Last Weekend Here!!!

The cake from the embassy party. Pretty much sums up the reason I am here, if it read "working together," it would be perfect.







So completed my last week here, and had a few adventures, though still didn't get around to riding the elephant at the Red Fort, gonna make it out there one day this week before work with Sohenjeet. We did head out for drinks again this past Friday, and had a pretty good time, though less out of control for this round. I did have to explain that a Mai Tai is a little bit of a "girly" drink to Jatin, at which point he became embarrassed that he ordered it, which was entertaining.

Before drinks, we did go bowling, forgot to take pictures though. Funny that they all thought I was awesome, scoring my big 91, Jatin 31 and Sohenjeet 90, a victory is a victory right, whether by one or one-hundred :) But seems like bowling is only just beginning to catch on here, there wasn't on person that broke 100 in the whole place.

Saturday just basically was lazy around the hotel until it was time to head to the embassy, and some photos are below as well, but it was pretty cool. Definitely a much larger turnout that I expected, at least 500 people were there. They had all sorts of cheap food; hot dogs, barbecued pork, cheeseburgers, and other stuff that you can't really get here. Lots of the guests were buying up the cherry-coke, they don't have that anywhere here.

They also had a bunch of games for kids, and good music (from DJ Boscoe, who must have googled "songs that have the word America in it" before the party). Some Springstein, Beach Boys, Lee Greenwood, and other similarly patriotic stuff.

I took place in a team tug of war, and unfortunately our team lost, but it was fun anyway. They also did have fireworks, it wasn't the most spectacular fireworks show ever, but it was definitely cool being the only place in India shooting off fireworks on the Forth of July. All in all it was pretty cool.

Today I went, again with Sohenjeet, to a market called Delhi Haat, a huge open stall market with lots of different types of souvenir type stuff. Got some good stuff for myself as well. It was pretty fun, he was my bargaining coach, telling me ,"act shocked at the initial price, offer them below what you want to spend, then come in just below their counter." Was entertaining. But I did have a ton of people I wanted to get stuff for, and got some of that done at least. Anyway, maybe one more update before I head home. Will be arriving at O'Hare at about 10:30 AM on Saturday, after a 20 hour journey that reads only 8 hours on my watch because of this "time zone" craziness. If I haven't said so already, I will not be returning to work until the Thursday after I get back, looking forward to seeing my family, especially my little guy. So that's all for now, except the photos at the end, have a good one!



The team sleeping during a break I gave them. Guess they never really get used to working overnight either!













Jatin acting all embarrassed about his drink selection:) Seriously though, he's a fun guy, and the only one other that the consistent Sohenjeet that joined us from the team (this means you Sachin!)











The setup at the embassy, pretty impressive, and surprising, that our government would go through all this trouble for us. Also have to assume it was done at a bunch of other embassys too.






Me trying to tug but finding our team slowly moving in the wrong direction. Maybe would have worked harder if we realized they were giving bottles of Jack Daniel's to the adults of the winning team!






The U.S. Marine color guard before a staffer sung a pretty good rendition of The Star Spangled Banner to start the evenings festivities.









The amazing hand painted prints I bought for the house. Absolutely awesome work, which they were doing right there at their stall. I paid only ten dollars for both prints, which are about 1 by 2 feet each. If only I could ship a few hundred home, could have a booming eBay franchise......







A little hand painted clay dog, larger that it looks in the photo, probably about six inches tall, for 9 dollars or so. Would be cool on my desk at work I think. Too bad I didn't notice the foot had bee broken and (poorly) glued back on, only to break again in my backpack. Gonna have to get another one, though I suspect there is no such thing as a warranty on stuff like this, but oh well, I like it enough to make the trip again.




So that's about all folks. See ya all soon. I will miss the new friends I have made here (love you Sohenjeet! and I mean it this time, lol), but it will be nice to be home, and not have to depend on others for every single little need I have.