Alvida India! (Farewell India)

Saying good bye was one of the hardest things I had to do. I will miss India SO SO MUCH!!! Especially the people. The friends I've made, I will remember always. Each person I met has impacted my life and work so much, words can hardly convey. I became so "Indian" over the course of the last 5 months. According to Mahin, I'm a Bollywood critic and I've seen 3 movies, I eat Indian food, dress in Indian fashion and have learned to be humble and appreciate life just like all the Indian folks here. More importantly, I've learned about a new culture and experienced a new kind of life. It's been an AMAZING several months, I would never trade it for the world.

Picture Link of my last day in office:
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Rainbow School Part 2

5th Grade Class

On Wednesday Anna and I went to Rainbow School to begin second phase of our project. Our project: take pictures of the children and have the photos printed for picture frames. Using old DVD cases as frames, one side was for the photo itself, other half was to slide a drawing done by the student. The 5th grade class loved it! Unfortunately I won't be there to see through the rest of the project but Anna will be sure to finish most of the classes. I'll miss these kids a lot, they have so much character and potential. I'm really glad I got to see them all before I left.

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Our Drivers

Left to Right: Niranjan, Gopal, Ismail, Akbar, Ansari, Jafar, Srinivas, Nayeem

Thank you to all our drivers, especially Ismail who handled all coordination (in orange.) We wouldn't be able to see India without these wonderful drivers. I'll miss them all!

Team Yellow Strikes Again!

Inside joke...
Whenever we all travel together and the 'yellows' (Asians) sit together, we call ourselves TEAM YELLOW! In KL last weekend, team yellow struck again! (Me, Jeff, Selin.) The first time was in Varanasi (Me, Simon, Jeff) -- haha!

The original Team Yellow

Kuala Lumpur

Petronas Twin Towers at night



Getting ready to go out for Jeff's birthday



In Club Zouk



Grapes at Chinatown, yummy!



The crew on the 41st floor of Petronas Towers



Awesome side angle view of Petronas

Over this past weekend, Anna, Stacy, Selin, Jeff, Zack, Travis and I headed to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the weekend. It was another short quick trip, but a great trip to be my last before I head home. We flew in Friday night and arrived to the 6 star Mandarin Oriental Hotel, 80m from the Petronas Twin Towers (one of the tallest towers in the world.) We landed a sweet 2 room apartment at the hotel, sure was NICE!

Saturday we checked out Suria KLCC mall (adjacent to the Towers and the hotel), then headed to Chinatown where they had DVDs, delicious fruits and tons of discount clothing and goods. Afer we went BACK to the mall for more shop. That night we ate at Bijan for Jeff's birthday -- a good Malaysian restaurant. Unfortunately, the dessert was NOT memorable. They gave Jeff Durian cheesecake... and if you're never had Durian I don't suggest doing so. Durian smells like stale garbage! Haha. After dinner we went to Club Zouk to dance the night away. The club was great, played good hip-hop and R&B all night.

Sunday we went up to the Petronas Twin Towers -- but they only allow you up to Floor 41 of 88 floors. What an incredible view though! After, I went to lay out by the pool and met with the others for more shopping. The shopping was good, but nothing comparable to BKK! (Yes I said it Simon, BKK is the B-E-S-T!)

I would love to visit Malaysia again, this time see the beaches and the rest of the country. For more info on Kuala Lumpur, click here.

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Awkward Asians

Courtesy of Anna! Ever heard of a Tripod??? Haha, these are great.

Farewell Dinner at Laguna

Farewell Expats!

Thursday night was my Farewell dinner at Laguna, a new Italian restaurant near our apartment on Road No. 1. We all dived into really good Italian food, I had a super good pear salad. We celebrated my farewell, Walter's farewell (a guy from Dublin who was here for 2 weeks) and Jeff's bday. Once again cake was delivered to me, AGAIN saying Happy Birthday -- courtesy of Anna and Mahin, haha. Walter and Jeff got the same birthday cakes.

We reminisced over our trips and fun stories, I'm going to miss this group so much!

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My Teams

Team 1: (Top Right clockwise: Sailesh, Shyam, Shannon (who is visiting), Me, Anna, Padma, Sirisha; Divya, Parul, Sravani, Soumyajit)

Team 2: (Top Right clockwise: Jitendra, Yasmin, Jessie, Padma, Me, Rubin, Urvi, Tina)

Team Dinner at Indi-Joe's

Last night I went to dinner with my team, we went to Indi-Joe's -- an American style pub serving TexMex, Sizzlers and Pizza (no Indian on the menu!) We had a great time, it's really nice to have dinner with a small, intimate group of people. We went home full and smelling like sizzling platters!

Another Surprise, This One Was For My Farewell!

Being fed cake!

My team!

Yesterday at work my team surprised me with a farewell - cake and gifts! They got me a really beautiful silk stole (pashmina), a hand stitched kurta, two gorgeous pillow covers, a necklace and earring set and a lovely tapestry. It was really sweet of them all, I'm going to miss them all so much!