Everything I have Bought and what I remember paying for it.

Day 1
Glass star $2, Wooden Snake $2 (incredibly hard to pack), Chess set $2, Chinese dinner (ha ha)

Day 2
Dark Charcoal Grey Suit lined with red silk- $200 Dark Green cashmere Suit lined with yellow silk-$250 Four silk blouses; light blue, pink, white and something else- $100ish 20 pashmina scarves (many colors) $100 Green silk sari $50

Day 3
Silver earrings with topaz, peridot, some blue stone; each $4, Sliver, topaz and crystal bracelet $18, Silver, topaz ring $3, pretty necklace with lots of stones $35, peridot ring $5, he gave me an amethyst ring so ugly it is pretty and moth earrings.

Day 4
nothing

Day 5
Silver elephants $3, Silver bangles (7) $42, T-shirt that says India with two camels $3, ohm t-shirt $4

Day 6
Bed spread and pillows $40, skirt $4, shirt with sequins (you all know how I love to wear sequins) $3, back pack, table runner

Day 7
Nothing (got sick, no a cold) Dinner Hamburger (I have no idea what was in it) $5

Day 8
3 Skirts $3 each, 2 tops $3 each, Pants $2, Ganish blessing $1, Lunch $5

Day 9
Rug $490 (it is lovely, blue and brown, single knotted wool), Statues of Budda and Ganish $2, 4 Carvings of Ganish $1,

Day 10
Scented Oils (Rose & sandalwood, Jasmine, Rose, Tea Rose $15 (I think one of them is miss marked, why would I get that much Rose))

Day 11
GRE $6 (thank you for picking it up for me, when you get to Seattle I'll buy you a drink), Dinner at the Taj, Bollywood Movie $3

Day 12

Day 13, Sept. 11


Day 14, Sept. 12
Nothing

Day 15, Sept. 13
Nothing

Day 16, Sept. 14
Black Pearl necklace & earrings $30 (Mine, Mine, Pretty, Pretty)
Dinner (I don't want to think about it)

Day 17, Yesterday Sept. 15
Pillow Cases 165 Rs (for Mien Bruoder)
Bindis 300 Rs (me and people)
Lunch 100 Rs (Mutton Puff 15, Cold Coffee 55, shared Chinese stuff (Jack says it is Indian Chinese))
Dinner $18 (ouch, buffet)
Tea 90 Rs
Saffron 196 Rs
Candy
Coke

Day 18, Sept. 16
Crystal Bunny 150 Rs (Grandma)
Chess set 600Rs (Matt)
Wood Budda 150Rs (Doreen)
Piggy Bank 3Rs (Me)
Cute Shoes 220Rs (Me)
Saffron 110Rs (whoever)
Lunch 22 Rs (Chicken Puff, Somasa, Dipped Chocolate thing)

Korea Very expensive
Candy fish $1, Magnents $5, Lounging outfit $50 (clean clothes), polo shirt as gift $3.50, earrings of dogs $1, Mild Sexy Soap $1 (for when I am feeling too sexy), Cute socks $2, Penguins way too much (she better like them), Kentucky Fried Chicken $7

Blog, blog. Ok, because I was worried about getting porn ads I left the comments set to members only. Well, it has gotten boring. So go for it. Comment away!!

Hotels during our stay-

Delhi- Vandra says it was the Connaught. Can't remember it has been so long. Will check with the other students. My room overlooked part of the city I could see a gold (it is real gold) covered mosque and a bunch of other temples. My room smelled of urine and there was a computer center that had three computers. They told us that two were down and could not get on the internet. They were way down I tried to trouble shoot them and the were not plugged in to the router. The one that did work was dial up. The food was ok, I got rancid butter one night and freaked I would get sick.

Jaipur- Same deal, will get name later. Vandra claims Mansign. Very pretty, nice view. No rancid butter. Walking distance to a Pizza Hut. (I hate pizza and Pizza Hut is the worst.) It was wonderful. Almost like home. Water was ten rupees. Mango Ice Cream.

Mumbai- Fairyas (I remember because it sounded like Fairy Ass). Lovely, I had my own room and it was on the third floor see I could see out to the street. We had a computer room/lounge to watch tv and hang out together. Around about six corners was Theobromine, a incredible pastry shop. Bread pudding to die for and lemon tarts so sour and yummy that I will return. Joyann tried to get the recipe for the bread pudding. I think I can make the tarts, it was lemon curd, mmmm.

Hyderabad- Amrutha Castle-- Ekkk, we ran away it was so bad, it smelled, was dark and the elevator tried to eat Rick.

Hyderabad- Novotel, incredible!! (I am using the manager's computer. He was kind enough to trust me alone in his office so that I could post this.) Rick called a friend who had worked in these city (Microsoft) and asked him to recommend a location to us and here we are. It is wonderful. Pool, gym, buffet ($18) loaded with things we like to eat (smoked salmon, capers and pickled onions). Close to the companies we needed to visit and CLEAN. Vandra and I are sharing a room and the power went out due to a screw in the wiring, so they moved us. Literally, moved our things. Nice. It has been open only a short while so most people have not heard of it. Which means there are 45 people staying here (6 stories with 60 rooms to a floor) and our group is 18 of them.

Hyderabad - flight was delayed and so we were late to arrive at the

India School of Business- a really cool campus that offers a certificate program after graduating with a BA. Missed lunch got coffee shop fare at the little café (this was the only time we had to buy our own food).

Infosys - a really cool campus (all of the campuses in Hyderabad are huge manicured, spiffy places that rival Redmond’s campus). They fed us meat pastries, veggie- pastries and pastry pastries and all kinds of juices, coffee and tea. They had fired over 80 people in the last 4 months, people that had falsified info on their resumes.

Microsoft – just like the Redmond campus, very cool. Please hire me!!! We spoke to Program Managers, Development Teams and Human Resources. The most recent hire had only been there 20 days and the longest was 5 years the day before (both PMs).

Dr. Reddy - DRUGS, DRUGS. We toured the Research and Development center, saw the testing facilities. They had a bunch of dogs we got to play with, cute little puppies. They gave us lunch. We saw another group touring and hypothesized (from the “Welcome GSK” sign) that they were Glaxo Smith Klein. Very cool, we offered them copies of our resumes but they declined.

Next we went to the production plant. They would not hand out samples but we did suit up in the clean rooms with booties, hair nets and lab coats (imagine 18 lunch ladies doing little dance steps in hallways). We saw antacids being pressed in to pills. The flawed pills that are rejected are burned at 1000 degrees to render them inert so that they may be used to fertilize trees.

Mumbai

Sun Pharam- Boring, no drug samples. (Fed us, cookies, tea or coffee, water.) Would only take a gift of chocolate to share in the office but not our other gift, so I have a new USB drive.

ICICI- Huge banking group that is taking over the world with pretty decent ethics and Micro lending (would not give sample but did feed us). Very friendly met with high up people and they do take Interns, currently have a Spanish guy.

National Stock Exchange- Told us about how they set up their redundant system in a different state in case of natural disaster (cookies and tea or coffee, and water)

Hinditron- One of the American Alumni Association, a UW Engineering grad that does so many cool things, works with Cray, Fluke, HP. Great speaker I hope I can be like him when I grow up. American Alumni Association- This was so cool I met a gentleman that referred to himself as an Oaky because he graduated from Okalahoma State University, very cool, with his Hindi accent. The speakers spoke about how much they enjoyed going to school in the US and that is why the Association began, to give them a chance to talk to others with similar experiences. (High tea but was really dinner, Hinditron remembered being a hungry student and fixed us up. Too bad everybody was doing the same. I feel huge.)

Service Project School Teachers- We met with student teachers that will be working with disadvantaged youth. See pictures when I get them posted. Ten by ten foot rooms that families share with no running water, bathroom down the street. Some of the student teachers grew up there as well. We discussed the problems that face India and the US and brainstormed ways to solve them. My group did terrorism, two days after the bombing outside Mumbai. We decided that we need to understand why the bombings happen and help people have better lives so that they have the ability to protest in less violent ways. (No food, but we were too busy to care. Great NGO (Non Profit in the states) with caring people that will make a diffrence. )

Agra – we took a train to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal. Somehow Mick got sprayed by a small child. (The train station was the grossest thing I have ever seen or smelled, the toilets were holes down to the tracks, imagine. Rats everywhere on the tracks.) Joyann vomited with the grace of a gazelle (due to malaria drugs on an empty stomach). The ride was fine. Lots of people doing stuff in the fields (ask for pictures).

Jaipur – Met with small scale manufacturing (we shopped and talked to the shopkeepers). I got to sales people to say you might as well cut my throat. Rode elephants (Mick got sprayed), bought things (Ravi invited Joyann to New York) and we ate at Pizza Hut a lot.

Delhi- While we were in Delhi we met with the companies below

V-Customer- We learned that they hire people with attention paid to their English language skills and the region of India they are from because some regions have stronger accents and need more effort to train. After a person is hired they spend weeks being trained on voice, we were given an example of this. He spoke with an “English” accent than an “Eastern US” accent and sort of a Texan accent, each were very close. We also learned that the technicians we speak to on the phone for computer issues are very well trained and not reading from a manual. Needs an intern in marketing

Hero Honda- uses everything we learned in Management Operations. We heard terms like Muda, Kaizan, Kanban, the six s’s and saw all of it on the floor. But there were no women on the floor at all. They offer classes to the wives on how to take care of their husbands, because they have such demanding jobs (they learn things like money management and other skills that are very helpful).

National Association for the Blind-NAB was very interesting and I'll be hitting you all up for money for them. The head of the school is also a graduate and they do great work integrating the students into the school system but they also work with developmentally disabled students. Deaf, blind and disabled give money.

Dude, I am here!!
two days and I have spent more than I make in a month... Stop me. I have bought two hand made suits, four blouses, 21 scarves, one sari, and a bunch of shiny things. It is beautiful, hot, chaotic, peaceful, lovely, and poor. (I will improve the economy.) I will post pictures later as I am on dial up. (Kill me. It is so slow.) Maybe at Microsoft we can tap in.

We met with VCustomer yesterday, really cool call center. If you call netgear support, upromise or target customer support these are the people you get. Nice friendly and they gave us food and drinks.
Today we go to the school of the blind and Hero Honda. We plan to steal motorcycles. Don’t tell. :)

15 days until I leave I should really be packing but I ran into one of my professors today, you may know him, Sandeep Krishnamurthy. (He is a great instructor, if you ever get the chance take him). Well, I told him I would keep up my writing of this blog during my trip to India.

It really is not very exciting right now, but these are companies we will be visiting.
ICICI Bank
Infosys Technologies
Bombay Stock Exchange
Microsoft Research & Development Center
Dr. Reddy's (Pharmaceutical)
Mobile Creches (Childcare)
Hero Honda
Sun Pharmaceuticals
Hinditron (High Tech & IT)
V-Customer (Customer Service)
Pretty cool!!!