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.

Three Done, Eight More To Go!

I'm happy to report that I was able to get another student certified to take calls. She did such a great job! I told her that I was going to pack her up and take her home with me to which she giggled. While I missed my quota of 17 calls per day by five, we have decided to reduce the total number of calls per person from 10 to 7 - which means I only have to listen to 13 calls per day to be done before I leave. What I'm facing is that the calls aren't coming in. I have reduced the number of folks taking these calls in the US and I am also having calls directly transferred (which is transferring the call directly to the student going through certification rather than the queue and then routing) but still we're waiting for quite some time for customers. Well, all we can do is sit and wait. The last couple of days, I was able to listen to 12 or 13 calls, so I feel this number is achievable based on that. With that said, I should have two more certified and working on the sixth when I come back to the hotel today.

Today we're going to the tailor to have some shirts made! Several gals in my class have suggested their tailor or this shop - however one of the managers said that she'd take us to a place that has it all so we don't have to go from one place to another. What I learned yesterday was that we'll be going to a couple of stores - one for fabric and the other for stitching. I still don't get that part of the culture, the last minute meeting or the change in plans. Good thing I have a "go with the flow" mentality. What I need to work on is that look I have on my face when trying to understand something or wondering "what in the heck are they talking about". Some of you know that look rather well - in fact, I think it's a family trait. I try really hard to not wear my emotions on my sleeve - let's just say that this is still an area of opportunity.

The Olympic torch is scheduled to come through Delhi next Thursday and travel from the Red Fort to India Gate which is about 3.5 km (just a little over 2 miles). There is quite a stir about it due to the recent Tibetan protests. Authorities - both Chinese and Indian are concerned that protesters could make a scene that gains international attention which is NOT what they're wanting. In the paper today they indicated that there would be about 6,000 police officers lining the path in an effort to protect the torch. I guess my hopes of getting a glimpse of the torch are dashed.

Next week at this time I'll be on a plane, back to the US. I just can't believe how quickly time has flown.

Two Down, 9 More to Go...

Yesterday was another round of call ins for my group here in India. Despite the call in schedle, I went ahead and continued to certify - I couldn't lose an entire day. I'm happy to report that another student has been certified to take calls!! I even started certifying another. While my daily quota of call certification was 15 calls per day, I fell short by 5. My daily total rises to 17 calls per day. I'll need to talk to the folks in the US and manage skills (what calls employees take) there to force more calls to us here in India. I don't have 10-15 minutes to wait in between calls. I need them fast and furious in order to complete everyone's certification before I leave (5 more business days). I have another idea up my sleeve though - I'll run it by my contacts here to see what their thoughts are.

I was proud as a peacock though - I received an instant message from one of my "callers" in the US telling me what a great job two of my students did on their calls yesterday. I invited them over to my desk to tell them how well they did. I was beaming! Now, if I could just get all the others on the same page, we might have something. The real learning comes from just taking live calls. As I've mentioned I wish I had more of me here to do this. Unfortunately there's no way around it. I'm confident that I can make this happen though despite the detours.

My friend's father came to visit her for a few days. Her family is actually from south India. So, I stayed in at the hotel today and did some reading by the pool. It's probably about 93* here today, it was gorgeous. Before going out, my room steward (his name is Jaswant) stopped by to change my sheets, dust, refill water, organize my three rows of shoes, give me new towels, empty my trash and call the laundry guy. He's such a nice gentleman. He told me today in his broken English that he told his wife about me and how nice I was. He said that he considered me family which I thought was sweet. I asked about his family - he has three sons, the oldest 19 and the youngest 11. His wife has a government job which is a good thing as I understand it. He was concerned about how I travel to and from work which again I thought was sincere. He seemed to be relieved when I told him that the hotel car takes me. I had three Hershey's bars left from my chocolate stash, I asked that he take them to his family and share as a treat from me. This was the end of the chocolate which I'm happy is gone.

Tomorrow at least I will be meeting a friend from work at the tailor's store. I'm looking forward to it!

Taxes, Check!

Whew! Well, thanks to that "close relative" of mine I was able to complete and submit my taxes yesterday. We did come up with a "deal" of sorts as payment - let's just say that I will not have to reserve room in my suitcase for anything. Thank you! My very close relative!!

As for work, I'm amazed at how often we have these last minute meetings. For example, yesterday I learned that two of my folks have to go through linguistic testing today - For about a week now, I have talked about another round of US call ins. How is it that now we have to accommodate something else? Also, the gal that was going to take us to her tailor announces before leaving (at 330 am, mind you - remember our shifts end at 300 am) that she has a meeting for today and needs to be at the office early. What? Did she just learn of this? I'm so confused. So.... the trip to the tailor's has been post-poned until Friday. She's assures me that s/he'll be able to stitch up whatever we need by Thursday - let's hope that's the case. Instead of going to the tailor's today we went back to Janpath again. The gal that was here before actually "needed" more wares - so, I was more than happy to help a friend in need! Of course there was a cute pair of sandals that had my name on them - not literally... but I just couldn't let them get away. At this point, I'm considering purchasing another suitcase as I think I surpassed the amount of space used to carry the chocolate in "Indian" goods some time ago.

Today, I saw some Tibetan women in the market. I wanted to run up and say "Tashi delek" which means "hello and good wishes to you". They were so pretty with their traditional dress on. I probably would have scared them away or worse yet, they wouldn't have understood what I was saying with my Western accent. I immediately wondered about their "story" and hoped that their journey to get to get to that market had been safe for them.

I have completed one certification and have at least 93 more calls to listen to before I'm done. That would be about 15 calls a day. I've been trying to restrict calls going to the US which would force them here. If we can get the calls faster, it makes my job easier. I do have to admit that there was a point where I just wanted to scoot the guy I was sitting with over and say, "here, let me show you how it's done". However I don't think that would be very appropriate. On one call the customer did ask for a manager at which I said, "let me take it". That's why I was working until 330 am - I was taking a manager call. In the end, the customer understood that his plan had changed some time ago. It happens all the time when companies slightly change the plan design and employees just don't take the time to read through their materials. With the help of someone from the insurance company we were able to pin down exactly when the change happened. While the customer isn't really happy about this change, unfortunately there's not much he can do right now. Changing his plan is not an option at all.

I'm hoping to be able to continue certification today and get through my 15 certification calls - wish me luck!!

April 8, 2008?

How did it get to be April? I can hardly believe that my time here in India is almost over - exactly 10 days from today, I'll begin my day's journey back home. Before I do that, I have an important task at hand.... (I know most of you are thinking 'shopping' and while that is on my 'to do list' there one thing that I have neglected since being here) my taxes! My documents have traveled with me in an attempt to complete them and send them back to the US (interoffice mail) for a team member to mail prior to April 15. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I thought of this genius idea (no worries, I'll just bring them with me and do them there!), clearly I wasn't. I have all the documents I need at this point and now it's deciphering 'cost basis' and that stuff. I have a very close relative of mine that is a C.P.A. so I'm hoping that she might be able to offer her services later today. Of course I'm willing to pay - perhaps a nice silk scarf, some cooking spices or even some lovely bangles? So today has been a day for taxes - I have done everything needed except for a few lines. While I was away this weekend, the gal I'm traveling with had some family come and stay with her. Like mine, her schedule was non-stop. Instead of milling around Delhi today, we both decided to take a day and rest - for me... it's tax time and book reading (however I do find the IRS.gov website rather interesting and lite) for her, it's resting and recovering for tomorrow, we shop! We'll be meeting a gal from work at her favorite tailor to design our very own kurtas (pullover shirts). As mentioned before, unless you're a size 4-ish, finding a ready made shirt can sometimes be a challenge, not to mention frustrating. Hearing a shop keeper say that he has "jumbo size" is not really something you like to hear or encourages me to rush right in and see what he has to offer. After one shop keeper announced this I promptly said "and for that, I'm leaving". I'm sure he's still sitting in his shop wondering what happened. While I'm not a big fan of "going under the measure" I'll know that my custom top is made perfectly for me with all the glitz and glam a girl can come up with! Gone are the days that I fold the shirt in half and do the "hmmm.. will it fit?" measure starting under one arm pit to the other. I've had more men offer to measure me that I really care to think about. The gal from work thought an hour would do it... clearly she doesn't know us very well, this will be an afternoon affair!

I've started certifying my team to take live calls. Unfortunately I was only able to get one call yesterday (for reference, I have 11 to certify and need 10 calls each = 110 calls). I listened to approximately 15 calls, only one of which was applicable. The others are not because they weren't 'secured' meaning that we couldn't help the customer because they came into the wrong area or didn't have a PIN number. I have an idea on how to be more efficient with our time today - being I'm the only one here to certify, I need to be as efficient as possible. Tomorrow we'll be doing call ins again. We're only doing 1 day this time. I hope everyone does well. I've been thinking a lot about how the Learning & Development team organized training and I will offer suggestions for future teams - what we do now just doesn't make any sense and encourages the wrong behaviors. By that I mean memorizing rather than utilizing tools.

Wish me luck... on all fronts....

Golden Temple, Check!

Wow. What a great weekend! We had such a nice time. I'm so glad that we went, despite the 12 hours our so we had to spend on the train.

On Friday I had packed my bags and brought them to the office as I thought we were leaving right from there. Thankfully, I had mentioned something to the gal at work because plans had changed. Our train left at 715am, not 5-ish. I went back to the hotel - actually, that was better I thought as then I could shower, etc and get a few hours of sleep. I went right to the front desk as I had spoken to the duty manager before leaving to "double lock" my room. The guy that cleans my room explained that this would protect both him and me and prohibiting anyone, except the manager to enter my room. I thought that was a good idea and thought I had it arranged. When the front desk guy gave me a new key, I realized that it had not been done. "Where is this 5 star service?" I told the guy (now keep in mind it's about 4 am) that "if I have to come back down here because I can't get into my room, I'll be furious!" He assured me that I would and he was right. I got ready for a little nap and saw a roach. I blinked again, hoping that I was seeing things and saw another! For a split second I thought I'd forget about it... but then decided to call. Of course there was a lot of pomp and circumstance as the manager and another guy came to remove the roaches.... at one point I was in my bath tub with the 2 men in there - before removing the roaches, they removed me. I thought to myself, "I hope this isn't a snip-it of what's to come for the weekend."

My friend and her husband picked me up on the way to the train station. I had told them to meet me there however they insisted otherwise. I'm glad they did. The station was pure chaos. We found our train and seats - I was actually pleasantly surprised! It was clean and nice! We took off. Before long stewards and stewardesses were giving us breakfast! Very similar to a plane! I didn't want to miss a thing, so I had my nose pressed against the window for as long as I could. What I saw was interesting. A lot of trash and quite a few people with make-shift housing along the tracks. Not the whole route, of course, but in the bigger stations. As for the land, mostly wheat, a few oats and sugar cane. Every so often I'd see a large chimney with smoke billowing out - which are brick making places. It rained on and off the entire ride to Amritsar. I hoped the rain wouldn't spoil everything.

We arrived to Amritsar and found our driver waiting for us there to whisk us away to the hotel, the Savaasa. Again, more rain... there was a little rain building in the streets - of course I didn't think of it at the time. We checked out our rooms and the spa and decided to get a snack before venturing out. Thankfully we did. As we were eating, a monsoon ensued. It was unbelievable how the rain fell! One of the things that we had planned to do was to go to the India and Pakistan boarder to watch the boarder closing ceremony. Everything I had read said that this was a must see. The big issue here - it's outside.... We decided to make the trek to the Attar/Wagah boarder - hopefully not many would be there due to the rain! Our driver backed up right to the stairs so that we didn't have to step in the water - my guess was about 2 inches of water, just right there. The entire city was flooded! Water was everywhere. Again, on and off rain for the next 20-30 minutes to the boarder. When we arrived, there were people everywhere. Rain didn't scare a one of them away. I counted no less than about 15 tour buses! We wiggled our way to the area and continued to try and jockey our way to the best spot as none of us wanted to miss a thing. Through the double gate, we could see Pakistan. On both sides of the gates, people were dancing and singing and celebrating. Once the ceremony started, more chanting in support of India! The ceremony itself was exciting! A LOT of stomping and staring the other side down. They opened the gates for the guards to do their little boarder closing dance. Despite our efforts (and the lack of my fancy camera with the zoom lens) I wasn't able to capture anything that looked like a thing. They lowered the flags and stomped back to their stations. It was a lot of fun! I'll just add that the people watching was a lot of fun too! During this entire ceremony - the rain had ceased. It stopped right when we needed it to.

We found our driver (how, I'm not sure) and went back to Amritsar. We decided to check out the Golden Temple. Again, the streets were just crazy with all the water! The city was flooded! We finally honked our way through the crowds, dropped our shoes at the bootery and made our way in. We had to walk through a little foot bath and make our way up the stairs. I whipped my pink scarf over my head (as my hair needed to be covered for the most part) and up the stairs I went. Seeing the temple at night was just breathtaking. The temple is surrounded my a large pool of water - Sehks bathe in the water before entering the temple. Let's just say this - I saw more than what I had intended on seeing. We walked barefooted on the marble to go inside. We had to purchase food offerings and wait in line. We waited about an hour to get inside. On the grounds of the temple, you could hear someone singing. It was beautiful. Inside, there was the guy singing and men playing instruments like an accordion, but they weren't hanging over their shoulders. It was jam-packed and the quick tour lasted all of about 10 minutes. It was worth it though. Once outside, the food that we had offered is eventually given back to the people. It's taken with both hands - you can't just offer one hand to receive. It looked like brown sugar and tasted like a sweet concoction of flour, butter and brown sugar. We waked back to where we came in and caught another glimpse. Just gorgeous.

We took a detour to a shoe shop to look at Jutis (I have a pair posted on the side of my blog). By the time we were done.... I bet we had about 150 pairs of Jutis on the floor. He kept bringing us more to try on! So, what's a girl to do?? I selected two pairs (I know, I said no more, but they had paisleys and they're cute! Besides, they won't take up that much room, right?). We went back to the hotel to eat dinner, it was about 10 pm and we were tired. We decided that we'd get massage treatments the next morning as we are staying in a spa/hotel - we'd hate to offend our hosts. The owner helped us with our selections and made our appointments.

My massage was to take place at 8 am and at 8, I was getting ready for my massage. All I new was that it was an oil massage - other than that, I knew nothing. Unfortunately, the gal didn't know much English, but I understood what I needed to do and I wasn't really thrilled about it. I'll leave the details out so not to promote any visuals - however, my thoughts included "just relax, I'll never see this woman again", "how am I going to get this oil out of my hair", I hope I don't slide off this wooden bed" and "how am I going to get off this wooden platform without seeming like I'm walking on ice." The shower was another event. There is most certainly a day's learning curve to understand how to regulate the temperature of the shower. At one point I was cornered in the glass shower with scalding water hitting me... my massage lady came to my rescue only to leave me an ice cold shower. That's ok - I'll figure it out upstairs. I did, kinda... in the end, I enjoyed the massage and was well oiled.

We met for breakfast and decided to see the Golden Temple again, just for a second - I'm glad we did! It was lovely. I'll just say that I'm glad we went inside the night before as the line to get in most certainly would have taken over 2 hours. Just down the street, there was another site called the Jallianwala Bagh <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jallianwala_Bagh_Massacre> which is now a park commemorating the site. I was fine with walking however only after a couple of steps, we realized that this wasn't an option as every merchant that saw me was out and trying to persuade me into his store. We took a bike rickshaw just a few blocks to Jallianwala Bagh. After that, back to the train station we went. Now, we weren't taking the same train - it was an "A.C. Car" but a different train. In the end, it was a great experience. We snacked our way through the train stations which was fun, eating all different types of food (let's hope that I'm not sorry about that today). We were only 30 minutes behind schedule - we somehow made up an hour. The train back to Delhi took over 7 hours. I saw how much the rain had damaged the crops - it looked that it some places, farmers lost about quite a bit - maybe 30-40% of the field. I hope that the damage doesn't end up being that much... that could be quite devastating.

I arrived at the Taj around 11 pm or so. I had such a nice weekend and great company.

Pictures from Amritsar: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=222044816/a=109545564_109545564/t_=109545564

The Saga Continues....

Well, I finally rec'd feedback regarding our call ins with my pals in the U.S. Bottom line, we'll be doing more training. I don't feel badly about that because this is typical. Trainees in the U.S. have challenges with the same concepts we're having here. It's a little different feeling however even though it's similar. We'll be doing training today and on Monday. I did begin certifying one of the students. What this means is that I sit with her through 10 calls and listen to the conversation. I "evaluate" the call based on five different attributes right afterwards and provide feedback. As long as she doesn't give out completely wrong information, she'll be "certified" to take calls along. With 11 students, that a minimum of 110 calls. Out of about 10 calls I listened to yesterday, I could only certify four as the other six were transfers to other services. I wish there were two of me.

We went shopping again, I know, big surprise, back to the first market we went to. Again, we didn't even see about 1/4 of what was there - I need to finish up my shopping though... I'm afraid my suitcase will hit maximum capacity within a few days (if it isn't already). We took a detour to get back to the hotel to miss the traffic. What a site! I saw so many cows!! I started counting and I got up to 15 just within a two block span. People literally set up shop on the street. I think I saw two gentlemen with their sewing machines and about five more "shops" just to cut hair. It's common to see someone getting a shave or a trim right on the side of the street. What a great way to keep overhead down, huh?

As for this weekend, I'm packed and ready to go. Right after work I'll be heading to the train station to take off to Amritsar to see the Golden Temple! I'm really excited!! I hear it's amazing. Remember... I won't be bringing my laptop along.. so there will be no posts this weekend.

Day 2 1/2....

I'd like to report that our call ins are almost complete as there are a few more that still need to be done. However, for the most part they're over. At this point, my plan would have been to begin the certification process - we'll be doing plan B which is more training. That's ok. Better to need that now rather than need it when I'm not here. I just wish that there were two of me as it would make it so much easier. I'm also finding that some of the tools we're using are out of date. I'm needing someone to comb through these callflows and update. I didn't realize that I'd have some challenges there. Anyway, as I sit here, the sun has already come up (actually, it's about noon) so all is well. My philosophy is that if something so horrible happens in our lives that prevents the sun from coming up, then we're in trouble - anything short of that can be dealt with.

As for yesterday... well, let's just say it was a typical day in the life of Carol. We met our friend at work where she picked us up. We decided to get a little lunch before heading to Gold Suk - the mall full of nothing but jewelry stores. She took us to one of her favorite places, LemonTree. It's actually a hotel with a restaurant attached. It was nice and clean and had a pretty big menu. Prior to getting our lunch, I excused myself to find the indoor facilities. While in the bathroom, I can hear someone rattling the door - not my door, but the door to the bathroom. I wonder "what the heck is going on?" After exiting my stall, another gal is in there frantically jiggling the door handle trying to get out. She asked me, "did you lock the door when you came in?" "No," I replied. In fact, there wasn't even a lock on the door to lock... I had merely shut the door so it wasn't wide open. We were officially locked in the bathroom. I stood there and laughed. Of course, getting locked in the bathroom could only happen to me. We could hear no less than about 20 people on the other side of the door hammering and working away to try and open the door. What was ironic was that in the bathroom, there were jokes that were framed all over the walls. We were entertained while waiting. About 10 m minutes later we were free. We both of us scurried back to our tables to share our stories with our friends. I wasn't there a minute before the manager of the hotel approached our table and apologized profusely. I could tell by the look in his face that he was absolutely mortified. He gave me a little token which was a wooden box full of incense. I like incense actually and this will be a perfect addition to my musty room which now houses an ionic air purifier and dehumidifier (and may I add that this dehumidifier supposedly doesn't need to be emptied? At least that's what the housekeeping lady kept telling me. As I sit here, I see the "full" light is on... I'm not about to pull that bucket out and attempt to empty it... if it's not full of water, I don't know what it's "full" of.... hm....).

Off to Gold Suk we went. It literally was a mall just full of jewelry stores!! I was so thankful that the gal from work came with us. It was rather intimidating. The store windows were full of these wedding sets. Imagine a three inch wide necklace full of rubies and diamonds along with matching earrings, bangles and headpieces. Every window was more elaborate than the last. We went to a couple of stores and told them what we were looking for. Actually, I found exactly what I was hoping to find at the first store, however I just felt I needed to look at some other places - so, we did. A few minutes later, I made my way back to the first and procured my find. Before the night was over, I was wearing my purchase despite the fact that they didn't go with a thing I had on. I didn't care. I just couldn't wait.

My partner in crime and I took inventory of what we "needed" to purchase before going home. Today, we traveled to our Mehndi place and set out to get some things we have seen here that would be good as gifts. This time we were smart because we knew what things should cost as before we had offended folks with our bargaining. We finally found the people we wanted to purchase some of our things from. We gave them our price and quantity and of course there was a game, but we got what we wanted. Soon, their entire family was there counting. There were so many people that we thought we were hosting a party. I had to just take it all in. I'm sure the money we gave them, about $10.00 was enough to sustain the family for quite some time. It literally was a celebration. The women were beautiful with their saris and jewelry. This was really my only opportunity to stare without being rude. So many times, I'm the one being stared at.

I've mentioned before and I'll say it again, I am so fortunate. I'm fortunate to have a great family, wonderful friends and a great job which has afforded me an opportunity to be immersed in another culture. While I may have made some poor decisions in my past, those decisions have landed me right here where I am today and for that, I am thankful.

Callins - Day 2....

During this entire training, I have been coordinating with our team in the U.S. to facilitate this training. Yesterday is where the rubber hit the road. We've spent three weeks learning provisions - yesterday, some of my students took calls from subject matter experts in the U.S. - just like they would a call. We were all nervous - at least here in India. During the day (or actually night) I think I covered the length of a marathon with all the pacing and running around I did. I'm happy to report that noone died. What I didn't realize would happen would be some creative interpretation of our provisions. I guess the good news is that we're identifying a list of topics that we can re-train on. Today is day 2 of the call ins. The other group of learners will be taking their practice calls today.

Prior to work, we're meeting one of the managers here in India to go to a jewelry store to look at some gold what-nots. I'm a little anxious about the whole thing. Sometimes jewelry stores can be somewhat overwhelming. The gold here in India is a 22k gold. So, the color is more like.... Egyptian looking (I don't know if that makes sense or not, I've always had a fascination with Egypt). The designs are rather intricate and gorgeous. We'll see what I can find that's not outrageous.

As for my trip this weekend - all reservations have been made! I'm really looking forward to it!! I'll be leaving right from work on Friday (really Saturday morning) to catch the train and then returning on Sunday afternoon. I'm not sure I'll be able to post anything to my blog over the weekend - so you daily visitors (that's you, mom and dad) be it known... and don't fret!

Wish me luck for day 2....