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!

April Recap

I know, I know. I'm such a slacker. It's close enough to the middle of the month that I figured I would just do a quick recap of what's been going along re: goals.

Cooking: We ended March with Grilled Taco-Barbecue Chicken from Betty Crocker. Of course, I made some changes. We wanted to try out the rotisserie attachment on our grill, so we did a whole chicken instead of just breasts. It was pretty darn tasty. Although, Ben said he could do without the cumin in his BBQ sauce.
My first recipe for April was White Chili from Recipezaar.com. I only had one can of chilies on hand, other than that, I followed the recipe! But next time I would use two cans as it wasn't quite zippy enough for us.

Weight-Loss: I have remained steady. I suppose that means I should get my butt in gear. We think Zoey is down a pound or so. Today we went to the doggie park for the first time this year. She had a blast running around and playing with other pups.

I guess that's about it. Hope you have/had a great Good Friday.

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!

Perfect Walk

This mornings walk was fabulous!
1. There were plenty of stars to look at. I love looking up to see constellations. Although, I've been thinking of expanding my list to include more than 3-4 that I recognize.
2. An owl was out. I'm not exactly sure why I like it when the owl hoots at us as we walk along, I just do.
3. As we were coming down the home stretch, I saw a large dog cross the street. I thought it was very odd until I realized that it wasn't a dog at all - it was a deer! A second one followed it. I'm pretty sure that Zoey didn't see them. Or else she just didn't care at that point. But as we got to the part where our paths crossed, I know she could smell them because she got very interested in the air. I spotted the pair by the pond in the middle of our development. They looked so graceful and peaceful! I hope I will be able to see more of them.

Strange People

On Sunday, Ben, Zoey and I decided to take a break from relaxing to go on a little walk. We walked to Lawndale (the street that runs behind our house) and looked at the one neighbor's fence and placement of it. As we were making our way to our backyard to look to see where we want to put our fence in, an SUV with a trailer drove by. As he drove by something flew out of the trailer. I tried to wave him down, but he didn't notice me. A lady in a car quickly pulled off the road and got the thing out of the road. I figured it was his wife following behind. And I was happy that it was out of the road. As Ben and I were discussing the fence (and Zoey happily sniffing everything) an SUV pulled up and an older lady got out. The car lady was still there, so I figured it was her mom or someone else helping with the move that stopped to help. Nope. SUV lady started talking loudly and waving her hands at the car lady. Car lady tried to talk, but SUV lady kept cutting her off. Ben and I stopped our discussion to try and figure out what in the world was going on. SUV lady said something about license plate numbers and stormed back to her SUV. Ben walked across the street and asked car lady what was going on. The poor lady! I could hear in her voice that she was close to tears! Apparently, the thing that fell out of her husband's trailer wouldn't fit in the back of her car, so she moved off the road by the pond. SUV lady happened by and thought that car lady was littering. So on her high horse she told car lady a thing or two and was going to report her. Ben went over to SUV lady and calmly told her that we had witnessed the whole thing. At first she didn't want to believe that car lady wasn't guilty, but finally came to her senses and drove off. I suggested that car lady move her thing to our yard in case SUV lady came by later to check on the story. She looked so relieved that we had come to her rescue!

There are some strange people out there.