I last wrote a week ago, so I'll catch you up on the wild and crazy happenings here in India. Actually, there's no wild and crazy, so let's reset your expectations before you read any further.
Last Sunday, Blaine and I took a car around Delhi sightseeing. We had the same driver, Monu, as the previous day going to Agra. He was great and we were able to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time. We tooled by Akshardham (a showcase of Indian architectures, traditions and cultures, www.akshardham.com) and The Red Fort (the walled city of Old Delhi where the Mughal emperors lived). Then he took us to Jama Masjid (the prinicpal mosque of Old Delhi) where we dropped our shoes and headed on into the large courtyard of the mosque. The courtyard alone can hold up to 25,000 worshippers! From there, we went to the capital buildings, the prime minister's residence and the Parliament. We drove past the Indian Coast Guard HQ in Delhi (took a pic for you, Ali), stopped at the India Gate and continued on to Humayun's Tomb. After that, we swung by Lodi Gardens and the Lotus Temple (one of the main Baha'i temples in the world) on our way to Dilli Haat.
Dilli Haat is an outdoor market of over 200 stalls with people selling woodworking, scarves, clothing, bangles, dolls, food and everything else you can imagine. We spent two hours walking around looking at their wares. It was the perfect place for Blaine to do a lot of souvenir shopping for his family all in one place. We found some really neat things that captured the essence of India. After we were shopped out, we went with Monu to his final destination with us, the Delhi domestic airport.
We had several hours to wait for our flight to Bangalore, but we passed the time and had a relatively uneventful trip. We were picked up at the airport and were delivered to our hotel, the Lemon Tree in Electronics City, at 12:30am. After keeping myself up until 4:30am, I went to sleep until 3:30pm. I had hardly slept at all over the past several days, so this was perfect and got me on schedule for the night shift. Unfortunately, my coworker had caught a case of Delhi Belly and was completely out of commission, so I left the hotel at 6:15pm IST (7:45am EST) and headed off to work. It was exactly as I remembered it being and the day moved along well. I had lunch with our two team leads, Jerome and Madan, at the chinese place up the road and all was well.
Fortunately, Blaine felt somewhat better on day 2 and was able to make it in to work. We had a busy day, complete with taking the entire Capital Region team out to lunch at Lord's Plaza. Wednesday was a complete whirlwind and Hurricane Blaine was in full effect. We had a couple of training sessions and team lead/manager lunch all crammed into a short day. Blaine was off to the airport to fly back to Delhi, where he would be working Thursday in the Noida office and then as soon as work was over, head to the airport to fly home. We continued on our training sessions and role plays in Bangalore. On Friday, the Fannie/Freddie team took me out to lunch. Guess where we went? KFC! Like most US chains in different countries, the food was exactly the same. They said they go there every Friday. It was a great time, spending time out of the office and getting to know them better.
That brings us to the weekend. It's currently Sunday night at 11:15pm here. I had decided that I was just going to chill out this weekend here at the hotel. I got caught up on some things and am ready for work this week. The owners will be in the Bangalore office this week, so I should be prepared. Next weekend, I have plans with TJ and who knows exactly what we'll get into.
So, that's about all the news from this side of the world. I hear that DC is going to get snow mid-week. We'll see. Until I write again, be careful out there!
Last Sunday, Blaine and I took a car around Delhi sightseeing. We had the same driver, Monu, as the previous day going to Agra. He was great and we were able to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time. We tooled by Akshardham (a showcase of Indian architectures, traditions and cultures, www.akshardham.com) and The Red Fort (the walled city of Old Delhi where the Mughal emperors lived). Then he took us to Jama Masjid (the prinicpal mosque of Old Delhi) where we dropped our shoes and headed on into the large courtyard of the mosque. The courtyard alone can hold up to 25,000 worshippers! From there, we went to the capital buildings, the prime minister's residence and the Parliament. We drove past the Indian Coast Guard HQ in Delhi (took a pic for you, Ali), stopped at the India Gate and continued on to Humayun's Tomb. After that, we swung by Lodi Gardens and the Lotus Temple (one of the main Baha'i temples in the world) on our way to Dilli Haat.
Dilli Haat is an outdoor market of over 200 stalls with people selling woodworking, scarves, clothing, bangles, dolls, food and everything else you can imagine. We spent two hours walking around looking at their wares. It was the perfect place for Blaine to do a lot of souvenir shopping for his family all in one place. We found some really neat things that captured the essence of India. After we were shopped out, we went with Monu to his final destination with us, the Delhi domestic airport.
We had several hours to wait for our flight to Bangalore, but we passed the time and had a relatively uneventful trip. We were picked up at the airport and were delivered to our hotel, the Lemon Tree in Electronics City, at 12:30am. After keeping myself up until 4:30am, I went to sleep until 3:30pm. I had hardly slept at all over the past several days, so this was perfect and got me on schedule for the night shift. Unfortunately, my coworker had caught a case of Delhi Belly and was completely out of commission, so I left the hotel at 6:15pm IST (7:45am EST) and headed off to work. It was exactly as I remembered it being and the day moved along well. I had lunch with our two team leads, Jerome and Madan, at the chinese place up the road and all was well.
Fortunately, Blaine felt somewhat better on day 2 and was able to make it in to work. We had a busy day, complete with taking the entire Capital Region team out to lunch at Lord's Plaza. Wednesday was a complete whirlwind and Hurricane Blaine was in full effect. We had a couple of training sessions and team lead/manager lunch all crammed into a short day. Blaine was off to the airport to fly back to Delhi, where he would be working Thursday in the Noida office and then as soon as work was over, head to the airport to fly home. We continued on our training sessions and role plays in Bangalore. On Friday, the Fannie/Freddie team took me out to lunch. Guess where we went? KFC! Like most US chains in different countries, the food was exactly the same. They said they go there every Friday. It was a great time, spending time out of the office and getting to know them better.
That brings us to the weekend. It's currently Sunday night at 11:15pm here. I had decided that I was just going to chill out this weekend here at the hotel. I got caught up on some things and am ready for work this week. The owners will be in the Bangalore office this week, so I should be prepared. Next weekend, I have plans with TJ and who knows exactly what we'll get into.
So, that's about all the news from this side of the world. I hear that DC is going to get snow mid-week. We'll see. Until I write again, be careful out there!
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