Staring contest...1,2,3 Go!

One of the strangest things to get use to here is that people stare at you. Is it because I am an American? Is it because I am female? Is it because I am ridiculously awesome? I highly doubt the last one but everyone stares at everyone. It is weird and creepy. To combat the staring you must engage in a staring contest. Generally once you catch a "starer" you make eye contact and stare back until the other person looks away.

The first few weeks I couldn't handle this staring and it made me uncomfortable. At the end of week five I have mastered the stare back. My favorite look to give what I call the "wtf are you looking at idiot". It is pretty much what it sounds like and this look does not photograph well so you will have to use your imagination.

When I am in the cab and I catch someone staring in at me...it is on like donkey kong. This week along I have broken at least 6 people. It is a personal record. I am tempted to try a new look this last week. I am calling it "yes, I am American and I realize you are staring" this will include me smiling and waiving back at the starer until they feel uncomfortable.

I am also a very big hit with the 14 yr old boys. Whenever we are out at tourist places they all come up to me and want to take pictures and know my name. It is yet another weird and uncomfortable thing. I have once again started to embrace this. I even stopped to take a photo with these boys.

This past Saturday I was out with Kaizer (from the Denver office who is originally from Mumbai so he speaks the language) he overheard a group of girls say in Hindi "Look how white she is". Kaizer said that they were really fascinated with how fair my skin was. I just laughed about it. Even India realizes that I need a tan.

Taj Mahal

So the internet at the hotel is super weird and crashes quite often. I finally managed to get all the photos posted.

So we arrive at the Taj and you would think that you would be able to see it from the street but the city of Agra has done a pretty good job on hiding this masterpiece. You can't drive right up to the Taj and get off at the gate because of the pollution from the cars (the people don't want the Taj to turn grey or black) another interesting fact is that there are no factories in the city of Agra for the same reason. So Asef takes us on a short walk to the gate.

We could have entered the Taj in style...via Camel but thought walking was a better idea!

There were also more monkeys on this walk!

Talk about having a monkey on your back!


Okay, we finally arrive at the main gate and buy our tickets. Foreigners are once again upcharged 750 rupees for a ticket! Indians pay about 50 rupees! This would never fly in America but what can you do. So we get our tickets head through security and arrive at the main gate. Here is a picture I took while standing in the women's security line. I am holding my camera at eye level...these women are like 5 feet tall!

Once we passed through security we got to the main gate and Asef gave us a little history lesson on the Taj.

I of course will provide you with the cliff notes, I did fact check everything Asef told us and he was correct (according to wikipedia though). The Taj Mahal was built by the third Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, for his wife Mumtaz Mahal. She died at the age of 33 after being married to Shah Jahan for 19 years and providing him with 14 children! She died giving birth to their 14th child. Before she died she asked three things of Shah Jahan  1. Don't re-marry 2. Take care of our children 3. Build me a beautiful mausoleum.


Like a good husband he held up on 1 and 3 but ran into some trouble with taking care of the children (will discuss further down). Shah Jahan hired 20,000 workers from Iran and it took 22 years to finish the construction of the entire complex. The mausoleum itself took 17 years and the last 5 were spent on the gates and ground work. If you are ever in the neighborhood I would strongly suggest checking this place out.


Team photo in front of the gate!

So you have me, Anh, Brett, and Steven. Steven was not feeling the photo...he did have to ride shotgun with Dharmender so we let this one slide. The coolest thing about the Taj is everything is symmetrical. We are standing on the line of symmetry.


This shot is what you see when you go through the gate.

And here it is after you go through the gate

 I think it is pretty cool. After we entered the main gate, Asef took every cheesy picture possible of the group. It was kind of awesome because we all got to be in the pictures and he knew all the spots and poses to do. I will have to refer you to facebook for all those pictures.


So what does it look like up close? Here ya go

 What does the inside look like? This is a replica of the tomb. The actual tomb is below ground and not on display for the public.

 Surprisingly there is not very good lighting.

Asef told us that the orange stones below are only found in Agra and glow in the lighting. There was no good picture of it glowing but take my word...it was awesome.

 So Shah Jahan really liked what he built for his wife and thought to himself...I should have a mausoleum too (I don't blame him after seeing the Taj I kinda want a mausoleum). He planned to build a replica of the Taj across the river but instead of white marble it would be black. His son Aurangzeb was suppose to be in charge of building this masterpiece and this is what it looks like.

Don't squint your eyes or e-mail me to re-post the picture...you are looking at absolutely nothing. Yup nada. Aurangzeb, the ungrateful child overthrew his father and never built the mausoleum. I can't recall what exactly what went down for Aurangzeb to overthrow his father but happened at this point I had been listening to history for 2 hours and when I looked it up on wikipedia there wasn't much there. 


In summary, that is the Taj Mahal. It is absolutely amazing and a beautiful piece of architecture. The best time to see the Taj Mahal is during the full moon. Tickets sell out a month in advance and is limited to 250 people with half hour intervals. Asef said that the moonlight makes the Taj glow and it is breathtaking (not sure if he said breathtaking but that is what I imagine). One interesting thing about it that I didn't realize is that it isn't made 100% out of marble. It was first constructed with brick and then marble was put over the brick. Now it is Agra fort time.


Agra fort is where Shan Jahan and Aurangzeb lived. At the time it was considered on of the most important forts in India. Once Aurangzeb over threw his father he imprisoned him in Agra fort in a room that looked directly out at the Taj. In the words of Stephanie Tanner "How rude!"

The fort itself was pretty cool. It is the largest fort in Asia, about 1.5 miles long/wide. Here is a shot of the entrance and the grounds.

The fort wasn't just used for imprisoning people. Other governmental affairs went on here. This is where important meetings happened.

I have no idea what this next photo is of but I just thought it was really cool.

For 10 rupees the monkey below will translate the sign to English

Just kidding! The monkey is just hanging out and I know animal shots have been requested. After all the sightseeing time to get back into the car with Dharmender for the drive home. He of course wouldn't drive to the other side of the street to pick us up and we had the fun adventure of crossing the street in front of the fort. Here is some video for your enjoyment (curtsy of Steven...I rarely take my iPhone out in public)

Overall, it was a pretty awesome birthday weekend. So here is some slightly bad news. Everyone knows that I have extremely bad luck with digital cameras. I somehow managed to lose the cord that connects my camera to my computer so there won't be many more photos from me posted. I've already ordered a new cord from amazon and I will be able to upload photos when I am back in Atlanta!!!

Happy birthday to me!

 I know I am writing this post about a week and a half late but the birthday weekend was pretty jammed packed that it required its own post.

Since everyone was at work on Saturday I decided not to sit around the hotel all day and venture out on my own (yes, shocking I am at the point of leaving the hotel by myself). I was in desperate need of eyebrow threading and a haircut so naturally I headed to the mall.  India is filled will malls and everything you ever need is in a mall. What we think of as a strip mall is called a mall and the actual mall is called a mall. Saturday afternoon I headed to the largest mall in Gurgaon, Ambience Mall. This mall has 4 floors and I would estimate it is 1.5 football fields long. You can pretty much get anything that you want here and the mall is organized by store type. For example, all woman’s clothing stores are on floor 1, electronics floor 2, etc. Security is also tight at the mall. The car gets checked before you enter the drop off or parking area and when you enter the mall you go through a metal detector and get wanded.  Nothing too eventful to report at the mall I got a haircut which doesn’t look great (I already have an appointment with my normal guy back in Atlanta – thanks Alli) and got some gelato…nothing too crazy but a good first alone adventure.

Once the team got off work we headed into Delhi to do some scarf shopping. I bought a few scarves at a place called Shaw’s and Sons the week before and I really like what I got and decided that we should go back and buy more. The actual store is like a tiny hallway and the upstairs of the store is filled with scarves. It reminded me of being in China town and buying knock off handbags. I got a few good scarves and helped the guys pick a few out. Since everyone was buying a few items we used the power of negotiation to get 60% off the sticker price…don’t get too excited in our negotiation skills the sign on the wall gave everyone 50% we only managed to squeeze 10% more out of these guys.

Once we made our purchases it as off to dinner at Zook which has become our favorite local hang out. This place has the best food I’ve had in India and the music is pretty clutch. Ferhardkit, the band we went and saw at the Hard Rock who was launching their new album was having another launch party and we decided to see them again. The show was at the mall (note that even bars and clubs are in malls) that is less than 1 kilometer from the hotel (1km = .62 miles). I was really excited that it was so close because I didn’t want to stay out late since we were leaving for Agra at 5 am in the next day! I stayed at the club for a few songs but it was already almost midnight and a few of us headed back to the hotel early.

So the plan was to meet in the lobby at 5 am for the 4.5 hour car ride. I of course arrive in the lobby at 5 am to find no one from the group there. Steven comes down at 5:15, Brett at 5:20, and Anh rolls in at 5:30...these guys can't show up on time for anything. For the trip we didn't have Manmohan (our normal driver) who takes us to/from work everyday and into Delhi on the weekends. We had Dharmender who turned out the be the worse driver in India. Here is a little comparison and contrast between Manmohan and Dharmender.

Manmohan	Dharmender
Speaks English	Does not speak English
Does not honk horn	Honks horn at every moving and non-moving object
Drives at a reasonable speed and does not slam on breaks	Drives into oncoming traffic. Hits every pot hole and speed bump at about 60 km (40 mph)
No accidents	About ended a guy’s life on a bike. Accident avoided but it was a close call.
Does not pick up strangers off the side of the road	Read down a bit

About half way through the drive Dharmender decided to pull over and jump out of the car without saying a word. It turns out that we were at the Uttar Pradesh border and had to show paperwork before getting on another highway. The cool thing about this border stop was that there were several guys walking around with monkeys. This was to be the first of many monkeys on the road to Agra. The last hour and a half of the ride was much more uneventful than the first...until we arrive in Agra.

Dharmender pulls over once more and a stranger hops into the car. There were several thoughts going through my mind but before I could react the stranger asks us is if we want breakfast. We say yes as we don't know what this guys is all about. The stranger takes us to this fine establishment below.

At this fine establishment no one ate anything and we had a team meeting as to what we needed to do about the stranger. Since Brett had great negotiation skills the night before at Shaw's and Son he was naturally elected to figure out what this guy was all about before we got back into the car.

It turns out that the stranger is Asef and was hired by the company to be our tour guide. The company had already paid for his services and only if we felt it necessary we should tip him at the end of the day. After hearing this, I was okay with letting Asef back into the car and it was Taj Mahal time!

We were only a short distance from the Taj and I was surprised that I couldn't see this massive building from the road way. Here is a shot of what the outside of the gate looked liked.

I have to cut the post short...I can't load photos right now. Stayed tuned for part 2!!!

Holy moly

Today has been an interesting day. Several of the roads we take to get into the office were closed this morning. We spent 2 hours in traffic and then our driver found a back road. We went through this really small village on a dirt road and when we got to the main road saw that there were riots. Small fires in the roads, street poles torn up from the ground, and concrete blocks throughout the road so the police couldn't get through...it was really crazy. We turned around and headed back to the hotel. By the time we got back to the hotel, the security was beefed up. There were police officers with weapons standing at the main gate.

I have no idea what the riots are all about and I haven't received any updates from the US Embassy or EY firm security. We are leaving in a little bit to see if the roads have opened back up. I will try to find out what this is all about and keep you posted.

Update - here is what the riots/protest/traffic jam was all about (taken from my Ey firm security e-mail)

Significant traffic disruption on 7 February was reported on several roads in the city of Gurgaon (Haryana state, National Capital Region) as a result of demonstrations by local residents and businesspeople in the Udyog Vihar area. The protests are being undertaken in opposition to the proposed demolition of illegally constructed buildings in the vicinity of an Indian Air Force (IAF) ammunition depot. The thoroughfares affected by the rallies include Atul Kataria roundabout and Bata Chowk, which lead to Old Delhi Road, MG Road and the Gurgaon-New Delhi Expressway. In addition, traffic on National Highway 8 (NH-8), which connects the capital Delhi to the city of Mumbai (Maharashtra state), has also been disrupted by the demonstrations.

Get your sparkle on!

The long awaited return of a post. Sorry to keep everyone in suspense about what is going on in India. I have a really long post that I need to do about the trip to the Taj Mahal but I wanted let you start your weekend off with a fun game we like to play here.

Men in India wear what is called a “sparkle sweater vest” which is made out of astro-turf type material and comes in your basic colors (black, beige, burgundy) plus an assortment of incredibly un-manly colors (bright pink, yellow, and baby blue). I haven’t been able to capture the more un-manly colors but trust me they are out there and we see plenty of them!

For whatever reason the guys that I am with really want one but we can’t seem to find them in any of the malls or markets. They even went as far as asking the team at work where they could get one. Surprisingly, no one on the team had seen one of these vests. We've taken the team out for a few meals or what they like to call "treats" and they want to do something nice for us...I told my team that it would make my day if they got all the guys a sparkly sweater.

Our car ride to work has no turned into a game of spotting the sparkly sweater vest. Remember punch buggy no punch backs? Well here you yell… green sparkle at the Tuk Tuk! You punch the person you are next of course. Yesterday on the way to work there were about 12 people in these amazing pieces of fashion and today the elevator operator had one on….it has been an awesome two days! The video below was an accident but was too funny that I had to post anyway.

***If you are at the office put the volume on low or have headphones on!

This one is great because Kaizer is actually saying chazzle dazzle.

Independence Day vs Republic Day

I am just about at my half way point on the trip and I am looking forward to getting back to the US. There is just so much that I miss like Special K with Almonds, text messaging, driving (even though my car my not start when I get back), kick boxing with Gabby on Mondays, and blowing my nose with non-black snot (from the pollution). I am trying to not think about everything that I miss but it is hard not to.

Let me catch you up on my weekend and week so far. Saturday half the team worked so I hung out at the hotel worked out and got ready for the day. We left for Delhi at 4:30 p.m. we checked out Khan market, which is where all the diplomats shop, and we walked around Lodi garden. I have done a lot of shopping and have bought nothing (until Sunday). Sunday left for sightseeing at 10 am. We went to Qutub Minar, which is the largest brick minaret in the world. The monuments here are raciest to foreigners. For Indians it cost 10 rupees to enter and for everyone else 250 rupees. We had lunch at KFC thinking it would taste different but it doesn't. I finally bought a few scarves (I am going to go back to the place to get more to bring back) and they guys got Kurtas which is what the men wear here. I am not buying any traditional India outfits because I don't think they are that cute.

On Monday the team was invited to a dinner with the partners and executives at our Global Shared Services. The dinner was by the pool at the hotel, which was really convenient, but the best part of the dinner was that we met another group of rotators from Europe.  There is a girl from France, a girl from Spain, a guy from Germany, and a guy from the Netherlands. They are going to be here for 3 months. I don’t think that I could handle more than 2 months here…there is just too much that I would miss about Atlanta. They are a pretty cool group of people and we will hang out with them for sure.

Nothing to report for Tuesday.

Today (Wednesday) is Republic day, which is the day that the Indian constitution came into force. It is nothing like Independence Day there were no fireworks, you don't sing the national anthem, and you can’t buy booze today. The one similar to Independence Day is that we get the day off. There is a really big parade that happens in Delhi but we were advised to not go into the city today b/c of traffic and congestion and the possibility of riots. I could have caught the parade on TV but when I turned the TV Star World was showing a Modern Family marathon and I sat in front of the TV from 10 am till 7:30 pm.  There was an hour-long break for me to go into the gym and work out. Team America and team Europe had dinner tonight at our favorite local chicken restaurant. I had a plan when I got back to my room to do my Walk Away the Pounds DVD (all the sugar cane and naan is too delicious) well my brilliant self did not check the DVD case before I left and when I opened the case there was nothing inside. So my back up plan was to buy a DVD off iTunes since I can’t stream TV or Netflix internationally. The internet at the hotel sucks so much that it is going to take 3 hours to download…so tomorrow I can do a work out video.

I am pumped for the weekend on Sunday we are going to the Taj Mahal! I am really excited to see it. Not so excited for getting there. We leave at 5 am and it is a 4.5 hour drive. I will take lots of pictures and post pics from last weekend and next weekend at once. 

Weekend Update

I hope everyone is having a good start to their weekend. By the time you read this it will be Saturday morning and Saturday night for me. The plan for the weekend is head into Delhi this afternoon. The guys from the Southwest team have to work today (so happy my team doesn't work on Saturdays). We are going to do some sightseeing and dinner in Delhi. Tomorrow the plan is to head to the red fort and Gandhi's house. I will take lots of pictures!

I finally made it to the gym this morning. Colleen I am working on getting back into my half marathon training schedule. I've been out for 2 weeks and have fallen very far behind. I got on the scale this morning and I've gained like 7 pounds because all I eat is carbs, sugars, and creamy sauces. I was talking to a senior manager in the office about how everything here is made of sugar cane and he told me jokingly that the Indian desert is not sand but sugar cane. So much for my plan to lose weight here! Once I start running a few times a week I am hoping that I can burn everything off.

Just another day in India

I want to give you all a feel for my day to day life here in Gurgaon. My alarm goes off at 8:15 am and I typically snooze until 9 am (I am changing it up next week now that I feel better I can start working out again). I get ready for work and head to breakfast buffet at about 9:45 am.  You can pretty much get anything on the breakfast buffet. I generally stay away from typical Indian dishes and the eggs. The eggs here look a little funny. I can’t put my finger on it but the one day I got scrambled eggs the color looked very white (and the yoke was in it). I also noticed that the eggs aren’t refrigerated.  The hotel leaves them in a bucket of ice and at the market I noticed that the eggs are kept on the same shelf as the bread. Now you can understand why I stay away from the eggs. I normally have toast and fruit for breakfast. If I am feeling a little crazy I add some peanut butter and honey to my toast. If I am feeling really adventurous and go outside the box I will have something from the India section of the menu. I’ve tried Dosa, which is the stuff you make crepes with and potatoes on the inside. I would prefer it if it was an actual crepe but the Dosa is actually pretty good. The presentation of the Dosa at the hotel is pretty cool; they make it look like a giant cone. 

I’ve also tried Uttamum which is the same crepe like breading but cooked on the oven with green peppers and onions. Uttamum doesn’t have the same cool presentation (so no picture) and is much richer than the Dosa. After I finish breakfast I take one more pass at the buffet to borrow a bowl and spoon to make oatmeal for my lunch.

Our driver meets us outside of the hotel at 10:30 am.  The drive to the office takes about 30 minutes because of the traffic.  The car ride here is always a fun experience. You drive where ever you feel like. The road we take is actually a highway but by looking at I would have never guessed it. When we get to one particular intersection I get to see people begging for money, selling crap from 1980, and men peeing off the side of the road. When I saw the latter I was really happy I listened to the travel doctor and only brought closed toe shoes! This is just a random pic from the car ride.

At 11 am we sign into the paper log book and I say hi to everyone in the office and start up my computer for the day. Getting my e-mail down from the server takes a good 30 minutes. The internet is really slow and my computer goes back to the US server and then back to me here. I do a little work from 11:30 to 2 and most of the time I start writing my blog entry when I have down time. Everyone goes to lunch around 2ish. Since I generally don’t eat the food here I try to hold off eating my oatmeal until 3. Today I had maple brown sugar which was quite delicious. My day really picks up at about 6 pm when everyone is almost finished with the work and it needs to be reviewed. Our driver picks us up from the office at 8 pm and we head back to the hotel. It can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to get back because of the traffic. It is dark out by the time we leave so I don’t get to see as many scenic items.

Once back at the hotel it is dinner, blog posting/e-mails, and off to bed. I eat a lot at the hotel mainly because by the time I get back I really don't want to do a super long dinner. When we do group dinners we normally don't get back until after 10:30!  So that is my typical day.

A long awaited post

Greetings! So I know it has been a few days since I’ve posted anything. I have been spending the time resting in my hotel room and watching lots of Star World. I am starting to feel much better today. I hope by saying this I am not jinxing myself but I don’t know what illness is left for me to catch. So last night there was an earthquake in Pakistan that a lot of people in Delhi felt. We didn’t feel anything at the hotel but today in the office everyone is talking about it and the internet was down here (not sure if it is related to the earthquake or not). I read an article on CNN about it (the earthquake not the EY internet situation) today so if you are curious and have some free time I would suggest reading it.

On Saturday we went into Delhi and did some sightseeing. I posted a facebook album today so check it out when you have a chance. Steven and I went with a group from the Bangalore office into the city. We started off by having lunch at MG Road which is pretty much a giant shopping mall. To be honest, lunch was not my favorite Indian dish I didn't eat much of it. There are actually a few dishes that I really like and that don't upset my stomach. After lunch we waited for our driver to pick us up outside of the mall. This was the first time that I saw the little kids begging for money. They were persistent little buggers and would tap on the car windows and pull on our clothing. No one gave them money because the Bangalore group told us if we gave them anything that they would rob us. I really wanted to take a photo but was too scared to take my camera out. When we finally made it into Delhi we saw Jantar Mantar which is a way to tell time based on the position of the sun (I suggest googling this because I am not going to do it justice), India Gate, the presidential palace, and did some street shopping. I did not buy anything when we went shopping I just practiced my negotiating skills. I am ready for some bargaining this weekend!!!

When I was at Jantar Mantar some lovely Delhi dust flew into my eye and really irritated it. I thought I had pink eye when I woke up on Sunday morning. My eye was red for the rest of the day on Saturday and on Sunday I had some junk in it and it was swollen. I opted to sit out of sightseeing on Sunday and just stay in the hotel as I figured I was already immune to the hotel germs. So Sunday I spent the day watching movies and catching up on Star World. I finally found the youtube video of the NesCafe commercial that I think is hysterical. The clip is the last in a series of commercials (you aren't missing much with the first two). Here is a brief plot summary. The girl is a famous Bollywood actress named Deepika Padukone and the first guy is also a famous Bollywood actor named Purab Kohli. Side note Purab Kohli has a new movie that just came out that all the girls in the office talk about. I will ask them to illegally download for me. So the basic plot is the Deepika just moved in across the hall from Purab and they are attracted to each other based on their mutual interest in badminton. In this commercial Purab comes over for NesCafe and Karan the famous talk show host shows up acting like a jerk and Purab is intimidated until he has the liquid courage of Nescafe and forces the introduction with Karan. This commercial isn't Super Bowl worthy but it is the best India has to offer. 

NesCafeCommercial

I don't know if I have already mentioned this but the NesCafe is actually pretty good here. We have a machine in the office and I do enjoy it. I think all the tea is really good. I am trying to find a store that sells it so I can bring it back with me.

Someone call security!

One side note - my stomach feels 100 times better today but it now feels like I have strep throat! I started my zpack last night and have officially had every prescription I came with. I don't know how I am going to survive 5 more weeks of this!

As I mentioned in previous blogs security at the hotel is pretty intense. I finally managed to grab a shot of the security guards and sniffer dog. Still trying to grab of the metal detector without getting into trouble or deported! 

Security at EY is no joke…but at the same time it is kind of a joke. The EY office is in what is called a special economic zone. You may be saying to yourself “Jen what have you gotten yourself into?” No worries my friends what this means is that the government gave companies huge tax cuts to have offices here and they have to export services back to the US or back “onshore”. The government owns and manages the property. Companies like Bank of America and American Express are also in the same buildings. I found out last night that all of Gurgaon is a special economic zone and there is a documentary on it...I will research and get back to you. Building security is fairly intense when the taxi takes us into the gate at the office we have to show identification and before we badge into the office we sign a manual log book and write the serial number of our computer on a piece of paper. I am not sure the exact purpose of this is, I could write just about anything in the log book and I have yet to see a security camera. The pictures below are the office and the sign in desk. I took these from Steven as you can see the back of my head in the one below.

On the first day in the office we had to meet Raja the head security office for our badges. We were suppose to bring two passport size photos for this and I of course did not bring the photos because I thought that I could go to our creative services group and have it taken (creative services in the US does things like print reports, scan pdfs, takes badge photos, and I use them for free passport photos). I didn’t have time to go to the US creative services office before I left. I was told Thursday morning that I needed these photos and I had to deal with my car drama. Side note – the car drama is I need a new catalytic converter for my car in order to pass emissions in Georgia. I did this the week before New Years and it cost me like $650 bucks apparently Toyota needs a special type of catalytic converter with platinum silver. Anyways when I was leaving the car shop the guy told me that I need to drive 200 miles before I would pass my emissions test and it had to be 100 highway and 100 city. I was like great I need to do all this driving in like 3 days. Alli and I took a trip to the outlet mall on Sunday to cover the highway miles and I managed to get most of my city miles during the week but was a little short. So Thursday afternoon I had to finish my city driving, go get my emissions test, and renew my tags. I passed emissions no problem and then I went to renew my tag online and I couldn’t because I never changed my address on my license when I moved…ugh! So, Friday morning I had to go down to the tag office and renew in person. Now you see why I did not have time to go take passport photos. Okay back to the story.

Our taxi takes us to the building the team gets out and we head to the 4^th floor to meet Raja. We showed our passports signed the manual log and then were put in a holding room. Raja and another official looking security office came into the room. I think the room was made to fit about 4 people comfortably and with 5 rotators, random IT guy (I will explain in the "Meet the team" blog), Raja, and official looking security guard it was very cramped. 

We filled out our special paperwork for the government (since it is a special economic zone the government needs to know everything about me while I am here). The greatest part of the whole process is that in order for us to get our pictures on the government paperwork and our badges we used a glue stick. 

I haven’t used a glue stick since the days of arts and crafts in the sorority so this was a great experience.  Take a look at how official my badge looks.

Since I didn’t have my photos I did get to go back and go through this whole process with Raja again. Raja told us that we are not allowed to keep our badges as souvenirs so the photo is all I get to keep.

Also, there is this random security guard that patrols the floor where the team sits. I am not sure what his purpose is.  Is counting computers all day?

The guards are everywhere. I even spotted two on the roof in the building across from us!

Extra, extra read all about it!!

First off I am feeling so much better and I am making it to work today! I was so excited after I found out what the fire chanting was at breakfast this morning that I ran back up to my room to blog about it.

So Munish my server from the morning explained to me what the fire chanting pit meant. Then I googled  (and copy and pasted in the blog) because I couldn't make out half the story with his accent. I witnessed a winter festival called Lohri. Lohri marks the end of winter on the last day of Paush, and beginning of Magha(around January 12 and 13), when the sun changes its course. It is associated with the worship of the sun and fire and is observed by all communities with different names, as Lohri is an exclusively Punjabi festival. The ceremony is to light a large bonfire at sunset, toss sesame seeds, gur, sugar-candy and rewaries in it, sit round it, sing, dance till the fire dies out. People take dying embers of the fire to their homes.


Munish explained that Punjabi is an agricultural state and this festival also celebrates the ripening of the crops. After he answered all my questions, he asked where I was from. I told him Atlanta, GA and he was (in a thick Indian accent) "Oh Atlanta, I know Atlanta so much snow there!" It just made me laugh!


Christina I promise that the badge and security blog will go up tonight. There are a few photos that I need to grab before I post.

So Sick

I am writing this for the second time today...I just lost my first post. The internet here sucks! I guess with 1 billion people trying to connect the bandwidth gets a little bogged down.

Well it only took me 4 days to get sick in India. I left work early yesterday and I didn't go in today. I am pretty sure that it was dinner on Tuesday night that made me sick. We went to the Great Kabab Factory. It is like a Brazilian steakhouse where you are served several courses of meat. At the time the food was delicious but I don't think my immune system from suburbia prepared me for this. The restaurant was a short distance from the hotel so the team opted to walk. I was admittedly opposed to walking but was out voted. There are no sidewalks in India so when you walk you walk on the streets with the cars, bikes, and rickshaws. Kaizer, a team member from the Denver office who grew up in Mumbai told us that if you are confident and stand your ground when you walk that no one will hit you. I didn't really like that answer and walked in between all the team members so that they would be a buffer and I would reduce the possibility of getting hit. We made it to the restaurant successfully and the walk was an interesting experience. Everyone felt okay after dinner but when I woke up Wednesday morning I felt terrible. Everyone on the team felt sick but I definitely had it the worst. I am feeling much better today.

While working from the hotel today a few noteworthy things happened. Star World plays the same line up every 4 hours. I have seen the same episodes of the Bachelor, Friends, Two and Half Men, and Koffee with Karan about 4 times today. Koffee with Karan is a celebrity talk show but is nothing like TMZ, Ellen or Oprah. I will not miss Koffee with Karan when I am back in American. At about 5 pm today I heard a drumming noise from outside my hotel room. At first I thought this was something from the street after about 5 minutes of it not stopping I walked to the window and looked out. A large group of hotel employees were standing outside and there was a large fire pit. They grabbed something from the table and walked around and threw stuff into the fire. I have no idea what it is all about and will inquire tomorrow at breakfast and update you all. I did think to take some video for your enjoyment. (btw the upload of this video took like 30 minutes and it is a 30 second video!!!)

Show me the Rupees!

There are so many topics that I want to share with you all I just don’t know where to begin. I had a funny experience at lunch today and thought today’s blog should be about money. In India the currency is the Rupee and the exchange rate is about $1 to 43Rs.  I am currently carrying about 2,000Rs ( I feel like such a baller!) See below for the photos of the currency below.

In case you are wondering that is Gandhi on the front of all the bills. I have not fully researched the backs of the bills but if I find something interesting that may be a later post.

At times it is very confusing how much and who I should tip. Breakfast at the hotel is a free buffet so in the US when breakfast buffets are included in the hotel rate I would tip about $2, here we were told to tip about 20Rs which is about 80 cents.  The guy that carried my bags to my room got 30 Rs and my cab driver gets 50Rs each way. Do I tip the guy that the presses the elevator button for me in the office? Do I tip the woman who brought me extra towels? How much do I tip when the team goes to dinner? Apparently meal service is not even a standard 10%.

As part of compensation at EY India each person is given a coupon book to cover lunch every day of the month. The rotators were given a coupon book for lunch for the month when we first arrived at the office. Lunch cost about 50Rs a day or $1.11. Lunch isn’t anything fancy (I think I could eat better on the McDonald’s dollar menu) it normally consists of rice, beans, vegetables, and other questionable items that I do not eat. 

Here is a photo of the coupon and the coupon book.

Alli the woman on the cover is eating a slice of pizza...I have yet to see pizza served anywhere over here except on the hotel menu in what I would call the American safe section.

So back to lunch today, there are two cafeterias on “campus” (the two buildings that EY personnel are in). The building that I am in we only have one floor and the cafeteria is on the same floor and is pretty small. Today at lunch I had to go get my badge (the badge process and security is tomorrows topic) so I walked across campus to meet the other team members who needed badges and we decided to check out the cafeteria over there.

I ate lunch with the team as normal and then noticed on the other end of the cafeteria (next to the foosball table and the kiosk where you can check your facebook account) there was a vendor with a stand selling other items such as chips, gum, pastries, and Diet Coke (stuff that you would buy at a sundry shop in the US). I’ve been trying to stay away from the temptations of soda but with jet lag and my body being completely confused of what time zone I am in I decided I needed a Diet Coke. I inquired with the vendor and was told a Diet Coke was 25Rs (naturally I was  sold considering I paid 141Rs at the hotel on Sunday for a DC). I gave the vendor a bill for 100Rs and expected that he would give me 75Rs in cash back. I was stunned when he handed me a 50Rs lunch coupon, a 20Rs lunch coupon, and a pack of Orbit gum! I couldn’t help but to laugh! I am thinking that tomorrow I should be able to trade the 20Rs lunch coupon and the Orbit gum for another Diet Coke!!!

 Had I realized that getting a Diet Coke was on the barter system I would have traded my packet of oatmeal that I can't make because there are no spoons or bowls in the office!!!