End of Week 1

PICTURES ARE UP ON FACEBOOK! I finally had the time and the Internet was quick enough to upload pictures. (J says don't be too excited, its only 10 of them)

Today completed the end of our first week in Pune. Work was fine. We both got assigned secondary projects that we will start working on tomorrow. J created a vision board at work today and I finished a video. All in all, we were pretty productive.

I don't remember if I explained our work day in a previous post. We arrive to work anytime between 8:30 AM and 10 AM. Morning tea time is from 11 AM- 11:30 AM. Lunch is from 1:30 PM-2 PM and afternoon tea is from 4 PM- 4:30 PM. We can leave anytime after 6:30 PM depending on how late we arrived. You must work at least 9.5 hours a day, but 1.5 hours is tea and lunch. I don't think either of us are used to such long work days.

The best part of the day was 4 PM tea time when we chose teams for the EPL (Elephant Premier League) cricket tournament that begins next week at work. J and I are not on the same team. The company went all out for the bidding today. Each person in the company was placed on a team with five people. The three owners of the company and three vice presidents got to bid for two teams each. Indians are serious about their cricket matches. J and I are pretty excited for next week.

Thats about all that happened today. I'm super sleepy so I'm sure J is as well. Goodnight!!

Paulines birthday!

It's very late, almost 1 AM so I will keep this short. Work is going well. Nothing new to report on the work front.

Today was Paulines 23rd birthday so her boss picked everyone up from the guest house and took us out. Pauline is one of the two girls who went to Georgia Southern with John. Her boss took us out for starters at a pirate themed American place then took us to dinner on a rooftop of a hotel overlooking Pune. We had a ton of fun and it was all in all a very enjoyable time. It was nice to eat some American food for starters then follow with more traditional food for dinner. Goodnight everyone!!

H's first day of work

Today was my first day at work. I got all set up with HR and met my two co-workers. The girls are both students from a local liberal arts college. We have to produce a three minute movie each week for the YouTube page. The other two girls are in charge of content and I am in charge of production and editing. Pretty much, after they come up with the storyboard for the movie it is up to me to look over all of their film, edit it, and then tell them if I am missing anything.

Everything went semi-smooth today, it took us a few hours to figure out how to properly convert the files so that they would work in Final Cut. Ends up that the three cameras the company owns are not super high quality and the iPhone 4 actually shot more clear video. Guess we're going to be shooting with an iPhone until further notice.

J's day consisted of brainstorming sessions, more brainstorming session, and even more brainstorming sessions. His boss is going to be out of the office tomorrow so he has to brainstorm even more! He really likes his position though. He signed a confidentiality agreement so I don't even know what he is working on. On another note, he seems to be liking all the vegetables! Hopefully he will keep eating them even after we leave India. ;)

We ate dinner at the guest house and now we are relaxing watching a Bollywood movie with D and an older Indian gentleman who has been staying in the hotel for the past two days. We are going to watch a comedian that was recommended by D after the movie then go to bed. Hope everyone has a nice day!

J's first day of work

Today was J's first day of work at his internship. He participated in 10 AM staff meeting, met his co-workers, and got assigned his first project. He is going to be working on a packaging project which is what he really wanted to do.

I got a call saying to come in for my presentation around 1:30. The office provides lunch everyday so J and I got to eat lunch together then I did my presentation. J got to sit in my presentation, which was nice. The owner, president, and head of the research team all attended my presentation. It went well, and 30 minutes later I received a phone call saying that I had gotten the job! I start in the morning! J and I are both very excited that we get to work together for the next few months.

J worked until 6:30 and right after he came home we found out that the flat we are staying in will be ready on June 6th. When we were leaving to go for a walk the owner of the hotel we are staying at was in the lobby and he said it was no problem for us to continue staying in our room until the 6th. What a relief! It seems like everything finally fell into place today. 

We met our German friend D for dinner at a vegetarian place across the street from our hotel called "Relax." We each ordered the rice plate. We are still learning the name of the food, but most meals we have some kind of cooked vegetables in a sauce (not curry) with naan, which is a flat bread, and a yellow gravy with lentils over rice. You only eat with your right hand while in India. Your left hand is reserved for "dirty" tasks and your right hand is reserved for "clean" tasks. A glass bottle of Coke came with our meals, it was nice to have something from home so far away. Coke always tastes better from a glass bottle.

No big plans for tonight, it seems like Mondays aren't much better in India. Everyone at the guest house seems really tired, just like in America. I, personally, could fall asleep right now (10:15PM) but considering I keep waking up before 5AM I think I need to stick tonight out and not go to bed for at least one or two more hours. J slept like a baby last night. I fell asleep before the cricket game ended, but J stayed up and watched the ending. He slept until his alarm went off, hours after I had already woken up.

Happy Memorial Day to everyone in the US!

Cafe Coffee Day- What the Fun?

Another eventful day in India. J and I headed out to find a part of Pune called Korogan Park. The rickshaw driver wanted 300 rupees which was incredibly overpriced. After he wouldn't negotiate J and I waked away and asked some Indians who work at the hotel what the price should have been. The most expensive it should have been was 180. Glad we realized it was too much!

Instead we waited for our new German friends, Daniel and Jonas, and they took us to a "real" coffee shop that they like called Cafe Coffee Day. They serve a brand of products called WTF? that stands for What the Fun. J and I split a drink, got tandorri chicken sandwiches, and FUDGE BROWNIES! Although the brownies weren't like our moms they sure satisfied our sweet teeth. J has been craving Dr. Pepper, Reeses, and ice cream. So far I'm not craving anything in particular, just getting used to the food here. Both of us are really enjoying Indian food. A man at the hotel cooks breakfast and dinner every night and it sure is delicious! We've very lucky to have traditional Indian food included with our stay.

On the way to the coffee shop we got our first glance at camels and a slum. The camels were being walked on the street. The men kept asking if we wanted our picture but we are saving our rupees to ride an elephant later this month. Next weekend we are planning a trip to the Pune Zoo and Snake Park. Were going to also try to make it to the old city of Pune which is still very traditional.

Tonight we went to a place to watch the IPL cricket match between the Super Kings an the Knight Riders. Tonight was the equivalent of the Superbowl for India. People here are very passionate about the game. We learned a lot more about the game by watching the match tonight. It's like a more exciting form of baseball!

Tomorrow is J's first day of work. He's really excited. His company is only two doors down from where we are staying this week. Hopefully we will know by tomrrow night when we can move into the flat. I also have an exciting day. I'll be presenting my past work in hopes that I'll be hired. It would be nice because J an I will be working in separate building, in complete different departments but we can still have lunch together and split a rickshaw when we move. Keep me in your prayers tonight, I'll be presenting most likely at 9:30 Indian time.

Riding the Rickshaw

Today was an eventful day. After waking up at 4AM due to jet lag John and I grabbed breakfast at the main lobby. The person in charge made us toast and jam. He said he was scared we didn't like Indian food. We told him this was not the case, hopefully he cooks us a proper Indian breakfast tomorrow.

We spent until 10AM watching TV with our German friends and a younger guy from Calcutta. Apparently The Big Bang Theory is very popular here. India is only on the first season of the show. How I Met Your Mother is another very popular show here. I guess I wasn't that surprised that over half of the channels play American TV shows or movies all day.

We met up with Sagar, J's coworker and he showed us how to ride the Rickshaw. We rode for 8 km to a large shopping mall in Pune. I purchased a few traditional tops to wear at work. They were pretty cheap. Sagar showed us around Pune a little bit more and then we headed back to the hotel. We were exhausted by then.

I thought the rickshaws were going to be faster. If you don't know what one is, it's sort of like an enclosed motorbike with a bench seat. The drivers weave around everything! I thought our driver was going to run someone over a few times. I definitely had white knuckles. We saw a ton of cows today in a smaller slum like area. I thought traffic was pretty congested when we were riding but Samar said it wasn't even close to being busy. Can't wait to see what "busy" looks like. We stopped in a smaller town to look at some places. It was cool to see how other people live.

We are going to get J's phone in 30 or so minutes. Hopefully everything will be okay and we will finally have a SIM card. I have to wait until at least Monday to get mine. Tomorrow I have to work on a presentation. I am applying to work at the same company that J is interning at. Cross your fingers that I get the job! It would be a lot easier to get to work if I worked at Elephant Design. John is working at Elephant doing packaging. He has also been assigned creating all of the client presentations. That's a big deal, but he will be fine. I will hopefully work in their research and content department doing market research and writing case studies or briefs.

Although it is only 8:35 PM here we are both exhausted. I think a shower and bedtime is in order after we get J's phone. Got to rest up for the biggest cricket match of the season tomorrow night. It's like Superbowl Sunday all over again!! Pictures are coming as soon as I upload them to my computer.

Day 1

Today was our first full day in Pune. Breakfast is included in our stay. We had some sort of potato curry with naan (bread). A man from J's  work walked over and showed us where Elephant is, its only two doors down from the hotel. We met with the boss of the company and he showed us around the buildings. I am going to make a presentation on Monday. Hopefully I will be hired, which would mean J and I would work at the same company. We purchased a sim card for J and were shown where an Internet cafe is located. Thankfully we could email our parents and let them know that we are safe and sound in Pune. 

We skipped lunch and both took a nap until late afternoon. We walked into the main building of the hotel for dinner. We met two German students who are interning at a nearby IT company. They were watching a cricket game and explained the riles to us. It is NOTHING like baseball. One of the guys is staying in the main building. He showed us the proper way to eat Indian food (with your right hand only) and explained the dishes to us. Dinner was great, not too spicy either. We had two courses, one with bread and one with rice. Afterwords we finished watching the cricket game and headed back to our building. Thankfully the water heater was working so we got hot showers! 

We have arrived!

J & I have arrived in India! Our plane to Newark from Atlanta was delayed almost 2 hours. When we arrived in Newark we had to run to catch our flight to India. Luckily we made it in time and so did our luggage. The plane was very nice, we each had our own TV's. The flight to Mumbai was a little over 15 hours. We arrived at 9:45 Thursday night. J spent most of the time either reading or sleeping. I watched a few TV shows and read. It is always hard to sleep in a middle seat. Customs was a breeze and we were very relieved to see our luggage. Our driver was waiting outside with a sign for J. 

Our over three our cab ride was an experience. I am amazed at how many cars there are, traffic is intense even at midnight! After that drive we are well aware that using your horn is the norm. Big trucks have "Horn OK Please" on the back on them, I think you use a horn (and flashing your lights) to make known that you are in a lane. No driver stays in one lane for too long, we were amazed at how much cars weave in and out of bigger trucks. We couldn't see much, it was pitch black outside for most of the ride. 

We made it to our hotel around 2:30. It is very clean and well kept. J & I are both happy with our temporary housing. We find out today when we move into our flat. There is no shower here, just a faucet and a large bucket. Nobody took a shower last night, we were too tired. Guess we will have to share that experience later.