A total slacker…

Here it is finally. I’ve just gone though and transferred my wordpad with my “blog” in it to this.

I’d recommend starting in the December archive if you want to read from the beginning. The link over yonder –> goes to my photobucket picture depository. “Stuff” contains my fantastic food list of things I will eat when I get back home. “Wasting time” contains links of good time killers while in my room by myself. “Rants” has my rants/opinions/thoughts about things in India.

And now for a flaming tree…

 

Safety tip: don’t knock a flood light over with a volley ball so the light is pointed at the tree and then turn it on. It may result in a hazardous situation! (This was taken at our work outing. Sorry for the blur, it was kinda spur of the moment and my camera settings were off.)

Did you know I have an Indian brother?

His name is Hemanshu and he is my Indian bro. I dunno how it got started but he just started calling me sis one day. I felt obligated to call him bro.

He’s been rather brotherly since he got back from Seattle. He’s got transportation and has taken me around with some of his friends. Last Sunday we went to a bar with a good buddy of his and his buddy’s wife (who’s very beautiful that lucky bastard hehe). Tragically I forgot my camera for that one. Maybe I’ll meet them again and have my camera handy. That and I want to take a set of pictures to make a 360 from the top of that guys roof. Can see Hyderabad stretch forever. It’s crazy looking.

 I mostly slacked off at work. Came down with a serious case of the don’t-cares aka “who-gives-a-f@&%” syndrome. I had lots of work-looking items open and nodded sagely every once in a while at a open ticket. When 2:30 rolled around, I snuck out of the office during the large work meeting that I’m never invited to. Heman would show up in a little bit and we’d go do something more interesting that staring at messed up tickets all day.

I was invited to dinner at Heman’s, and to join us was his friend Sangetta (and I know I probably spelled that wrong but whatever– san-ghi-ta ).

 His mother cooked a lovely dinner, and I was ambushed at every moment with more food. Food coma started to sink in something feirce. After some struggle with getting motivated to move again, we took off to go get some coconut water at the necklace road around Hussain Sagar. All the water I drank while eating my dinner caught up to me, so I sidetracked the coconut quest with a bathroom break. We ended up stopping a this hotel dive-looking restaurant, the Taj Mahal.

 

Kinda reminded me of Beth’s… but Beth’s bathroom is much nicer. And that’s saying something. After some coffee (like I needed more to drink!) we all decided we were damn tired and made the rounds dropping peoples off. We did get a chance to stop and get some coconut water (aka coconut top hacked off with a machete and straw stuck in the hole). It wasn’t as sweet as I was hoping for. Hemanshu called it a sub-par coconut. We’ll try again some other time to find a good one.

 As a bonus, while we were traveling it was rush hour in Hyderabad (or at least the start of it). So here’s some movies that I hope would demonstrate the chaos of this place.

Fun fact: we’re in Hemanshu’s car… but you notice he’s in the left seat in front of me. (Indians drivers sit on the right side, like those crazy British). Turns out he doesn’t know how to drive his own car. Spoiled, I say lol. It’s a stick so I could teach him… or drive it myself. But I dunno if I’d survive the traffic here during the daytime….

On humor

I find I’m constantly having to restrain myself from making “your mom” jokes. It’s a staple joke among Steve and I, and gets some good use at work between Kyle and I. But I can’t imagine it going over very well with the Indian crowd.

It makes its way into prototype powerpoints for training, as generic alerts or statements, or whatever really. Just to get it out of my system. Then I erase and replace with relevant, non-offensive material heheh.

I was talking one day with one of the OCIM night shift guys I knew from the bad old days of working nights. We were talking about me being over here in India to train guys and he asked me if I could also train them to have a sense of humor. I regrettably had to inform him that humor just doesn’t translate well into other cultures hehe.

(I ran into this issue before trying to translate a comedy script I wrote into Japanese. It didn’t go well for me…)

So back to the mom jokes… It’s a shame really, given that one of our monitoring tools is called MOM. So much potential lost in translation.

On Food

Starvation is a good motivator to build up ones spicy food tolerance…

I’ve encountered here the culinary equivalent of an atom-bomb and scarfed it down anyway as I was so hungry. I’ve actually gotten better in regards to spicy stuff because of this. But I’m still pretty weak-sauce compared to my Indian friends hehe.

The food is has been for the most part fairly tasty over-all (especially the home-cooked stuff I’ve had the pleasure of eating). The spiciness is the evil kind that sneaks up on you. When I first start to eat something its pretty good, but as time goes on, I reach a point were I can’t possibly take another bite. I’ll burst into flames or something….

I’ve lost a bit of weight since coming to India, and I really didn’t have that much to lose in the first place. I started off bad with jet-lag setting off my natural timings for eating. I don’t think I ate for 48 hours or more… Then I rarely ate for a while until I figured out where the food was (or had Sandeep fetch me something lol). Finally now I got the three-meals-a-day thing going on. It’s unfortunate that the make-up of Indian cuisine is stuff that I process fast (stupid metabolism!). So even after a good meal, it’s gone in an hour and I’m starving again… Sigh.

I’ve also been practising the art of eating with one hand. Traditionally they don’t use utensils, just snarf it with your right hand. The whole flatbread (naan, roti) with one hand thing is still kicking my butt though. I either pull of a tiny bit not even suitable for picking up a drip of sauce, or I take off half the piece in one rip. Secretly, when I’m eating in my room, I revert to my barbaric American ways, gleefully tearing naan with two hands.

Work outing: Garden Resort

Yay for work outings?

So  I start of the day working of all things, even though I really didn’t need to. Turns out it wasn’t a bad thing, the day being kinda nasty for the day shift. And now some of them get to stay late covering our arses while we go out and have a good time.

It ended up being just an alright time for me. Honestly, I was having more fun at work helping out Rajesh and Kyle, and having a laugh with a ludicrous group IM with those two and the rest of the Hyderabad crowd. We (the 3 of us) were trying to get the others to have some fun with us, but I guess they just weren’t up for it. Sticks-in-the-mud I say.

I take off around 10-ish and go for a long drive out to the garden resort which is apparently in the middle of nowhere. I rather enjoyed the ride out, getting to see more of the city along random back-roads. I end up being the first to show up, which was lame, but I thankfully wasn’t alone for long.

There was cricket, volleyball and dancing, all of which I just had a good time watching others have a good time. I hate sports….

There was also a drunk guy, a networking dude by the name of, well, also Rajesh. He started a bit early and proceeded to harass me for the rest of the day (well until Naveen had enough and sent him home in a cab). He doesn’t speak a word to me now… Still embarrassed I’m sure lol. (The guy waving is the drunk one.)

And now for some more pictures:

On Security

Everywhere you go there are tons of security guards, metal detectors, and what-have-you. I don’t really feel more secure though. More annoyed really. Especially at the office. Always been scrutinized as I walk by or they try to small talk me. Just leave me alone, I’m not doing anything wrong! I’m suppose to be here, I swear!

The best part about the security is that it’s for the most part totally worthless. Just for show. I’ve walked through many a metal detector with a knife and not be checked. And I’m not talking about a pocket knife either… Some cases I’ve been lucky to have my camera on me so they just assumed it was that. But still! What’s the point if I can just go through with a weapon on my person?

 In the morning, a lot of the guards are passed out in their seats. I sneak by the one on the 1st floor all the time. Kinda fun to see if I can make it by without waking him. (As aside: in India the floors are labeled weirdly. In my office the ground floor is -2. The 1st floor is actually the 3rd floor. Crazy.)

I suppose the glut of security guards is just another spot to try and employ India’s bajillion people. Pay people to stand around and stare at people.

Yay! 1n74rn475

Today I moved into the MS Guesthouse. It has internet. I’ve never been happier.

Actually this place has a few good things going for it over the last place I was put up. 1) It’s like a 3 minute walk to work. No needing to deal with silly cabs. And it’s mostly walking through the apartment community so it’s relatively safe. 2) The houseboys are nicer — and no I don’t mean cuter. I mean they give better service–they ask me regularly about food, coffee, etc. I don’t have to bother people for stuff. 3)Nicer bathroom. Toilet paper!! Wee! 4)INTERNET!!!

A couple complaints. Minor. The room is smaller but who cares really? I just sleep there or jack into the interwebs… The hot water also isn’t infinite like the last guesthouse. It lasts slightly less than it does in home in Seattle, so it’s nothing I’m not already used to.

Some outside my window pics:

New Years Eve!

To celebrate the new year, a bunch of us got tickets to the event at a club called Touch. Of course I’m sad that I have to miss my very favorite new years party in Seattle… But how often do you get to do new years in another country!?

Being that I know every club entrance has a metal detector here and this was a big night, I wisely leave my knife behind. Turns out they were actually checking people for once heh. I empty my pockets here, pass through and my boot set off the detector. I had to explain the concept of steel-toed boots to the security guys >.> “Yes, my pockets are empty. It’s my shoes that are settin… What kind of shoes? Logging boots… Metal toes to.. ah geez.”

(Apologies for the pics. They were taken by Sandeep’s phone camera in a dark place. Quailty just isn’t going to happen.)

 

After all that racket, Sandeep and I wait way too long for everyone else to show up. But once everyone was there, it was quite the night. So crowded! But the music and the vibe was good.

Food and booze were part of the intial ticket fee so you could drink all the alcohol you wanted, and then some extra. (I ran into plenty of ladies in the restroom who went for the extra and now forced their poor friends to prop them up over the sink or drag their limp bodies outside.)

 

I didn’t go that crazy, those Sandeep did. He’s a nice drunk though. Maybe a little too nice. He was telling all the ladies how beautiful they were and kissing their hands on the way home. 

We stayed till the last song at like 3am and got a ride home from a co-worker, Tejas. After seeing the condition Sandeep was in (see above), and having mostly ladies in the car, Tejas decides to drop him off first. Sandeep was pretty sad about it, and stumbled his way home, moping all the while. I felt a little bad about it, but Tejas’ reasoning was sound enough. Didn’t want to look suspcious.

I got home and washed the party stink off then went to bed for a little 2 hour nap before I had to get up for work X.x Ugh…

First Weekend

Ah the weekend. Sleeping in till noon, because I got nowhere to be. I went to this big market Saturday, Shilparamam. Sandeep and I just kinda wandered around looking at all the stuff, jewelry, clothes, pottery. I got me a nice henna tattoo, though it was a bit of a trick getting through the crowded place with goo on my hand and not smudge it on me or someone else. 

I had a weird ice cream treat call Kulfi which I’m told is made with burnt milk. It’s pretty tasty, but melts quick in the evening heat. We decided that we should get me something to wear, but with Sandeep and I both having the fashion-sense of men, we thought it would be better to bring Rachana along the next day to help us out heheh. Plus i forgot my camera so another round with a chance to take pictures would be welcome.

I’m back into internet withdrawals..being that I’m not in the office to IM peoples… At least I’ve been out doing stuff during the day. (I’ve contemplated going to work anyway just to I can talk to people and have something to do… How wrong is that?) Can’t wait to move to where the internet is…

Friday night at Club F.

Work was uneventful, but its Friday in the city! So I went out with Sandeep to see some sights.

 

He took me to the city centre mall which was neat. I found it a bit strange though that a lot of the clothing stores sold western style clothes… but only men here wear western style clothes. Most women wear traditional garb. But I soon found out the use for western women’s clothing — we went to this club with Rachana and some of her friends.

There, the ladies break out the good stuff. The young friends I got to meet were totally dressed in something I would wear normally around Seattle. But I still felt totally under-dressed there. And I’m not much of a talker, so I probably seemed like a stick-in-the-mud foreigner to her friends.. They made me dance though. The DJ was actually pretty talented, I didn’t notice a single mix mis-match that I sometimes catch a clubs. I had a mojito there, which was ok, but inferior to Bleu’s in Seattle.
I’m glad Sandeep is here. I’d be totally lost without him. He’s such a good friend.