I can't believe I've only been here a week - it feels like so much longer. I promise I'm going to figure out how to post photos and will start including those in these posts.
It has been easy to fall right back into work. I was worried I wouldn't be motivated, but apparently all I needed was a week-long lull and now I'm fine with going back at it. The project is interesting so far, but we'll see how it plays out. I am very glad it's Friday, though. I plan to take the weekend to do some exploring, which I feel like I haven't done enough of yet.
This morning I had a call at 9:30 (which is before most people start work, as I've mentioned). Ami and I had crossed our wires about timing, so she had asked the driver to pick us up at 9:30, and I didn't realize the mistake until midnight or so when it was too late to call him back. This resulted in me taking the call from the car this morning - BIG MISTAKE. One of the things I haven't mentioned yet is the loose relationship that Indian drivers seem to have with the rules of the road. Cars weave here and there - into whichever lane has the most room, regardless of whether opposing traffic might already be there. People walk wherever the hell they please - except for on the sidewalk, for some reason. There are bikes and tuk-tuks (motorized rickshaws) and cabs and Mercedes and junkers and ancient buses - all trying to get somewhere but without the motivation to actually use turn signals or obey speed limits. All this chaos results in an incredible cacophany of car horns. Every 2 seconds someone is using their horn - usually to say "hi I'm here so don't hit me" or "get out of the way, stupid pedestrian!" Obviously I'm paraphrasing. One fun game that Ami and I have been playing is to walk down the street - any street - and count the number of seconds between horn beeps. On our residential (never crowded) road, the highest we've gotten is to 5 seconds. On less deserted roads, we rarely get above 2. Anyway, I was on my call in the call and was cringing every time I heard a horn because obviously it meant that my boss could tell I wasn't yet in the office. I doubt he cared, but I will definitely not be taking any calls from the car again.
One of the great things about the Indian culture that I've noticed is that they all share their food. I have been going to lunch with a group of people every day - not necessarily the same people - and everyone sits down and immediately offers to share their food with the rest of the table. It's kind of a ritual - for example one woman doesn't eat pappadum but they always come with the thali that she orders, so she always says "ok who wants papa today?" and then someone snatches it up. It's hilarious - and endearing. Today I asked my friend Isha if two people (Shweta and Prashant) are dating because they literally were just eating off each other's plates all of lunch yesterday. They split each other's lunches in half and then shared, which is something that couples commonly do in the states. Isha laughed and told me no, that it's just normal here for people to do that - friends, colleagues, family, whatever. She told me this as we're eating lunch, and I realized that I hadn't yet offered her any of my food, so I awkwardly say "sooo....with that in mind, you should really try a bite of this!" The entire table cracked up.
One frustrating thing here is that things don't get done as quickly as I'd like them to. For example, when we moved to our new apartment, the landlords only had one key to the front door available. They promised to give us a second key by the end of day on Wednesday. Not surprisingly, there was no key waiting for us inside the apartment when we got home on Wednesday, or Thursday, or today. It's meant that Ami and I have had to be attached at the hip so as not to lock the other person out of the apartment. Thankfully we got home today early enough that the leasing office workers hadn't gone home yet, so we marched into their office and asked ever-so-politely for our second key. They had it all along in the office - no one had bothered to bring it up to the apartment.
Another frustration that we've been experiencing is with our cell phones. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that the cell phone company would be going to our apartment to make sure that we actually lived there before they would activate our SIM card. Well, apparently our landlord didn't properly authenticate our residency, because Ami's application for a phone number was denied! The confusion came from him explaining that we were moving apartments within the building, although I'm not sure why he felt the need to share any information aside from "yes they live here." Apparently they only asked about her residency - not mine - so my application went through, and I now have cell service. But Ami has to re-apply, and we had to call our landlord and give him instructions on what exactly he has to say. Ridiculous.
On that note, happy Friday everyone!
It has been easy to fall right back into work. I was worried I wouldn't be motivated, but apparently all I needed was a week-long lull and now I'm fine with going back at it. The project is interesting so far, but we'll see how it plays out. I am very glad it's Friday, though. I plan to take the weekend to do some exploring, which I feel like I haven't done enough of yet.
This morning I had a call at 9:30 (which is before most people start work, as I've mentioned). Ami and I had crossed our wires about timing, so she had asked the driver to pick us up at 9:30, and I didn't realize the mistake until midnight or so when it was too late to call him back. This resulted in me taking the call from the car this morning - BIG MISTAKE. One of the things I haven't mentioned yet is the loose relationship that Indian drivers seem to have with the rules of the road. Cars weave here and there - into whichever lane has the most room, regardless of whether opposing traffic might already be there. People walk wherever the hell they please - except for on the sidewalk, for some reason. There are bikes and tuk-tuks (motorized rickshaws) and cabs and Mercedes and junkers and ancient buses - all trying to get somewhere but without the motivation to actually use turn signals or obey speed limits. All this chaos results in an incredible cacophany of car horns. Every 2 seconds someone is using their horn - usually to say "hi I'm here so don't hit me" or "get out of the way, stupid pedestrian!" Obviously I'm paraphrasing. One fun game that Ami and I have been playing is to walk down the street - any street - and count the number of seconds between horn beeps. On our residential (never crowded) road, the highest we've gotten is to 5 seconds. On less deserted roads, we rarely get above 2. Anyway, I was on my call in the call and was cringing every time I heard a horn because obviously it meant that my boss could tell I wasn't yet in the office. I doubt he cared, but I will definitely not be taking any calls from the car again.
One of the great things about the Indian culture that I've noticed is that they all share their food. I have been going to lunch with a group of people every day - not necessarily the same people - and everyone sits down and immediately offers to share their food with the rest of the table. It's kind of a ritual - for example one woman doesn't eat pappadum but they always come with the thali that she orders, so she always says "ok who wants papa today?" and then someone snatches it up. It's hilarious - and endearing. Today I asked my friend Isha if two people (Shweta and Prashant) are dating because they literally were just eating off each other's plates all of lunch yesterday. They split each other's lunches in half and then shared, which is something that couples commonly do in the states. Isha laughed and told me no, that it's just normal here for people to do that - friends, colleagues, family, whatever. She told me this as we're eating lunch, and I realized that I hadn't yet offered her any of my food, so I awkwardly say "sooo....with that in mind, you should really try a bite of this!" The entire table cracked up.
One frustrating thing here is that things don't get done as quickly as I'd like them to. For example, when we moved to our new apartment, the landlords only had one key to the front door available. They promised to give us a second key by the end of day on Wednesday. Not surprisingly, there was no key waiting for us inside the apartment when we got home on Wednesday, or Thursday, or today. It's meant that Ami and I have had to be attached at the hip so as not to lock the other person out of the apartment. Thankfully we got home today early enough that the leasing office workers hadn't gone home yet, so we marched into their office and asked ever-so-politely for our second key. They had it all along in the office - no one had bothered to bring it up to the apartment.
Another frustration that we've been experiencing is with our cell phones. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that the cell phone company would be going to our apartment to make sure that we actually lived there before they would activate our SIM card. Well, apparently our landlord didn't properly authenticate our residency, because Ami's application for a phone number was denied! The confusion came from him explaining that we were moving apartments within the building, although I'm not sure why he felt the need to share any information aside from "yes they live here." Apparently they only asked about her residency - not mine - so my application went through, and I now have cell service. But Ami has to re-apply, and we had to call our landlord and give him instructions on what exactly he has to say. Ridiculous.
On that note, happy Friday everyone!
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