July 23rd

The last two days have been horrible weather and work wise. The rain hasn't stopped for more then twenty minutes at a time and is making it difficult to be in such a populated city. The streets are so crowded with people, animals, filth, trash, and water that it is hard to move around -- let alone live. The plumbing is starting to fail on us, which I was told was a bad sign before a flood.

As for work, they currently are not letting me do anything. I am just observing once again and gaining a great insight into the culture and hierarchies of India. For lunch yesterday, the Leela has a food celebration for the employees based on the food from Hyderabad. The food was great, SPICY, but tasty. Below I have added some photos from the event.

It is Saturday and I am sitting in the office on my 6th day of consecutive work - welcome to India. It isn't the people, well not all the time. In India, people are very straightforward on what they are thinking and in turn do not think you will be offended. For example, some of my co-workers have friended me on Facebook and have commented on photos that I look fat. Now, I don't think I have ever been fat and don't think there are photos of me where I actually look fat so this was shocking to hear. Also, the people who were saying these comments are not ones to be talking! But I realized, it wasn't me, it is the Indian culture. They really don't believe it is offensive to say, you look fat, or you are not beautiful. If you are born beautiful, you will consistently be told you are beautiful. If you are born plain or ugly, you will consistently told you are plain and ugly. Luckily for me, people think I am pretty and slim, but not in every photo!! Haha

Last night I had Thai for dinner, and real real Thai food! It was great, so much ginger and garlic it was delicious. For dessert I had FRESH grated coconut and lime cake - so yummy. I also has a traditional Singapore dessert: iced kachang. Ice Kachang is made of ice shavings topped with colourful red and green sweeteners and condensed milk (tastes like butterscotch). On top was corn, beans, and peanuts. It was one of the stranger desserts I have ever tried but I was happy I tried.

Not much to talk about in India.