Bangalore

Ah, Bangalore... another great center of expat culture in India. THE center of India expat culture, really. Upon our return from Mysore, our first stop in Bangalore was the Leela for some shopping and pampering:



Joanne particularly enjoyed the delectable Leela Sunday champagne brunch:



Our driver decorated our car for the festival -- and all of the cars and trucks and even mopeds were decorated similarly with flowers and paint:



And also bizarre bio-diesel decals:



Also in Bangalore, we went carpet shopping. Here is Matt haggling for a rug:



I bought one of my first-ever adult purchases -- a beautiful rug. The salesman wanted to pose with me in front of the store's $45K 2,000 knots per square inch masterpiece, which obviously is not the one I purchased ;)



Here's the whole gang, Alysia, Regina, Joanne, Matt, and me drinking tea with our sales team:

Arrival in India

I began my expat experience in Hyderabad, India on Wednesday, September 27th. I'm here for a 6-month work assignment for my company. It's exciting, but it was very hard to leave because I have such a great life filled with so many wonderful people back home in San Francisco.

I live in Jayabheri towers, which is a development here in Hyderabad. This is my insanely impressive (although I wouldn't necessarily say 'comfy') living room:



Here's a view of my bedroom, which to my great pleasure has cable TV with several American movie channels (although they've been playing Hitch repeatedly, which has to stop):



Here's my bathroom, which is roughly the size of my bedroom:



This is the view out my window, which overlooks the 'Jayabheri Club', our apartment complex pool and gym. The gym is so-so, but given my history of laziness when it comes to going to the gym, and the additional obstacles (e.g., getting up uber-early and lining up a driver to take me) that it would take to go to an external gym, I think this is the one for me:



And here are some roses that currently adorn my room. Somehow Matt found a way to send them to me in India for our 1-year anniversary just days after I arrived and before even I knew my own address. How romantic!