Day 26 and 27

I hope you enjoyed reading about my Indian Adventure. It had an interesting time but I'm glad to be going home. 26 days is a long time to be away. One thing I have learned is that in a lot of ways things here aren't that different. They have Domino and McDs; Old Navy and Nike; HBO and EPSN; Snoop Dog and Bon Jovi. On the other hand you don't see many wild cows, dogs, and monkeys on the street back home.

Thanks for reading!
Adam

Day 25

Finally finished all the export stuff and started CMM. CMM is the king of TLA. It includes AMP, PMP, VPD, VPF, QCP, PQP. I thought the class was glassy eyed for all the RW10X stuff. There are 71 slides on CMM. OYE! We will finish CMM tomorrow morning and then I'm done. Vishal will review any topics they want next week and then he is done.

Godzilla did not return last night. I guess he did escape out the balcony door.

I'm leaving for Bangalore at 7:30 pm. I'm flying Air France flight 191 leaving Bangalore at 2:05 am, arriving in Paris 10 hours and 15 minutes later at 8:50am local time. I have a 6 hour lay over in Paris. I hope to be able to do a little site seeing. We will see how it goes. At 2:50 pm Paris time I get on American Airlines flight 41 landing in Chicago 9.25 hours later at 5:05 pm.

Door to door I will be traveling for about 33 hours.

"Dude, where's my car" is on! Sweet!

Anyone know when Lost will be available on iTunes. Don't tell me anything about it yet.

Day 24

Vishal went over more RW10X and ERW stuff today. All we have left is OOS and CMM. For those of you not from work I didn't make any of that up. We use a lot of TLA (Three Letter Acronyms).

After class the whole team went out for dinner. They took us to the Olive Garden. Same company different restaurant. This one has mostly Indian food and some Asian dishes as well. It was a very nice restaurant.

I got home and there was a lizard in my room. See picture from Day 11. I called housekeeping and they sent some one to get it but by the time they got to my room the lizard has run behind the curtains and was not to be found. I'm trying to convince myself it somehow got out....

I might not sleep tonight. 2 more days....

Day 23

Today in class we went over some of the issues we had with exports yesterday. Turns out the alerts don't support some of the values we were trying to use and the export special processing function doesn't work at all and doing multi record imports are ridiculously tricky. Anyway we got that all straightened out and then started the RW10X and ERW presentation. The work flow activity went over very well. The students split up into 2 groups. Each group has pieces of paper with the names of all the different systems as well as descriptions of what each system does. They tape all the systems to the wall and show how they are related and they also have to match the system description to the system.

3 more days. Vishal and I went out for dinner tonight. We went back to the same place we went before since it was so good. Hmmm. Kabobs, tandori chicken and naan.

That hand made silk shirt never got delivered to me. I called the front gate and told them I was getting something delivered. I pretty much knew when I hung up the phone there was not a chance that shirt was going to get to me. Here is a transcript of the conversation.

Security Man #1: Front gate.

Me: Hi there.

Security Man #1: Yes

Me: Yes. I'm getting a package delivered today. Can you...

Security Man #1: Yes

Me: Yes. Can you call me when it comes and I'll pick it up

* I hear the man say something to someone else in another language and then *

Security Woman: Yes

Me: Hi? Uhm. I'm getting a package delivered today. Can you call...

Security Woman: Uhh package? No.

Me: No? Yes. A package. A shirt? Being delivered from a store?

Security Woman: Shirt?

* Now she starts talking to someone in another language and I get passed to a third person *

Security Man #2: Yes.

Me: Hi, I'm getting a package delivered today.

* Now inadvertently I start talking louder, because for some reason I think that will help them understand me *

Me: CAN YOU CALL ME ON MY CELL PHONE WHEN THEY ARRIVE?

Security Man #2: Yes

Me: OK. MY NUMBER IS 91875887453. Call me when it arrives.

Security Man #2: Yes

And then he hung up on me. No way he wrote down my number.

After work I went over to the front gate to see if the package came. There was a lot of head bobbling going on but I don't think they understood what I was saying. I certainly didn't understand them. I left pretty convinced my shirt was not at the front gate.

I got back to my room and called the shop. I was able to piece together that they tried to deliver the shirt and were turned away. Apparently I was not the only ones who had a hard time communicating with Infosys security. I picked the shirt up before dinner.

Comments....

"#2": Did I not make it clear last time that I was not buying saris. You got a scarf and you will like! :>

"D-Law": Lost is so cool. Thanks for letting me know about the commercial. I can't wait to call the number when I get back home. Check out these really good Lost blogs. The Lost Notebook and Lost... and gone forever

"Nose": You crack me up. I'll see what I can do about the monkey. Customs may be an issue. You missed a great Test. Rahul Sharad Dravid hit a double century including 12 6s and bowled a wicket on a mean slow curler. Da-na-na Da-na-na.

"Royal Goy": Usually the Cubs are not completely out of it until June. Oh well! Get on the cricket band wagon! Otherwise I noticed Bears mini camp started. Only 4 monthes til Bears opening day!

"Boss man": Indian airline food... Yep I'll never forget this trip! Thanks for the opportunity.

Day 22

Vishal was still traveling today so I was on my own for Power Exports. Apparently there is a lot I do not know about Power Exports. Nobody in the class was able to get the special processing function to run. There were questions about the alerts. We were not able to figure out how to use the multi-record file format to import the file we exported. We didn't even try the last part were we pass in a parameter. What a mess! Hopefully my collegues back in the US can help me out and we'll fix what went wrong with everyone tomorrow.

Only 4 more days left. I getting really sick of Indian food. There has not been a huge variety of food. It's pretty much the same 3 or 4 dishes every night. I'm going to go out for dinner at least one more time.

Day 20 and 21

I stayed in Mysore this week. Saturday I hung around the pool which is beautiful. There are actually 2 pools. The first pool waterfalls down 15 feet into the second smaller pool. The main large pool is about the size of half a football field and has a island in the middle with a gazebo. All around the pool are wood deck chairs with umbrellas.

Today was really hot so I stayed closer to my room and read on my balcony for a little. In the evening I went shopping and got some souvenirs. I got myself a tailor made silk shirt. They are going to make it tonight and deliver it tomorrow. It was only Rs. 1500 or about $30. How much do you think a tailor made silk shirt delivered the next day would cost in the US?

I had Dominos last night and again for lunch today. I'm getting sick of Indian food. I miss pockets, McDonald's, Nemo's, Toons, Y2K (What's the damage).

I think Indian Coca Cola is different than US Coca Cola it tastes sweeter here.

Anyway 5 more days. I'm dreading the 33 hour trip home but I can't wait to get back and sleep in my own bed.

Comments...

Denise: According to the Infosys web site they hire people from Indian and US universities but I think the people they hire from the Us stay in the US. Everyone in my class is a graduate of Indian Universities. I think it is more common to go to grad school in the US.

Carolyn: I added more pictures of Goa to the posts from Day 12 - Day 15.

Leave a comment if you haven't already. I'd like to hear from you.

Day 19

We finished the import activity today; it took most of the day but everyone did well. Monday I'll give the export presentation and activity.

I downloaded Lost from iTunes, what a great ending! I think Michael was sent by the Others to free Henry. They are probably using Walt as leverage or maybe the "good" people are going to start turning into "others".

I wish I could download some of my other shows. I don't understand why every show and movie ever recorded is not available for me to download for $1.99. Let's go already!

One more week left. I'm going to start packing on Tuesday.

Comments....

Denise: I should be able finish the book on my 33 hour trip home. It's all yours when I get back.

Mom: I erased the spam (commercial).

Carolyn: Surprisingly Cinco Day Mayo is not really celebrated around here. :>

Day 18

We finished rules training today and started imports. Tomorrow we will do the import activity and all of the export stuff. Monday I'll cover InterLink environments and CMM. Tuesday - Friday Vishal and I will do RW10X and ERWs and then we are done!

I can't wait to be home. 4 weeks is long time to be away. One can only play so much Lumines to pass the time.

I get home on Saturday, May 13th. The next Saturday I'm flying to Vegas for the ACORD conference. The conference actually starts Monday so Carolyn is going to join me Saturday - Tuesday. I'll be home from that trip Thursday.

Comments...

Denise: I didn't think Pete knew how could read? How does he see over that huge nose?

Pete: They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but there you are reading at 30.

Jill: Nice try. I'm already Bubbie's favorite. She tells me everytime I see her.

Day 17

One more day of rules training left. Everything is going pretty smooth. The function projects were pretty good overall. A few people didn't do so well but everyone else pretty much got.

Only 9 more days left. I bought the sequal to Eragon, Eldest. The hard back was only 500 INR about $11. I'm going to stay in Mysore this weekend, hang around the pool, and read.

Comments...

"Dehli Belly" all gone.

Jessica, why do get saris from people?

Mom: Regarding Jill ann I sharing genes; are you absolutly sure one of us wasn't switched at birth?

Jill: The worm game is good. Thanks.

Day 16

Vishal and I "taught" Rules today. Neither of us have any experience with Rules so it was a little like the blind leading the blind. At least they should know what the different objects do and how to look through the rules hierarchy. Tomorrow we are doing the activity and hopefully the rest of the presentations. We also have been grading the function projects and to top it all off I had 100 emails to read from Friday and Monday.

I don't want to go on a rant here but the stupid DSL connection in my room SUCKS! It goes in and out every few seconds which is not that horrible when surfing the web but it is impossible to stay connected to the Allstate network. The little icon in the system tray is so annoying. Every few seconds I get a little info message pop up, Local Area Connect - Network Cable unplugged. It's not unplugged! Why do you keep popping up! Why is there not an option to turn off the pop up? And why does the Allstate network connection have to close if I lose my connection for a second. Grr! Sorry I had to get that off my chest.

My stomach issues are still lingering. One and a half more days of Cipro. Die bacteria Die!

Comments...

I have given up on the Cubs. I'm now rooting for the Indian National Cricket team. Go Rahul Sharad Dravid!

Denise: The book is great. Thanks for letting me borrow it.

Jill: Sorry, no sari for you. Ha I kill me. But seriously I don't shop for clothes. Dad's t-shirt really pushes the limit. I don't know what size, or color, or style. I'm going to start sweating just thinking about it. It took me like 15 minutes to buy Dad's tshirt. I might be able to do a scarf but that is about it.

Day 14 and 15

Happy May Day!

Sunday was just like Saturday. I laid by the pool all day reading. I did meet two other Americans who are also in India on business, Chrarity and Chris. They work for Fidelty, who has an office in Bangalore. Their staff in India work US hours. I had a few drinks with them on the beach; watched the sun set on the Arabian Sea; and then joined them for dinner. Charity is on the same flight from Bangalore to Paris that I'm on coming home. Except her company flies their employees business class. Kim! :>

Anyway I didn't sleep well at all that night. At first I thought I had one to many KingFisher beers but it turned out to be something else.... Not sure if it was the swimming or the three ice cubes I had in my fenny*; either way it was not a fun Monday morning. Thankfully things "settled down" before my flight.

*The fenny was ok. Sort of strong, reminded me a little bit of whisky.

I have really good news! I found magnets, t-shirts, and shot glasses at the Goa airport.

That's it for now. I'm pretty tired after the 3 hour drive from Bangalore and the previously mentioned bad night.