Day 13

Last night for dinner I had a buffalo tenderloin. Tasted like steak. Hmmm Good. I ate outside in candle light being serenaded by musician singing love songs. Imagine "I just called to say I love you" in a Indian accent. It was sort of lonely. This is totally a couples vacation spot. I think I'll try one of the more informal dining options tonight.

Today I layed by "the largest pool in all of India" and read Eragon. It's sort of like Lord of the Rings.

The bottled water on the resort is Oxyrich. It says it has 300% more oxygen. Look someone else found that wierd too.

I think I going to go lay on my balcony and read more.

Day 12

I made it to Goa. The drive to Bangalore was not bad. The flight was very quick. This place is amazing. It's set on 45 acres of beach front land. They have "the largest pool in India" and a beautiful beach. The spa is huge. My room is great. The bed is soft. It would be perfect if only I wasn't here alone. :< Got bad news. No shot glasses, t-shirts, or magnets at the airport or at this hotel. I'll keep looking!

Comments...

Jessica: The trainees are both men and woman. Most are fresh out of college. On the Infosys campus I have my own room with a balcony, small fridge, TV, phone, and AC. Housekeeping comes by twice a day. They do my laundry. There is a the pool, gym, theater, bowling alley, billards room, badmitten, basketball, tennis, and cricket courts, 2 cell phone stores, a convient store, and a clothing store. It reminds me of a Disney resort. Looking forward to that dinner!

Mom: I promise I won't get to drunk or lick any frogs and Carolyn made me pack sunscreen.

Carolyn: Don't get to use to Zoom Zoom.

Lisa and Miles: Happy anniversary!

Jill, Denise: I prefer the Family Guy toad licking episode. Check out the "Don't do Toad" song.

Day 11

Happy 26th Birthday Jill! I hope you like the present we got you.
Carolyn, What did we get Jill for her birthday?

There are frogs and lizards all over the place at night. Check out the pictures.

Today was a long day. We finished up all the function presentations and created all the data for the function project tomorrow. Tomorrow we will do a quick review in the morning and then give the project out. We are going to give them until 4:00 to email us the function and output. Vishal and I have to leave early tomorrow to catch flights in Bangalore. So we put the Infosys managers in charge of making sure no one cheats and they cut people off at 4:00.

Monday is India's labor day so we have a three day weekend. I can't wait to lay on the beach, sip a fenny cocktail and play some Lumines.

The flights are finally all confirmed. I have a handwritten ticket for tomorrow's flight to Goa. It's on Jet Airways, flight 521, departing Bangalore airport at 1:55 pm, arriving in Goa one hour later. There is suppose to be someone from the Park Hyatt waiting for me. Three wonderful nights and four days later I'm flying home on KingFisher Airways. Same company that makes the beer I drank a few nights ago. I'm on flight IT206 departing Goa at 2:35 pm arriving in Bangalore one hour later. There is suppose to be a car waiting for me in Bangalore. I'll have a few hours to kill before Vishal lands so I'll have the driver show me around town. That should be fun!

Jill, Greg, Mom, Dad, Car: Have fun at Sabatinos. I'll be home May 13th. I haven't seen a McDonald's yet but apparently they do have them. Check out the McDonald's India website. I want to try the McCurry Pan. Sound delicious!

Everyone: Don't worry I'll take my lap top with me so you won't be with out your daily dose of Adam.

Day 10

Day 10! I can't believe it has been 10 days already.

We gave the final set and transaction project today. The project consisted of making a policy search screen, policy view screen and process utility screen. The screens are linked by zoom buttons. They also had to write a function for a button on the process utility screen. Most people finished in about 5 hours. 2 people didn't finish at all. We graded on a 60 point scale; the best grade was 60; the worst grade was 28. All but 4 people scored 50 or better. Overall not bad.

I don't get the travel agency here. The guy called me last night and mentioned something about putting me on a different flight from Goa to Bangalore this weekend. I didn't really understand him. Today when I checked my email I saw he has me flying stand by on the last flight of the day. What is he thinking? What do I do if I don't get on the plane? Anyway, I went back there after lunch and explained to him why stand by was not going to work for me. I think he understands but you never know. I'll find out tomorrow. I miss Orbitz!

Everyone in my class speaks English very good [sic]. However they all have a mannerism that we don't have in the US. In the US we have a nod for yes and shake for no. Here instead of a nod they have a "bobble" for yes. It's like a shake but different. When you shake your head you turn your head left and right. When you bobble you move your whole head left and right. Check out this link about the head bobble. It's really confusing because it looks more like a shake (no) than a nod (yes).

Comments....

I write the training update paragraph for people at work. If you only care about food, poo and souvenirs you can skip that paragraph.

Dad, Denise, Sandy, Phil: T shirts, magnets, shot glasses, stamps are all on the shopping list. Anyone else?

Lisa: I'm the funniest cousin you got!

Dad: I am having a good time but I miss everyone a lot. I have been very busy. I basically teach from 9-5 and then do my regular job from 5 - 11. I'm looking forward to the long weekend in Goa.

Deepak: I got the update on Bangalore bars from Nishant. I'll try the fenny in Goa and let you know what I think.

Day 9

Update: Links fixed

Training went really well today we were finally able to complete the set and transaction presentation and give the first project. Everyone did well on the project. Tomorrow we will give them the set and transaction final project.

After class I went to the Infosys travel agency and booked a room at the Park Hyatt in Goa for this weekend. I'm looking forward to a little R&R, hopefully a softer bed, and some different food. I'll let you know all about it next week.

Vishal and I decided to venture into town for dinner and a few drinks. We got a cab and went to a hotel restaurant called the Regaalis. We had tandoori chicken, kabobs, naan and King Fisher beer.

Comments...

Many of you have asked about my bowels. I'm happy to report everything is normal. Thanks for your concern. If I do have any issues I have the proper medications ready.

I have also had a bunch of questions related to alcohol. Poop and beer is that all you care about? Rob! Anyway there is no alcohol on campus but off campus it seems readily available. The King Fisher beer I had tonight tasted like Budweiser. I promise to drink more in Goa next weekend and report back! :>

Deepak suggested I try some of the pubs in Bangalore. I'm going to have several hours to kill at the Bangalore airport. Any good places around there? Regarding traffic in Bangalore, it was crazy. There were motorcycles and auto rickshaws everywhere. Officially there are 2 lanes in each direction but everybody ignores them. I did see several dogs and cows in the street as well. I'll never complain about traffic on the Kennedy again.

Sandy I haven't found any India magnets yet. I'll check the airports this weekend. Turns out India is nothing like Wisconsin Dells. If I run into your friend at SBC I'll say "Hi" for you.

Denise: The chicken was good especially today's dinner. I don't think blogger is blocked from work. I'm writing this from my Allstate laptop. Could be a PEBKAC issue. (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair) :>

Jill asked if I had Saag Paneer. I think I have had Paneer. Not sure if it was of the Saag variety or not. There are no menus, they just point me to a buffet, so I'm never to sure what I'm eating. What is Saag Paneer?

Rob, they call me beef cake at the gym. I got on the scale here and I only weigh like 135 Kg. I haven't been 135 since 3rd grade. This place is great! Regarding the Cubs, by the time I get back in May the season will already be over. Wait till next year!

Mom, I don't think Mysore palace is air conditioned it's like 150 years old or something.

Jessica, John, Dinner when I get back sounds great. I have a feeling I'll be in the mood for beef.

Thanks for all the comments! I love hearing from you all.

Day 8

I forgot to mention, I saw a bunch of wild monkeys yesterday. They are everywhere, on the side of the road, sitting on fences, there were a bunch at Chamundi Hill. They're like squirrels back home.

The training environment was still on the fritz today. We had them setup a DSL line in the training room so we would at least be able to demo stuff from our laptops. Just for fun we tried using the DSL connection on one of the lab computers. We were not able to recreate the problem so tonight they are going to switch all the computers to DSL connections. Not sure what happened with the firewall but it doesn't really matter the environment they setup didn't let us connect to unix or anything. So this is just as good. We did the call log presentation and talked about OOS today. Tomorrow we will try for the third time to finish sets and transactions and do the first project.

Chicken is back on the menu here. I guess the bird flu scare is over? Vishal and I are thinking about going into town tomorrow night to try a Kabob place. We hear the Southern Star is the place to go.

Next weekend is a three day weekend. I'm trying to find a nice beach resort in a area called Goa. Seems like availability is not that good right now.

Regarding comments...

Marty: No more than normal. Enough said.
Sandy: Herb's crazy, you're a great cook. (Never hurts to suck up to an aunt.)
Carolyn: It's no Lou Malnatis.

Leave more comments.

Day 7

Today I toured Mysore. I arranged for a driver and a Ford Icon (with air conditioning) to pick me up at 9:00 am. Shesha, my driver, and I started our day at Chamundi Hills. The top of the hill had an ancient temple and an amazing view of the city.




Our next stop was a small palace converted into a hotel. There are tons of palaces in Mysore. Most are now goverment buildings or hotels.


Our third stop was Mysore Palace. This is where the Mysore royal family lives. There were no cameras or shoes allowed inside. The palace is full of gold and silver and intricate wood work. On holidays they have elephants and other animals on display in the huge indoor courtyards.

Next we went to the Mysore Zoo. There we saw lion and tigers and bears, oh my. Here's a picture of me with an elephant. I'm the one on the right. After the zoo we stopped for lunch. We went to pizza hut; better than dominos last night but still nothing like pizza at home.

We ended our day around 6:00 pm at the KRS Dam and Brindavan Gardens.

Day 6

I took more pictures of the campus. The picture on the top left is one of the three SDBs (System Development Blocks). I work in SDB1 pictured on the right. The picture on the bottom left is the newest SDB, it's still under construction.

Class didn't go so well today. We kept losing our connection every few minutes which made it impossible to do demos and activities. I tried bouncing the environment but that didn't help. I lost my EPIC connection several times too so hopefully it is a temporary network issue. Anyway we ended up skipping the last demos, activities and the project and went into some of the function presentations. Monday we will go back and do the skipped stuff.


Got a bunch of comments....

Igor mentioned the L word (Lumines) which almost made me stop writing my blog and play but I fought the urge. I'm consistently scoring in the 350K range. It takes about 90 minutes to play one game now. I am a Lumines master / addict.

Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is pretty far away. About a three hour drive to Bangalore and then a 2 hour plane ride.

Carolyn asked about the Epcot like building. It is a movie theater. There must be several screens because it is huge. They are doing some remodeling so it is not opened right now. Next door to "Epcot" is the ECC (Employee Care Center). There they have a swimming pool, bowling alley, badmitten courts, billiards room, a weight room, aerobics, yoga and a cricket field, basket ball courts and tennis courts outside. I bowled there earlier this evening with some people from class.

A bunch of people asked about food. For breakfast they have lots of fruit usually papaya and watermelon; all sorts of bread like muffins, croissants, danishes, toast; and dosa (first picture). Dosa is a pancake like food that you dip in sauce. It's ranges from a little to sweet to very spicy depending on the day. Another thing they some times have is Idli. They are airy rice patty things with spicies in them. I still haven't committed lunch and dinner food names to memory. Everything has been vegetarian so far. Tonight I'm going to order Dominos. Yes they have a Dominos pizza on campus and they deliver.



Mom asked about the weather here. This morning was very hot.. The average hi temperature is about 30 degrees C (86 degrees F). The lows late at night have been around 20 degrees C (68 degrees F).

Leave more comments and questions.

Day 5

I figured out how to embed pictures. This is the courtyard to the building I'm in. I added some pictures to the old posts too.

Pretty uneventful day today. Class went well, we got through most of sets and transactions. Vishal left for Bombay this afternoon so I'm on my own for the rest of the weekend.

Some really famous actor died last week and his fans demanded that nobody work. Anyway to make up for that day off, tomorrow (Saturday) is a work day. We should finish up with transaction presentation and then do the set and transaction project.

Sunday I made plans to tour the Mysore region. I have a car and driver. I'm going to check out Chamundi Hills, the Mysore Zoo, Mysore Palace, and KRS Dam and Brindavan Gardens. I'll let you know all about it in the Day 7 post.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of my blog or if you have any questions. I look forward to hearing from you!

Day 4

Today was my first full day in Mysore. I can't believe it has only been one day! It seems longer. I guess today is a typical day....

6:00 am
Wake up - very hard beds
Played Lumines (crack)

8:00 am
Breakfast - bread, juice, a couple of Indian breakfast things. I forget what the Indian foods are called, a thin pancake like thing and a steamed rice like patty thingy. Tastes better than it sounds.

9:00 am
Training begins - Pop quiz on topics covered so far.

Given how beautiful the campus is I was a little disappointed in our training room. It's pretty small with computers in little cubbies against the wall. Apparently because we need access to InterLink environments we could not be in one of their nicer facilities.

11:00 am
Sets presentation and demo.

12:00 pm
Lunch - more Indian food still no idea what I ate.

Breakfast and dinner we eat in a very nice small outdoor dining area just for guests. It is surrounded by a moat with fish. (Some one fell in today at dinner) It looks like something you would see at a 5 star resort in the Caribbean. Lunch we eat with the trainees at the food court. The food court is a huge 2 story open air building that looks like it can feed about 1000 people at one time. There is a variety of food available from sandwiches to pizza to different regions of Indian food.

1:00
Set Activity, Transactions presentation and demo

2:30
Environment stops working! Grrr. Turns out we ran out of space.

4:00
Review pop quiz with some team members who need a little extra help.

5:00
Back to my room for a nap.

The campus is so big we call for a golf cart to take us back. Alternatively we could ride a bike back. They have bikes everywhere. You just take any bike and leave it at your destination.

8:00
Dinner - more Indian food (still no idea what I ate) and pasta. I don't think I have had any non vegetarian meals since I have been here.

10:00
RTQ Phase 2 Meeting and emails.

11:00
Blog entry

Day 3

Hi everybody,

I finally made it to Mysore at around 3pm today. The three hour drive wasn't so bad. (New high score in Lumines, my favorite PSP game: 360,000) Traffic in the city was crazy. There were tons of motor cycles and nobody obeys lane configurations.

The Infosys Mysore campus is beautiful. The architecture is amazing. There is an Epcot like dome theater. The "hostels" look like Disney resorts. The office buildings look ultra modern. Check out some pictures of the campus and my room.

Around 8:30 Vishal and I went for dinner. There is a separate outdoor dining hall for guests. We were the only ones there today. We had Indian food for dinner so I really have no idea what I ate. It was good, spicy, vegetarian. No chicken here on campus something to do with bird flu.

Tomorrow I actually start teaching.

Day 1 and 2

Hey everybody,

I made it! I left Chicago on American Airlines at 5:05 pm Monday night. The flight was packed but the trip wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. I ate 2 meals, saw 2 movies and played lots of PSP. New high score in Lumines is 225,000. That game is more addictive than crack.

Landed in Paris 8 hours later, 8:30 am local time. I had a 2 hour layover. (You can smoke in the terminal in Paris.) Waited at a gate for a bus to take us to our plane. Surprisingly almost 75% of the travelers were not Indian. The Air France flight to Bangalore was nearly empty so I got to spread out. Also the service, food, entertainment on Air France is EXCELLENT. Alcoholic drinks are free. Movies and games on demand. They even had a GPS map showing you where you are and cameras showing you the view from the cockpit. I highly recommend Air France.

9 hours later I landed in Bangalore. The airport was small but pretty normal inside. There were lots of baggage handlers / beggars, mosquitoes and 2 wild dogs outside. I found a driver waiting for me. He went to get the car and we drove 15 minutes through Bangalore to the Taj Westend. That's were I'm at now. It's a beautiful hotel the room is huge, the people are really nice, the eggs were cold this morning but they did have bacon! :>

A driver is due to pick me up here at noon to take me to Mysore. Mysore is about three hours drive south of a Bangalore. That's where I'll be working for the next 4 weeks.