Ants Marching

Friday was my first official day in India. I managed a decent night's sleep, when I awoke and got ready, Swarne arrived and cooked me some scrambled eggs (I must have looked hungry as she wanted to make me 4 eggs). Then we went on a tour of the Jayabheri and saw the pool (beautiful), work out room (will do), basketball and racquetball courts, and the conference center "in case I want to hold meetings here." There's also a room over looking the pool which we can reserve for parties...yet another reason for someone to come visit me.
Around 3, Neelakanta (our driver) took Kathyrn and I to Hi-tec City, home of RMZ futura block A where we would be working. We just missed President Bush who was in the area on Friday - Swarne observed that he "seemed like a nice man." I suppose he does seem nice...at any rate, we arrived to the office and went to block A, then back to B, then back to A and walked in to meet the IAS group. Heads popped up gopher like out of cubes to get a look at the 2 blondes from America. I don't think I have ever made such an entrance!
We met members of our team and were shown our seats - I share a desk space with Naren, who has been at Deloitte 2 years. It was very exciting to meet people who I have been talking with and working with a lot over the past several months. A bit later on we were led into a conference room where the midwest team had gathered to have a welcome reception for us - complete with flowers and 2 cakes! I was touched. And the cake was excellent.
Later as we settled down to working, the questions began. I was helping Sabya Sachi with a question on e-filing. "Is that ok?" I asked. Sabya Sachi shook his head no. "Err, do you understand?" I asked again, confused. "Yes, that's fine," he said, as he shook his head no again. I remembered then that it is common in India to shake your head to the side to mean "I understand, I'm listening to you." This happened several more times throughout the night and each time I felt my head beginning to jerk side to side as well.
Around 8pm, exhaustion/jetlag began to hit. We left at 10pm in the middle of an intense thunderstorm. Upon arriving home, we found that some friendly ants had made a trail to the trail mix I left open in the kitchen. So much for Trader Joe's in India. I fell asleep immediately and made it through the night, although I woke up numerous times.
Today Kathryn, Jill and I are headed to Goa, a beach town on the west coast. The weekend will surely bring lots of stories and hopefully good deals on jewelry.