A Good Saturday

I went in to work at 8:30 today and stayed until 6:00 just like a normal day. There was nobody around so I was able to get my own work done for a change. I was very productive and felt good when I left the office.
I had dinner with a friend named Naresh. We worked together five years ago. We had a very good dinner and had a great conversation about the way business works in India. He gave me a ride home which was a lot better than having to walk. So I had a good day.
Tomorrow I have the whole day to myself for the first time in two weeks. Don't know what I'll do.
Dad

Sickness

Before coming to India every person I spoke to who had travelled here told me the same thing. They all said that I would get sick. Well I delayed it for nearly two weeks but it has happened. It is not food related though. I have picked up a flu of some kind. I am very tired, have a fever and am very sore. It started hitting this morning. The only thing that got me through the afternoon was two advils, which cut the fever. As soon s the advil wears off the fever returns. I also have no appetite. Everyone agrees that monsoon season is also flu season. I am told that whatever the bug is it will run its course in two days.
Don't worry, it is no worse than other bugs I have had at home. In the future I will be immune to this bug. So that is one less thing to worry about.
Love
Dad

Two weeks

It has been two weeks since I left home on this trip. It seems like a lot longer. I have seen many things and I am glad that I came. But I miss home. I'm glad you are at G&G's in RI and that you are having fun at camp. Knowing that you are not at home makes me feel less bad that I am not at home.
Love
Dad

Trip Around Mumbai

I spent the day touring around the city of Mumbai today. It is not really a tourist type city in that there are not a lot of tourist destinations. But there are a few. I went with four people from the training group. The driver who takes me to and from work drove us around. Rakesh knows the city so he was the tour guide.

This is Rakesh, Lalitha, Manju and Naveen. This was taken on the pier at the end of Marine Drive.

This is called the Gateway of India. It is the port where the British would land during the colonial period.

From here we walked around an old part of the city and went by the Mumbai Stock Exchange. We stopped at vendors to eat local food. One thing we drank was a sugar drink that was made by squeezing the juice out of sugar cane. It was delicious. We then walked to Queen Victoria train station. It is a huge train station and it is also a palace that was constructed for Queen Victoria to stay in when she visited.

I have many more photos that I will show you when I get home.

Mumbai is an extremely densely populated city. There are mobs of people everywhere. And we did not see the worst of the crowds because we were travelling on a Sunday and most shops are closed on Sunday. We had lunch at a great restaurant. I did not get home until about 6:00 so I am now very tired.

A good day

Today was the first day that I really felt at ease here. Up to now I have always been a little bit uneasy about work, food, water, and basically everything. But today seemed like a normal day. Because of the strike this past Monday we had to work today even though it was a Saturday, but it seemed like a normal Friday. Class went well. My trainees seem to be catching on and they are starting to enjoy it even though they are completely lost. I had a nice lunch in the canteen, including soup that sort of tasted like Chinese hot and sour soup.
This evening I went over to InOrbit mall and walked around and had dinner in the food court. I had some sort of chicken dish. It was the first meat I have had since coming here. Ramkumar does not cook any meat. Also, today I was told that Ramkumar is from Rajasthan, which is a state in northern India, and that he cooks traditional Rajasthani dishes.
Everybody in the mall seemed to be really happy. A mall is not taken for granted here. Being able to go to a mall, and even better being able to afford the things there, is a big big big deal here.
When I came home from work I invited the two women in the class to ride with me because they wanted to go to the mall and I go right by it on the way home. When they got in to the car the driver began talking to them in Hindi. Then one of them said "I'm sorry we don't speak Hindi." I had just assumed Hindi was the language they were speaking when they weren't speaking English but no. The driver evidently recognized their accent and asked if they spoke Tamil and they said yes and he began speaking to them in Tamil. It turns out that the driver speaks six languages. One of the girls said that she spoke many languages also and I asked her how many. She said "let me count" and started rattling off the names of various Indian languages. I don't know what the final number was but it was an impressive list.
Here are some photos.
Mr. Bean is a catoon here. It is the same idea as the TV show and just as funny.

Here are some pilgrims walking on the road in front of my building.

My day here in Mumbai

I haven't taken any photos in a while but I thought you might like to know what my day is usually like here.

I usually wake up a little before 6:00. I get up and log on to the internet. (My company gave me a mobile broadband device that works here in India.) I surf the internet until your mother logs in to Skype. Then we have our daily call which usually lasts 20 minutes or so. When we are done talking I read the news for a while. I open the door of my room around 7:00 and Ramkumar the housekeeper brings me coffee and "buiscuits" (cookies). I start to do my work related stuff on the computer, email and class preparation. I tell Ramkumar to have breakfast ready by 8:30. I work until about 8:15 and then shower and dress. Then I go out to the living/dining room and have breakfast. Breakfast is always fruit along with either a rice or nan based dish. The driver arives around 9:00 and I leave for work.

It takes about 30 minutes to get to work. There is a lot of security stuff I have to do to get in to the building and on to the computer I use there. At 10:00 the people in the class have arrived and I begin teaching. After about 90 minutes I give everybody a 10 minute break. Then I teach until around 1:00 when I break for lunch. Lunch is usually a little over an hour. I go to the canteen (cafeteria) to have lunch. Sometimes I was staying in the training room and skipping lunch but I realized that I was seeming rude by doing that so I don't do it any more. After everybody  reassembles I teach until 5:00 with a couple of short breaks thrown in. I stay until 6:30 usually and then wait for the driver to pick me up if he is not already waiting for me.

When I get home I tell Ramkumar what time I want dinner and then lay down for a while to rest. I usually eat around 8:00 and I watch TV while eating because I am by myself. Lately I have been watching replays of World Cup matches. When I am done eating I go back to my bedroom and read on the internet for a while. At about 9:30 I completely crash. I turn out the light at 10:00 and go to sleep. I sleep fairly well here which is surprising because my bed is not very comfortable and it is always noisy outside.

So that is what my days are like. I have been here for 10 days but it seems like a lot longer than that. I have been here long enough that I am no longer in a state of culture shock. I am getting used to the way things are here in India and I can now sort of understand why things are the way they are. India is a very mixed up and crazy place, but it makes sense in its own weird way.

I love you
Dad

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

When we went to beaverkill we went to a waterfall. It was FREEZING!!!

The Dive

Mom and I went to Ellen's pool and I jumped off the diving bored. Ar first I was scared but then Tomar gave me advice and I decided to jump.

Walk through the neighborhood

The area of the city that I am living in is called Sanpada. If Navi Mumbai is the equivalent of Qeens then Sanpada is the equivalent of Forest Hills. I have taken a couple of long walks and am starting to get to know the area well.
About a 15 minute walk from my apartment is an area that has two malls and a big movie multi-plex. This is the mall called InOrbit. It is just like any mall in America. It has a lot of stores and a food court. It is bigger than it looks in this photo.

McDonalds is everywhere I guess...

There is a huge train station across from the malls called Vashi. It has several tile murals on the walls. This is one of the nicest ones.

This is an area of Sanpada close to where I live. The river rises dramatically during monsoons but we are right next to the ocean here so flooding is not an issue. 

Where I am Living

The "guest house" is not a house but an apartment in this building with the ostentatious name of "Viceroy Park." My apartment is on the sixth floor. There are three bedrooms and there is usually someone else staying here as well. The housekeeper/cook/servant lives here full time also. He has a bed roll that he rolls out in the living room at night after everyone else is in bed.

This is the street view. There are several other high rise apartment buildings. I think that this is considered the high rent district.

What I am Eating

A typical breakfast is fresh fruit and either nan or noodles of various kinds.

This is a typical dinner...

I don't know what any of it is because the housekeeper can't speak much english. Curries of various varieties, and always 100% veg. Very tasty and satisfying.

First Post from India

I'm sorry that it has taken me this long to start posting from India. The trip was very long and tiring and I feel that I am just now starting to get to 100%. I left the house Tuesday at 3:30 PM EST and traveled to JFK via the LIRR and AirTrain. I was on the 6:20 British Airways flight to London Heathrow. We landed in Heathrow right on schedule at 6:30 London time. I did not get any sleep on the flight so I was feeling tired and disoriented in the airport. I had breakfast there and also bought a plug adaptor for India and British electric plugs. I found a padded bench and laid down for about an hour and dozed. Then I caught the 11:50 flight to Mumbai. I was one of three non-Indians on the flight. I have not seen any white people since then. So I stand out here.
I arrived at Mumbai airport on schedule at around 1:00 AM India time. There was a driver waiting for me and he drove me to the guest house where I got in to bed at around 2:30 AM Thursday morning, which was Wednesday 5:00 PM EST. So, the entire trip was 25.5 hours.
The Mumbai ariport was very nice. In fact it is one of the nicest airports I have ever been in. Very clean and well designed. The area where travelers get in to cars is better than JFK or LGA. But as soon as the car left the airport the real India began to appear. The trip from the airport to the guest house was during the night so I could not see much, but I could see enough to know that I was in a different world. The traffic basically had no rules and even in the early morning when there were not many cars it was a wild ride. The driver could speak very little english but he knew where I was going.
Everything here has the look of being run down. Even new buildings look old and weathered. I think it is because the climate is so harsh that no building material can stand up to it. Also, there is debris everywhere. It is like the whole country needs a good sweeping. Stray dogs are everywhere. They are all very thin and tired looking. At first it is scary to see so many dogs but after a while it is clear that they will not attack. I don't think many of them are healthy enough to do real damage. The other day I saw somebody with a small herd of goats walking down the middle of the busy street where my office is located. Two large and very healthy looking cows live under a highway overpass near where I am staying. So, India is an odd place in many ways.
They appear to have a difficult time finishing things here. There are brand new high rise buildings all over the place. But they all have piles of construction debris scattered around them. The building where I live is relatively new but the interior is already looking run down. The elevator is very run down and shabby, the halls are poorly lit and run down. Nothing is dirty, just shabby looking. The interior paint in every building is cheap and worn. The bathrooms all work fine but they are very old looking. It is as if they don't have any finish carpenters or painters who know what they are doing in this whole country.
These are my first impressions. I will post more.

Toy Story 3

Today Mom and I saw Toy Story 3. It was very funny and was fun to watch. In the end it got to intense. It was a great movie.