I'm Back!!

The last day of work was, well... action packed. I spent the morning carefully packing my loot as I was sure my big piece of luggage was going to be over the weight limit of 70 lbs. I tried my best and ended having 2 pieces to check and 3 carry ons - oops. I called for the bell boy and he loaded everything on his trolley. Of course he asked "for how many?" Under my breath I answered "just me". I went to the front desk and settled my bill and then over to the travel counter to arrange my rides. I explained that I wanted to be picked up at my office at 10 pm with my luggage and then taken to the airport. I confirmed and then re-confirmed again.

As mentioned I had little time to sit and cry (literally) as I had quite a bit to accomplish. My team had purchased me a few gifts - both of which I had actually picked out the day before with one of the managers. I provided an award winning scene. No one could tell that I knew my gifts. Actually, I'm thankful that she asked me to help her... my colleague rec'd a mantle clock. Not only was it huge, it was... interesting. I think she's going to have it inter-office mailed back. Gosh, I hope it makes it ok. She opened it in the car on the way to work and we laughed so hard that the driver pulled over to offer us some water (how embarrassing). Anyway, my team gave me a lovely shawl and some incense. My other group gave me some earrings that are quite pretty (which I didn't pick out!).

I started with number 11 as I wanted to get at least 5 calls done for her - we accomplished that! I was even able to get to call 6!! Only one more call to go and she's certified. Now, number 10 only had 5 calls done and was anxious to get certified. She threw a tantrum as I sat with number 11, waiting for the last call. I was appalled. I explained that if I went to her, then neither one of them would be certified before I left for home. As the drama continued, I wheeled my chair over to her and asked that she get ready. We were able to get 1 last call before I had to leave. At this point I was confident that my car was waiting for me as they're usually there early. I packed my gifts along with the shirts from the tailor (no, not all were done, the others will be shipped to me) - thank goodness I have some room in my carry ons for this stuff and started making my way out. My entire team stood up and wished me well. One by one they each hugged me and thanked me while I did the same.

Once outside I saw that my car wasn't there. Of course now I'm panicked as they're always early! I called the hotel and spoke to a gentleman at the travel desk and he confirmed that the car was on it's way and that he should be arriving in a few minutes - the traffic was crazy due to the torch coming through. As the travel desk promised, two minutes later he was there.. with my luggage, which I did count by the way. I arrived at the airport and saw mass chaos! I have to admit that I wasn't surprised a bit. Once you wait in line to get into the airport, then you have to wait in line to have your bags scanned - once you do that, you wait in line to get your boarding pass and then wait in line again to go through immigration then again to board the plane. Now these lines aren't organized single file lines - these lines are like the 90/94 merge going into the city. In the line waiting for my boarding pass there are several signs that say "one carry on piece only". I'm thinking "oh no... what am I going to do? I have 3...." Actually my thoughts alternated from.... how much am I going to have to pay due to my bag being too heavy and how am I going to consolidate my carry ons. Once at the counter I heaved my big bag onto the conveyor and waited.... she didn't say anything... she then asked me how many carry ons to which I replied "3".... again, I waited.... she gave me 3 tags to put on my carry ons and my boarding pass and said "have a good flight!" I was relieved!

I boarded my Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt and packed away my carry ons... I was sure that someone was going to say - "excuse me, but do you realize that you have 2 more carry ons than allowed?" Luckily, they didn't. The flight was great! I highly recommend Lufthansa to everyone! I landed in Frankfurt and high tailed it to my connecting flight to O'hare. I could tell once I landed that they were boarding already - my layover was only 1 1/2 hours long... and we were a few minutes late. It took a good 20 minutes to get there - of course I had to go through security again... they pulled me aside and had me open up one of my carry ons.... the guy pulled almost everything out one by one. He found a water bottle full of water. I thought.. "how in the heck did that get through in Delhi".. then I thought... "of course it got through in Delhi". I attempted to wiggle everything back into the carry ons - again, signs everywhere saying only 1 bag... and got on the plane with a few minutes to spare. The flight was uneventful, thankfully. I was able to finish a book I had been reading, Eat, Pray, Love which was great.

I made my way through US Immigration and waited with everyone for our bags to arrive.... since I flew Business Class, those bags are typically first. I waited and waited and waited... until they turned off the conveyor. Three of us were still there standing. One gentleman looked absolutely panicked... I felt so badly for him. He said that he too was on the flight from Delhi and didn't know what he was going to do as he was flying all over the US for meetings. We went to the claims desk to find a hateful United agent. She filed our claims - I suggested to the gentleman that he should call United asap and ask for provisions since he was only staying in Chicago a night. I called my limo - I was almost home!

I couldn't believe that I had been gone for 6 weeks!! it just doesn't seem possible. I entered my condo and got the "sniff over" from my dogs, Majerle and Daisy. Once they determined that it in fact was me and not an impostor.... we partied! There was jumping and tail wagging and a few little howls - gosh, it's good to be home!

Over the weekend I tried getting back into my routine. Believe it or not, I met my pals at the gym on Saturday morning!! It was so good to see everyone! I met my sister for dinner on Saturday evening sporting some wares from India... when I returned home I was exhausted. I had planned on meeting my pals for a bike ride Sunday morning but decided that I would turn off my alarm and see what happened.... My cell phone rang at 530 am. I thought "who in the heck is trying to call me?" I looked at the number and saw that it appeared to be a number from India... a few seconds later the phone rang again... it was Jaswant, my room steward! I was stunned!! He had asked for my numbers when I left... I gave them to him but never thought that he'd actually use them! Well, he did! He wanted to know how my trip home was. How nice, right? My luggage arrived Sunday morning at my home.... everything intact!

Even though I was gone for six weeks, it seems as if I was gone only for a second. Looking through my pictures - I have to remind myself that yes, I as there at the Taj Mahal and the Golden Temple... it seems like a dream now.

In closing, I want to thank everyone for the moral support. While I was gone, I rec'd many emails with well wishes. Since I've been home, I've talked to so many folks telling me how much they loved my blog! Well, I enjoyed writing it!! A very special thank you to the folks that stayed in my home (I'd mention names but I'm trying to protect identity) to watch my dogs Majerle and Daisy. I am so very grateful and appreciative for everything... thank you!!

Until my next travels..... Namaste...

Last Dance...

Wow... what a day! Firstly, let me apologize to my faithful readers for my late posting yesterday... I overslept due to the banging and clanging I endured the last couple of days and then it was a mad dash to the market for some last minute scarves, mehndi, bangles and whatever else. Additionally, my colleague had to be at work early and I met my friend (with the tailor) to pick up the tops and try some of them on. It was a whirlwind in typical Carol fashion. I'm happy to report that I was able to get everything done... just not my blog posting - again, apologies.

Our intent with the mehndi was to get full hands done - instead we only got partial (see pics - sorry they're not the best). At one point I had 2 guys applying the henna which I thought was a good idea at the time. However, there were flies buzzing around and with no arms to flail, I resorted to trying to blow them away.... then, I was thankful that I wasn't getting full hands. Once again it was boiling hot which isn't conducive to drying henna. The gentleman that did one of my arms applied his henna a little thicker than the other. I now know that wider lines is certainly not better as now I have something that resembles a horse or a goat on one of my arms because the henna ran - I've looked at a lot of mehndi since I've been here and not once have I seen a goat, a peacock or paisley, yes... goat... no. We rushed back to the hotel, got ready for work, had a tearful good bye with my room steward, Jaswant (both of us, not just me) and off we went.

I met my friend at a mall after dropping my colleague off at work. We did some shopping there and then attempted to find the embroider. Now.. that was fun. I was able to see a local market first hand - not many tourists there! We found the embroider, finally and the negotiating began. Not sure if any of you have heard Hindi being spoken before or not, but let's just say that it's not a "romantic" language. There have been many times during my stay I wondered if we were getting in trouble or being yelled at. As for the conversation I was listening to, I was pretty sure that he wasn't happy with my friend trying to negotiate the work he had already done. For the record - I adore what he's done! Everything is beautiful! We made a deal, I gave him some cash and then off to the tailor we went. I did a little style show and thanked her for everything. Now... on to work.

I completed number 9. I was rather anxious because this one tends to be a chatter of nothing (unlike me, a chatter of everything). I attempted to try and make his calls as efficient as possible. Finally right around lunch we completed the 7 calls. I bought my teams pizza for dinner, which they appreciated! Every single one of them approached me separately and thanked me. It was somewhat uncomfortable as they kept telling me how much they were going to miss me.... tears welled up in my eyes and I quickly changed the subject. I'm expecting that today will be rather tearful... I've tried to plan it so that I'm so busy that I don't have time to be weepy... we'll see how I do. My counterpart here in India left early as she was taking a client to the Taj Mahal today. This is the gal I went to Amritsar with. Again... a tearful good bye. This gal has become a dear friend and not just a co-worker. I will miss her dearly but know that our paths will absolutely cross again. Besides, we will continue to work together... just on different continents.

I was able to evaluate 5 calls for number 10 and 2 calls for number 11. This leaves 7 calls I'll need to get done in about 2 hours today which is highly unlikely. As long as I can get 3 more for number 11, I'll make arrangements for the other 2 calls to be certified after I leave today by someone in the states using our online call recording system. There's not much I can do when the calls aren't coming in.

I am packed and ready to go. I'm a little curious as to how much my bag really weighs. I attempted to pack all the heavy stuff in my backpack which I'll check... so time will tell.

The Olympic torch is in town today... yesterday the paper indicated that the route was not cut down to 1 km with about 13,000 police officers guarding the route. What's the point I wonder - no one will be able to see it. Several streets have been blocked off and I'm sure traffic is a disaster - actually, that's kinda funny... traffic is a nightmare on a normal day let alone with extra security and street closures.

My flight will leave around 230 am IST on Friday morning (which I think is 1 pm on Thursday CST). Supposedly my flight will land in Chicago 1030 am on Friday. Time has flown, hasn't it? I plan to blog after my return to the states, but probably not until Saturday.

Numbers 7 and 8, Complete!

While I'm happy to report numbers 7 and 8 are completed, I fell short of about 5 calls yesterday. I really have my work cut out for me today. Firstly, with number 8, we had a couple of longer calls, then call volume wasn't as high. When sitting with number 9 while we took 4 calls, non of them "counted" as they were transfers to other services. Today I'm going to have to have the folks here transfer calls directly to the folks I'm certifying.

Today should be full of last minute shopping jitters since I leave tomorrow for the US. Unfortunately, I'm somewhat irritated. I'm not sure who I spoke with this morning in guest relations, but I assure you she's hoping I check out a day early. The conversation went a little something like "... while many areas of this hotel have exceeded my expectations during my 5 weeks at the Taj, the management of this 5 star hotel does not. I can name off the top of my head 10 people that work nights calling the Taj their home away from home. For me, I didn't get to bed until 430 am this morning which is as you have been told on two other occasions the norm for me and my colleagues. Having construction begin any time before 11 am is negligent on your part considering that I have brought this to your attention now three times. My company spends thousands of dollars for me and my colleagues to stay here and quite frankly, I'm not impressed. The good news for me is that I'm leaving tomorrow, however most of my colleagues are not..." About 20 minutes later a rattled Manager on Duty called me after I called the contact with my company here in India that organizes our stay suggesting that she call the sales contact and demand that construction not be able to start until after 11 am. I'm not sure how well she'll do with that. You may recall I was banned from speaking with her because I was rather harsh. I assure you that I minded my tone and words this time - or at least I tried.

Today my pal and I are going to our favorite market for our last trip. I'm going to get some Mehndi done and pick up some bangles to match some kurtas (shirts). Yesterday, the gal that was carting us around to every tailor in Delhi delivered some of our shirts. I was so excited! I was able to try some of them on. I just need a little tweaking (letting out the "margin" a little here and taking in the margin a little there). I'll be going to the tailor again before work to see what's been accomplished. I was able to see some of the work the embroider completed and am thrilled!! I'm just stunned with what these artists are able to do. I'll be sure to post pictures when I can.

Tomorrow I'll work on packing. Let's hope that I can get everything to fit!!

Numbers 5, 6 and 7, well, almost!

I couldn't be more thrilled with how many students I was able to certify! I was able to complete number 5, get completely through number 6 and all of 7, with the exception of one call. I have to admit that my day started a little shaky though. The students arrive at 630 pm IST which is 8 am CST. The issue is that our center doesn't open until 9 am CST. Now, number 5 new that we would start with him - he only had one more call to complete. About 10 minutes before 9, I went to his desk and saw that his headset wasn't set up - 25 minutes later and two cappuccinos, we were in business. Essentially, I would have been able to get through number 7 if we wouldn't have had the 25 minute snafu... on a side note, we have this little machine that makes espressos and cappuccinos (no, not like the ones you get at Casey's, these are the real deal!!) for free! I will absolutely miss this fringe benefit. I typically have one to begin my day and one after dinner - however yesterday... I felt the need for more as stress was creeping up my back. Caffeine isn't really the best idea when you're stressed but since I left my Camelback of Martinis in Chicago, I had no choice. I think at one point I just put my head in my hands and laughed - it's certainly better than crying, right? I learned my lesson though - we'll get that headset hook up started early today!

In hindsight, I should have certified number 6 and 7 before number 5. Both of these students have done rather well! They're taking calls like more experienced representatives! I think I freaked number 5 out though with the call I took... or maybe just sitting with him freaked him out, I don't know. It's over (thankfully) and he's taking calls successfully on his own.

Construction has resumed promptly at 9 am! For such a "luxury" hotel they tend to overlook some major details. Now don't get me wrong as many of my services have been fantastic - for example, my room steward, room service, hotel car and laundry have been great! It seems like the guest relations folks don't speak to the managers or room management - which I'd say is the backbone of a hotel. I wouldn't know much about that - let's talk about textiles and call centers, now those are my areas of expertise!!

Today it's about 99* out! It's hot! I'm winding down on my trinkets and making plans for tomorrow's last day of shopping (really Mehndi, bangles and a few scarves, oh and.... whatever else I might be able to slip in the small places of my luggage).

My goal is to get numbers 8, 9 and some of 10 certified before coming back to the hotel as I'll only have one more full day left.... wish me luck!

Qutab Minar - Check!

Well, we went to Qutab Minar. It's an old mosque that dates back to 1193. It has the tallest minaret in the world. There were tons of people there and it was rather hot. Of course, we felt as if we were an attraction as well - in fact several folks asked to have their pictures taken with us. One little group was from Afghanistan. I wonder what these folks are saying about us in their blog! At one of the spots, there was a guide that ordered us around and demanded we take pictures in these specific spots - then she grabbed our cameras and told us to pose and took our pictures. It was quite funny and she was right! In the end, she asked for a tip (which we expected) however our friend that is Indian gave her some money. In the end, the guide was embarrassed that she asked as her intent was for us to pay, not our friend. We decided to get out of the heat and off to do some shopping. As another gal from our company had just flown in the night before and she'll only be here a week. We wanted to be sure that we were able to pack as much as we could in the day. Here's a link to my photos.

We went back to Kahn Market (fixed price market) and milled around a bit. A gal had told me about a store that will make shirts for you, so we went there. It was great! The store had such nice designs. I did buy a few shirts - one will be "delivered" to me on Wednesday. Of course I had to go under the measure again (gross). These tops are absolutely things I'd wear in the US. We grabbed some lunch, looked at a few shawls and back to the hotel we went. The new arrival invited us for dinner at one of the restaurants at the hotel.

The other folks with our company were invited to dinner too. The restaurant is a Chinese restaurant and not only tastes good, but the restaurant itself is fun too! On the ceiling there are long, snake-like dragons that are lined up like supporting beams - there's also a pond with some fish. We had a nice time sharing our experiences with work and otherwise while being here in India. Another reason why it's nice to have all the SMEs in one hotel.

I'll be working with "number 5" today and getting him certified. For me to be on track, I'll need to certify 2 more today. I'm rather optimistic that I can get this done. Monday happens to be our higher call volume, so that should help a bit.

Last Saturday in Delhi

My friend's father left and we made plans to do some shopping - we visited Kahn Market (no bargaining market) and milled around some finally deciding to hit another area we had scoped out called South Ex (short for south extension). There's a jewelry store there that's supposed to be nice. Again, with the enormous wedding sets, tons of guards and even more shoppers. I'd venture to guess that there were about 100 customers in this store all looking at gold. I was somewhat disappointed that I wasn't able to find what I was hoping for - I did find a lovely bangle (gosh it was pretty) for only $800-ish. Of course I could buy two, one for each wrist. Let's just say I know where it is in case I find the urge to splurge.

We hurried back to the hotel to take advantage of the cocktail hour the Taj had arranged for all of their long term stay guests - of course almost everyone there was from my company. Every time we turned around there was another guy offering us some sort of snack - then a guy filling up my wine, then more snacks. We were invited to join the group for dinner. We went to an Indian-Chinese place. Downstairs there was a bar/club which was somewhat amusing. Of course we had to check that place out after dinner. We had a good time and rolled back to the hotel around 200 am-ish. It was nice to talk to the other "SMEs" (subject matter experts) that are here in Delhi. Many of them have travelled to other places I wanted to go - Darjeeling, Goa, Bombay, Shimla, etc.

Today, I'm on my way out the door to go to the Quntub Minar with my pals and another gal that arrived last night. My camera is charged and ready to go!!

So Much Fabric, So Little Time....

I went, I saw, I goggled up a bunch of fabric.... it was a fabric frenzy that ended with not one piece of pink (my favorite color is pink). I know I set some pink aside, but it just didn't get cut. That's ok... I have plenty. After selecting the fabric, we travelled to a residential area to pick up our friend's cousin then off to another home to speak to the tailor. We found out that she wouldn't have time for any hand work - I was really confused at this point. I had thought that this tailor was our friend's tailor and that she had already spoken to her about what we were looking. I later found out that the original tailor's husband fell ill and therefore not able to help us out. The "fill-in" tailor brought out a basket of trimmings - laces, sequins, etc. as an alternative. The next 30 minutes or so, my friend and I pawed through the basket looking at each other thinking "what is going on?" Finally the tailor came over and started helping us by making some suggestions - "finally" I thought! As I had no idea what I was doing. I decided on a few that I thought didn't need any handwork and went under the measure. I wasn't as concerned about going under the measure as I thought as several other "jumbos" had collected at this gal's home. We hope back in the car and off to another shop we went. We landed in a strip mall of sorts. At the first tailor, they said no - they didn't have enough time to get what we needed done, however after some persuading, the second tailor was able to help. Well, kinda. He took the fabric I had, jotted down my measurements and said he'd do what he could. I'm not sure what that means, but we'll see what I get. I told the gal that lives here that if I'm not able to bring the goods home that it wasn't a big deal, there are folks that are coming back later than we are that might be able to help, otherwise, we could inter-office them back to the US. So now, we wait.

I was also able to certify another student which brings the total to four with just one more call left to do on the fifth. I just couldn't do that last call. While my student hadn't given out any wrong information, the speed of which he handled his calls made me want to yank him out of his chair and take the reigns. One call took 45 minutes - it should have taken about 10. At the end of the day, I was ready for a martini. We asked one of the managers to join us for a drink - before we knew it, he had declined our invitation and had asked none other than number five - the student I had been sitting with the entire afternoon certifying. Now, don't get me wrong, he's a darling guy - but he's absolutely the last person I wanted to unwind with. My pal and I looked at each other wondering what we should do as now number five had asked another guy on my team to join us. Oh goodness, now we are in a pickle. We decided to tell number five that we were just going to retire to the hotel and have a drink there - which we did. Unfortunately, once we got to the hotel, we learned that they only serve cocktail via room service after 1230 am. Being that it was now 330 am, we were limited. We decided to call room service and get those cocktails - we deserved them! I can't imagine that too many folks are ordering drinks at 330 am as we were passed around the hotel staff for someone to help us. They finally arrived. We toasted to another week's end and chatted about what we needed to accomplish as our number of "sleeps" can now be counted on one hand.

I keep forgetting to mention the status of my henna "tattoo". It's practically all gone at this point - my guess is that a little body scrub and it would all be gone. This is perfect as I'm going to get it done again before coming home - I just love it! Another thing I love is those bindis! The ones in the link aren't the ones I have, but it gives you an idea of what I'm talking about. They're purely decoration. When in Rome, right?

Today, we may do some shopping (what a surprise). Tomorrow, off to see the Qutb Minar.