Things to do when you wake up early

Well, its about 5:00 in the morning here. I just wrote yesterday’s blog post and figured I would start a little on today’s. I think that I am still not adjusted to the jet lag. I fell asleep for a few hours around 9PM last night, then woke up at 11PM, then woke up at 2:30AM and have been waking up every hour since then. I finally got tired of it (and felt rested enough to actually move my body out of bed) and just got up. I’m running out of shirts to wear for work, so I’m hoping that the laundry I put out in the hamper today will get done. I also need to recover some clothing that was taking for washing at the last place I stayed and I haven’t seen since! Today is also that day I sign up for my Citibank account (so I can be paid! Oh, and I found out that I’m going to be making less than the minimum tax bracket in India, so I don’t even have to file a tax return in India!!! Happy Day!). Hopefully I will also be able to get a SIM card for my cell phone so that I can actually start using it for calls! That’s all for now, and we shall see what the rest of the day brings!

Addendum: I spent some time after this taking a bunch of pictures and putting them on my computer. Hopefully I'll get those on the internet in the next 12 or so hours!

Cheers,

Jason

Observations on Head Movements

I’ve noticed and interesting feature of body language the just drove me up the wall until I figured it out. Indians nod their heads to mean yes and shake them to mean no, but there is also another movement. It looks like a head shake to a casual observer, but there is more up and down motion, like they are tracing out a flat infinity symbol in the air with their nose. I looked around on Google and managed to find a forum thread that seems to indicate that this motion means “respectful listening,” which matches with what I have seen.

The one issue with this gesture is that it looks so much like shaking your head no. I first noticed it while talking to two other guys about a research problem. One of them was throwing out ideas, then the other would shake his head to those ideas and sometimes agree with them! It looked like he was shaking his head, “No, no, that won’t work.” and then saying “Oh, yes, we should try that.” Soooo confusing!

Since then I’ve noticed lots of people doing it, and the “respectful listening” interpretation seems to be spot on. I just have to consciously make the mental jump every time I see it to keep myself from thinking that it is a head shake of disagreement! I wonder what the next think that I’ll notice is! I will certainly try to keep you all posted :-).

Cheers,

Jason

My second day of work

Yet again I woke up early today, at something like 6 or 7 o’clock AM here. I really wish that I had internet because this would be a great time for talking with all of you in the US with it (my Skype ID is “jdfennell” for whenever I am able to get back on for anyone that wants to call me). I’m getting a whole ton of reading done by waking up at this ridiculously early hour, and it hasn’t yet been too hard to make it through the days staying awake ^_^.

This morning Nels and I planned to leave at about 8:30 in order to get to work by 9:00. Unfortunately 8:30 came and went and breakfast did not arrive (it is supposed to be here between 8 and 8:30)! We waited until 8:50 and decided to stick it out and wait a few more minutes till 9:00. Literally *as we were standing up* to leave, the doorbell rang and it was the guy bringing breakfast. We ate quickly and left, but by 9:15 the traffic was already horrendous. We had to walk most of the 4km from our apartment to the office along the busy, polluted, and dangerous (b/c of the traffic) streets. I tried to take some pictures of this, but we shall see how they turn out.

We ended up not getting to work until around 10:00, again :-(. Once there I continued reading through the paper on the first topic I was given by Satya (which I didn’t find that interesting) and eventually met with Satya when he got into the office. He talked to me about a cryptographic procedure QUAD, which I took a quick look at, and also told me that my actual mentor for the summer is a guy named Venkie (who was the one to interview me). The only problem is that Venkie is in the US attending conferences and meetings for a little while longer! However, I did call him and talk to him on the phone, which gave me some idea of some things to look at for possible research topics. The most interesting of these is trying to construct a hash function for finger prints so that they could be used for authentication without giving away the original print. I’m also reading up on error correction codes.

I stayed late at work and got to talk to Mom and Elaine on the phone, which was also really nice. I realize that all of these blog posts are going to be posted at once (since I’ve been writing them on my laptop, which doesn’t have access to the internet). I’ll try to get them posted soon so you guys aren’t all in the dark!

One final nice thing that happened today was that once we got back home Sanjam, Nels, and I walked a little ways to a shop where we were able to buy some anti-mosquito things to plug into the wall (I’ve been getting bitten, and need to go buy repellant). I haven’t been able to use the mosquito netting Dad gave me yet since I don’t have a place to mount it on the ceiling and I’m still not sure if we will be moving from this place or not.

Cheers,

Jason

Bangalore, Day 3

Again I slept in 3 hour chunks and woke up early. We were only given breakfast for two (I guess the guy didn’t realize there are 3 people here now), compacted rice cakes with a soup-looking thing to pour over it, that were fairly good. Nels and I tried to catch an auto-rickshaw at 10:00, but that was rush hour and we only were able to stop two, neither of with would take us to Microsoft just on the meter (usually you have to try something like 6-10 auto-rickshaws before you can find one that will take you where you want to go on the meter). We ended up walking backing and taking a cab, that was sent by Microsoft, to go to the office.

At the office I met another intern, a lady whose name I’m still blanking on, Ravi or something like that, who is a friend of President Klawe’s and had been directed to look out for Tracy and I. She is quite a character. She worked for Microsoft for something like 10 years before Klawe convinced her to go back to school to get her PhD, which is what she is doing now. She has most recently been spending some time in Africa working on a research project and accumulating stories (such as having her shoes stolen off of her feet while sleeping on a train).

I really didn’t get much done today. I spent a while talking with Satya (who may be my research mentor) about India and about possible research topics. I need to talk to him more tomorrow because the first topic that I’m looking into seems far too much like last summer’s work and not nearly math-y enough for me :-). I also got to introduce myself to everyone at Microsoft Research India at a meeting (just a brief introduction, so not too bad, “Hi I’m Jason, here’s where I’m from, here’s what I do, anyone who likes frisbee should come chat with me…”). I also went to a talk by a professor from one of the IIT’s that is currently visiting and has had many of the researchers as students. The talk was on randomized incremental algorithms and was quite interesting.

Getting home from work proved to be a bit of a challenge. The new apartment is not really within walking distance of MSRI, so we need to wait for taxis. This took about an hour after Nels called that, in which time I worked a little, chatted with people, and got online just a bit. I really hope that we have internet in our rooms tomorrow!

Once we got back we just had dinner, called the housing person and bitched about things like not having internet (which is supposed to be in by tomorrow now… was going to be today. That is one thing I am learning, is that *everything* takes longer than they say here and is highly inefficient. We were told that the cab we asked for would come in 10 minutes and it took an hour, just as an example), and chatted with each other. Now its time for be, as I’m exhausted and am getting up early for work.

Cheers,

Jason

Thoughts on Smells

One of the things that I have really noticed about Bangalore is the prevalence of strong smells. I am one that usually does not notice smells, but they are just so overpowering here that I can’t help it! I’ve never been in a place with such strong smells all the time! It is always a challenge to figure out what the mixture is, but here are a few I’ve been able to identify. The scent of cows clustered by the side of the row, which is the normal (strong) smell of cows mixed with the smell of their excreta, is just overpowering. The choking fumes of an auto-rickshaw’s exhaust pipe. This makes the air barely breathable when traffic gets bad and you become surrounded by the auto-rickshaws. Finally, the smell of the fresh juice stands, which take oranges and mash them up for juice. For some reason the acrid taste of the orange *peels* suffuses the air instead of the smell of the delicious inside.

Bangalore, Day 2

I woke up around 7 Bangalore time. Spent a long time sitting and just reading or futzing on the internet. At several points I wandered out into the 2^nd room and saw Motih watching a movie. Breakfast eventually came and we had a fairly filling meal of seasoned rice with small veggies in it. Motih also offered to have me tag along with him when he went out this afternoon. Through theh rest of the morning I read, showered, and got ahold of Elaine on Skype (^_^ <3), style=""> When we eventually left, Motih, Raj, and I all walked down to the office and they tried to get me in and show me around. Unfortunately the security guard was a little obstinate and they weren’t able to get me in. Oh well, that’s what tomorrow’s for!

Motih and I then to an auto-rickshaw down to a mall near MG road, where we commenced our wandering. We wandered up and down this 7 story mall, buying a water on the way. Their supermarket is different then ours. More crowded and with different foods (like rice) extremely obvious. I also tried to watch the people around me to see how they behave. It seems like there is always the expectation that people should know what they are doing and there is a considerable amount of non-verbal communication used to accomplish most things.

From the mall we walked up to Brigade(?) Rode, and observed the spectacle of the MG road area, chatting all the time. Manish was right, that Pizza Hut looks like a really upscale joint! My major regret for the day was that I didn’t bring my camera to take pictures :-(. We eventually wandered down a side street (blossom?) and went into an arcade to kill some time. We sat down and watched cosmic bowling for a bit, then played the games in the arcade for tickets. We didn’t manage to accumulate too many, but I found that I am fairly good at a “demolition” game that was essentially wack-a-mole and was quite fun. Motih got a mask for a Indian superhero (I forget the name) that he plans to put up in the office, and I got an Indian children’s story. These were purchased using the tickets we had won.

Interesting tidbit: we stopped by a magazine store that’s major claim to fame is that it has something like 15 cats wandering around freely. Very cute and made me think of Elaine.

The most fun part of the day was the next stop: a bookstore, the stop story of which was used books, and crammed together as used book stores should be. We browsed for like two hours, and for the modest price of 300 rupees (~7 dollars) I got Around the world in 80 days, Watership Down, Catch-22, and Canterbury Tales. We also chatted most of the time about books, good and bad, which was incredibly awesome ^_^.

Afterwards we grabbed some food. We went by a fast-food place for a snack, basically Chicken Tikka and some greens wrapped in Naan (Yum!). Afterwards we went to a fairly famous restaurant that had both Indian and Western options on the menu. I got a Prawn Tikka Marsala and some Naan, which were delicious. We then took another auto-rickshaw back home, with Motih avoiding the drivers that tried to scam us :-). We spent most of this afternoon chatting, and while I cannot remember everything we talked about it was a really fun time ^_^.

Once we got back we made some calls, I started going to bed, then a guy showed up to move me to another apartment (I wasn’t supposed to be living in the one I was I guess). This one is _much_ nicer, cleaner, non-smokey, and more spacious. The guys living here, Sanjam and Nels (who is from America too and is currently going to CMU) are very cool and I stayed up for a while chatting with them. Sanjam also pointed out that Nels is much easier to understand because he projects (and probably is better and articulating correctly). This means that I have a project for the summer: speak louder and more clearly (I’ve needed to do this for many years, but hopefully this will be enough motivation ^_^). The downside of this new apartment is that it does not yet have internet :-O!!!! so I won’t be able to communicate as actively for a while :-(. Now, I have stayed up later than I should have typing this, so I am going to sleep now!

Cheers,

Jason

I'm in India!

Hey All,

This is my first post from India, and I'm a little bit stunned. It is about 8:00AM local time here, and my plane got in about midnight last night. Getting my bags wasn't too bad of an experience, but getting to my apartment was terrible. I was expecting to be met at the airport by someone from Micrsoft, and there was noone there. I also apparently missed seeing the government sanctioned taxi service inside the airport, which would have cost me about 400 rupees maximum. As it stands, it cost me 5000R and about an hour of stress and driving around to get to my apartment :'-(. I feel taken, and quite like an idiot.

I was luck that there was someone here when I got to the apartment. He may be my roommate (if I have the right room, which is open to question). I chatted with him for a little while last night and went to bed about 2:30AM. Around 4:30AM another roommate came in. He is pretty sure that I'm in the wrong room, but has no problem with me sleeping here for the time being (which is good). I went back to sleep, cuddling Moshi and holding my necklace, again. My bed is the smallest on which I have ever slept and even during the night it is so hot and humid that I don't need a blanket.

This morning another roomate has appeared. He was kind enough to let me borrow one of his plug adapters, which is why I'm online right now! Apparently none of the adapters that I bought from AAA before coming work :-( They just don't fit in the slot. Hopefully I can remedy that sometime today. I am told that we actually do have someone who brings us food (though they don't give you a choice of the food they bring, so if you don't like it you can go out), but I'm not sure what time breakfast is today. I also haven't been able to find bottled water and am worried about being somewhat dehydrated.

My roommates all seems really nice and friendly, and I think that they are all also interns at Microsoft research. Even so, I'm hoping that some sort of mistake has been made about the room and I will be able to get a single. I would really like some personal space to come back to and hide :-P. My roommates, however, will probably be invaluable as I try to figure out what is going on here. I've basically come to India knowing I have a place to sleep and a job to show up for. Everything else I don't know! This is making me a little bit worried, but hopefully everything will get sorted out and settled over the next week.

Cheers,
Jason