First days in Bangalore

While the rest of the journey was rather uneventful, the arrival was interesting: it took me literally 1 minute to clear immigration (American immigration officers have a lesson to learn from their Indian counterparts), it took almost an hour for the bags to arrive. In addition, once you walk outside of the building, you are immediately accosted by numerous men trying to carry you suitcases, walk you to your vehicles, and be of some service to you. Needless to say, at 2am after having flown for 2 days, that was rather annoying to me.

I got to ISEC around 2:30am and slept until almost noon the next day. My boss, who got in at 6am the same morning, was up at the same time and ready to work after lunch. I was sooo out of it the whole day (probably the worst jetlag Ive ever had) and wondered where this amazing woman (my boss) gets the energy. We worked some yesterday, but today was the first day of the conference. We have about 21 participants from South Asia (India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan). I gave my presentation this morning, which I think went well since it generated an interesting discussion among the participants. So, now I can breathe out and enjoy the rest of the week.

ISEC has a rather nice campus, fairly isolated from the rest of Bangalore. It has some nice trails, which Im getting ready to explore tomorrow morning. While it is somewhat green around, you can tell that this is a dry season. I got a "suite" guest room, which means that I have a living room and a bedroom. It is pretty hot here, but all rooms and meeting halls have AC and fans, so I haven't been super hot yet.

Now about the food...it can be summarized in 2 words: traditional and spicy!!! Everything, even some rice dishes, are spicy hot, which is taking my stomach a while to adjust to. It is also very traditional, even breakfast (this morning we had chutney and vermicelli...PTL for universal eggs and cheese). To my relief, there is always rice and yogurt (curd), and Im enjoying the tradition of eating with your hands by wrapping food in pieces of chapati (Indian bread). In addition, all dishes have a lot of flavor (seasoned with many different spices) unlike most Russian and American dishes, which is taking a bland eater such as myself a while to get used to. The desserts, however, are delicious (but of course, I can't remember the name of a single one).

Well, Im still terribly jetlagged, so Im off to bed. More on other observations tomorrow.