Before I get started: Happy Flag Day and Happy Father's Day to the US! I know my dad is reading this from somewhere.

OK, so on Friday, Eric was going to be visiting the Intel office near my Honeywell campus, so we decided to meet up for lunch and then watch a portion of his company Cricket match before I had to go back to work for the afternoon. As much as I've read about the sport, there are still a number of parts I don't understand, but boy was it relaxing. A beautiful day, the sun shining, the cheering and booing and excitement of fans watching a game, it was all very familiar and quite enjoyable. The team he was rooting for didn't pull it out in the end, but I'm starting to get my first taste of this different sport. I've probably only flipped on the TV here 2 or 3 times, but each time I've passed Cricket matches and soccer matches. Soccer I'd already started to gain an appreciation for culminating with the fact the ManU-Chelsea game was going on while I was in Dublin so the whole city was buzzing about it, but Cricket is also immensely popular in this part of the world, so I'm trying to keep up.

We did pass M. Chinnaswamy Stadium (which holds a puny 55K compared to my desktop background at work) the one day when we were exploring the city, so maybe in the next few weeks we'll get a chance to actually see a professional match. We are starting to solidify our plans for future weekends, though, starting with Mysore likely next week, then Goa, then perhaps Kerala and Delhi, so that we're starting small and continuing to travel further and further from Bangalore. Who knows if these other places of India have more "Culture Shock" in store. From what I've been reading, they are certainly different from here, so we'll see.

Yesterday was a fun time at Bannerghatta National Park, which is about 20km outside the heart of the city. We got a chance to see lions, tigers, bears, elephants, zebras, peacocks, you name it. They even had an exhibit for pigeons, but I figured that part to be unnecessary. It was a little more touristy than I expected in that it was set up like a safari with a bus ride through some of the areas and gates and things almost like Jurassic Park, but I still enjoyed it. Some parts of it were a little sad in that I don't think they fed the animals that well and some were actually in small cages, but I'm still glad we went. A little bit of rain derailed plans for an elephant ride for now, but we did spend a little bit of time with the elephants, and the ride will certainly happen at a future time.

In terms of work, things are going well. We got a chance to meet the head of Global Security at Honeywell Bangalore, and he re-iterated some precautionary things we've been told and let us know he's always available. Again, just another instance of someone here reaching out to us to offer their assistance if we need it and to give us some guidance. People here have been great about that.

One other thing about work that I've started to really enjoy as well is the shuttle to work. The first few times we took it, I was of course admiring the rickshaws and the honking and the traffic patterns, and the fact they would stop for a cow crossing the road before they'd stop for a human, but now that the initial awe of that has worn off to an extent, I enjoy reading the newspaper and/or talking to some of the other people on the shuttle around me. Their politics here are quite different, but they also have their pulse on American politics.

For example, there are riots going on now in parts of India and people have actually died over fertilizer. The government has proclaimed there is enough, and the distributors have proclaimed there is enough, but there's some huge disconnect in the people's understanding of this fact which has led to big problems. It's actually really sad. This mostly seems to stem from the fact that no matter what, the people here dislike and distrust their government. According to the people I've talked to, no matter who you are, if you're in government, you probably have some kind of bad intentions. There are fairly ridiculous news items each day, and I'm not 100% sure if it's because the events are ridiculous or just the reporting is ridiculous, but it's some odd combo of the two.

They also do have one eye on the US at all times. Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or George Bush or even someone like Sylvester Stallone will appear on the front page daily. In talking to some native people here about what's going on in the US, and some of the similarities, we can usually get on the topic of the oil crunch. In the US, I know gas prices have really skyrocketed due to the increased demand worldwide, and they're certainly feeling that here as well. Except here, it results in more than a strain on the pocketbook and less driving, it results in death and for some a real inability to carry out common functions. Partly due to this and partly due to just normal logic, they can't for a second understand why we wouldn't tap into a supply of oil that we have in the US in ANWR. When the world demand is so high and it's affecting everyone, they don't see why people would be against trying to help this situation even if it only alleviates it slightly for a short term. I tell them I am definitely on their side of the argument for that and that it's a lot of the far left Democrats who are prohibiting this, but it's one thing that they just see and don't understand.

I've also enjoyed reading their newspaper to see the updates from Bollywood (their version of Hollywood that they take very seriously - they make more movies than the US does) and also other general events and happenings. It turns out we missed out on a traditional walk across hot coals in Bangalore by just a couple days, but there's always stuff going on here. Seeing as it's monsoon season, people have an eye on that, but Bangalore isn't really affected. Mumbai is being affected the most right now with flooding and the US consulate actually issued a warning to US citizens not to visit Mumbai because the manholes being opened could be dangerous. This angered some officials in Mumbai, which has led to a little bit of controversy and a US apology but not a rescindment of the warning.

Anyway, as we go forward, I'm going to make an attempt to continue to include some of these interesting types of tidbits about how perspectives differ on things and how the people here are reacting to things. I've gotten to know some of the people here fairly well, but am looking forward to getting to know them better so as to get more information and more honest perceptions about events and happenings.