Nothing big has happened since yesterday. Every day I have a million small interactions with people that I think "oh I have to write that down!", so today I'll try to record some of those little thoughts that occur to me along the way.
There is a gym right next to our building, so last night Ami and I went and tried to register for a membership. Of course, at 6:30 pm all of the sales people were gone, so instead we were given a sort of free trial day so that we could still work out. The gym was designed similarly to the way that W hotels design their lobbies. There's even an in-house DJ playing loud, upbeat music all the time. The gym is pretty small actually - about the size of your average hotel gym, which may be why it reminds me so much of the W. Well, that and the neon floor lighting. The guy who let us in was a personal trainer, and he offered to give us a quick tour. Once we were done with the tour, however, he didn't leave us alone. He wanted to stand with us as we worked out. He made us warm up by doing arm circles and twisting at the waist. Then he kept telling us "ok now do 15 minutes on the treadmill, then do this, then do that." It was like he was our personal trainer...except not. It was very weird. There are several of these "general trainers" around the gym, who can tell you how to use the equipment and what to do in the gym if you're bored and don't know how to work out properly, I guess. Maybe we'll hire a personal trainer for real, but at this point I think their support will be all I need to get motivated!
I booked a trip to Jaipur for next weekend. I was looking at the calendar, and realized how quickly my time here will go by! So Jaipur next weekend it is! Ami's parents will be visiting that weekend, so she won't be going with me, but that's fine. She has already been to Jaipur anyway. We've talked about doing a weekend trip to Mysore on another weekend to see the "city of palaces" and then we'll also do a weekend in Goa for the beaches. I'm probably going to do at least one more weekend trip - I'll aim for traveling every other weekend. I just don't know when else I will have a chance to see the different areas of India, so I want to take full advantage! I'm thinking that for my 2 weeks after work ends, I will spend 1 week in the Himalayas - maybe Nepal or Kashmir. And then the other week I'll spend on a tiger safari! There's a national park that has the highest concentration of wild tigers in the world. I can stay at a treetop lodge that overlooks a watering hole and then go explore the jungle by day on the back of an elephant! I'm totally going to be Kate Capshaw in Temple of Doom. I found out about this place through the WSJ travel blog, so I think that lends it credibility. It's in the middle of no where, which is why I'll need a week to get there and back. Fun though!
Every day at the office I notice new things that strike me in some way or another. For example yesterday, I walked into the ladies' restroom to find two women sprawled out on the floor together, gossiping, with their shoes off. They were the restroom attendants, and I had to step over their outstretched legs to get to a stall. Also every morning when we arrive at the office, we have to go through security. First we have to tell a security guard the name of our company, then we drive up to a staging area where a different security guard makes us pop the trunk. I guess I appreciate the extra sense of safety, but they don't do the "mirror to look under the car" routine so I'm not sure if it's really that rigorous of a security process.
Yesterday I had a vegetarian thali for lunch. Not knowing what a thali was, I asked Ami (who has proven to have a wealth of knowledge about things like this). Apparently a thali is basically a mixed platter - it's a tray or platter that has indentations for small portions of several differnet kinds of food. You get rice, bread, dal, chutney, and one or two other vegetarian dishes. It's a nice way to try a variety of different foods, I think. Today there will be no thalis available at the cafeteria because many restaurant workers throughout the city are on strike. I'm not sure about the details but apparently it is in response to a proposed new small business tax. Today I get to try a "Frankie" which - from what I can tell - is some kind of wrap. I'll report back on that later.
Last night for dinner Ami and I went back to the restaurant close to our apartment for dinner - the place where I had tried the dosa. The menu is HUGE, and we spent most of dinner going through the menu and her explaining to me what all of the things are. It was incredibly helpful! Turns out the Indian food that I am most familiar with is Punjabi food or other north Indian food. Most of the stuff on the menu that I didn't know about was southern food - that is where the dosas are from as well as a bunch of other delicious stuff. I'm hoping to be more of an expert on the different types of Indian cuisine by the end of my time here.
One item of clothing that lots of Indian women wear are these great long tunics. They pass for business appropriate clothing, and they look so freaking comfortable! Ami and I are going to try to find a tailor where we can go have some made. Plus I think that the style translates well enough to the US that I would be able to wear them at home too. If not, I'm sure my sisters will tell me if I look ridiculous...
We moved apartments this morning, which was a bit of a surprise. Apparently our landlord showed up at our door at 9:30 yesterday morning to move us (without warning) and was surprised to see that we had left for work already. Because it was "so early." Right. Anyway, we rescheduled for this morning, and they relocated us to the apartment directly above our current one. This one is bigger, and the living area is MUCH nicer. The couch actually looks like somewhere I'd be willing to sit without having to take a shower afterwards. This apartment is also bigger - it has 3 bedrooms instead of 2, a small balcony and a larger and slightly nicer kitchen. Ami and I did rock-paper-scissors for the largest bedroom - I lost - but I don't really care because my bedroom still has an ensuite bathroom. That doesn't matter so much right now when it's just the two of us, but when our third roommate Kevin arrives in a couple weeks, I wouldn't want to have to be walking in a towel from my shower to my bedroom through the living room. My bedroom is off to the side a little bit too, so I'll have a little bit more privacy than the other two rooms. We've been told that this is our permanent apartment, so hopefully no more moving will be going on!
Ok - lunch time. Miss you all!
There is a gym right next to our building, so last night Ami and I went and tried to register for a membership. Of course, at 6:30 pm all of the sales people were gone, so instead we were given a sort of free trial day so that we could still work out. The gym was designed similarly to the way that W hotels design their lobbies. There's even an in-house DJ playing loud, upbeat music all the time. The gym is pretty small actually - about the size of your average hotel gym, which may be why it reminds me so much of the W. Well, that and the neon floor lighting. The guy who let us in was a personal trainer, and he offered to give us a quick tour. Once we were done with the tour, however, he didn't leave us alone. He wanted to stand with us as we worked out. He made us warm up by doing arm circles and twisting at the waist. Then he kept telling us "ok now do 15 minutes on the treadmill, then do this, then do that." It was like he was our personal trainer...except not. It was very weird. There are several of these "general trainers" around the gym, who can tell you how to use the equipment and what to do in the gym if you're bored and don't know how to work out properly, I guess. Maybe we'll hire a personal trainer for real, but at this point I think their support will be all I need to get motivated!
I booked a trip to Jaipur for next weekend. I was looking at the calendar, and realized how quickly my time here will go by! So Jaipur next weekend it is! Ami's parents will be visiting that weekend, so she won't be going with me, but that's fine. She has already been to Jaipur anyway. We've talked about doing a weekend trip to Mysore on another weekend to see the "city of palaces" and then we'll also do a weekend in Goa for the beaches. I'm probably going to do at least one more weekend trip - I'll aim for traveling every other weekend. I just don't know when else I will have a chance to see the different areas of India, so I want to take full advantage! I'm thinking that for my 2 weeks after work ends, I will spend 1 week in the Himalayas - maybe Nepal or Kashmir. And then the other week I'll spend on a tiger safari! There's a national park that has the highest concentration of wild tigers in the world. I can stay at a treetop lodge that overlooks a watering hole and then go explore the jungle by day on the back of an elephant! I'm totally going to be Kate Capshaw in Temple of Doom. I found out about this place through the WSJ travel blog, so I think that lends it credibility. It's in the middle of no where, which is why I'll need a week to get there and back. Fun though!
Every day at the office I notice new things that strike me in some way or another. For example yesterday, I walked into the ladies' restroom to find two women sprawled out on the floor together, gossiping, with their shoes off. They were the restroom attendants, and I had to step over their outstretched legs to get to a stall. Also every morning when we arrive at the office, we have to go through security. First we have to tell a security guard the name of our company, then we drive up to a staging area where a different security guard makes us pop the trunk. I guess I appreciate the extra sense of safety, but they don't do the "mirror to look under the car" routine so I'm not sure if it's really that rigorous of a security process.
Yesterday I had a vegetarian thali for lunch. Not knowing what a thali was, I asked Ami (who has proven to have a wealth of knowledge about things like this). Apparently a thali is basically a mixed platter - it's a tray or platter that has indentations for small portions of several differnet kinds of food. You get rice, bread, dal, chutney, and one or two other vegetarian dishes. It's a nice way to try a variety of different foods, I think. Today there will be no thalis available at the cafeteria because many restaurant workers throughout the city are on strike. I'm not sure about the details but apparently it is in response to a proposed new small business tax. Today I get to try a "Frankie" which - from what I can tell - is some kind of wrap. I'll report back on that later.
Last night for dinner Ami and I went back to the restaurant close to our apartment for dinner - the place where I had tried the dosa. The menu is HUGE, and we spent most of dinner going through the menu and her explaining to me what all of the things are. It was incredibly helpful! Turns out the Indian food that I am most familiar with is Punjabi food or other north Indian food. Most of the stuff on the menu that I didn't know about was southern food - that is where the dosas are from as well as a bunch of other delicious stuff. I'm hoping to be more of an expert on the different types of Indian cuisine by the end of my time here.
One item of clothing that lots of Indian women wear are these great long tunics. They pass for business appropriate clothing, and they look so freaking comfortable! Ami and I are going to try to find a tailor where we can go have some made. Plus I think that the style translates well enough to the US that I would be able to wear them at home too. If not, I'm sure my sisters will tell me if I look ridiculous...
We moved apartments this morning, which was a bit of a surprise. Apparently our landlord showed up at our door at 9:30 yesterday morning to move us (without warning) and was surprised to see that we had left for work already. Because it was "so early." Right. Anyway, we rescheduled for this morning, and they relocated us to the apartment directly above our current one. This one is bigger, and the living area is MUCH nicer. The couch actually looks like somewhere I'd be willing to sit without having to take a shower afterwards. This apartment is also bigger - it has 3 bedrooms instead of 2, a small balcony and a larger and slightly nicer kitchen. Ami and I did rock-paper-scissors for the largest bedroom - I lost - but I don't really care because my bedroom still has an ensuite bathroom. That doesn't matter so much right now when it's just the two of us, but when our third roommate Kevin arrives in a couple weeks, I wouldn't want to have to be walking in a towel from my shower to my bedroom through the living room. My bedroom is off to the side a little bit too, so I'll have a little bit more privacy than the other two rooms. We've been told that this is our permanent apartment, so hopefully no more moving will be going on!
Ok - lunch time. Miss you all!
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