Happy Republic Day

It has been a very busy few weeks since my last post. The weekend of January 9/10 I was supposed to travel to Goa, but my friend I was going to travel with ended up having to work so we had to cancel. Since I had no plans for the weekend I decided to relax. I got a couple of runs in, spent Saturday sitting by the pool and then went to brunch with a friend and dinner with a coworker on Sunday. Brunch was amazing. They started by bringing out small plates with different tastes and then a few dessert plates. I thought we were done and then my friend warned me that was just a warm-up…there was still a full buffet! We walked around and there was SO much food, any cuisine you wanted. Then we got to the dessert area and there was a full table of different desserts. I sampled a bit of everything and was stuffed. The most surprising thing about brunch is how similar it was to being back home. As they say…there were lots of “basic bitches” at brunch. After all of that I met my coworker for dinner a few hours later. I could probably have afforded to skip dinner after everything I had for brunch, but we went for full 3 course dinner of Thai food. I ordered the apps and then my Indian coworker ordered the soup. I’m not a huge fan of spicy food and the soup we ordered had some red chilies. I ate one and my face must have lit up right away, because both my coworker and the wait staff commented on it. We went on to order dinner and the wait staff made a point of ensuring my dinner wasn’t spicy (which was much appreciated). The end of that week I was able to link up with a friend from high school who I hadn’t seen since we graduated who was in India visiting family. It was great to catch up with him and meet one of his cousins who is living here in Bangalore.

I was very fortunate to be able to come home to see my two good friends Meghan and Ross get married the weekend of the 16/17. I had asked my manager before I moved over to India and he had approved it, but I decided to not tell people and surprise everyone once I was home. I had a few issues with my visa/residence permit and wasn’t sure I would get everything in time for the trip home but it all came together in time. I also was able to find a dress here in India, but still needed to find shoes. I flew out of India Friday early morning and arrived home that afternoon. Some of my family came over for dinner/dessert that night and then I went out in Breezy for a bit. Saturday was Stanner Games and so I spent most of the day at the Armory catching up with some Molloy people and then had dinner with a few high school friends. Sunday morning I woke up and still didn’t have shoes for the wedding that afternoon. I ran out to the store and picked up a pair and then quickly got myself ready for the wedding. The wedding was absolutely beautiful and it was great to get to catch up with so many people. Monday I went to Brennan and Carr for lunch and then went out to dinner to celebrate Maire’s birthday. And then Tuesday morning bright and early I was off to the airport to head back to India. It was a whirlwind of a trip but it was great to see/catch up with many people. (Sorry to everyone I wasn’t able to catch up with, too much to squeeze into 3 days)

While I was in the airport a friend from India contacted me about traveling to Goa that weekend since Tuesday was a holiday and many people were taking long weekends. I decided why not…so I booked a ticket to Goa for the weekend while I was waiting to fly out of NY (well I attempted to at least, my credit card company flagged it as a fraud but I was able to sort that out when I got back to India). I hopped on my flight to Dubai where I had a 5 hour layover. All was going well, I hit the duty free store and bought a few bottles of wine/liquor and then got some shake shack when I realized I didn’t know where one of my work phones was. I tried to remember the last time I saw it, but it was all a bit hazy. I checked with security in the Dubai airport, called JFK and sent my dad a text to see if it was home, but had no luck with any of them. It was a bit over an hour before my plane was supposed to take off at this point. I decided I’d wait a bit and ask again at the gate for them to check if my phone had been found on my last flight. I checked with the staff at the gate and they called to check for me. We were on hold for about 20 minutes so now they were looking to close the gate within the next 20 minutes. Eventually we got an answer and they had found my phone…but it would take at least a half hour for them to get the phone to me. The gate supervisor was very nice and agreed to hold the gate open until the phone got there. After a long while of worried faces on the part of me and the gate supervisor the phone showed up and I ran to get on the plane. I arrived back in India about 6:30pm, got back to the apartment by 8:30 and then had a few work calls. Thursday and Friday were back to the grind in the office.

My friend and I that were traveling to Goa were sort of flying by the seat of our pants. As of Thursday we hadn’t booked a hotel yet. So we found a cheap place near to one of the beaches in the north and booked that Thursday night. We had a 6:30am flight Saturday morning so we were on our way to the airport by about 4am. Goa is a state on the West Coast of Southern India known for it’s beaches and party scene. Goa was invaded and later claimed by the Portuguese in the early 1500’s. This lead to many cultural differences in Goa compared to many other parts of India. We arrived at our hotel around 930am on Saturday and I think we quickly realized our mistake…trying to save money on hotels in India is not a good idea, you are much better off paying a bit extra. (Lesson learned on that one) The beaches in Goa were spectacular! In many ways it reminded me of being home in Breezy. There are many huts along the beach that serve food and drinks. Saturday we were very tired and found a hut as soon as we arrived at the beach and camped there for the day. Saturday night we ventured around town, found some delicious dinner and wandered down near the beach to check out the party scene. Sunday we woke up late and made our way to the beach. This time we decided to adventure a bit more, we moved away from the very crowded areas and into the more Western/tourist areas. Food/drinks were much more expensive here, but it was also much more relaxing so I think we were both happy with our choices. The downside in Goa was the amount the vendors hassle you. I was trying to relax on the beach but it felt like every 5 minutes someone was coming up trying to sell me something. I witnessed a few accounts where children/young adults overstepped their bounds and it nearly came to blows with some locals. Also, almost none of the Indians had bathing suits so the women were  swimming in their traditional dress and the men were swimming in their underwear. Again lesson learned, next time I visit Goa I will go all out and book a resort for the weekend. The few pointers I had been given about Goa were I had to try some Fenni (it’s like a sweeter vodka) and I needed to try the seafood (since it’s so fresh). On both accounts I was pleasantly surprised and everything was delicious. My friend was staying until Wednesday morning but since I had been off most of last week I couldn’t afford to take off Monday. So for a last dinner we went out for a nice seafood dinner and they had a live band. The band was playing Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Simon & Garfunkel and many other bands, it was a great end to the weekend. Monday morning I left Goa bright and early, flew back into Bangalore and went into the office.

Just a few of the animals on the beach in Goa.

Delicious seafood dinner from my final night in Goa.

Typical beach wear. Beach was packed Sunday night.

Managed to find a Bud. Just like home.

By this point, I have to say I was completely exhausted and work was a struggle on Monday, but I made it through. Today (1/26) is Republic Day here in India. Personally I was very excited about this since I could use it to finally catch up on sleep and errands I hadn’t gotten to in a few weeks. Republic Day commemorates the day which the Constitution of India replaced the Government of India Act (from 1935) and India officially became an independent republic in 1950. The day is celebrated by a major parade in Delhi and a number of parades in other cities. The parade in Bangalore took place on MG Road very near to my apartment (but I have to admit I slept through it, I was way too exhausted). I woke up late, went for a run and ran out to the grocery store. On my way to the grocery store I saw a friend who live in my apartment complex also from the US and we stopped to chat for a few. When I got back from the store he was sitting at a bar outside the apartment and he said he’d be there for a bit. I dropped my groceries off upstairs and came back down to join him for a beer. We were bsing about different topics and then started talking about football. The guy next to me at the bar also happened to be from the US. So we had a Bears, Patriots and Giants fan sitting together at the bar. We started busting each others chops and then shared our experiences so far in India, it turned into a very nice afternoon. I’m sure everyone at the bar wasn’t happy about the Americans making a raucous about American football, but we had fun. As I sit here writing this outside my window I can see fireworks to celebrate Republic Day.  Back to the grind tomorrow.