Robert's Blog

Not so good...

2011-08-18T19:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I am obviously not that great at writing. I said I was going to try and as you can see it isn't working so great. I will make an excuse this time, work has been crazy! We recently did another round of layoffs causing workloads around the office to increase. My team was already running with bare bones and would really hurt if we were to lose another head count. Yes I say another as this is the third set of lay-offs this year. When will the economy improve?

Well, I hope that life will calm down a little bit after I finish reviews at work. Each year more people ask me to write reviews for them. The reviews we do take a long time, but it is good to provide helpful feedback to those we work with. The problem is, not everyone provides useful feedback. I hope this year I selected people that will give me good feedback.

After the feedback season I start school again. Why did I go back for a masters degree? That is a good question. I complain about it, but now is the time to go back. Sheila finished her masters degree this summer semester, YEAH SHEILA! I will be done in Spring 2012, or at least that is what I am aiming for. Will I go back for another degree? At this point I don't see me getting another degree, but one never knows, I think I am a glutton for punishment. I don't know if Sheila would let me go back again. This semester I complained more than any other semester yet got my first 4.0 in my whole school career. I will keep you posted on the school decisions just as I have done since I started this blog...

Shitty name...

2011-07-22T21:46:00.001-07:00

I just published that last post and reread the title. "A new beginning?" Seriously who thinks of this stuff? I have to work on better titles!

A new beginning

2011-07-22T21:12:00.000-07:00

As you can see from the previous twelve posts I am not the avid blogger others are. Every now and again I have a thought and decide to immortalize it by writing it in the blog. OK, that is a lie. I have only blogged about something in the last three years if I knew it was a great story to tell. I did write a few blogs related to the unfortunate events of 2008. That blogging was inspired (more like an assignment) from the therapist trying to get me back to a functioning state. You can see that my grammar and spelling were greatly impacted by the accident. Really, can I say that though? I think that I probably can't because I am sure that it is just as terrible now I just don't have an excuse anymore. Or do I have an excuse? The doctors tell me I will always have a spot in the brain that I can never use again. Sheila, my wife, tells me I can't use that excuse anymore.

But I am off track. At least I think I am, I may not know what direction I was taking this entry in the first place. Oh yes, why I didn't write. Maybe I don't write because I don't want to write about mundane activities like I got dressed today wearing my purple dress shirt, I think I make purple look good. I also don't want to give every detail of my day like, just took 45 minutes to mow the lawn, man I am sweaty and smelly! Now the fact is I don't even know if anyone reads this blog. I really don't know who is reading my blogs and the rate at which I write new blogs probably deterred anyone who read the first entries to continue reading and forget there was ever a blog written by me. The question now becomes will people even read my blog now even if I am able to convey my boring life stories in such a way that will be entertaining? I am not promising anything, we are just giving this a shot.

Well here goes. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night with a sharp pain in my leg. Did I twist it while walking? I couldn't remember. Did I do any activities that I could hurt my leg in? Of course not, all I do is work. Then I felt a little relief like the first austerity package given to a failing country to try and save the economy. Yes, even my first austerity package given from the pain failed to fully relieve the failing blood flow to my leg. I decided I should probably go to the doctor if the pain continued.

I am not one to go to a doctor lightly. I wanted to ensure the pain I was feeling was a true pain that could not go away by walking it off. I thought I would get up and take a few laps around the room. Well, maybe not the room, I don't want to wake Sheila up. When I tried to move my leg out of bed I noticed I was not able to move the leg. Now it was getting serious.

I grabbed my phone and flipped it open to provide some light to see what I was up against. Once I had some light I was able to see, clear as day, what was causing my pain. Her name is Liz Lemon, not the Liz others are familiar with from that great TV show 30 Rock, but Liz our cat. Liz had decided that she wouldn't wait for me to get out of bed, as she normally does, to take her place on my side of the bed but would place herself while I was still there. She placed her body on top of my leg and placed her such that she now occupied half of my side of the bed.

At first I thought I could just go back to sleep. FAIL. I thought I could just change position to fall back asleep. FAIL. I had to move either my leg or the cat to change position and fall back to sleep. Well, we all know who rules this house! It isn't me. The cat won and I moved gently lifted her to remove my leg from under her body. I now had a full two inches of bed between my wife and the cat to sleep in comfort. Good thing today was Friday!

Last night in India

2011-05-01T07:41:00.001-07:00

Well, I am back to my apartment and finished packing besides my computer. I will soon be on my way to the airport to board my plane to come back to the good, and I understand cold, Salt Lake City, Utah. It will be a long trip back, but it will be good to be back to family, friends, and familiar things. I am calling it the three F's, not to be mistaken by the three f's issued as a list of demands by the Tenant Right League in Ireland from the 1850's. The three f's from the league are fair rent, free sale, and fixity of tenure. My three f's have nothing to due with land or renting, so they are very different.

The traffic back to the apartment from work today was the worst I have ever seen. It may be that I have never left that early, 7:45 PM. I think this is the first time in three weeks that I haven't worked at least eleven hours! The roads were flooded as well as crowded. You may have guessed that today it rained in Bangalore. Apparently lakes appear in the roads and the amount of walking space on the side walks is reduced by half. Much of the sidewalk is only dirt and quickly turns to mud. As I was walking from the apartment to dinner my shoes got covered in mud which I then brought in to my nice tiled apartment. Luckily, a TriStar employee was standing ready with a broom and mop to clean up the mess I made.

This week my managers manager, Ally, came into Bangalore for the week. Yes, she was only here for a week. She probably was not able to get on a normal sleeping schedule so will be alright coming back to Salt Lake the same time as me. I, on the other hand, have been here long enough to get on a regular sleeping schedule and will probably suffer from jet lag when I get back.I am going to try taking some Melatonin on the plane at the time that would be Salt Lake night. Melatonin helped to get on a regular sleeping schedule in India, so I am hoping it will help me sleep on the plane. Salt Lake night will be while I am on the nice double decker plane from Dubai to JFK. It should be an experience to be on that large of a plane. It is amazing that something so large can actually fly! My direct manager is afraid of the small planes that go from Salt Lake to New York, so it is probably a good idea that he did not come out to India with me.

When Ally got here she took the products team (the team I came to work with) and me out to Leela. This is not Turanga Leela, which some of you Futurama lovers may be thinking of, but a "palace" with three restaurants in it. It was interesting the prices on the menu. Ally decided she wanted to order a coke for dinner. The price on the menu was 300 rupee, or about six dollars. Well, they brought her out a can of coke which had a ribbon across the top which read 20 rupee, or about 50 cents. Needless to say the hotel food, I felt, was very overpriced for what we got. I had been taken to other restaurants in town that were as good, if not better, than Leela Palace.

Not much happened this week. We had an issue on Wednesday and I worked until 12:30 before finally saying I had to go home since I had been there since 9:30 that morning. Sneha doesn't come in until 1 pm, which is the standard for all the operation groups in Bangalore. They work much too late for my liking. I would much prefer to come in early and leave early to have afternoons with my wife. I know I say leave early and we all know that I do not leave early, but earlier than the hours if I were to work the same as Bangalore. If I did work the same hours I would never see my wife, she would be asleep by the time I got home at 11 and I would probably learn to sleep in from working so late.

The project is almost done. We have one segment of testing left which we will complete by a week from today. We had some limitations that would not allow us to test until February was over.

I just got a call saying my cab was here to take me to the airport. I will be there early, but I will be home in about 36 hours!

Approaching time to come home

2011-05-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

Well, I only have five more working days and then I get to come home. It will be nice to come home and be able to eat a home cooked meal again. I am very tired of eating out for every meal and I am especially sick of Italian food. Yes you read that correctly, it reads that I am sick of Italian food. Every restaurant that is close by is an Italian restaurant. I must be in little Italy of Bangalore. I had a team member suggest Sunny's for dinner on day, Italian. The next day someone suggested Madili, Italian. I went out with some friends Sunday, last week, they wanted to go to Italia, obviously from the name Italian. Italia serves a combination of Italian food and Spanish food. We stuck with Italian food that night. The Italian food comes with a little Indian twist. Everything has added some spice to the food, except Sonny's which claims to be real American Italian. I was informed the owner and chef, Sonny, is from the United States so knows how to do Italian food American style. While eating at Sonny's there was a nice bartender who just wanted to talk to me the whole time. It was nice to have company, but his English was not that great and I don't think he comprehended about 3/4 of what I was saying. I think I answered the question of where I was from about eight times. He wouldn't take the United States as an answer, he had to know which state. He only knew New York and California which he thought were right next to each other. I explained to him a few times where Utah was and that New York was on the opposite side of the nation from California. While I was speaking with him there was another American there eating dinner. He said, "Your accent sounds familiar to me. Where are you from?" I told him and asked where he was from, turns out he is from Phoenix and works for Honeywell. Well, once the other American started talking to me the bartender thought he would be done speaking with me. This was Saturday before I went to a club with some co-workers and took an hour and a half to eat .

That night we went to a club which is only about three doors away, but I can never find again. Luckily Bhumika and Ankur picked me up from the hotel so I was able to find it the first time since I don't know any landmarks to find it. I think it was on the sixth floor of a building, but I don't recall which one. The club is very close to an American club, just different dancing. Not so much bumping and grinding with each other. That may be due to the fact that even kisses are edited out on TV. I met a few people that worked at Goldman that night, but they had a few drinks prior to me arriving and I don't know how well they remember me.

Getting into the club was interesting. Bhumika told me that a friend was going to get us in for free. We got up to the club level and the friend was waiting for us. they introduced me and he said let's go. Bhumika was in in front of me with Ankur and the new friend behind me. Bhumika made it in just fine, but the bouncer stopped me and said I could not go in. When the friend spoke up and told him that I was with him, the bouncer gave me a nice long look and finally let me in. It is an experience to be judged because I am different from everyone else. I don't know how much of this happens in the US, but I have felt it and it does not feel good. I am glad that I try to always treat everyone as the same.

The club was a club. Nothing spectacular from clubs in the US. I actually don't go to clubs much, in fact never, so it was different to go to a club. We thought laws in Utah were bad, well, in Bangalore even the clubs have to close at 11. I think I mentioned that drinks cannot be served after 11PM, and that is even true on weekends. Drinks stopped at 11PM and they started kicking people out at 11:15PM. I walked home so Ankur and Bhumika could just go home. It took about five minutes to walk back.

Sunday was a lazy day, I didn't do much. Bhumika had arranged to go to Lalbagh, which means Red Garden in Hindi. It is a botanical garden that is close to where Bhumika went to college. I was excited to get out and see a piece of Bangalore outside of the office. Well, we got to the garden and couldn't find parking. I am surprised anyone can park their cars here. There are no parking lots in the city. Valet parking is offered everywhere, but I am not sure where they take all the cars too. After the sidewalks are all filled, which makes it rather hard to walk anywhere, I don't know where they could put them. We found an empty spot on the sidewalk about two blocks away from the garden and walked over.

It cost ten rupee per person to get into the garden. This equates to about 25 cents. Not very expensive, but I am glad I didn't pay more to get in. At first Bhumika kept saying it was the off season and there wouldn't be many flowers. Bhumika I think is an optimist. We didn't see any flowers. The closet thing to a plant we saw was a building full of cactus plants. We didn't even really to get to see these as the fence around this building was locked and no one was allowed to see the plants. We walked around for a bit and went up to this statue on top of a big rock. The statue was blocked off by a fence so people could not get to close. There was a sign that read, "Protected Ancient Monument." It then goes on that any destruction would be prosecuted and to keep it clean. Either the sign is not effective or people don't car about monuments as there was trash all around the monument and many pieces missing. I am going with people just don't care, no rules are followed here. That is probably because no one actually enforces the rules.

We walked around a bit and saw people playing frisbee on the lawn. Well, we saw another sign that said, "Absolutely no playing games on lawn." There was a park ranger walking around and looked right at the people playing. He put his whistle in his mouth and I thought he was going to enforce the no playing rule. I was wrong. He blew his whistle a couple times while he was still walking. Once he blew his whistle he must of thought he did his job and didn't need to do anymore. He walked away without anymore enforcement.

After Lalbagh we went to Italia for dinner, this is Bhumika's favorite restaurant. She always starts off with chips and cheese. I think my hotel and Italia shopped at the same place for cheese, the cheesewhiz factory. Well, we then got some Indian style Italian food. We then went to get some ice cream, which no one knew where the ice cream place was. We went to a store they thought was the right place, but we were soon told we were in the wrong store. We walked out and Bhumika remembered where it was, we were one block away. The ice cream was just ice cream, they didn't have any crazy kinds of ice cream, but did have some interesting kinds. I tried the fig vanilla. It was vanilla ice cream with a fig newton blended in. It was interesting.

The week of work was just another week of work. I never get to see any of Bangalore since nothing opens before I leave and it is almost closing time when I get home. During the week I just ate more Italian food and didn't get as far in my testing as my manager would have liked. He gave me grief for not being as far as he wanted. The problem with that is that he has never done projects and doesn't understand the whole process. All week I have been working, but not 100% on what he wants because there are other just as important activities to make sure the project goes live with no problems. I spend about half my time working with technology on the other activities (part of the reason I am here) and half on "Pike's" activities. Well, Pike complained so now this week I have to spend all my time and get technology to spend all of there time on "Pike's" activities. That is not as beneficial to the project since most of the problems found come from non-Pike activities. Anyway, enough complaining.

Friday night I came home and booked a trip for Saturday to Mysore. It is a long day of site seeing. The cab picked me up at 7AM and I was to return around 11PM. To get to Mysore it is a three and a half hour drive! Good thing I don't mind talking to strangers, it was just me and my driver. We didn't go straight to Mysore. We made a few stops along the way. The first one was to the Tipu Sultan's summer palace. The gardens at the summer palace were much better than those at Lalbagh. Throughout the day there was a common theme: no pictures are allowed in most of the buildings. The palace was one of those. I wish I could have taken pictures, it was a very nice sight. every square inch of the palace was pained. Not just a single color, but many patterns and pictures. The palace was built by Tipu after he won a war in the 1800's. The pictures on the walls all depict a battle or someone that was close to Tipu.

After walking through the palace I decided to walk around the gardens for a while. All the trees are numbered just in case someone decides to come in and steal on. They will be able to find the tree and know exactly where it belongs in the line. I saw five gentlemen taking picture. Four standing for the picture and one taking the picture. I asked it they wanted me to take it so all five could be in the picture. There immediate answer was yes. After I took their picture they were very interested where I was from and why I was in India. I talked to them for about 15 minutes. I saw them a few minutes later trying to take another picture. I offered again to help and they said yes. When I started handing the camera back one said they needed a picture of me with them. We took a few pictures and talked for a few more minutes. Once people saw I was willing to be in a picture with them, almost everyone that walked by asked if they could take a picture with me. I probably spend a good 45 minutes taking pictures with people just walking around. One man even took a picture with me and asked if I could wait while he went to find his wife. As soon as she learned it was an American she came running over to get the picture. The same questions were asked: 1) Where are you from? 2) Can I take a picture with you? I felt like a celebrity. There was another white couple there, but they only took about three pictures and then were tired of it and left.

The next stop was Tipu's place of death. The only thing worthy of mentioning here is that the road to get there was a city road, but was not paved and was a dirt road. It was like going four wheeling in a city.

We next went to a Hindu temple. The temple is was very nice and well crafted. One thing I forgot to do on this trip, where my sandals. I forgot that you are supposed to take your shoes off to go in any holy building in India. Well, I had my shoes on so the laces got tied and untied a few times during the day. We drove up to the temple and my driver said he was going to stay in the car while I visited the temple. I took a picture of the temple and there was a very nice man that offered to take my picture in front of the temple. I said sure. He then followed me telling me history of the temple. He took a few more picture with me in them. Well, soon after my driver came up and said something to the other man in Hindi. He turned to me and said this man was a cheat. The guy yelled something at my driver and my driver turned around swinging at the man. The other man argued with my driver for a few minutes then came to me and said I owed him money for taking pictures. My driver said not to pay him and he was a cheat. We walked through the rest of the temple and as soon as we left the temple the other man was waiting for us to argue some more. We walked back to the car with my driver and the other man yelling the whole time. We got back to the car and they were still yelling. This was getting a lot of attention and others were now gathering around. Luckily all the new joiners took my drivers side and pulled the other man away. We got in the car and drove off. I learned a lesson: if someone is being nice, better still be wary of their intentions. My driver told me everyone was a cheat and don't trust them. I don't have any more pictures with me in them because I didn't want to start anymore fights.

Next stop was to Kings Refuge, a bird refuge. The cost for my driver to get in, 30 rupee, about 75 cents. The cost for me to get in 300 rupee, about 7.50. I learned that this is normal for getting in to anyplace. It cost a foreigner about 10 times as much to get in somewhere. Well, I paid an additional 300 rupee to take a boat ride. On the boat ride they guaranteed me to see alligators and different kinds of birds. The boat guide was this skinny man that rowed us around for about an hour. I mean to say there were 12 total people that constitute us. We first saw about 2000 bats hanging from some trees. Our guide starting rowing up and then we saw two alligators swimming about 15 feet away from us. Floating around we saw about six different kinds of birds including pelicans, ravens, and others I can't remember. The guide was nice to tell us everything we saw and joked around with everyone in the boat.

We then stopped at a Catholic cathedral, St. Josephines Cathedral. I am sure there are probably about a million Joesphines in the Catholic church, so good luck finding that one. I didn't have to take my shoes off there. I walked around and went into the catacomb. It is kind of freaky to think about what is in the catacomb. that is the highlight of the cathedral.

I told my driver I wanted to take a tour of Mysore Palace so we skipped the next place which was another garden. We got to Mysore Palace and my driver told me not to buy anything from the vendors and that they would cheat me. As I was walking up to the palace someone came up to me and offered me a bracelet for about 800 rupee or 20 dollars. Definitely not a good price. I got up to the window to pay my entrance fee and it cost me 200 rupee. I noticed that for a local it would only cost 10 rupee here. They sure take advantage of the foreigners. I went inside and learned the the Maharaja still stays in the palace and holds many events there. All my co-workers said this palace was nothing compared to the Taj Mahal. I felt this Palace was very nice, so I can only imagine what the Taj Mahal is like. If Mysore Palace were Disney Land then the Taj Mahal would have to be Disney World Paris.

I walked around and found the elephants in the yard. They were moving the elephants to near the palace. One of the workers asked it we (a group of us at gathered around) wanted to sit on an elephant. Of course the answer was yes. Unfortunately the guy driving the elephants didn't stop and kept going. No sitting on an elephant for me.

After walking around I went to sit near the entrance to people watch for a few minutes. A European family sat next to me with a baby probably about 1 yr old. The baby was now a celebrity! Everyone that noticed a white couple with a baby stopped to see the baby. It was like they wanted to make sure the baby looked the same across cultures. Very interesting the level of attention that white people receive while out in public here.

After the palace we went to another Hindu temple. It is considered on of the most eight sacred places in India. Again, the craft work was amazing. Walking to and from the temple we cows, lambs, and monkeys. There were cows and lambs walking around and three monkeys just hanging out in front of the temple. One man was trying to get money from people who were just looking at the monkeys. I didn't give any money to him because the monkeys soon showed they didn't know who he was. Turns out a lot of people are cheats.

We then made our way back to Mysore Palace for the weekend light show. Saturday for 30 minutes and Sunday for an hour the castle is lit up with more than 96,000 lights. When we got back to the palace there was a Bollywood movie being shot. There were so many people taking all the good picture locations. I didn't know what movie or the actors so wasn't very interested in the movie actors, more so in the lights. The lights were beautiful. I did take a picture of the Bollywood actors in case they ever become big in the US. Not that when/if they become famous I will know who they are and remember I took their picture.

All the sites were very beautiful and nice to see. I have learned at least one thing, I would rather share these experiences with family and friends, especially my beautiful wife Sheila. It helps the experience so much more if you have someone to share it with. A good experience but I would change it by having loved ones with me.

The drive back took three and a half hours. Only two and a half to get back to Bangalore and an hour to go the last 10 km (about 6 miles). the traffic here is terrible!

Sunday was a day of relaxation again. The time to come home is getting close and I am excited. It will be nice to come home.

One week down in India

2011-05-01T07:39:00.001-07:00

Well it has been a few days since I sent an email to everyone. After work I usually just want to eat dinner and go to bed. The hours this office works is very different from Salt Lake. Back home I have the option to come in anytime before 8 and leave as long as I finish the work. If I were to show up at 6:30AM (my usual Salt Lake time) I would not see anyone in the office for four hours! It makes sense to have overlap between Bangalore, New York and Salt Lake, but staying late makes it so you cannot do nothing in the evenings. I have been going to work at 10AM and have been working until about 9 or 9:30. This means that I do not get much time to explore in the mornings. By the time I wake up, shower, talk to Sheila, and eat breakfast the GS driver has arrived to take me to work. By the time I get back from the office between 9:30 and 10 I just want to eat dinner and go to bed.

Part of the issue about eating dinner so late is that everything in Bangalore closes at eleven. No exceptions. I guess there is a regulation that you cannot serve alcohol after 11PM. This means that there is no reason to stay open since no one will want anything if they cannot have a drink with it. there was one night I didn't get home until 10:30. By then I didn't have time to go anywhere to sit down. I called Domino's to order a pizza, which almost all the pizzas have corn on them. Hope you like corn if you eat pizza in India. Well, I was just told about Domino's that morning from another GS employee that is staying at the same hotel. This week he has ordered pizza every night! Anyway, at first I couldn't tell the drivers how to get to the apartment. I gave them the address, which apparently means nothing in Bangalore. You have to give landmarks if you want to get anywhere. I don't know any landmarks so had to go down to the front desk to get help in ordering the pizza.

About 40 minutes later my door bell rang and my pizza was finally here! Well, I didn't know at the time, but I caused some issues for the other guy's, Matt, ordering of his pizza. Domino's thought that there couldn't possibly be two Americans staying at Tri Star hotel and refused to take his order. It took him about 15 minutes of convincing that there was two of us at Tri Star that could order pizza. even after they let him order they delivered my pizza to his room. He had to tell them I was in apartment 34 not 26 and that we had both ordered pizza. He let me know this the next morning as we share a car to work every morning.

The reason I got home so late is that I was told about a restaurant called BBQ Nation and that I needed to try it out while here. It is an Indian BBQ place. I walked down there, about 1 KM from the hotel, and went up to the host. I asked if they would be able to sit me for dinner. I was informed that unfortunately they do not have any open tables and were only able to seat reservations. Everyone at work had told me that it was popular, but didn't inform me you would need a reservation. The next day when I told my story they all said, "oh yeah, you need a reservation for that place." So the plan is to one night go there after work.

One night I went to a restaurant called 100 ft restaurant (my hotel is on 100 ft road). They had Italian type foods. All the food had an Indian flare to it, except the menu item called American Lasagna. I had chicken with avocado salsa, without the avocado salsa. Avocado's are out of season so I had to have pineapple salsa instead. After I finished the chicken, which was very good, I remember reading that I should be careful while eating salsa here. Luckily, I didn't get sick, but need to be more careful when ordering.

The week ended on a High Note, literally but kind of not true. We left work a little earlier than normal, 8:15. Dileep is moving teams so everyone was going out to celebrate/mourn his leaving PWM. Dileep has been working on a project with me for the last year and a half. All the tech knowledge for the project is leaving with him. I was mourning him leaving especially since I just want that other project off my plate! I seem to get all the projects that go on forever! The project I am here for though will not go any longer than March 19th. We were told by some very senior people at the firm that we have to go live at that time. Maybe that is why they sent me out here?

Anyway, that night we went to the authentic southern indian food restaurant called High Note. The restaurant was at the top of a building with not very visible signs. A few nights ago when I was walking to BBQ Nation I walked right past it, but didn't recognize it as anything but maybe a business building. The food was very good! We all had drinks and food and left at 11:30. All the lights were off and the workers were all ready to go home. I walked home with Muthu to Tri Star which was only about .5 km away.

You always here about jet lag. Well, I am here to attest that the theory is true. Even if you think you can sleep on planes you will most likely get the lag. Granted on the plane I didn't get a full nights sleep, I thought I would be ok. Boy was I wrong. The first day I hit a wall about 4:30PM. I think I was falling asleep at my desk, but everyone was complementing me that I wasn't looking as tired as most people who come from the US. I thought that night I would sleep with no problems. Well, I didn't and Tuesday I woke up at 5AM and was not able to go back to sleep. I was tired all day and had a rough time all day. Since then, I started taking the Melatonin Trisha suggested. I think that is my Ambien. I have slept very well every night since.

Some probably saw that I posted on Facebook that I was watching "Total Wipeout." That is equivalent to America's "Wipeout." I thought that it would be really funny and good to watch! It is amazing how much the commentators actually add to the show. Watching people wipeout is still funny, but some of the replays I had no idea why they were replaying since I couldn't understand the Hindi they were speaking. Every once in a while there would be some English words thrown in the mix. If a show is an American show it comes automatically equipped with sub-titles. The sub-titles are in English. I guess the stations figure that the American accents are ver hard to understand and require reading.

The language is interesting here. There are three languages, English, Hindi, and the local dialect. At work it is funny because my co-workers will start talking in Hindi and someone will remind them that I cannot understand Hindi and that need to speak in English so I can understand. Dinner last night was the worst, get a little alcohol into them and I think they forget how to speak English altogether. I think only the very poor do not speak Hindi, it seems that everyone can understand the drivers and speak back to them and I know everyone is not from the same state.

Today has been a relax day. I walked down 100 Foot Road (don't let the name confuse you, it is not only 100 feet). I walked into some local shops and around the hotel area. Tomorrow the plan is to visit Mysore Palace. It should be fun. It is nice to have a weekend and actually see stuff around the city.

The project is going well. We have completed about 20% of what I came here to accomplish and will get very close to completing this week. There are some processes that we won't be able to complete this week and will make the project carry over to next week. We are making some really good progress and I have only found seven issues so far. Seven sounds like a lot, but when you know that I usually find 25 - 30 at this point we are in a much better position. I hope the project continues going this well and I don't find anything critical.

Only two weeks left!

Arriving in Bangalore

2011-05-01T07:36:00.000-07:00

I made it to Bangalore! I loaded the plane at JFK at 10:40AM on Saturday. The seats in Business class were amazing. It was almost like your own personal room. The person next to you has to walk by your seat, but there is a rather large partition that makes it so you don't have to see the other person if you don't want. Before we took off I met another person from GS. She was headed to Bangalore as well. Her stay is only going to be for four days after which she flies to Singapore.

On this plane they really made you comfortable. The stewardess asked it I wanted to have my mattress taken out before or after take off. I stayed up and selected a movie to watched. each person is able to select their own movie to watch. At least in Business class, I did not check to see if each economy class got their own scree. I select Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Emarites provided sound canceling head phones in order to watch the movie.

in addition to the head phones they made it a little easier to sleep on the plane. The matress make the seat very comfortable to lay on. When I say lay, I really mean lay! The seat almost turned 100% flat. This made it much easier to fall asleep. The also provided eye covers to block out all the light. I still had issues and was only able to sleep for four of the eleven hours to Dubai. I decided to watch another movie once I woke up. I selected Robin Hood and Sheila you wouldn't like this movie, too much talking not enough action.

Once we landed in Dubai, 11 hours by second but 20 hours by the clock, we had to get off the bus using stairs and load a bus to move to the terminal. It was about a 15 minute drive before we finally reached the terminal. When I got off the plane I met another person from Goldman Sachs, he was moving to Bangalore to become the head of some teams. When you enter the terminal everyone must go through a set of security again. The guy moving to Bangalore somehow managed to unknowingly brought a Swiss Army knife through security at JFK. The Dubai agents had a good time with them catching the knife and New york missing the knife. Well, he was pulled aside and question by a few different security members for about 30 minutes. Finally someone else started making a larger scene and allowed him to go.

We then walked to the business lounge. This lounge was much bigger than the one at JFK, really just more seats. It was also much more busy. In the lounge I met another Goldman employee who was coming to Bangalore to train a new team. We sat there chatting until it was time to load the next plane. This trip was not as long, only a little more than 4 hours. I felt very lucky that my luggage made it from SLC to Bangalore. If it had been lost I was smart enough to pack one set of clothes in my carry on so I could have lasted one day.

After picking up my luggage I walked outside to find my car ride to the apartments. Well, I quickly learned that if I never got in another car in Bangalore it would be to soon. Lucky for me I get to get in another car tomorrow morning. I think that the traffic lines in the road mean nothing. No one follows them and they honk more times in 2 minutes than I have my whole life. It took us an hour and a half to get to the apartment. During that time we just chatted about Bangalore and the US.

When I got to my apartment I went in and started unpacking my stuff. I soon found I was very hungry and decided to go down stairs to the in house restaurant. I got a chicken and cheese grilled sandwich. The cheese tasted like it was cheesewhiz from the can. I was starving though and it tasted pretty good. I came back and decided I could afford the 200 Rupee to get the internet for 24 hours so I could write an email or two. After the email I am going to go to bed. I am extremely tired and hope that I will not suffer to bad from the time lag thingy ( I can't think of what it is called). Hopefully the continuous honking outside my window does not cause to much issue sleeping.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

And P.S. since it is Sunday night at 10PM the Super Bowl has already happened here and the both teams played a good game. Nothing too exciting happened. Hope you all enjoy it! I won't spoil who won because that would just be rude to give it away.

India

2011-05-01T07:33:00.001-07:00

I was recently sent to India for work. This was two months ago. I figure I haven't posted in here for so long, what is two months? I will be copying my emails that I sent to family. I should have typed in here originally, but didn't think of it at the time. Here goes.

Day 1: Flight to India
I have not made it far, only about 1900 miles. There are still many more miles to cover, I have some time free before boarding the plane. My flights are not on partnering airlines, Delta and Emirates. At first I thought I would have to collect my bag after the flight from SLC to JFK and recheck it in with Emirates. Luckily that was not the case. Delta has a bag agreement with Emirates so I would not have to get the bag from baggage claim and recheck the bag in for the Dubai and Bangalore flights.

First class from Salt Lake City to New York was nice. I was not able to sleep which will make the rest of the flights very interesting. I sat next to a girl who currently lives in Salt Lake. Something very interesting about her, she works at Goldman Sachs in Salt Lake City! What are the chances of sitting by someone on a flight to New York and the person works at Goldman Sachs? I guess GS does send people to New York all the time for training. Her stop was NY for 2 - 3 weeks. We chatted for a while during the flight, but she was soon able to fall asleep to be rested for her day in NY.

Movies are different in first class. The movie to watch was more of an on demand. A list of movies were given to me and I then had to select which movie I wanted to watch. There were probably 15 options available. I started watching Avatar and soon felt my need for sleep rising. I stopped the movie about 40 minutes after starting and decided to try and sleep. I must have fallen asleep as the flight did not seem to be four hours.

Once we arrived at JFK we were about 30 minutes early and the gate was not ready for us. We then had to sit on the tarmac until a team came to guide the plane in and move out the unload dock (I know there is a better name for this but am unable to remember). I then had to switch terminals to move to my Emirates flight. When I got into the terminal, which by the was is terminal 4, there was no one available for check in. I joined the line of those waiting to check in, I was about fifth in line.

As we were standing a lady came and asked us all to move away so they could set up for the day and that they would be opening at 7. I had an hour to wait until I could check in for my next flight. At least I did not have my large checked bag. As they were setting up I saw that Business class was going to be in a different queue from Economy class. When they finally opened, about 7:05, all the other people waiting to check in were Economy class. I did not have to wait long in the Business Class line as I was the only person.

The lady printed my boarding passes for both the Dubai and Bangalore flights so I would not have to check in again. One thing I noted on my boarding pass is that I was invited to the Emirates Lounge. I was starving and said I would check the lounge out after I had some breakfast. I stopped at Au Bon Pain and got an egg and sausage bagel. It had an interesting taste that I believe I know why. I am on Malarone to prevent me from getting Malaria. When I started taking this pill yesterday I started having a salty taste in my mouth. It has remained ever since. A salty 30 days is a head.

I ate the bagel and decided to find the lounge. I had to cross security and found the lounge upstairs above my gate. The lounge is very extravagant! Not only are the chairs much nicer to sit in than the regular gate chairs, there are computers, places to hookup laptops, and food. The food looks very good with fruits, breads, danishes, and much more. The spread is much better than what is available at any hotel.

I am now waiting to board the Dubai flight. It is only 8 AM and boarding is not until 10:10 AM. As I am certain everyone in SLC is still asleep I won't be calling anyone to wake them up, I still want friends and family when I get back. It is a good thing I brought a mini DVD player and the Kindle with various books on it to keep me busy.

Robert

P.S. I was bored and checked how long Google maps thinks it should take to WALK from Salt Lake to New York. You should be able to accomplish this in 29 days and 23 hours.

Continued...

2008-10-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a while since I posted. Between going to doctors and trying to get back to work, it has been a wild road. The problem with writing about what happened in San Diego, is that I can remember, however, the memories are not very vivid. All those close to me don't talk about it very often and when we do talk about what happened it is usually about how lucky I am to not have more damage. But I will try and take a shot at it.

Arrival in San Diego

We had a choice to take me to either San Diego, California or El Paso, Texas. We decided on San Diego. I was admitted to the Intense Care Unit at Scripps Hospital. We were luckily enough to have my Mom's brother live in San Diego and allowed my family to stay at his house. He also had an extra car and allowed my family to drive it while we were there, making it nice to not have to rent a car or get a hotel.

When we arrived in San Diego my Dad called my fiancees dad. He did not call my fiancee because he felt that he would not be able to keep it together long enough to tell her what had happened to me. Her Dad called and told her the news of my trip. With the news she and her Mom had made arrangements to catch the first available flight to San Diego.

Sheila and her Mom joined my Dad watching over me. My Mom and little sister, Heidi, would join but would not be able to arrive as soon. Mom and Heidi had to get back on the cruise ship and catch a plane at the next port. Luckily, Mom works for an airline who were willing to work with her once she explained the situation. They thought they would have to fly stand by to get back, but luckily her manager pulled some strings and got a confirmed seat. Everyone took shifts staying at the hospital with me to be able to send any news if needed.

Three days after the accident I began speaking and comprehending what others where saying. It was hard for me to believe that I had been in an accident and was now in San Diego. I kept asking to see my Uncle Bob to give me proof that I was in San Diego. I had short term memory loss, so would not remember conversations that I had the day before. My dad says one of the first things I asked the nurse was, "What do I need to do to get better?" Five days later I was moved off the ICU floor to the regular hospital.

Everyday 3 hours were spent in therapy. Physical, Speech, and Occupational Therapy all devoted and hour a day to help me get better. At first walking was very hard as I had lost the use of the right side of my body. I knew how to walk, but could not get my body to work the way I needed. Along with this my right hand was very weak and uncontrollable. Luckily, I am left handed so I did not have to worry about writing. When I first started speaking, I knew what I was saying but was unable to get it to sound like I was actually saying words. These reasons are why therapy was every day. Everyone had gotten off the cruise ship and had come by to see me in the hospital. Sheila and her mom went home, Sheila went to finish the final week of teaching. I do not remember seeing them or any other family member that did not stay. Heidi went home and Trisha stayed in San Diego.

After 4 days I was moved to rehabilitation where more therapy was to be spent. Rehabilitation is the point where I can remember the most things. The first thing I remember was being moved from the hospital to rehab, I had to take an ambulance. When I was not at therapy I spent many hours sleeping and my awake hours not at therapy we played games together. Sheila finished school and came back to spend see everything was ok. At this point my good friend Aaron flew stand by to come and see me. Had he come earlier I would not recall him being there. So, I am grateful he waited to come out. Again, more games were played and they joked that even with a brain injury I still had my competitive nature.

While there my cousin Dave came to see me after he was out of work. It was very nice for him to come and see me more then once as he married into the family, but this also was interesting subject for him. He graduated from medical school and is becoming a neuro surgeon. His wife and kids, Calvin and Claire, came to see me twice. I played games with their kids, Candyland was Calvins favorite game and he won every time and I was not even letting him.

The therapists there said I was making great progress, faster then a similar kind of injury. I think that being able to have my family and friends close to me helped speed up my recovery. Having a good attitude towards also helped me have a speedy recovery. The nurses commented that having the good attitude and being able to joke was not a normal reaction. The doctors were glad as many head injury patients develope bad tempers and are angry at the world. This was not the case for me. The therapists released me to come back to Salt Lake City one week after arriving at rehab.

Before we could get a flight out, we stayed at Dave and Denises and their kids. By the end of the three days we stayed there Claire had opened up and was very friendly with me. Before we flew back I had my first break down. This was the first point that I felt helpless and did not understand why it was so hard for everything to get back to normal. We got to the airport and we were all worried about flying as I still had a perferated ear drum. When I got back to Salt Lake I had to make a Rehab, Neurologist, Ear Nose and Throat, and General doctors appointment.

Cabo San Lucas May 27 2008

2008-08-02T08:04:00.000-07:00

Cabo San Lucas

After the days at sea the ship was going to spend one day at Cabo San Lucas. The guest could get off the ship first thing in the morning. In order to get off the ship a tender had to be taken. The last one to get back on the ship would leave at six that evening. The cruise ship waits for no one, so if the tender is missed the guest would have to find transportation home or to the next port. There was a couple guests that would be those that missed the last tender.

After breakfast, the family was going to take a boat to land and spend the day at the beach. Grandma and Grandpa Dahlquist, Grandma Jorgensen, Lea, Ronnie, and Louise decided to stay on the cruise ship as the tender ships were be to hard to get on and off. In order to get on the tender ships there was a line as everyone wanted to go see the port. The family placed themselves in line, which was pretty far back, to get on a tender ship.

Once getting on the tender ship there was about a 15 minute ride to shore and then the decision came to decide what would be done all day. After walking along the beach for a little while it was decided that wave runners would be rented. The best wave runners were at a little beach side shop, actually the only place to get wave runners is at the beach front property.

Going on the wave runners kept the fun adding up. Each rider on the wave runners changed often, the question was even asked to Mom if she wanted to take someones place on the wave runner. Her answer was no, so the six of us, Dad, Trisha, Me, Heidi, Ty, and Sarah, continued driving around the ocean. There wasn't enough of the ocean from the cruise ship the view was much closer from the wave runners.

The arrangements ended up being, Dad driving with Trisha, Me driving with Sarah, Ty driving with Heidi, on the machines. The next moment is a blur to everyone. Dad and I crashed into each other. Luckily, Dad and Trisha were just thrown from the wave runners, and Sarah had a bruised knee from the accident. On the other hand, I had injuries enough for the four of us.

I had a laundry list of injuries. The ones we know of are: fractured skull, bleeding of the brain, my right ear was almost cut off, and a lacerated liver. The whole right side of my body was bloated almost to the point of nonrecognition. Luckily, after hitting the wave runners I landed in the water next to Trisha face down. If I had not had on a life jacket I probably would have created a new home at the bottom of the ocean with my sunglasses at 11:30am on May 27, 2008.

Trisha was able to flip me over so my face was not in the water. Ty and Heidi brought over the wave runner he was driving and my family got me to an ambulance and on to the hospital in Cabo. While in the process of getting me out of the water Ty took on his own injury, he was stung by a jellyfish.

Well, before I was allowed to fly to San Diego the Mexican hospital and life flight had to be paid for in full. The problem was my parents and no one around had enough on their credit card. Heidi and Sarah went back to the cruise ship to find everyone else. Luckily, everyone was in their rooms and easy to find. After we finally were able to round up enough to pay for everything. By the time everything was taken care off the last tender to the ship would have gone. Someone from the cruise was kind enough to know the whole situation and made the last tender wait for everyone to get back on the cruise ship.

Dad and I took another route, we took the life flight to San Diego. When we first got in they started taking out the drugs that Mexico had put in as Mexico had put in more drugs then needed for the situation. At this point I was unresponsive to everything around. Once we reached San Diego my Dad was a mess but was able to call my Fiances Dad.

For some reason Mike had left his cell phone on the night and was able to answer his call. My Dad did not want to try and call Sheila because he was not sure he could hold himself together. Mike then called Sheila. She and her mom, Micki would be on their way to San Diego the next day. Mom and Heidi were able to join them the next day as well, while everyone else stayed on the ship as it would have been to expensive to fly to me.

Next post will be the time in San Diego.

My Mexico Adventure

2008-08-01T17:38:00.000-07:00

I have decided to blog on my experience in Mexico. The problem is there are three weeks in my life which I cannot remember. So, what am I going to blog? That is a good question, and here is the answer. I will blog what people have told me. The stories all match with each other, so I am confident that no one is changing their story. Really, there is no reason to change anyones version of the story. So, lets start at the beginning of the whole thing and I will add more blogs with more details. It will probably take a few blogs for me to tell the whole story. If you read them all then great, if not I understand that it is along time to get to the point of my story, where you really could just call me and get the whole story in less amount of time.

The beginning

Trisha (my older sister) was preparing to graduate from medical school. The family was getting ready to celebrate! A choice was to be made, go to New York for the graduation OR go with the rest of the family on a cruise to Mexico. Well, after much contemplation, the decision was easy, have a week of fun in Mexico as apposed to having four days in New York with a few family members. Now granted graduation is important but Trisha said if the choice was to be made choose the cruise over the boring graduation. In fact, that is exactly how she explained the graduation, boring.

Mom, Dad, all the siblings, Grandma and Grandpa Dahlquist, Grandma Jorgensen, Ronnie, Lea, and Louise were all getting ready to go on the cruise together. Vacation was set for May 24th through June 1st. Everyone would stay in Los Angeles for a night before getting on the cruise ship. The night was spent taking it easy, preparing for the fun that was to come.

The next morning we got on the cruise ship and joined the festivities of the All Aboard Party. This was the beginning of an exciting trip. The night was spent dancing the night away. Music was played and all types of dancing took place. After the dancing the first dinner of the cruise was to begin.

Dinner was like a show. The waiters were very practiced in displaying the meal in a way that everyone, even if the dinner was not liked, would enjoy it. Dinner was followed by a show of singing and dancing. Shows like these would take place every night. The first two nights were the best because these days would be spent at sea. The first day arriving in Mexico was May 27 in Cabo San Lucas. This would be the start of our trips inside of Mexico.

The days at sea were spent finding activities to do. It was not hard to find something as every minute of the cruise was planned by the crew. Everything from rock climbing to scrap booking was available. A rock climbing race was bound to take place. All those who liked rock climbing would take part in the fun.

After rock climbing, there was sure to be a card game. Everyone was invited to participate and try to win the championship, just to try and defend it at the next card session. These games were to continues until it was time to get ready for the formal pictures. This was to help have the great memory of coming on the cruise and being able to dress up in the best clothes that had been brought. Pictures were taken and another night of shows were seen and the next day was going to be spent in Cabo San Lucas!

Happily Eating the Pie

2007-11-07T12:13:00.000-08:00

I think that the worst thing one can do for their body is eat The Pie Pizzeria pizza. When picking up a slice the grease is dripping from the sides. It has to be bad when I won't even pick it up with my hands because I don't want to get them greasy, I use a fork and knife. While eating one can feel the arteries getting clogged from the cheese and toppings. I always feel much heavier after eating "The Pie". With this being said, I still eat it when it is around. Lately, our team has been ordering from there rather frequently. We had it today. Better hit the gym.

After Much Discussion.

2007-10-23T08:50:00.000-07:00

After many discussions with a friend, I have decided to keep a blog. It will be a great way to put down my thoughts and what is happening in life. How often will I write? I have no idea. Perhaps everyday (I highly doubt this), or maybe once a week. I suppose it all depends on if I am overpowered with the urge to put down my thoughts or events. Happy Future Reading.