A little late but better than never...

While in India you can't help but be overwhelmed by the cultural differences. Working in India proved to be just as different..

Just a few of them...

1)Back home, if the power were to go out in the Coke building, I am sure we’d be in the midst of some catastrophic problem.

In India, the power goes out as often as I go for a bathroom break. Usually the backup generators kick in quickly, but today we were left with about 2 full minutes of complete darkness… so dark my computer didn’t even produce enough light to see my keyboard… earlier this week I was stuck in the bathroom in complete darkness.

2)Back home, the cafeteria is a pretty sophisticated scene… 10 different stations for food of all kinds…. salad bar, grill line, desserts, salad bar, meat and 3, deli, etc.

In India, the cafeteria serves free lunch to all Coke employees out of 4 big cooking pots. The dishes are split between veg and non-veg options, always accompanied by rice and Nan (local bread similar to pita). I really enjoy the authentic India food, which is not as spicy as I had feared (although a lot of my team can’t eat the level of spice). I have also turned about 95% vegetarian since being in India.

3)Back home, I typically don’t feel like I am going to die every morning on my commute to work (unless it is of course raining in Atlanta).

In India, I typically don’t feel like I am going to live past my 5 minute commute to work.

4) Back home, we enjoy going to a cabin on the weekends to enjoy getting out of the city, especially during the fall.

In India, I work in a “cabin”, along with every other employee that isn’t stuck in a cubicle.

5) Back home, I understand and am familiar with all aspects of the Coca-Cola restrooms.

In India, I have yet to fully understand (although I have some ideas) the complexities of the bathroom situation. Between the hoses and drains I’m not sure if I want to understand.

6) Back home, although I look somewhat different than most people, I tend to blend in okay with the other redheaded, fair skinned people (or at least fair skinned people).

In India, I sometimes seek reassurance from my colleagues that I have not turned into the red-headed devil that all of the stares lead me to believe. I just looked in the mirror a few minutes ago – no worries, everything seems to be okay.

7) Back home, we tend to lay off employees that aren’t essential to our business.

Here in India, they tend to employ people with totally nonessential tasks. No lie, there are two full time elevator button pushers and one guy that sits at the coffee machine to push the button for whatever you want.

8) Back home, when you park your car the most you ever worry about is maybe parking too close to someone else and getting a scratch or ding in the door.

In India the employees have to worry about the cows that hang out all day in the parking lot eating trash getting into a fight and ramming their horns into vehicles parked in their way. Seriously, I’m not kidding-two team members actually witnessed a full on cow brawl that led to some pretty nasty damage to some poor soul’s red jeep.

urgh!

seems my little 3 hour hike around athens was too much for the bum foot. for two days it has been swollen up like a freaking water balloon and burning like a house on fire. seems my tendinitis is back with a vengeance :(

yet again i find myself stuck. except this time i'm in an amazing city where i could actually go out every single day and enjoy my freedom...which makes it all the worse.

obviously i'm frustrated...i mean it has been 11 months of dealing with this and it seems there is no end (or high heels) in sight. i realize "chronic" means "chronic" but come on!

i'm giving myself until the middle of next week. if there isn't an improvement with the inflammation and swelling i'm going to have to go to a doctor here in greece. which i am sure is going to be an adventure.

at this point the only thing left for me is a shot of cortisone. my ortho in atlanta wanted this to be the very last option and told me it would "hurt like holy hell" and i "better pray the needle makes it to the right spot because the joints are so small it will be a miracle to find it the first time". can't wait!

please send some prayers and positive vibes my way.

lost and found

I'm still a bit sick so I gave myself another day off from working out. I did feel well enough to get out a bit and had planned to go to the Museum of Greek Popular Instruments. Listen, I've never denied my dorkiness but it is supposed to be pretty cool and close to our hotel.

I checked out the map in our guide book, scrawled down some directions and set off. If you've never been to Greece you may not be aware of their lack of street signs or sometimes lack of English translations on the signs that do exist. Needless to say I missed a turn somewhere and found myself pretty lost.

The Plaka is full of shops and cafes so I was pretty okay with being lost. I'm fairly used to it considering my horrible sense of direction and after India was just happy to be walking around. I ended up going towards a main street to find myself directly in front of The Temple of Zeus. It was here I realized that although I had remembered my camera I had not remembered to put the battery in.

A little annoyed at missed photos opportunities I set off to go back to the hotel to retrieve it. I idiotically listened to my inner navigation system and took a left. I was more than sure that it would lead me directly back to Syntagma Square.

Of course, it did not. I walked for another 30 minutes or so and just as I began to feel concerned about how I would find my way back I looked up and saw...


(thank you camera phone)

At that point I wondered how lost I really was...I took a seat on some steps, listened to old man play the sax and enjoyed the view.

It took me over an hour to make it back to the hotel and I never did find that museum...all in all I think a pretty successful day.

Round 3!

Schedule is out and we're headed to....



South Africa!!!!!!!!

Needless to say we're thrilled!

Dubai

On the way to Greece we stopped off in Dubai. We knew it would be a quick trip, with only one full day there, but it was almost the half-way point (at least the only point that two American girls would stop anyway) so we went for it.

Thanks to a stupid sick baby sitting in front of me on the flight back from Goa I have a pretty nasty head cold. After feeling as if my left ear was bleeding on the descent into Dubai I did not feel like getting up for the morning tour of the city. Luckily, we heard from others that after you've seen one big building you've kind of seen them all and the palm island thing doesn't look like anything when you're on the ground. I did get it together for our desert tour which is all I was really looking forward to doing in the first place.

Our tour began with "sand bashing" (think mud bogging with sand and over really high dunes) and ended with bbq and belly dancing. I've never really seen a desert much less gone an hour into one and I have to say it was pretty awesome. The nothingness was really just beautiful. The Wife of course loved the sand bashing. I, on the other hand, will mark it as a success solely because I didn't die from a heart attack or puke.

The bbq and belly dancing was pretty cool and next time I told the Wife I wanted to do the overnight desert tour. I think it would be a more intimate experience with both the guides and the desert itself...and the latter is a relationship I'm looking forward to exploring.

the only thing i'll miss about india...

my indian bff...my trainer anil (who apparently refuses to smile for pictures)

last thoughts on India (revised)

I should probably wait a week or so after arriving in Greece to write this...I'm getting sick, didn't sleep at all last night and in all honesty couldn't be more ready to leave this country. I'll try to keep these emotions in check though and reflect back on our time here without too much bias.

As you’ve probably surmised from my other blog entries India is a bit of an oxymoron in and of itself. Its beauty walks hand in hand with its vileness at all times. Its poverty and filth is never more than the turn of a head from its rich culture and splendor.

My perspective is of course completely influenced by the facts that I am American, I am a woman and I am gay…that said, I won’t attempt to sum up our time in India but instead will just list out some random and not so random thoughts, situations and topics that the Wife and I have witnessed and talked about over the last 7 weeks…

•“Tikka”-Tikka means “okay” in Hindi and is always said with a distinct head bop to the left or right. Most of the time tikka is not even uttered and only the head bob is done, over and over as you speak. Sometimes the head just bobs continuously as they speak. It is purely Indian and difficult to get used to when having conversations. I am sure you’ve seen parodies of this and believe me it is no exaggeration. Although very unnatural for us I think you would be hard pressed to find an Indian who doesn’t do it…I’ve yet to meet one.

•“Dressing up”- I’m not sure what Indian women would wear if told to “dress up”…they look stunning all the time. There is no such thing as too colorful or too embellished for any part of the day. Hot pink with sequins seem a bit too much for the grocery store at 10am? Not the case here. This goes for rich and poor, old and young…and on these women it doesn’t look out of place or overly done at all…it is truly gorgeous.

•“Line Jumpers”-I’ve almost witnessed out and out fights in America if someone should break into a line in front of others. We don’t mess around with “line jumping” and I seriously feel fear and guilt if I ever sneak into a line with someone I know that is up ahead. Here in India line jumping is just the way it is. They do not wait for anything and even if you have been standing in line for 15 minutes you better believe 20 people will waltz right up ahead of you. Actually they may even push you to get ahead. It wasn’t until the last few weeks that I started standing my ground against these offenders. It is dog eat dog in the line business around here. I’m not proud to say it but last weekend while attempting to exit the plane I had to physically hold an elderly lady back with one arm to get out of my seat. Then when I stopped to let the row out in front of me she seriously pushed me from behind with all her might until the people got out and I moved forward. Wow.

•“Respect thy mother and father”- Here in India that is not lip service…that is a fact of life for children. Although I have a hard time with thinking I’d still be obeying my parents’ wishes well into my 20’s and 30’s I do find it refreshing to see such respect and reverence.

•“Same, same but different”- Getting what you want here is not that easy and this cannot always be contributed to any sort of language barrier as Indians have a fairly good command of the English language, just not the pronunciation.
Typical conversation with waiter/salesperson/driver/hotel staff:
Me: “Can I please have the same so-and-so please?” (pointing at whatever it is I want)
Them (while head is bobbing): “Yes ma’am”
I wait, they bring it…
Me: “This is not the same, I wanted the same as this” (pointing at whatever it is I wanted)
Them (while head is bobbing): “Yes ma’am”
I wait some more, they bring it…
Me: “This is not the same, I want THE SAME as THIS” (pointing at whatever it is I wanted)
Them (while head is bobbing): “Yes ma’am”
I wait even longer, they bring it…
Me: “This is NOT the SAME, I want THE SAME AS THIS” (pointing at whatever it is I wanted)
Them (while head is bobbing): “Yes ma’am”
I wait, they never return.

•“Chivalry is DEAD”- Or maybe it never existed here. Outside of our hotel if you think a man is going to let you into an elevator, through a door or ahead of him in any way you’re crazy. My advice is stand back and let them through because you’re likely to be pushed down if you attempt to go first.

•“Modesty”-Although I have no idea how they survive the summers without shorts I do think the fact that young girls dress modestly and that both boys and girls are kept from seeing overtly sexual images is a good thing. It is nice to see children here being children.

•“Personal Space”- Forget it; it doesn’t live here in India.

•“The Past”- There is no forgetting when it is still alive and kicking.

•“Down with the 2 party system?”- Here in India they have over 50 political parties and through reading the papers, watching the news, talking to people and just seeing their infrastructure I can tell you not much gets accomplished. I think there is wisdom in both “too many cooks in the kitchen” and “too many chiefs and not enough Indians”…so keep this in mind when complaining about our government.

•“Religion”- Hinduism is not a religion as much as a way of life. There is no question of “are you religious?” To a Hindu it is who you are not what you do or don’t do. The amount of sects, stories and deities is mind-boggling and truly fascinating…especially for a religion that has no actual set of rules or a book to go by.

•“Veg or non-Veg?”- I love Indian food but I do think it is strange that veggies and meat never seem to converge in the same dish.

•“Out to pasture”- Cows are of course sacred in India. They are, in the eyes of Indians, the giver of life. Many people have cows and depend heavily on them for milk, fuel and sometimes even shelter. It is a crime to kill a cow but apparently not so much to treat them like crap. Cows are seriously let out in the morning “to graze” although there is no pasture in sight and very little grass anywhere in the cities. They literally eat garbage for nourishment and do so all day as they wander the streets until they meander back home at night.

•“English,Spenglish”- Although almost every single Indian at least knows some English words and the majority of educated know a good bit they are quite happy to make up new “English” words and adopt them as proper. Like “prepone”… as in they have “preponed your 2pm flight to 8am” so you missed it. Or they will just make up new definitions of using a word…like “hyper” which I argued with my trainer about for an hour as he vehemently says it means to get angry.

•“What do you mean? There are gays everywhere!"-This is an actual quote (said with a Brazilian accent) from one of the guys on the team when the Wife was talking about how difficult it was to be closeted in India. He was unaware of the cultural difference here with "male bonding". Traditionally Indian children are separated by sex when it comes to interaction. This has led to an intimacy between males that would make anybody from other countries believe they had landed in the land of homos. Men, young and old, can be seen arm in arm or holding hands while walking down the street, snuggled up on a bike or stoking each other as they converse. Coming from America where men have to have a "homo-seat" in-between them at the movies to reassure themselves of their masculinity I found this to be wonderful. I remember watching a great documentary on homosexuality years ago and they showed boys/men dancing at an Indian wedding bumping and griding on each other so much you'd think you were watching "Bollywood night" at a gay club. Seeing this, I was aware before arriving but I have to say as a Westerner, even a gay one, it was odd to see. In a good way though.

Please note, this did not make it any easier for us as a married lesbian couple though. I would have to say that living in the closet was the most unpleasant thing about India for us both...more than the poverty, the filth or fear of "Delhi Belly" and malaria. It really made me think about my gay friends in the US who live in the closet and I have a new found empathy for how difficult it must be and what strains it must put on their lives.

Again, I don't think there is a way to sum up all my thoughts on India...all I can say is that I feel really blessed to have seen what I have seen and been able to do what we've done.

Goa

Our weekend in Goa was exactly what we had hoped for...relaxing.

We stayed at the Park Hyatt which was a pretty large resort. It had a HUGE beach, good restaurants and lush grounds. But, I would say the best aspect was how quiet it was there. It is very noisy at our hotel in Gurgaon so it was so nice to sleep without earplugs in at night. We didn't leave the resort at all and spent our days lounging by the sea, drinking beer and eating seafood. 3 things I felt were required for a good birthday weekend for the Wife.



We even had a beef burger! It was awesome and really just smelling it as it came to my lips was enough to make me tear up.

We returned with a very mild case of "Delhi Belly" but I'd say it was more than worth it...not to mention it was probably some stupid washed veggie that did it anyway.

As with almost all our beach trips I took almost no pictures. Sorry...guess I needed a vacation from the camera as well.




Goa is definitely a place we'd revisit if we come to India next year. I told Cloris that we should have come there the first weekend but she quickly pointed out that if we had, we would have never seen anything else because we would have just kept coming back. Cloris is such a wise one.

All in all I would say it was a perfect weekend to end our trip to India.


(Jules and her "beach bag"...hey we have to travel light)

Happy Holi!

India celebrates the Festival of Colours today with Holi. This holiday marks the coming of spring and Indians celebrate by smearing colors and colored water all over one another. I opened the door to two such celebrators yesterday...


Seems the girls "got their colors" at work.

I would love to go out today to take some pictures of this holiday in action but apparently you take the risk of being hit with water balloons and super-soakers loaded with very strong dye. So strong it will not only stain your clothes but also your skin. My main reason is not wanting my camera ruined.

One of the guys is going out today with one of the guys from Coke India so hopefully he'll get some shots. I stole this one from the web to give you an idea as to what "getting your colors" is really all about...

Happy Birthday Jules!!

Thanks to everyone who sent in birthday messages and photos for the birthday slide show. I literally finished it at the very last minute thanks to my lack of computer skills..but, I do really think it turned out great.

I played it for her first thing this morning. She was so surprised to wake up to her 30th birthday in India and still be surrounded by the love of her friends and family. It really meant so much to her to hear from everyone.

The file is HUGE and too big to post or send via email so if you would like to see the slideshow you can download it from this link . Be warned it is over 20 minutes long so it will take you quite some time to get the file. If you know of any other way to compress the file then please share.

Thanks again guys!! Much love to all of you!! Wish you were all here with us to celebrate...oh, wait...maybe I should wish that we are there and at a Mexican restaurant with you.

Be sure to eat some chips and cheese dip and drink a margarita today in honor of our girl!!