Travel Blog Posts
July 9th 2011
Greetings, On Saturday, 07/09/2011, we traveled to Agra, India to see the Taj Mahal. Unfortunately, I planned this weekend trip, which meant we were departing at 4 a.m. Saturday, directly after work. As my mother famously said, "you can sleep when you are dead." Off we went! Sharon, Melissa C., Linda and I hired a van and driver for the weekend excursion. Sandeep, or "Sandy," according to the snake-like tattoo on his fore arm, was our 5th wheel, and the driver of our set of wheels. He was an affable young guy, who really did not understand or speak much English. This was probably in his best interest, as the four of us were quite giddy piling into the van Saturday morning, before the sun rose. The drive to Agra (hello bumpy roads) was about four ... read more
July 3rd 2011
Greetings, I spent the second half of Sunday exploring the sites of Old and New Delhi. Due to my limited time and my desire to have an air-conditioned sight-seeing adventure, I hired a driver from the Marriott. Rajesh (with "specs") is a familiar friend that we sometimes have the pleasure of seeing as our driver to or from work. He has worked in some of the larger western hotels and has excellent (if not excitable) English. We requested Rajesh so that he could help us navigate the must-see's on our limited trip. Our first stop was to a beautiful temple just about on the boarder of New and Old Delhi. Now, I believe we saw a replication of the Sun Temple (picture posted), but I am not 100% sure of this. I will edit the note ... read more
July 2nd 2011
Greetings, Well, the US Embassy in Delhi sure knows how to throw a party. This evening, Linda, Melissa C, Gary and I went to an Independence Day party held at the US Embassy. When booking my trip to India, I signed up for information via the US State Department website. They sent me the invitation to this party, which was for US citizens and required advance RSVP. We all were interested in seeing the Embassy, so RSVP we did! Driving to the area took us about 45 minutes. The area reminded me of Washington DC with the green lawns, stoic buildings; it was just an "official" looking area. All Embassy's are located within this block, making the drive all the more exciting. We arrived at the US Embassy just after 6 p.m. We made it ... read more
June 30th 2011
Greetings, Just a quick entry.... Today at work, we celebrated a colleague’s birthday. Over the past three weeks, I have learned that birthday celebrations are a BIG deal, a very important day to celebrate. And why shouldn't they be? I do not know if the celebrations are prevalent because my colleagues are quite young, or if this spans across ages in India. Khushboo, one of the managers, collected me for the birthday celebrations about mid day (12 a.m. IST). As we were walking to the cafeteria, Khushboo commented to me that she liked my “lowers.” Khushboo and I have a good rapport, but I was confused as to what she was referring to. Sheepishly, I had to ask her to repeat herself a couple of times. Normally I will pick up the message after it is ... read more
June 25th 2011
Greetings, I traveled to Amritsar, India today to see the sights of this amazing city. The plans were made at the last minute, so the trains were sold out. We found cheap flights from New Delhi to Amritsar, departing at 7:45 a.m. Saturday, with a return late Sunday afternoon. The flight to Amritsar is just under an hour, whereas the train is about 6.5 hours. The train would have been great to see the landscape; however it was not in the cards for this journey! We work until about 3 a.m. on Saturday's, so post-work, we headed to our hotel to collect our backpacks, then headed off to the Delhi airport. We landed in Amritsar and were on the road into the city at just about 9 a.m. Our first stop was Jallianwala Bagh. This site ... read more
June 24th 2011
Greetings, This week was my second week working in Gurgaon. To celebrate the hard work and dedication of my colleagues, I arranged for a dinner break together during our Friday night shift. Let me back up a bit... I have learned that meals are an important part of the work day in India. My colleagues take a short dinner break (which falls during US lunch time) to eat home made food, talk and joke around. They are a young, fun bunch and they have been filling me in on the in's and out's of their work and social worlds. For two weeks now, I have been repeatedly asked at work if I have had dinner yet. They are very concerned about my eating habits and are curious to see what I am eating. At home and ... read more
June 18th 2011
Greetings, India Trip Lesson #2: do NOT, under any circumstances, take pictures while on/in/near the trains in New Delhi. Today, Asha, Melissa C., Linda and I went into New Delhi to scope out the shops. The Metro train is a short walk from our hotel. The Metro train system is fabulous (seems inspired by the Tube). The first car of each train is for women only, which was fantastic for us ladies stepping out in India for the first time. We have been strongly encouraged to take cars everywhere, but I am certainly glad we opted for the train. I find the car rides to be a bit stressful in that you are constantly in traffic and the horns blare at you from every direction. The train, on the other hand, was a quiet, smooth, cool ... read more
June 14th 2011
Greetings, It took exactly 2 business days for me to place my American size 9 shoe in my mouth (0.003 is the decimal to date representing 2 days). I am surprised it took me this long....more to come on that. First, I wanted to write about our office and my colleagues in Gurgaon. I met with the team Monday, working the Indian night shift from 6 pm to 3 am. The past 2 days, I have met with some of the managers in the office as well as the colleagues we will be working with going forward. Each person I have met has been kind, generally inquisitive of who I am and extremely helpful and eager to learn. I am enjoying working closely with the teams here so that I can help them with all aspects ... read more
June 11th 2011
I made it! The flight from Chicago to Newark, NJ was uneventful. I was sitting behind one of the CEO's of my company, which was exciting. I did not have the nerve to introduce myself. Plus I was in sweatpants and had red-rimmed eyes form crying (who knew I would be so sad to leave John Dore?) The flight from Newark to New Delhi was delayed about an hour. However, I forgot all about any delays the minute I stepped on the plane. Holy cow. The seats were party-pods, in that they have everything in your seating area to entertain you for days. Honestly, I would be ok if I were still there now. There was on demand in-flight entertainment for each seat. The seats then turned into beds. We were fed roughly 5 times (I ... read more
June 3rd 2011
06/04/2011: Greetings, I intend to use this travel blog to document my Summer 2011 trip to India. I hope this blog is useful to those who want to keep up with me. I plan to post entries that detail my experiences, and include photos to help me capture this trip. I will be working long days, so entires will not be exciting during the work week. My trip details are: Friday, June 10 through Sunday, July 31, 2011, I will be in Gurgaon, India for a short-term work assignment. I fly in and out of New Delhi, with a connecting flight in Newark, NJ. In an effort to prepare for my journey, I have: -Updated my passport with my recently changed last name. I didn't think I'd need my passport so soon after getting married. -Obtained ... read more
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