India - End of Week 2

Two weeks down, four weeks still to go. Two of our group is actually leaving tonight to go back to the states. They are both consulting employees; they are not BDM’s (that’s Business Development Managers). I must say that I envy them. There are many good things about India, but none of them can really outweigh the glaring fact that India is not my home.

I am enjoying myself a lot more though. I have felt much better lately after my brush with deathly sickness last week. The thing that bugs me most is that I am still essentially living out of my suitcase. I have unpacked everything into my room, but I can’t help but feel that I only have ten percent of the useful things that I own here. I’m living a paired down version of my life. The worst part of the whole “suitcase” thing though, has been the struggle with the internet at the guest house. When we first arrived we could not access most of the websites we wanted to access. Anything that had to do with entertainment, games, social networking, or blogs was blocked. In fact this blog entry that you are reading right now was written in word because Blogger was still blocked at the time. We managed to complain enough to get a handful of sites unblocked but most of the wide world of the internet is still blocked.

This has been a sharp point of contention with me vis-à-vis Wipro. When I was in the states and asked them if I would have internet here they told me “Yes.” The internet that I use, with about 99% of the internet blocked, does not count as the internet at all. I can now use face book, gmail, and blogger but that’s about all of the really useful sites that I can use. Google still works, but most of the sites you can find on there won’t open. It makes me so bitter.

Today is Friday and I am excited. I’m sitting here at work in a training meeting on Lean Processes and Six Sigma Processes. I’m dressed down for Friday with jeans and a short sleeve collared shirt on, so the fact that this presentation is ridiculously boring doesn’t make me so sad. This weekend we are going to head into the city and I am planning on doing some serious shopping. Not only am I looking for souvenirs but also for good food. I spend each week trying to survive through terrible breakfasts and lunches by ordering food for dinner from different places around here. Then on the weekend I have a chance to go out and get good American style food from restaurants around Bangalore. So far the only real American style restaurant that I have found is the T.G.I. Fridays here in Bangalore. This weekend I plan to try to find some more restaurants.

Next weekend I am going to, hopefully, take a trip out to somewhere beyond Bangalore. I havn't decided where yet, but we'll see...