A Very Kipling-esque Day

This will likely be my last blog post about India, as I've actually been back in the States for over a week now--but I did want to leave some last thoughts about an incredible day I had there.

I have to admit that when I was preparing to go to Italy, I had all sorts of visions straight out of a Rudyard Kipling book: spice-scented air, women balancing urns on their heads while walking in saris, snake-charmers, monkeys--you get the drift.

But thus far, I hadn't really seen much of that. I saw a lot of modern buildings, a lot of poverty, a lot of fascinating things--but none of the visions from my head. Until the day we went to Rajasthan.

As part of our trek to the Taj Mahal, we planned a day in Jaipur in Rajasthan, a region of India a couple of hours away from Delhi. I was super excited for this, as I'd been promised that not only would I see elephants there, but I'd also be able to ride one! Couldn't wait. My friends had booked a hotel in Jaipur, that was supposed to be historic--an old villa that was turned into a bed and breakfast, and we were going to spend 2 nights there.

So after seeing the Taj Mahal, tired, hot, sweaty, we once again boarded the train to head over to Jaipur. I was looking forward to this, because it was a sleeper train. I love sleeper trains. I can clearly remember the first time I ever slept in a sleeper car headed to Rome from Torino with Max, the Raimondos and Grassos. It was a big thrill, and still kind of is for me today. And this sleeper car didn't disappoint--it was really similar to the sleeper cars in Italy, except that the cabins don't close off completely with a door--they have a curtain hanging to block off some light and obtain some privacy. But as soon as we boarded the train for our 4-hour trek to Jaipur, I scrambled into a top bunk, balled up a sweater as a pillow, pulled one of the provided damp sheets over me and passed out for nearly the whole trip. Sleeping through travel is the way to go!

The only small glitch in my sleeper train experience came at the very end of the journey. I'd woken up, climbed down from the top bunk, and sat down on the bench with a couple of the other girls. I had my rather large backpack on my lap, and couldn't see around it. I felt a brush on my leg, and Geetika said to me, "Sorry--I was just brushing a cockroach off you." All calmly. Like that is a totally normal thing to say. Ummm. Not so much.

"What??!!??"

I scream and jump off the bench. People are looking at me with barely disguised laughter. "Seriously??" I am now turning left and right, trying to make sure they aren't crawling all over me.

"Don't worry!" I am told. "They're just little ones." And then I see. Having sat back down on the bench, I look up to the bottom of the upper bunk above me. They're everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Crawling. And yes, they're not so large, but that's not the point, is it? "They like the dark," I'm told. "Come sit here where there's more light; they're not over here."

Oh my God. They like the dark. It was dark where I was sleeping. I bet I was literally COVERED with roaches!! Shiver goes down spine. Thank God it was the end of the train trip!
*Side note: due to my reaction to the roaches, my friends convinced me to go return trip to Delhi via airplane. And since the ticket was only $40, that's what I did!

We did survive the roach episode, though, and arrived at our incredibly beautiful hotel in Jaipur. It was so pretty. Just all decorated in painted tiles with plenty of balconies and a wonderful pool.

Here's a view of the inside of the hotel:

Pretty, right?

The next day we spent the whole day fulfilling all of my Indian dreams. And first on the list: the elephant ride. We took a cab to a fort outside Jaipur called "Amer Fort." It was another old fort & palace, that is well known for a room made of mirrors called the Sheesh Mahal. And the best way to reach it: by elephant. It's a fairly steep climb. So the first thing we did when we arrived was to book an elephant. There are a ton waiting to take you up:

Here I am on the elephant! We actually went up to the top of a high ridge, and then they brought the elephant up to it, so you just sat down in the carriage on top of it. We were sitting sideways on the elephant. And here are Smita and me, ready for the ascent:

So we went all around the fort, saw the Sheesh Mahal which was really gorgeous. It sparkled, and back in its hey-day it must have been incredible, studded with jewels and lit with candles everywhere. The Indian princesses definitely lived the good life. It was a wonderful place to visit, but the best part for me came at the end of the tour, because outside the palace, I saw a snake-charmer!!!

A real-life snake-charmer and man, did he look the part! He could have been any snake-charmer in any book or Indiana Jones movie. Check him out! The cobra he was charming was too funny, too, because when I set down some money for him, he turned to look at me as if to say, "thanks!"

After leaving the Fort, our afternoon was spent in all kinds of Angie-heaven. We went shopping for beautiful silk scarves, spent time lounging at our hotel pool, and even went for lunch at--guess where?
Pizza Hut. And I even got pepperoni on my pizza (pork is hard to come by in India)!

Finally, to cap off my great Indian Day, we went to a very cool, slightly Disney-like place for the evening called Chokhi Dhani. (Cho-key Dah-nee) It's a recreation of an old Rajhastani village, and man, did they deliver for me! We entered to the sound of music and drums, and the first thing that happened is that a woman painted a red bindi on my forehead (those are the red dots that Indian women decorate their foreheads with as a symbol of their strength and femininity and wisdom). I was then slapped with a turban and pulled into some dancing by some musicians playing traditional music. Much as I wanted to resist, I was no party-pooper! So here I am:

We went on to visit a traditional house. I peered in the windows, thinking there would be recreated interiors, statues of people, maybe...it was way better than that. There was an old wizened woman squatting in one corner, making traditional food over a fire, which she served to us in bowls made from molded leaves. And like any grandmother, she encouraged us to "Eat! Eat!" and to have seconds:

And there was so much more. There were camels and monkeys, palm readers and men giving massages. I even had my hands painted with henna. In fact, if you look very closely at my left palm, you can still see the remnants of my henna tattoo:

And the coolest part of the evening came at the end, when we had a traditional Rajhistani dinner. We entered the open-air restaurant, and the first thing we had to do was to remove our shoes. There was a washbin, and everyone had to wash their hands (since you'd be eating with them). We then were seated on cushions around a low table, and served water and a kind of yogurt drink. Several men served us up ladle after ladle of various soups, dals, chutneys, curries--all eaten with bread. It was so much fun! Definitely an experience.

So although I spent another 5 days in India after that, I mark that as the cherry on my Indian sundae. In one day I:

-rode an elephant
-traveled by camel
-got a henna tattoo
-had my future told by a palmist
-ate a traditional dinner on the floor
-was entertained by a snake charmer

What's left for me in this world, I ask you?

Stay tuned for that answer...I'll be blogging from Costa Rica in December. :)

Namaste.

The Taj Mahal

One cool thing that I got to do this past weekend in India, and that many people would love to do is visit the Taj Mahal. It's like seeing the Eiffel Tower in France, or the Colosseum in Italy, or the Great Wall of China--it's a landmark that most kids can even identify, but a landmark that's always seemed so foreign and far away. And here I was, going to see it.

We set off after lunch. It was probably close to 100 degrees outside, so we tried to wait until it was a little cooler in the afternoon. We had our trusty Indiana cab driver take us there, but they can only get within a couple of kilometers, as they're limiting traffic to the Taj Mahal. Over more recent years, pollution from industry and vehicles have been darkening the Taj's signature bright white color, so they're trying to minimize damage by keeping cars away.

To my delight, that meant that we got to take an alternative form of transportation to the Taj Mahal itself. Rickshaw, horse, carriage, camel carriage...

Well, which would you choose?

Duh, camel carriage!

Our camel, whose name happened to be Bubloo, took us within walking distance of the Taj. I have to say, it's hella cool to ride by camel, but it's quite bumpy. Or should I say humpy??

From where our camel dropped us, we still had quite a hike to the Taj Mahal itself. As you approach, you hit a beautiful pink and white building, and as you near that, you can start to see the Taj through a tunnel in that building. When you enter, they make you go through a metal detector, and then each person is individually screened (side note--this happens everywhere in India, including shopping malls). They confiscate any food, beverages or gum that you have--they want to protect the site. I was super proud of myself that I was able to hide my pack of gum and therefore allow for plenty of chewing later in the day.

So we were through security, and all of a sudden, there we were: in front of the Taj Mahal. It is impressive. It's huge, and very white and imposing. There were about a thousand other people there, all taking pictures. We must have taken a million photos, and I don't really know what I'm going to do with all of them! Just like anywhere you go, you have to take funny pictures of the monument. At the Leaning Tower of Pisa, you take pictures where you pretend to hold it up. And here, you take "Tiny Taj" pictures. For instance:

And here are some other fun photos for you:

I'm sure that most people know this, but the Taj Mahal is actually a tomb that was designed by a grieving king for his wife who had died. You can go inside the Taj Mahal to continue touring. Since this is a Muslim mosque, you must remove your shoes before entering. Actually, here is something interesting. In India, there are always 2 entry prices: one for locals, and one for foreigners. It's about 20 rupees for foreigners, 750 for foreigners. I think this is completely fair, as it allows them to collect revenue from the "richer" tourists and keeps these beautiful monuments accessible to their own citizens. Anyway, I mention that because your 750 rupees as a foreigner also gets you free shoe covers, so you don't have to take off your shoes if you don't want to. However, it felt so sinful (complete irony here) to walk around barefoot in this mosque, so I went shoeless.

Interesting vignette: all 22,000 workers who toiled for 21 years to create the Taj Mahal were rewarded by having their hands chopped off so they could never build anything as beautiful again.

And that's my adventure at the Taj Mahal!

Trip to Agra Part 2: Pink Palaces & Avoiding Indiana

When I previously left you, we had just arrived at the Agra train station, haggled for a cab, and set off on the day's adventure. We were now barreling down the road in our SUV, hindi music blasting, excitement level at a high. I was in traffic seventh-heaven. Delhi had nothing on the outskirts of Agra for interesting out-the-window traffic watching.

Which reminds me. I must digress here just a moment to reflect on the multitude of traffic options available to one here. It's not limited to planes, trains and automobiles. Let me just give you the run-down of modes of transportation I took in about a 36-hour period:

• cab
• train
• rickshaw
• camel carriage
• elephant
• airplane

It boggles my mind.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, my favorite topic: India traffic. It definitely wasn't quite as jam-packed as in Delhi, but oh the sights to see. Fruit peddlers of every sort, rickshaws everywhere, naked children running around, monkeys climbing up the sides of buildings, men being given a shave in a chair by the roadside...so much eye candy! I even saw about a hundred cows out for an early-morning swim in a small lake.

Banana Peddler:

What do you think is on top of this car??

Clean Cows

With all of that to look at, the trip seemed very fast, and before I knew it, we were at our first destination: an ancient fort called Fatehpur Sikri. We'd be heading to the Taj Mahal later--we thought it might be better to avoid going in the hottest part of the day.

Fatehpur Sikri is this big huge palace from the 1500s built by Emperor Akbar. He was the king of the Mughal Empire--before the British came to stir things up; India had been divided into several principalities. Much like Italy.  The story goes that the palace was built to celebrate the birth of Akbar's long-awaited son. If I remember well, it was his 3rd wife who finally gave him the son (the other 2 were still hanging around), and so he prized her with the most beautiful building on the complex.

Anyway, it is an incredibly beautiful and well-preserved palace, all done in a red sandstone, so it has a dark pink color...really impressive. We had a guide for the morning, so we really got to learn some fun things! Example:  the king had a bed that sat on a very high platform made of stone. In the cold winters, they'd build a fire beneath it to keep him warm. In the hot summers, they'd actually flood the room with water, and that would keep him cool!

Here I am at Fatehpur Sikri:

We spent the entire morning at the palace, and then set off to do two things: first, meet up with my friend Bryant, who was cabbing himself to Agra, and second, find a place to eat.

Both proved troublesome.

Since I hadn't known Bryant was going to be in India, and they had already booked out train tickets weeks ago, he had to find separate transportation to come to Agra. He was having an adventure and a half in a horrible traffic jam of the sort where people abandon their cars and just start walking...so it was some time before we could meet up with him.

On the lunch front, our cab driver was driving us crazy by insisting again and again that we eat at his friend's restaurant--a place called Indiana. He was very persistent. We asked him to take us one place, he'd circle around and return to Indiana. We'd ask him to go someplace else--we'd end up at Indiana.
"Take us to Trident Hotel!" No. Indiana. "Take us to the Oberoi!" Ummmm....Indiana. This went on for actually a very long time. He was quite irritated with us and vice-versa.  Most of this went on in Hindi, so I didn't follow extremely well, but eventually, we got him to take us where we wanted to go. Mostly because we were trying to meet up with Bryant, and as long as we were not going to eat lunch at the meeting-place, he finally complied.

We nailed down a hotel where we could meet up with Bryant, and exited the car. And guess what?
We stayed for lunch.

Trip to Agra Part 1: Trains, No Planes, and Automobiles

Whew! The weekend was so full and amazing and colorful and hectic that I don't even really know where to begin. My awesome auto pod here in India took time out of their own lives this weekend to take me on a tour of the "Golden Triangle"--which is how the zone from Delhi to Agra to Jaipur is referred to. It's an area of the country full of history: old forts, historic temples (including the Taj Mahal)...we went in search of food, sun, sightseeing, history--and maybe a little bit of drinking and craziness.

The players in this game were me, 5 gorgeous and extremely cool girls from my team, 1 guy from the team (an adorable 21-year old who really put up with a lot being with 6 girls the whole time--all older than him), and Bryant--my unexpected American Google travel companion throughout this Indian experience. The game plan was to leave Delhi very early Saturday morning, take a train to Agra, see the Taj Mahal and some other sites, and then leave for 2 nights in Jaipur, returning to the office Monday morning.

So here's how it went:

Saturday morning.
Approximately 3:45 a.m.

wah-wah-wah-wah-wahh
My alarm's going off and it's waaaaaaayy too early. Can I hit snooze? Do i dare? My teammate Madhumita is on her way over in a cab to pick me up. What if she gets here and I'm not ready? I can't keep her waiting. I can't make us miss the train. I can't leave this guest house without make-up on. Yep--gotta get out of bed. Waaaaaahhhhh...I'm a less-than-happy camper.

But I drag myself to the bathroom, slap some make up on my face, slide into my clothes, grab my laptop bag (which sans laptop has now become my weekend luggage) and sneak through the quiet guest house down the stairs, hoping to avoid waking the whole place.

Downstairs Madhu has arrived along with her dad (he's accompanying us to the train station to make sure we're ok--did I tell you these people were the kindest ever, or what?), and I can hardly complain about getting out of bed at 3:45 when they got up at 3:00 to come get me! We pile into the cab, which takes us to the central train station in Delhi. We arrive there around 5:15, a bit early for our 6:00 train, and you'd never know there it was still the middle of the night. The place is teeming with humanity. There are people as far as the eye can see...lining up for trains, looking for platforms, and tons and tons just camped out sleeping on the train station floor. I'm glad Madhumita's dad has come with us. We stick close to the cab while we wait for the others to arrive from their respective homes.

Saturday morning
Approximately 6:00 a.m.

Eventually everyone gets there, and we mill about waiting for our train. We have a 2-hour trip to Agra, in a train car called AC3. I was a little nervous about the train in India--not gonna lie--I love trains in Europe, but I'd heard stories...so I'd looked up the exact train car on Google. I was happy to discover that this was a nice air-conditioned car with reserved seating. My hopes were high, and when the train pulled up, it did not disappoint. We had nice clean, spacious seats, with little foot rests and tray tables and all. A woman passed through the aisle handing everyone a complimentary bottle of water, and we were off! I had big plans to sleep on the train, but as often happens when I meet new forms of public transportation, I don't want to miss any of the show--so I stayed wide awake. I was delighted to see that they were offering a free breakfast service. They came around and gave everyone a little tray, asking if they wanted veg or non-veg. Vegetarian dishes are called simply "veg" here. Definitely makes more sense. Anyway, the veg version came with a paper packet in which were 2 slices of bread, a pat of butter, some jam, some kind of fried roll, a dish of some sort of curry, and 2 chocolates. (Non-veg included an omelet). Then they came around with tea. Nice!

Here's a picture of the train. Note that it's dark. It's early!

Here I am on the train with Madhumita, who picked me up, and Tirthanker--the token guy of our group. We call him Bose (his surname), as Tirthanker is a mouthful. He's only pretending to sleep.

Saturday morning

Approximately 8:30 a.m.

(Man--this post is getting long, and it isn't even 9 am!)

Before we knew it, we were in Agra. And the first thing we needed to do was to find transportation for the day. One great thing about India is that taxis are everywhere, they're cheap (at least by my standards), and you can easily rent them for an entire day to just chauffeur you around. Right outside the train station were tons of taxis, rickshaws, buses, and other forms of transport--the haggling was about to begin. I love to watch the Indians haggle. They love to get a deal and are natural salespeople. Most of it goes on in Hindi, so unfortunately, I miss the finer points--but I get the gist. I am a horrible haggler. I end up either just paying what they ask, as I'm too impatient to bargain, or get irritated when they won't come way down in price and end up leaving without the item I want to buy! It's a fine art of which I am sadly ignorant.

Haggling takes a while, as the good ones have patience, and it was at least half an hour before we were settled with a car. We managed to get a small SUV for the day that sported a middle row with a 3-seater bench and 2 chairs facing sideways in the back row. I was lucky enough to never have to sit in the waaaay back. We were all lucky, actually, as sitting for hours in a vomit-smelling car would not have been nice. But we were off! We had an awesome SUV with semi-working air conditioning, a driver who looked like an Indian version of one of my ex-boyfriends, and the driver's MP3 player full of Hindi pop music. It was destined to be a good day.

Tune in again to see what happens next!

East Meets Westin

Now as much as I love Indian food-- and I do! I needed a serious break from it. There's only so much rice I can even eat, and that's saying something.  So tonight my buddy Bryant and I thought we'd take a break from the usual and seek out some Western-style food.

Quite close to our Guest House is a huge Westin hotel. We thought we'd walk down there for dinner as they surely had some international cuisine. Keep in mind, this is something I'd never do alone. The Guest House itself is nice, but the street in front slightly resembles a war zone. But the Westin was just down the street. No big deal, right!

Wrong.

It started out OK. We walked out of our building and down to the gate. We headed down the street in the direction of the Westin, which we could see quite clearly in front of us. Within a few blocks, all Hell had broken loose.  I've never seen such humanity! All of a sudden, there were people everywhere, and the sidewalk disappeared leaving us in the middle of the road.... competing with cars, trucks, rickshaws, cows, mothers, babies, beggars--you name it. We were swept into the sea of people, most of whom were extraordinarily impoverished.  We needed to cross the road twice, and there are no crosswalks... you just have to cross in the middle of traffic that doesn't stop for you. Bryant said it best: it was like a real-life game of Frogger.

Anyway we finally made it to the Westin, and it was so worth the trouble! Entering the grounds was like arriving at an oasis. A beautiful oasis with fish and chips and Carlsberg beer. I wanted to check in and never leave! But eventually we did head home. In a luxury car arranged by the Westin.

It was the perfect retreat. See my happy face?

Tomorrow at 4 am I am off to the Taj Mahal with my incredible team....goodbye for now!

Traffic

Have I mentioned that I am enthralled by the traffic? Only 3 or 4 times, right? I mean, I'm sorry, but it is incredible. I can't wait to get in my cab each day just so I can experience the traffic again. I see the most uncommon things.

Witnessed on the highway:

• Women riding sidesaddle on the back of a motorcycle
• 7-8 people crammed into a rickshaw
• 2 men driving a huge tractor down the street with the name "Blow Horn" painted on it
• Children under 5 in the street

So here are a couple of my favorite pictures of Indian traffic for you:

Not only is the woman riding side-saddle, but there is another woman and a child on the bike, and only the driver's bothering with a helmet!!

Apparently, even the goats like rickshaws. I hope he charged them full price.

Snacks!

Snacks in the Gurgaon office micro-kitchen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One thing I love anywhere I travel is local junk food. Packaged goodies. Chips and cookies. Candy bars and gum. Anything that is pre-packaged and contains plenty of mono unsaturated whatever-you-call-ems. When I walked into the Gurgaon office's micro-kitchen (that's Google speak for snack bar), I found the holy grail of local junk food. LJF, if you will.

I haven't even known where to begin in my exploration of all of this caloric goodness...but I definitely went for the items with the coolest names, like "Nut-Cracker" and "Tiger Krunch." What is a nut-cracker, you might ask? Well--turns out, it is just that. They are peanuts with a cracker coating. Nut. Cracker. Cracker. Nut. And then they were covered in all sorts of spicy goodness like paprika, cardamom, cinnamon, chili powder...the ingredient list went on and on.

They also have variations on treats we have in the U.S.--like strawberry-flavored Juicy Fruit gum and Lime flavored orbit gum. Who knows what tomorrow will bring for me when Snack Attack hits me at the office. Could it be the masala-flavored potato chips? Or the Good Day cashew cookies? Tune in next time to find out.

 

Modern Technology

Anyone who says that things were better before all this technology never got the chance to read their kids halfway around the world a bedtime story using Skype.

Small World

I walked into the breakfast room this morning, expecting to be all alone, when who should I see but a Googler from our Ann Arbor office! It was Bryant--actually my trainer from nearly 5 years ago. It was so fun to run into someone I knew, and now I have a travel buddy. We went out with all of my teammates after work this evening, and hopefully, he'll be able to join us in Jaipur this weekend.

Here we are at the Delhi Haat Market. Note my cool new Indian duds.

First Day at Work

Last night I was so exhausted from jet lag finally kicking in that I was in bed by 9:00--and so haven't had time to update my blog until now!

Yesterday was my first day of "work" in India and I thought I'd run it down for you!

7:45 - I make my way bleary-eyed out of my room (only got one hour of sleep) and into the guest house lobby. There I find the breakfast table all set up for me with carafes of water, milk, 4 kinds of juice, tea and coffee all spread out. I'm asked: do I want pancakes or an omelette? Wow. This I could get used to! I wolf down some food and am told 5 minutes later than my car has arrived for me. (I like this babysitting--this must be how my kids feel in the mornings).

8:00 - I am en route to the office and this is the first time I think I've fully experienced Indian traffic in the full light of day. Contrary to my prior post, this place is nothing like the United States! Happily. I'm glad to experience something completely different.  Cars, motorcycles, auto rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, pedestrians, bikers, dogs, cows all compete for space on the highway. The honking is incessant. Marco would love it! I see piles and piles of garbage on the sides of the road mixed with sleeping dogs, street food vendors, people brushing their teeth in the water from mudpuddles. I am desperate to take pictures but it is competing with a very strong sense of comportment in me that won't allow me to offend my driver by photographing the chaos. Hopefully I will overcome that feeling and have some pictures for you!

8:20 - I am driven into Cyber City--a huge complex of high-rise buildings which house all the major international technology companies: Google, Yahoo, Ericsson--you name it. I'm driven into a parking garage where I get out and take the elevator to the 9th floor of the Google building. I've arrived! And it looks unsurprisingly--just like a Google office. Next to my seat there is a little futon bed on the floor. I want to get in it.

8:45 - I've met my team and they've ushered me into the cafeteria so I can have breakfast #2! There is a huge spread of food for breakfast in the cafe. The strangest and most interesting breakfast I have ever seen. As I work my way around the counter I see trays of rolls, toast with jam, various Indian pancakes and steaming bowls of various curries...there are also hot dogs and french fries with honey (??), rice and vermicelli dishes, waffles, a fruit bar, tea--a complete hodgepodge. Luckily, they have a whole Costa Coffee counter where I can get a cappuccino. I have a second breakfast of fried cheese and vermicelli. Yum!

9:30 - While at breakfast, it was decided that the team would have an "offsite" this morning and take me to the movie theater. We got in a bunch of cabs and headed to a nearby shopping mall (the biggest in India, and it must rank amongst the largest anywhere) to see Crazy, Stupid Love. It was actually a really good film! (But I was the only person who liked it AND who cried 3 times during the movie)
And then I stayed behind with 3 other girls to do more shopping. I bought 2 salwar kameez--typical Indian clothes consisting of a long tunic over loose fitting pants. These are fantastic! It's like wearing pajamas but you look so put together. And they're colorful and fun! I felt so drab in my blah American clothing. I keep buying them. I wonder if I'll wear them when I get home?

2:30 - Between movie-going and shopping, it was 2:30 when we finally got back to the office. We got home by auto rickshaw--the other girls couldn't wait to see me in one! It was very much like being in an Italian Ape car. I'm attaching a picture below! We survived the trip, and I did a good 2 hours of work before I was rushed out the door by my team. It seems that if you don't leave by 5 sharp, you might as well stay until 7:30...as traffic gets so bad that it will take you hours to get home.

5:00 - Getting home consisted of going back down to the parking garage, where tons of people are milling about, workers, cab drivers, Domino's delivery drivers (yes, Domino's)...a couple of people who are "in charge" are yelling for people who live nearby to get into cabs. I was shoved into a cab with 2 other girls who both got dropped off before me. This was actually kind of good, as I got to see some residential areas. The first was a nice, quiet street, but the second I can only describe as all sorts of chaos and squalor. The car could barely move for all of the people in the street...a man selling apples was pounding on my window with an apple--presumably to get me to buy one? Women were squatted on the ground making tea, more cows were weaving in and out--complete. chaos. I was fascinated.

8:00 - Knock-knock at my door; my dinner is ready and I am escorted to the dining room, where I ate a large Indian meal with 2 girls staying in the guest house from Hyderabad (another city in India). They served a chicken soup that was so spicy my lips were burning and I could hardly eat it--but it was so delicious that I could not stop eating it, and just enjoyed the agony. We also had some rice and yogurt with some kind of vegetarian stew and chicken. They topped it off with some chocolate ice cream!

9:00 - Exhausted and jet-lagged, I pass out for the night.

That's all for now! I am going out to an Indian Bazaar with my teammates--more to come.

Nicest People Ever...

So I haven't hied myself out of my room yet, as I am still, at 2:00 pm, lounging in bed in my pajamas. I just got a knock at my door and it was the guest house staff with lunch for me on a tray! They are so, so nice. They're taking better care of me than I am of myself. They brought me a grilled chicken breast, french fries and ketchup and veggies. So nice! If I can actually get myself dressed today, I will go into Delhi to meet my colleagues later.

They just knocked again and brought me cold bottles of water. They always give me 2 at a time, so I am starting a collection...

First Impressions

Well, it's about 1:00 a.m. in India and I have finally arrived, safe and sound at my guest house. So far, it's been pretty uneventful! (Not that much can happen between arriving at the airport and cabbing it to the apartment). I was surprised to arrive at the airport and find that it looked like it could pretty much be any airport at any city in the U.S.--in fact, very clean and pretty. Pepsi definitely has the corner on the Delhi airport market--there's a Pepsi vending machine in every corner! My dad will be happy to know he could get his Diet Pepsi here.

So I was a little disappointed to see that everything looks much as it does in the U.S. The people have been super friendly--the customs control guys were so nice. My impression that it seemed very much like--well--Florida, I guess (as it was hot and steamy when we stepped outside) kept up into the airport parking lot (where we got in a nice Toyota minivan) and onto the expressway. I was very thankful, by the way, to have my awesome chauffeur waiting for me in his crisp, white uniform. He just led the way, and forcefully! He bullied us onto the elevator before the others waiting in line, then just rolled my suitcase right over the feet of a poor guy on the people mover who didn't get out of his way fast enough. I just had to follow along behind.

Anyway, it was on the first bend of the expressway that I started to notice things. I was just noticing a couple of poor stray dogs on the side of the road, when I noticed a much larger dog standing next to them. No wait--it was a donkey...nope, a cow. And there were a few more standing next to him! (The power just went out, by the way)--my computer is luckily on batteries. Hoping I did not do that by having the AC on too long???

Where was I? Oh cows. Yes and then as we pulled up to the toll booth, I started noticing some of the stranger vehicles around me. There was the bus of my nightmares--meaning--chock-full of people, little kids all sticking their heads out, all the windows down (so no air conditioning), piled high with luggage on top covered with a tarp...then a rainbow-painted TaTa pick up, and lots of people just kind of milling about near the toll booths, talking to people in the cars. Hmmm. So this is much more exciting for me!

On the down side, it does look like I will be a little confined to my guest house while I'm here--the area just outside does not look very safe for me to walk about in...camped just outside the gated apartment complex were tents, large mounds of garbage, and shady looking characters peeing into the street. So, I guess I should stick to cabs and drivers. I have tomorrow free--so I am not sure what will develop yet. The power just went off again. I wonder if this happens all the time?

Camera Drama

Now this will probably be the most boring post ever for most of you, but it has been consuming my life for the past couple of days.

I cannot get a friggin' camera to work.

I haven't had this much camera drama since you had to develop film...which inevitably came back undeveloped.  Well....or there was the Great Camera Drama of 2006 when I maybe accidentally reformatted the SD card with all of our pictures from the Turin Winter Olympics on it....lost them all...got in a huge fight with Marco....but I digress.

It all started with my reading that one should not be caught out on the streets of India with a big, fancy camera around one's neck. So I decided, of course, not to take my nice digital SLR to India. Instead, I thought I'd take the little point and shoot I bought in L.A. last May, when I also decided it was a bad idea to take the nice camera with me.

So last night at home I dutifully plugged it in to make sure it was nice and charged for my trip. Marco went out and bought me a new SD card with 4GB of memory so I could take tons of pictures. I packed and went about my business.

Two hours later, I went to unplug my camera to pack it. I turned it on-- nothing. Huh? What? I plugged it back in.No little light, no nothing. Is it the right charger? I spend a good hour going through chargers, trying everything--nada. Keep in mind this damn camera is less than 6 months old.

Then just as I am about to lose it, Marco reminds me that I still have my friend Nate's old camera which he so kindly lent me 2 years ago and which I so conveniently never gave back. Great! I throw the Charlie-chewed thing (Nate are you reading this??) in my carry-on, shove in the fancy new memory card and I'm off.

Today,  as I was leaving the Louvre in Paris,  killing time before my flight to India, I took out the camera to snap a couple of pics of the beautiful Tuileries gardens. I turn on Nate's camera: "Memory Card Error."

@#$% &%#$ #%&@ @%$%

I am NOT happy.

I take the card out. I put it in. I turn it around. I turn the camera off, I turn the camera on. I try to reformat it. Nothing. In desperation I turn to Google,  where I read that possibly the fancy new card isn't compatible with a crappy old camera. I need a new SD card.  A bad new SD card.

So I do what any normal,  red-hot blooded American girl would do: I hit the Champs-Elysses for some shopping.

The long and the short of it?

Thank God for:

Google
The Virgin MegaStore
...and this awesome Pinkalicious bar where I'm drowning my sorrows with a tall one.

Incredible!

So I just got off of my first flight to Paris, and something happened that has never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever happened in all my 20 years of flying : I slept for THE ENTIRE FLIGHT!

It changes everything.

By the way, I am really feeling good now about going to India and the type of people I will find there. I had a 20 minute conversation at the Detroit airport with the woman working at the Duty Free...she is from Delhi. Besides being incredibly helpful and nice, she gave me her email address and the phone number of her brother in law who is a doctor there!  However,  she did tell me to wear socks so I don't get malaria.  Too bad I packed all sandals.

It's raining in Paris.

It's Not What I've Done to Get Ready...

It's what I haven't done! T-2.5 days until takeoff and I have not done the following:

• Packed
• Gotten any kind of vaccinations
• Made sure Marco snags me some Ciprol so I don't die of dysentery
• Planned any kind of travel while in India
• Bought gifts for my India team
• Planned the trainings I should conduct there
• Paid the bills before I leave
• Made Marco a survival guide
• Planned Sophie's birthday party so she isn't stuck party-less when I get home
• Gotten my hair colored, fake tanned, or scheduled a pedicure.

I'm pretty much screwed.

I Have a New Blog!

Well, I've never been good at blogging--I'll try to be better this time! I'm off to India in 3 short days, and wanted a way to share all of my thoughts and experiences with everyone. This probably won't help Italian-speakers very much, but it should still do the trick! Please be patient with me while I figure things out, and see you online!