A Night of Indian Dance

I'm quite the social butterfly here in Bangalore. Last night I went to see a "cultural" performance of Indian dance. It was pretty cool. I just love the way they use their arms and hands - it's so graceful and beautiful. And then afterward Nicole and Brian were hungry so we went to the mall - well actually since they were on their scooters they went first and then Vick and I met them. Anyway when we walked into the mall I noticed there was Italian Gelato stand and so I got a combination strawberry and lemon sorbet and it was divine. Then we went upstairs to the food court to find Nicole and Brian and they had gone to a stand which they thought said Hot Dog and they got what was the most disgusting looking thing and ate it. Then they looked at the box it came in and it actually said Hog Dog. I wonder if they were sick today :)

Spent a lovely day at the pool. It was beautiful here today but very hot - even me the sun queen had to sit under the umbrella after an hour. Then I went to the gym and here I sit working away and counting down the hours till departure.

Three Days and Counting

Can you tell how excited I am to be coming home. I shall kiss the ground after I get done kissing Chester. Bottom line is no matter how much we complain about our country with all its faults and inequities we still have it better than many other places in this world. Okay - that's enough rah rah America from me.

I shall spend my weekend lounging by the pool weather permitting and am debating about getting one more massage before I leave. 23 hours in coach is not going to be fun and the only reason I'm taking the more indirect route coming home is because Singapore Airlines has an extra inch of seat pitch and leg room and their service, even in coach, is superior to the other carriers. I shall try to remain in an Ambien coma for most of the flight but somehow I don't think that's going to happen.

In addition to looking forward to my capuccino from Peet's I can't wait to hit the boxing gym - see the lads - and hit some bags. Shadow boxing just isn't the same. So what I've been doing while I'm here is something I haven't done in a really long time which is traditional weight lifting, running on the treadmill, the exercise bike and the elliptor machine.

Okay -the next time you hear from me I will be stateside.

Christain Music Anyone

OMG!!!!! So Saturday night I went out with Nicole to hear the band and it turned out that after the first three songs all the rest of the music was Christain Rock - she was mortified - I thought it was pretty funny. I mean if you didn't pay attention to the words the music was not bad. Really the best part was her friend Vivi came with her sister who happenned to be a documentary filmmaker. She was very interesting - about 2 years ago she did a documentary on the Brothels in Mumbai and young girls forced to work in them.

On Sunday I just chilled by the pool all day and went to the gym in the afternoon.

I know you've heard me say this before but I'm going to rethink this whole Leela Palace thing when I'm home. What prompted me is this morning my taxi never showed up and I started thinking the only reason I'm going into the office everyday is because the cost of the internet access in the hotel is so freaking expensive. Not that I have to pay for it but I guess I'm trying to be a good corporate citizen - UGH - should I throw up now?

Okay - have to work - you know folks you can leave a comment for me on these blogs or just email me directly - I appreciate everyone's wise ass comments - just remember my father reads this :)

Raining in Bangalore

Wow - I woke up this morning - didn't even bother to look outside and went directly to the gym which is on the bottom floor of the hotel with no windows. I was there doing my workout for about 90 minutes and came back upstairs only to discover it's raining - not hard - a drizzle but raining nonetheless. So much for my plans to hang out the pool. Hmmm - what to do, what to do... Might just hang out on my balcony and read my book because I don't really think I want to do any shopping. It's supposed to be like this tomorrow as well - at least according to weather.com. It's not like i can turn on the TV and watch the Indian version of the Today Show with Al Roker giving me a weather update.

I'm going to listen to some music tonight at a place called Opus. The woman, Nicole, I met at the expat dinner invited me to come along. I believe there are a couple of guys she knows that play in this band - she said it's American kind of folksy music. I have no idea what that means but I guess I'll find out.

Tuesday night the Overseas Women's Club is having their Professional Women's Group meeting so I'll be attending that. It cracks me up that I'm considered a Professional Woman when the the truth of the matter is you all know I hate the corporate world with a passion and would rather be hanging out with dogs. And don't even get me started on the fact that India is still very much a male dominated chauvanistic pig country - makes my skin crawl. Ya think I'm ready for my break to come home???? (ha-ha)

Random Thoughts

Or as Arsenio Hall would say things that make you go hhmmmmmm

I notice they are always mopping the floor in the various establishments but I never see them with a bucket of water when they are mopping - kind of makes you think they're just pushing dirt around on the floor not too mention making it wet, slippery and dangerous

They have something called elephant showers which is basically when you go on an elephant ride they make sure you go to a stream and then the elephant showers you with their long snout - do you think put a filter in the elephant to make sure the water has been decontanimated???

Well I'll be in Bangalore all weekend most likely hanging out by the pool after the gym and a leisurely breakfast. If I get really brave and don't mind sharing my day with 12 million other people maybe I'll go over to Commercial street and do some shopping since there really isn't anything else to do here.

I'll keep you posted because inquiring minds want to know :)

GO GIANTS

I can't believe I was able to watch the SuperBowl live. It was awesome - GO GIANTS!!!! I really thought they had blown it after New England scored with only 2 minutes left in the game. As a matter of fact I only had a few minutes worth of time left on my cell phone but I called my brother to tell him the Giants sucked - little did I know that two minutes later I would be doing the victory dance in my hotel room. Whoo hooo!!!!

I'm also excited these days because in two weeks I get to come home for a visit. I arrive back in SF on Feb 19th and get to stay until Feb 25th. Abe is going to try and pick me up at the airport with the Chester boy and I can't wait to see my baby. I don't care how rainy it is I will be in the park with my boy at the usual time on the 19th.

Well have to go meet my driver downstairs. I've got some late conference calls tonight - these are killing me.

GOA WEEKEND

Woman Selling Roasted Nuts at the Beach
Hanuman (Monkey God) Temple
Saying Hello to the Elephant
28 year old Female Elephant
Elephant Family
Women in the Water in Their Saris with Umbrella
More Women in the Water in Their Saris
Men in their Bathing Suits

Self-Explanatory
I think They're missing a "B"
No Lawnmowers - People pick grass to maintain the lawn
Francis our Guide at the Spice Plantation

View from the Pier/Jetty in Dona Paula
Dogs on the Beach
Smoothing Concrete on the Pier
Shopping on the Pier

Sunrise View from My Room
Birds at Breakfast
Wooden Boat
Wooden Boat

Well I think I’ve discovered one of the reasons why people love India. I had the pleasure of spending the weekend in Goa which is on the Arabian Sea. Goa used to be a Portugese colony so there is a lot of European influence here. And unbeknownst to us this weekend they were celebrating Carnaval. So there were floats, music and plenty of traffic.

Goa is actually a state and there is a North and a South. Billie had found a place on Craigslist, Zuarti View, in a place called Dona Paula which turned out to be a fishing village. The place was in a great location, the rooms were clean and I had a great view out my window and off my balcony of the inlet and all the fishing boats. Right across the street was the Arabian Sea. Never in my life did I think for one second I would be standing with my feet in the Arabian Sea. Pretty long journey from Valley Stream, Forest Rd. and South High School.

Our colleague Sergey and his dad Basil (who is from the Ukraine) were staying in town so we met up for dinner Friday night. We tried to get in to a place that was recommended call Mum’s Kitchen but they were all booked up so we decided to take an auto rickshawe back to a place across the street from where Billie and I were staying. It was hilarious because they had this live music – two Indian guys singing Rhinestone Cowboy. We could not have asked for a better location because we were hanging out with our feet up looking out and listening to the Arabian Sea lap on the shore.

I learned how to toast in Russian – Nastrovia – which means, “To Your Health”. It was quite the interesting evening as Sergey’s father does not speak any English but somehow we managed. I also learned to count to five in Russian. I’m so global (ha ha).

On Saturday we all did a tour together. We went to a couple of churches, a temple, a spice plantation and then to the beach. I’m over the churches and the temples – don’t care if I don’t see either of those for the remainder of my time in India.

The spice plantation was really interesting. It’s in the jungle and there is a guide who takes you around and talks about the different spices and how they are not only used for cooking but to cure a variety of ailments as well. The best part was when the elephant came by. I don’t remember her name but she was 28 years old and really friendly. I could have gone for a ride but those rides are bullshit rides – they’re like 15 minutes and you basically go around in a circle. I want to do a elephant trek through the jungle that would last at least an hour or longer. I’m sure I’ll find one somewhere.

The beach, Calangude, was actually pretty disgusting and very surreal as you can tell from the pictures of the women in their full length saris standing in the ocean. Also the people coming up and harassing you to buy their crap is never ending. I swear they don’t understand the word NO and it gets to the point where you just stop being polite about it.

Sergey’s dad decided he wanted to go for a swim and also ride a jet ski so Billie and I decided to walk around town and check out the shops. The clothes are so cheap – like $3.00 for a shirt and everything is about bargaining. So you’ll see something and say how much and they say 300 rupees and you say 200 and they say no and you start walking away and you pretty much get it for what you want.

We went to dinner at a different place on the beach in Dona Paula Saturday night but again there was this music like a “lite music” radio station with Indian’s singing Glenn Campbell, Hank Williams and even an Elvis song. It was hilarious.

Today I did a very bad thing but I couldn’t help it. There was a momma doggie and her puppy and they were so skinny that I bought some cookies (I figured since they eat whatever they find on the street cookies wouldn’t be all that bad) and fed them. I didn’t feed them by hand – I broke the cookies up and threw them over to them. It’s really hard for me to see those doggies and not want to take them all home – clean them up, feed them and give them a taste of the Pac Heights life.

So Billie gets to go back to the states tomorrow and I’m here for another two weeks before I go home. Bangalore is a hard place – it’s dirty, the pollution is terrible – there is no infrastructure and it takes an hour and half to go 8 miles. I am going to be very sad without her but Sergey is here. He is going to take a few days off the week after next and go to OOTY which is up in the mountains about 6 hours from Bangalore. There is much to do there and he’s invited me to join them on the trip so I just may ask Richard if I can take a couple of days and go do that.