Final Weigh-In

I've been fighting stomach issues since the first few days I got here, and it's finally taken me down. I really wasn't feeling well before the party on Saturday, and I think that pushed me over the edge. I weighed myself at the beginning of last week and again today - I've lost almost 10 pounds in 7 days - not good! Wish me luck on this flight back. Hope everyone enjoyed the blog. :-)

Party Aftermath

This party was insane - I'm about to hit the sack but wanted to give the highlights:

1 - I met some American and Canadian peeps there - something new for me, so that was comforting - about a month late. :-)

2 - we all drank a LOT - the bar was open from 8pm -1 am - not good for me. They had literally 100ft of buffet food set out for everyone in addition to the open bar - craziness.

3 - they had an Indian fashion show there - pretty cool experience.

4 - I got a temporary tattoo of a yin-yang on my forearm - will last about a week.

5 - I got all infection and dead skin eaten off my feet by some crazy Malaysian pedicure thing - I took my shoes/socks off and put my feet in this tank of water. These crazy fish attach themselves to your feet and eat all the dead skin off and suck out all the impurities! Here's the website: http://mysadfish.blogspot.com/2009/04/fish-pedicure.html

It was wild!!!!!

Cocktail Party!

I just got an invite by the hotel to come to a VIP (am I one of those??) cocktail party out by the pool tomorrow night! I was running on the treadmill and a lady came by with my invitation. This will be my first Indian formal party - I'm sure I'll have some things to blog about. :-) Stay tuned...

Wedding

I know everyone is dying to see the Indian garb I was sporting at the wedding last weekend. I will write more later about the actual experience, but here's a quick pic for now. It's about the most unflattering picture I've ever been in (I haven't gained that much weight over here) but it's the only one I have where you can see the entire thing. Enjoy...looking forward to the comments!

Conversation Gone Bad

I was sitting at the hotel restaurant tonight enjoying the chicken dish I described in my previous post and was approached by a new manager there. He introduced himself to me and seemed very "with it" in regards to his english and general understanding of customs/cultures. After exchanging pleasantries, this is where the conversation went:

Manager: "So where are you from - the US or Australia?"
Me (thinking) : uhh oh - I was wrong about this guy
Me: "I'm from the US - North Carolina - it's in the Southeast."
Manager: "Oh, very nice sir. What state is that in - California?"
Me : "No, North Carolina is the State - it's in the Southeast, about 4 hours from Washington DC."
Manager: "Oh, so it's in North America then..."
Me (laughing inside) : "Yes, that's exactly right."

Now I give you a very similar conversation that happened in the movie Dumb and Dumber which was what I was thinking when this was going on.

Lloyd: "That's a lovely accent you have. New Jersey?"
Lady: "Austria."
Lloyd: Austria! Well, then. G'day mate! Let's put another shrimp on the barbie!

Chicken Dish

I feel that I need to write about this because it's such a constant force in my life when I go to India. There is this chicken dish that the restaurant in the hotel serves called "char grilled half country chicken". I discovered it at the very end of my first trip here in 2007. Tonight, as I was dining on this delicious delicacy again, I was estimating how many times I've had it in the 3 trips to India - I think I hit 30 tonight and I never get tired of it.

I've had a lot of chicken dishes in my day and very few are memorable. This one, for whatever reason, is, and I feel would be whether I was in India or back in the US. It's a perfect balance of a deboned, small, half chicken that is butterflied and pan seared with rosemary, thyme, fresh parsley, and a little garlic, then roasted. It's served on top of some perfectly-roasted baby Yukon gold potatoes and pan-seared mixed vegetables. A thin Thanksgiving-style brown gravy is drizzled on the chicken right before serving. I don't think words do it justice - it's that good!

Birthday

My good friend and co-worker Harish celebrated his 30th birthday today at the office. For those of you who don't know, one of the customs here is to get icing from the birthday cake smeared all over your face - I have no idea where this tradition started but it's pretty insane. Dalvir, being the kind person that he is, made sure I was also in the mix. Here are 2 pics from our afternoon. :-)