|
SubscriptionsSites I Read
|
|
|
|
| Alright, it's been a while, I know. Anywho, I thought I'd take this opportunity to share with you the kind of publicity we have been catching for being the first group of Americans inducted into this Infosys program. A few of us have conducted interviews with the local media here in India since arriving. But from what I gather, I was the only one who conducted interviews back in the States before moving to India. Back in May, Infosys chose me to interview with a reporter from the Boston Globe and SearchCIO.com. You can check out the articles here:
Boston Globe
Search CIO
On a more local note, Infosys decided to publish a personal testimonial on our careers website:
Infosys Testimonial
So, my testimonial caught the eyes of some marketing executives out in Bangalore. They contacted me and asked me to pose for some photographs, and apparently I will be on Infosys advertising posters that will be used on college campuses across the US to help in the recruiting process. People here are now calling me the "Infosys Poster Boy", ha!
| | |
| ...the Americans are coming! So here we are, folks - all 127 of us! And from what I've been told, there will be more! We hail from universities and colleges ALL over the US. They include, but aren't limited to: Syracuse, RPI, Rutgers, UMASS, Boston University, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, Michigan, Michigan State, Carleton College, Texas, Arizona, Harvey-Mudd, Colorado, Washington, etc. There are so many others, but I am indeed the only bloke from MIT. To Michelle, I'm "MIT Matt." To a few others, I'm "the MIT guy." In any event, we have all been brought here together to join this wonderful company, and so the slate is wiped clean, and we must all make our own mark in the vast and highly dynamic world of Information Technology. And I do plan to do a lot of my own "marking"! :)
Can you find me...?
By the way, that amazing building behind us is called the GEC, Global Education Center. It is brand new, finished last February. If you couldn't find me, I'm in the red shirt, front row, right. So yeah, this proves I'm here and not off in Amsterdam gettin' high all day!
| | |
| It's been over a week since I last posted anything. I'm worthless, what can I say. Work has been very time-consuming lately, and I just haven't had any time to do anything worth putting up here. I did get wasted again Friday night, which was good for me - excellent stress relief. I've been reduced to one night of drinking a week because of our dry campus. So I'm determined to make that one night COUNT! hehe.
I have a ton of pictures I need to share on here, but I have to track down the people who took them! I also still owe y'all pictures of our Disneyland campus, which I promise to do after I finish this big project and exam I have this week.
So yeah, this place is like going to college except for one minor, minute detail:
I'M GETTING PAID TO LEARN!
And let me tell you, that makes ALL the difference in the world! I've never been more motivated in my life to learn, hehe.
| | |
| I had to rub it in some more; I know I can be sadistic at times. But I'm posting this because it made me soooo happy. This morning I was up ass early for some reason, so I decided to do laundry because during normal hours the laundromat is PACKED. I was finally able to use two washers at a time. Well, while my clothes were washing, I decided to check out breakfast at one of the food courts on campus. Before today, I had only eaten one time at a food court; it was for lunch a couple weeks ago. The food and spices make me nervous, as a lot of Americans have fallen sick. It's my goal to never get sick here. But today was for breakfast. I assumed there would be safe food to eat, and there certainly was! They had delicious "toast omelettes." It was basically a two egg omelette with onions and two pieces of toast in the middle. They serve it with sweet ketchup. It was mouth watering.
Here's the rub-in part. My breakfast consisted of two of these two egg omelettes and a cup of coffee. How much did it cost? A total of 30 Rupees! That's about 67 cents! I think I might hit that up again and then again! Living is so cheap out here! (for an American at least)
| | |
| This past Friday I had my real first shopping experience in India. I've been reluctant to shop thus far because of stories I've heard about shop owners inflating prices at the sight of Americans. But before we ventured out into Mysore, we were advised to only shop at places with prices marked on the items. This way, there is no room for lying about the price. I took this advice to heart and headed out to Mysore with 3 other Americans.
The cab drove us to a street that was literally lined with a gazillion little stores. Some more high end, and some were simply holes in the wall. We browsed all around, ducking into shop after shop. The predominant product was SILK. I probably saw 20+ silk shops, selling sarees, the traditional female outfit, and various silk manifestations. We didn't look at any, but I heard silk is hella cheap out here.
It was a fairly enjoyable experience, walking up and down this street, checking out the shops except for the children. There were child peddlers everywhere. I encountered probably 10 of them in an hour. They seemd to range in age from 4 or 5 (no joke) to early teenage years. They try and sell things dirt cheap - items like q tips, stringed flowers, balloons, trinkets, postcards, sunglasses, India flags, India pins, and the list goes on. These kids run around barefoot, in ragged clothes, unkept hair, and you can visually tell they haven't bathed in days if not weeks. I'll never forget one though. She was a little girl about 6 years old wearing torn shorts, half a shirt, and no shoes. Her hair was a mess and knotted up. She was selling packaged Q Tips for 10 Rupees, about 20 cents. She was speaking mostly in Hindi, I believe, or some other native tongue. But I could hear her say "10 Rupees, please, sir" over and over and over again. She would not stop. I tried not to look at her, but at one point she got in front of me and when I nearly ran her over, I had to look down to make sure I didn't, and I saw the most sorrowful, pathetic eyes ever. She either put on an unbelievable face or this was her. I could not tell, but I did know I couldn't bear to look at her again. She followed us for quite some time, mostly soliciting me. She kept trying to put the Q Tips in my hand, wishing me to buy from her. I had to make fists to keep her from doing so. We finally ducked into a store so we could get away.
I have a big heart, and I hate encounters like the above. I could have bought Q Tips from her to help her out. But they're like pigeons - feed one, and the others will swarm you. If I had bought from her, the others would have seen and would have bugged me incessantly. They see Americans and they flock. It would be different if I were a native. I could get away with buying something from a child peddler, but not us. It was hard, and I can't say I'm in a hurry to get back out there because of that sort of stuff. I guess at the end of the day, it was part of the experience. But I'll never forget the eyes of that poor little girl...
On a more positive note, the prices I encountered were unbelievable! I found some spectacular deals and came around with some new dress shoes, shirts, dress socks, and dinner and drinks at Park Lane hotel, our favorite establishment. Here is what I paid Friday night:
Brown, leather, dress shoes: Rs. 600 ($13.33)
5 dress socks: Rs. 100 ($2.22)
Hand-made silk tie (gorgeous!): Rs. 125 ($2.78)
Long sleeve dress shirt: Rs. 418 ($9.29)
3 long sleeve shirts, dressy, but not formal: Rs. 1138 ($25.29)
At the restaurant:
Dinner for 4, 12 650mL beers (that's a lot of beer!), 6 double shots of liquor, pack of cigarettes, totaling Rs. 1690 ($37.56) or ($9.39 per person!)
We rented a cab for 5 hours that drove us all the way into town, waited for us to shop, took us to the restaurant, waited for us there, then drove us all the way back to Infosys campus
This costed Rs. 600 ($13.33) or ($3.33 per person!)
So all in all, I personally spent Rs. 2953 ($65.63)! Not a bad night on the town with shopping if you ask me! You're jealous, I know you are. If you look at those numbers, the one that sticks out the most is the cab. Having a personal cab for 5 hours and paying just $13.33 is simply phenomenal! I have a similar cab experience to retell of my trip to Bangalore, which I hope to post soon!
| | |
|
