Mumbai 2

Two more funny stories from India – now that I'm leaving today – I'm able to see a little more humor in some of these situations.

The first night, when I was unpacking the 7 PC's I'd picked up in France to bring with me to India, I pulled one of the towers out of the box to find that a piece of tape had left a sticky mess on the side of it. Knowing how concerned the client was about the appearance of these machines, I quickly got to work on getting it off. I wasn't sure how bad it was, so I first asked for some warm water and a rag. The hotel guys and my contact here (ready to be so "helpful") immediately jumped on the tower and started rubbing it with napkins. That just made it worse because the stickyness then just became white and stood out more. I said "Stop!" No – please – we need some warm water and a towel. If you have some rubbing alcohol, that would be even better." Someone came back with some kind of spray can and started to spray on the tower. "Stop!" I said. No. Please get what I asked for. Warm water, a rag, and rubbing alcohol if you have it." They finally came back with some warm water and a rag and some soap, which at this point didn't work. Realizing that the rubbing alcohol was perhaps too strange of a request in India – I realized that any kind of alcohol would probably do the trick. So I said – "How about some liquor – can someone please bring some liquour?" Repeat the first three steps of bringing different things that I didn't ask for – the spot has gotten MUCH worse and I've completely lost my patience. "STOP!!" I said. "NOW PLEASE! SOMEONE GO GET ME SOME LIQUOR!" Thinking about this scenario out of context this morning made me chuckle. It's also pretty indicative of how frustrating it's been to be a woman asking men to do things this week. There's been a an attitude of "I know a better way" – that has made getting anything done very difficult – as I alluded to in my other email. Just thought I'd share something that ended up being funny now that I think about it after the fact.

They finally brought some whiskey, by the way, and it worked like a charm J


The other funny story is just funny if you know me. The second night I was here I laid in bed the entire night – unable to get any sleep because of the jet lag. I was so sleepy the next day that I requested several diet cokes from the hotel waitstaff. Diet coke is another odd request here in India – I haven't been able to find it anywhere in any restaurants and when I was here before in Bangalore, they didn't have it there either. So was pretty happy the several times that these guys turned up with it during the day.

Well later on that night – once we were finishing up for the day – something else happened that made me upset and basically representing my contact not doing what I asked. I was super mad when I was packing up my things to go to my room – told my contact how upset I was with him and stormed out. The funny part comes when I'm waiting for the elevator and one of the hotel waitstaff – wanting to be helpful – came up to me as I was waiting. It was obvious that I was upset, and he looked at me with his big brown eyes and said, "diet coke, ma'am?"

Anyway - those two things just made me laugh - so I thought I'd share. I miss you guys and can't wait to see you soon

Mumbai 1

I'm here in Mumbai and doing fine. Miraculously, they let me check in 9 HUGE boxes at the airport in Paris, I was able to find some help to cart them through the airport here and I got them through customs as well. I know I must have been quite a spectacle - the only blonde person in the airport standing next to 9 huge boxes trying to negotiate with customs officers. It seems that if you're willing to pay (3000 Euros in excess baggage and $1000 worth of Rupees for customs later), you can bring almost anything with you into India.

We're in our second day of fielding the research. Yesterday there were some hang-ups with the Internet, but today it's all straightened out (I hope!). Also - for the first couple of days I couldn't get hot water in my hotel room and I thought it was just because I was in India, but this morning (to my delight!) the water was hot so they must have had a pilot light out or something.

This place is much different from Bangalore. There's a lot more people and a lot more poverty. I would describe it kind of like being in Times Square in NY, with all of the people hustling and bustling around, but instead of wearing business suits and briefcases, everyone's in tattered clothes and no shoes. It's not as lonely here as it was in Sao Paulo because everyone speaks English, but the dynamic of being a woman who's in charge of a project that a lot of men are working on here is kind of strange. It's a little difficult - I feel like sometimes they're not taking me seriously or think they have better way that they're just going to do anyway - so at times I have to state over and over and over how I want something to be done, and have had to get a little angry and demanding on a couple of occasions because of it.

I'm also learning about acceptable tipping standards. The second night I was here I ordered dinner to my room, then requested more tea, then requested more toilet paper. I tried to write a tip on the hotel bill for the service that this one guy had given me for all three trips but they don't do that here - so later on I gave him the equivalent of about $10 worth of rupees. Well apparently that was wayyy too much because now this guy and other staff at the hotel basically follow me around all the time trying to be helpful. Yesterday at breakfast I reached for my spoon on the table to stir sugar in my tea and this guy tried to reach over to hand it to me! This morning I got a call at 7:30 from the staff to see if I would be coming to breakfast. Anyway - live and learn. Next time I'll know!

Needless to say - the last few weeks of this project have been some of the longest and possibly most stressful of my career so far, so I'm really looking forward to finishing up tomorrow and heading home. I get home on Monday morning and I'm upgraded on the way from here to Newark so I'm VERY glad about that - I know I will thoroughly enjoy it!!!

February Mindwave Travel

This has been a busy month of travels. In February I've gone to Brazil, Miami, Dallas, Toronto, and Montreal! Probably the most exciting trip was Brazil simply because it was Brazil and I had written a report on Brazil in elementary school so it was good to have the chance to experience it after having reported on it so long ago. highlight of

Julie's first post -- The first of many anniversary's

Tonight was a wonderful anniversary night! We started off by putting on some fancy clothes... Nils in his pink shirt... me in my black dress.. both in jeans.... a great start to a great evening. We drank our Prosecco from Angels Camp... had a drink at the Stephen F. Austin... and then a delicious dinner at the fabulous Ruth's Chris. It was reminiscent of our engagement night in terms of activities.. but less so in the sense of how comfortable it was. We seem to have developed a comfort level that's the perfect combination of ease and excitement and romance, which I think is a good description of the evening as a whole. After dinner we went to the Elephant room, where I completely had a change of opinion from my previous experience. It was wonderful.. more of that comfort, romance, fun and sass. We should go again!!! I LOVE our anniversary Date! Then we came home... I gave you my present (I think you liked it).. then you gave me mine... which I think I'm in the middle of right now... VERY interesting!

To my wife, on our anniversary....

Julie...we are coming up on our 1-year anniversary and I've been brainstorming what creative gift I could put together that would mean as much to you as it would to me that would help us remember the past but more importantly create a place for us to share the years and years that lie ahead of us.

So, this is my gift to you...a living, breathing, evolving testament to what is sure to be an unbelievable lifetime of adventure!


I love you,
Nils

Thanks Starwood, wrapping it up in Zurich

Our travel agenda was an interesting one for sure but at least it brought us through Zurich. Wasn’t the dinner at that little Italian place so good. Spending even just those last few hours with you relaxing, talking about our trip was a really perfect ending to our trip. Thanks for sharing it with me.

The T-Lift Saga

It’s not our fault, I keep telling myself that when I think back to our untimely fall up the lifts. The best part of that whole sequence was you really trying to find another way to get back up. Your face looked so helpless. In the end, we conquered that darn lift no thanks to the rude lift operator. Seriously…that cracked me up. I’m proud of us for not falling (your one fall doesn’t really count). Our poker/gin playing nights were very rewarding and enjoyable. I do believe that you still owe me about 7 favors as a result of my stellar play. I’ll look forward to those being paid out in the near future. I’ll let you know what my dream dinner is very soon.