Dad and Drew Made It!

Dad and Drew made it to Delhi around 8pm (Indian Time) and are asleep now after an awesome night out in Delhi with my boss. We are staying at JNU and will be leaving at 5 am to head to Mussorie in the Himalayas. We will have limited, if any, cell phone access, but should have internet access throughout the trip so I will make them post on my blog! Can't wait to see everyone in a couple of weeks!

Cell

Hello All!

Good news, my boss gave me a replacement phone for the rest of the time that I'm in India! The new number is 97 9314993071. Give me a call if you want!

Lost Cell Phone

Of course, I had to lose something while I was travelling for 2.5 months. Looking on the bright side, it was only a $30 cell phone with just a few minutes left on it. I'm thinking that will be it, so no more phone calls on Skype! I'm sorry, I guess that just means more blog posts. The only difficult thing from here on out will be getting Dad and Drew at the airport on the 17th! How was it done before cell phones? Any advice welcome here.

On the Way to Work...

On the way to work today, I saw three crazy things. Actually, 4. Before we even left for work, the new guy who helps us the Singh's cook was putting Mr. Singh's bags in the car and on accident, Mr. Singh slammed the trunk door on his finger. He was really lucky because it was only the tip of his finger and nothing really happened to it. Just got really red. Then, I saw another accident. No one was hurt, but a car hit an autorickshaw. Since everyone is so impatient here, including Mr. Singh, we pulled up right on the accident, sat there for maybe 5 seconds, and then Mr. Singh started blowing his horn, telling them to get out of the way so we could proceed on our way to work. It would be way to nice to actually stop and get out of the car to make sure everyone was alright. Insurance doesn't really exist, so I guess that wasn't an issue. Then, I saw a small something similar to a pick up truck carrying 5 X 5 ft. slabs of ice. These slabs of ice were completely in the open and just melting in the sun. I have no idea how far he had to go, but it didn't make any sense! Right as I was thinking how stupid transporting those ice slabs was, we came to a stop. I looked over to the right and there were all of these "monks" carrying flags and water. I asked Mr. Singh what was going on and these "travelling monks" walk 500 kilometers every time during this month to pay tribute to Shiva. 500 kilometers!!! So traffic was stopped and we got to watch all of them march/walk towards to the temple, carrying water and flowers from the Ganges River.

I'll post more later, but this was an unusual drive to work and I didn't want to forget it. Hope everyone is doing well!

Thank You and Prayer Request

6/17/2008

It is about 1 AM here in Jaipur and it has been a rather long past couple of weeks (stomach problems can really take a toll on the body). I’m in an online class, have an updated resume due for the masters program because the job application process is already beginning, and I am taking out loans for the masters program. You could say this is all a little overwhelming, especially trying to coordinate it from India. But that is not what this blog is about. I’ve reached the half way point and have spent a great deal of time reflecting on the past month in India. As many of you know and especially those that I have spoken with, it has really been a life changing experience. It is hard to explain how wonderful the past 4.5 weeks have been over here. I realized tonight that a BIG section has been missing from my blog (even though there is a picture at the top of my blog to remind me of this powerful concept).

Throughout the entire past month, my friends and family have commented on my blog and photos, emailed, Facebooked, IM’d, Skyped, G-Chatted, and some are flying over here to visit me! Through all of these communication networks, one thing has been consistent. You have all kept me in your thoughts and prayers for almost an entire month and your prayers have been felt! God has provided me with so many different opportunities that I never thought were possible. I put the picture of the kid praying with his dog as a reminder for myself at the beginning of the trip to keep my priorities straight and ask God to help me grow and learn as much as possible while I was in India. As I was getting ready to go to bed tonight, it dawned on me the power of prayer and keeping individuals in our thoughts (in whatever form you may believe in). It is funny that even though I see that picture almost everyday, I just take it all for granted. For me personally, I have experienced so much personal growth through your prayers and will never be able to thank all of you individually for this.

Tonight, I’m going to try and do my part to return the favor and spread the power of prayer through my blog for a close relative. Carol Isch (my Grandpa Ken Kipfer’s sister) is at the Mayo Clinic, has undergone surgery and is now in recovery. I firmly believe that if everyone who has been keeping me in their thoughts and prayers over the past month can just take a little extra time and do the same thing for Carol, she will have a full recovery and be in good health in no time!

Thanks again to everyone for all of your support and keeping me in your thoughts and prayers, and remember, please say a prayer for Carol and her family over the next few nights!

Alive and Doing Well

This is a pretty long post, with no editing, so there will probably be quite a few errors. I wrote it pretty quickly, but I just wanted to get something up to let everyone know what I was up to. Yes, I am still alive and doing very well over here in India. I apologize for not posting as frequently in the past week and a half; things have been pretty busy over here. So many things have happened that I don’t know where to start.

Work has been great. I actually enjoy working every single day, even though I’m probably working between 40-45 hours a week as an intern, including Saturdays. Most of the other interns get their Saturdays off so they can travel on weekends, but I don’t. I really don’t mind because I have a huge air conditioned office, my boss bought me a wireless data internet card so I can get on the internet anywhere in India, he bought me a calling card, and paid for me to go up to Delhi last weekend, which none of the other trainees have, so I’m really lucky at my job. It makes me work harder though and hopefully I can help BMIT build up some big global partners or relationships. Last week, I traveled with my boss to one of the most prestigious universities in Jaipur to make a presentation for a new university he is trying to build in Jaipur or Jodphur. The presentation was to a committee appointed by government officials, so it was a really big deal and worth quite a bit of money since the proposal included the new buildings, land, etc. He asked me to make a Power Point presentation about my project, which I was supposed to present to this committee. I did a lot of research around Second Life and other platforms for virtual collaboration. If you haven’t read about these types of programs, go online and start looking into them. It is probably the future of education in the United States and developed countries. My boss is a forward thinker and trying to apply this kind of technology to his universities and colleges in India, which would be groundbreaking, but the committee didn’t really like it. They were more traditionalists and thought that teaching should be done the old-fashioned way with text books and in the classrooms.

The actual presentation was a great learning experience for me, especially around doing business in India. I have already mentioned in my blog how Indians don’t use the traditional head nods to communicate yes and no. When the director would be stating some of his ideas, the officials would shake their head no, but it was really in agreement and then made some facial expressions, which I thought looked like they were disgusted, but really they were approving. This presentation was especially crazy. Since this committee was compromised of high government officials, they wanted to basically let us know that they were powerful and had the authority to do whatever they wanted. In the room at the time of the presentation, it was the Director, the Registrar for the University (Sandeep), me, and then the 4 government officials. During the Director’s presentation, the members of the committee would talk amongst each other and pick up their cell phones in the middle of the presentation! I have never seen anything like it! In the United States, it doesn’t matter who you are (normally), but you would never pick up a cell phone call in the middle of a presentation unless it was an emergency. These government officials seemed like they were just having casual conversations on their cell phones almost the entire time he was presenting his proposal for the new university! It was a great learning experience nonetheless. If I do ever come back, I’ll know what to expect when I’m making these types of proposals in front of government officials or big time business people. All in all, the presentation went really well. I never got to present because the officials cut us off and we ran out of time, but it was still a great learning opportunity for me. I’m sure I will get another opportunity to do something like that in the near future.

After the presentation, my boss took me and Sandeep out to the Comfort Inn and Suites, which is a really nice hotel here in Jaipur for a couple beers and then we ate dinner at this great Chinese restaurant in the hotel. It was a really short work day and it was nice to relax with my boss outside of the working environment.

Outside of that presentation, last week was pretty miserable because I was sick almost the whole week. The stationary bicycle that I work out on every morning broke, so now I don’t have any cardio in the mornings and I’m still waiting on the Singhs to get it fixed. This past weekend was really nice though. On Friday morning, my boss offered to send me up to Jaipur with three of my co-workers for this college fair. He told me I could go see the city while they work at the fair all day Saturday and Sunday. I thought it would be a great opportunity to get to know my co-workers and also go see the city for free!

Too good to be true? Well, a little. I had to wake up at 2:30 AM on Saturday morning to catch a ride with them in one of their cars. It is about a 5.5 hour drive to Delhi from Jaipur by car. Ravi, who also drives me home everyday from work, told me that he would pick me up at the gas station where he drops me off everyday on Tonk Road. The gas station is about a 20 minute walk from my house. I didn’t really think anything of it until I told Mrs. Singh that I was going to walk there around 3:30 AM. She said that it was a terrible idea and that it wasn’t safe. So when Ravi called the next morning to tell me he was on his way, I asked him if he could pick me up at home instead of at the gas station. He said that he would, but that didn’t think he would be able to find his way there because everything was dark and closed. Keep in mind there are not really any street signs, to my knowledge, so there was no way for me to tell him how to get to my house. I ended up walking. Scared out of my mind all of the way to the gas station at 3:30 AM in the dark with my 200 lb bookbag. The first street I turned on outside of my house, I could see an older man walking towards me on the street. Didn’t really bother me until I got about 75 yards away from him and noticed that he was carrying a long pole with a silver blade on the end of it! I almost turned around and started running the other way, but I just kept going. I’m alive, so everyone knows what happened, but walking past, I was basically reading to run for my life at any given second. I called home right after that and talked to the whole family at the lakehouse for the next 15 minutes. It was definitely one of the scariest moments of my life. There are a bunch of stray dogs and homeless people just kind of lying around and you never know what they are going to do, that is what makes it so scary that late at night. But I survived, couldn’t stop sweating (mix of fear and heat) in the car for the first hour of the trip, so that sucked. Finally cooled off and was able to sleep for a couple hours the rest of the way up to Delhi.

Luckily, the rest of the trip was great. We arrived in Delhi around 9:30 AM, ate breakfast, and then they all dropped me off at the India Gate and told me to meet them back there around 6 pm. It is a very famous site in Delhi, so it was not a hard place to get back to at the end of the day. I was on my own in Delhi, so I basically just stuck to the biggest and main tourist places. Delhi is a huge city with a population of nearly 14 million. I think it is the biggest city I have ever been to in terms of population. The main sites that I visited on Saturday were the India Gate, The President’s Place, Connaught Place, and the Red Fort. Connaught Place is a big circle area with a bunch of shopping. I didn’t buy any clothes, but I did buy a book called Common Wealth by Jeffrey Sachs. An appropriate to read while in India and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in globalization, poverty, and learning about the growing gap between the rich and the poor across the world. I’ll post pictures of all of these places soon so everyone can see what I’m talking about.

I went back to the India Gate around 5:15, waited on my three co-workers until around 7:30, so I just sat at the India gate and read my new book. I also watched a few games of cricket, even thought I still do not entirely understand how to play the game. We went to Jawaharlal Nehru University, which is where we stayed and another top notch university in India. Then we went out to eat in the diplomatic area of Delhi, which was a lot of fun. I slept really well that night, probably the best I have slept since I have been here. I had two twin beds pushed together, air conditioning, and a nice shower. It was great and free! Everything was paid for there except for my lunches!

Sunday I ended up going to the fair with everyone because I needed to get some homework done for my online class. After I finished that, I decided to treat myself and indulge a little bit since I was traveling and not spending any money. I decided to go to the Hyatt, a 5 Star Hotel in Delhi, and had a pepperoni pizza with a couple drinks. It was really relaxing and really expensive! I immediately regretted my decision after I saw the bill, but it was worth it. I probably won’t get anything like it the rest of the time I am in India. It rained all day, so I stayed at the Hyatt most of the day and then just headed back to the fair where I helped them clean up. We left Delhi around 7:30 pm and got back to Jaipur around midnight. It was a pretty intense weekend traveling, but a lot of fun. On the way home, my co-workers tried to start teaching me Hindi. This week I’m also supposed to start doing Hindi lessons with Mrs. Singh. She said she will teach me Hindi if I teach her English, so I think we will probably start tomorrow. It will help me so much to know the basics so I can get around here in Jaipur and communicate more with all of the local people.

If you are still reading this, I’m impressed. I’m not even sure what I’m talking about. I think I have been writing now for hours! Just kidding. I guess here would be a good place to slip in the fact that I have had 4 Pepsi’s now, but still no Mt. Dews. I had to have some kind of caffeine and carbonation last week because of my stomach, so in a sense, I have failed, but I had limited options. I thought by now giving up the Mt. Dew would be easy, but it is actually getting harder every day. Hopefully I can make it. Oh, and they don’t have any pretzels over here at all. That has been pretty rough too.

I have new roommates!! Steve (Manchester, UK), Fleur (Netherlands), Vicki (Shanghai, China), and Monique (Netherlands). They all arrived last Saturday when I was in Delhi. Most nights now, we all sit up on the rooftop and talk about so many different things. All of them know everything about American culture and I feel so dumb because I know nothing about their movie stars, movies, music, etc. They know everyone over in the States! It is unbelievable how popular American movies and music are all over the world! Two nights ago, we even talked with Vicki about her opinions regarding China and Tibet. She admitted that she thought what China was doing was okay, but that she could only access information provided by the Chinese government. Monique and Vicki both work together, so at work the next day, I guess Monique showed Vicki other international media sites to let her read about the rest of the world’s opinions. I’m really looking forward to learning about their cultures and way of life, it is so much different than back home. Last night (Wednesday), we had the trainee dinner and there are probably about 45 interns in Jaipur now from all over the world. We are having a lot of fun and everyone seems to get along so well. It is nothing like the Real World (TV show on MTV) or anything. Haha.

I’ll post some pictures later, but I think that is all for now. Say hello with some comments, it is always the first thing I check when I get to work! If you made it this far down, I’m sure you will post something! Love you all and miss you!

Happy 4th of July!

Thanks to the whole family for the phone call this morning, what a way to wake up and talk to like 20 different people on the phone at the same time! Happy holidays, I wish I could be with you all at Wawasee! I'm sure it will be a lot of fun!

So I have to make a confession. I just consumed my first soda of the trip, but it was not my fault and I resisted Mt. Dew. I looked all over at work for bottled water or juice and they didn't have it anywhere. I forgot my bottled water at home today, so I had to get something to drink with my lunch and the water at work makes me sick. So I had no choice. They only sold Mt. Dew and Pepsi, so I chose Pepsi. Hopefully this will be the only time I have any soda at all though.

At work now, so I will post more later, but I thought I would let everyone know about the soda, even though I really had no other choice. Happy July 4th! Enjoy the fireworks tonight!

Pictures

Pictures from the trip around Amber Fort, the Pink City, and other places in Jaipur have been posted. I wish I could post more, but I think everyone will get a better understanding of what Jaipur is! It totally changed my view of the city! There are green hills outside of where I live! I think you'll enjoy!

Being Sick and An Amazing Day Around Jaipur

Hello everyone! So everything was going almost perfectly until Saturday morning when I started to get pretty sick. Nothing serious, no fever or anything, but I have been pretty miserable for the past 48 hours. Smit and I went to get this Mumbai snack mix at one of the malls here and we bought it from a street vendor. Not a good idea. So I'm still trying to get over that, but today we had an awesome day and the past week has been unbelievable. I was under the impression that Jaipur was mostly desert, but there are forests and hills on the outside parts of the city. We went to the Amber Fort and surrounding forts today. This fort makes any European castle I have ever seen look like a guest house. No joke, it was the biggest historical site I have ever seen in my life. There are three forts that we visited today. Before, one was used to house the King and his 7 wives, the other was used for business purposes (wining and dining powerful politicians), and the last fort was used to house the military. I'll go into more detail in my pictures. It was an unbelievable day, everything was so beautiful. The pictures will not do it justice, but it will give you an idea of what it is like here and all of the diversity here. I also got my first taste of the Pink City. It was beautiful. All of the buildings, if you didn't already guess or know, are pink. Again, will explain more in my pictures.

Work has been going really well and this week will be a really good week because I will start contacting US universities to build up partnerships and relationships, which I'm really excited about. The other day, Manish (the director's top assistant), called me after work and asked me if I had any evening plans. I did have plans to go out to dinner with the trainees, but if it was for work, I wanted to be there. He asked me to come with him to a seminar at the Sheraton Hotel. The Sheraton Hotel, is one of the nicest hotels in all of Jaipur. It was beautiful. The seminar was supposed to be a big Dell conference, but it ended up getting cancelled. So Manish and Gargon (another assistant to the director) took me out for a drink and dinner.

The next day, Mr. Singh (my landlord) was talking me on the way to work about some of his clients. Then he asked me if I needed to be at work in any hurry. I always like to get there as soon as possible, but he wanted to meet one of his top clients at his home. So, of course, I said yes. He is one of the most powerful politicians in Jaipur, a businessman, and owns a large amount of land. That was also a really cool experience.

Finally, new trainees arrived at my house (the Swati House). They are only going to be here until Monday, but I it has been awesome getting to know them. 2 people (one guy, one girl) from Morocco, one girl from the Netherlands, and one guy from the US (goes to Yale, from Brooklyn). Tonight, I had dinner with some of the trainees that are in Jaipur. There are two new girls that just arrived today from Switzerland. I believe they said they are from Freberg (a town right outside of Bern), but I haven't had a chance to look it up or clarify it with them. Anyways, it was cool to meet some Swiss people and talk to them about everything. Who would have thought that Swiss people would come to Jaipur?

That is it for now, I'll try to get some more pictures up either by Monday or Tuesday, just depends on how busy I am at work. There will be a lot!

More Pictures Posted

I have posted some more recent pictures.

6/23/2008

6/23/2008

Nothing terribly exciting today. Work went by really quickly because one of the servers was down, so my boss spent his whole day trying to fix that and wasn’t able to give me my next assignment. I worked a few different aspects of the project, to try to get ahead and get things done that I assumed he wanted to be done, but I never received any formal assignments today. Therefore, I spent most of my time sending emails and updating the blog.

One thing kind of crazy actually did happen today. Every day, I ride home with one of the faculty from BMIT. His name is Ravi and has been a resident of Jaipur all of his life. He is probably in his upper 30s. I have already mentioned how crazy the driving is and I believe I heard the other day that India has the most accidents in the world? As we were driving home today, this jeep was sort of driving erratically, but pretty typical for this area. Ravi was sort of caught off guard by this car, he must not have heard the guy blowing his horn or something, but he finally flew by us. Then he pulled over a little ways ahead of us and right as we saw him pulling over…BAAMMMM! This guy got nailed by a pretty decent size truck. I was freaking out and trying to look back to see how bad the accident was because I didn’t really see it, it was behind us. All the sudden Ravi starts laughing and chuckling. I was pretty confused…normally people want to see the accidents, but normally people don’t laugh when that kind of stuff happens. I just sort of gave him a look and shrugged it off. Maybe car accidents are so common here people just laugh about them? Weird.

I’m sitting out in our living room right now because my room is about 110 degrees with 99.9999999% humidity. The air cooler is about the only thing keeping me alive in the living room, my room basically doesn’t get any ventilation. Although Smit told me last night that I will probably get his room once he moves out in the middle of July. His room has a big air cooler, so that will be a nice transition. Also, just confirmed today, the house I’m living in will get 2 more trainees. There will be two girls from Turkey coming here on July 4th.

That is all. Hope you all enjoyed the pictures, I’m going to try to post the rest today at work. If I don’t get them up today, then I’ll hopefully be able to do it at home tomorrow night because I’m supposed to get internet tomorrow!

Pictures!

I have posted as many pictures as possible. Enjoy and I will post more soon. Just copy and paste the link. http://picasaweb.google.com/bkipfer/India

Chapter 600 of 1100000

Journal 3

6/22/2008

It has been an eventful past couple of days. I had to work on Saturday, but I was only there for about 6 hours, so it wasn’t terrible. Then I got a call from my other AIESEC friends here in India. There is a group of about 7 or 8 of us who hang out on Wednesday nights (trainee dinner night) and then we will probably start hanging out every Saturday night and then again on Sunday during the day. It is an extremely diverse group of people. Besides my roommate Smit, who I am probably the closest with, I’ve also become good friends with a German (Timur), Marie (Japanese), Eve (Dutch), Mike (British), and then three girls from Canada (but they were out of town this weekend, so I can’t remember there names). They are a really fun group of people to hang out with. They have taught me several things, but most importantly, how to bargain with the rickshaw drivers, a skill that will be important when I head into the Pink City to buy some stuff there.

Last night (Saturday, 6/21), the group I just mentioned above went to a 5-Star hotel called Hotel Clarks Amer. I’m not sure if there is a link online, but it was a really incredible place. We sat outside and listened to a mix of typical Rajasthani (the state that Jaipur is located in) music and then some American rock and roll hits (Seal-Kiss by a Rose, Al Greene – Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone, Kenny Rodgers). It was a ton of fun, we danced with all of the local people up on this big stage. The event was to recognize Bajrang Lal Suthar, an artist who restricted to a wheel chair and can only move two fingers, which he uses to do miniature paintings. I was not able to personally see them, but everyone said they were incredible. I also met the lead singer of the main band from that night’s performance, Aditya. I started to talking to him outside of the hotel after the show was over and they were heading out. He wanted me to put his number in my phone so I could call him about future shows and getting in for free. Apparently he is a pretty big artist here in the Rajasthan region. That was also pretty cool. Scott, if your reading this, I learned how to do that from your parents. Maybe some day, I’ll know more people than the Ryans. J The event was in the paper today (6/22/08), so I cut it out and will bring it home. It was a fun night. Rickshaw ride home was pretty scary though because after the AIESEC-ers got off at their house, I was on it by myself and just had a vague idea of how to get home.

I’m starting to recognize a common theme in my journal. I’m getting lost a lot. And it is scary. But every time, it works out. Last night, my rickshaw driver didn’t speak a word of English except for hello and goodbye. All the shops were closed and there were no lights in the street, so it was hard for me to recognize the landmarks that I have become more familiar with. Finally started to recognize some key points and made it back. I usually have a pretty good sense of direction, but things are a lot different over here and the roads are not like a grid like they are at home. There are not any street signs either, so that sort of makes a difference.

Today, Sunday, my only day off, the trainees that I was with last night called me and asked me to come to the pool with them. It worked out really well because I was getting ready to go see the Pink City by myself right as they called. Ended up being another beautiful hotel (I’ll be sure to note which hotel is which in the pictures) and we just had to pay 150 rupees (about $4) to swim in the pool. It was really peaceful and nice to get away from all of the craziness in the city. It feels like you are in a resort on a private island because you can’t hear any of the honking and they are birds everyone. They actually have 3 or 4 peacocks running around the hotel grounds! Did anyone know that peacocks can fly? I heard this crazy noise coming from up above me and looked up and there was this huge peacock up in the tree! I was shocked! We will probably go to this hotel every Sunday and relax. It is basically therapy for the non-stop and noisy lifestyle in Jaipur. I did get bit by some fire ants or something though today. I had this really painful “pinching” feeling on the bottom of my foot, so I looked down and there were literally a couple hundred ants underneath my foot. Still not really sure what happened, but it was really painful. Pain went away after I was in the pool for about an hour. That was a relief.

Smit also showed me how to use the washer today. Having a washer over here is definitely a luxury, most people do not have one. I will have to dry my clothes the old-fashioned way, on a hang line, but that isn’t so bad.

That was my weekend. It was good to have a day off today and catch up on some sleep. You appreciate the weekends much more when you actually “work” during the week.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Old Journal Entries

6.20.2008

Right now I’m waiting for Mr. Singh to get back home before we go to work. It is about 11 AM and one of the big things I have noticed in the Indian culture is they are not very punctual. It is normal for things to be about 20-40 minutes later than the stated time. I just spoke with my boss because normally I get to work around 10 AM and he said it was completely fine. He said, “Whenever Mr. Singh is running late, you don’t need to worry.” So that was relief, I think I probably would have been fired back home. Just kidding.

Everything is going well, I’m getting in a really good routine over here and everything is starting to feel natural. I normally wake up between 6:45-7:15 AM because that is when my room starts to get really hot from the sun. I set an alarm, but I have always been up before it goes off and normally forget to shut it off. So Kevin, if you are reading this, my alarm is still loud and making noise, except it is not because I am too lazy to turn off my alarm, but because I’m already up and out of my room (J). Then I usually eat breakfast. Recently, I’ve been having fruit loops and then regular toast with pineapple jam. Typical American, but the Singh’s insist that I eat this until my stomach gets used to everything else.

For lunch, the maids normally give me a packed lunch. The first two days of work I had a toasted sandwich, with finely chopped tomatoes and onions. Today, I had Indian style tacos, at least that’s what it looked like. I don’t think I ever really know what I’m eating, maybe that is a good thing. The other night in my dinner, it looked like I was eating some kind of nuts (and not like peanuts or cashews, if you catch my drift), it was the first thing I did not try…(I also took some barbeque Pringles in today too! Still no Mt. Dew, Drew you should really try it, it is killer! That liter I bought earlier this week screams at me every time I open up my fridge here. Literally!)

And for dinner, I honestly have no idea what I’m eating every night. All I know is that it is always delicious. Chippati (similar to tortillas), curry, and rice is served with almost every meal. The protein comes from the chicken, fish, and whatever else is in the dish.

Monsoon season is in full force here. I guess it has arrived almost three weeks early this year, so that has thrown off some of the government’s efforts in the past year to build the infrastructure necessary to dispose of all the water. Right now, all of the major streets in Jaipur, they have these huge cement tubes that they are planning to install for sewage and drainage purposes. But since the monsoon season has started early, they have to readjust their plans and schedules. Not exactly what the government needed.

I have some pictures I took from the other night. The amount of rain we had in Bloomington/Indianapolis around the time when I was leaving doesn’t really compare, it storms like that here every night and can hit at any moment. The really bad thing about the excessive amounts of rain here is that the streets are poorly made, most are dirt. Cars and motorcycles will often fall into sink holes when they are driving through these flooded streets, so it can be a really dangerous endeavor. Pictures will help you understand a little bit. Regarding pictures, the internet connection I do have is pretty slow and I’m afraid to upload the pictures at work because I have been really busy and have lots of work to do right now. I will post them as soon as I can, but no promises and it might not happen for another week or so.

I do have some really good news though. My boss is going to give me a wireless internet card so I can access the internet anywhere in Jaipur! Seriously, he is one of the nicest people I have ever met. He is always looking out for me. Not sure if I have mentioned this already, but he has arranged for me to get a ride home from work everyday, which is about a 20-30 minutes drive depending on traffic. There is a bus that comes relatively close to work, but he says he doesn’t want me to ever ride it. My office at work is the assistant director’s office (the 2nd highest person at the university). I have air conditioning, two computers, and a HUGE desk. My office is actually bigger than my bedroom. So work has been an awesome experience so far.

Other than that, I’m just sitting on the balcony outside of my room waiting for this rain to start coming down. It looks like it is going to be a big storm, but every night is a big storm, so nothing new.

One of the biggest cultural differences here is communicating yes and no. Let me try to explain, it might not make much sense. When people are talking for a really long time or someone is telling you your assignment, it is fairly normal for people in the US to nod their head up and down (signaling yes) if they understand what is going on or are agreeing with you. (You know the… “Right, right I’ve been there, done that type of nod). Otherwise, you normally move your head left and right, meaning you really don’t understand or don’t agree. Then there are people in the United States who just sit and stare at you with a blank expression while you are talking…well, I’m not really sure what that signals. If anyone does, let me know, I guess I’m still trying to figure that one out. Some people do that in India too, but that means that they have no clue what I’m trying to ask them.

In India, I have recently discovered that those signals are completely opposite. I was telling my boss and his top assistant the other day about life back home. The whole time I was talking, my boss was moving his head left and right. I was like, “What the heck am I saying that is so wrong or stupid? What is this guy thinking?” Then I started to question every word that I was saying because you think it may be an insult or something. Long story short, I finally picked up on that. I’m going to try it out and see what happens. If I come back doing the wrong head motion, just go with it.

Last cultural note: Indians are extremely hard workers. Everywhere you look while driving to work or walking around the streets, it seems that everyone is always doing something. It is customary in business over here to work 6 days a week. (Remember that “When in Rome, do as the Romans do story? Well, this applies here too with work. Every Saturday. Enough said, haha). Corporate America…look out. One week and one day at a time, India is experiencing some incredible growth. There is construction all over the place and in Jaipur, I have yet to see the massive cranes that liter the skylines of American cities. They build these 15-20 story buildings the old fashioned way. They also don’t have big cement trucks to haul and churn the cement. Lets call it the “Indian Industrial Revolution,” a 21st century phenomenon. Once the infrastructure is in place (still another 10-15 years) India will undoubtedly be one of the world’s biggest players politically and economically. All of the things I have been reading about in school, I’m finally getting a first hand experience in the economics and politics of an explosive, developing nation. Will post more later.

Hey All! This is going to be a big post because I do not have internet access at home. What I have been doing is writing them in my computer and then just compiling them into one big document! Enjoy!

6/16/2008

Yesterday, I finally arrived at my trainee house, the Singh’s. The Singh’s are another wonderful and very hospitable family. It is truly an AIESEC home. The Singh’s eldest son is the VP of Information Systems for AIESEC International, a very prominent and one of the highest positions in AIESEC. Another AIESEC-er, Smit, lives here as well, and is an experienced AIESEC-er. He is 21 years old and has a brother who will be attending Syracuse University in the fall next year for his MBA.

So before arrived, I ran around all of Jaipur with my first home stay. Yash (another AIESEC-er, his family hosted me on the first night that I arrived) ran errands all over Jaipur. I also got to see where I am working (BMIT). Yash and I were basically interviewed by the admission officer for BMIT when we were trying to figure out where my boss was, he didn’t have any idea that I was an intern there. It was really funny, we were making jokes about it the whole way home.

When we were driving around Jaipur, I also saw my first elephant. It was just walking on one of the main streets hauling some goods for some people. That was really cool.

Last night, Smit and I drove around Jaipur (closer to where I live) on Smit’s motorcycle and we actually stopped at a McDonalds in a big mall. I ordered a chicken sandwich and French fries, but didn’t end up eating any of it. How could I? I’m in India! He had to run to a meeting, so he left me about 15-20 minutes away from home at a cell phone shop so I could get my SIM card. It was my fault for not asking a clarifying question. He left me with his cell phone number and directions, but the directions were a little vague. Specifically, he told me to walk on the street we were on until I reached a “perfect intersection” (every point was 90 degrees) and then take a left, a right, left, and a right. Then I would be home. Sounds simple enough right? No street signs (at least that I could understand), no big deal, I thought “I can figure this out, whatever.” WRONG! Really wrong. Ended up getting lost in the streets all around home, pretty much with no idea where I was. I knew (kind of) how to get back to this supermarket called Reliance Fresh where I shopped earlier, but I was freaking out, about to lose it. Did I mention that after Smit left me at the cell phone shop, the store owner wouldn’t let me get a SIM card because I did not have an Indian ID. Therefore, I was stuck with my new cell phone, that did not work. So basically having Smit’s number was worthless and the only thing I had left were those directions. “The perfect intersection.”

I finally found my way back to Reliance Fresh (after about 30 more minutes of wandering), carrying my groceries, and well, sweating like a pig. (Do pigs sweat?) Then I realized after reaching “the perfect intersection” that the directions said to go one street PAST the perfect intersection and then do all of those left and rights. After all of that, I finally found my way back home. Funny how things always work out! But for a while, I thought I was going to be stuck in the streets of Jaipur until Smit found me curled up with some of the stray dogs.

When I walked up the stairs, I was greeted by Mr. Singh for the first time and we introduced ourselves and chatted for a while. The Singh’s maids then cooked us dinner. It was curry with chapatti (basically flour tortillas) and rice with corn/peas in it. It was delicious! Indian cuisine may be my new favorite!

After dinner, I waited up for Smit to get home from his meeting to find out if I had to work the next day. When he got home, we called Shantanu (the AIESEC-er in charge of me) and he let us know that he would call in the morning to let me know. Everything is so laid back here. It normally goes something like this: “Whatever you want to do is fine, let’s talk about it tomorrow? Don’t worry about it.” So I’m writing this journal at about 10:00 AM and we still haven’t heard from him, not a huge surprise.

6/17/2008

This morning, I woke up at about 7:15 AM (from the bright sun, the maids cooking, and sweating like crazy) and decided to start the day. So I have a plan and a few of you are going to laugh at me, but I needed a fresh start in India and so here it is. I’m going to wake up every morning at 7:15 AM, work out for about 45 minutes, kick the Mt. Dew habit (which will be hard because they DO SELL THE DEW HERE!), and read the newspaper. I’m starting to sound more and more like an old man, is this what growing up is really all about? So far, so good (except I bought a liter of Mt. Dew at the supermarket, but it is still sitting in my fridge, see how long that part lasts). Basically, this whole trip now for me is about starting over. It is a completely fresh start and a chance for me to get rid of some bad habits. The people here have an affect on you. They really make you appreciate everything you have ever had in your life and make you realize that you don’t need the nicest things all of the time. Simply put, everyone over here is incredibly friendly and so content with the status quo.

Anyways, after the workout, I went up on the rooftop of our home and talked with Mr. and Mrs. Singh about everything. I tried this Indian Chai (Scheid, you would appreciate it) and we talked about American politics, the effects of globalization on India, and India’s growth. All right up my alley, it was a great conversation. The rooftop is so peaceful. It is my favorite hang out spot at home. Mr. Singh also offered to drive me to work everyday which is very convenient because I live about 15-20 km away from work and the public transportation looks a little intimidating. He works really close to my university, so it works out well.

There are not enough words to describe the experience I have had so far. Aside from missing all of my friends and family like crazy, this is definitely the best experience I have ever had. Everyone should have the opportunity to have an experience similar this, you learn so much about yourself and people. There have been challenges with getting around and communicating with people, but the hospitality and the environment here helps you overcome all of your obstacles.

Speaking of challenges, I don’t think I have really elaborated on my entry into India (specifically Delhi and trying to get to Jaipur). The plane was about an hour late, which really threw some things off in Delhi. All I knew when I landed was that I had to get a cab to the Bakiner House, which is a bus stop in Delhi. That was it and I had a phone number, but that was pretty useless because I didn’t have a cell phone and there were no pay phones in sight. Through it all, I got my luggage and started carrying around my suitcases and got a cab to the Bakiner House. Ended up getting there around 11pm. The last scheduled bus to Jaipur was at 11:50 pm (no A/C). The line to get the ticket for the bus had about 35 people in it and every single one of them was just as anxious as I was to get to Jaipur on that last bus, at any cost. Everyone was pushing, shoving, and cutting in line trying to get to the ticket counter window. I couldn’t understand anything that was going on—there was screaming and yelling, people throwing their hands in air, and no one was happy. It was chaos and I was a little nervous. As I was watching people, I sort of realized I had to do something, otherwise, I was SOL and stuck in Delhi without a hotel. So I started yelling, screaming, throwing my hands up in the air, and throwing money in the controller’s face. (“When in Rome, do as the Roman’s do”—I guess?) That didn’t work, haha, so had to switch plans. I finally decided to give a young kid standing next to me 1000 rupees (about $35) and said, “Get me a ticket, keep the change, just get me to Jaipur tonight.” Luckily, he did just that and was by my side the rest of the 6 hour bus ride to Jaipur. The ticket was only 400 rupees, so in turn for the tip/bribe, he offered to help me with all of my luggage and offered to let me use his cell phone to call Shantanu. (Although, that never worked out). Once we arrived in Jaipur around 5:45 AM, he helped me find a trustworthy richshaw driver and paid all of my cab fare. The richshaw drivers helped me get around for about the next hour or so.

When we got out at the bus station, the city was already busy and crazy. Since I could not get in touch with Shantanu, I had to go get a hotel. All I really needed to do was get on the internet somewhere, but since it was so early, all of the internet cafes were closed. Finally found a hotel and was able to get on the computer and send an email to get in touch with Shantanu. Long story short, he picked me up at the hotel a couple of hours later and that is when I started the first house stay with Yash’s family.

6/18/2008

Life is great! It is about 6:30 pm right now and I’m sitting up on the rooftop again writing on my computer. Today was my first day of work and it was awesome. My boss is one of the coolest people I have ever met. He has worked for IBM, Microsoft, SIEMENS, among others and now, he started and is the director at BMIT, the university I am working at. The website (if anyone is interested) is www.bmitjaipur.org. I also got a cell phone yesterday. My number is 9799886386 if anyone is interested, but beware of international charges, they can add up really quick.

Back to my boss. He is trying to build up BMIT internationally and from what he told me today, that is why I was hired. My initial project is to build and develop a database that contains information for the Top 100 Universities in the United States. The database will eventually grow into a list of over 1000 universities across the world. For now, we are going to focus on building and developing relationships with these universities so that when his students graduate, they can apply to graduate school at these universities. It is going to be an amazing opportunity since I am working very closely with him and we have the opportunity to put BMIT on the world’s list of great educational institutions.

I’m heading off to a dinner now with all of the trainees (interns) that are in Jaipur through AIESEC now.

Thanks to everyone who has posted comments on the blog, it really makes you all seem a lot closer and I don’t feel half a world apart from all of you. Thanks for your prayers and I’m looking forward to hearing more from you guys! Love you all and miss you! Pictures will be posted soon! P.S.: To all of you haters…Day 4 without Mt. Dew!

Home!

Finally made it my home stay for the first night. I am staying with a great family. There are two sons who are 20 and 18. The mother just made me chicken curry, with rice, and bread (chappati or rodi). It was awesome! Now we are just taking a day to relax and hang out, I'm going to try to catch up on some sleep. Tomorrow I have introductions into the local AIESEC community and then will maybe meet my boss and get a tour of all of Jaipur. Looks like I'll probably be starting my job on Tuesday.

We sat on the runway in Newark for about an hour, so that put us pretty far behind landing in Dehli. A 14 hour flight (once airborn) was extremely long. Movies were free, so that was really nice. I watched Bucket List and a couple others. Its approximately a 7,000 mile trip, once I got to about 2000 I was thinking I was about 6000 miles into the trip, it was extremely long! Could barely sleep, but had a really good seat.

Anyways, so otherwise the plane ride was typical. Landed late though (around 10pm) and then everything started to get crazy. Had to go through customs (took about 45 minutes) and then had to find a taxi cab to a bus station. Got my taxi ticket, but left my piece of paper with my person's contact information on it at the taxi cab booth. Anybody that thinks they have witnessed terrible driving have seen nothing. In India, there are basically no stop lights and people ride inches behind each other going about 60mph. On the back of every semi-truck, there are signs that say honk please and dipper lights; that is how you pass.

Ended up getting a hotel at 6am this morning, got a shower and some rest (about 2 hours), bring my sleep total to an astounishing 6 hours in the past 48 hours. So anyways, I'm just hanging out now with these two kids. Everything is looking really good and this place is unbelievable. It is unreal. I woke up at one point on the bus, didn't know where I was, and finally realized what was going on. It is like I'm in a movie or something, being here really hasn't settled in yet. I'll post more later, I'm going to hang out in my home stay.

arrived, barely

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am in Jaipur, I arrived at about 5 am India time. Things are hectic, will post more as soon as I find out where I'm living and can get ahold of the person who is supposed to be hosting me! Been awake for almost 48 hours...and its hot! Post soon...

Newark

Everything is looking good so far. It looks like I'm going to be catching a 9:30pm bus out of Delhi to Jaipur (about a 5.5 hour bus ride), but apparently I'm going to be living in luxury...the bus is air conditioned! Things are about to get interesting, job starts at 8:30 on Monday and I'll be getting into Jaipur around 2:30 or 3 AM on Sunday morning. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Chicago

First and foremost, I have to thank Jenni for going back to Bloomington to pick up my passport for me and meeting me in Indy. Jen, I owe you.

So here it goes. The first part of the Chicago madness...hopefully this is not an indication of how the entire internship will go!

US 37 and SR 67 were both closed due to extreme flooding. They are calling it the 100 year flood. Drew helped me navigate around the roads so I could get to Chicago. I ended up arriving at Peter's apartment around 4am. I was greeted very quickly by Peter, AJ, Ryan, and Annie (they just got done swimming in Lake Michigan). The next day we all woke up around 9:30 am and me, AJ, and Ryan ate at Le Peep! After a relaxing day on campus and watching one of Pete's shows, Ryan and AJ tried to catch a train home, but missed it and ended up not getting back to Bloomington until around 4am.

Pete and I went to dinner and then headed back to his apartment to hang out. As I was reviewing my documents for the visa requirements, I quickly realized that I did not have my passport. So I left Evanston around 12:30 AM, yes AM, and made it back to Indianapolis around 4am. To add to the situation, it rained really hard almost the entire way home and I did not have enough cash to get through the last toll (I was 30 cents short), so the lady came out and wrote down my license plate and issued me an invoice for $1.25. HOW RIDICULOUS!

So anyways, I tried to lay down at home in Indy, but couldn't sleep so I ended up driving straight back up to Chicago (left Indy around 5am). Ended up downtown Chicago at 8:00 (Chicago time) and was the first person in line at the visa outsourcing office. Then, one of the first things the lady working there said to me was, "You are applying for the wrong passport...you need several more documents in order to get the right passport because you are going to be working over there and need to pay taxes." WHAT? AFTER ALL OF THIS YOU ARE TELLING ME THAT I CANNOT GET MY STUPID VISA? Anyways, after overhearing another conversation, I realized that I could get an entry visa with the documents I currently had. That was that. Came back at 6pm to pick the visa and everything is in order now for the trip. (Lesson learned, don't park downtown Chicago ever...$31 dollars for 2 hours!!!)

First post, more to come. Yogi's tonight at 6:30 for a farewell dinner, join if you would like!

India Trip

I will be leaving for Jaipur, India on Friday, June 13th and will return on Wednesday, August 27th early in the morning. I'm excited!