What a week!

Apologies for the lull in updates!

Our first week here in Bangalore felt pretty much like a vacation, but this week we made like Mulan and got down to some serious business...analysis. I'm fairly sure I'm not allowed to disclose our actual project at length, but what I can say is that we are expected to deliver a functioning application by the end of our four weeks of project sim, and that the pressure is definitely on...! *cue nervous laughter*

Work aside, it was still a fun week. Checked out a few new restaurants like Mainland China and Herbs & Spices (where we watched the Brazil vs Holland game), went back to Medici to fulfill my steak craving, enjoyed a rather rowdy TWU dinner/pub quiz on Wednesday, and continued with the delightful process of getting to know my fellow TWUers better and better each day.

This weekend, TWU XVII was supposed to go on an overnight camping trip. When I first heard about it I admit I wasn't exactly thrilled - sleeping in a tent when I can barely get in 1 REM cycle in a bed? Being exposed to the great outdoors just as I'm recovering from the latest blitz attack of mosquito bites? No Wi-Fi/showers/late night cookie-eating festivals in the kitchen? Nothxbai! It took me a few days to get off my high horse and shake the focus off all these relatively trivial discomforts (the cookie thing took a while to overcome), but by the time I became infected by TWUers' contagious excitement about s'mores and water games and sleeping under the stars!!...the trip was postponed, lol. To next weekend.

Then, Friday (yesterday) afternoon, we got an e-mailing telling us that a nationwide political strike is causing all offices across India to shut down this coming Monday, and that as a result, TWers are expected to work on Saturday. My first thought: awesome, strike/day off! My second thought: shoot, it's not actually a day off. In fact, it's a day on during the one day we need to have a day off so we can go camping...d'oh! Nobody really knows what the plan is at the moment...I'll keep you guys posted on how this one plays out. Fingers crossed for s'mores!

We're going to Commercial Street (for real this time) today. I'm both pumped and a bit apprehensive about going back there... pumped for all the cool wares & gifts I hope to buy, apprehensive about whether or not I can handle the massive throngs of staring, yelling, beckoning vendors. I Google'd "haggling tips in India" and apparently the best way of getting the price you want is by having a game face of sorts and always pretending you're marginally indifferent/disinterested in the item, which gives you the upper hand. Unfortunately, I don't have a game face. Or if I do, it's just a nervous smile exposing a piece of spinach caught in my teeth. I'll definitely take pictures and share what I do buy, but here's to hoping that I don't get ripped off too much...

P.S. If the time/date seem weird, it's because I just changed account settings to India time, which is 9.5 (??) hours ahead of central time. (Don't worry, this blog hasn't become a time-warp zone. You are not in the future...only I am!)