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....