Monday

We land in Bangalore at 12:30 a.m. India time. Airport security is comical. We walk through the x-ray machine with our cell phones. Everyone sets off the x-ray alarm, but the guard waves everyone through. We exchange money. Bags find their way 1 at a time onto the carosel. A half hour later we walk out with our bags and find our driver who takes us to the hotel. Unsure of local customs, we tip everyone we see.

My hotel room is great. Very big, very nice. Free Wi-Fi. I call home through the web cam. The hotel firewall blocks video, but sound works fine. Its lucky that the sound works because my cell phone doesn't seem to work for voice calls.

Falling asleep is difficult (where's that Melatonin!). I finally nod off, probably around 4 a.m. At 9:30 a.m. a buzzer wakes me. It was someone wondering if I had laundry for them to do. No. I feel pretty refreshed anyway.

I eat an American style breakfast, and then head over to Thoughtworks office. Lots of introductions and smiles. I watch the developers work for a while. They seem to be doing a great job. We all go to lunch at an Indian restaurant across the street. Crossing the street is like riding a roller coaster: scary, fun, pulse-racing (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5120712213962127722). Someone orders lunch for the table and I eat everything that is put in front of me. All of it tastes good. I can't name any of it.

We return to the office. I foolishly follow Arun across the street. He is a crazy man. But we make it across alive. We meet in a conference room for a few hours to discuss the Treatment Cost Calculator deployment scenarios and Brighton enablement.

I try the web-cam from the Thoughtworks office. This time the video works! I can see and hear Pam trying in vain to get Tyler out the door in time for school. I messed up a microphone setting, so they can't hear me. We all wave at each other.