Annnnnd here comes culture shock

Last night I went to bed at 10 pm and couldn’t sleep past 4 am. My body is still entirely adjusting to the time change, which is much harder than it was a year ago when I went to Asia, (South Korea, Taiwan, etc.) I don’t want to jinx myself but I might even like it here. Good food, reasonably nice people, great hotel with excellent service. Once I actually start the G&S survey I’ll really know what I think. On my way out today I was feeling hesitant, I hadn’t been in public in a full day (it’s funny what that can do to you). I was about to go down and a man can out of the elevator, walked away and came back. “Excuse me?” he said, “where are you from?” “US, Boston I said”. “Oh OK”, he said “just wanted to ask because I have been here for a while and I haven’t seen anyone like you.” Hmm not sure what he means. “You just look so, American.” Haha, is this a compliment? I’m not sure I’m trying to stand out here, but I guess I’m doing a great job at it. He was from Washington DC and I was struggling to figure out if he was in his late 20’s or late 30’s. Hard to tell. Here for business. Maybe we’ll meet up for a drink this weekend.

I walked out of the elevator and realized just how many men there were. Lots of men. And lots of eyes on me. Center of attention. I disliked. The breakfast buffet room was pretty formal with both breakfast and lunch being offered, pristine service, and I didn’t want to do anything wrong to attract attention. Indian music played in the background, and I liked it. I felt like I was truly in India. This reminded me of the breakfast room when I was in Taipei Taiwan, very fancy.

I headed out in a cute little taxi on my first time out in Delhi during the daytime. Lots of people, lots of traffic even though it wasn’t peak traffic time, lots of bicycles, horses carrying big loads of stuff, people walking, little tuk tuks. I may have even seen a monkey on a leash. Yeah I want one too. I got out of the taxi and didn’t know where I was going and was a bit nervous cause of all the poor people around. They didn’t say a peep to me. It amazes me how official and dressed up everyone around here looks. Dressed to the nines, like we’re in Washington DC. You’ve got the highs and you’ve got the lows (meaning the poor and the very rich-looking).

Driving in India is nutty. Totally nutty, like a lot of their food. (Bad joke). Cars, motorcycles, trucks, tuk tuks pass on all sides with nothing but a simple beep of their horn. Sometimes two lane highways are occupied by four vehicles parallel to each other trying to pass. It’s a madhouse out there, it’s so true when people say your life is really in your driver’s hand. It’s amazing I haven’t seen more accidents than I have so far.