India Week 1: a retrospective look

As I look back at our first week here, it is amazing that we have done so much, and yet only a week has passed. And yet strange to think we are a quarter of the way through our work assignment period here- it is flying by. I truly expected to feel homesick and a bit more alone, but it really has not happened yet. Of course I miss people from home, and sleeping in my own bed, but the other adjustments have really not been a problem. Hopefully this trend will continueJ Then of course I have an additional 2 weeks of vacation time at the end, but that will be quite different. I won’t miss home then, as Jonathan will be joining me here which will be great, I’m sure. I can’t wait for him to have some of the experiences I’m having- and of course he will love the food- especially all the masala flavored chips… YUM!


onto the week 1 retrospective... those who know me will not be surprised at the attempt to organize my thoughts into categories to collect my thoughts here ;)


The Team:
We have a great team. The team, as you may have seen from their blogs under India Team 1 on the IBM CSC site (you should check these out, they are much more impressive than mine!) and/or their individual blogs, are from many different countries… we are:
2 from Canada (Dawn and Doug)
1 from Hungary (Cecila- with whom I work directly at BCC)
1 from Germany (Ting- originally from China)
1 from Mexico (Miguel)
1 from Brazil (Fabio)
1 from Belgium (Sandra)
1 from Korea (Do-Yeon)
2 From US (me and Clai)

As you might imagine, having a team from 8 different counties, in and of itself, is an eye-opening experience and opportunity to learn about eveyrone’s cultures, languages and foods… (hence the junk food-fest!)
And I shouldn’t omit Kabi, our facilitator from CDS, the NGO providing the logistics for us whilst here. Kabi has been a huge help even leading up to our arrival, providing tips on what to bring, how to address our clients, how to take the train (1st class A/C car is recommended, in case you wanted to know..others are waaaay too croweded) , organizing our cooking lessons for us and just generally watching out for us while we’re here. She’s done a great job of taking care of us, and making us feel welcome in her ‘adoptive’ country. (She’s from the US originally but has been in Mumbai for about 15 years, and previously spent about 7 years when she was in her 20s, in other parts of India.

The Food:
You’ve already seen a lot of food related information on my blog, even prior to departure with my junk food collection… the remainder of which is sitting in Miguel’s room (he says he is eating Oreos for breakfast daily… a healthy option!) Many of the restaurants here are Muslim, (which means vegetarian options only), so I’ve experienced a fair share already of great vegetarian dishes- most of which I’ve tried before at home, but they are so much better and more vibrant here.. the spices don’t mush together the way they do at home, it’s hard to explain. And the breads are tastier here as well… and food is so inexpensive… we have a $25 / per diem and you could eat very nicely on that, especially given that the hotel provides free breakfast and our client is set on paying for our lunches..

Today’s lunch was actually fairly Western- Cecilia had pizza with ketchup on top (she does this at home in Hungary usually) and I had a snadwhich with Aloo (Potatoes), peas and some kind of greenish medium spicy sauce… grilled. Yum.
Must blog about the cooking lessons – what a great experience that was!! will save that for another day...I wish I could blog during my long commute every day, but it is too nervewracking a drive to do much, other than hold your breath and hope you don't get sick enroute!