@ Home!

I wanted to make a quick post to let you all know that I have made it back home safely. I have tons to do to get ready for my move to Charlotte, but will give you the links to the rest of my photos whenever I get them posted. It may take a few days for me to get them all done.

Anyways, thanks for following along the past few months!

- Ryan

JANUARY 18, 2008 @ 12:40 PM

My flight will land in Detroit!!! I finally have my return ticket in my hands. I end up leaving Chandigarh on the 17th a little after noon . My flight leaves Delhi at 3:30 am to London and then London to Detroit. Its going to be one very long day, but I can't wait for it!

A quick update, I am getting very involved in my project. Things are going well. I am about to switch over to my second product to get that one under my belt. Yesterday night, all of the other Business Analysts took me out to dinner. It was really nice getting off campus, and we had a really nice time.

Thats about it for now. Talk to you all later!

Weekend in Chandigarh

Its Sunday afternoon after my first weekend in Chandigarh, and it wasn't terribly bad. I hired a taxi and went around the city to see some, or really all of the sites it has to offer. I went to this lake/park, the Rock Garden and then to Section 17, the main shopping area. I walked around and ended up buying a few Indian cds, a loaf of bread and a jacket. Fun stuff, let me tell you! I was also able to pick up some take out menus from a few places that deliver. I think I'll probably order something for dinner tonight.

The rest of the day I just worked out and watched the movie Outsourced. It was great! It is basically my life, except they depict India as a much cleaner place than it actually is. My favorite quote from the movie is "Do you know what India stands for? I'll Never Do It Again!" I lost it at this line, quite funny!

Today I sat around and have been reading some of the information on my products. I have a walk through early this week so I need to be prepared.

One major difference between here and southern India is that I am the only white person. I have gotten more stares both on and off campus than ever before. It may be because I am by myself but it is really getting old! Even coworkers and the building and security staff find me fascinating. I got my picture taken a few times during my exploration, but I try to avoid this. I can see how real famous people go crazy by the paparazzi. This is one thing I am not going to miss at all.

That's really all for now. 10.5 days left!

Thailand and Other things

Thailand was absolutely amazing. I loved every minute of it. It was the first time in the past 5.5 months that I have actually felt 100% comfortable like I was at home. I didn't realize how much I have been missing out on until I got off the plane in Bangkok.

Click HERE to see some pictures

This is the last of my upload days until I get back to America. I'll explain more later.

Anyways, Bangkok the first day was amazing. The 3 of us in my group, Cliff, Matt, and myself, met up with Rachana and Mohamed and toured a few temples. We saw the famous Emerald Buddha and the Reclining Buddha. At night we went to a nice Thai restaurant and just wandered around the streets.

In the morning, the 3 of us went to Koh Samui, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. That night we were off to Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party. Basically, thousands and thousands of people travel to this little island for a beach party every full moon. It was such a crazy time. There were so many people, DJs, performers, fire throwers, body paint and so much more all over the place. It was a great time. We got back to Koh Samui just in time for breakfast at 7:30 am. The next 2 days were spend lazying around the beach.

Our next stop was Phuket on the Andaman Sea. The beach we chose was Patong beach on the west coast. It is the most popular beach on the island and our hotel was at the center of the action. Our days were spent lazing on the beach and the nights were spent wandering around the bars playing "lady boy or woman" with the many Thai cross dressers. It kept our group busy for the few days we were there.

We took a day trip to the Phi Phi islands and it was probably the most beautiful beach I have ever visited. The water was warm and clear and the green mountain islands were amazing. We went snorkeling and played in the water for that day.

For New Years we went back to Bangkok and got in the center of the action. I was right there at the central countdown and fireworks show. It was a great time. I have tons of pictures and videos, but again, I can't post them because I am no longer in Bangalore.

I am now in Chandigarh, in northern India. I have only been here a few hours and I am ready to leave already. There are lots of reasons for me wanting to get out of here, but having limited access to everything from internet to food is going to make the next 2 weeks very interesting. I have submitted my flight request to return to the States and hope to be on a plane Jan. 18th. This will require me to leave Chandigarh the afternoon of the 17th to get the Delhi and make an early morning flight to be back in the D mid afternoon on the 18th. Working these flights out is on my to do list for tomorrow, so hopefully my plan will work out.

I'm sorry this was a very brief summary of my last 2 weeks, but it will have to do for now. I'll get pictures up at some point when I get back to the States for you all to see.

Hope you all had a great start to the New Year.

- Ryan

Merry Christmas! See you all next year!

Merry Christmas everyone!

I'm off to Thailand in a few hours but wanted to pop in and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I didn't have time to post anything about my Mumbai trip, but I thought you might want to see pictures anyway, so here they are:

Mumbai

Living in Bangalore

I hope that you all have very nice holidays. I'll post again when I return around Jan. 3rd.

- Ryan

Drum Roll Please......

** First, I should give a disclaimer: It looks like this placement may finally stick, but TII so who really knows??

the Job: I will be working with the Banking and Capital Markets Solutions team in the Product Group. I will be responsible for competitor research and the sale of products revolving around Risk Management.

the Location: Charlotte, NC!

It has been a hectic week trying to sort all of this out, but I am 99.9% sure that things will not change... or at least I hope. This change will require me to move to another location in India. I will be moving to Chandagarh. This city is WAY north, located in the foothills of the Hymalayas. I leave for Chandagarh on January 3, 2008. The earliest date I'll be returning to the States is January 18th, but I may end up staying a few weeks longer. I'll have to play that one by ear.

So, that is the short version of everything. I'm very excited about all of this and have lots of work to do already!

Tomorrow or Saturday I'll update you on Mumbai and have my pictures up.

Christmas in Bangalore

Today Liz and I went to one of the many malls in Bangalore and it actually felt a little bit like Christmas. There was a giant Christmas tree in the middle of the mall, stores were all decorated and were even playing Christmas music. Unfortunately, there was no Santa because if there was, I definitely would have gotten my picture taken!

My friend Nick sent us all this email today with a funny 12 Days of Indian Christmas, so I thought I would share:



Its such a great video, and probably even better if you know anything about Indian culture.

So today at work I received some good news about my future. I don't want to share anything yet as things may change, but I should have an update by Monday. Tomorrow I leave for Mumbai (Bombay) and will be traveling all weekend. I'm sure there will be lots of Christmas cheer in India's largest city of nearly 13 Million people!