Today has been interesting. I think I am starting to get over my jet lag. Instead of waking up at 4AM like usual, I slept in till 8:15AM! Keep in mind that I usually leave for work at 8:30, so I set a speed record getting ready. I was just fortunate that there was enough hot water left in the heater from yesterday that water was slightly above freezing. Nels and I got out of the door just after 8:30, ready to make it to work early, and then it took us about half an hour to catch an auto-rickshaw :-P. What finally worked was having one of us take each side of the street so that we could flag down rickshaws going both directions. I swear that we had to ask 30 drivers before we could find one that would take us where we wanted to go.
In the whole day of work I really didn’t manage to get much done. I did get to talk to Elaine (YAY! ^_^) for a little while though. I then spent about 4 hours in presentations (that had been scheduled for 2 hours). We finally got the cell phone guy to the come to the office today, so I have a SIM card that should enable my phone for use in India (BONUS: I get free incoming calls, so anyone with a calling card can call my Indian number. I will post that when I get back to the office and can find it). Unfortunately, my cell phone is from Cingular, so it is locked and can only use the SIM card it came with :-P. I need to go find a sketchy cell phone dealer in a market and pay a few hundred rupees to get my phone unlocked before I can use the SIM card and get the phone working :’-(.
Tonight all of the people in my group (Cryptography, Security, and Algorithms – also known as CSA or, more frequently, Crypto) all went out to dinner at a restaurant called “Ebony.” The restaurant is on the top story of a 13 story building in the middle of the MG road-Brigade road of Bangalore (which is one of the major “places to be” here). Since there were 12 people in our group we weren’t able to sit outside, but I did get a few pictures (that will hopefully turn out, given that it was so dark). I had a great time. I got to chat with people in my group about all sorts of things, sit back and listen to them chatting, had _DELICIOUS_ Indian food (the best I’ve had yet), and Microsoft picked up the bill ^_^. One of the post doc researchers in my group did is PhD work in a university in France (they kept on making fun of him for being so European), and there was another guy I was talking to who just had a fantastic list of favorite movies (basically the list of movies that I really should see someday) like Casablanca, Schindler’s List, The Pianist, and others. I hadn’t heard of “Joy Ride” or “The Bicycle” before, but I want to see them now. Basically, it was a great time.
I’m currently very content. We just got back to the apartment at 11:30, so I am full and happy after the dinner. As I’m writing this up I’m listening to “Baby Bash,” “The Bad Touch,” and “Hallelujah.” Life could get better, but in very few ways.
G’night all,
Jason
No comments:
Post a Comment