So here I am in Dubai again.

For those of you who don't talk to my mum all the time, here's the deal. The company that sent us out here has been treating us like crap from day one. We were not taken care of, or really given the opportunity to take care of ourselves without significant out of pocket expense. On top of that, our job seems to have been set up to fail. Every time we made any progress a wall was thrown up preventing us from continuing in that direction, and we were continuously being antagonized by management. We were in a fleabag hotel for a month and a half, stuck eating fried eggs and toast every night after a bout of food poisoning left us afraid to eat anything else from room service. And believe me when I say room service was the only dinner option we had (barring a $15 cab ride to get anywhere).

Finally this past weekend, the plug was (mercifully) pulled on our project and we were informed that we would be heading home.

I can't say that I'm upset about the situation- we were all so miserable with how we were being treated that the only time we had any fun was when we went on our weekend trips out of Mumbai.

Nick and I spent a weekend in Udaipur, which was arguably one of the best weekends I've had in my whole life. We flew out Sunday morning, checked in to the Leela (read: GORGEOUS resort), and drove around town all day with an awesome rickshaw driver who took us to all of the cool places for 150RS ($3) for the whole day. Because it was the off-season (tourist season is right after monsoon season as the lake is dried up the rest of the year) everything was much cheaper, including the hotel, and we didn't have to deal with annoying tourists everywhere. I got clothing custom made, and we both bought some really cool souvenirs. After driving around all day, we went back to the hotel and got massages. Totally perfect weekend. I'll post pictures soon.

Anyhow, that brings me back here, to the Dubai airport. I was given a hotel voucher as my layover is eight hours long, but I didn't feel like going through security again, so I decided to stay put. Just ate some burger king here at the airport, and spent a few hours talking with a very nice med student from Leeds (UK) on his way to Africa to write his dissertation. Pretty cool.

I've only got another four hours or so before my flight boards, thankfully. Glad for Dubai's beautiful airport and free wifi.

Hey guys,

Sorry for the long gap between posts- we only managed to get our wifi cards working a few days ago, and the internet at work is spotty at best.

I just got back from a bar- the LA crew plus a bunch of our coworkers went out tonight. It was a lot of fun. They were playing a whole bunch of American music from the 80's and 90's so we were all singing along. Pretty much the entire group was dancing like crazy, as well (except myself, of course). It was really great to spend time with everyone outside of the stress of a work environment and away from all of the crazy deadlines.

This past weekend Nick, Tammy and I went to the Taj Mahal. It was a two hour plane flight and a five hour drive each way. We had some rather major hiccups- the short version is the travel agency didn't allow us enough time between flights to even get to the Taj and back, which led to us being stuck in the Delhi airport for seven hours waiting for the next flight. And on top of it all, our phones were all unable to dial out. We got everything figured out in the end though, and the Taj was truly amazing.

I took a ton of pictures, which I'm trying to figure out how to upload. Expect them in a few days.

Pictures from today

We've been chilling out a lot today as we're trying to figure out exactly what/how we're going to be teaching. Today also happens to be a holiday here, so a lot of people were not in.

Here's some pictures I took today at lunch.

One of the "Studio dogs":Nick out on the patio at lunchtime:
This crow likes to knock on the window of the room I was in at lunchtime everyday. He knocks with his wing letting everyone know he's hungry and wants their scraps:
This soda is awesome. Sort of like sprite and squirt merged together. Its made by Coke, apparently:

The cafeteria food here puts any american work cafeteria to shame. Had yummy chicken masala and rice for lunch with some of the Limca soda.

Hey gang!

So I got in safe yesterday. Nick came and got me at the airport. We went to the hotel, ordered room service, and crashed around 4am. I woke up when Nick got home from work that night, then went to sleep again like two hours later.

So, needless to say, I'm caught up on my sleep.

We got up this morning and got breakfast at the hotel. I had some yummy (spicy!) paprika potato wedges and toast with marmalade. We've been living off of bottled water (which sucks since our fridge doesn't seem to work.)

We got a ride down to the studio this morning, where we are now, waiting to get stuff going.

I'm attaching some pictures of the hotel lobby, as well as some photos that Nick has taken over the last few days.

There are a LOT of stray dogs here. Everywhere you look they're chilling out along the sides of the street, under cars, in doorways, etc. Luckily they all pretty much keep to themselves. They have plenty of garbage to root through so they aren't aggressive.

Have to got o work now, I'll post again later.

Hey everyone!

So I made it to Dubai safe and sound! This airport is GORGEOUS. Seriously.

The seats on the plane were very cramped, but I managed to get a bit of sleep out of sheer exhaustion. They had a bunch of movies for free, so I watched Avatar again :p. I sat next to a very nice woman (originally from India, but moved to the states a while back) and we talked for most of the flight, which made the 15 hours go by a little faster. But still, 15 hours is a LONG time to sit in one spot.

Thankfully I'm in the home stretch now- In about 7 hours I will be at my hotel and able to get some sleep. Nick's going to try to meet me at the airport. I hope he manages, because the prospect of just meeting a driver makes me a little nervous.

I've got about two hours to kill here, then a four hour flight to Mumbai.

I'll try to update again when I arrive.

So now that everything is official, I figured that I might as well start a blog for my trip to Mumbai. Its for work, of course, but seeing as I'll be spending several months there, I'm sure I'll find some time to go exploring.

The rest of the group arrived yesterday, but due to some trouble getting my visa, I'm leaving a few days later than everyone else.

I'm flying out of LAX tomorrow afternoon, stopping for a layover in Dubai, then its onwards to Mumbai. I'll be arriving in Mumbai at like 3am, which is a little scary. At least there will be a driver waiting for me. Here's hoping no one gives me any trouble.

I've been running around like crazy the last few weeks getting everything ready. Got all of my vaccinations (four in one day, ouch!), my ipod is loaded up with movies (and Buffy episodes), and my suitcases are just about packed. Just running my last few loads of laundry and cleaning out the fridge, then I'm good to go.

I'm going to end this post here as I really don't have much more to say. Expect more updates in the next couple of days, hopefully with lots of photos!

Just for fun, here's the last picture of Nick and I here in the states. His dad took it Wednesday night.