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!
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