This week has been mostly uneventful, which hopefully lends itself to some sort of an apology for the lack of update since last weekend. To some degree, I have very little to add currently because this week has been very calm in relation to new experiences. Work has been very much the same, outings and eating have actually been somewhat erratic for reasons I haven’t quite understood but seem to lend a bit toward a sort of misplaced apathy, and in general it’s just been very, very busy.
When I’m not working, I’m sleeping or getting ready to go to bed. Right now it’s 6:10 in the morning here and typically I would have gone to bed immediately after getting home at 5:00… but in just a little under 24 hours I begin my vacation within the work trip. I fly to Delhi and then take a car to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal.
Overall, I’m very prepared for the trip. I mean… I’ve already been living out of my suitcase for nearly a full month, so anything I don’t have here I don’t need really! It’s just the little things, ensuring everything makes it into the backpack I will be carrying onto the plane, etc.. for some reason there is a bit of nervousness there that I’m not used to. I guess perhaps I’m always nervous when I fly, especially when I’m charting my own course without a travel companion, but it will be fun and in reading my itinerary again I can’t help but be extremely excited! I have a great destination in front of me, a great camera to accompany me to capture the moments, and hopefully enough sense to stay out of trouble and get back safely on Memorial Day itself. I’m taking that night off of work to catch up from this whirlwind trip… and hopefully one day will be plenty to jump back up on the horse and get back to work! It’s been getting busier and busier, if that’s possible at all!
I know this is a “non-update” update, but I’ll try to leave you with a few things. On the way to work on Tuesday my coworker Jim and I stopped at a store that read “bakery and supermarket”, a small location with only a few parking spots. Jim wanted to get snacks to have in his room, I was after some local fare.
The store was interesting, small but deep and with both local baked items and, further in the back of the store, packaged items as well. I will say I have never been so surrounded by mosquitoes in my entire life. Every package you picked up came with a swarm of four or five of them. I was bitten one or two times, which seems like a mercy given how many were surrounding me in the store. I checked out quickly, and ducked outside to avoid even more!
Jim ended up with some type of cookie he had enjoyed on a previous occasion, and I purchased a package of “Malsala Peanuts”, which I have yet to try but sit on my counter tantalizing me. I think they’d go good with beer, perhaps a quiet night enjoying a snack. The problem for me is that doesn’t really coincide with working nights! Maybe next Monday when I come back… if I’m not completely exhausted from the trip to come. I wake up tonight to pack and attend a few hours of training at work before leaving the hotel tomorrow morning at 4:00 AM. Then, a full day ahead of me arriving in Delhi by 8:00 and traveling by car to Agra by 12:00 PM. I want to sleep in the car, but at the same time I don’t want to miss the sights. I hope I’m able to keep awake or sleep on the plane. It’s going to be a long, long 24-hours.
And with that in mind, it’s time to eat downstairs here at the hotel so I can come back up, start laundry, and head to bed. I’m going to leave you with one picture that I have not shared yet from the sightseeing trip around Bangalore. I took this photo of two children in the garden at Tipu palace, arms wrapped around each other… I think it’s pretty neat:
