Sunday, August 5, 2012

Day 3, one tenth of the way.


Day 3.

So today started really slow.  Our second day at the India office and still trying to get onto the network successfully.  The day seemed like it was dragging along for a bit until lunch time finally arrived.  So today we felt ready to experience Indian food in India.  We asked the guys for something nice that was close enough to take a walk and experience India in the streets.  After about 20 min of listening and listening again we finally got the directions pinned down. 
We took the walk down the road (seriously I think if it was more than 700m it’s a lot).  The road wasn’t too nice to look at; we got to see the thing where there is a beautiful building right next to a squatter camp and then a building site smack in the middle of nowhere.  After getting through the narrow street and past the building site rubble, we finally made it to the restaurant we were looking for.  This is when we got confirmation again that the people around here don’t really care for PR.  The entrance to the place (Chaitanya Parantha’s) is really just a broken piece of concrete also the roof is basically just a plastic cover.  The look of the place doesn't do the food any justice though.  It was awesome.  The amount of spice you can fit into a little piece of dough is really interesting (and in my mind, under rated).  None of us were brave enough to try the “Krut” though.  I think they mentioned that it is a type of plain yogurt.
We were looking for the Parantha with a potato filling, but the menu didn’t have the word potato in it so we just went with the word we know, which is cheese.   Eventually we heard that what we were looking for (or supposed to be looking for) was the word Aloo, which means potato in Hindi.  We couldn’t get any “normal” coke there, so we settled for Pepsi. 
The lunch at Chaitanya Parantha’s was exactly 10 times cheaper than the dinner of last night, and not too different in awesomeness.

As soon as we got back to the office we again continued with the “setting up and settling in” activities.  Eventually we went out for a coffee break.  We are still trying to get used to the fact that we don’t make our own coffee or tea, someone else does it for us… not weird at all (please note this is to be read in a sarcastic tone).  At the office they have an awesome balcony where everyone goes for lunch.  On the way out to the balcony there is a huge sign that says “Do not smoke here”.  So while sitting outside we were just chatting and laughing about our fail with skipping mains the night before, Lourens decided to show us all one of his own tricks.  It was a trick wherein he makes a whole sigaret disappear and then reappear.   It was an awesome trick, but one of the guys noticed Lourens taking out the sigaret and immediately called a manager.  We had a good laugh while trying to explain that no one was planning to smoke right under the “No Smoking” sign.

Back inside of the office, one of the things that were really strange to see was the fact that almost no phones ring in the office.  For an average day at the office, I don’t think I would mind that at all.  It was so quiet that I can almost understand how these guys get so much done in a day.

So for the night of day 3, the guys from the office planned a night out in the town with us.  We went to a place called Shisha (which we were told means Mirrors).  So this place was just amazing.  The whole place has a “in the wild” theme to it.  It feels like you are literally walking through a forest to get to your table, obviously a forest with some gold and tables in the way but hey, who counts right?  The food was amazing, and for a country where we “wouldn’t find any beef” (again please note the sarcasm) the steak was really good, and yes I checked, no one felt offended by my eating of the steak. I am trying hard not to fail as bad as the guy from 'Outsourced'. 

While sitting in the restaurant Lourens suddenly flew up and ran out to call his wife, he thought that we got too lost in the chatting and that he forgot to call her at an appropriate time.  So it was around 10h15 here when this happened.  He only forgot about one small little detail. In South Africa it was only around 6h45, so she was actually surprised when he called too early. The time difference has actually been messing with all of our minds.  But Lourens got to be the one that made it seem the most funny.

Well that was pretty much it for the day.  We are planning on going out with some of the guys from the office again tomorrow, as it is Saturday the fact that we have to be up at 6 isn’t really sounding too appealing right now, but we heard that it is going to be awesome so we will do it with a smile (not even a fake one).

We also noticed today that Kaishni and Hein are starting to adopt the “head bobble”.  Yes I said it, they dared me to.


-this was thought about on many levels including novice, beginner and awesome

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