Kabini

This past weekend we went down to Kabini Jungle Lodges and Resorts to go on a wild jungle safari. It was a really lush resort area, monkeys all over the place, and we had two jungle safaris and a boat ride. We actually got up really close to some of the animals and those with better cameras than I got some great pictures.

Been doing some learning

I don't really talk about work all that much, but I am learning a lot. I'm a lot more comfortable with Java and application structure now. The workdays are fun, the people are great, and I'm excited to get onto a project after all of this. I'm probably most curious to hear about what it's like at other companies from friends at Diamond and Accenture.

On another note, I've grown to like foosball. We've got a foosball table in both offices and the game is a lot more fun than I remember. I've also gotten some good ping pong practice in during the off hours with Steve. He'll let me win one of these days.


No.

Karaoke

So there's this pub near the office called The Legends of Rock. Last week we ventured out there and had a good time, so we decided to head back there for karaoke night. If you take a look at the website and think a little bit about the name, you'll probably get a good grasp of what kind of music they play there. Of course, the music range isn't as constricted as I thought it would be. They playing RATM, NIN, Ozzy, but then they played:


You oughtta know.

Anyway, karaoke night was a blast. It really is nice to hear familiar tunes, even if its not exactly my favorite music. The coolest part is seeing this other side of India compared to the more conservative parts. Of course, we didn't just go to watch; we contributed our fair share: RATM's Renegades of Funk (Steve), Tom Petty's Free Fallin' (me), NIN's Head Like a Hole (Sherry), Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar on Me (Julie), and Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart (Derek). Sadly the night ended before we could get Andrew, our token Australian, to sing American Woman.

Bannerghatta National Park

Today six of us went down to Bannerghatta National Park to see the zoo and go on a nature safari! The zoo area was pretty big and monkeys roamed around pretty freely throughout.



After the zoo, we went out on the safari and got to see some big animals up close. The animals here are supposedly all rescued from circuses and other shows like that. I also got to see a white Bengal tiger!







The real zoo was outside:

Pecha Kucha

Today I did my Pecha Kucha. It's a style of presentation where you create twenty slides that each transition on a twenty second timer. It's a good way to practice presenting, and it provides constraints that help boost creativity in presenting. The slides on the video might be a little hard to see, so if you want to follow along, you can find the slides here



Also, you should check out Steve's blog for an awesome video of him dancing.

Dream

Every once in a while, I have a really vivid dream - so vivid that I could draw every scene with precision. I started to write these down the second I wake up, so that the memory doesn't fade. This is last night's dream.


I’m in a house (looks like my old Dothan house) and with three unknown women, my mother, my brother and his wife. I get up and play some acoustic guitar for a bit. One of the girls gets up, claiming I was showing off and says that its her turn to show off. She wants to prove she’s better. We go to the other room – she’s carrying a guitar amplifier with her. She sets it down and hooks it up to an electric guitar on the ground. It looks like just the top half - no body of the guitar. She puts her foot on it and starts playing with her feet. She seems to be playing along to the tv, making up a soundtrack as the tv program plays. I start watching TV in the other room with my brother, his wife, and my mom. The Simpsons are playing. It’s a Halloween episode with the aliens and a big weather balloon, and they’re going through the forest. Kathy says she’s hungry but everyone else has eaten except for her. She tries to drag Michael along with her to go eat, but he doesn’t want to go. He claims that he hasn’t seen this episode of Simpsons, but I’m pretty sure that he has – he just really likes it. I almost forget about the girl in the other room, so I go back to listen to her playing guitar with her foot. I turn on the TV in this room to get a feel of how the music blends with the tv. This time I’m watching some show where Muhammad Ali is at a police station and he’s been caught for some petty crime. The sheriff chides Ali about how he couldn't just be patient.

Chillin with the kids

Today after work, we all went down to Angel's Orphanage in Bangalore to see some of the kids.





They even held a performance for us. It began with some fun little songs, including "If you're happy and you know it." Then they performed some traditional dance routines. However, there was a very clear turning point in the direction these performances were going. About seven of them stood and sang a bible hymn, which I wasn't expecting. Then immediately afterward, they blasted "Soulja Boy" and promptly began to break dance.

After that we all got up and dance partied for two hours and had a ton of fun. I don't know what they feed those kids there, but they had immense amounts of energy. All the guys were breakdancing, doing handstands, and rolling around. The girls were running around and teaching bharatanatyam to us.

I got pampered!

Today was a good, relaxing day!

Started off with steak and potatoes for lunch at Road Trip. Afterward, Felix (Chinese trainer from Calgary), Weiwei (Chinese TWUer from Melbourne), and I went to a salon to get haircuts.

That haircut had to be the best haircut I've ever gotten. Growing up in white suburbs, very few know how to cut an Asian person's hair. In Evanston, there was only one person that knew how, and every Asian had her number and work hours. Luckily, I'm in Asia, and they've all specialized by now.

After the haircut, Felix and I decided to stay after for some relaxing back massages. It was my first time getting a massage anywhere, and it was a new, slightly invasive, but good experience. Sadly, I'm ticklish. It probably would have been a much more relaxing experience if I didn't flinch every time my armpits, sides, or neck was touched. After the massage, we winded down in the steam room and just sweated.

The shower afterward was also the best shower I've had since I got to India. The water was nice and hot, and the water pressure was perfect. Once we got dressed, they even brought out tea and water for us. Wonderfully relaxing stuff. I definitely plan on going back before I leave India.

Weekend in Mascal - Sleep and Morning

The night accommodations were rough due to poor expectation setting. We were told that we would be getting huge tents with comfortable bedding, sheets, and everything else we would possibly need. With this in mind, I only brought some extra clothing with me on the trip. Unfortunately, when night came, we were presented with our 2-person tents (which they claimed fit 5 people), and blue foam pads to use as beds.
Of course, I only buy multi-purpose clothing, so I quickly transformed my T-shirts into pillows, and my shorts into blankets.


Expert camper.

The night was pretty cold and the wind was picking up in the middle of the night. Also, one thing that never fails to keep me awake was within reach - a snorer. It wasn't even my tent-mate though. The tents were so close together that I could hear a neighboring camper snoring. Given a snoring situation, I "accidentally" kick the person to get it to stop, but this one was safely out of my reaches.


You win this time.

I got up at 5am in hopes of seeing the sunrise. Sadly, the clouds put a damper on the morning and the sun wasn't spotted until 9. Anyway, we spent most of the morning lounging around. Half of us went out on inner tubes, while four people went out on the kayaks. It was a great, relaxing experience. Being out there wasn't like being in India or any one place - it was just being outdoors.

Weekend in Mascal - Into the night

Since spending the night was not mandatory, a lot of people headed back to Bangalore after dinner. Although sleeping was rough, the night was great. After most people had gone back to their tents to sleep, I stayed up by the campfire with a fellow TWer Aarti, and two of the Outback India guides, Karan (male) and Sam (female).

We stayed up playing games like twenty questions and just talking about all kinds of stuff. Before I got to the know Karan and Sam, I had assumed they were from around the area - like the villages that we had to drive through to get the campsite. After asking them if they were from Bangalore, Karan responded, "Yeah, why? Did you think we were from around here?" Wooo, I felt ignorant.

They were probably the most American-like people I have met since I got to India. We spent part of the night just listening to music on Karan's phone. I didn't think I'd be in the middle of nowhere of India, listening to Fireflies with a group of Indian people. It was nice going through his phone and recognizing band names that weren't all from the 80s.

At one point Sam took out her camera, and we played around with some light exposure pictures. I told her to send me the picture, which I don't think will ever really happen, but I made an awesome smiley face.

We played a bunch of twenty questions for a while - most of the answers had to do with Indian history, so I was pretty useless after the first 3 questions. Eventually it started getting cold and windy, and the fire was dying down, so we all went to bed.

Weekend in Mascal - Sportiness

The reservoir next to our campsite is formed by a dam that blocks off the flow of water. After our team competition, we headed down towards some huge rocks for some rappelling. However, in order to make it across to the dam, we needed to cross a stretch of water. In our teams once again, we needed to create a raft for 10 team members using 5 inner tubes, 4 wooden poles, and a sack of rope. Of course MacGyver could do it with much less.


This.

After making it across the water, we just swam, played with the tubes, and later went up a rock-side to do rappelling. I also found out that the location is next to the Manchanabele Reservoir - The water was clean, and it was great being out in the sun. Rappelling in India was not quite what I had expected, in the sense that, I expected ACTUAL rappelling. The first two steps were like walking down the rockface, but after that, rappelling quickly turned into "hold the rope so you don't freefall to your death."

"Weeeee!"

Just as everyone finished rappelling, rain started blasting down in sheets. I stayed in the water and swam back to the campsite because the water was warmer than bearing the rain on land. I swam back accompanied by Sam (a female Outback India guide) and two other Outback India guys in a kayak followed alongside, all to make sure I stay alive. I felt pretty safe until after 20 feet, Sam got her legs stuck in a fishing net.

As quickly as it started, the rain stopped. The sun was beginning to set and everyone relaxed by the campfire and enjoyed the free time outdoors. Some people played volleyball, others just laid on the rocks. The day was winding down and so were the people.