I wake up at 8 a.m. feeling good.
The End
Monday, May 28, 2007
Saturday Afternoon
After an uneventful flight, we arrive in the U.S. We go through customs, retrieve our bags, go through another checkpoint, and then we're free. My family is waiting for me and my son runs to me and nearly knocks me over with his embrace. I'm glad to be back!
During the drive home I reflect on the number of lines and checkpoints we had to go through to get here:
During the drive home I reflect on the number of lines and checkpoints we had to go through to get here:
- Bangalore Airport entrance: show ticket or itinerary to get in
- Baggage x-ray: bags that are to be checked, must first be put through x-ray
- Check-in counter: show passport, get boarding pass
- Customs: fill out form, show form + passport
- Security check: put carry on bags through belt (no need to remove laptop). Men and women have different -rays to go through. I show my passport and then stand on a stool as someone waves a magic wand around me.
- Gate: When the flight is called, show passport + boarding pass
- Gate bag check: security guard checks that carry on bags have appropriate stamp to prove they have gone through x-ray
- Gate check 2: Need to show passport and boarding pass again. Don't know why.
- Charles De Gaulle airport security: x-ray carry on bags + self
- Gate: show passport + boarding pass
- Gate check 2: why do they do this?
- Detroit Airport Customs: show passport and form
- Bag check: show passport and form (presumably some people are now stopped so they can check their luggage)
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Saturday
While waiting for the plane, my stomach starts to rumble – and not in the “I’m hungry” sort of way. I make my way to the men’s room (labeled “Gents”). There is a man standing inside with a small roll of toilet paper. As people finish their business and wash their hands, this guy hands them a few squares of toilet paper for drying off. Apparently paper towels are at a premium here. Inside the stall, there is no toilet paper and things are not pretty. I will hold until the plane arrives.
There are a lot of advantages to traveling business class, but one that doesn’t usually come to mind is the fact that since they let you on the plane first, you can rush to the toilet. This feature proves itself invaluable this morning. Its official, I have a certified case of TD (traveler’s diarrhea). Was it the food at The Beach? Was it the food on the KingFisher plane?
The travel clinic in Ann Arbor had prescribed a strong anti-biotic for this situation (Xifaxan). I take out the bottle and read the instructions. Begin medicine if having 4+ loose stools daily. Rules are meant to be broken, so after 3 trips to the toilet, I go on my meds. A few hours later, I’m feeling a bit better.
The Air France flight attendants continue to talk to me in French. Do I really look French?
We land in Paris at 8:40 in the morning. For those of us traveling on to the U.S., they have buses and vans waiting to take us to the appropriate terminal. They don’t ask for our ticket stubs. Heidi and I sit in a van for a while. Nothing happens. I wonder if this is a practical joke that the French like to play on Americans. After a while, we play a game of musical vans (moving from one van to the other for no apparent reason) and we’re on our way.
There are a lot of advantages to traveling business class, but one that doesn’t usually come to mind is the fact that since they let you on the plane first, you can rush to the toilet. This feature proves itself invaluable this morning. Its official, I have a certified case of TD (traveler’s diarrhea). Was it the food at The Beach? Was it the food on the KingFisher plane?
The travel clinic in Ann Arbor had prescribed a strong anti-biotic for this situation (Xifaxan). I take out the bottle and read the instructions. Begin medicine if having 4+ loose stools daily. Rules are meant to be broken, so after 3 trips to the toilet, I go on my meds. A few hours later, I’m feeling a bit better.
The Air France flight attendants continue to talk to me in French. Do I really look French?
We land in Paris at 8:40 in the morning. For those of us traveling on to the U.S., they have buses and vans waiting to take us to the appropriate terminal. They don’t ask for our ticket stubs. Heidi and I sit in a van for a while. Nothing happens. I wonder if this is a practical joke that the French like to play on Americans. After a while, we play a game of musical vans (moving from one van to the other for no apparent reason) and we’re on our way.
Friday
I wake up at 9. Wow, I didn’t see that coming. A minute later my hotel phone rings. The car is here to take me to the office. I ask him come back at 10.
I’ve been told that Dosa’s are wonderful for breakfast, so I order one. It is like a crepe, but much bigger. Inside mine is some sort of potato mixture. Very tasty.
I arrive late at the office today. I meet with Chirag and Kartik to go over Milestone 2 plans. Shilpa and Nikhil take me shopping at lunch time. At a stop light a young boy raps on the window asking for money. At the store, an elderly lady does the same. This is my first encounter with beggars the entire week.
Back at the office, the team assembles again for our final learning session. I’m sad to be leaving so soon. When it is time to go, I say goodbye to:
A jitterbug.. Ajit; Alps.. Alpesh; Oh my... Amey; Omit... Amit; Ashes.. Ashish; Chin Rag... Chirag; Éclair... Claire; Go West... Ganesh; Car sick… Kartik; Door Knocker.. Coor Knocker... Karunakar; K-10... Kaytun; Nick Hill... Nikhil; Spaghetti Sauce... Raghu; Random Access Memory... Ram; Rich... Richa; Sun Chin... Sachin; Sun Deep... Sandeep; Rub a dub dub... Shalabh; Subway… Sub... Supna; User Persona... Sara; Shish kabob... Shishir; Sew / knit… Sunit; Tea Jail… Tayjul; Tea and Goo... Thiyagu; Two Shares… Tushar; Shell.. Shill... Shilpa; Okay… Akshay
I fly on KingFisher Airlines back to Bangalore. KingFisher got its start as a beer company. I try to imagine flying Budweiser Airlines in America, but I just can’t see that happening. The food and service on the plane are very good. No beer, though.
When we land, there are buses waiting to take us to the terminal. I get off the plane and the bus driver asks to see my ticket stub. Why? Do many people stow away on airplanes so that they can get free rides to a terminal on a bus? Luckily, I find the ticket stub in my pocket. I suppose that if I didn’t have it they would have made me fly back to Pune.
I meet back up with Heidi at the Royal Orchid hotel. Maha picks us up in his car and we quickly get stuck in Bangalore traffic. Eventually, we make it to The Beach. The Beach is a nightclub / restaurant with actual sand on the floor. We are led to a table where we order beers and appetizers. It is great catching up with Maha. All too soon, it is time to go. We settle the check and say no to the person dressed like a waiter who offers back-rubs. Is that instead of a dinner mint?
Heidi and I head for the airport. We have a 2 a.m. flight to catch.
I’ve been told that Dosa’s are wonderful for breakfast, so I order one. It is like a crepe, but much bigger. Inside mine is some sort of potato mixture. Very tasty.
I arrive late at the office today. I meet with Chirag and Kartik to go over Milestone 2 plans. Shilpa and Nikhil take me shopping at lunch time. At a stop light a young boy raps on the window asking for money. At the store, an elderly lady does the same. This is my first encounter with beggars the entire week.
Back at the office, the team assembles again for our final learning session. I’m sad to be leaving so soon. When it is time to go, I say goodbye to:
A jitterbug.. Ajit; Alps.. Alpesh; Oh my... Amey; Omit... Amit; Ashes.. Ashish; Chin Rag... Chirag; Éclair... Claire; Go West... Ganesh; Car sick… Kartik; Door Knocker.. Coor Knocker... Karunakar; K-10... Kaytun; Nick Hill... Nikhil; Spaghetti Sauce... Raghu; Random Access Memory... Ram; Rich... Richa; Sun Chin... Sachin; Sun Deep... Sandeep; Rub a dub dub... Shalabh; Subway… Sub... Supna; User Persona... Sara; Shish kabob... Shishir; Sew / knit… Sunit; Tea Jail… Tayjul; Tea and Goo... Thiyagu; Two Shares… Tushar; Shell.. Shill... Shilpa; Okay… Akshay
I fly on KingFisher Airlines back to Bangalore. KingFisher got its start as a beer company. I try to imagine flying Budweiser Airlines in America, but I just can’t see that happening. The food and service on the plane are very good. No beer, though.
When we land, there are buses waiting to take us to the terminal. I get off the plane and the bus driver asks to see my ticket stub. Why? Do many people stow away on airplanes so that they can get free rides to a terminal on a bus? Luckily, I find the ticket stub in my pocket. I suppose that if I didn’t have it they would have made me fly back to Pune.
I meet back up with Heidi at the Royal Orchid hotel. Maha picks us up in his car and we quickly get stuck in Bangalore traffic. Eventually, we make it to The Beach. The Beach is a nightclub / restaurant with actual sand on the floor. We are led to a table where we order beers and appetizers. It is great catching up with Maha. All too soon, it is time to go. We settle the check and say no to the person dressed like a waiter who offers back-rubs. Is that instead of a dinner mint?
Heidi and I head for the airport. We have a 2 a.m. flight to catch.
Thursday
I wake up. 6:00 a.m. Sweet!
I eat at the hotel buffet. I’m finding that in India, there are always people ready and eager to help with any task. So a waiter helps me put food on my plate. He serves me Idly (a white, spongy, rice-thing) and a number of other things I can’t name. I enjoy the Idly and the fried black-lentil thingy. The soup is a bit too spicy for me.
For lunch, I eat at the office. Thoughtworks provides a buffet lunch every day to all employees (and guests). I take some of everything. I enjoy all of it, although the overgrown wheat-based potato-chipy thing is a bit too salty. Half way through, I’m full. After lunch everyone goes to the kitchen to scrape their trays and give the freshly scraped tray to ladies washing dishes. I start scraping. There’s a lot to scrape. Disgusted by my poor scraping skills, one of the ladies pries the tray away from me. I vow to eat everything on the tray next time so that I can avoid future tray scraping humiliation.
The entire team meets so that I can go over with them the history of Advantage Suite at Medstat. I have an idea that I can use my web cam to record everyone saying their own names. The room is a bit too dark for the web cam. Ram offers to take videos of everyone with his digital camera.
I call in home again with the web-cam using a program called SightSpeed. Tyler discovers that he enjoys using the program’s instant messaging features. So, even though we can see and hear each other, we “talk” by typing messages to each other. The web-cam is still useful, though, because when he doesn’t know how to spell a word, he simply looks up and asks me.
I am in a meeting and I hear strange noises. It sounds like racket-ball. It is Alpesh and a few other Thoughtworkers playing Cricket... in the office.
We go on a team outing. It is difficult to get everyone out of the office -- they are determined to get their work done before leaving. We go to a really cool place called River View. It is an outdoor restaurant set in the hills beside a river that cuts through Pune. In addition to the outside seating, the restaurant has a pyramid. I don’t know why.
At dinner, I ask what it means when people bob their heads from left to right during a conversation. Shilpa says it is used when you verbally say “yes” to something, but you really mean “no”. So, if you ask someone if a project is on track and they say “yes” (head bob), you probably should be working on plan B. I have seen the head bob used that way, but also in many other ways. For example, I think it is sometimes visual punctuation. Someone says something and follows at the end with a slight head bob. It is like the period at the end of the sentence, or maybe a trailing ellipsis. Sometimes, it means something like “yes, OK, but give me a minute” as in “Are you coming to dinner?” “Yes” (head bob). Sometimes it clearly means “yes” as in “Can I trade money here?” “Yes” (head bob). Sometimes it is an acknowledgment of understanding like when you order something in a restaurant and the waiter bobs his head while writing down the order. And sometimes it is a sign that you are not understood at all.
I eat at the hotel buffet. I’m finding that in India, there are always people ready and eager to help with any task. So a waiter helps me put food on my plate. He serves me Idly (a white, spongy, rice-thing) and a number of other things I can’t name. I enjoy the Idly and the fried black-lentil thingy. The soup is a bit too spicy for me.
For lunch, I eat at the office. Thoughtworks provides a buffet lunch every day to all employees (and guests). I take some of everything. I enjoy all of it, although the overgrown wheat-based potato-chipy thing is a bit too salty. Half way through, I’m full. After lunch everyone goes to the kitchen to scrape their trays and give the freshly scraped tray to ladies washing dishes. I start scraping. There’s a lot to scrape. Disgusted by my poor scraping skills, one of the ladies pries the tray away from me. I vow to eat everything on the tray next time so that I can avoid future tray scraping humiliation.
The entire team meets so that I can go over with them the history of Advantage Suite at Medstat. I have an idea that I can use my web cam to record everyone saying their own names. The room is a bit too dark for the web cam. Ram offers to take videos of everyone with his digital camera.
I call in home again with the web-cam using a program called SightSpeed. Tyler discovers that he enjoys using the program’s instant messaging features. So, even though we can see and hear each other, we “talk” by typing messages to each other. The web-cam is still useful, though, because when he doesn’t know how to spell a word, he simply looks up and asks me.
I am in a meeting and I hear strange noises. It sounds like racket-ball. It is Alpesh and a few other Thoughtworkers playing Cricket... in the office.
We go on a team outing. It is difficult to get everyone out of the office -- they are determined to get their work done before leaving. We go to a really cool place called River View. It is an outdoor restaurant set in the hills beside a river that cuts through Pune. In addition to the outside seating, the restaurant has a pyramid. I don’t know why.
At dinner, I ask what it means when people bob their heads from left to right during a conversation. Shilpa says it is used when you verbally say “yes” to something, but you really mean “no”. So, if you ask someone if a project is on track and they say “yes” (head bob), you probably should be working on plan B. I have seen the head bob used that way, but also in many other ways. For example, I think it is sometimes visual punctuation. Someone says something and follows at the end with a slight head bob. It is like the period at the end of the sentence, or maybe a trailing ellipsis. Sometimes, it means something like “yes, OK, but give me a minute” as in “Are you coming to dinner?” “Yes” (head bob). Sometimes it clearly means “yes” as in “Can I trade money here?” “Yes” (head bob). Sometimes it is an acknowledgment of understanding like when you order something in a restaurant and the waiter bobs his head while writing down the order. And sometimes it is a sign that you are not understood at all.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Wednesday
I wake, feeling refreshed.
2:30 a.m, again. Curses!!!!!
I refuse to be awake! With my eyes closed, I count sheep jumping over a fence, until the sheep in my mind refuse any more to jump. Next, I count sheep as they walk into the hotel, until, in my mind, the door man closes and locks the door. Miniature sheep on a conveyor belt don't get me to sleep either. Power blinks off and on. The digital control center is affected and several lights turn on in my room. I turn them off (in only 10 minutes this time) and put eyeshades over my face. I fall asleep around 5 a.m.
8:30 a.m. the alarm clock beeps me awake. 8:45 a.m, I finally get the clock to stop beeping.
For lunch today, we go to Subway. One of my lunch companions is Sapna. Subway... sub... sup... Sapna.
I give a presenentation to the team on how the American healthcare system works (badly) and how it relates to the Medstat business and to the Reno project.
At 5:00, I use my web cam to call home. Pam puts the laptop on the kitchen table in front of Tyler. We chat as he eats breakfast. Using the web cam to call home is much more fulfilling than a voice-only call.
Dinner is at another Asian restaurant. I learn some more names: american sounding name.. Nick Hill... Nikhil. Swiss Alps.. Alp.. Alpesh. Shish kabob.. Shish.. Shishir. Ram talks about his trip last week to California. He loved Whale watching off Monteray Bay. He loved San Fransisco. He's not used to being places with so few people. He's not used to a car-oriented society. When he asked directions at one point he was told that the place he was looking for was 10 minutes down the road. So he set off walking in that direction. 25 minutes later it dawned on him that 10 minutes could only be achieved if driving a car. He went to a restaurant with an American and thought the man very rude for ordering his own dish and expecting Ram to figure out his meal on his own.
2:30 a.m, again. Curses!!!!!
I refuse to be awake! With my eyes closed, I count sheep jumping over a fence, until the sheep in my mind refuse any more to jump. Next, I count sheep as they walk into the hotel, until, in my mind, the door man closes and locks the door. Miniature sheep on a conveyor belt don't get me to sleep either. Power blinks off and on. The digital control center is affected and several lights turn on in my room. I turn them off (in only 10 minutes this time) and put eyeshades over my face. I fall asleep around 5 a.m.
8:30 a.m. the alarm clock beeps me awake. 8:45 a.m, I finally get the clock to stop beeping.
For lunch today, we go to Subway. One of my lunch companions is Sapna. Subway... sub... sup... Sapna.
I give a presenentation to the team on how the American healthcare system works (badly) and how it relates to the Medstat business and to the Reno project.
At 5:00, I use my web cam to call home. Pam puts the laptop on the kitchen table in front of Tyler. We chat as he eats breakfast. Using the web cam to call home is much more fulfilling than a voice-only call.
Dinner is at another Asian restaurant. I learn some more names: american sounding name.. Nick Hill... Nikhil. Swiss Alps.. Alp.. Alpesh. Shish kabob.. Shish.. Shishir. Ram talks about his trip last week to California. He loved Whale watching off Monteray Bay. He loved San Fransisco. He's not used to being places with so few people. He's not used to a car-oriented society. When he asked directions at one point he was told that the place he was looking for was 10 minutes down the road. So he set off walking in that direction. 25 minutes later it dawned on him that 10 minutes could only be achieved if driving a car. He went to a restaurant with an American and thought the man very rude for ordering his own dish and expecting Ram to figure out his meal on his own.
Tuesday Evening
I was introduced to everyone working on the Reno project earlier in the day, but my memory for names is pathetic. As I talk to each person, I ask them to repeat their name and then I try to think of a trick to help me remember. I talk with Tejal and I happen to be standing near a box of tea. "Tea" sounds a bit like the "Tay" sound in Tejal. From now on, whenever I see her I will think tea... tay... Tejal.
Some of us go to dinner. The driver heads down a street that is filled with cars, bikes, and auto rickshaws, every one of which is headed straight towards us. The car darts and honks and weaves. My foot presses hard against the floorboard in search of a non-existent passenger brake. Minutes later we arrive at the Malacca Spice restaurant. My companions are unfazed.
Dinner is fantastic. I discover that I am a "non veg". In India, it is customary to order meals which are shared around the table rather than for each person to have their own. Those of us in the "non veg" clan share a special priveledge. We can eat both the meat dishes and the vegitarian dishes. It's all wonderful.
I go to the hotel, the Sun N Sand. Despite the name of the hotel, there is no sand to be seen, nor are we near a beach. The attrium lobby is very nice. Inside the room there is a digital control center for controlling the lights, the alarm clock, the A/C, and for calling the front desk. It only takes me 25 minutes to figure out how to turn off the lights so I can go to sleep.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)