Mumbai for the Weekend

We are up at what feels like the beginning of time and on our way to the airport for Mumbai. It's Hillary's second trip and my first. Having only seen Slumdog Millionaire, I'm very curious to see how one of the more developed Indian cities looks and feels up close. We're flying on Kingfisher airlines, and we'll be back in Hyderabad late Sunday night. Wish us safe travels.

Be good,

-TJS

Yes Really Means "I Don't Know But I Will Say Yes Because I Think It Is What You Want To Hear"

It's been just over three weeks since my arrival in Hyderabad. In some ways, it feels like a few months have passed, but when I look over at the couple of boxes that still need to be unpacked, I'm reminded of the fact that I really just got here.

Between the work schedule, the shopping for home furnishings, the social life and a flakey internet connection, I've managed to go three weeks without updating the blog. A lot has happened, but I'll try to stick to the highlights (or low-lights). We're alive and well, and we are adjusting rather quickly to a place that is very different from home.

I think one of the more valuable lessons we've learned so far is that being an educated consumer is not a luxury but a requirement here. If you don't know exactly what you want, you won't get it; at least not on the first try. When you ask a question like, "Will this DVD player play US DVD's?", the response you get 9 out of 10 times is, "Yes". It doesn't matter if this is really the case or not. This problem is compounded with the fact that there is a zero return policy. Once the sale is made, it is pretty much impossible to undo it and get your money back. If you are lucky, you can exchange what you have for what you really needed. Even this requires you to first be unpleasant enough to make the person you are dealing with uncomfortable enough to want to help you, just so you will stop harassing them.

On a more positive note, I now know that it is possible for two guys to deliver a water dispenser and a 32" flat panel TV on a motorcycle. Yes, that's one motorcycle. What's even more amazing is that both devices worked when we plugged them in!!

I hope things are going well for everyone back in the states. I'll blog again soon, but until then, have a great week.

Be good,

-TJS

Things are progressing in a positive direction for us here in Hyderabad. T.J. arrived safely last night (finally!). Mattresses were delivered on Thursday (only a week after they were originally promised) and our car was delivered on Wednesday. We found a driver who starts Monday (the first one I interviewed didn't speak English, so we scrambled to find a new person mid week). We have couple of water leaks in our house, but we are working to get them resolved. Our microwave/oven was not delivered, but we will try to sort that out today. Now we just have to wait on our furniture to be delivered (couches, dining room table, and beds) and buy our TV(s). We have all of the keys to our house, which makes it feel more like home...now I just have to figure out how to clean it since I underestimated the amount of dust we would have to deal with out here in Gachibowli (if I googled it, it would probably mean dust bowl in Hindi).

All this to say things are good here...well minus the trip to the dentist I am going to have to make today. I noticed I had a cracked tooth, so I am going to try to get it fixed before it becomes a real problem. I am only nervous because, generally speaking, sanitation standards are not the same here as we are used to in the U.S....the quality of medical care is good though. I will ask T.J. to update our blog to let you know if I don't survive for some reason. Have a great day!

Lots of Love!

-H

Settling In-dia

I am desperate for things to go well today with our settling in process in India. We have a laundry list of things to get done today (not limited to getting our car, securing a driver to drive the car, picking up an oven, ordering a TV, collecting the rest of the keys for our new place, sending my passport off to collect our air shipment, getting mattresses delivered, etc.)...not to mention actually getting some work done for my day job. As promised, moving to India has been a frustrating experience. Some things they do better, and some things they don't do well at all here...for the good example: many places have escalators that will not turn on until someone is approaching, which keeps it from running wastefully all day...for the not good example: managing customer expectations. It seems the retail culture here is to provide every customer the instant gratification of the words “yes, that is possible” regardless of the actual level of impossibility. You are met with one empty promise after another and it seems many times you have to get very serious/mean before people follow through on such promises. Speaking very generally, it seems they have not yet realized that if they gave an honest answer on when things will be delivered/installed and what is actually available (rather than what they think the customer wants to hear) they would avoid the unhappy customer scenario all together...which is supposed to be the goal, isn't it? Despite my best efforts, I have been forced to waste large amounts of time waiting around for deliveries that were never really going to happen and events that were never really going to occur. I have been working with a relocation team, but again, it seems they weren't serious about getting things done until they realized I am not really that nice, especially when my time and money is at stake.

Let me be clear here, I have been misled by many U.S. retailers in my life, but at least in the U.S. I am comfortable with my recourse options. In India when the going gets tough the person on the other end of the phone line usually only really speaks Hindi, not American English. So I have to rely on others to get things straightened out for me...which creates a desperate and sort of hopeless feeling. It is a difficult transition to go from a super independent New York working girl to a super dependent Expat in India. I am approaching week 3 of our adventure, I have been told it takes about 2 months to get settled...as you have already figured out, I have 5 more weeks of frustrating days. Even still, I am confident I will triumph and will emerge on the other end better equipped to take on this 2 year adventure. At a minimum T.J. will be here by the end of the week, so I will be able to leverage off of his schedule to sort out some of our chaos. I was able to take a break from it all to celebrate a birthday and spend time with some friends in Goa this weekend. I just went for a night, but it was great to get away.



We do at least have a place to live, even if we do not have a single piece of furniture. Our place:

One upside to not living in New York is actually having some extra living space!! I will work on fixing the furniture problem today!

Lots of Love!
-H

En Route

Thanks to the wisdom of my mom and several other influences, my head is filled with old adages that, when aptly applied, really can make life easier. Sayings like "a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush", or "a stitch in time saves nine". The one that has been lingering in my mind for the past couple of weeks is "don't count your chickens, before your eggs hatch". This seems to apply mostly to matters of finance, but in my case, it applies to my employment visa.

I've spent the past several weeks jumping through hoops, waiting, and jumping through more hoops. Apparently volunteering (out of the blue) to go work in India doesn't necessarily mean an easy transition. There are a lot of moving parts and hand-offs that, from my perspective, could go awry and grind the process to a screeching halt. At some point, I was certain they were sending me to a remote village in China to teach German and finance to a group of 6 year olds, in hopes of building brand recognition for UBS.

Keeping the old chicken adage in mind, I've refrained from fully committing to being excited about the fact that I will be boarding a flight in three days and embarking on a journey that will surely impact Hillary and me in ways we have yet to even contemplate.

As I was leaving my farewell celebration Friday evening (full of calamari and potato skins), I received a message from a 1-800 number. I hit play, expecting to delete it after listening for 2 seconds, but I quickly realized who it was from. It was an automated message from FedEx providing a tracking number and a delivery date for...you guessed...my passport and visa!!

If you are thinking there are still a few things that could go wrong, you should stop reading now, go wash your mouth out with soap (since you can't wash your brain out), then start thinking about happy things like puppies or kittens.

If that doesn't put you in the right frame of mind, there isn't much I can do for you.

The bottom line is my paperwork is en route, and in a few days, I will be en route, too. Stay tuned, for the next installment of our big adventure.

India or Bust!

As I sit here in a nearly empty apartment, where all that remains is the patio furniture, two very large duffle bags and an inflatable mattress, I can’t help but think our little adventure has begun. The reality is our adventure began several months ago.

Hillary was nearing the end of her first three month assignment in Hyderabad. We were on the phone one night (morning for her), and she asked the question, “How would feel about moving to India for two years?” My reaction was about what you might expect. I said, “Of course wife…anything to be where you are.” Actually, I immediately started thinking about the logistics of the idea, and I’m sure my response more closely resembled a primitive grunt than an expression of my lack of excitement. We didn’t talk about it anymore that night, but the seed had been planted.

I’ll spare you the gory details, but I will say that one of our strengths as a couple is our ability to convince each other to do just about anything, as long we get to do it together, and the pros at least marginally outweigh the cons. In this particular case, we feel like the benefits will be significantly greater than the challenges.

Fast-forward to Saturday afternoon; two weeks ago. As we are scampering through Target and asking one another if we should get a second cart (deciding not to, even as things continue to jump out of the one we have), the magnitude of what we were about to do started to sink in a little more. Hillary was due to fly out Monday, but very little had been done in the way of preparing. Maybe that’s why it hadn’t really sunk in, yet. All but a few of the next 48 hours or so were spent preparing for Hillary’s departure. The break was spent attending a farewell dinner hosted by Lynda (one of Hillary's Directors) and her husband Mario. The authentic Italian cuisine was excellent and abundant, and gesture was greatly appreciated.

By late Sunday, the first of what would be 6-10 inches of snow had started to drift in. Being a kid from Texas, I still get excited when the snow falls and starts to coat the ground. This time, my excitement was tempered with concerns for what it would mean for a Monday evening flight. We forged ahead with operation India or Bust! and checked the flight status over and over and over… and over again. It still showed up as "on schedule", but we both knew better.

At some point, an exhausted Hillary looks in my direction and asks if this was some sort of an omen. I wasn’t sure how respond then, but I think I know now. Not even the heaviest snow fall New York has gotten all year could stop what had been set into motion. The flight was airborne a mere 25 minutes behind schedule, which for Newark means it was on time. There was no question about it. We were going to India.

And so begin The Adventures of Hillary and T.J.

We will do our best to update this blog regularly, as things continue to develop. We hope you enjoy following along.

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