run "party.exe"

Here are some words I never thought I'd say or write: Last night I went to a party with a bunch of computer nerds and had a good time.

Translation: Yesterday, a bunch of the girls were out sari shopping and ran into some guys from Infosys who recognized us from when we took the tour. One thing led to another, and they (and the rest of us) wound up invited to a little get-together at a hotel/club called the Roost. Seeing as they're engineers in training, it's easily understandable why they'd jump at the chance to invite ten women to their party.

It felt just like home. Lots of loud music I don't like. Still, it was cool to meet some new people and get a perspective on Infosys that didn't come from the mouth of a tour guide. They all seemed to like living there, but got annoyed at the rules straight out of summer camp (strict separation of male/female halls, 11 PM curfew, etc).

On a side note, I've developed a wonderful cough thanks to (I think) the "pristine" Mysore air and the cigarette smoke constantly wafting from one corner of our group. I hope it doesn't develop into a respiratory infection.

The joy of cell phones

The American Way of Purchasing a Cell Phone

1. Go to store, choose cell phone
2. Choose a plan
3. Pay money, begin using cell phone without much delay

The Indian Way of Purchasing a Cell Phone

1. Have cell phone sales guy come to guest house, choose cheapest model of cell phone available
2. Choose between two (2) plans
3. Pay money for actual cell phone
4. Wait two days
5. Pay money for SIM card that will let you use the cell phone
6. Fill out three forms, take four photographs, make three copies of passport and visa, sign everything
7. Bring it to government office
8. Wait an indeterminate amount of time

That's as far as I've gotten. We're hoping to have the stupid phones tomorrow. Hooray bureaucracy!

Observations on 60 hours in India

That 60 hour figure may be a bit off, since my body still isn't entirely sure what day it is.

1. I could never live in a large Indian city if they're anything like Bangalore. I had never before encountered air pollution you can see. My eyes and throat were bothering me from the moment I walked out of the hotel.

2. The food is indeed as spicy as advertised. I think I'm slowly getting used to it though. We had breakfast at Dr. Raju's house this morning, and while it didn't contain anything I might think of as breakfast, I could eat that dosa all day every day.

3. Indian drivers are certifiably insane.

4. Professor Brodkin after four beers is really really funny.

Today we visited the training campus of Infosys, one of the biggest Indian tech companies. Young people (mostly men, as you might imagine) come here after being hired by Infosys to recieve additional training. They live here for 14 weeks, and it's basically a city within a city. I've never seen anything like it. They live in what look like nice hotel rooms, and have everything they need within the walls of the facility. If this is how Indian companies treat their engineers-in-training, I can see why there's getting to be so many of them.

It's about 3:30 PM right now. We're going to the Golf Club (get it?) for dinner tonight. Apparently the girls on the trip have to find something that covers their ankles for this dinner.

For anyone who's reading this that cares, I can't get on AIM because the internet connection here is a bit strange. I can't access a number of sites, like MLB.com, Facebook, my Conn email, and AIM. The tech guys should be back on Monday; hopefully they'll be able to fix it then.

20 hours to go

Because I am a huge goddamn nerd I am posting this from the departure lounge at JFK while I kill an hour until boarding time.

Hard to believe the day's actually here. I'm just grateful my mom didn't burst into tears at check-in.

Anyway, certain people have accepted their invitations to post here and I hope they do so. This way we won't be struggling to remember specific incidents when we want to tell other people how awesome our semesters were.