Monday night. Luckily I had planned for a friend of mine to pick me up for work, for when I got to work, I FOUND OUT I HAD BEEN DEACTIVATED IN ALL OF THE SYSTEMS. This means no cabs, no computer log on, no way to mark my attendence. *Sigh* And I specifically remember asking, "Do I need to worry about marking anything while I am gone?" to which the reply was a firm "No." Lovely. Of course, to get re-activated I need HR approval. Guess what? Monday is a support staff (including HR) holiday. Is anything ever easy with this company???
Why am I here at work again? :) Anyway, after a lot of yelling and complaining-DIVA mode is back-I was finally able to log on to the computer at least. And a week later I was able to get a cab. Now all I have to do is get my attendance fixed so I don't loose any pay....hmmmm....still a bit worried about that....
As I said, I landed early Monday morning and managed to head back to work Monday night. Luckily I had planned for a friend of mine to pick me up for work, for when I got to work, I FOUND OUT I HAD BEEN DEACTIVATED IN ALL OF THE SYSTEMS. This means no cabs, no computer log on, no way to mark my attendence. *Sigh* And I specifically remember asking, "Do I need to worry about marking anything while I am gone?" to which the reply was a firm "No." Lovely. Of course, to get re-activated I need HR approval. Guess what? Monday is a support staff (including HR) holiday. Is anything ever easy with this company???
Why am I here at work again? :) Anyway, after a lot of yelling and complaining-DIVA mode is back-I was finally able to log on to the computer at least. And a week later I was able to get a cab. Now all I have to do is get my attendance fixed so I don't loose any pay....hmmmm....still a bit worried about that....
22 April 2006
"I feel all giddy inside"
Since I now have all this extra time on my hands, this weekend I went down to help Pete move out of the $1.x million dollar house he has been living in. Even though I am completely exhausted as I write this (I got back about an hour ago) I had a really great time and I'm really glad that I was able to do it! Friday night, our good friend Mark and his brother Aaron came over and we played cards and stayed up way to late for our own good. It was kind of scary-those of you that knew me "back in the day" will understand this-I actually had to think about the rules and strategy while we were playing Euchre, that's how long it has been since I played! But it was fun to shock Mark with news and updates about the recent spate of engagements and dating couples among the group. Amazingly, despite our late night, we all managed to wake up early enough to get everything in the truck before the rain started pouring down.
The best news for me, however, is that my visa came while I was gone!!!! Yea!!! Now I can be off again as soon as my tickets are arranged!!!
15 April 2006
More India Pictures
I've added pictures of our Hyderabad trip as well as the visit from Stephen & Malinda-February and March posts. Check them out!
Also, here are some photos of an outing I took with my new program right before I left:
Also, here are some photos of an outing I took with my new program right before I left:
Yes, this is on the bus...while we were moving...and no, they are not standing up because it was full...apparently, choosing seats for a bus trip is irrelevant since NO ONE STAYS IN THEIR SEATS!!!!
Here we are playing cricket. I even got to play! (Although I only got to bat during practice, not during the actual match.)
Home
Isn't it amazing how when you are home on vacation and you supposedly have all the time in the world is the time when you never seem to get around to blogging? :) At least that's my excuse for the long time between these blog posts...
So I did manage to get both my apartment and myself packed up in the five days before I left. Whew. I had a safe enough flight over...although my luggage decided it wanted to take a later flight and only showed up on Friday. If you like to travel with your luggage the whole time, I recommend having a longer layover in London than 45 minutes...particularly if you have to travel from one end of the terminal to the other! :) And somewhere along the way my mobile phone has disappeared as well...so I need to collect numbers again from those of you who read my blog.
I've found that working nights in India has one advantage-it mitigates the effects of jet lag when you come back to the US. I spent the first few days at home with my parents and also hanging out with my friend Pete. You can read Pete's summary of the events here and here. Then I headed to Rochester to meet up with friends there. Of course, being Rochester, it had to snow two of the six days I was there! (Thank you so much! I was already freezing when I stepped off the plane and it was in the sixties! When do I get to leave again????) Anyway, other than that, I had a lot of good visits with people and I wish I could have stayed longer.
So the question that everyone seems to be asking me is, "what made you stay?" I guess, as I look back on my recent posts that I can understand why. The explanation that currently best sums it up is: I was like Bush, I didn't have an exit strategy. :) Yes, I wasn't happy with the second-year contracts, but I didn't yet have a good plan as to what to do when I got back to the US. In many ways, I just felt like I wasn't ready to leave-I haven't seen, haven't experienced enough of India yet. Plus, according to Pete, I haven't accomplished my purpose by finding a husband, so of course I had to stay. :) (just kidding)
So now I'm back at home waiting to leave. I was supposed to have left yesterday (Friday) but my visa has yet to appear and when I tried to call the consulate to find out the status, I found out they were closed on Good Friday, a fact I think is strange when considering that Christianity is the 3rd major religion for the country at only 2.3% of the population. I guess government jobs are the same all over... Hmmm...looks like I won't be making it into work by Monday as my new boss was hoping.
So I did manage to get both my apartment and myself packed up in the five days before I left. Whew. I had a safe enough flight over...although my luggage decided it wanted to take a later flight and only showed up on Friday. If you like to travel with your luggage the whole time, I recommend having a longer layover in London than 45 minutes...particularly if you have to travel from one end of the terminal to the other! :) And somewhere along the way my mobile phone has disappeared as well...so I need to collect numbers again from those of you who read my blog.
I've found that working nights in India has one advantage-it mitigates the effects of jet lag when you come back to the US. I spent the first few days at home with my parents and also hanging out with my friend Pete. You can read Pete's summary of the events here and here. Then I headed to Rochester to meet up with friends there. Of course, being Rochester, it had to snow two of the six days I was there! (Thank you so much! I was already freezing when I stepped off the plane and it was in the sixties! When do I get to leave again????) Anyway, other than that, I had a lot of good visits with people and I wish I could have stayed longer.
So the question that everyone seems to be asking me is, "what made you stay?" I guess, as I look back on my recent posts that I can understand why. The explanation that currently best sums it up is: I was like Bush, I didn't have an exit strategy. :) Yes, I wasn't happy with the second-year contracts, but I didn't yet have a good plan as to what to do when I got back to the US. In many ways, I just felt like I wasn't ready to leave-I haven't seen, haven't experienced enough of India yet. Plus, according to Pete, I haven't accomplished my purpose by finding a husband, so of course I had to stay. :) (just kidding)
So now I'm back at home waiting to leave. I was supposed to have left yesterday (Friday) but my visa has yet to appear and when I tried to call the consulate to find out the status, I found out they were closed on Good Friday, a fact I think is strange when considering that Christianity is the 3rd major religion for the country at only 2.3% of the population. I guess government jobs are the same all over... Hmmm...looks like I won't be making it into work by Monday as my new boss was hoping.
24 March 2006
I'm coming home!!!!
Gotta love the way everything happens at the last minute! I'm coming home on Tuesday!!!!
23 March 2006
Anyone know anyone that wants to buy my car?
Ok. So I've decided to renew my contract with the company for another year. HOWEVER, it's with a different program and under different management, so hopefully things will be better! *crossing fingers* :) But, yes, I am happy about the decision.
Anyway, I am coming back to the US imminently to get a new visa and take care of things there (including selling my car) in a relatively small amount of time. So I'm asking if anyone knows anyone in the market for a new car to please let me know. I have a 2005 Suzuki Aerio, manual transmission, with only 5000 miles and I'm looking to sell it for the Kelly Blue Book value of $11,000.
It looks like I am coming back next week and will be leaving by the middle of April. I hope to see as many people as possible while I am there!
Anyway, I am coming back to the US imminently to get a new visa and take care of things there (including selling my car) in a relatively small amount of time. So I'm asking if anyone knows anyone in the market for a new car to please let me know. I have a 2005 Suzuki Aerio, manual transmission, with only 5000 miles and I'm looking to sell it for the Kelly Blue Book value of $11,000.
It looks like I am coming back next week and will be leaving by the middle of April. I hope to see as many people as possible while I am there!
21 March 2006
Holi
One of the festivals that I was really looking forward to seeing here in India was Holi...I mean is there a comparable festival/holiday in the US where you are allowed (encouraged even) to smear colors all over everyone? It always seemed like it would be one big party day. For more information and pictures, check out The Colors of India) I was disappointed, however, to find out that here in Chennai, it is not celebrated very much. It is much more of a North Indian festival and the community here (at least in my area is very small.) Actually, all over India, many of the politicians were encouraging people not to play holi at all. Apparently, in past years, there have been many unsavory incidents due to the free intermingling of the sexes for this holiday. I don't know, the images of the festival still intrigue me. I think if I'm here next year, I'll have to go North to see it played properly.
16 March 2006
A visit
It was really exciting for me to have my close friends, Stephen & Malinda, come to visit me for a week last month. I couldn't wait to show them around Chennai (not that there's a whole lot to see here!) and show them what my life was like here. It was great to be able to talk about people and things back home and not have any cultural barriers in the way. As with all international arrivals, they got in around 2:00 AM Saturday morning. :) Luckily, I'm still working nights (9pm-6am), so I was awake to greet them. :)
They spent some time here with me, but then went off on their own to visit Ooty and Mysore. (I'm so jealous because I haven't even been there yet!!!) The time we
spent toge
ther was good. We visited Mahabilipuram, parts I hadn't even see yet (where Malinda and I both got sunburned pretty badly) and did a lot of shopping in T. Nagar, Besent Nagar, and Mylapore. We also got to see the St. Thomas memorials-St. Thomas mount, the Little Mount, & San Thome Basilica, which holds the tomb of St. Thomas. I have never seen any of this in my time here! Unfortunately, they also got to experience the worst time ever with an auto driver-who didn't want to negotiate for the whole trip and then complained to the nuns and priests at the Basilica that we were cheating him. Sigh....well, I guess that's a good example of the fascinating (for lack of a better word) contrasts in India! We even did a drive-by viewing of Marina Beach and Fort St. George. 
Introducing them to the food here was fun as well! Of course we had to have a good south Indian thali, dosas, south Indian coffee and of course fresh juices! (Mmmm...fresh grape juice-I will really miss that...fresh lime sodas....sweet lime juice...ok I better stop now before I get too misty-eyed!)
I just wanted to finish off and say that I was really glad that they were able to come-it was a very special time for me-so anyone else from home who wants to come visit me should definitely consider it....
They spent some time here with me, but then went off on their own to visit Ooty and Mysore. (I'm so jealous because I haven't even been there yet!!!) The time we
spent toge
ther was good. We visited Mahabilipuram, parts I hadn't even see yet (where Malinda and I both got sunburned pretty badly) and did a lot of shopping in T. Nagar, Besent Nagar, and Mylapore. We also got to see the St. Thomas memorials-St. Thomas mount, the Little Mount, & San Thome Basilica, which holds the tomb of St. Thomas. I have never seen any of this in my time here! Unfortunately, they also got to experience the worst time ever with an auto driver-who didn't want to negotiate for the whole trip and then complained to the nuns and priests at the Basilica that we were cheating him. Sigh....well, I guess that's a good example of the fascinating (for lack of a better word) contrasts in India! We even did a drive-by viewing of Marina Beach and Fort St. George. 
Introducing them to the food here was fun as well! Of course we had to have a good south Indian thali, dosas, south Indian coffee and of course fresh juices! (Mmmm...fresh grape juice-I will really miss that...fresh lime sodas....sweet lime juice...ok I better stop now before I get too misty-eyed!)
I just wanted to finish off and say that I was really glad that they were able to come-it was a very special time for me-so anyone else from home who wants to come visit me should definitely consider it....
14 March 2006
Narnia
So who has seen The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe? I finally saw this movie in the theaters here (Mayajaal on ECR for those of you that know-my first time there!) As a kid growing up, I loved these books! I probably read them more than 50 times. I have also seen the 1989 BBC production, but I remember being not very impressed with it. I really enjoyed this version, however. It seemed to better match the images in my mind that I envisioned while reading it...although I thought one of the girls was supposed to be blond?
Hum Tum
So why didn't anyone tell me that my favorite chick flick, When Harry Met Sally..., has been copied into a Hindi movie??? I know I shouldn't be surprised, are there any English rom-com movies that haven't been turned into Hindi movies??? Nonetheless, I enjoyed Hum Tum (which, for the non-Hindi speaking crowd, doesn't actually rhyme,even though it looks like it should) very much. The plot runs basically the same-the two characters meet randomly (or what seems like randomly) over the years and begin to build a friendship, though, at first, the girl can't stand the guy. They help each other out during times of crisis and when they finally have sex, it drives them apart. The interesting twist on the movie (to keep it from becoming an exact copy) was that the guy was a cartoonist who created a girl and guy character who were trying to be friends. Instead of the couch episodes to separated the scenes as in WHMS..., the scenes in Hum Tum were separated by the cartoons. Cute!
11 March 2006
Back by popular demand!
Ok. I can hardly believe that it has been a whole month since I've posted anything here! Not that I haven't had anything to say, mind you, I have many posts swirling around my head, just circumstances have prevented me from having the time to sit down and post. (Well, that and the fact that they have now blocked access to blogger.com from my office-though I can still read my blog itself. Does this make sense to anyone else???)
I'm sure, though, those of you reading from home are hoping that this post will answer THE question in everyone's minds, the one that few people have dared to ask. Namely, "When are you coming home?" Well, I'm setting expectations early in the post that you will be disappointed. Because the only answer I can give right now is, "I don't know", which, I know, is not much different than where I was when I posted last.
Since that time, I have interviewed a few places, but it looks like none of them are working out. It seems that no one is willing to pay for an American. (How can it be that my horrible company pays the best? It's almost too fantastic to comprehend.) Am I too demanding? I hardly think so when these companies have centers in the US where they would know exactly how cheaply they are getting me for, especially for relocating to another country. I am now trying to get my mind to accept the fact that I will probably be coming back to the US to stay.
Anyway, I have many more cheerful things to write about in forthcoming posts (such as the visit from my friends Stephen & Malinda and the nosy security guard and the Hindi movie that I saw) but I wanted to get something posted so that people would quit hounding me about it. :) :) :)
I'm sure, though, those of you reading from home are hoping that this post will answer THE question in everyone's minds, the one that few people have dared to ask. Namely, "When are you coming home?" Well, I'm setting expectations early in the post that you will be disappointed. Because the only answer I can give right now is, "I don't know", which, I know, is not much different than where I was when I posted last.
Since that time, I have interviewed a few places, but it looks like none of them are working out. It seems that no one is willing to pay for an American. (How can it be that my horrible company pays the best? It's almost too fantastic to comprehend.) Am I too demanding? I hardly think so when these companies have centers in the US where they would know exactly how cheaply they are getting me for, especially for relocating to another country. I am now trying to get my mind to accept the fact that I will probably be coming back to the US to stay.
Anyway, I have many more cheerful things to write about in forthcoming posts (such as the visit from my friends Stephen & Malinda and the nosy security guard and the Hindi movie that I saw) but I wanted to get something posted so that people would quit hounding me about it. :) :) :)
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