The first, hopefully not last, post....

· Hey mangs,

As some of you may know, I'm spending a big chunk of my summer (about 11 weeks) in India, specifically Bangalore. I actually got to Bangalore about a week and half back, and have promised myself every day to start a blog before a I went to sleep, but that didn't materialize. So, finally, here I am, in front of a computer, ready to write about my own musings on life here for you to enjoy/make fun of. I hope I can keep this going, and update it as often as possible because I think blogs are great ways to keep in touch with people, and jot down thoughts that I can laugh at ten years later.

Anyways! I left my city, Boston, on Friday May 26th, and flew to London, and got a connecting flight to Hyderabad. There was one difference between my flight to London with the one to Hyderabad. Namely, Indian people. LOTS of Indian people. Upon arriving at 26D on the flight, I was happy to see that it was an aisle seat and that it was right behind the bathroom. This, as I would find out shortly after the first meal, is a really bad thing. The bathroom is sort of a hangout spot for Indian people, where you can chat, hold your crying baby, fiddle with the airplane door, etc. 8 hours of that later, I was in Hyderabad, where I chilled with my grandma for a few days before I went down to Bangalore.

I got to Bangalore about 12 in the afternoon, and took a cab into the city where I had arranged (by gchat, sorta sketchy) to meet up with a real estate dude. I call him ‘dude’ and not agent because the guy was two years older than me, and his ‘office’ was his cell phone and scooter. He took me around the city, showed me a few places, and at the end of the day, I couldn’t make up my mind, so without a place to stay, I slept in park. It was awesome. The squirrels are much less aggressive than the ones in Philly.

No, I kid. Apart from the fact that there are absolutely no squirrels in Bangalore, my aunt and uncle also live in the city, so I went there, had a warm meal, great conversation and most importantly, a bath. The next day I took an auto back into the city to meet up with another real estate agent…and then another. They both showed me a few more places, but the more places they showed me, the more I realized that the best deal I had was from ‘Real Estate Dude’. I called him up, we arranged to meet a day later and negotiate. The next day I went to my office. Though it wasn’t my first day of work, I thought I’d go in, and settle all the logistics of my work. Also, for the next 9 weeks, I’m working for a venture capital firm in Bangalore. The firm has a four story building in the center of the city, but it’s nice in that they’re on a small, secluded road where there’s not much traffic, so it’s quiet mostly. There are 9 total employees in the office, including me, and we all sit in one room. Everyone has pretty decent desk space, and I guess it’s a pretty open environment to encourage’ collaboration’ (aka, I can see how much time you’re spending on Facebook, go do some work).

The firm was enough to send an ops guy to ‘negotiate’ on the apartment with me. Me and him went to the apartment, sat down with ‘real estate dude’ and the owner, and after about a half hour of throwing out numbers, I finally got it down to my target price. I took the keys, and that was it.

A few minutes after they left, I was like, ‘whoo, my own place’. A few minutes after that, I was like, ‘man, its really quiet’. Haha, the first couple days were incredibly boring aside from work, which is incredibly hard, but things got better. Anyways, my fingers are cramping up, and I can’t do this stream of consciousness thing much longer, so there will be another post soon! Miss all you guys…