Day 2

My morning
After sleeping most of yesterday, I woke up at 6:30 this morning with nothing to do. I turned on the television and found what is sure to be my favorite channel “Star World” (MI and JM: channel 56). This channel features popular American programming. This morning I watched Becker, Friends, and Oprah. I also receive HBO and Star Movies. It doesn’t seem like the Superbowl will be televised here, though there is a chance ESPN will show the game. One of the women in the office went to Drexel for her master’s degree and she is also hoping the game will be televised. My driver called up to announce he had arrived at 9:45, just as I had requested and he took me to the office. On the way to the office, I did not see random sitings of animals as I did yesterday (wild pigs and oxen? I’ve don’t think I’ve ever seen an ox before, but I guessing these was oxen), but I did experience the crazy traffic again. I am so happy not to have to drive here.

The office
A great group of people! Ashwin (the manager of the office) has done a good job finding people who would also fit in well at the CEB US office. Each person went out of their way to say hello and several asked me about my trip and the apartment. The women in particular are very kind.

The two designers are fantastic. I couldn’t be happier with the folks we have hired here. Simaran, an English literature major, speaks English very well with just a small Indian accent. Sumeet on the other hand has a very strong Indian accent within his English, but I am picking it up slowly. Sumeet travels 2.5 hours each way to get to the office each day!

Generally, people here enjoy a later schedule beginning around 10 or 10:30 and ending the day closer to 7 or so. The designers on our team will start by 9:30 at the latest to help with the file transfer (we can only send 110 MB per hour and the time difference is shorter in the between India end of day and US beginning of day – Sumeet and Simaran need to post the last of their files by 7:00pm at the very latest to ensure all projects get back to the US in time for start of business). I might get used to this 10:00 start. Perhaps I will use the time for a useful purpose…or maybe I just will just sleep 12 hours each night!

(Warning: this next part will only interest CSG folks)
We spent most of the morning going over the CEB organization and how CSG mirrored that. We then talked about career paths in CSG and CEB product types that the department designs. I then designed a page for the team and asked them to go their computers and try the page themselves. Today the team designed both the CFC and CIO new create exercises. Tomorrow, we will work on the MLC new create, DeltaGraph training, and DG exercises.

The Mall
I asked the driver to take me to a grocery store/supermarket. His English is not fantastic, so he called his boss and asked me to speak to him. His boss then translated my request. Either way it didn’t work out. Gryan (driver’s name, it means knowledge) took me to a mall which sold fast food – small misinterpretation of my request. I ordered a pizza at Pizza Hut…it was pretty decent and I have leftovers for tomorrow night. While waiting for the pizza I walked around the mall – I actually felt very comfortable there. Most of the folks in the mall dressed in modern clothing and must be considered affluent – each was dressed nicely in European/American-style clothing and none seemed to stare at me too much. At the office building many of the men (not those hired by CEB) stared at me…not sure if because I was American or an American woman – I didn’t see any other white folks in the building, so needless to stay I stuck out. Stores at the mall included: Levis, Lacoste, Lee, United Colors of Benetton, and others. I haven’t checked out prices yet (don’t worry Joe! I am not going on a spending spree!), but will report back : )

Electricity
Electricity goes out several times throughout the day but only for about 5 seconds each time. The booming economy and new technology requires a better electricity infrastructure system. Until then these small blackouts occur. At the office we have a back-up generator so we do not realize when the electricity cuts off, but while at home I do lose the lights and TV for short periods of time.