better late than never-lacks detail

So this is about a month late, but I wanted to get it down for reading later on in life. We’ll pick where I left off, the details are less because I have less time and a lot of pictures:

Well a lot has happened since I last wrote. Its going to be hard to catch up but ill have a go. The last few days of my internship I spent working and hanging out with marielle and jake. Jake was a new American from yale stayin at the house with me, cool guy. One night I had coffee with the head of marketing for the taj hotels, the taj hotels are really nice. She showed me around the place and it was amazing. I didn’t go into the office at all the last week of work because the power was going out so much, it was kind of nice to work from home. I had a lot of stuff to do to get ready for my travels.

On Friday everyone from peakalpha headed out to palagot, kerala for the wedding. It was an over night bus, I must have been more tired than I realized b/c I slept the whole ride. We got there around 8 am and changed into our dotis, traditional hindu Indian wear. It was really fun, dotis are like a long dress and u wear a kurta over it, there pictures on facebook. We walked to the wedding hall and had a southern Indian breakfast on a banana leaf. I stuffed my face, they wouldn’t stop brining me food because everyone loves to see the white kid eat with his hands. I love the food ovr here, I cant get enough. The wedding ceremony was toootally different than in the us. They had some hindu band up there at first and close to 1000 ppl in the crowd. The actual ceremony is really long, 3-4 hours, and no one really watches or knows whats going on. People talk amongst themselves during the ceremony, I had a hard time with that. I had about 5 little kids come and take pictures with me and we just messed around in the audience. Normal hindu wedding end after the man ties a necklace around the girl, but they didn’t do that in this one so no one knew when it was over. We just went and had lunch, southern Indian style again. I ate like 3 pounds of rice that day. It was a really cool experience to get to fo the wedding, I have a good amount of it on film. Everyone knows how much I love costumes so that mde it that much better. After the wedding we went to visit a reservoir nearby. Electricity is run through reservoirs so it was cool to see that, we took a tug boat ride through the lake. It poured on us and all my clothes got ruined, it was reallyfun though and there were fisherman sitting in tires all over the lake. Kerala is a beautiful state, I hope to go back one day. After the reservoir we went back to the hotel and chilled out the rest of the day. Indians are so different than Americans in so many ways and it is difficult to be so out numbered. They tend to very concerned with the feelings of their guest and being bombarded with sensitivity isn’t my idea of fun, I had a hard time keeping it together that night. There are so many things about Indians that just clash with the American way, it makes it hard to deal with when im so outnumbered and overwhelmed with the differences. Slept 3 in a 1 person bed thatnight, didn’t sleep to well.
The next morning they all headed off to visit some waterfall and I went to catch a plane to bombey, financial capital of india. Our car broke down on the way there and I got to look like a car genius b/c I knew how to pop the hood. Haha, the extent of my automobile knowledge. I got to the airport way early so I read and slept for a while, got some lunch. The flight there was nice, ive always really enjoyed flying. When we were about to land we flew over the biggest slum in asia and that was crazy to see. It was miles of rolling hills with 2-3 story slums packed in. it was crazy, ivenever seen anything like that before. I had just missed a huge storm, I don’t know how places like that survive the monsoon rains. . and is married with 2 kids. There family was awesome, I clicjed with them all right away. First and I went to visit his wifes after school program nearby. It was honestly the most eyeopening and terrifying thing I have seen. Indian education in general is pretty week, but some of the private programs, like this one, are absolutely stellar. It was a program for 6-12 yr olds and they were designing robots, programming computers, building video games, etc. I was shocked and terrieified to be competeting with these kids in 15 years. My world has exploded during my time here, im looking forward to returning and starting to learn some more technical stuff. Im going to start by relearning calculus, and then move to other math stuff and computer and science related stuff. Theres just so much other stuff that I have no idea about, im excited about it. After that the family and I took a walk on the beach of the Arabian see and got to know eachother. We hit it off right away, returned for dinner, and then watched the wimbeldon finals. It was a fun night, I hope to see them again.
The next morning I went jogging with the older boy on the beach, it was pretty cool. The beaches here are pretty polluted so it wasn’t the romantic jog ud think itd be on the coast of the Arabian sea, still nice though. I came back and got all ready to go in my new tailored suit, looking good. After and I headed off, the drive there was pretty crazy. Bombay is insane, kind of has a ny feel to it. I spent the morning in 30 minute meetings with all the heads of diff departments in just learning about the Indian markets and getting their advice on random things. I was pretty cool to get a look at the macro stuff after working for a micro company for the month before. Some even had lectures prepared and just taught me about the exchanges or about the company. It was very cool and I am very grateful for setting that up. At night I stayed with a jain family and it was pretty crazy. Jains are a type of hindus that don’t believe in killing anything at all. They don’t eat anything except fresh fruit and veggies that grow above ground. I went to dinner with a guy named and his wife at a really great place and then they took me to a really legit dessert place. Consistent to Indian form they wouldn’t stop feeding me until I was borderline aggressive. Seriously I would tell them I was full an about to throw up and they would keep offering me food. Ugh. There apartment was nice, the whole extended family was there. They had a little boy who was really cute. I went for a jog along the Arabian see in the am and they made me a traditional breakfast. I ate with the grandfather who I found out actually spoke English right before I left, we sat there in sildence for 30 minutes because I didn’t think he spoke English. The next day I got a city tour of. This is the city where the bombings were in the fall and they are all still really affected by it. I saw all the hotels where the terrorist were but everyone was really hesistant to talk about it. Apparently everyone had to stay in their houses for like 3 days when it happened. There are still a lot of question marks surrounding the attacks, all I can know for sure is that, like most things to India, it was pakistans fault. After the tour I went back to and had a few more meetings. I got to talk with for a while, it was really nice. He really did a lot for me on the trip, I was trying to be careful to take full advantage of knowing such a well connected and generous family without being annoying. It was kind of hard but he handled me very well.

After the meetings I headed to the airport. Again, always an experience driving through cities in india. From all kinds of animals, to beggars, to slums, to anarchic driving. I was headed to delhi to meet my parents. Here is where the detail stops, mainly because we have tons of pictures and video from our time together. It was really good to see them again, I felt like I could finally turn off after 2 months of always having to be on my toes. We spent a few days in delhi, spent most of the time visiting religious temples and such. It was cool to see how they responded to things I had already gotten used to. I liked teaching them all I had learned and trying to break through some of their prejudices like some of mine had been broken through. After delhi we went to agra to see the taj mahal and for agra. Of course this was crazy. I had really high expectations for the taj and it still blew them out of the water. It really is emotional to look at because of how great it is and the love story behind it. We took a donkey drawn carriage through the slums of agra to the taj, you could see the taj from our hotel room, and fort aggra was pretty awesome as well. After agra we took the long drive through rural india to jaipur, the gem city. The ride was pretty crazy, you really can absorb india through those drives. You see some real india, it’s pretty crazy. Everytime we stopped we got swarmed with hawkers. In jaipur we stayed in a really traditional hotel. We rode elephants to castlses, visited a cool astrology center that used to be tell horoscopes for arranged marriages, saw snake charmers, bought gems, got a cooking lesson from a local family, beth got a henna tattoo, we shopped for clothes, danced traditional dances, saw the palace on the water, and a few other things. I was most excited about jaipur for this part of the trip, it was pretty crazy. After jaipur we went back to Bangalore to reunite with shoba, and the girls. I showed my family where I stayed, worked, and hung out. We visited mysore palace one day, easily the most impressive palace I have ever seen. It blows Windsor castle out of the water. I would have loved to see it in its hay day. My dad, and I vitied Infosys campus and met with the cfo, board member, and training team. Infosys started the tech rush in india and is a huge company, reciving well over a million applicants per year. The campus was amazing, pools, malls, work out rooms, basketball courts, restaurants. We also got to have go to a lunch with about 10 of the top economists in india and here them talk about emerging markets and what they thought the future would hold. It was one of those times where u step back and ask urself how u got to do this, that question popped in my head about 30 times on this trip.
We had a big goodbye dinner our last night with my family and all the friends I had made. There were about 20 there in all, about 15-20 people were on vacation, this was right in the middle of vacation season. We headed out late Friday. It was pretty crazy. I love india but im ready to go home. America, here I come. It was very lifechanging, to lifechaning to record on this blog. Theres just to much stuff to say. We’ll talk. Looking forward to seeing you all again,

Love,
matt

ello everyone,

so i havent written in a while. last week was pretty rough, i didnt do much. i was working 9 am-11 pm most days so i didnt really get to go out. all my stuffs due wednesday so its crunch time. I did go to a pub and to dinner tuesday night, but other than that just been working. i finished the business plan and now im onto the powerpoint which is the easy part. i might be doing a presentation on friday about how to do research, not sure how im gunna pull that one off.

i did a few things, nothin spectacular. saturday night was great though, i got invited to a black tie dinner. i got a custom made suit b/c they are really cheap over here, pin stipes and all. i wore it to the dinner, it was a ridiculous dinner. it was 6 courses, wine at every course, surrounded by millionares kind of thing. very cool, met some pretty interesting people. sunday went on a tour of a botanical garden and learned about trees, not really my thing but we got good food at the end. last week was kind of the 'sacraficial' week that makes all the rest of the weeks fun. ive been workgin hard but just had to work longer hours last week so didnt get a lot of fun time.

today was great though, i went to work and actually got to come home at 1 and work. the power keeps going out at the office b/c the monsoon has been weak so i got to come home and work. india runs on hydro electrcity, the dams run it. so when it doesnt rain enough there isnt enough rain to power everything up. after work i met this go who is the founder of go spors and used to be an olympic swimmer for coffee. it was really cool, kinda lazy and dont feel like writing what we walked about. afterwards went to an indian dinner, i love indian food. hopewfully ill learn how to cook some.

but the main reason im writing is to tell you how crazy my life is going to be starting friday. friday i go to kerala for an indian wedding where i wear a skirt and eat banana leaves. sunday i am meeting the head of for all of india in bombay for a two day lesson on capital markets and stuff. email me for the agenda if you care, ill probably learn more in one day then i have in my whole life. tuesday i meet my parents and beth in dehli for 3 days, then aggra for a day to see the taj, then to jaipur, and then back to bangalore. its all pretty crazy and unreal, i cant wait. the rest of the week should be great have stuff planned for every night. prolly will be wokring at home a lot b.c the power goes out so much and we have a backup generator at the apartment. love you guys, hope everyone is well.

love
matt

Just got back from work, going to Caperberry in a few minutes to start planning the big party for when my parents and sister are here.

so we left off on thursday. thursday I worked and went to dinner with my good friend Majid, from work. hes the best friend I have made at work and we get along really well. We went to an Indian place that he wanted to try, I am becoming obsessed with Indian food, its so good! and its all so healthy. we started talking about religion, I had figured he was Hindu but found out he was a Muslim. We had a pretty 'important' conversation about some really contraversial stuff. i felt like we were way closer after the dinner and that i understand islam a whole lot better. he told me about a lot of the violence between muslims and hindus in India and all kinds of other important stuff that relates to the US. I enjoyed the convo big time, I also found out he used to be a model. We have something in common.

Majid offered to pick me up at 4:30 AM friday morning to go to the train station and help me with everythnig. I'm pretty sure I didn't need the help but he insisted so I was happy to take the free car ride. My train ride to Chennai, south of India on the very tip, was about 5 hours. i tried to sleep during the ride but they just keep serving you stuff. I was warned against the train food and didnt want to be sick on the train so i stayed away. the guy next to me was watching kung foo panda so i watched that covertly, great movie. when i finally arrived i was totally ripped off by a taxi driver because he told me the drive was an hour when it was 15 minutes.

the office in chennai is new, only 2 guys work there. its in shyams hometown, the office is actually in his parents old house. i worked on the business plan for a few hours and had lunch. i am starting to love indian food, eating with your hands is the best. i actually dont get any food on my clothes, its weird. after work one of the guys, bilijori, and i went to check ot the beach and had some coffee. chennai was one of the places that got hit by the tsunami a few years back, it seemed to have recovered nicely though. theres not a whole lot to see in the city, a few cool temples. it was also about 100 degrees. at night i went to dinner at a resturant near where i was staying. there was actyually a kid eating alone in the same room, so we ate together. turns out hes got some friends who are going to a and m and r going to email me. pretty cool.

friday at work was very frusterating. the power went out 3 times for about an hour each time. not only could we not do any work but the ac would also go off, that was rough. there was some new legislation passed on friday that heavily impacts our business so i didnt see much of shyam after breakfast. we went to a diner, i love indian breakfast. i mainly did research all day trynig to get industry numbers and add to their database. it was a rough day, not having electricity is not cool. after work shyam and i went to an andhra pradesh restuurant, thats the state with the spiciest food. its weird, i cant even eat mild buffalo wings, but i can eat the spiciest indian food with no problem. i love it. we had a good time, we are getting pretty cool. he is a great manager and im learning a lot from him. went for some mango ice cream after.

saturday i cut a deal with shyam that if he let me go at 11 id finish my work at fishermans cove. he talked with me for an hr about the b plan and i left for the resort, about a 30 minute drive. it was amazing, i had my own little cottage near the beach. the food was great, my porch was awesome, i had an open air shower, and the workout room was great. i tried to meet some american guys at lunch when i got there but they were about to leave and everyone else was with their signif others, so i didnt wanna interupt that. i worked out and went back to my cottage to read atlas shrugged and work on the business plan. atlas shrugged is a fantastic book, everyone should read it, especially aggies. I just hung out on my porch all night, ordered some room service, read, slept, drank coffee. i wathec pirates of the caribean, took a few open air showers. in the morning i worked out and went to their amazing breakfast buffet. I read for a long time and had to check out at 12, but didnt leave for the train station until 9. i just bummed around the pool reading all day. i rewrote the gents business plan and put together our calendar for the fall. when it started to get dark i took my computer to the beach and did some p90x yoga, it was pretty cool. i walked about a mile down the beach for that, actually it was really scary. the waves at the beach wer epretty big and i was in the pitch black a mile down the beach. it was weird, i have never felt that alone before. it was kind of scary, the big waves and crabs crawling around. i sat there for a few minutes after, taking it in and kind of scared to move.

i went for a swim in their pool, had dinner, and took a taxi to the train stattion. it was a sleeper train and i was on a top bunk so that was kind of cool. it was nice to get a full night sleep, wasnt counting on that. it was a good weekend, cool to see another part of india and get to relax beachside. all my stuff at work is due next wednesday so im gunna be pushin it this week. will right in a few days. hope everyone is good, miss you all.

love
matt

guys, things are awesome over here. im having a great time, its been such a great experience and its not even half done. everyday is just so great, im really enjoying myself. I miss everyone terribly though and part of the reason this is so awesome is because i know what i get to go home to.
so where did we leave off, i believe it was saturday night. sunday i woke up and did some yoga. had breakfast with marielle, we are actually getting to be good friends, from my side at least. i went over to shobas house for a big family lunch. it was great, my boss was there and all there kids. shobas husbandwho is head of in all of india was there, and i got to talk with him one on one for a while. he pretty much changed my whole career plan and gave me some really good advice. him and shyam have been incrediblly helpful with career stuff and i know that i am no where near the bottom of that well said he is going to take me to mumbai on a trip with him for a few days sometime soon to 'get exposure to some macro stuff'. hes a really nice guy, i hope that gets to happen. i already feel close to that family and it was great to be with them. i ate like crazy. the grandparents were there and they were your typical old school indian grandparents. they talked a lot about their village and had just moved to bangalore to be near their grandkids. after lunch and some tea the grandparents invited me to their apartment down the street for some tea, so just the three of us headed over there. the grandma showed me their family diety and her shrine, her and i said some prayers to their family god in the worship room. it was pretty cool, she was very spritual. we talke for a bit about arranged marriage after that, i hadnt realized astrology was such a big part of it. after all that i hung out on the patio, drank chai, read, and napped for a few hours. marrielle and i went to dinner at a new place across town, she is incredibly interesting and a very good person to know. ive really enoyed staying with her.
monday came around and i had one of my typical awesome days. woke up and did yoga before breakfast. went to work and almost finished the model, he told me to send him what i have and to move on to the business plan. i thought i finished the model, the last thing i had to do was set up a macro for some sensativity analysis stuff. i had no idea what a macro was and it took me about 4 hours to get this thing done. i finally finished it and tried to key the macro code or w/e and it said the macro was to big. i was looking in to fixing it, but he came in shortly after and said to start the b plan. ill go back and finish it later, i was having fun doing that. my excel skills have multiplied infinitely, im kind of in one of those baptism by fire situations.

after work i went to a coffee shop and read fora bit before having dinner with two expats. one the walk over there a guy around my age was walking really close behind me. i was weirded out but you kind of get used to this after a bit. finally he stops me and he says "sir can i talk to you, i have a big problem". i told him of course, whats up and he proceeded to practically beg me to take him back to the US with me. he said he would work for free and for anyone, he just wanted to go to america. i wished i could have helped him but obviously i have very little to offer. he just emailed me and ill keep him in mind if theres ever anything he can do here or in the US. i met the expats at a pub called guzzlers. bangalore is the pub capital of asia and guzzlers was a decent scene. one girl was named karin, she works for london school of econ and is doing some charity work over here, the other name is lara and she is a lawyer doing some development work with some nuns outside of bangalore. after the pub we went to a ridiculosuly awesome lucknow restuarant, we got to wear indian costumes and it was magic. we had a great time, we are goingot get together again next week with some other americans. i got home round 11 and crashed, another great day.

this morning i woke up and switched it up a little with some buns and thighs pilates. had breakfats and headed to work, it was my first full business plan day. i didnt really realize how cool what i doing is until karin broguth it to my attention. usuallty companies hire whole investment banks to raise funds and im getting to do it as an undergrad. i really am pretty terrible at it but shyam kind of walks me through everything and is honestly the most patient human i have ever met. by the end of this im goin to have put together some pretty good work, hes kind of holding my hand because i have no idea what im doing right now, but ive already learned a ton and have only been here two weeks. i went to lunch with shyam and priya today, i asked priya to show me where i could get Jenny some good stuff. she took me around for about an hour, i know all the hot spots now.

my dinner tonight was at a tapas bar called zaras. i met with a guy named eric savage who used to be an i banker on wall street, then in bejing, and is now heading up an investment bank who microfinance banks here in bangalore. i think that stuff is awesome so we kind of hit it off. he went to duke and actually has spent some time with my old friend dave mcclure, so that was a random topic of discussion. big sports guy, we had a lot in common. i hope to see him again soon and he may play some hoops with us next sunday. he had some pretty awesome insights into microfinance, stuff that was aweosme to hear. im in for the night before 10 for the first time in a while. its been mega humid here so im gunna do some yoga and get all this sweat out. i leave for chennai on thursday morning, that should be a pretty awesome trip. im going to fishermans cove for saturrday night, check it out on google, its pretty awesome. im excited about all that.

thats pretty much a summary. ill write after chennai. hope everyone is good, i love you all.

love,
matt

It's saturday night, i just got in forthe night. the last few days have been a little hectic, im looking forward to ctaching up on some sleep tonight. i have lunch with shoba tomorrow, im excited about that, i havent seen her since the first day.

the last day i wrote waswednesday so ill pick up from friday morning. i woke up pretty early to do some p90x yoga in my room and then had breakfast on the terrace with the women who owns the hours. as most of you know, i love breakfast and its just as good here as it is there. we sit there for about 30 minutes, drink chait, eat the flavor of the day, and just talk about stuff. im really enjoying living in her house, shes very interesting and helpful. shes the one that brought craigs list to india.

i shoved off to work around 9, the ride there is always the most frusterating part of the day because the rickshaw drivers rip me off so bad. i worked on the financial model from 9:15-7:30 with a 15 minute lunch break. turned out i was doing it wrong for half of the day, but lesson learned there and it was a good days work. i was having so much fun with the model and with the guys in the office. i actually lost track of time and worked about an hour past when i had planned too. i scheduled my nightly dinner earlier in the day with the owner of of a spanish restaurant called berry. i was supposed to meet a women named shuti who is an ex investment banker, but instead called the other owner named shuti, the ex i banker was out of town. im going back to meet her later this month. so i showed up at this restaurant not really knowing anything, turns out it is one of the nicest places in the city. i hung out with the non i banker shuti, and her husband (the head chef) for about 3 hours. they wouldnt stop brining me drinks and tappas, almost bad news. luckily we went in for dinner after the 3rd drjnk and i was fine, i was a little worried for a bit because intelligent conversation was kind of a must in this situation.
we went in to eat and it was one of those places where the portions are tiny but you feel like you are eating fine art. it was a fantastic meal and we topped it off with some mango ice cream. the best part was, i didnt pay a dime. i believe that is textbook wined and dined ladies and gentlemen, take notes. i should be going back soon to meet the other shuti, excited about that.

friday at work was great, im almost done with the model ill send it over email when im done. for those of you who knew my excel capacity about 3 weeks ago i think youll be pretty impressed. i was pumped for trekking and had been planning on leaving around 6:30. around 5 i call the guy who owns the business and he says the group i was going with cancelled and we could either go next weekend or go to his farm on the outskirts of bangalore and trek there. i was pretty set on doing something in the wilderness so i opted for the farm. i turned out it was just the owner of the company and me so i got a day a half of one on one trekking with a guy who has trekked all over the world. he was pretty cool, youd think he was more of a nerd than a trekker by looking at him but supposedly he is one of the best climbers in the city.

after a really good indian dinner we headed out to the farm. his farm was in the middle of no where and we drove through some pretty cool villages to get there. theguy, dilip, says that his family has always discouraged modernization. this house looked very out of place in the middle of the woods, there was a nice lake nearby. it was cool to see the vilages as well, i wasnt planning on doing that and it was a nice surprise. seeing a traditional village was one of the things i wanted to do most. we actually camped on his porch because the ground was too wet from the monsoons, it was really cool to sleep outside here because there was so much wildlife around making noises all through the night. i was exhuasted and passed out right away.

we woke up around 7 this morning and had some coffee and a good indian breakfast with a lot of carbs. we had originally intended to stay until sunday night, but i said since it was just him and me why dont we just trek all day and head home tonight for dinner. he agreed and we started by getting a tour of his farm. they grew all kinds of cool stuff and had a silk farm. its mango seson here so just put mango trees in the backdrop of everything i say because they are everywhere. after the farm tour we jumped on the jeep and took the non existant road to where our first trek of the day would start. this is one of those points where word and pictures just cant capture how gorgeous it all was. i had been a little disappointed to be so close to bangalore, i was looking forward to getting far away from the city. i couldnt believe the mountains right outside the city in ramanagar, thats where we were hiking. there we literlly over a hundred pure granite mountains jutting up all over the place. it was weird for me because there are so many movie scene and disney scenes that are trying to be copies of this place. it looked like a movie set except it was natural. there were temples all over the mountains and it was seriously just endless beuty. everywhere i looked was something amazing, it was overwhelming and pretty moving actually. that kind of stuff kind of puts hinduism in perspective because abstract thinking is hard for all if not most people, me especially. because of this it becomes hard to have such a 'big' and all encompassig thought process that would allow you to relate to a one being that could create all these things that seem so individually attended to. it becomes easier to break them down and worship them seperatly, i certainly know it takes a higher cognitive ability than i have to grasp the one God of christianity and judiasm. maybe thats the point though, i dont know. nwyay, there hills are very well known for black bears so that added some excitement to the trip, i was hoping wed see one. just the thought of it was really exciting and all i needed. my guide also farted a lot so that added a little extra pizzaz and i enjoyed it immensely.

around 12 we stopped for lunch at the best place i have eaten so far. aparently it doesnt get any more traditional and it was fantastic. they served us using bamboo leaves as plates and it was a lot of food. after that we went for a second hike on a pure granite boulder. this boulder looked like a giant rock that is about 3 times the size of yankee stadium. we were crwaling and panting by the time we got to the top, but it was worth it. there was a temple dedicated to shiva built into a little nook on the side of th mountain, by far the coolest temple i have seen. there were a lot of mokeys around here, they were pretty entertaining.

aftre the second climb we headed back and i was planning on catching up on atlas shrugged for the night. instead my friend majid from the office called and wanted to go bowling. he picked me up and first we stopped at a party for a friend of his who had just won 1st place in 'dance india dance." aparently this is the equivalent american idol and this guy has a huge fan following. there were a lot of people there and im pretty sure it was kind of a big deal. after that we heade to bowlng and met our friend alex. the wait was about an hour so the three of us had some dinner and made some bets on the bowling game. loser between majid and i has to sign a hindi song to the whole office on monday for lunch.

the first game didnt count but majid killed me. but then the second game, when it mattered, i killed him and bowled by highest score ever, a 140. clutch. he wants double or nothing through a chess match at work monday, im looking forward to it. i should have some pics up soon, prolly tomorrow. for now im exhausted and am going to bed. hope everyone is doing well.

love
matt

so things are reall starting to pick up in bangalore. once i got settled in from all the craziness of the first week i kind of had to wait around to see what was going to happen with work and a few other things. i wasnt sure if the guys at the office were going to keep taking me out every night or if i would have to figure it out for myself. turns out im on my own and im going to have to make my own plans every night. i figured this out around mid day and decided its time to bring back my social butterfly side that few have scene and even fewer remember. most of you that know me know that i like my group of friends and if your not in it then i really don't care to much about you. i can only think of a few times in my life when i have intentionally tried to meet people and malke friends, the main one being freshman year of college. it looks like im going to have to turn it on again to make this the best experience it can be. ive decided im going to have dinner with a different person every night, even if it means cold calling people. it always takes me a week or two to find out why im at these kinds of places, other than the obvious reasons. the work is great, i get a lot of time with the ceo and am doing important projects, my weekends are going to qnd have been nuts, but the week nights have been slow since i got to bangalore. ive decideed thatr the reason im here is to do one of my least favorite things, which is network. i want to have friends all over the world and this is a good place to start, plus i want to learn as much as i can about india and meeting its people it probably the best way.

About ten minutes after deciding this was what i was going to do i found myself on the list of a bollywood party on the roof of a local mall. i also called up a american named laren and had dinner with him at a really great indian restaurant. after dinner we went tp the party, had a free beer, and watched crazy indians mashing to techno. while we were at the part the monsoon finally showed up, a few days late, and i have never seenanything like it. laren and i caught a rickshaw back together and it was seriously the equivalent to white water rafting. withing 15 minutes of starting the water was ankle high and in the parts of the city that were lined with shops waves crashed back and fourth between the walls like a wave pool as a water park. i have never seen so much water pile up so fast, its still pouring. i felt very close to the driver after he dropped me off and we had conquered the flood, probably the last time ill feel a positive emotion for someone who had ripped me off so bad. going to work should be interesting if this rain keeps up.

im not sure exactly where i am going this weekend, but check it out at areno.org. im driving out there with the guys who started the camp to do some trekking, rafting, camping, all i the rain forest. i dont know much about it except it looks awesome and ill be with a bunch of indian guys, always promises to be interesting. im goin on a business trip with the ceo next wed-sunday to chennai, tamil nadu. he grew up there so he'll show me around a lot, he is heading back saturday and sending me to fishers cove for a day in "one of the most serene places in the world". he didnt really say that, sorry, it will be cool though. also very hot there.

im spending this whole week getting the model ready and next week on the business plan. im enjoying it and everything will be that much better now that i know ill have plans at night and such. ill write again after the weekend, love everyone, still havent gotten any phone calls from anyone on skype!

I'm sitting in the office, got here a little early, about to start my first full week. i lucked out in my rickshaw ride this time, usually they get lost and they always rip me off. its a good thing the exchange rate is good for the dollar, being ripped off only means a dollar or two extra.

i did a good amount of work last week, finishes a rough draft of a model, outline our business plan, and a few other small things. i meeting the director today, he has been out of town. supposedly he is a great teacher so im excited about that. im excited for the moment when this project becomes real instead of just an opportunity to learn, the moment when I realize that what I'm doing could directly raise 3 million dollars and indirectly put us in touch with a lot of venture capital. i think they are planning on giving me heavy exposure to the indian retial markets as well, not sure how they are going to do that yet.

i was wrong about all the leisure being in bangalore. it is incredible how unevenly developed it is and the reason i said that was the big malls and teech cities are the things that i focused on when driving in. when you slow down and look around there is massive underdevelopment right next to those very upscale malls. the roads are a mess because they are putting in a metro, luckily its been cool because the monsoon should be here any day.It's a very confusing city because of the underdevelopment, construction, and that the rickshaw drivers don't know where they are going so i cant use the rides with them to figure it out. I worked saturday and played basketball with some guys form the office sunday morning, it was actually pretty good ball i was surprised. sunday i did some shopping i needed to do and tried to get through more of atlas shrugged. it's a fantastic book, it kind of verbalizes stuff i (maybe everyone?) have always thought in the back of my mind, but never been able to put into a clear thought. its very deep and i think ayn rand creates extremes to get her point across, its also 1000 pages so its taking forever. it seems like it will be very worth it though. id like to finish it soon so i can read some of the other books I brought.

shoba was out of town this weekend but is back now, i assume ill be with her a lot this week. my computer skills have tripled since i got here, everyone here is so tech savy. i know have skype, lyme wire, am 'linked in', and did a rough excel model without too much trouble. there are a lot of connections to silicon valley here and everyone raves about san franciso, it's also a big financial center so i may look for jobs there, it sounds awesome.

it was kind of rough not doing much this weekend, i thnk i will ask the director if i can take the weekends off to travel. it should have been nice to just chill from all the madness of the first week and a half, but most of you know that chilling isnt one of my strengths. i want to learn about india and feel that one of the best ways to do that is to just travel around and see as much as possible. we'll see what he says and how the monsoons foil my plan. i may ask him later today and spend tonight developing a planner for the rest of the time im here. ill send it trhoguh the blog if i do.

hope everyone is good, 2 weeks down and 5 to go. sometimes i wonder why i sign up for these things but i know it pays off in the end, usually in ways i didnt expect.

much love,
matt

Poat 5

I just got back from my first day, I'm going to dinner with two guys from the office in an hour. My first day was great, the Director, Shyam, is a great teacher and very patient. My project is very exciting and could raise a very large sum of money for them.

Peak Alpha is a financial management company founded in 05, they have shops in Banaglore and Chenai. They are small, only 18 employees and all of them are really nice. My project is to prepare a financial model, business plan, and powerpoint for a program that gives venture capital to start ups. I worked on the model today and am working on the business plan outline tomorrow. I only have to work a half day tomorrow since it's saturday and not at all on sunday. I'm pretty famaliar with writing business plans and I have done one practice model, but I have already learned a lot and am kind of in a baptism by fire situation. Luckily everyone is really nice and helpful so it looks like its going to be great.

I'm starting yoga class tomorrow at a place down the street. I'm also playing basketball with some guys from the office on sunday morning. They guys I'm playing with said they'd give me a tour of the city on Sunday. Should be pretty interesting.

Just wanted to update you on the work I'll be doing. It's exciting to be doing something that actually matters, the stuff I'm doing will actually be used and could have a decent sized impact. I'll write again in a few days, hopefully a few more adventures between now and then.

Love,
Matt

btw I am on skype now, matt.harris34 if anyone wants to talk. the office is very tech savvy, my learning curve is very steep.

post 4

It’s been a pretty crazy last few days. I’m in Bangalore, the IT capital of India (not the financial like I said in the last post). I started my new internship tomorrow with Peak Alpha, it sounds like I’ll be creating a financial model to help them raise funds. It should be incredibly challenging, I will work at least 6 days a week and possibly seven. I am very excited about starting, I have to be there at 9:15 tomorrow morning.

My trip from Uttarakhand to Bangalore was pretty crazy. Everything I am doing is pretty off the cuff, most of you know that is very unlike me. I’m really enjoying it. I caught a bus from Dehradun to Dehli at 7 am on Wednesday. It was about a 6 hours bus ride, I wasn’t sure weather I’d take a plane or train to Bangalore, but luckily since I am a westerner I get bombarded with rickshaw drivers every time I step into the day light. My drivers took me to a very sketchy travel agent who wanted me to pay in cash and leave a ‘down payment’ while I went to get the proper amount from the ATM. I played some hardball with him and decided to look for another agent, I got taken to a government sponsored travel agent. He was very helpful, I got a flight to Bangalore at 8 pm , a driver to pick me up at the airport, and a flat to stay in for the night. The flight was about two hours and it all went very smoothly. Bangalore is completely different than anything I saw in north India. The roads are paved and it is much, much nicer. Transportation is actually bearable, it’s a very lively city and I’m excited to get to know it. On the way in we passed a few wedding halls. I don’t know if you all have heard of how extravagant Indian weddings are. Think of the biggest house you know of and the best lit house every Christmas and that’s what an Indian wedding hall looks like. Its pretty awesome. My driver showed me some important building and I got to my room around midnight. It’s overwhelming to go from north india to south india in one day. I was beginning to think that luxury did not exist in india, but apparently its all in Bangalore! There are very few similarities between the two. Economist gunner mrydal has a theory regarding the introduction of capitalism into fragmented countries such as india. He says that when you introduce it, some part of the country prosper and others get what he calls the “backwash effects”. Uttarakhand definitely suffers from ‘backwash effects’ and Bangalore seems to be one of the places that is prospering. It was cool to see that theory in action within 24 hours.
I spent the first two hours of Thursday morning trying to get my credit card unblocked. When my mom and I finally figured that out I called Shoba (the women who got me the job and a good family friend) and Mariella, Shoba’s friend who had a flat for me to stay at. Shoba told me to come to her apartment, I went outside with my bags to get a rickshaw and my driver from the night before was pulling in on his motor cycle. I got to ride on the back of his motor cycle to a rickshaw stand, it was very cool. I arrive at Shoba’s apartment around 10 and we talked for a bit. I’ve been holding off on saying this because I haven’t been here long enough to know for sure and didn’t want people to worry that I wasn’t on my guard over here. I can now say that Indian people are the nicest and most generous people in the world. Every one has been wanting to help me in some way or talk to me about the USA. It’s really been amazing. Shoba and her family have taken me in like one of their own even though we just met today. Her generosity is literally amazing and I am looking forward to getting to know her family better during my time here. Don’t worry though, I’m enjoying playing the role of hardball westerner and know there are bad people here, I just haven’t found them yet.
After Shoba and I talked a bit and caught up on family affairs she took me to my new apartment. It’s very nice and in a good location, I’m exicted about it. Around this time I started to feel very sick but ignored it until about 5 this afternoon. I took my malaria pill without any food and it really messed me up. More on that later. After I got all checked into my apartment Shoba dropped me off at a clothing store so I got buy some proper business professional wear. I had 45 minutes to get shirts, pants, ties, and shoes. It was pretty crazy, I pulled it off though. I made it back to Shoba’s apartment by 2:30 and she had ordered a misuse to come and give me a deep tissue massage. She had noticed I kept creaking me neck, like I always do, and I was not about to turn down a message after a full day of traveling. It was good massage, very painful, but I felt much better afterward. After the massage I started to feel really sick and I’m pretty sure I had a very,very high fever. I had been feeling sick all day, but it really hit me from 4-8. I had to lay down, I had an awful headache, a fever, was achy, and a few other symptoms that shall go unmentioned. I’m not all the way better, but things are looking up. Getting sick is part of the experience, and I was expecting it. It kind of snuck up on me and I can’t remember the last time I felt that sick. I’m fine now though. Shoba took great care of me, hopefully she knows how much I appreciate everything.
I met Shoba’s girls and we took her dog on a walk. She is very easy to talk to and I don’t think I have ever had such deep conversation with a person I just met that day. We had dinner with her neighbor, a very nice family from Seattle. There are a lot of young kids in their apartment, I told them I’d love to babysit for free if they ever wanted me too. After dinner I took a rickshaw back to my apartment and went to bed early. Hopefully I’ll feel all better tomorrow, we’ll see though.
I have never felt so challenged in my life. I’m being challenged in almost every aspect and I’m enjoying it thus far. I’m enjoying it because I know it’s temporary and I’m trying to learn and grow from all these experiences. I’m pretty sure when I come home from work today I’ll have a whole new list of challenges. For now, I’m going to go do a quick workout and then go drink chai on the patio. I’m excited to wear my new clothes, I got the European pointy shoes, we’ll see how that goes.
I miss everyone really bad. I’m going to make the most of my time here but I am excited to get back and see everyone. Hope all your summers are going well.

Love,
Matt

Post 3

monday and tuesday were incredibly frusterating days in the office. The internet is very weak here and the power goes out a few times a day. The projects I have been assigned are very interesting and challenging but very internet intensive. It's pretty hard to do a research based project with no means for research. although soccer after work has been awesome and the food has been unreal, i have taken another internship in Bangalore and will leave in the morning. It's the financial capital of india and should be pretty cool. the trip there will be very rough, traveling in india is incredibly uncomfortable.

i had hoped that since mimo is a new MFI that i would be able to make substantial contributions to their foundation. instead they were just incredibly disorganized and unprepared for even one intern, much less the 15 that are here. i wont go into much detail about why i am leaving, if youd like more just email me. i came here here to do work and to learn, and i have done that on my travels so far, but mimo has nothing to offer.

im headed to peakalpha based in bangalore, an investmen management company. i have developed a mini network in india from trying to find an internship in the fall and shot out a few emails to some companies I have talked to and liked. I had a new job within hours, it was pretty awesome. the guy i will be working under got his mba from wharton and i already have a pretty cool assignment. I'm headed over to tell the senior mngmt that im leaving tomorrow, not sure how thats going to go. ill write more when i arrive. the power just went out, awesome.

i miss you guys, hope everything is going well.

love,
matt

Post 2
It’s been a pretty crazy weekend. I don’t even really know where to start. It’s seriously like being on a different planet over here, nothing I can say or do can encompass it all. There are just so many freakin people and there is no better way to describe everything we do outside of work as absolute mayhem. I’ll talk about work at the end and just go ahead and start with the weekend. Sorry about the spelling and bad writing, I’m just trying to get it all down.
Indians work 6 days a week, but Mimo encourages interns to take Saturday off as well. They understand we learn just as much traveling as we do in the office. Every weekend after this one we will probably head out on Friday night, but we used this weekend to see some local stuff and some confidence on how domestic travel works in India. I woke up early Saturday and met Tyler, a new American intern who goes to school in California, and his dad at Dehradun’s main bus stop. We took the bus to Mussorie, a village at the top of the nearest Himalayan peaks. The drive up there was insane. There were seriously over 50 switch backs, no boundary to keep us from driving off a cliff, and cows and monkeys every where. We had to stop several times for people to get off because they were puking from the turns. It was pretty cold once we made it up to the top, around 40-45, and rainy. We stopped in a coffee shop and I got some tea (I’m trying to do a little coffee detox while I’m here) and then walked in the direction of a school Tyler wanted to see because the President of his school went there. The walk was nuts, this place is incredibly interesting. There were bunches of houses stacked on top of each other in the mountain crevaces and it was just shop after shop of interesting small business. I couldn’t even tell you what a bunch of the businesses were, but there were 8 guys crammed into these tiny cubbies working hard at something. They also love white people so we got our picture taken a few times. The race of the people was very interesting up there as well. That’s getting pretty close to Tibet and it was more of a mughal/gorhkan look thank an Indian look. After we explored the town a bit and had a good Indian lunch we took a taxi to a nearby waterfall. It was actually the first waterfall I have ever seen, I’d say a huge waterfall pouring out of the side of the Himalayas was a pretty good start. There was a huge carnival around Khoti Falls so again there were a lot of people(again). It’s cool because none of this stuff is geared towards international tourism. Some of it is aimed at domestic tourism but most is very raw. It’s cool to see that. In between all these things are long taxi rides that are one of the best parts of the day. The view from Mussorie and Khoti Falls were out of this world. You could see 5-6 Himalayan Mountain ranges and all bunch of other stuff, like temples perched on a hill with no road access or random pigs roaming the countryside. Tyler has a really good camera so he probably got some good pictures of the area. After Khoti Falls we took the crazy descent back to Dehradun with some crazy Indian business men. They were telling us how India hasn’t been to effected by the recession because there is so much black money, I thought that was interesting. I was done for when I got home, we walked about 10 miles of mountains. I took a nap, had a late dinner, and went to bed so I could wake up early on Sunday.
On Sunday Tyler and his dad wanted to hang out because his dad is leaving Monday so I traveled alone to two nearby villages. The Italians were going to Ponta Sahib, a Sihk Temple, but I was more interested in these villages and they talk mostly in Italian so it’s no fun for me. I left my room around 6 and planned to visit Rishikesh, the Yoga capital of the world and where the Beatles spent time in an ashram, and Haridwar, the holiest city in Uttarkhand. On the way to Rishikesh our bus got a flat tire, it made a huge popping noise. Nobody seemed to be surprised, we just got off and waited 30 minutes for another bus to pick us up. I arrived at the Rishikech bus stop around 8:30 and took a rickshaw to one of the two pedestrian bridges crossing the Ganges River to the more interesting side of Rishikesh. It is a very holy city so there were all kinds of steps leading into the Ganges and Hindus bathing in the holy water. The village is tucked up into a Himalayan crevice so it was automatically beautiful. After I crossed the bridge(Ram Jhula) I realized I was at the less interesting bridge and started a 2 mile walk along the beach of the Ganges to the other bridge(Lakshman Jhula). On the way I passed many yogis, gurus, monks, and westerners who seemed to have lost themselves in yoga. There would be no other word for them than hippee. I actually got stopped by a monk who spoke English and we talked for a bit. He told me, son, it is not the spoon that bends, it is your mind. No, not really, we just small talked for 7-8 minutes, it was just cool to talk to him. The walk was full of nature and random ashrams and when the other bridge came into the clearing it was pretty amazing to see. It was just this packed bridge, monkeys running around, and a huge wedding cake temple on the bank nearby. There were invited to Yoga everywhere and random beach side tea shops. I walked around there for a bit and then headed back in the direction I came to visit the Beatles ashram. I have some video of their ashram and the streets of Rishikesh, its impossible to capture it all in words. Usually you can just focus on one or two things when describing something to get your point across, but every step I took all day had something interesting come with it. There are giant statues of gods everywhere, interesting Hindu ceremonies, a babbling yogi with a giant beard, or some crazy river rafting trip screaming down the river. That was actually the main reason I wanted to visit Rishikesh and Haridwar, most of the treks and rafting trips leave from there and I wanted to see how that worked. After I had walked around Rishikesh for about an hour I headed back across the bridge to eat at a recommended restaurant called Madras and head to Haridwar. While I was crossing the bridge this 17 year old kid named Preyshawn started talking to me. I thought it was a little weird but I figured he’d leave soon and I’d be on my way. He had lunch with me (I had an amazing mushroom cheese curry with veg-bread) and it turns out he was from Haridwar and wanted to take me around the city. I was a little freaked out because he made a few comments that made me think he wanted to be a little more than friends, but he was a little guy who seemed harmless enough so I went with it. I had plans to try to lose him in Haridwar but he had us get off somewhere different so I didn’t really know where to go. It turned out to be a very good decision to stay with him, I got to do some stuff I never would have done otherwise.
The bus ride there was about 2 hours with traffic the whole way. Picture the worst road you’ve driven on and multiply it by 4 and that’s every road here. There are two branches of the Ganges running through the village, one was a pretty fast moving branch. When we arrived Preyshawn (that’s spelled wrong, he was Indian, not black) took me to his house in the backstreets of Haridwar. I made sure my legs were loose in case I had to run but his family was incredibly hospitable. We stayed there to cool off (it’s about 90 degrees, not to bad) and then we headed to a temple called Monta Devi. This temple was on the top of a Himalayan Ridge and I figured we’d take the little chairlift they had to the top. Preyshawn had other thoughts and we pretty much scaled the side of a mountain for 30 minutes to reach this temple. On the way up Preyshawn had to ward off the locals who apparently legitimately thought I was ‘Captain America’. Haha, that was kinda cool. When we got to the top, finally and drenched with sweat, we took our shoes off and were given a coconut. I thought were going up to take pictures and head out but Preyshawn marched me right into the temple and into the middle Hindue worship service. I might as well walk around these towns naked I stick out so bad, you can imagine how many looks I got participating in Hindu worship service. We walked around barefoot with an ocean of people giving rupees and bowing to different gods’, followed by them giving us the little marks on our forehead. I had 15 different shades of paint on my forehead before the day was over. I filmed some of the walk through, the main event was giving your coconut to Monta Devi, a women gods, and receiving some coconut milk back to drink. I promptly pretended to drink it and poured it all down the front of my shirt. There were about 30 shrines in the temple and we walked around to each and Preyshawn explained what they were and how they were all connected. We talked a bit about Hinduism, a faith I have always had a hard time understanding. Preyshawn spoke good English but he seriously didn’t understand what I meant when I asked him ‘what do you want to do for a job when you grow up?”. He went on to say that in Hinduism, work is worship and he does not care what kind of work he ends up doing. He said they worship the gods because of all the great things they have given the world, when I asked him if he liked Muslims he said ‘well, not how they act, but Muslim is man too so we love them. Love is blind.” Pretty heavy stuff, I asked him what he knew what a Christian was, he loved that I was a Christian because he believes in Santa Claus and asked me a few times ‘since you are Christian, do you know when Santa Claus comes to Haridwar? I wait every year but he never come!” I was cracking up. To add to that, he loves the “Narnia picture” so we were like two pees in a pod. This, of course, is all happening on the steep walk down back to the city overlooking the ganges river and several ranges.
When we got back to the bottom we went back to his house to drink chai and watch cricket for about an hour. At 6 we left to go the a really cool ceremony on the ganges but visited a 5-6 smaller temples on theway .This ceremony was the main reason for my visit, it on the Har-ki-pairi (The footstep of God)Ghat and a place where Vishnu is said to have dropped some heavenly nectar and left a footprint behind. Hindus come from all over the world to wash away their sins in this ceremony. The ceremony is a worship service for the ganges, the ganges is very sacred to Hindus. I have some film of the ceremony, it was one of the craziest things I have ever seen. There were Indians absolutely packed around the river lighting candles on a bed of leaves and pushing them down the river. Many men, no women, were swimming in the river and just having a good time. I have never been so uncomfortable in my life, there must have been 10000 people packed in 100 yards around the ganges. People were screaming and doing chants, it was absolutely nuts. I wish I could explain it well but words just don’t do it justice, watching the video will help. I was right in the middle of it all getting tossed around like a rag doll by the absurd crowds. Things you would never do in the states, like blatantly push someone out of the way, are common place even among the elderly in India. I’m getting used to it and its kind of fun once you realize it’s not rude. I’ll get the video online soon, there’s really know way to explain it. When the ceremony ended it was like a football game trying to get out of there. You aren’t supposed to wear your shoes during the ceremony so we took them off and left them pretty much in the middle of the sidewalk near a temple. I was shocked to see that they were still there among the huge crowds stampeding over them. After we got our shoes were shouldered our way through the crowd and into the back streets of Haridwar. Being a local, Preyshawn knew the back roads so I got to see some genuine local scenes. We went back to his house for my backback and I had a ‘cold drink’ (soda) with his dad, who spoke no English. Preyshawn negotiated a cheap rickshaw back to the bus station and I was on my way. I was shocked by their hospitality, he spend the entire day showing me town and I was very grateful. The bus ride home was about 2 hours and very uncomfortable. I was exhausted from all the walking and had only eaten some trail mix and mushrooms all day. I arrived back at my house around 11, it was a pretty crazy day. I was trying to use this weekend to get some traveling confidence for some longer trips starting next weekend, I never expected the nearby towns to be that insane. If all my weekends are like that then I am going to need the week to recover for sure.
So that was my weekend, work is going ok. I spent all last week enter business card information into their database and was expecting a project that never came. I’m being given the annual report today which (I think) means I will be writing their financial statements. Tyler and I are developing our own side project for Mimo, probably having something to do with different types of loans their lendees might want and how to go about structuring them. Every day after work we go play soccer or cricket at a nearby school and it is always very fun and pretty competitive. There is a full time American here named Peter Westman who is kind of taking me under his wing to make sure I get the work I want, I appreciate that. Tyler starts today and I am very excited to get to hang out with him, he is the President of his school and it seems like we are going to get along really well. I felt like I was a part of the ground pretty soon after arriving, but it will still be nice to have another American my age around. I’m going to read for a bit before breakfast and then go to work, I’m looking forward to getting some good work. If the work part of this trip is anything substantial then this next month is going to be insanity 24/7. It is totally different over here and I’m having a lot of fun. I miss everyone really bad though and am already excited to get back to see you. Hope everyone’s summer is going well and I’ll write again in a few days. I think we are planning to visit the ‘golden temple’ and the Pakistan border next weekend. There is some cool ceremony at night on the border that is supposed to be pretty cool. I miss you guys.

Love,
Matt

Theres a frog in my room.

Post 1

I made it to New Dehli after a 14 hour flight. I spent most of the flight reading up on Mimo, watched a few movies, and slept. The taxi ride here was pretty nuts. I've never seen driving like that before, there are honestly no laws. People drive on both sides of the street and the lane markings mean nothing. It was kind of fun. New Dehli was very smoggy and for about 3 hours out of New Dehli the streets were walled with 2-3 story buildings. People were sleeping everywhere, even right next to the road. They don't really use billboards like we do, instead of them being high and on the side of the road they are just signs in the middle of the road. Very safe. There are random little eating joints on the side of the road every few hundred yeard we stopped at one, I got chicken curry and paid way to much I'm pretty sure. Once we got closer we started driving through the Shivalik Mountains, it was cool to see. Dehradun is in between the Shivaliks and the Himalayas, actually dun means valley in Hindi.

I got here around 4 or 5 am I think, a 6 hour car ride. I really can't stress enough how crazy the driving is here. As an American we would honestly be incapable of driving more than a minute without hitting a person, car, or cow. I could't sleep when I got here so I started reading Atlas Shrugged and got in a workout in my room. My room is very plain but nice, just has a bed. I have my own bathroom and shower ( a focet and a bucket, take a second and picture that).

We don't start work until 10 am so I'll be waking up around 7 to read and work out for about 30 minutes each day. I spent the first day doing grunt work and crashed from Jet Lag around 3 pm. I slept until about 6 and then went to a house party, we had a pretty good Indian meal. The food here is surprisingly good. I got a good night sleep last night and think I am back on track.

I was still doing grunt work until about 12 today, I went out into the field with a few of the other interns. There are about 10 other interns here, 3 Italians, one Irishman, a few Indians, and another American coming in a few hours. We spent the afternoon tryign to visit two branches, we had some trouble finding a few things we needed though and didn't get much done. I'll post pictures of the city soon, it was very interesting. Very hectic and poor looking. This is supposed to be one of the nicer places in India so I can't really imagine what the poorer cities look like. This looks way more poor than any American city. I picked up some Indian attire for the next time we go in the field. A few of the guys and I just hung out in the city for a while talking about random stuff. It was cool, it always kind of amazes me how we all think the same things are funny.

When I got back we all went to play some soccer in a field about a mile away. Dehradun is literally in the shawdows of the Himalayas so that was a cool backdrop to play on. I scored a goal. A bunch of us are about to do to a bar and then have dinner. I don't think Indians go to the bars often probably because Indian beer is awful, but I'll give it a go. I am meeting with the HR department tomorrow to discuss my project. I will probably have 2 projects, one HR related and one Finance related.

I am planning a trip somewhere this weekend. There a bunch of places to visit around here so I am anxious to get started. I'll post again after that unless something worthwhile happens.

BTW I was talking with a few other interns under an awning and a big old baboon popped down from the room and almost landed on my head, it was awesome. The power goes out a few times a day, it always kind of funny. I am enjoying it all so far and it very eye opening. The moonsoon is a few days away, that should be interesting. Up to this point they are looking at me as a dumb American. I hope I get a chance to share all I know about Uttarakhand and the bank, I think if I get a chance I will impress them and then who knows.

Love,
Matt