One Year Ago

One year ago on Saturday I found out that I was pregnant. It was also the day that I left for India for two weeks for work. The timing was perfect! Most importantly, I knew not to take my anti-malaria medication while I was there (does not mix well with developing babies). Also, when I started feeling sick midway through the trip, I knew that it was most likely morning sickness and nothing that I should take medication for (also does not mix well with developing babies). I also knew to be super extra careful about what I ate. But aside from my physical health, it was perfect timing for my mental and emotional well-being. The night before I left, I started to cry (hormones??). I was mad at myself for agreeing to be gone for two weeks. It was the longest I had been away from Ben. And the thought of being away from him was almost too much for me. So, the next morning, when I found out I was carrying Adelyn, it was such a comfort! I wasn't alone in India! And she was my little secret. When I was feeling lonely at night in the hotel, I would place my hand on my belly and talk to the wonderful being that was growing inside of me.

Thank you Adelyn, for coming with me to India. You helped me more than words can describe.

Times Fun When You're Having Flies

(That is a stamp that I saw once).

It has been a super long time since I have updated this. Yikes! In short, here is what has happened:

India: The rest of my time flew by while I was there. Sunday a few of us went to Elephanta Island. It was pretty cool. On Tuesday I started to feel a little crummy (swollen glands) so I tried to sleep as much as I could. Thursday I was showered with gifts from my friends and teams. And then I came home. Getting back to my time zone was ok. I was able to stay awake until bedtime. The only problem was that if I woke up for any reason (bathroom, Ben, Zoey) I wasn't able to fall back to sleep for a couple of hours. But I'm back to normal.

Sleep Out: Every year GMI hosts a sleep out at our JFB location. It's a time for families and friends to camp outside and raise money for the homeless. I was one that volunteered at the food tent. I had so much fun! We were all laughing and having a great time. And, I got to serve a hot dog to our CEO. :) I was thankful that after the food was done I was going home to sleep in my bed instead of outside in a box.

Chili: Yesterday at work we had a chili cook-off. The contestants were the senior leadership group of my division. We had a great turn out and had fun with this event. There was a lot of smack-talk from the leadership. One really funny thing (to me at least) is that one of the crockpots we put in Hormel chili and didn't tell anyone. When we tallied the votes, Hormel was 5th place out of seven. We had a good laugh about that.

Tonight: Ben comes home! He has been in CA for a week for a conference at work. I will be so happy to be home again with him. These last few weeks has been so lonely (first me in India, and now him in CA).

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.

Blur

As I eluded to in my last post, my India trip was very fast. I was surprised how little time I had to do "important" things like updating my blog. Here is a recap...
Monday: Worked the day shift. I learned that my team of 5 processors has been "reduced" to one. The workload has shifted in such a way that one processor can keep up with the work. The other processors have been trained in other areas and helps out in mine if the workload becomes too much. It was so fun to see everyone again. The day went be very quickly. After work I went to the mall with Levrette, Darshana and Sunita for some ice cream.
Tuesday: Adjusted day shift - mostly day hours but we came in late so we could get some time with the night shift when they came in. Got to see the night shift. This is the team that I work mostly with. I got to meet the new additions to my team as well as rekindle friendships with people that I met last trip. Not much other than work this day.
Wednesday: Night shift. I was invited to go down to the cafeteria with my team for dinner. It was fun! I learned that a lot of veg people (vegetarians) "can" eat meat on Wednesdays. This is because the rest of the week they are required to eat veg for their religion. On Wednesdays they don't have to. A couple of the girls were very excited for their chicken. I also got some laughs out of them when I was explaining tanning salons to them. In India light skin is coveted. They even have skin lightening creams much like our self-tanners.
Thursday: During the day I met with Neetha and Vaishali for lunch. These are the two from Ben's team that took me out last time I was there. It was fun to see them again. And lunch was fabulous. Night crew again. But Navin, the manager there, took out the leadership team to dinner. At a Chinese restaurant. So, actual time with the team was quite reduced. I was bummed. But did enjoy the great dinner.
Friday: Split shift. We wrapped up with the day team and presented awards to them. We had a short break where I headed to the mall. I ended up with a super cute pair of shoes. Then back to the office to wrap up with evening team and to again present awards. It was such a sad day as I had to say good-bye once again to all my friends there. I was given gifts by some of the associates. They are so sweet! After work we were back at the hotel to pack up and head to the airport.
Travel: Our flight out of Mumbai was delayed by about 2 hours. This made it so we wouldn't make our connection flight in Atlanta. They changed our flights for us so we wouldn't have to worry about that. After that, everything was fine. I was able to sleep in the plane. I got home around 1 pm. It was so good to be home again. And thankfully, I didn't really experience jet lag. I think the trip in general wore me out enough that my body just wanted to sleep. And being able to have a solid chunk of time on the plane to sleep I think helped too.

Sunday, a little late

This trip is certainly flying by quickly! Here is a recap and some "snaps" of the trip so far.

Sunday: After 3 short hours of sleep, Pat and I met Koyel and our driver, Baba, for some sightseeing. We saw a lot of places. Unique to this trip was the laundry. It is a large area where the laundry is done all by hand. It was a maze of tubs and drying lines.

We stopped by Cafe Leopold for lunch. This name might seem familiar as it was one of the sites that was attacked last November. Bullet holes were still present in some of the walls and windows.

We also went by the Gateway of India and the Taj Hotel. Security is much tighter than when I was here last. (Side note: our hotel is also more secure. There are more guards when you enter. They do a trace test on every vehicle that comes in. In order to use the elevators, you must use your room key. If you take the stairs, you can't get out (learned this the hard way)).

After sightseeing, I took a short nap and then went to my friend Levrette's place for dinner and to meet him and his family. Levrette and I have known each other since I joined GMI, but when I was here last, he was in Canada for training. I had a very nice time with his family. They were all very nice. And his mom is an excellent cook! It was funny, his dad was playing CCR. I told him I knew what it was. The next CD was a sort of jazz remix of music from the 50's and 60's. We talked about the Beatles and the Beach Boys. Next CD - the Beatles! I thought it was funny.

Levrette's niece, Stacy, is super cute. I guess all day long she was asking when I would be there. Once I was there, she hardly talked and was very shy. But we blow some bubbles together and played with Barbies (my favorite!!). Below is Levrette's aunt, mom, Stacy, dad, Levrette, and sister.

Flat Tire

On Friday I started my journey to Mumbai, India. There were 7 of us that were on the same plane to Atlanta. It was kind of funny to look around first class and realize that GMI employees took up more than half of the section. (Don't worry - we were from different groups so we were within GMI's travel policy about number of people on one plane). When the flight attendant took drink orders, I ordered a Mojito. Heather had to help me convince her that I was of legal age. We had a good laugh.

Upon reaching Atlanta we had some time to burn, so we went to the Delta Lounge. I ordered a beer at the bar. The guy looked at me and then said he wouldn't give it to me without ID. So, got my ID to retrieve my beer. He admitted that he thought I was 23. I pointed out that 23 is greater than 21. (I'm so smart!).

Then we got to board the plane - a 777-200LR. Doesn't mean a whole lot to me, but the seats would go to a flat 180 degrees for sleeping. They were pretty sweet. All of us were so junior high-ish - we all took pics of us in our seats (with Champagne, of course). Then we settled in for take off. After sitting around for a while (I hadn't really noticed) the pilot came on saying they were having some issues with the little thing that pulls the plane toward the runway. Apparently they couldn't disconnect us. After trying for a bit, they were able to, but the tire was damaged. So... back to the gate. They then decided they couldn't fix it for us. We got off the plane, got a $7 food voucher (only to find nothing open - except for Ben and Jerry's!!!) and waited for about 6 hours to get a new plane and a new set of crews. Instead of getting in at 9:30 pm, we landed around 4 am. But the flight was fine.

I do have to say that the first flight crew was very nice. I was sad they couldn't make the flight. And so were they. Many of them had made travel plans and shopping plans for their layover in Mumbai. The replacement crew was fine. Very nice people.

Anyway, more to come!

Why I Love My Job

I got this today from one of the members of my team in India:
"Hi Sarah,
Thanks a lot!!!!
we all have done the great work because of your moral support and help each and everytime help us to improve our productivity and flexiblity in our work.
we will definitely continue the same work to hit the target line every time.
Thanks for the appreication !!!!!!!!!!"

How can you not love your job when people are so nice and a simple email puts a smile on your face? Twelve days until I land in Mumbai!

A Million Things

Ok, not quite. But since it has been a long time since I have posted, this might turn out to be a long one. :)
1. Today was day 1 of being drug free. Getting out of the car and bending too far forward or backward still causes some pain, but everything else is great! So glad to be back to normal. As I am able to move more I will start to add back stretches and exercises to strengthen those muscles to hopefully prevent any more outages.
2. Holding steady/down slightly on my weight. Overall I am down almost 2 pounds from when I started. My cardio has just been on the exercise bike since I haven't been able to jump in too deep with a sore back yet. Hope to get back to my videos this week.
3. The other day when I was at the kitchen sink I looked out the window and saw a very impressive sized pheasant. Moments later he flew away with his hen. How cool!
4. Zoey went to the vet yesterday. She has gained 12 pounds since last year. Yikes! It's a combo of not running 2-3 miles each morning (at our old house she got free rain of the woods for our morning walk. Now she is on the leash for a brisk 1 mile walk), and she seems to love her food. We used to just fill her bowl whenever and she would just eat what she was hungry for. Now she'll eat whatever we put out for her. So, we are back to measuring her food. When the weather improves we will start taking her to the dog park again so she can run. In a few months we will take her back for a weigh in.
5. I found out yesterday that I am for sure going to India in April for work. I am so excited to have the chance to be going back there. The hard part will be to work while there. I have such wonderful friendships with so many over there that I truly wish I could just hang out with them. But alas, as long as the General is footing the bill, I will have to be productive.
6. I'm supposed to be working on my book and sales page and stuff. But I'm feeling a little lazy, so I'm wasting time by updating my blog. Not that this is a waste of time, it's just that I'm "supposed" to be doing something else.
Ok, so I only made it to 6 things, not a million. Oh, well. I doubt you would have made it past #100. :)

Thankful

When I first heard about the tragedy that was unfolding in Mumbai last week my first thought was of my new friends there. Due to the time of the attacks everyone was either already home, or at work. And the attacks happened "far" away from where they typically are. I was so relieved and thankful when I found out that everyone was safe. I won't lie that my second thought was how glad I was that I was safe and sound at home. I would have been "far" away from it too, but too close for comfort, especially for my family here.

It was a really eerie and surreal feeling to watch images of the Taj Hotel in flames show up on the news. I had visited there on my first day there. The hotel was beautiful. And now, it was a place of sorrow.

It saddens me how cruel people can be. It has been repeated again and again across the pages of history. It just happens to be the Muslims this time. But not that long ago it was the crusaders. And even more recently it was the Nazis. Countless examples of how sinful we are.

All Night Long

My last day in India was great. Neetha met me at the hotel and then Baba took us around. The first stop was a church. It is said that when you enter you should make three wishes and then climb the stairs on your knees and your wishes will come true. The church was beautiful. Across the street was a statue of Mary overlooking the ocean. The statue was amazing. It was hand carved out of marble with so many tiny details. From there we drove down the street where a lot of actors and cricket players live. Certainly not Hollywood! The buildings didn't look all that spectacular. And they all live in flats - no mansions here! Then we had a traditional lunch. Yum! Then we went to some area with a lot of street vendors. I bought a pair of beaded shoes. Vaishali met up with us there and we looked around some more. Being white I was the target for everyone that was trying to sell something and for all the begging children. Neetha and Vaishali did a great job of protecting me. We stopped at an ice cream place to cool off.

From there Neetha left us (still helping a friend with her wedding sari) and Vaishali and I headed to the beach! The beach was... interesting. The beach itself was dirty with broken glass in the sand. I hear the water is dirty too, but didn't get close enough to actually see that. But the breeze was nice and we wandered around looking at the vendors. We even saw a few boys walking around with monkeys.

Our next stop was a Hare Krishna temple. It didn't open until 4, so we sat on the marble steps waiting for it to open (after being yelled at to take our shoes off). The outside was beautiful! Again, hand carved marble everywhere. When it opened everyone followed a rope path around the perimeter of the temple. There were shadow boxes of various gods and their stories on the walls. I was a little confused when everyone sat down. When in Rome... so I sat too. I'm still not clear as to if it was a service (it only lasted like 10 minutes) or if it was just an informational talk that I was a part of. But it was interesting.

After leaving that area, we went to Powai to find some tea. With that done, we walked to a park and watched the sun set. When we got back in the car Vaishali had a good talk with Baba about driving. It was amusing! Since we didn't have much remaining time, I offered to talk Vaishali home. She said yes, that she wanted to show me her place and make me some tea. So that's what we did. She makes her tea with milk and a little water, so it was quite different than what I am used to. But it was good. And then it was time to say good-bye. :(

I was so touched... When Baba dropped me off at the hotel, he gave me a gift. It is a cute little elephant with mirrors and beads covering it. It was a very sweet gesture.

The trip home was uneventful. When I got home Ben and I went to see the new Bond movie (figured that would help keep me awake). Finally around 8:30 I couldn't stay awake any longer. I woke up at 3:30 and could not get back to sleep! But then last night, I slept all night long. Ahhh!

Last Days

Thursday I slept in as long as I could, which was about 10. I put on my suit (swim that is) and headed to the pool. Linda was already there. We had a very relaxing couple of hours out there. It is very warm here so every 20 minutes or so I took a swim to cool off. And I cheated... for lunch I had a grilled pita sandwich and fries. This was my first non-Indian meal here. Felt a little guilty, but the fries were so good!

And then it was off to work! It was another busy day. I had a meeting with my team. Followed by a meeting with the leadership team. Followed up by a meeting with the manager there. Then we headed to dinner.

Dinner was fabulous! We went to the same place as Monday (still can't remember the name). I was at the non-veg table and they kept ordering dish after dish, drink (non-alcoholic) after drink. I was so stuffed! I literally was having trouble swallowing I was so full. The team was very animated and we had a wonderful time. But it took us forever, so we didn't get to take team pictures before we had to head back so everyone could work.

Linda and I packed up our stuff and headed over to the GMI offices. There we met some of the people that used to work for Intelenet and now work for us (after time passed as we have a non-compete). They were excited to see us and to show us around. It was one of the guy's birthdays so Linda had brought a card for him and said that I didn't know what birthday bumps were, so he should show us. Boy, was that interesting! One guy picked up his arms, another his legs to suspend him above the ground. Then the rest of the guys kicked his behind! Did not look fun at all! Finally close to 3 am we finally headed back to the hotel.

After what seemed like a short night (wonder why) we were on the way back to the office. There we spent some time with the team answering any final questions or in my case, talking with my new friends. Then we did an award ceremony where everyone got a bag of Dove chocolates (yes, Linda carried 50 pounds of chocolate from the US for this occasion). They love our chocolates and it was a special treat for them. After the ceremony, most people immediately took their bags and locked them up so no one would steal them. Hasina didn't. When she stepped away from her desk Nikunj took them and put them in an empty drawer of a different desk. When she got back she asked who took her chocolates. Everyone was giggling. It took only seconds for Sangita to point the blame on Nikunj. I told him he best be careful... he is the only guy in that area. Everyone had a good laugh.

In between shifts, Sunita (my team lead) and Darshana took me shopping at the mall. I wanted to buy a few traditional Indian outfits. This might come as a complete shock to everyone, but I guess I am a different size and shape than Indian women! I did find some that fit. Everything was so pretty that it was hard to decide what to buy. So I bought too much. Oh, well. It was pretty cheap. Oh, and one dress was a little loose around the middle so it was altered at the store in less than 20 minutes!

Then it was back to work. But really it was just another award ceremony. Once again everyone was pleased with the chocolates.

Since we didn't have a chance to take pictures the night before, we wanted to take them before we left. Intelenet is very strict about cameras. They are not allowed in the building (my camera was with Baba, the driver). We thought we could just take them outside the building, but were quickly told by security that we couldn't do that either. After trying to get approval (and failing) we finally decided to just walk to the parking lot of the mall to take them. That worked well and we took a bunch of pictures.

Then it was time to say good-bye. It was very sad as now having met the team I feel even closer to them than I did before. They also gave us presents. I got a beautiful fresh water pearl set (earrings, necklace and bracelet). And some postcards of old Bombay. Shilpa also had given me a very nice silver bracelet.

When I got to the hotel I started to pack. And amazingly, everything fit!

And now I am going off with Neetha and Vaishali again to see some sights and do some shopping. I probably won't buy much more... :)

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.

Horn OK Please

Yesterday (Monday) I worked the day shift. I quickly found out that my guesses on how to pronounce names were off... not too much, but enough that I had to look at the printed name to figure out exactly who I was talking to. (I guess the accent probably didn't help me either). The morning passed very quickly answering questions, observing my team work and getting to know them. We took the team out for lunch. I had butter chicken. It was so good! We had some other stuff that was good too, but don't ask me what it was. We took team pictures then headed back to work. I felt bad because we left shortly after but the teams stayed and worked late to get the rest of their work in.



Shortly after I got to work, I found out that our system was down for a portion of my process. We weren't able to use our laptops (darn secure firewalls wouldn't let us through) so when we got back to the hotel, I jumped into the pool for a quick swim then logged on and fired off some frantic emails to IS to try and find and fix the problem. When my laptop battery was just about dead (I had left the power converter at work) I called it good. I cuddled into bed and tried to watch cricket (the sport). I was so confused! So I switched channels and watched an episode of "The Nanny" instead. Stupid snooze guy is still roomed next to me. But this morning the alarm first went off at 7, so at least it was better than 5:45!



Today was my team's busy day. The weekend mail volume is very heavy, so the team in Minneapolis is busy on Mondays so when my team comes in on Tuesday they have a lot of work to do. Add that to the issues that we had on Monday (fixed!) they had ~1500 items today! Yikes! But my team is so awesome - by the end of the day they were helping out other teams with their work load.



Again the day went by very fast. Yesterday I had mentioned to Hasina that I am almost always hungry. This afternoon around 4:30 she asked me if I was hungry. I was. She asked if I wanted to go to the cafeteria. I have been warned to stay away, so I declined the offer. Later I was in the hallway and she walked by with Swati on their way for a coffee break. She invited me to come, so I decided it was a safe option. We had a small cup of coffee and some cookies in the stairwell it was nice to be able to chat with them.

Traffic was bad on the way back to the hotel. Our driver taught us some Hindi. I told him I noticed that many vehicles had "Horn OK Please" on their back bumper. He said it is required for all trucks and large vehicles to have this. We laughed about that.

When we got back to the hotel the driver went to go get his family to meet us. In the meantime, I was hungry (surprise) so I ordered room service - tandoori chicken pizza. It was so good! We had a nice visit with his family. His wife is gorgeous! And his two kids are adorable. I'm sure we are the whitest people they have seen in person.

When they left to go home, I came back up to my room to finish my pizza and this post. Linda and Heather stayed in the restaurant for a late dinner. I no sooner got back to my computer when I got several IM's from my team in Minneapolis. They needed to get a hold of Heather. I went down to tell her to call her parents. Linda and I went to her room after Linda finished her meal to see what was going on and if she was ok... She found out that her brother committed suicide. She is currently making arrangements to leave India early. But she is not sure if she is emotionally ok to make the 24 hour journey alone. Please pray for her and her parents as they deal with this sadness.

Are you Serious?!

Last night I slept pretty well. I woke up a few times to check the time because I wasn't entirely sure if I set the alarm correctly. Then at 5:45ish my neighbor's alarm went off. I guess they haven't really felt like waking up because the alarm has been going off every 10 minutes or so! URGH!!!