To Play or Not To Play Colors

Today (Saturday) was the Hindu festival Holi, the festival of colors. It's supposed to celebrate the start of spring and several Hindu mythology stories. Part of the celebration involves wearing white clothes and running around in the streets throwing colors (paint/chalk) at one another. Thursday I got an email that a there was going to be a group of Deloitte peeps playing colors in the courtyard of the corporate apartments, inviting people to play or just watch. I was all about playing colors! How many times in your life can you say that you were allowed to throw paint at someone & get all messy yourself? Well, I told my group that I was going to play colors & they advised me to get some coconut oil for my hair. Apparently if you get alot of color in your hair, it could stay there for an extended period of time, especially if you have blond hair like me. So I sent my driver to get me a small bottle of coconut oil for paint protection.

This morning I got up, all excited about being able to laugh & get messy today. No white clothes though, just grubby workout clothes. On the way over to the apartments I saw some groups of people in the street who'd obviously played colors earlier in the morning. Got to the apartments and none of them had the apartment number on the door so I wandered out into the courtyard. The courtyard was deserted, almost. The only other person there was a girl from Atlanta who'd just started on Thursday. She made a couple of calls & found out that we were in the right spot. Apparently everyone else was still sleeping because of the night before. No colors for us. Honestly I was disappointed. Went back to my hotel, took a nap, did some reading, worked a bit & watched Bride & Prejudice (really good BTW). So much for playing colors....Maybe next year???

*Pictures are from a presentation by one of the staff about Holi.

PD Town

I work in a cube. I work in a cube literally in the middle of my floor. I work in a cube literally in the middle of the floor that sticks out into the walkway. So I know when everyone walks by and everyone knows what I'm doing when they walk by (very distracting btw). When I sit up straight in my chair, I can't see directly over the wall of my cube. So if I want to see something I have to stand up. I also use IM to talk to my co-workers (it's a company thing) and the other day someone on my floor was "away" and I needed to talk to them. So I poked my head up out of my cube, looked around the floor, and sat back down very quickly. As I sat down I almost started laughing. I was like "oh my goodness, I'm a prairie dog".

Yes, I felt like a prairie dog. That little creature that pokes up out of it's underground tunnel system to see what's going on in the world and to communicate with other prairie dogs. And once they're done looking for friends & chatting, they go back into their tunnel and get back to work.

Now that's what I think of myself every time I poke my head up out of my cube to look around.

For more information on prairie dogs please visit:

http://www.desertusa.com/dec96/du_pdogs.html or http://www.nationalgeographic.com/burrow/pdog.html

Want a puppy?

My office phone number in Hyderabad is a US number, with a Tennessee area code. The other day my phone rings with another Tennessee area code displayed on the caller id. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: This is Amy.
Tenn: Hi Amy. This is Rob. I saw that you just called. Were you calling about the puppy?
Me: No, I'm sorry. I think you have the wrong number.
Tenn: No, really. Your number just came up in my caller id on my phone. And then last night an Amy left me a message inquiring about my puppy.
Me: No, really. I didn't leave you a message and I think you have the wrong number.
Tenn: (long pause). Ok, thanks.
Me: Bye.

So not even a minute later my phone rings again & the number on the caller id looks familiar...

Me: This is Amy.
Tenn: Hi Amy. You just called me again.
Me: I'm sorry, no I didn't.
Tenn: Yes you did.
Me: No, I didn't. I'm working over in India right now. I think maybe another phone line might be accidentally forwarding calls to me.
Tenn: (very long pause) You're in India right now??
Me: Yes.
Tenn: Oh, so is this a business number?
Me: Yes.
Tenn: What business?
Me: Deloitte.
Tenn: What kind of business is that?
Me: It's an accounting firm and I'm working over here in our India office. We have US phone numbers so that it makes calling US co-workers easier than if we had to dial internationally.
Tenn: (pause) Oh, ok. So, you really didn't call?
Me: No, I didn't call you. Maybe next time you see the number you think is mine you should try to answer it really fast or wait to see if they leave you a voicemail.
Tenn: You're right. Ok, thanks.
Me: Good luck with the puppy.
Tenn: Yeah. Bye.

The whole thing just made me laugh.....But if anyone wants a puppy I can probably get you the number.

Weekly Food Award

So one of the biggest things I was worried about being in India was the food. In order to convey my food experiences I've decided to create a weekly food award post. The first award is the "Green Pepper Award". As many of you know (or you're about to find out) I don't eat green peppers- they give me indigestion. So the "Green Pepper Award" will go to the dish that gave me the most indigestion. The second award is the "It Wasn't Steak, But It Was GOOD Award". I love steak, love red meat and I already miss it terribly. So the "It Wasn't Steak, But It Was GOOD Award" will go to my favorite meal of the week.

Drum roll please....

The first weekly "Green Pepper Award" goes to:
Garlic Chicken at the Grill Room
Now don't get me wrong the chicken was really good, but the lemon butter garlic sauce....
Honorable mention: Schwean Chicken and Hunan Fried Rice from the cafeteria (tongue was on fire for 15 minutes)

Another drum roll....

The first weekly "It Wasn't Steak, But It Was GOOD Award" goes to:
Grilled Chicken, Salad (lettuce, tomato, carrots), Rice, Chicken Dumpling, Butter Naan, Vegetable Biryani & Ice Cream at the BBQ night at the Novotel (my hotel)
A very odd food combo, but on Saturday nights my hotel has a BBQ buffet which is complimentary to us Deloitte peeps. It was REALLY yummy and reminded me of home.
Honorable mention: piece of Domino's pizza leftover from my boss' meeting (I was asked to judge how the pizza sauce here compared to the sauce in the states, which it's a bit sweeter here, but still yummy)

Note: It's only been a week and I've lost weight....

Do NOT Feed the Mosquitoes

So my new perfume over here is Tropical Splash scented bug spray. I wore it when I went shopping on Saturday, no bites. Sunday I stayed in the hotel to rest (sleep, watch movies, read) and only left my room to eat dinner in the restaurant downstairs. Figured I'd be safe so I didn't put on my "perfume". Bad idea! I walked away with at least four big bites on one arm. I even killed a mosquito that had landed on my plate while I was trying to get salad at the salad bar (the restaurant is very clean otherwise, some people eat on the patio outside it, so I think the bugs get in as people walk between the two). Gross & totally not cool!! I also have this thing that looks like a nightlight in my room that I switch on every night & it's supposed to kill the bugs (no mosquito net around the bed). But my bites itch like crazy!! Unfortunately I forgot my Cortaid and I'm not quite sure what the equivalent is over here yet, so I'm having to suffer through trying not to scratch them. Plus, my malaria medicine is probably what kept me ill for two days and I haven't taken it since so I don't get sick again. Hopefully the sweet mosquitoes that bit me weren't carrying malaria....

Lesson learned- always put on tons of perfume so as to not feed the mosquitoes.

My First Day of Work

So yesterday was finally my first day of work in Hyderabad! My shift is 2pm-11pm (which is 2:30am-11:30am CDT), now 2pm-2am (2:30am-2:30pm CDT) for busy season. Got there at 1pm and the office was a bit empty. My boss, was there and she showed me where all the necessities were ie. the bathroom, water & caffeinated beverages. My desk is kinda small & I'm the only one on the end, sticking out into the walkway. Everything was supposed to be ready to go, except that I didn't have a phone and there was no power cord for my second computer monitor. Neither of theses items did I receive by the end of the day (2am) even though they were on "priority". Lol, patience will be a virtue developed over the next six weeks. The rest of my group arrived around 2. And it was sooo sweet- they bought me a bouquet of roses. I haven't gotten flowers in forever so it really made me smile. :-) I didn't have much to do for the rest of the day, just some technology stuff. I did meet some other R10 rotators. We're planning a trip to Mumbai in a couple of weeks (yeah- Hard Rock Cafe pin city). So exciting!! I think we're also going to a karaoke club, but we'll see....

Other stories of the day....

Getting my Hyderabad office badge
So you have to have a Deloitte badge visible at all times. They say that back home, but no one is really posted on every floor to check them like they are here. So I was told to meet on the second floor by a particular cube with my paperwork at 4pm (because the badging department doesn't open until 4pm and they close at 8pm). For the time before this, my poor staff had to follow me everywhere so I could get in and out of the various doors on our floor space. I meet at the appointed place, at the appointed time & there are a couple of people gathered there to get their badges also. People keep showing up for the next thirty minutes. Finally at 4:30 the host takes up all our papers and marches us over to the next building. And we wait again for everyone to get their badge (probably about 10-12) people, which takes at least another thirty minutes. The we all marched like ants back to our building. Not too funny, but it was just a pain.

The Cafeteria
So around 9pm I head over to the cafeteria with some of my co-workers. I hadn't eaten since noon so I was starving! You walk into the cafeteria and there's just tons of people. Most of them had brought their lunches in these really cute containers which looked like fat thermoses. There's a display case with all the hot food choices for the day. Nothing is labeled so you just kinda have to guess what it is or already know. Since I'd been feeling bad a couple days prior I decided to hit the sandwich line for a delicious & safe cheese sandwich. But first you have to pay for your meal & get an order ticket. You may think there's a line at the cashier, but there isn't. People just kinda mob around where the line should be, but then people cut in like you never existed. And you have to make eye contact with the actual cashier to get noticed (almost like when you're trying to get a drink at a bar). So I pay for my food, get my ticket and collect my cheese sandwich. It really wasn't all that bad- the cheese wasn't oozing out from between the bread, and the bread was a bit plain, but it was good. Then no one really drinks anything with their meal at dinner, but since there are a bunch of ex-pats they sell drinks in the far corner by the sweet corn vendor. Me in my habits went & bought a cold, refreshing Diet Coke, which cost more than my sandwich. Lol, the price I will pay for some caffeine.

Lots of new things to get used to....