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!!!

First Daze

I was very excited last night when I saw previews for the Bachelor on Star World (my American tv channel). I don’t normally follow this trash-tastic show but after watching the Bachelor Pad with Christina Minix this summer I am addicted to the show. Anyways, the previews showed Brad Womack as the Bachelor at 9 pm tonight I was pumped to return to my hotel room after dinner and gchat to my fellow Bachelor followers a spoiler for this evening. As it turns out Star World isn’t showing the current season of the Bachelor but the season from 2007…such a disappointed. Someone is going to have to keep me updated on whats going on the season! There is also a really great Nescafe commercial that cracks me up. I’ve searched high and low on youtube for it but can’t find it. Maybe people in India don’t put everything on YouTube like we do in America. 

Colleen you would be very impressed, I am keeping up with my running. Yesterday I ran an 8k and tomorrow morning I will do a 9k. When I first jumped on the treadmill it took me the first couple of kilometers to realize that the treadmill was in kilometers and not miles.

The first day in the office was an overall success.  Getting to the office is a whole other story. Anything goes on the road here. Today, while in the cab and on the main road I saw a donkey, several hogs, people walking, people on bikes, and tractors.  Someone even came up to the car and tried to sell me Lance Armstrong’s new book. I opted to pass on it. Once we finally made it the office everyone was very friendly and seemed excited that we were there. We get served a hot lunch in the office and I am undecided if I can go 6 weeks on it. The meal was rice and some sort of bean soup/mush thing. I didn’t eat too much and I felt kinda queezy afterwards.  I think tomorrow I will stick to a Cliff Bar and Oatmeal.

Just to let you know all good websites are blocked at EY India, so no blogging at work!. I don’t know how I will survive at the office for 6 weeks!

As promised here are a few pictures. Below is my hotel room.

The view from my hotel room

 I don't anticipate swimming at the hotel...outside smells like burning wood all the time. It is no good for my lungs!

My favorite site from the room...yup that is a hog!

The Journey – Part 2

The flight from Paris to Delhi was not as exciting as from Atlanta to Paris. By the time I got onto the plane I was so exhausted I feel asleep before we even took off.  The food on the flight was not as delicious as the first flight plus I was so full from the first segment the thought of food made me sick. I did try to eat the vegetable main course but couldn’t stomach it! I slept off and on the entire flight, I must say a full length recliner seat is awesome! When we finally landed in Delhi it was so foggy out I don’t know how the pilots saw the runway. Steven was watching the altitude monitor and said that the plane went from like 700 feet to on the runway, I was not paying any attention to this at that point all I wanted to do was get off the plane but it is scary to think about if you were watching the monitor.

Getting through the airport was not as difficult as I originally managed. I did have a little trouble with customs, I filled out my form when I was half asleep on the plane and forgot to fill out half of it. I am sure the customs officer was like stupid American women fill out the form already.  After we got our bags and exchanged some money the next task was to exit the airport and find our driver.  The stealth skills of Steven spotted Rajesh our driver sent by the hotel. I quickly managed to offend him by extended my hand out to shake him. He shook Steven’s hand and I felt that I should then shake his. I was then told that it is offensive to initiate a handshake. Upon my research I have learned men may shake hands with other men and women may shake hands with other women; however there are seldom handshakes between men and women because of religious beliefs.  Also, I tend to be completely ignored by all men. The influence on Hinduism and the caste system is very prevalent here, when I am out with Steven he is the head of the hierarchy and I am pretty much copped liver! I am looking forward to 6 weeks of being the only female in the group so I will be completely ignored and treated like a second-class citizen.

I hope Rajesh is not too offended by the handshake and will one day forgive me. He did a very nice job of telling us about some fun facts about Delhi. For example, trucks are not allowed to drive on the highways during the day because of all the traffic and pollution and only allowed to drive at night. The fog was so dense I couldn’t see too much of the outside. From what I could see it reminded me of Slumdog Millionaire. There were lots of homeless people and shacks on the roadside and the sidewalks or sides of the streets were filled with trash. After about a 30 minute drive from the airport we finally made it to the hotel. The hotel grounds are gated and guarded 24/7. Before we could enter the hotel grounds the car was searched  (the trunk and the engine area). We then were allowed to enter through the gate, when we exited the car we went through metal detectors and all of our luggage was screened. You need a hotel key card to enter your floor on the elevator. Overall, the hotel is very nice and is actually one of the nicer hotels that I’ve stayed at (pictures to come later). What I think is a kinda cool thing is that you need your hotel key card to turn the lights on in the room. This took me a while to figure out but it is a cool way to save electricity! As soon as figured out the lighting situation I took one sleeping pill and passed out!

The Journey – Part 1

I am writing this posting from the Paris Sky Club. There was no time to go into the city I could only get a 4 hour layover. I must say I love flying Business Elite on Delta. You are treated like royalty as soon as I sat down I was handed a glass of champagne and watched everyone walk pass me as I reclined back in my full length seat.  I ate so much on the flight! I had pumpkin bisque soup, salad, beef tenderloins, and cheesecake. Then for breakfast I ate granola and a scone.  I am so full right now but can’t help to wonder what I will be served on the next flight. After I landed, I had to change terminals and go through security again. Going through the French version of TSA was a unique experience; they didn’t make me take off my shoes but scrutinized my anti-wrinkle cream for like 5 minutes. I don’t think they liked my sarcastic response of needing to fight the signs of aging. 

I was just informed that some places in India don't have toilet paper! I didn't pack toilet paper...this could be a problem!!!

India Preparations!

I am starting my very first blog for my India trip! Let me catch everyone up on all the preparation I have done for this trip. First, I had to get caught up on all my immunizations…that was a fun Tuesday afternoon.  I got shots for polio, typhoid, hep B, hep A, tetanus, and the flu. The “travel doctor” that I saw then proceeded scared me with the thought of catching malaria and having consistent diarrhea while on my trip. In order to prevent malaria I have a prescription for Malarone, which will kill all parasites in my stomach and have to wear super strong insect replant every time I am outside.  Supposedly the Malarone will make me have weird dreams so that should lead to some interesting blog posts! I also have a prescription strength anti-diarrhea meds and sleeping pills. My second big prep item was the most expensive trip to Target ever! I spent $175 on toiletries, cliff bars, oatmeal, and every over the counter medicine I could buy.  My Target purchases had to go into their own suitcase. I am thinking that by the end of the 6 weeks I will have plenty of room to bring home souvenirs!