September 6th
I'm getting behind in my updates! I thought I'd have nothing but time on my hands when I wasn't at work but that is definitely not the case. There is always something going on. Either someone is leaving so we need to go out or it is someone's birthday or there is a good restaurant someone wants to try, etc. If we do anything after work with a group it usually means we don't get back home until 1am at the earliest! On Tuesday, August 30th we went out for Erica's going away get together. We went to Punjabi By Nature. It was an Indian restaurant so I was curious to see if I was going to like it as much as I did Bukara's. As it turned out I liked it just as much if not more - especially since it was cheaper! A big group of us went out.
Amritha, Neysha, Erica, Folake, Meenal, and me - the girls hanging out at the Grand after dinner. We stayed out a little to late this night - but it was a good time!
Folake, Abbas, and myself at the upstairs bar at Punjab by Nature - we closed the place down.
So I bought this outfit the previous weekend. I think it is called a Punjabi Suite. It is typical Indian wear at the office. I was excited to wear it when I bought it - for only rupees 500 ($12) - but the day I actually decided to wear it I was a little nervous about it. I just felt weird about it. It was so comfortable though. And the reaction I got at work made me want to go out and by 10 more!! Everyone loved it on me. The SCAs were so cute. Some made it a point to come over and tell me how good I looked. I got several sametimes as well. 'Ma'am you look beautiful today', 'Ma'am you look very nice today in your Indian clothes' - Ma'am is what they call me!! Makes me feel so old!!
So the ride home from work SUCKS (sorry Mom - but that is the best word for it)!! It is 9pm when we leave work and the days are always so long. The last thing we want to deal with is driving in a car/bus on the roads here for an hour. Plus there is always some hassle with leaving so we almost always have to wait around. We discovered that the driver of the bus will get us beer if we tip him well. I missed the first few times they got him to do it. Apparently the first few times he took the money and ran across the street and came back in a cycle rickshaw with all the beer. This past Thursday when I was on the bus I guess he stopped closer to the store because he walked there and back. The beer just make the ride a little more relaxing and bearable!!
Friday after work we went to a place called Dublins. It is in the Sheraton right around the corner from our hotel. It is very expensive but close and a pretty cool place so the SMEs seem to go there a bunch. This was my first time there. I was disappointed that an Irish sounding bar didn't have any Cider. Above is Meenal, Elliott, and Natalie.
Shelita, Situ, and Abbas' cousin Adil.
Adil, Abbas, Julie, Jason, Natalie, Elliott, Meenal, and me - Saturday night we went to the Park hotel for dinner and the club that is in the hotel. The restaurant was Indian food. Again another Indian restaurant that I enjoyed. This hotel was very modern and trendy looking. The restaurant was named 'Fire' - as you can see from the flames behind us.
We went out shopping on Sunday and this was on the corner along the way. Monkeys just hanging out!!
This was an outfit I bought this weekend. The complete outfit cost me rupees 300 ($7). Again a very comfortable skirt!!
So if you noticed above I said rupees and then the amount. That is how you are suppose to say it here! I was helping a SCA with an issue the other day where she was talking about giving someone money. She said she gave the person 'dollar 100'. It was cute. And then she even messed up and said 'rupee dollar 100' once.
I had been hearing about this Birthday tradition they have here where they smear cake all over each others face. That had been pretty much all I had heard. Well one of the DC PMs had a Birthday yesterday so I got to experience it for myself! They have a birthday fund here much like at Summit - so if it is your birthday everyone gets together and there is cake. It is a much bigger turn out than at home - everyone participates here. The tradition - I think in India is to feed the birthday person the first bite. Then what they usually do is smear the cake on the persons face - much like we do at weddings! They didn't actually smear the cake on the PMs face but during that celebration they realized one of the SCAs had a birthday on the weekend. When they went to feed him the cake they smeared it on his face. They said it was tradition to feed the cake but it was a Hewitt tradition to smear the cake!! :o)
Today I went to a presentation put on by a couple of the DC SCAs. For the Alcoa team they had a few SCAs go to Lincolnshire to help with the implementation. They basically gave a presentation on their experience. It was really funny to hear their side of it. Here are a few things I found interesting/funny!!
- When they first got to the US someone sametimed them and asked them to 'stop by'. The SCA had no idea what this meant - to him it was a total foreign phrase. He had to ask someone for the exact meaning.
-They are use to having their keyboard on a sliding thing beneath their desk. They seemed to be in total shock that it would be on top of the desk. Apparently that is all they have ever experienced so it was just funny that was one of the main things he brought up as an experience. He also mentioned that our desk were full of stuff - in India all the desks are very clean with only a few pictures or papers hanging on the wall. They were laughing at how if someone liked baseball they had all kinds of baseball stuff all over the cube. And they were even amazed that someone had a basketball net at their desk.
-They don't understand the concept of lunch at your desk. In India NO ONE eats at their desk - it is even not allowed, according to building rules (they said they had a rat/bug) problem. They were amazed at how many and how often people ate at their desk in the US. They also thought it was strange that where you get your coffee, tea, soda, etc that there were no seats to sit down and hang out. In India they have more free time than we do in the US so this is a very common thing to do.
-The SCA also mentioned how in India he does about 50 - 60% client work a week. He said when they were in Lincolnshire they did about 90%. He was very amazed at how much more work there was to get done when you were actually in the states. He was also amazed at the hours that people worked. They are use to about 8.5 hours, where in the US the average was more like 10.
-The funnies thing he brought up was how we talked about the weekend. He said that on Monday and Tuesday everyone talked about what they did the past weekend. Wednesday was a day that we took a break from talking about the weekend. Then Thursday and Friday we talked about what we were going to do the coming weekend. He laughed and said 'Even sometimes they talk about what they are going to do the coming weekend on Monday'!! It was funny to hear it from their point of view. They mentioned that they wake up Saturday and decide what to do on the weekend - no planning or talking about it!
I'm getting behind in my updates! I thought I'd have nothing but time on my hands when I wasn't at work but that is definitely not the case. There is always something going on. Either someone is leaving so we need to go out or it is someone's birthday or there is a good restaurant someone wants to try, etc. If we do anything after work with a group it usually means we don't get back home until 1am at the earliest! On Tuesday, August 30th we went out for Erica's going away get together. We went to Punjabi By Nature. It was an Indian restaurant so I was curious to see if I was going to like it as much as I did Bukara's. As it turned out I liked it just as much if not more - especially since it was cheaper! A big group of us went out.
Amritha, Neysha, Erica, Folake, Meenal, and me - the girls hanging out at the Grand after dinner. We stayed out a little to late this night - but it was a good time!
Folake, Abbas, and myself at the upstairs bar at Punjab by Nature - we closed the place down.
So I bought this outfit the previous weekend. I think it is called a Punjabi Suite. It is typical Indian wear at the office. I was excited to wear it when I bought it - for only rupees 500 ($12) - but the day I actually decided to wear it I was a little nervous about it. I just felt weird about it. It was so comfortable though. And the reaction I got at work made me want to go out and by 10 more!! Everyone loved it on me. The SCAs were so cute. Some made it a point to come over and tell me how good I looked. I got several sametimes as well. 'Ma'am you look beautiful today', 'Ma'am you look very nice today in your Indian clothes' - Ma'am is what they call me!! Makes me feel so old!!
So the ride home from work SUCKS (sorry Mom - but that is the best word for it)!! It is 9pm when we leave work and the days are always so long. The last thing we want to deal with is driving in a car/bus on the roads here for an hour. Plus there is always some hassle with leaving so we almost always have to wait around. We discovered that the driver of the bus will get us beer if we tip him well. I missed the first few times they got him to do it. Apparently the first few times he took the money and ran across the street and came back in a cycle rickshaw with all the beer. This past Thursday when I was on the bus I guess he stopped closer to the store because he walked there and back. The beer just make the ride a little more relaxing and bearable!!
Friday after work we went to a place called Dublins. It is in the Sheraton right around the corner from our hotel. It is very expensive but close and a pretty cool place so the SMEs seem to go there a bunch. This was my first time there. I was disappointed that an Irish sounding bar didn't have any Cider. Above is Meenal, Elliott, and Natalie.
Shelita, Situ, and Abbas' cousin Adil.
Adil, Abbas, Julie, Jason, Natalie, Elliott, Meenal, and me - Saturday night we went to the Park hotel for dinner and the club that is in the hotel. The restaurant was Indian food. Again another Indian restaurant that I enjoyed. This hotel was very modern and trendy looking. The restaurant was named 'Fire' - as you can see from the flames behind us.
We went out shopping on Sunday and this was on the corner along the way. Monkeys just hanging out!!
This was an outfit I bought this weekend. The complete outfit cost me rupees 300 ($7). Again a very comfortable skirt!!
So if you noticed above I said rupees and then the amount. That is how you are suppose to say it here! I was helping a SCA with an issue the other day where she was talking about giving someone money. She said she gave the person 'dollar 100'. It was cute. And then she even messed up and said 'rupee dollar 100' once.
I had been hearing about this Birthday tradition they have here where they smear cake all over each others face. That had been pretty much all I had heard. Well one of the DC PMs had a Birthday yesterday so I got to experience it for myself! They have a birthday fund here much like at Summit - so if it is your birthday everyone gets together and there is cake. It is a much bigger turn out than at home - everyone participates here. The tradition - I think in India is to feed the birthday person the first bite. Then what they usually do is smear the cake on the persons face - much like we do at weddings! They didn't actually smear the cake on the PMs face but during that celebration they realized one of the SCAs had a birthday on the weekend. When they went to feed him the cake they smeared it on his face. They said it was tradition to feed the cake but it was a Hewitt tradition to smear the cake!! :o)
Today I went to a presentation put on by a couple of the DC SCAs. For the Alcoa team they had a few SCAs go to Lincolnshire to help with the implementation. They basically gave a presentation on their experience. It was really funny to hear their side of it. Here are a few things I found interesting/funny!!
- When they first got to the US someone sametimed them and asked them to 'stop by'. The SCA had no idea what this meant - to him it was a total foreign phrase. He had to ask someone for the exact meaning.
-They are use to having their keyboard on a sliding thing beneath their desk. They seemed to be in total shock that it would be on top of the desk. Apparently that is all they have ever experienced so it was just funny that was one of the main things he brought up as an experience. He also mentioned that our desk were full of stuff - in India all the desks are very clean with only a few pictures or papers hanging on the wall. They were laughing at how if someone liked baseball they had all kinds of baseball stuff all over the cube. And they were even amazed that someone had a basketball net at their desk.
-They don't understand the concept of lunch at your desk. In India NO ONE eats at their desk - it is even not allowed, according to building rules (they said they had a rat/bug) problem. They were amazed at how many and how often people ate at their desk in the US. They also thought it was strange that where you get your coffee, tea, soda, etc that there were no seats to sit down and hang out. In India they have more free time than we do in the US so this is a very common thing to do.
-The SCA also mentioned how in India he does about 50 - 60% client work a week. He said when they were in Lincolnshire they did about 90%. He was very amazed at how much more work there was to get done when you were actually in the states. He was also amazed at the hours that people worked. They are use to about 8.5 hours, where in the US the average was more like 10.
-The funnies thing he brought up was how we talked about the weekend. He said that on Monday and Tuesday everyone talked about what they did the past weekend. Wednesday was a day that we took a break from talking about the weekend. Then Thursday and Friday we talked about what we were going to do the coming weekend. He laughed and said 'Even sometimes they talk about what they are going to do the coming weekend on Monday'!! It was funny to hear it from their point of view. They mentioned that they wake up Saturday and decide what to do on the weekend - no planning or talking about it!
posted by Angela Cooley at 3:21 AM
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