First couple days

I must admit it's been a roller coaster the first couple days. I started pretty down, jetlagged, in a strange place with a strange culture and not really knowing anyone. I was missing my family and friends and really felt distant from everything I know and love. To make matters worse, spending a week in the bay area was really eye opening, I was thinking that would be a place I'd love to live and then I was torn away from that into something completely new and crazy.

I took public transporation to work all this week, at first it was overwhelming and quite a, well, shitshow, complete with people hanging off the bus, so cramped, and so sweaty. BUT, at least everyone here carries around a towel to dry the sweat off- as most of you know I can get TOTALLY down with that, what with my forehead sweat and all. I like the idea of doing things as the locals do but it will take some getting used to packing in an un A/Ced bus like sardines.

As for work- I was struggling last night, my first office day was pretty lame and I felt loneley. Then things started to turn around dramatically Friday. I've started getting used to the bus, starting to say hi to the other people in my office and trying to learn names (I share an office with about 50 workers for an IT company), am learning how to properly use the bidet (see pic), getting the hang of eating indian style (with my hands- the cafeteria at work puts indian food and rice onto a plate with a leaf on it and I'm figuring out the routine, how to rip up naan with 1 hand since I can't use my left/poo hand, where to throw my leaf afterward and wash my plate), etc. Then, I had a great meeting with one of the commisioners of police- he seemed extremely interested by me and my experiences in the States. He is very intelligent and we even waxed statistics and study design and at the end of the three hour meeting I was able to break new ground with him for cooperation with his department to start researching crashes. We also had a heart to heart about how bad crashes are over here and how much there is we can do. To boot, on the way out he called in about 30 cops and gave a glowing speech about me and how I'm going to help make things safer, then I said a few words and ended with saying Nandri (thanks in Tamil), and that brought the house down- they all started clapping and then saluting! Now I feel very optomisitic, the project I came here to do is starting to get rolling and I'm starting to feel useful, even important. Plus, I'm getting the hang of this new place!

I have yet to find a place with beer, but maybe that's a good thing, this place makes me feel drunk or at least discombobulated in that way (Chennai is a pretty conservative part of India from what I gather). Plus, you really need your wits about you to try and cross the road and dodge all the buses, cars, trucks, three wheelers, motorcycles, etc that are always inches away from you. That's all the ramblings I have in me for now, much love to everyone!

Greg