Until we meet again

This weekend I had my going away party. It's a week early, but I've been doing everything for India ahead of schedule. My roommate Catherine and my friend Nic did all of the planning. Kudos to them!

My vision for the party was that all of my close friends would come together, and we'd have way too much to drink, and then we'd have some drunken antics and talk about our favorite memories. So we bought a couple kegs and some liquor even though I was expecting only 30 - 40 people. In my mind I had a picture of an Irish wake. A mixture of celebration and reminiscing.

Now that the party's over, it's interesting to reflect back on it. We watched Florida fall, we laughed at Lebron's expense (Solid Gold!), we danced like idiots, and we belted out Justin Timberlake in falsetto at 3am. I wouldn't have had it any other way. But something was off-kilter about the ambience. Some people never came. Others left early, after we had only traded a few words in passing. What I thought would turn into raucous drinking passed instead as a relatively quiet night. There were some tender moments of hugs and hand-holding where people wordlessly expressed a sense of loss. I thought those were the nicest tributes imaginable, and beautiful, and genuine. There were a few times that I was surprisingly sad, despite the positive tone of the party and the generally festive mood. And in spite of my impending departure, the pivotal topic of moving to India almost never came up in conversation, as if my absence was a reality that nobody wanted to face. I enjoyed my party, but it caught me off-guard. I love my friends and I'm going to miss them all.

Packing up

This was a very, very quiet weekend. I finally rented a 5'x10' storage space and I've been moving into it. My plan is to arrive at what I'm bringing to India through subtraction; as I pack up some of the less-important things, I'll be able to zero in on the things that should make the flight. I realized that my desktop computer probably won't fit in my carry-on, so I bought an external hard drive to take everything with me. It's as small as a calculator! I'm easily amazed by technology.

In a sad moment, I tried to break up the monotony of packing by going to the Falcons game today. I called 15 people and couldn't find anyone to go with me, even though the ticket would've been free. After 15 calls I just gave up. That's how bad the Falcons are right now; I couldn't give a ticket away. 0-3 and falling... the Texans will cream us next week.

I'm not leaving for 13 days, and you may be wondering why I'm packing so early. It's because I've accumulated so much stuff. Most people in their 20's move every year, and do a kind of Spring Cleaning each time. But since I've been in my house for three and a half years, I haven't purged in a long time. As a result, there are a lot of ugly Christmas sweaters tucked into dark corners. I'll find them all eventually.

Sling box

Have you ever heard of a sling box? I'm thinking about it. There are so many things that I need to take care of before I think about my television needs... but I came across this idea, and it seems pretty cool. You plug a sling box into a cable box here in the US, and into your internet router... and it will broadcast the signal anywhere. You can even control your DVR at home and tell it to record some programs for you. I can't bare to miss the Falcons games... even if they're painful.

I'm going to the Panthers game this Sunday. I've got the Texans on the 30th, but I'll miss the Giants game in October. Sorry Getz!

http://us.slingmedia.com/page/home

My new home?

Paste this into Google to see the location (exclude the quotes): "maps Moyen Ville Rd, Bangalore, Karnataka, India". Click the first link that appears.

I finally found an apartment that I like at a place called Chez Leila. It's located in a neighborhood called Langford Town. Langford Town isn't a cool neighborhood like Indiranagar or MG Road, but it's very centrally located and only 2 miles from MG Road (where the bars / clubs are). It's also conveniently located for my commute to work. The apartment is on a quiet side street off the main road, so it should be peaceful, but only a short walk to shops.

The apartment is fully furnished, which is hard to find. The furniture features several ornately carved antiques. I think they're beautiful and distinctly Indian, which I like. Too many apartments feel like they could be in the US. The best part about the apartment is that it's spacious. There's even a large outdoor patio/terrace. And yes, I do have a guest room for you (and you too, Adam!). Given the size, I would've expected it to be priced at 50% more, so I think I found a bargain. Keep your fingers crossed for me - there is still a lot of negotiating to do, and it could fall through.

The housing search begins

My hunt for housing in Bangalore began today. At 10am I met up with Samantha, who volunteered to help me. She knew a man named Nicky who was supposed to show apartments to us. Nicky pushed our appointment to 1pm, and subsequently dumped us onto his friend, David. David met us at 2pm and called his friend, who knew a woman, and that woman owns an apartment that she wants to rent out. I finally saw the apartment around 3:00pm.

Let's recap: Samantha + Nicky + David + male friend + female friend + 5 hours = 1 apartment visited.

To be honest, I enjoyed the experience immensely. I got a tour of Bangalore as we drove around the city and I got India tips from Samantha. I had a delicious Vietnamese lunch. And the apartment that we finally saw was amazing. It's a 7th floor penthouse done entirely in marble, with modern furniture. The master bathroom is enormous and has a tiled-in tub, and the bedroom has a wall of windows that overlook the city. The 2nd floor opens out onto a rooftop terrace and a view to die for. They offered to remodel (move walls, paint, etc.) to suit whatever I wanted.

The downside is that it's not in a hip / fun neighborhood (it's 30mins from anywhere), and it's a little too expensive ($500 too much). But I felt good about my search today. Sure, it wasn't very efficient. But after seeing the place that I saw today, I know I'm on the right track.

The Flight

My last major flight was to London, and it was painful. I was crammed into coach for eight and a half hours. It was actually an exhausting experience. So you can imagine how much I was looking forward to this flight plan:

- Atlanta to NYC: 2.5 hrs
- Deplane in NYC: 2 hrs
- NYC to Mumbai, India: 13 hrs - arrive at 12:00am
- Overnight in Mumbai, wake up at 5:45am
- Mumbai to Bangalore: 2 hrs

I've finally arrived in the office, and shockingly... I feel like I could get on a plane and do it all again. The reclining seat was spacious, and comfortable, and I slept like a baby. But I didn't sleep very much because I was fascinated by the personal LCD screen / entertainment system. I played trivia games and chess against my fellow passengers, and I watched some movies (ex. Spiderman 3). Meals came with real silverware and glass plates, and were tasty. All in all, this was a great experience, and I landed in Bangalore well rested. All of that being said, I'm sure the time difference will start to catch up to me soon.

Blog name

Naming a blog is harder than you might suspect. Especially if you're in my shoes, having never blogged before. Hopefully you caught that it's a thinly veiled reference to "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemmingway. It's a book about expats galavanting around Europe.