It has officially been one week and we are settled!
Food: The good news is...I have figured out how to eat in India! Thanks to google images and my Hindi dictionary I have learned to explain to our cook what I like. I even showed him how to cook eggs, which was a funny challenge because he doesn't like us to be in his kitchen when he is cooking! Eggs, toast, yogurt, peanut butter, and fruit for breakfast. Office cafeteria food or Domino's pizza for lunch. Cross my fingers for dinner (you never know what Mr. Dhanapati will make!).
Exercise: My number one priority- to find a gym- was almost impossible. There are few gyms around and the membership fee for 2 months was ridiculous. Luckily my mentor at the office helped me find a gym yesterday, called "Planet Health"! The other girls and I signed up and plan to go after work every day! It is extremely small but has cardio machines and weights, which is all we needed. It is important to note that gyms in India are HOT. It was difficult to adjust to the miniature air conditioning and lack of fans. Also, its impossible to get a good breathing pattern going (in through the nose, out through the mouth) because you may pass out if you catch a whiff of the air- which is deadly.
Weather: Monsoon season makes the weather impossible to predict. There may be clear blue skies in the morning and torrential downpour in the evening. The traffic is unimaginable in the rain! A 30 minute drive took us 2 hours. There are no drains that I can see, so the streets flood. Rickshaws were stuck knee deep in the middle of the highway because they hit a pothole and lost a tire. At some points, driving on the freeway was like driving through a river. Thank goodness we have a great driver (below)! I tried to take a picture out the car window, but it is impossible to capture it.
People's response to the rain is really interesting. As we pass by towns in our car (so thankful to be inside), everyone is walking up and down the streets without an umbrella or coat like nothing has ever happened. Although there is so much rain coming down, it is warm, and people at the office say they love it! We saw a lot of children and adults playing cricket and soccer for hours outside our window. The rain makes a lot of mud, but it drys to quickly it doesn't matter.
The Other Interns: I love sharing a room with Rianne and it has been great to always have someone to talk to! The time difference and no texting makes it so hard to communicated on the other side of the word. The other two girls, Roxana and Gaby are great too and we pretty much do everything together. Roxana is my partner at the office, so we have been working on a lot of projects together. We actually give a presentation tomorrow!
Work at Arshiya: I really look forward to going work every morning. We have been working on different projects and feel like we are a part of the team here at Arshiya. Our focus for the past week has been to understand Arshiya inside and out before we start on our projects, so we have been listening to a lot of presentations and reading about the company. Here we are!
We visited one of Arshiya's sites, the FTWZ (Free Trade Warehousing Zone) and got to see everything we have been learning about! On our way to the FTWZ we stopped at McDonald's...which is not your typically McDonald's! They don't have hamburger patties. Instead, they have extra spicy chicken sandwiches and paneers- which is basically a milk patty. Ew! Ronald McDonald also looked a little different!
Food: The good news is...I have figured out how to eat in India! Thanks to google images and my Hindi dictionary I have learned to explain to our cook what I like. I even showed him how to cook eggs, which was a funny challenge because he doesn't like us to be in his kitchen when he is cooking! Eggs, toast, yogurt, peanut butter, and fruit for breakfast. Office cafeteria food or Domino's pizza for lunch. Cross my fingers for dinner (you never know what Mr. Dhanapati will make!).
Exercise: My number one priority- to find a gym- was almost impossible. There are few gyms around and the membership fee for 2 months was ridiculous. Luckily my mentor at the office helped me find a gym yesterday, called "Planet Health"! The other girls and I signed up and plan to go after work every day! It is extremely small but has cardio machines and weights, which is all we needed. It is important to note that gyms in India are HOT. It was difficult to adjust to the miniature air conditioning and lack of fans. Also, its impossible to get a good breathing pattern going (in through the nose, out through the mouth) because you may pass out if you catch a whiff of the air- which is deadly.
Weather: Monsoon season makes the weather impossible to predict. There may be clear blue skies in the morning and torrential downpour in the evening. The traffic is unimaginable in the rain! A 30 minute drive took us 2 hours. There are no drains that I can see, so the streets flood. Rickshaws were stuck knee deep in the middle of the highway because they hit a pothole and lost a tire. At some points, driving on the freeway was like driving through a river. Thank goodness we have a great driver (below)! I tried to take a picture out the car window, but it is impossible to capture it.
The Other Interns: I love sharing a room with Rianne and it has been great to always have someone to talk to! The time difference and no texting makes it so hard to communicated on the other side of the word. The other two girls, Roxana and Gaby are great too and we pretty much do everything together. Roxana is my partner at the office, so we have been working on a lot of projects together. We actually give a presentation tomorrow!
Work at Arshiya: I really look forward to going work every morning. We have been working on different projects and feel like we are a part of the team here at Arshiya. Our focus for the past week has been to understand Arshiya inside and out before we start on our projects, so we have been listening to a lot of presentations and reading about the company. Here we are!
Roxana and I have been working with Pratap, our "buddy", who has been extremely helpful inside and outside the office. We had a fun time spending the day together yesterday! He has taught me a lot about India and answering my lists of questions. He also helped us find the gym (woohoo!) and has been giving us tips on places to eat and visit.
Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures at the site, but it was incredible to see it! On the drive there, which was about two hours, we passed many other container yards and warehouses, which were completely opposite of what we saw at Arshiya. All the buildings at the Arshiya FTWZ were brand new, huge, and on clean, developed land. Security guards and cameras were everywhere keeping the site on lock down. A driver drove us around the site and we got to go inside the warehouse and see how it operated. It was a really great experience! Hopefully we will be going to visit the site that is opening in Delhi while I am here!
Our last stop for the day was dinner at "Yoko Sizzlers" and ice cream "Naturals". Sizzlers here is much different than what I know at home. We ordered a cheesy chicken plate which was HUGE. I'm not a fan of the "yellow American" cheese they serve a lot here (I mean- I've never liked it), but the chicken was great. Getting meat is such a specialty these days because everything seems to be vegetarian. Naturals Ice cream was awesome! The flavors depend on what fruits are in season so everything was really fresh.
MISC: It is very funny to see women riding motorcycles "side-saddle" here behind the men who are driving! Often times it looks like they are going to fall off! I don't know how they manage to balance. Another thing I'm always curious about is why there are men sitting in the back of a loading truck with all the boxes and the door up. Originally I thought they sat back there for security reasons, to make sure no one opened up the back of the truck and stole anything. Pratap explained to me that it is simply because they don't have room in the front, and those guys are needed to load all the boxes out of the truck. They either sit, stand, or sit on the edge of the truck in the middle of the highway!
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