Wow. Last night, we went out with Dr. Petrick to see Leela Palace and enjoyed a phenomenal buffet dinner. The palace is absolutely spectacular, and as you can imagine, so was the food. We took a number of pictures of the palace as well, and I'll be sure to get them posted at some point over the weekend or early next week. The palace is enormous, and features real marble floors and an extravagant courtyard with beautiful palm trees and scenery. No expense has been spared in the construction and upkeep of this place. The fact that it was such a nice night and we sat outside certainly helped the experience as well. And really, the conversation was just as good as the food and the ambiance - it was a nice change of pace to discuss our experiences out loud with someone else who is in a similar (but not quite the same) situation, and we could compare stories and thoughts. This was probably my favorite night so far in Bangalore – what a great place. Thank you, Dr. Petrick!

Also last night was my first REAL Indian mango that I enjoyed at Leela Palace. All I can say is wow. I'm definitely planning to get some more of these. The taste is so strong; it's nice biting into something so pure and so good. We had tried buying mangoes before, but definitely didn't pick the right ones and refrigerating them was a bad choice. I still haven't gotten a coconut yet, which they just chop off the top and give you a straw, but I'll be getting that ASAP. I'm very jealous Matt and Joel already got to enjoy this without me, and of course came back to the apartment with rave reviews.

Work this week has been pretty standard. I’ve delved a little deeper into my project, and at this point I’m spending a lot of time meeting a bunch of people who are in charge of different KM tools within Honeywell and I’m trying to get a feel for the capabilities of each of these tools. There is a LOT of neat stuff going on in this spectrum, but it seems like some groups really don’t know what other groups are doing, and while they have a community of practice and other “global” resources, there is still a bit of a disconnect where I think I can definitely add some value. As I continue to evaluate all the pros and cons of these different tools, eventually I should be able to make recommendations for which to use or what to make, and be able to add some statistics from my outside research and some surveys I plan to conduct.

Yesterday afternoon, though, was a break from the norm of work. We had part of our “Induction” which involved traveling to Radiant Resorts & Spa to complete a "Behavior and Values Session." I was expecting it to be pretty Office Spacetacular, but it didn't reach that level, and I definitely understood its benefits and took some things out of it. First off, the place was really nice (yes, I'll have pictures of that too... eventually). There was a very nice outdoor area where we did some "trust"-type games like all being blindfolded and having to make a rope into a square shape with a team of 12 people, and also having to cross about 20 yards with 6 people standing only on 5 bricks. At the conclusion of these activities, we were able to discuss how communication, integrity, teamwork, leadership, and other types of values fit in and relate them to working for Honeywell. We then watched a video from Dave Cote talking about the behaviors necessary to be an effective Honeywell employee, and I left having met some new friends working here in Bangalore and also with more of a sense of being part of the Honeywell community.

So that brings us to today, which is our first payday! :) Always a good day. Matt actually isn't feeling so hot today, though. He'll be fine, but maybe it was some water or maybe he just ate too much last night. That just means 2 of us down, 2 to go. Tomorrow we're planning to again meet up with Eric, and we'll also meet up with Tanu to travel to Mysore. Dr. Petrick already beat us there, and she told us how nice it was, so we're excited as long as the rains hold off. We'll finally have some good pictures of all of us with some more authentic Indian backgrounds. It's been more difficult than expected trying to accomplish that in Bangalore given how built up it really is, and given that we're not here on vacation, we actually are working a normal 40/hr/week job, so this traveling will be exciting.

We will be taking a bus (about 4 hrs) to Mysore early Saturday morning, then taking the bus back late Saturday night, so we'll still have Sunday here in Bangalore. We're planning to try to go back to MG Road, preferably at night even to see what it looks like dark. We'll plan to be approached by more street vendors with "authentic" merchandise, and we may actually venture into some of the shops where I'm excited to see what the possibilities are for having some custom-tailored clothes at a very reasonable price.

That about sums it up for now. Depending on who you believe, the rain either is on its way very soon, or will be here at some point in the future, but either way, the city seems to be ready for it, and we'll see what it's like. Given the elevation of Bangalore, we don't plan on being hit hard, but we'll see. The biggest worries for us are really what it's going to be like in the places we travel, as we'd like to see as much sun as possible. I guess we'll see!

Keep checking back, and I hope everyone has a great weekend!