Saturday Fun

Today we had lunch at a buffet with the entire team (at least those that could make it). It was a lot of fun. Most of the ladies dressed up in traditional Indian dress (myself included). Tons of snaps were taken throughout the event. The kind of weird thing was that when someone got up to get more food, someone else took their seat. So, the four times that I got up I ended up in different seats. I really didn't mind that. The only real issue was keeping track of my water to make sure that I was only drinking the bottled water. But everyone is very protective of their guests, so it wasn't really an issue.

There was talk of going out after the lunch, but I think everyone was too full and sleepy to come up with a plan, so I am back at the hotel. We've been having some power surges... hopefully my computer isn't too unhappy about that.

So the outfit that I wore today... last night at work I was talking with Sunita about what we were wearing. Last visit we had similar outfit. I told her I was wearing that. For some reason, we decided that I should get a new "party" outfit for the lunch. So we rushed over to the mall. Closed. Rushed to HyperCity (kind of reminds me of Target) and quickly found a purple outfit for me. Then we went back to work. I think we were only gone for about 20 minutes. Nice work!

Today when I got back to my room, it had been cleaned. I think it must have been a different cleaner because he rearranged some of my stuff and put my laptop bag on the luggage rack instead of leaving it on the floor. He also turned the bed lamp on and pointed the beam of light onto a little rabbit-in-a-hat that I have on the night stand (reminder of Ben because he gave that to me years ago). How sweet is that?

Power just flickered again...

Surendra (from my team) and me in my new outfit.

Busy Day

Today I woke up really wanting to roll over and ignore the alarm. But I wanted to get my daily fix of Ben, so I got up to talk to him. Then it was time to start getting ready for the day. I went into Powai to meet Neetha. She was going to show us a silver shop because Debi and Bonita wanted to buy presents for their daughters. After shopping we went to the GMI offices. Debi and Bonita had a meeting with one of the groups that they work with. Neetha and I headed back out for a quick lunch. I also got to meet all of Ben's team. It was fun. Some I meet last time I was there and some were new to the team. One asked where the cookies were (last time Ben made chocolate chip cookies for me to bring them). I told them that when he comes in January, I would be sure to have him bring some. I worked for a bit and then we got a tour of the new office space. It is fantastic. And huge!

After that it was back in the car for the journey to IGS. I had a fun time with my team once again. I had dinner with them again too. I could get used to this...

Oatmeal Soup

The other night, Linda and I decided to splurge and go for the dinner buffet at the hotel. Everything was so good! It was mostly Indian food. One of their soup choices was oatmeal soup. I decided to give that a try. It was pretty good. Tasted a little like oatmeal, but thinner and with a soup taste too. That night I also went crazy at the dessert table. Yum!



Nothing terribly exciting has been going on. Sleeping, working, eating... I have managed to get to the gym another time. So far I have clocked 5.5 miles - only 13 left for my goal.

Work has been great. I have spent a good deal with my team and others. It is so nice to be with them. Saturday everyone is meeting for lunch. I am really looking forward to that. Sunday a few of us are going to Elephanta Island.

Today I am heading over to the GMI India offices. I am meeting my friend Neetha there for lunch. I'm looking forward to seeing her and to meet the rest of Ben's team there.

Monday and Tuesday

Monday Linda and I got to the office around 9 am. It was great to see the day team again. We got our computers set up and then we hit the floor to greet everyone. Debi, Bonita and Sherry came later and we passed out every one's favorites - Dove chocolates! I walked to the mall with some of the travelers and had some delicious tandoori chicken and naan.

Linda and I left the others there around 4. We got back to the hotel and I convinced myself to go for a run. I thought I ran 4 miles, but then this morning I sat and thought about it and realized that I only ran 4 km. No wonder it seemed to easy! Linda and I met for dinner. I had a tuna sandwich and fries. Not that great. Should have stuck with the Indian food. After dinner it was off to bed because we were going to the office early the next morning - 5:30 pickup.

I woke up all of a sudden due to a noise. Not sure if it was real or in a dream (don't really recall dreaming). It was about 20 minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off, so I just decided to stay awake. The day really flew by! Linda and I walked to the mall for lunch. This time I had paneer tikki. It was a starter, but plenty of food for me. A bit on the spicy side, so I cooled down my mouth with some super chocolaty gelato.

Back at the hotel I spent some time by the pool. Mostly in the shade, but it felt good to be outside and warm. Now I'm checking on some emails and soon go downstairs for dinner.

National Park

October 25, 2009
I was able to get some pretty good sleep. I was up and ready to face the day in plenty of time to meet my friends at 11 am. While I was in the lobby waiting for them, I talked with Roth (or something like that) a guest service person here at the hotel. He was very nice. When Sunita, Hiren, Mithil and Bhavin got to the hotel we ran into a problem – our confirmed driver wasn’t really confirmed. We had to scramble to get one. After waiting about 30 minutes for the new driver to come, it turned out that we couldn’t all fit in the car. So, some of us went in the car and the other two went on a rickshaw.

Our first stop was the National Park in Mumbai. We saw some ants that live in trees. Well, ok, not the ants, but their home in the tree. Some amazing butterflies (unfortunately they don’t photo too well) and some wild cats. We got so close to the tigers (don’t worry, they were in cages). After visiting the animals, we went to the caves that were carved around BC by some Buddhist monks. It was pretty cool. After climbing around like the monkeys we were surrounded by we left.

We stopped through Bandra to see a few of the Catholic churches in the area. It was a lot cooler there with the ocean breeze. And I saw something that I thought was very amazing – a flock of parrots flying around! They were this beautiful green color. I saw the bright flashes of green and asked my friends what they were. They asked if I had never seen parrots before. Yes, I've seen them, but not in the wild in a flock (is flock even the right term?).

Next stop – something to eat! The team decided on McDonalds. If I weren’t so restricted in my diet, it may have been more interesting. But since I can’t (or at least shouldn’t) eat raw vegetables, there wasn’t a whole lot of “safe” foods. So I had a McChicken sandwich. McDonald's was kind of interesting… since they don’t serve beef; they converted the Big Mac into a chicken sandwich. They also had a veg menu.

After that we headed to an aquarium. That was cool, because I like fish, but it was a little depressing too. Some tanks were in desperate need of a cleaning and most tanks didn't have any rocks for the fish to swim around in and hide in. But it was still neat.

After that we headed back to the hotel. I ordered some room service and called it a night.

Getting Here

October 23, 2009
Today our flight from Minneapolis to Chicago was delayed due to weather. No biggie. We weren’t going to be that late and I was pretty sure that the plane would wait for us. When we landed we hurried off and in organized chaos, ok, really not that bad, found the next gate. We were the last to board and we all got new seat assignments. A few of us were arguing with the gate people and freaking out. I just boarded the plane. I figured I could sort out anything in Frankfurt and I didn’t want to be the cause of the plane being further delayed. My seat was the last in the section and to be honest, I wasn’t even sure the rest of the crew made it on until midway through the flight when I saw a few of them use the bathrooms.

We got to Frankfurt just fine. The ride was a little bumpy but I managed to sleep through most of it (not surprising). For dinner I chose the “Express Dinner” which is served all at once instead of course by course. This was on recommendation of the very nice flight attendant. There was a smoked gouda bisque that was very tasty. I should have asked for seconds on that. I also had a salad with shrimp, some fruit, a roll and a piece of cheesecake for dessert. After dinner, I slept until breakfast time. That was a croissant, fruit, yogurt and juice.

Now I’m in the Lufthansa lounge wasting time. I already bought some Kinder Eggs for my team there. I will buy some for Ben on my way home. I was really hoping for some Brotchen to snack but they don’t have any. Very disappointing. I did have a banana. Exciting, huh? There are some sandwiches available, but I think I might just wait until on the plane again.

There is Wi-Fi here thanks to T-Mobile, but without creating an account, you can only go to the T-Mobile/Lufthansa site. That got boring pretty quickly. So, I thought I would write down my exciting adventures so far. It is somewhat amusing… there’s a guy a few rows away that is fast asleep. I can hear him snoring from here. I’m feeling awake at the moment. Maybe because of my nap. Maybe because it’s light outside. I’m sure I’ll be sleepy again soon. Planes, cars and couches have that effect on me.

Now Connected and in Mumbai - Funny story about security in Frankfurt - I asked the guy if I needed to take the laptop out of my bag (yes). Then I asked about taking off my shoes. He said that it depended on what type of shoes so I kicked a leg up to show him my running shoe. He said, "Well, that one is fine, but I'll have to see the other one too." We was joking and we had a little chuckle over that. Before leaving Frankfurt, I did grab a sandwich. Turns out one was a pretzel roll with herb cream cheese. Yum!

Flight to Mumbai was fine. I tried to sleep through most of it (mostly successful). An hour before we got there they passed out immigration forms and a new H1N1 form too. That was new. It was also new that they did a temperature check on all incoming travelers. I was wondering how they were going to do that. Turns out to be pretty slick - we walked in front of 3-4 cameras that sensed body heat. If yours was elevated, you were separated from the herd to have a health inspection. If you were suspected to have H1N1 you weren't allowed in. My temp was fine.

Ok, that's all for now.

Quinoa, Deer and Pants

Last night I made some quinoa for the first time. According to Wikipedia, it is a grain related to beets, spinach and tumbleweed. I liked it. So did Ben. I guess we will be adding this to our list of food we like (which is a very long list) and to the list of food we can eat (long story). If anyone has a recipe that they like with quinoa, pass it on!

This morning on our walk, all of a sudden Zoey got super excited. She started hopping on her hind legs and pulling my arms out of my sockets. It was pretty dark this morning, but I did make out the outlines of two deer and their white behinds. Zoey really wanted to chase them. Thankfully, I was able to keep her under control and on the leash.

I think today I am retiring my walking pants. This makes me sad as they have been my loyal companion for many years (along with Zoey, of course). The other day the button popped off. No biggie, I can just sew it back on. But then today the zipper broke. While it's true I can fix that too, it sounds like a lot of work for my raggy, stained and worn pair of pants.

Saturday Fun Despite the Snow

A few days back Ben decided that he was going to play in the poker tournament at Canterbury on Saturday. I decided it would be fun to arrange a girl's shopping trip. Unfortunately my usual shopping buddies were all out of town. On Friday night at dinner, Smeeta asked if I wanted to join her, Katie and Karin. Perfect! So yesterday we hit Albertville. They had some ridiculous deals at some places (buy one pair of shoes, get two free). I found a few new tops for me for work and some pants for Ben.

After that we bundled up and changed the group a bit to exclude Karin (other plans) and include James and Rob and we headed out to a corn maze. It was dark out, so armed with some flashlights (and perhaps a flask) we hit the maze. We had a lot of fun trying to get lost and unlost. We went through the maze two times. To warm up after that we headed over to Old Chicago. We were going to get a large pizza, but they were out. ??? So we had some personal sized pizzas. I guess that works. But WAY too much food. But now I have lunch for another day, I guess.

Oh, and most of our snow is gone now. (We only had about 1/4 to 1/2 inch). In shady places it is still hanging out. And we saw a few flakes while shopping. I think we're entering the next ice age here in Minnesota.

Bowlin' and Singin'

Last weekend was my end-of-the season volleyball party. Since we play in the parking lot of a bowling alley, we got free bowling. I brought my friend Levrette along. This was his second time ever bowling. He did remarkably well considering. The first game he was only behind me by 9 pins. The second game you could tell his arm was getting tired. I told him we would try out Wii bowling at some point.

Last night it snowed. Grrr. Don't get me wrong, I love snow, just not in October. I'm trying to work myself up for a run this morning. Which probably means I should get off of my computer to eat a little something. And drink some water.

But before I do that, I'll quick write about last night. We went to dinner with a group of friends. Followed by going to the VFW for some karaoke. It was hilarious. Some people were really good. Others were really drunk. Within the first hour I think "Folsome Prison" by Johnny Cash was song no fewer than 5 times. We were trying to get some from our group to sing it too. We had cash offers for "I'm too Sexy" and "Little Drummer Boy" but no takers.