Lazy Friday means I talk to you folks.

Here I am wasting time at work on Friday afternoon. I guess this is what it’s like at any new job. You spend the first couple weeks reading annual reports, exploring the intranet, meeting with various group-heads, ordering business cards and a cell phone, setting up e-mail and phone, etc. The problem is that I’ve completed these tasks and am now eagerly awaiting the real work. I’ve met with probably twelve managers from various different teams and I’m excited about the work I’ll be doing. Some of the groups have opportunities for me to gain some ridiculous experience! Any of the Integrated Business Units (IBU’s), such as Communication Service Providers (CSP), Banking and Capital Markets (BCM) and Retail and Consumer Packaged Goods (RCPG) are creating some fascinating campaigns where they integrate several different types of media and channels. (As you’ll notice, everything in India is an acronym. Takes some serious getting used to.) Some of the channel oriented groups are very interesting. The PR team is obviously a place I would fit in well considering my experience, but I would really like to gain some a more diverse skill set. The online team really intrigues me. Everyone has been extremely knowledgeable, very sophisticated and quite helpful. I have had every opportunity to ask many questions and they don’t make you feel like an idiot, which has been my experience other places I’ve worked. We went out for dinner and drinks with the marketing team last night and had some really interesting conversations with drunken Indian coworkers. One of the Group Managers, a fairly senior exec, explained to me that he does not discriminate between alcohols, so he drinks a lot of everything.

“Keep in mind, there are many paths to God.”
“Whoa! Just give me one second, cuz you just blew my mind!!!”

The culture barrier at work is almost non-existent, except for the food. There are several food courts on campus. Two of them have traditional Indian food, which is usually very good; I just can’t eat it everyday. Today I had an Indian breakfast that consisted of steamed rice patties what resembled a doughnut. Even these dishes were meant to be dipped in a curry sauce…for breakfast! I have no idea what any of the dishes on the menu are, so I just go with someone who knows what they’re getting and I order the same thing. I’ll learn soon enough. There’s also Domino’s pizza, which is pretty good. Food Court 27 offers more “American” fare, such as chicken burgers, pizza, French fries, etc. They also have Chinese and Thai dishes that aren’t bad. I thought the Kung Pao chicken was great. The Chinese interns I sat with, however, berated it till they eventually convinced me of its mediocrity. Oh well. Today we are going to Le Terrace, which is in the hotel on campus. It’s a bit more expensive ($3 rather than $1), but it is run by the 5-star chef, Jean Michelle, that I’ve mentioned before. Stay tuned.

I found out about the other 5 marketing execs that are arriving in about two weeks: one guy from Cornell, a girl from Smith College, a guy and a girl from Georgetown and a guy from Harvard. Not a bad team and a good mix of gender. Way to go, Josh! It will be nice to have that many Americans to work/hang out with. And no, Winnie, I’m not saying that you’re getting annoying.

I’m looking forward to going out tonight. A friend of mine from Northwestern University, Farah, will be in town. She also has friends to introduce me to. I feel like it can be a huge advantage to have native Indian friends. Right now all of my friends are from literally every country in the world BUT India. She is a native Bangalorean and is going to show me around the city. I’ve also heard that the bars and clubs are going to stay open later beginning this weekend! I haven’t gone out since Tuesday, so I’m getting a bit antsy! I didn’t end up going out Wednesday night because I ate a piece of fruit that made me sick. I was fine once it was out of my system, but certainly didn’t want to go out drinking afterwards. My stomach is still getting used to some of the food here, but that’s to be expected. Think about it: your stomach gets accustomed to your schedule of meals and the types of food you eat. So my stomach is all like:

“What the fuck, Nate?! You’re stuffing me at 4:00 in the morning with combinations of spices that could kill a cow!!!”

I’m all like:

“Shut up, stomach! Not only will you accept the crazy food I feed you, but you will also be assailed with native Indian beer and whiskey three nights a week! What’s that you say, stomach? The Royal Challenge whiskey I buy from the guy on the street for 250 Rs. eats away at your lining? Tough shit! Don’t make me get Indian food from a street vendor! I don’t even know what that fly-infested shit is, but it’s sold by an unsavory fellow who mixes it with unfiltered well-water. As Ganesh as my witness, I WILL do it!”

Sorry. Went a bit overboard with that imaginary conversation with my stomach. Remember what I said about looking forward to having more Americans to talk to.

>>>>FAST FORWARD 1.5 HOURS

Just got back from lunch at Jean Michelle’s restaurant. It was really good! Might have even been worth the 150 Rs.

So this weekend is Dan Hess’ 22nd birthday party. “Hey brother!” It pains me deeply to think that I will be missing this. I will, however, do something really outrageously stupid on Saturday evening in honor of my good friend and compatriot. I’ll keep you updated. Those guys are going to have a ridiculous time in Chicago. Happy birthday, bro. It’s been nice that I’ve been able to talk to people from Evanston in the past couple days. I’ve been getting on AIM Express around 9:00 AM when I get to work, which is about 10:30 PM in Chicago. I’ve talked to Bruss, Hess, Jessica, Tony, Sheyner, and even Kannelis and Jepson. It’s nice to be able to discuss what I’m missing in the states, although my friends do not even realize what they are missing here. If I haven’t talked to you yet, get online around 10:30 and drop me an IM.

Also, many people have been requesting contact information, so here it is:

Nate Linkon
Adarsh Gardens, Unit G702
Jayanagar 8th Blk, 47th Cross
Bangalore 560082
Karnataka, India

Cell phone: +91 98 8689 8078

I believe you have to dial “00” before the country code, which is “91.”

I’ll post a link where you can find cheap calling cards to call me if you so desire. My parents found a card that gives them a 6.1 cent/minute rate. So gimme a call!

Here is your moment of Zen: (this may become a regular addition)

Jason and I at Taika.

A picture!

A bunch of us went out to I Bar, last night for the birthday of one of the interns. This place is much like Domaine in Chicago but located in the Park Hotel. One of my friends, Maura, an intern from the University of Illinois, had a camera and took a few pictures so I thought I'd post them as physical evidence that I am alive and have even made a couple buddies. This picture is of the three new full-time people with whom I spend every waking moment, Matt (U of Mich) and Winnie (NYU). We all look very happy to be out at I Bar on a Tuesday evening.

My mom sent me a digital camera that should be here in about a week, at which point I will add pictures to my previous postings. I'll let you know.

We're going out again tonight because it's Maura's last night in Bangalore. It's an open bar at a club called Sin. When this batch of interns are gone, and most of them will be gone very soon, I won't be going out as much. I just can't handle it, physically and monetarily. Fortunately, last night someone paid for all of my food/drinks! Don't really know who, probably this Indian guy that likes Winnie, but when I went to the bar to pay my rather large bar tab (which was probably about $15) someone had already closed it out. Hopefully things will continue this way.

The long-awaited preliminary nightlife review!!!

It is the first Monday morning back at work following my first full weekend after adjusting to this outrageous time-change. That being said, I will now relay the experiences and impressions I had in my first weekend out on the town in true Nasty Nate Linkon form. Actually, this weekend was merely a warm-up as I surveyed the landscape to formulate a strategy and game plan that will allow me to conquer this city. There are roughly 7 million people in Bangalore, and as I embark on my mission to party with each and every one of them I will keep my loyal readers fully informed. At least as informed as you can be while keeping my family in the dark as to my life when the sun goes down. Enjoy!

Little did I know that the weekend in Bangalore, at least for the expats, begins on Wednesday. (Expats, short for expatriates, for those who are not familiar with the term are what the foreign nationals here on business are called.) And just as I thought starting the party on Thursday was a bit premature for the working man, here come two days of hangover before the true weekend! I figure that half of my reason for being here is to network, and network I will! After all, it is my professional obligation to do so.

Wednesday night started at Taika, a very eclectic club that satisfies both the need to dance and relax. A beautiful waterfall and river that runs through the center of the main room with floating rose petals. This main room consists of huge couches with tons of pillows. This is a great area to lay around, have a casual conversation. The dance floor is separated from this room by the bar, so you can enjoy the music while having a conversation. The food is really great and so are the drinks, but they are both fairly expensive. There is also a 300 Rs. cover, but you get a drink ticket, so it’s not all money down the drain. A 650 ml. (about a pint and a half) bottle of Kingfisher, Indian beer that is actually pretty good, is about 100 Rs. (roughly $2. By the way, I’m going to stop making the monetary conversions every time, so just get it in your head that it’s about 45 Rs. to the dollar.) You never have to get yourself a drink at the bar because there is always a waiter within shouting distance who can get you a drink in a few seconds. It took me a while to get out of the habit of heading to the bar every time I needed a refill. I’ll get used to it somehow. We enjoyed Taika so much that we went back there on Thursday night. I got to hang out with some of the new interns from China, which was very cool, a country I hadn’t yet met someone from. We talked for hours about the NBA. “I much like Ray Allen and his outstanding ability to shoot the perimeter.” This guy claims to be quite the baller, but we’ll see. I should really keep a list of the countries that I’ve met people from, although there are already too many to remember

The weird thing about bars in Bangalore is that they have been closing lately around 11:30 PM. As I mentioned before, the government of Bangalore can be very corrupt. The “law” states that no bar can serve alcohol later than 11:30, but the commissioner of police usually accepts bribes, and depending on how much you bribe, your bar can stay open later. The old commissioner used to demand a crore, which is 10 million rupees, a month for some of these bars to stay open! Apparently, this money would be collected at a warehouse, and there is so much cash collected at such a rate that there are not enough people to count it all. Maybe the reason for the hiatus in bribes? In any case, some bars used to be open till 5:00 AM, but there is a new commissioner of police who is, at least for the time being, not accepting bribes. A few of my Indian friends tell me that this runs in cycles, so in a week or two the commissioner will begin accepting bribes and the bars will be open later.

On Friday night we went to a bar called Spin, which was more of a dance club than anything else. This is interesting, because dancing is technically illegal without the appropriate license, which Spin does not have. Traditionally, most dance clubs have operated on the bribery system, so with the bribes out the window it is rare to find dancing, but Spin had it and it was great! I had to pay 450 Rs. to get in because I was not with a girl. This will soon change. I was initially really pissed about this, but they give you the money back in coupons equaling the cover, so you are basically forced to buy 450 Rs. worth of food/drink, which I was clearly going to do anyway. I ran into Prakash, one of Indian guys that my flatmate’s girlfriend, Huda, introduced me to at Taika, and he introduced me to some cool expats from Florida. When Spin closed I ended up leaving the club with Prakash, Winnie and a few other "IndiaIT" employees and we went to the Raj Residency, a 5-star hotel in Bangalore, for desert. Wow! It was really amazing! I got home at about 2:00 AM and passed out. It was really a great night.

Saturday I was too tired to go out, so I just chilled in the apartment, watched a movie and passed out by 12:30 or so. Expect a better effort out of me next weekend.

There were a few things that really struck me about the nightlife here. First of all, the whole system of briberies that effect the closing times. That really sucks, but I’m told it will change soon. The other is the price structure of the bars and life here in general. The clubs we frequent, the “expat circuit,” are clearly priced for expats. Expats = top 3% income. That is, it may cost 300-500 Rs. to get into a club. To put this into perspective, I went to the grocery store and bought enough food to feed for a week easy. This cost me 483 Rs. So merely getting into these clubs costs me a week’s worth of food. I can also order enough Chinese food from Chung’s’s to give me dinner for 3 nights for 150 Rs., and a beer at the bar is 100 Rs.?! It just doesn’t make sense. Now, I’m still spending significantly less at a club than I’d be spending in the US, but the value comparison seems insane!

All in all, not a particular crazy weekend, but they will only get crazier. This is the last week for this round of interns, so we’re going out a lot later in the week. Probably Wednesday through Saturday and then to a nice brunch buffet on Sunday that has free champagne, beer and wine from 10:00 till 4:00 with masseuses and a pool. It is clear that the bulk of my expenditures will be on going out. Some things never change.

That’s all for now, folks. In a related story, the monkeys have yet to be named because I haven’t seen them around much lately. It’s been raining a lot so they’ve been hiding in their tree.

The everyday stuff

Some people have pointed out that I sometimes forget to talk about the everyday crap. Weather, my transportation habits, accommodations, etc. So here's a quick summary:

My apartment is really nice. I share a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom with one other guy, Josh. Actually, his girlfriend, Ghouda, basically lives with us, but that's fine cuz she's really cool and cooks me an incredible breakfast from time to time. Josh is also out of town a lot so it's nice to have someone to chill, have drink with when I get home from work. My place is on the 7th and top floor of Adarsh Gardens. I have a great view of the city and the mountains in the distance. It's really nice to sit out there and read during the day or just look out at the city at night. My room has 2 closets, a queen size bed and a dresser. The beds here are very different than American mattresses. They are a bit harder, more like a pad than anything else. It doesn't really bother me, though. I've been sleeping great.

I have a maid who cleans my apartment everyday. This guy is incredible! He changes my sheets and towels, sweeps and mops the whole place, takes out the trash, cleans all the dishes, straightens up anything that's around (He puts all of my shoes in the closet and folds all of my clothes and puts them on my bed, kind of like my mom). I started keeping a bottle of water next to my bed, and he's even keeps it full with fresh water everyday. He does all of this on a daily basis! It's great! There's a laundry service that costs very little, but we also have a washer in my apartment so I generally just use that. It's just easier.

The weather is fantastic! Bangalore is on a plateau, so the weather is really quite temperate considering the location. It hasn't really gotten much hotter than about 92 degrees outside during the day and it gets quite cool at night, around 70. We're in the rainy season right now, but that just means that it rains almost every night, which is fine cuz I'm usually either chillin in someone's apartment or out at a bar. The rain also helps it cool down, so that's all good with me.

Another one of the marketing execs moved in a few days ago. Her name is Winnie. She was a marketing major at the Stern School of Management at NYU. Really cool girl! We’ve been hanging out quite a bit eating dinner, going grocery shopping, taking the bus to work, etc. A bunch of the other new guys moved onto the campus into the hotel there because the rainy season can apparently make the commute worse, but I haven’t seen much of a delay.

I take a bus back and forth from the apartment when I'm just going to work in the morning and back in the evening, but I can get a car and driver pretty much whenever I want to. No, I don't have the same driver all the time. I had to run some errands in the city today and my driver was really cool. They are also usually extremely helpful. They'll wait for you outside of wherever you go and will come to assist you with pretty much anything you need. This is nice because Indians will often try to scam me cuz I'm white and they know I have money, so my driver will usually step in and correct the situation. Today I had to find a notary public to notarize an affidavit and this really sketchy guy tried to take me to a back alley where he said the notary was. My driver, who was a big Indian dude, came with me to make sure everything was kosher. He threatened to beat this dude if anything happened, but luckily everything was cool and there was actually a notary in this alley. Very weird! Also, the local government can be very corrupt, so I often have to bribe people to get what I need. For example, the notary tried to make me pay 400 Rs. (about $9) for his signature and stuff. I bartered him down to 30 Rs. with the help of my handy chauffeur. These are just the little things you have to get used to.

I saved the best for last: One of the coolest things around are the monkeys that chill around my apartment. There are three of them that are always hanging out in this tree outside my building. Just think about having monkeys around all the time! It’s awesome! Just as long as they don’t bite me. I’ve been trying to think of good names for them. Bruss thinks I should go Jane Goodall on them and observe their behaviors till I can give them appropriate names, so we’ll see what happens. I’ll keep you posted.

That’s about it for now. Keep the questions coming if you have any, it’s nice that people are somewhat interested. Damn, I can’t wait to get a digital camera because it’s really going to make this much more interesting.

-Nate

First weekend and first days of work

So I'm finally set up at my desk and able to regularly update my blog, which is good because a lot has happened since the last time we spoke. I'll start where I left off:

On Friday I took a rickshaw to Electronic City to where the Infosys campus is. This was my first rickshaw ride, and it can hardly be explained in words. Imagine this: You're in a car with me driving, but every other car is also driven by me (if you've been in a car with me, then this is truly a frightening experience), there are no lanes and many more motorcycles than cars, there are no doors or seatbelts and there are cattle wandering on semi-paved streets. All in all, pretty insane. I went through the most impoverished parts of Bangalore, and it's pretty depressing. Children in standing barefoot in streets heavily littered with trash, stray dogs everywhere, hovels on the side of the road…not pretty.

All of a sudden there is a huge glass pyramid on the right side of the road, the first landmark of the Infosys campus. My driver took me to Gate 5, where I checked in with security, where they escorted me through a metal detector, checked me and my bag for disks and laptops. All of the guards carried huge elephant rifles. I waited for Matt, a University of Michigan graduate who has been working here for about 4 months. It was nice to finally see a friendly, American face. Matt is a really great guy and I can tell we’re going to get along great while I’m here. We just seem to have a lot in common.

He gave me a cursory tour of campus, and HOLY COW!!! It can’t accurately be described, so wait till I get my digital camera, but it blew my mind. These buildings would stand out in any American metropolis and the landscaping is incredible. Reminds me of Disney World, if Disney World was a pristine 85 acres of bio-dome in the middle of complete chaos. There’s a huge shaped swimming pool in the middle, buildings that I never thought I’d see till at least the year 2020, gyms, one-hole golf courses scattered around campus, a 5-star hotel…it goes on and on. Matt and I met up with Josh, my flat-mate, and we went to meet Jean Michelle at one of his restaurants on campus. Jean Michelle has been a 5-star chef in France, Japan, Australia, Thailand and a few other places. Infosys hired him to run the dining halls and restaurants on campus, which I can say are really very good, and I haven’t eaten at the nice ones yet.

That night Matt and I met up with some other Infosys employees and interns at a bar called 1912. It was a really nice joint, a place I felt much more at home. The others had called ahead and reserved us a private table, which is pretty much standard operating procedure around here. This ensures that you have at least 2 waiters at your table at all times. Getting a refill on your drink takes a couple minutes at most. The really great part was that in a group of about 8 of us, there was one girl from Iran, a guy from France, a girl from Ghana and a girl from Romania. The rest of the crew were Americans from around the country. (Today at lunch I ate with a group of people that included a guy from Belgium, a guy from Guatemala, a guy from Spain and another from France). I can’t imagine I could have had this kind of experience anywhere else. Really great night out.

Not much since that. I’ve just been getting organized at work, but from what I can tell the work as a Marketing Executive is a lot of fun and very diverse, which is exactly what I wanted. That’s all for now. Talk to you guys later. Peace.

First 24 hours (longest entry there will ever be, just stick with it)

Alright, so bear with me cuz this could be a longer entry seeing as I just got here and the whole experience is a bit overwhelming. I'll start from the beginning:

The longest travel day of my life. I left Milwaukee at 2:05 PM on Tuesday and arrived in Bangalore at 7:00 AM on Thursday. Taking away the time change it's like traveling from 1:30 AM Tuesday till 7:00 AM Thursday. Close to 30 hours of travel! All in all, not too bad. I sat next to this mother and son, Usha and Janesh, from Chicago all the way to Mumbai (Bombay). Really nice people. Usha talked to me about India and the changes I would have to make. Janesh, a really cute 7 year old, really took a liking to me and asked me maybe a billion questions on the ride. No matter if I was reading, listening to music, sleeping, eating... "Nate, have you tasted Indian food before? Nate, do you have any brothers? Nate, do your brothers ever get on your nerves? Really?! What do they do to annoy you?" The transfer at the Bombay airport was nuts. Indian soldiers with various automatic riffles checking you through security, clearly talking about you in a language you can't understand. I slept a good amount and arrived in one piece with all of my luggage.

There were these guys at the baggage claim who assign themselves to you and grab all the luggage you point to and put it on your cart. I exchanged my money into rupees, $65 into 2,695 rps! Keep in mind that 15 rps. will buy you a nice dinner. The driver was outside the terminal with a card with "IndiaIT" and my name on it. I pointed to the driver and the baggage people and the driver coordinated how they would get my luggage in/on the car. At least, I’m assuming, cuz I don’t speak Hindi. Maybe they were saying "How can we rip this American out of all his cash?" They did, cuz they pressured me into tipping them, which I wasn’t supposed to do. What can I say, I’m spineless. I’ll get better, I promise.

When I decided to move to India my friends made fun of me about there being cows and elephants in the road, which is completely absurd!!! There are only cows in the street. Seriously, we almost rear-ended one. Well, it would’ve been a rear-end if the cow wasn’t walking towards oncoming traffic. Traffic is insane! I put on my seatbelt right away but my driver never wore one. I had joked about buying a motorcycle… well, not anymore.

Nothing looks real in this country. The astounding poverty is juxtaposed to these huge, beautiful temples and office buildings with guards out front. There are people living in little huts made of tarps and bricks. Many of them are construction workers who just set up their home on the construction site. Like nothing I’ve ever seen.

We got to my building, safely, and there were 3 guards, with guns, at the gate. I showed them my contract and they let me through. I went to meet a man who was supposed to give me my room, but he didn’t even seem to know I was coming. I could barely understand what he said. Basically, I was about to start crying. "What the FUCK am I doing here?! Wasn’t someone supposed to talk me out of this?!" I finally got in my apartment and met my roommate, and his girlfriend, who had just woken up. Turns out this guy, Josh, was one of the guys who interviewed me. Nice guy. That part was fine.

I basically sat around all day doing nothing, looking outside whenever I could muster up the courage. I found this cyberhouse near by, which is where I’m writing you now. I’ll be doing this from work when I start on Monday.

I’ll end this now because it’s already WAY too long. If you’ve made it this far, kudos to you. If not, then you’re not even reading this. I’m going to head to the "IndiaIT" campus this afternoon to meet another one of the guys from my program. He’ll show me around the campus and then around the city of Bangalore, which I haven’t really seen yet. Things are still very tough, but are getting better everyday.

Sorry for the long entry, this will be the longest there will ever be.

-Nate

T-minus 14 hours and counting...

Never thought this time would actually come.

I leave Milwaukee at 2:05 tomorrow on the longest journey of my life to Bangalore, India to work as an Executive of Marketing at "IndiaIT" (the fictional name I've chosen to protect myself and my blog from prosecution). It really still hasn't hit me that I'll be gone for about a year, and probably won’t till I’ve been there for a few weeks and realize I’m not going home any time in the near future. Although I may be back to visit as early as November, it's still pretty crazy to think that I'll literally be half-way around the earth. Seriously, check an atlas. As excited as I am for the work and the experience, I'm also scared about being immersed in a completely new culture with which I have had practically no experience. But when you think about it, fear is an emotion brought on by excitement. One can not exist without the other. So I think that excitement, along with anxiety, is what I’m currently experiencing. The fear is more surrounding my 28 hour-long travel day tomorrow. Damn!!!

Obviously, this is my first post to my blog and I'm new at it so please bear with me as I navigate the ins and outs of web logs. I’ll soon be posting pictures of practically everything I see, from the sights in India to my apartment and office. I’ll keep this one short, but check back as often as your little heart desires to hear about my international exploits. Peace.