The Beach

Friday, after getting out of work (at 5 AM-well, I guess technically it was Saturday :) ) we ended up going to the beach with a bunch of our co-workers. We cancelled our cab, hopped on the back of their bikes, and took off for Marina beach. AAAH...what a way to relax and unwind after a long week at work. I may never leave India... :)

Marina Beach is, I believe, the longest beach in India. Normally, it is pretty packed, but at this time of the day, we were only sharing it with the fishermen and early morning walkers. It was such a beautiful sunrise! The waves were pretty rough, but Liz, Bharat & I rolled up our pants and waded in a bit. (Liz and I left Jay, Zameel & Asif holding our purses-good practice for when they go shopping with their future wives! :) ) Of course, by the time we were done, it was hardly worth rolling our pant legs up-our jeans were so wet! I was hoping that riding on the bike would dry us off, but the guys put us in an autorick to head home before that happened. They even stopped for tea AFTERWARDS-without us! :( But it was such a fun spur-of-the-minute trip!

Furnishings

In all the excitement of getting to work yesterday, I forgot to mention the fact that WE ACTUALLY HAVE DISHES!!!!! :) The company has been promising to provide them (it is a corporate apartment) but has been a little slow to actually do so. (This is India, This is India!) I must admit it has been a little rough ever since Liz moved in (almost two weeks ago now) because we had to share the one plate, three glasses, two forks, two spoons and no knives that I had managed to scrounge. So yesterday we got to go shopping and pick out dishes and other necessary kitchen implements. Yea! Now we can actually employ the cook that we've engaged. Mmm...home cooked food...I may never go back to cooking myself... :)

Accidents

So, I have now been in two automobile accidents since I arrived here in India. I'm amazed because the whole three weeks I vacationed here before I kept expecting to see an accident (because of the driving) but never did. Luckily, the traffic speeds here in India are generally lesser than those in the US, so the accidents tend cause minimal damage. Apparantly, the rules are that after you get into an accident and pull the cars over to the side of the road, the drivers of each car get out and yell at each other and try to pull bystanders and other drivers into the fray. :)

Today's accident was the more lively of the two. We were in a company cab, heading for the office around 6:30 PM. The traffic was pretty heavy. Along the way, a bus on the left-hand side pushed us (it was a small car) into a bus on the right-hand side. Like I stressed earlier, we were not moving fast enough to cause much damage, but the front doors on either side were scratched and dented. Our cab driver takes off, driving like a maniac-overtaking and weaving in and out of traffic at excessive (for the traffic) speeds. He managed to overtake the bus that initiated the accident, pulls to the side, jumps out and starts yelling at the bus driver (who replied in kind!) After a bit of this, our driver informed us that another cab was on it's way to pick us up and take us the rest of the way to the office. Liz & I decided to take a coffee break-in a very full cafe where we were the ONLY white people [probably within a 20 KM radius]. (Liz's comment: "Not like we stand out or anything") Upon returning back to the (original) cab, we discoverd more people (friends of the cab driver?) had appeared on motorcycles. The argument between the two drivers had escalated to the point that the newcomers were actually holding them apart. We actually thought it might come to blows, but luckily the second cab arrived and distracted the original cab driver a bit.

We thought this might be the end of our story...but alas, it was not. We drive a couple more minutes down the road in the new cab (still in heavy traffic.) At one point, the driver leans out the front passenger side window and looks down at the car. Liz and I are exchanging "uh-oh" glances in the back seat. The driver pulls over to the side of the road, gets out, inspects the car and declares that there is a puncture in the front passenger side tire. What could we do except laugh at this point? The driver proceeds to change the tire while we attempt to use the toilet at the nearby petrol station. (EEW! No more details needed there!)

All in all we were an hour and a half late getting to the office (what a way to make a first impression at our new site!) but we spent 3 hours traveling the 30ish KM from home to the office. I'm starting to feel that we weren't supposed to be out on the roads tonight-or that the universe is conspiring against us! :) :) :)

Apology...

I apologize for not keeping this updated...all of the North American trainers have been assigned to observe the company's various clients, so I've been adjusting to working nights for the past couple of weeks. And, of course, there are log-in issues at each site, which makes it hard to stay in touch... I will try harder in the future. :)

Vineyard

This weekend I spent some time getting to know the Vineyard church here. It's about a half an hour ride from my place by rickshaw. (A native would pay 60 rupees here, but I ended up paying 80 rupees...which wasn't too bad...hopefully week by week I can knock that down a bit-once I learn enough Tamil to negotiate with the drivers! :) ) They run a separate facility called the Unwind Center, which is used to host live bands. (see www.unwindcenter.com) Every Friday night they have live music...this past Friday it was a couple of local rock bands. A few of the other trainers and I went up to see it. It was very good...we had a great time. They also have a cafe, which has some of the best fresh juice cocktails that I've had here. (They are promoting a clean atmosphere for the young people in the area-the musicians are required to sing clean lyrics and there is no alcohol allowed.) Afterwards, they pack up food packages to hand out to the poor in the streets-2 jam sandwiches (hence the "jamming session") & 2 eggs each.

On Sunday I went back for church in the morning. It was great to be back! The worship was wonderful-not that I'm surprised :) and the message was good. After church they have lunch together as well. (See, all good Vineyard functions involve food-no matter where you are!) This week I'm going to try to check out some of their work with the tsunami victims. They have been working to rehab an entire village-I think this week is the launch of some new fishing boats for the villagers. I'm so happy to have found a church home!

Things I don't get about India #1

I figured I better number this topic because I have a feeling there may be more than one. :)

So at my apartment complex, the car parking is located underneath the building on what I would typically call the ground floor. However, when you walk up one flight of stairs, that floor is actually called the Ground Floor. You go up one more flight of stairs to where I live and that is the First Floor. OK, but the strange part comes when you use the lift (elevator), the parking area is "0", the Ground Floor level is "1" and the First Floor (my floor) is "2". To me, this makes no sense.

A wedding

Last night we attended the wedding reception of my friend's friend's sister. (How long did it take for you to figure that out?) It was quite different than the wedding I attended in December. I guess now I appreciate better the cultural differences between the north & the south. It was funny, though, we showed up (Liz in a salwar kameez, and me in a saree) and immediately the camera and videocamera were trained on us. :) Nothing like being the center of attention! After our introductions, we had dinner-served on a banana leaf. It was so cool! And the food was very good! But it was very different from the formal, sit-down reception in the north.

Shopping locally...

My roommate-to-be came over last night, so we decided to explore the neighborhood. Luckily, we live on Velachery Main Road, so there are tons of little shops just down the street. We had such a good time-we found a "wine" shop and purchased a few beverages. (Wine shops here sell all kinds of alcohol-not just wine.) We wandered between a few stores to get mixers for the beverages. I love that if a shop owner doesn't have what you are looking for he will tell you which shop will and give you directions there. So helpful! :) I stopped at the electronics shop to get a plug adapter (converter) and the guy offered to get me any electronics I needed. Yea! I love this neighborhood! After a drink to celebrate our good day, we went to the gate and the security guard helped her flag down an autorickshaw and negotiate the rate. It's nice to feel like you're not getting fleeced all the time. :)

Dakshin Chitra

So after church on Sunday, we went to visit Dakshin Chitra. Translated, it means a picture of the south. It is a museum along the lines of Genesee Country Museum (for my Rochester affiliations :) ) or the Henry Ford Museum. They have taken typical houses from different regions of the southern states-Tamil Nadu, Karnatica, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerela-and you can see the differences as you walk from state to state. I was very impressed with how well it was done-even the vegetation changes as you walk from state to state! There is a craft bazaar on the grounds as well and in the various houses people will teach you certain crafts and trades. (I learned basket weaving and rice grinding-Wait until I can get the video out!) Some of you may remember the glass Ganeshas that were gifted to me-they came from the glassblower here. Beautiful stuff!!!!

A mobile phone?

So Monday I decided it was time for me to get a mobile phone. One week without being able to contact people was enough for me. A couple of the other trainers had a lot of trouble with the company Airtel representative, so decided to forgo that route and go off on my own. Luckily I started asking questions to one of the other native trainers and he obligingly offered to help me in my quest. First, we went to buy the phone. I now have a nice, girly looking phone-the Nokia 2300-nicely pink and purple. I'm happy with it, but I miss my LG!!! :) Of course you don't buy the plans (I planned on getting a pre-paid plan) at the same place you get the phones. So, we went to another local store to get the SIM (connection) card. (This is where you actually get your number assigned.) But, you need to have proof of residency to purchase one (so that you're not a terrorist?) . Initially, they said a copy of my passport would do; however, the a US Passport does not include an address. So I needed a copy of my drivers license...which was back at my apartment. (Why would I carry it arround? I can't drive in India!) We headed back to my apartment to pick up the driver's license. (Keep in mind here that we had to make copies of the passport and the driver's license at small copy stores for each item.) Finally we arrived at the Airtel office in Velachery and provided all the necessary documentation, picked out a phone number and activated it. I needed a picture to put with the application (which I left back at my apartment) but luckily they waived that requirement. Phew. :)

Yea! So after all that I now have a mobile phone-connection to the outside world! :) It would have been quite the frustrating experience if I hadn't had help with it, I'm sure...especially the communication factor with the shopkeepers in Tamil. I love the fact that I can receive calls and not be charged for them! (Hint, hint) ;-)

Weekend fun...

Had a lot of fun this weekend...hopefully this will make up for the criticism I had of being too negative about India... :)

We ended up not having class Friday because our instructor was in an autorickshaw accident. (He's ok, just a bit scratched up.) The group of American trainers went to have breakfast at the Taj Connemara (ooh...the Taj). Mmmm...eggs and pancakes! Then we all divided up and went shopping at Spencer Plaza, the local mall. It was a nice way to enjoy the day off.

Saturday, we went for lunch and then went shopping at fabIndia! My future roommate and I went a little crazy there...but I'm very glad that I will be more comfortable and cool (temp-wise) with my clothes. On the way back we stopped at the bar at the Taj Cormandel-Bikes & Barrel. Who knew there would be a biker bar in India? :) Later in the evening, we went out for dinner at Navaratna-the Indian restaurant at Le Royal Meridian. They were having a special Punjabi festival week there along with some live music. It was great-my friend knows people there, so we had quite the special treatment while we were there. Plus, he also knew the musicians and even sang along with them on the stage a bit. It was quite an enjoyable evening.

On Sunday, we met up with some friends of the roommate for a buffet lunch at Meridian. (Lunch in these two instances means the first meal after we wake up.) Then we went off to see the temples in Mahabalipuram for the afternoon. (I'm hoping I can figure out how to get pictures on here soon!) On the way back, we stopped at Taj Fisherman's Cove for some great seafood! Mmmm.

Wow...now that I'm looking at this, we had quite the upper class tour (or Taj tour!) this weekend! :) This is the India I'm more used to from my vacation here! :)

Indian surnames

Yesterday I was talking with the guy who brings our dinner. He introduced himself with a surname of Thomas. Excitedly, I said to him, "You're not from around here then!" and he confessed that he was from Kerela. I was so excited because I've always been amazed at the way Indians are able to tell where someone is from, just by their surname. I mean, I could never do that in America. True, Thomas is a pretty easy one [Thomas=Christian name=large Christian population=Kerela] but I'll take any small step! :)

Training...

Ok I'm finally starting to feel normal again. The previous night I only got a couple of hours of sleep...but then last night I finally slept through without waking up at 3 AM. I managed to sleep until my alarm went off-5:15 AM-and probably could have slept even later, which is pretty normal for me. :) Can you believe I have to be at work at 7AM? UGH! I'm still not a morning person...so it's good that things don't really start until 8:30 or so anyway...gives me time to have some coffee. :)

The training program has been...interesting. We've been studying phonetics...much more in depth than I ever thought about. I actually find it quite difficult to break down my sound patterns into phenomes and describe them (which I had to do this morning: How do you describe where you put your tongue to make the /r/ sound?) So, I'll have to practice quite a bit. I know it will make me a better tutor when (if? :) ) I get back to the states.

It's funny, though, our manager came in and started promising all these tours of the city and stuff to help acclimate us. It will be interesting to see if anything actually happens. Pretty much like managment back in the US I think. :)

All in all I'm pretty pleased with the training thus far. I'm just worried about being a "teacher" instead of being a "tutor".

I've Arrived!

So, I've arrived and I'm in training now...before lunch I was starting to doze a bit, but I'm hoping that lunch will help wake me up.

So, Chennai is...interesting. I think I like what I see so far. The company? Leaves a bit to be desired in setting arriving people up. When I first arrived, I got put in a company apartment that had been hastily vacated. Other than being messy, it was pretty nice. They said that it would be two days before I moved into the new apartment, so I was expecting it to be a week or so (good old IST!) :) But, the apartment was actually "ready" later that night. Apparantly there is quite a difference between my definition of ready and theirs. It looks like this new apartment hasn't been inhabited in quite some time. All over it's pretty dusty and smells pretty musty...but there's something in the kitchen that really reeks! Ew! Upon further investigation I discovered that I'm sharing the new apartment with at least a couple of cockroaches and they are huge! It scared the daylights out of me when I opened the drawer and one of them bounced back and forth so fast before I discovered what it was.

Luckily one of the guys that came to pick us up from the airport took me around a bit in the evening on his bike. (!!!!) We went out and sat on the beach and watched the Bay of Bengal. It was so relaxing!

Itinerary

So here's my itenerary...

FR 15APR LV ROCHESTER NY 115P US AIRWAYS 2315Y OK
AR NYC/LAGUARDIA 222P

FR 15APR AIRPORT TRANSFER CONFIRMED
TRANSFER FROM LAGUARDIA TO JFK AIRPORT REQUIRED
NEW YORK AIRPORT SERVICE EXPRESS

FR 15APR LV NEW YORK/KENNEDY 700P BRITISH AIR 174M OK
AR LONDON/HEATHROW 655A

SA 16APR LV LONDON/HEATHROW 140P BRITISH AIR 35M OK
AR MADRAS/CHENNAI 355A

I'm a little worried about the getting in at 4:00 AM and then having to work the next day (probably also in the morning) Luckily there are 2 others also flying in on this flight, so I won't be the only one struggling... :) Please pray that I'll make it through the day on Monday ok...