Batter Up!

What a great night! We all went out after work to play cricket. Some watched, some played, some announced. We had 4 teams total that played this night. My team won -- but I was of no help. I actually was hit smack dab in the face with the ball...knocked my glasses off. Fun times.

THIS SUCKS

I just wrote a long @SS update for my blog since I've been slacking and I hit the publish button and it disappeared!! =(

I will have to write it again another time...I'm tired now.

Pretty in Pink

Gorgeous and Shad Shad looking 'Oh SO Lovely' in Pink. It was a coincidence they dressed alike...so they say.

The Silly Bet

So Matt's friends sent him this darling hat from Dublin. If I wore it for an entire hour, he promised to wear it for an entire hour at work. We couldn't take it off, and if we did, we'd have to wear it longer. I was laughed at, ridiculed, etc. but it was all worth it for Matt to go through it too. It's too bad he didn't sit in the middle of the office!

Just hanging out

We just finished dinner at Roy's favorite restaurant in Hyderabad and we're waiting for our cars. I just love this picture...there's so much going on. Regina just tried some paan. As you can tell from the picture, it wasn't very tastey. Varro is holding it up for Brian to smell. He's questioning weather he should take a bite.

Adam Mam in Black

This is Adam mam trying on his tailor-made suit. He looks GOOOOOOD.

The Jet Lag Kicked In & My First Weekend

I woke up quite early the next morning (Saturday). I tried to get back to bed but it didn’t work. I decided to explore my place. The pics from the previous post were taken Saturday morning. That’s when I got a chance to explore my place.Well first let me start with the fact that our kitchen is insane. It’s fully stocked. You may have seen the pictures I posted but in case you didn’t we have 2 refrigerators and they are both full to the brim. We have tons of snacks and a big plate of fruit that seems to be replenished every day. The food is coming out of our ears. After exploring a bit, I ate breakfast (a bowl full of cereal with soy milk – bad idea according to me – soy milk is not my favorite) outside on the balcony/patio/verandah. I really enjoyed the serenity outside. There were a few people off in the far distance but it was so peaceful. There was some faint music in the background and I couldn’t make out what it was exactly. The area surrounding our complex is all under construction. There’s a lot of land being worked on. In fact, the outside of our building is still being worked on. In the distance, you can see a gorgeous white temple of some sort. I can’t make out what it is but it looks less than an inch tall from where I was.

It wasn’t too hot out yet since it was still quite early. I believe it gets to about 104* F on average with a max of 116* F. Right now it’s not that hot and we’re indoors for most of the day anyway. After breakfast and poking around the house my roomies and I went over to Thomas’s apartment for breakfast (yes I ate again!). Thomas wasn’t up but Brian and Adam who were staying there as well were. Breakfast used to be served there for everyone but now it’s not limited to just their place (more details about food in the next post). After chatting and eating we all decided to head out to get some basic necessities (ie shampoo, Kleenex, etc.). We went to a place called Q-mart. They have so many things available and most of the things they have are imported from other countries mainly the US. After spending a lot of time there we headed over to an indoor mall called Hyderabad Central. OH I ALMOST FORGOT TO MENTION - I FINALLY HAD MY FIRST **ORANGE BAR** SINCE I ARRIVED. IT WAS SO SO SO GOOD. BRIAN WAS THE ONE WHO POINTED IT OUT TO ME ON OUR WAY OUT. IT MADE MY DAY. I TOTALLY OWE HIM. But back to my story. Hyderabad Central - I went there in search of a pillow and they didn’t have any. We did buy a few board games to play when we have time. I’m looking forward to game nights; it will be so much fun. While Heather and Lauren were finishing up shopping, Adam, Brian and I played some arcade games. We all had lunch at a noodle bar and then headed off to Meena Baazar. This is where everyone here goes to buy fabric in order to make clothes. believe you can get suits made for $30. I haven’t verified that statement yet but I don’t think it is that far from the truth though. These fabric stores have such vibrant colors. Meena Baazar has a lot of little shops that together make up this bazaar. We were only there for a little bit before we left for yet another store, Lifestyles. This is where I found my pillow! Let me tell you, by the end of the day, we had tons of bags between the six of us (Heather, Lauren, Adam, Brian, Chris and myself). We had a chance to finally rest a little and unwind before we all headed out to dinner. Now this is really pathetic – we ate dinner at this restaurant – a post Happy Birthday dinner for Thomas – and everyone there was devouring their food while I was drinking tons of water since I (yes, ONLY me) thought the food was SO spicy. This is sad. After dinner we all went out separate ways…I went to go meet my mom.

OK that was Saturday. Sunday was yet another day when I woke up way too early. Apparently every Sunday everyone gets together and goes out to Brunch at this hotel called Taj Krishna. It’s an all you can eat buffet and they make whatever you request. The food was really good and we even had a samba band play for us. It was so sweet. The first song was ‘Welcome to India.’ I think Shadie and Chris have their CD. They were singing along with the band since they’ve heard the song 15 different times. I left the group to spend the day with my family. It was nice to see them all. Towards the end of the day I brought my mom back to my place to check it out. Everyone (Saamra, Brian, Kirti, HAL, Thomas, Chris, and Shadie) was at my place so I had a chance to introduce my mom to everyone. Sunday I went to bed hoping to get lots of sleep. And sadly it didn’t happen. I woke up Monday at 5 AM!!!

My Send Off…popping pills…roller coaster ride…30+ hours travel time…and finally INDIA

Oh man, where do I start?! I left for Hyderabad with a wonderful send off. It started off with many goodbyes at work. It was the first time I felt like I was going for a while. I left work early to pack my bags, do my laundry, my taxes, etc…and all the last minute stuff that I had left to the very last day. An hour before I left for the airport my high school friends came over to say goodbye. It was soooooooooo sweet. They went through a thorough list to ensure that I had not missed a thing and left for home as I left for the airport. My grandmother, uncle and brother all came to the airport to drop me off. My cousin and nephew were at the airport about 10 minutes before I got there to bid me farewell as well. Just as I got to the airport…Emel and her husband landed up there to say bye to me. I feel SO loved.

I was a bit under the weather so I was taking as much as I could so I wouldn’t feel horrible on the plane. I never take medicine unless it’s a last resort! Man o man, the amount of pills I took was more than I’ve taken over the span of a few years. Anyhow, the first segment of the flight was by far the longest. There was a lot of turbulence – one of the airline hosts was saying that it was a ‘roller coaster’ ride. That comment made me laugh because it wasn’t far from the truth.

Long story short – after arriving in HK, Heather, Adam and Lauren (HAL – I like the acronym) all left me for their connecting flight. Oh yeah, did I mention that HAL (co-workers) were on the same flight as me? Well, after waiting in HK for hours, I flew to Singapore and after some more hours I met up with HAL and we embarked on the final segment of our trip – Singapore to Hyderabad. Once we landed we went through immigration and then customs where they singled me out and took me aside to question. Kirti has a theory that they only single out the Indian people. Who knows. Anyhow, after several hours of traveling we finally landed in Hyderabad. We had the warmest welcoming EVER. Gorgeous (aka Chris), Kirti, Saamra, Brian, and Shadie all came to greet us at the airport. They had these huge garlands that they welcomed us with. Mine almost hit the floor. My aunt and uncle were also there to greet me which was so nice. It was the nicest warmest greeting I could have ever imagined. (My mom’s sister and brother-in-law flew from Delhi to meet me at the airport but their flight was delayed. Instead they stopped by apartment to say hi.)

We all arrived at our apartment complex soon after. DUDE, our apartment is awesome. I thought they would be really nice but it exceeded all my expectations and some. I believe we have the nicest apartment out of all the folks that are here. It’s huge. We all have out own rooms and bathrooms. It’s a 4 bedroom place. Heather, Lauren and I will be sharing a place and Regina will too when she comes out here. I have a few pics to show you guys. I’ll have to post them all somewhere so you can see them w/o getting this blog cluttered. I have MUCH more to add...but I'm tired.

This is a picture of my KING size bed in my room. I should have made the bed...but I didn't. Anyway, here's a link to see more pics of my apartment. You don't have to sign in to view them. I went a little overboard with the pics. http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?showSlide=true&Uc=8z3ijw0n.6dtmjh2z&Uy=-28ac4o&Upost_signin=BrowsePhotos.jsp%3FshowSlide%3Dtrue&Ux=0