I know I abandoned my blogging commitment half way through my India trip last fall and I feel guilty about that. I really do. I had some incredible experiences that I really wish I wrote about. My trip to Korea and China this past spring was also pretty amazing and I should have been more committed to writing about that too. But, I've just had a ( Read more... )

I think the whole guest of the week thing was an excuse for the head receptionist to take my picture with her good friend, the bell boy, who seems to be my number one fan. He has personally delivered each of the three small boxes containing my university information to my room individually and he has called me a bunch of times for stupid crap like ( Read more... )

Guess who's guest of the week at the Taj Ummed in Ahmedabad, India? It just happens to be ME. The head receptionist just called to see if I would come downstairs and take a photo with her staff. I have no idea what I've done to deserve such an honor. As guest of the week, they will provide me with even more over the top service then I already ( Read more... )

First of all, let me just say that I am probably one of the only Americans to have ever come to India and actually gotten fatter, despite persistent stomach troubles. People love to feed me here and I love to eat everything they give me! As much as I'm enjoying the local cuisine though, I could really go a juicy burger with extra cheese and a slice ( Read more... )

Chennai was nasty, in my opinion. I didn't even bother posting anything while I was there because I really don't have anything nice to say about it. I would describe every Indian city I have seen as crowded and filthy but Chennai was so much more so then Hyderabad and Bangalore. Plus, it was excruciatingly humid and hot. Of course, I'm sure it has ( Read more... )

I've been here for less then 24 hours but I can already tell I like Hyderabad. The people here are very saavy and it's a fairly modern city. Hyderabad was barely even on the map ten years ago. It experienced a huge boom in the past few years with the growing tech industry, i.e. out sourcing. When you call your dell tech support guy or girl, chances ( Read more... )

Yesterday, was my first day of work here. The volume of students I meet with is incredible. I saw 20 students for every one I would meet in Latin America. There are so many students I can't even address them all individually at my fair table. I have to do a mini-presentation every two minutes and then answer like one personal question. It's insane ( Read more... )

Great. This guy just came by room to drop off a welcome watermelon juice and I didn't have any 10 rupee bills for a tip so I gave him .50 cents (which is actually double what a 10 rupee bill is worth) and he got pissed. What was I supposed to do? Give him 100 rupees? I am planning on getting change later. I gave my last 10 rupee to the guy who ( Read more... )

I'm leaving for the airport in one hour. Yikes! I should probably be getting my stuff together instead of updating myspace and livejournal, huh ( Read more... )

After a long hiatus, I've decided to resurrect the old livejournal in honor of my upcoming trip to India. I have a feeling that this trip will be like no other and a blog is a much better way of documenting my wild and crazy adventures then a group email ( Read more... )