Rainbow School Project

A few of us are going to help with a fun project for the kids at Rainbow School. For the two older classes, we're taking individual photo shots and framing them so they can decorate to take home. It's a great project and allows the children to explore their creativity!

Here are some photos of the students:

Picture Link:
Click Me

My First India Buddy

Me and Veera, my first India buddy :)

Veera and I were set up as buddies last year, it's been such a pleasure hanging out with her. She has been a great, great friend to me!

Team Offsite Dinner

Soum telling us a funny story

Nicolette, Me and Divya

Anna and Sirisha

Ordering more food

Last night we went to a team offsite dinner at the Waterfront. It's a beautiful restaurant situated along the water on Necklace Road (where I ran the half marathon Sunday.) It was a mix of Thai, Indian and Chinese food ... most of it was surprisingly NOT spicy. We had a good time, the team is fun!

Picture Link:
Click Me

Hyderabad Half Marathon!

If you look closely it says "Mr. Charise"

Pretty cool T-shirt for registering

Today I ran the Hyderabad Half Marathon, 2:00hrs flat. It was a fun race, started at 6:00am, beginning at Necklace road to Charminar and back. There were no timing chips or offical clocks so I went based on my own stopwatch. Only 15 women ran the half along with about 300 guys, and an estimated 10,000 ran the 10k. A lot of people were running barefoot, in trousers, sandals, socks, jeans, not sure why or how they did it! I got a certificate of acheivement and a medal. I wish my support group from home was there to cheer me on, it would have been nice to see friendly faces at the finish line. I didn't get any pictures of myself running but there were a lot taken during the race. Hopefully I'll appear front page of the Hindu Times :)

Here's the map for the Half Marathon loop

Saree Shopping

Aren't these fabrics goregous?

Today Suzie and I went shopping for saree's to wear to the holiday party this coming Friday. We should have brought a local with us, but luckily there were many women in the store buying sarees who gave us advice. There were so many beautiful fabrics to choose from (cotton, silk, polyesther, linen) -- I ended up picking a goregous black silk saree with red and gold flowers. We also had our blouses made at a nearby tailor, we'll pick them up this week to try the entire ensemble on. Saree's are hard to wear, imagine wrapping one long piece of fabric around and around to make this wrap style dress. We'll definitely need some help from our housekeepers to get dressed Friday night. I can't wait to see the entire outfit put together :)

(The night before having dinner at Okra, restaurant in the Marriott)

Maybe I Shouldn't Be Vegetarian?

So I was reading this article on an Indian website about vegetarianism thinking it would tell me reasons why I should stay veg. However, it included a study done by Dr. L.C.Gupta, one of the world's most prolific medical authors, who presents information regarding the social aspects of vegetarianism. He found in a study of 1000 criminals with 500 Veg/500 Non Veg:

Social Behaviour	Non Vegetarian	Vegetarian
Alcohol	172	44
Smoking	106	38
Narcotics	32	6
Theft	42	18
Sex offense	43	11
Murder	18	4

The study shows that criminals are generally vegetarian!! Pretty funny stuff, haha. Maybe I should reconsider eating meat again???

Happy Thanksgiving

Turkey Dinner!Drawing courtesy of my roomate Suzie

Cute baby!

Everyone watching Roy slice the turkey

All the expats headed over to the Gilbert's for Thanksgiving dinner. They got a HUGE turkey, also served pumpkin soup, stuffing, delicous gravies... and apple and pumpkin pie! Before dinner we all gave thanks to having this opportunity to work in India, having great people to work with and for our families and friends back home. After stuffing face, Leigh Anne had a Thanksgiving quiz (which we all failed.) Did you know that the first Thanksgiving feast was 3 days long? Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Picture Link:
Click Me

Hospital

Where we picked up our medicine (a local pharmacy located on the main road. There were no actual Chemists or Druggists there!)

Yesterday I went to the hospital for a cough and earache (I'm ok, just wanted to get it checked out.) The hospital was an all afternoon excursion. First they wanted to send me to a female doctor but I told them I didn't need to see one. We proceeded to the ER where a surgeon told an attendant to take us to an ENT (ear, neck, throat) specialist. This attendant didn't know where he was going, took us all over the hospital. Finally, we saw Dr. Rao, who prescribed me some antibiotics and cough syrup. Total cost for the consult and doctor visit was 200Rs ($4USD). After I went to the pharmacy to pick up my medication and I wasn't even asked for a prescription! The whole process took over 4 hours, it sure was fun to experience. Gotta love India :)

Only in India (7)

Only in India will there be signs like these...
Thanks Mahin for taking these pictures at KBR Park (where I do my morning runs.)

You can't laugh? Clap? Make noise in a public park?

This is my favorite: "Cleanliness is next to Godliness"

Only in India (6)

Only in India will you see a DHL truck locked with a plastic tie!

Bangalore Auto Rickshaw Ride

Auto rickshaw adventure part two in Bangalore! Fun, fun times ladies :)

The People of Bangalore

Some people shots in Bangalore!

Acrobats on the sidewalk

Our rickshaw drivers

Street vendors

Hanging out at the airport

Bangalore (Bengalūru)

Getting ready for a day of shopping!

Mahin, Jeff, Stacy, Anna and I headed to Bangalore this past weekend for another quick 2 day trip. Bangalore is the first city to have electricity in India, and is the most developed. It's a hub for big technology and computer hardware firms; their presence was well known throughout the city, all the billboards and street signs advertise the big tech players there (esp. Yahoo!) For more info, Click Here.

It was much more developed and civilized than my last weekend trip to Varanasi, which was nice. We aplanned to just shop and enjoy some good food and that's what we did!

We stayed at The Park Hotel, situated in central Bangalore. Shopped around the entire day at Geruda mall and Commerical street; I bought some flip flops, a dress, Anna got some fun shirts and converse shoes in red, Stacy bought a super cute floral top, and Mahin went all out on Indian attire! Stacy also got suckered into buying a map from a street vendor -- she bargained him down from 500Rs to 100Rs (~$1USD), what a great deal!! That night we had dinner at Sunny's, recommended by a friend at work. It was delicious :)

Stacy bargining for an India map

Me and Anna trying on nighty's at 'Her Choice Nighty Shop'

Delicious dinner at Sunny's

The highlight of the trip was Jeff driving an auto rickshaw to dinner. He asked our driver if he could drive and he (surprisingly) said yes! Jeff did pretty well, I wouldn't be able to tell if it were an Indian driving or him!

Yes, Jeff is driving a rickshaw!

... and I'm pretending to :)

Sunday we headed to National market to pick up some "discounted" DVDs. I also bought a fake book off a street vendor, the book cover and pages are all photocopies. What can you expect for $1USD right? After the market we went to The Leela hotel for Sunday Champagne brunch. The Leela is a 6star hotel; it felt like we were in Maui!

Our flight home was delayed (what a surprise) but not too too bad, we didn't have to play charades to kill time. I really liked Bangalore, its a nice getaway and a fun place to hang out and shop. Next time I go to Bangalore I will visit Mysore and do more sightseeing, and also find a good place for sushi :)

Picture Link:
Click Me

First Annual India Sales Conference

Anna, Me & Karen at the conference

Me and Veera, my first India buddy

Me and Stacy

Having dinner while watching Idol

Friday we attended the First Annual India Sales Conference. Top executives from Mountain View came to speak to the India team. It was great for the team to hear about the company from a high level perspective. The team from Delhi flew down for the event (Durand, Karen, Ritesh, Thomas.) At lunch we had a Doodle contest, each team had to decorate a plain canvas with an Indian or American holiday theme. Some teams had great doodles! That evening we had Indian Idol and Club G Bollywood. This group named Euphoria performed, which I hear is as popular as Backstreet Boys back home!

Picture Link:
Click Me

Only in India (5)

A big group went to see the Harlem Globetrotters last night (yes! they were in India) but I couldn't make it. Anna took this picture "VVIP Entry" -- Very VERY Important People? Only in India right? :)

Weekend Update: Bangalore

This weekend instead of going to Hampi we are headed to Bangalore. There are a lot of technology and computer software companies in Bangalore, making it the first 'Silicon Valley' of India. We'll shop, eat, visit gardens and museums during this short 2 day trip.

The People of Varanasi

Some photos of the people of Varanasi!

Barber shop on the street

This is my favorite photo from the trip