What I did last night

Everything that's built in Hyderabad is new: new buildings, new construction, new roads, new highways.

So for contrast, here is a photo of me eating chat ("north Indian spicy snacks") at the India School of Business. This particular snack was a sort of ball of fried dough, hollow, which you dunk in a sort of cilantro-mint broth so it fills up, and then try to get the whole thing in your mouth before it breaks. Lots of fun. I also got a full tour of the ISB by invitation of a woman on the team here whose husband is a current student - the campus size in the US would probably support 6,000 students. Here they've got about 450.

And to finish off with, another photo, this time of all the folks who took me out last night:



Thanks guys - it was a ton of fun.

Lessons in business travel

I have learned a number of interesting things in the past week (people in India think it is just really damn weird to put hard boiled egg on your salad, for example, and they will look at you funny and ask "really?" in a doubtful voice if you do it - never mind that the salad in question consists solely of soft peanuts in oil, garbanzo beans, and sprouted peas), but the thing I have learned that I will take with me on my next business trip is far simpler: bring your camera cable. Yes, that's right - the one that connects your digital camera to your computer.

Why? Because last weekend I took a photograph of a traffic jam caused entirely by a camel. I had never seen such a thing before, I admit, and so I took the photo with the express purpose of blogging about it. And yet without that oh-so-missed camera cable, getting that photo anywhere near my blog is downright impossible....

That's what I get for this being the first time I've travelled with both a laptop and a digital camera. And here I thought I was packing too much electronic equipment....

Travel 2007

Last Sunday I sat at gate 100 at SFO, waiting for the Lufthansa flight that would take me first to Frankfurt, then on to Hyderabad.

Over the loudspeaker I heard an announcement: something about a US-government mandated survey. "Not more idiotic, ineffective security paperwork," I thought, but I finished up the email I was writing, downloaded a few last documents to work on on the plane, packed up my computer and headed up to the check-in desk to get the survey.

The attendant pointed me to a small stack of blank surveys and a drop box to leave mine in when I finished it. I fished a pen out of my shoulder bag and wrote my name on the outside of the survey, thinking how amazing it is that any security agency imagines that voluntary reporting of last, middle, and first name will envelop the world in virtual bubble-wrap.

Then I unfolded the survey to fill out the inside. Airport security is easier to go along with than to bother trying to understand.

Contrary to my expectations, the inside of the survey asked for just 3 pieces of information: whether I wish to designate an emergency contact, and if so, that person's name & phone number. The small print assured me that all completed surveys would be destroyed up on my flight's safe arrival.

I paused. I checked the "yes" box. I filled in my husband's cellphone number, and as an extra precaution, his email address. I dropped the completed survey in the box, stepped back, and waited for my seat row to be called to board the plane.

Times I have moved at work

Ok, so I work at a fast-growing, dynamic, quickly-evolving, and very flexible company. Yes, yes, that's nice and all, sounds a bit like the standard corporate blah blah blah - but what does it actually mean?

It means that in the less-than-four years I have worked here, I have sat in no fewer than 10 different locations. I'm listing them here so I have a way to remember them - in 20 years I bet none of this is going to seem real:

1. Temp desk in the "MoneyPlex"
2. Full-time desk in building E
3. 2nd floor building 45
4. 1st floor building 45
5. (Moved from ConOps to Checkout team) 2rd floor building 42
6. 3rd floor building 42
7. Garcia
8. An office (rather than a cube) in Garcia
9. Building 1350
10. Building 900

And no, I do not even hold the record for the most moves on my team. Gaaah! I've been saying as a joke that you can recognize the old-timers because when they send the movers for us, we have fewer than 2 boxes' worth of stuff at our desks and we can pack in under 10 minutes - but as I look at the list above, I begin to think it might actually be true.