You have to leave room in life to Dream.
~Buffy Sainte-Marie

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Pool Side

Wednesday I slept in since I was going to be working until 1 am with the night shift (so glad I don't have to do that on a regular basis!). I got up and ready because we were going to go visit a school (the old manager of our team, his wife is a teacher and invited us to visit). I got to the lobby in plenty of time, but didn't see Linda or Baba, our driver. So I waited for a bit before deciding that they had left without me. So I wandered to the pool where I found Heather. She is OK. As well as can be imagined, I guess. She is in work mode where she has pushed her emotions aside so she can focus on getting home without falling apart. She left last night and should be back to Minneapolis by 10 am Thursday (CST).

I changed into my suit and hung out with her until it was time to shower and get ready for work. It was nice to be out in the hot sun. I think a few freckles appeared. :)

Last night was my first night with the IRA team (Issue Resolution Analyst). They are the team that I work with mostly. And they work at night to be able to work similar hours to the people in the states. Once again everyone was super friendly.

Around 8 pm we left during break to visit with Darshana's family. Darshana is one of our team leads and she really wanted us to come to her place. Her family is considered middle-class here. I could not believe how small the apartment is! It is a three room apartment. When you walk in there is a room that is the living and dining room. Off of the short hallway there was a very small bathroom and a kitchen. The final room was the bedroom where Darshana and her parents sleep (she has a trundle bed). This type of living arrangement is very common. But they were some of the happiest people that I have met! Her mother insisted on serving us a "snack." But there was so much that it was more like a meal. Again, can't remember what I ate, but I liked everything. Her mother made sure to keep everything mild so we would enjoy it. I asked Darshana to send the recipes to me.

Then it was back to work. I swear, the time here is just flying by! At one point Linda came up and asked me if it was ok if we stayed 10 more minutes. I looked at my watch and realized that it was already 1 am!

There was very little traffic, so we were back to the hotel in no time.

1 comment:

Sara said...

Heather is in the last hour of her trip home. I'm praying for her.

That's really cool that you got to go to someone's home. I'm sure a lot of business men who travel to India don't get the same luxury.