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!!!

That's a New One

This morning I decided to roll myself out of bed around 10. I didn't want to sleep away too much of my one of two days to travel. I showered and got ready. Neetha came to the hotel at noon. She was so sweet - she was a few minutes late because she was trying to find a flower shop to buy some flowers to welcome me to India!



We rode in an interesting type of taxi... it didn't have doors and it was kind of a cross between a motorcycle and a golf cart. I didn't get a picture, but I will before we leave. We took this to a shopping area that was just done the street from where the General Mills offices are. We ate lunch at Noko, which is known for their sizzlers. I had a fish satellite. It was very tasty! It had a bunch of veggies and some fish smothered in a tasty sauce. I also had a lime soda. I was so stuffed! Then we walked around while we waited for Vaishali to join us (she was running late). We ended up at a store that sells milk candy... It was interesting. When Vaishali found us, Neetha left to go help a friend find a sari for her wedding. Vaishali's roommate was with so the three of us headed out.



First thing to do was negotiate with a taxi driver to be our driver for the day. That took a lot of Hindi words. :) Then we were off to the British part of town. We started off at the markets where Vaishali helped barter for some stuff. I got some bracelets, some shawls and a shirt. I also got some stuff painted on my hands. After that we went to the Gateway of India. It was pretty cool. It would have been cooler if it had been less crowded and not under construction. Then we went to the Queen's Necklace. It felt wonderful to have a breeze! We sat there for some time enjoying it. Then we went to a restaurant for dinner. It was a veg place. We split two dishes. I have already forgotten what they were, but I liked them both. It amazed me how little of the food it took to fill me up. Although, I suppose I may have been still full from lunch. From there we were going to go to a church, but it closed at 7 and it was nearing that time. Instead we went to a bay of some sort where people just hang out in the evening. We sat there for a while then decided to head back to my hotel. So here I am. I'm about ready to hop in the shower then snuggle into bed. Oh, on one of the times walking back to our car, we a barber shop that was set up like a street vendor. There was a guy getting a shave (with a razor like you see in old time movies) and another guy was just getting ready to have his beard trimmed. Interesting.

It's no Brotchen

Today I flew to India. I left Minneapolis at 3:20 pm. The flight to Amsterdam was pretty uneventful. I had a nice meal and some wine. I sat next to a nice guy from New Castle, England who is returning from Omaha on business. We had some nice chats. I took a nap too. Boy, are business class seats nice! Plenty of room to get comfy.

We landed in Amsterdam around 6 am their time. We went to the first class lounge to chill. I kind of have forgotten that a) it was breakfast time and b) I was in Europe. I was excited to have a chance to eat a European Breakfast. The selection wasn't that great, and the bread was not nearly as good as some good German Brotchen, but it did hit the spot. I wandered around the airport for a bit. Then it was off for the final leg.

This leg was also uneventful. I took a nap mid-way through the flight. I just couldn't stay awake! When I woke up I decided to watch a movie. I picked Wall-E. I was about 1/2 hour into it when they shut down the system because I guess we were getting close to landing. I was pretty bummed. It was just getting good! I'm hoping that the same movie selections will be available on the way home.

Upon landing, we got our bags and went through immigration. Again, uneventful (not that I am complaining!). We met our hotel driver that was taking us to the hotel. It took longer for us to get out of the parking lot then to get to the hotel. That is how close we are and how crazy busy the parking lot was.

Now I'm in my room. I showered off the travel grim and am getting ready to hop into bed. I'm so excited for tomorrow (actually just later today, technically). Neetha and Vaishali (two of Ben's teammates) are showing me some sights. Yippee!

Zoey's Happy Day

For those of you who have met Zoey, you may know that she prefers to greet people with a toy in her mouth. Don't ask me why. She tends to get a little panicky if she doesn't have a toy. For that reason I try to make sure she has a few toys in the mud room with her when we leave for work.

The other day I get home from work and there is something in her mouth. But it's not a toy. It's a milk bone! I look around the floor and there are bits of bone all over! She is really crying, so I figure I best get her outside (but not before she quickly eats the bone that was in her mouth). When we get back inside I notice that her water bowl is empty. I fill it and she immediately starts to drink as fast as she can.

While cleaning up the mess of crumbs (that Zoey was happy to help out with) I found two more whole bones in the closet behind the unopened door. She was probably saving those for later, but I put them back in the bin. I have no idea how many she ate, but it was probably at least a couple.

We have a habit of leaving the closet door open. I had been wondering how long until Zoey tried to get into the treat bin. Now we know. We now make sure the door is closed before leaving her in there.

Catch a Falling Star

At our old house we had nice, mature trees everywhere. I really liked the shade that they provided as well as the shelter from the wind on my morning walks. At our new house, the trees are young and short. As much as I miss the old trees, one great benefit of the young trees is that I have a full view of the sky. In the last few weeks I have seen 4 shooting stars on my morning walks (yes, it is dark enough at 5 am to see stars). I wake up hopeful that it is a clear morning and I can gaze at the stars as Zoey and I walk. I love it!

This Friday I leave for India. I am super excited to meet my team and get to experience the culture first hand. Neetha and Vaishali (Ben's teammates that were here this summer) have graciously offered to show me some sights. It is going to be a whirlwind of a trip! I hope I can keep up.

As I have been getting myself ready for the trip, I have also started to get Ben ready for my absence. Yesterday I taught him how to use the washing machine. Last night I made a batch of chili and am planning on freezing it for him. Today I threw some chicken in the crock pot before I left for work for shredded chicken for quesadillas. I probably won't do too much more since I'm sure he will be going out too.

I just realized that I should probably expand on the whole washing machine thing... our washer is a side loader and yesterday Ben saw me put the detergent in the little compartment thingy. He commented that he wouldn't have thought to put it in there.

Fish Drama

Last night I went to the fish room to feed the fish. I didn't see our wrasse. Strange. He's usually the hungry one. Out of habit I checked the floor behind the tank (we have been known to have some suicidal fish in the past). Not there either. While that is a good thing, I was very puzzled. Then I checked out the overflow box to see if the air bubble needed to be removed (hard to explain, but there is a U-tube that goes from the inside of the tank to a box outside that brings water out of the tank to go to the other tank to circulate the water to maximize oxygen flow. Sometimes air bubbles form in the U and cause the syphon to break. So, every once in a while I remove the air bubble with a hose... anyway, probably getting too technical). The U-tube looked fine, but guess who was in the small box?! The wrasse! He must have tried to jump but landed in the box (thankfully) instead! So Ben came down to help me fish (hee hee) him out of there.

So why do fish jump from tanks? The most common reason is because the water is not to their liking (too warm, too salty, not salty enough, etc.) the other common reason is out of fright from a predator. After checking salinity and temperature, we think it was too warm for our little fish. With the weather going back and forth between cold and warm, we don't have the air on any more and yesterday it was warm outside causing the house to be warmer and causing the tank to be warmer.