Is it just coincidence or is the Lariam getting to me? This
morning I crashed at about 4:30am and woke up a few hours later almost in
tears. I had the worst nightmare ever. Zombies were attacking. Perhaps it would
have been helpful if I had read the Zombie Survival Guide prior to having this
dream. One of the side effects of my malaria pills is lucid dreams. Well, this
was the first nightmare I had had on the pills. It was so vivid, I’m talking
flesh ripping vivid. Anyhoo, I woke up in time to talk to my love who had just
got off work. Funnily enough as I was walking to the bathroom I heard my IM
buzz. I was up for a couple of hours talking to her and then decided to head
down to the breakfast buffet. The most amazing spread ever. I have pics that I
will post tomorrow and you can see what I am talking about.
I ended up crashing at around 11am Bangalore time. I had to
meet the clan for dinner at 6:30pm and a driver was scheduled to take us to the
office at 7:30pm. I didn’t wake until 5:30pm and man was I groggy.
Again, amazing food!!! What an experience today was. Actually it is about noon
my time so I am a little behind on this blog. Anyhoo, our driver took us
through Brigade road to get to work. There really is no way to describe it. It
was completely dark and buzzing with people. My friend put it best when he said
it was like a game of Tetris. There is no such thing as pedestrians have the
right away here. Our driver pulled out of the hotel right in front of a group
of people and came inches from hitting them. Everyone is interested in whitey,
I mean they can’t stop staring. Some of the stares are accompanied by smiles,
so it’s sort of nice. I saw four people on one moped. No joke! Two little kids
were standing in the front and a man was driving with a woman sitting side
saddle on the back.
It took us an hour to get to the office which was only about
5 miles away. Once there we were greeted by a lot of security guards. I didn’t
see the guns everyone talked about though. The serial number on my laptop was
documented on my newly assigned access badge and every time you entered or left
the building it had to be checked against the badge. Security is top notch here.
I met the team around 10pm. It was so nice to finally put faces to names of
those who had been involved in our processes for months now. Today was a really
good day and training went well. You really don’t know how good you have it in
the States until you come to a country like India. While it is known as
electronic city, the office doesn’t have nearly as many amenities as we do back
in Springfield. The training room had these hard ass metal chairs and back home
they are nice and comfy. No one has personal work spaces and the spaces they do
have are about a third of the size of my hamster wheel back home. None of it
matters though because everyone is so happy. It really is humbling.
Traffic wasn’t nearly as bad getting home at 6:30am (I
called it home :) !!!) Once we got here we had the most amazing breakfast
again! They had this lamb and sautéed veggie dish that was out of this world.
Like I said, pics tomorrow. So after breakfast it was up to the room for me to
talk to Chelsie. I had already made plans to go out around 9am but they changed
to about 8:30am so unfortunately I didn’t get to chat long…sorry babe. :( For
the first time today I had my room cleaned. The staff here is so damn
meticulous that they actually took all of my toiletries I had scattered around
the sink in the bathroom and neatly lined them up on one of the side posts.
Everything was perfect. They even took the hand soap and made sure it was
perfectly even on its holder. WOWSA!
So after all of this Allen and I went out exploring. We
really hadn’t been out too much during the day and we were (like the Walt
Disney world commercial) “too excited to sleep.” I really cannot begin to
describe everything that is buzzing around us here so I will just let these
pictures and videos tell the story.
A water fountain in the lobby of the Taj…
The sidewalks here are no joke!
Need a tire repair?
Construction workers…
Just one of the many stray dogs roaming the city :(
A typical body shop in Bangalore…
A locked up shrine.
One of the many construction sites in Bangalore…
The workers were literally digging with a piece of concrete…
I’m not sure if this was a private residence or not…
This was in the food court of the mall…
Z is for Zealous…
Can you say traffic??
Cars here will typically fold their mirrors in to fit in tighter places...
Allen and I wandered around for a few hours and we visited the mall. We are actually trying to find a little shop to get souvenirs in, and so far we haven’t had any luck. We did manage to stop by the food court for a couple of beers and boy did we realize how cheap things actually are outside of the hotel. I have to be up in less than five hours for work and I am not the least bit tired. If I don't get to sleep soon, tomorrow will be no bueno! So, on that note, I am going to end this one….
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