My first training

Here I am again! For those of you who were impatiently waiting for news from me and who might have even been worrying about me: don't worry anymore, I'm OK ;o) I just didn't have much to write about...Nothing special happened during last week (I was just enjoying commuting by bus, working and fighting mosquitos) and I was ill last weekend (no, I didn't have neither diarrhoea, nor malaria, I just caught a cold) and spent it whole in my bed...So, no new breathtaking experiences. However, I have one now and surprisingly I have it from work!

A client called on Tuesday 2 hours before the end of our working hours (1 hour before the end of mine because I start earlier in the morning and finish earlier as well) and she wanted us to conduct a 2 hour training on Time Management at her College on Wednesday morning (yes, just next day...welcome to India!!!) and today's (Thursday) morning and afternoon (the same training given three times to three different groups of students). Well, I was a bit surprised but then I said: "Yes, we should be able to do it, 2 hours is not that much and I have already seen so many presentations and had several trainings on Time Management that it should be a piece of cake." I was thinking about how the presentation should look like when my colleague (Hema) told me: "Come on, you can't just give them a lecture about principles of efficient Time Management! They would booo you out, they will yell that you're boring and they won't listen to you at all! You only give them some theory and then you need to make it funny and to make them participate in games and other activities as much as possible. " I was like: OK, no problem and I came with a nice team competition in which teams of 5-10 students are supposed to do 4 different tasks in a very short time, so they need to organize themselves, decide who will do what depending on their abilities and respect the time limit. Could be fun, is related to the topic and shouldn't take that much time. What a naive fool I am!!! Only after explaining the whole activitiy to Hema she told me: "Yeah, sounds good. So how long do you think this can take if we have 200 students?" What the f...?! 200 students? How the hell are we supposed to make an interesting and interactive training for 200 students?!?! Hm, this information annoyed me a little bit...

Well, to make it short, finally we (or rather Hema, I was still quite sceptical) decided to start the whole training with the activity, eventhough it would take us more than one hour. Then I came with the idea to make the students brainstorm about all the activities they do, present them the Four Quadrant Rule (classification of activities depending on how urgent and important they are or they aren't) and make them think about their own four quadrants. And if we still have some time, Hema will give them Role Plays related to Time Management. So, eventually, we managed to prepare the whole training (which should be really interactive and funny as well) just in few hours, we rehearsed on Wednesday morning and walked into the lion's den...

Hema explained to me that Indian college students (these were 18 year old) were just immature kids studying only because their parents forced them to it, they had very bad manners and they wouldn't be interested at all in what we were going to show and tell them. I was like: well, many students are not that interested in their studies, it's quite normal. What a naive fool I am again!!! When we entered the auditorium, all boys (they were 120 or even more!) started to yell, whistle, stump and clap (many of them saw a white girl for the first time, so they really needed to share their emotions!!!). I was shocked! 18 year old college students!!! Basically, they didn't stop their yelling till the end of the training. Whenever we were explaining them their task, they were presenting their results or we were giving them short presentation, thay were shauting, whistling and making all possible types of noise. Even with micro we were not able to calm them down. Only when they were working on their tasks (which was unfortunately only 20 minutes out of 120), they were quite. When one team was presenting its results, other teams (mainly boys) were yelling, laughing and shauting that it was boring. They didn't have any respect neither for us, nor for their teacher who was there with us and tried to help us to calm them down.

To sum it up: it was the worst experience I've ever had!!! I felt so helpless, so useless...whenever I tried to calm those yelling beasts down, they were of course yelling even more because nothing is more funny than pissing a white European girl off. And after 2 hours of listening to that terrible noise, I was so exhausted. Well, but we had survived and had two more trainings ahead of us...and I didn't want to give it up! Never!!! I will subdue those creatures!!!

Since Hema (and me neither ;o)) had never had a training for so many people, this was quite a good lesson for both of us. So we did some corrections in the program to make it shorter, more dynamic and to eliminate any idle times and walked to the lion's den again. And I must say that two today's trainings were much better. We were better organized and also the students were not so mean and did quite a good work. To be frank, I was really surprised how creative and smart the students were! They were able to write very good poems, solve quite hard riddles and write funny stories in huge teams (one team had 20-25 students!!!) and in such a short time!!! Their only problem is that they don't have any manners and they don't care about their studies and their future life...they only do what their parents tell them to.

Well, so this was my first experience with giving a training at an Indian college. It was hard but interesting as well. Let's see what my next experiences are going to be.

Trip to Mahabalipuram

We (my Russian flatmate Sasha, another Colombian trainee Karol and me) decided to go to Mahabalipuram (Mamallapuram) on Friday evening. It is a little ancient town 60 km south of Chennai that is considered to be an important tourist attraction in the region. It is famous for its ancient temples, monoliths and stone carvings.

Of course, we didn't know how to get there...or better said: we knew which bus we should take and from where (big bus station with many buses going all around in a quite unorginized way) but this is usually not enough in Chennai and maybe in whole India. We asked many local people (you can never ask just one or two because they will send you to completely opposite places) to find a right bus stop. But all buses going to Mahabalipuram just passed by and didn't stop - this happens here quite often but when it's 19:30, it's dark and you don't know how long the journey will take, it makes you a bit nervous. However, we were very lucky! A guy with big car asked us if we wanted to go to Mahabalipuram. We were a bit suspicious (girls shouldn't get into a car of a complete stranger, especially not at night!), but also tired of waiting for the bus. And since he proposed a very reasonable price (it was even cheaper than a bus!!!), we decided to take the risk and go with him...GOOD DECISION! It took us only 30 min to get to our destination a the guy was really nice.
When we arrived we were very lucky again: normally, hostel in this little turistic town is Rs. 300/person. But already in the first hostel we came to, we were proposed Rs. 500/room for three persons and we (well, not we but Carol - she's really tough) were even able to bargain it to 450! Gosh, that's sooo cheap!!!

Since it's a very touristic town, streets are full of western people, stands with suvenirs are on every corner and their owners and beggars are even more importunate...Our plan was to do some sightseeing in the morning and go to the beach after. It was terribly hot (finally, we left the hotel at 11 am which isn't the best part of day) so our sightseeing was much shorter than I expected...but stil it was so nice! There are several temples and many ansient monoliths (huge stones) with detailed carvings. You really feel the breath of history. I think the folowing photos prove this pretty well.

Arjuna's Penance bas-relief - a huge rock canvas with with statues of Gods,demi-Gods, human beings, birds and animals

Krishna Mandapam - recreates one of the episodes from the life of Lord Krishna. The scene depicts the Lord liftingthe mountain to protect the shepherd community from the anger of Varuna, the rain God















Sasha, Karol, me ;o)




































Varaha Cave - depicts the story of Vishnu taking the form of a mighty boar and plunging into the ocean to rescue Bhoodevi, the Mother Earth.












































Krishna's Butterball






























temples

































































miscellaneous





























trained parrot telling one's future





























stone statues of Gods made by local people

After this sightseeing, we wanted to go to beach. I didn't know that it wouldn't be a normal beach but a luxurious resort for western tourists. Well, I wasn't happy at all that we were going there (we had to pay entrance fee and morover, this is not a face of India that I want to see), but finally it was quite a good experience to see this paradise where tourists pay Rs. 12000/day to lie on beach, swim in swiming pool and drink wine while local people are dying of hunger behind its walls. One one hand, I was a little bit ashamed that I was lying by the pool and sunbathing with those tourists; one the other hand, it was very agreeable...but of course expensive as well :-(

























































Well, even the most luxurious beach is still open for cows ;-)

So, this was my first trip. I really enjoyed it and I think I'll visit Mahabalipuram again because although it's a very small town, there are still nice places to see.

News!!!

Well, when I see how long my blog is, I think I should be briefer ;o) So today I definitely will be!
Here are some new feelings and observations:

NEGATIVES:

• our frined rat is still with us, however, it might be scuba diving in washing machine right now
• travelling by bus is really cheap but really hard - it's always so crowded that I'm just hanging on a holder with other people standing on my feet, pushing me with their elbows and crushing me from all sides
• I feel like a giraffe here! There are some big locals as well, but majority of them have 150-160 cm (but rich women have quite big bottoms which can be really uncomfortable on the crowded bus)
  
• so far my job is quite boring and my boss seems to be a bit incompetent (he doesn't know much about what we're working on)
• mosquitos are terrible! I should have taken much more repelent...hopefully, I'll be able to get it here as well
  

POSITIVES:

• we have a new boiler and thus warm water!!!
• tomorrow I should get a key of the flat
• I've found out that when I put some youghurt into Indian food, it's less spicy and it tastes pretty good
• I'm already able to get to work and back without getting lost - but locals usually help me to get off the bus at the right stop when they see my scared face ;o)
• I'm getting used to all locals staring at me
  
• tomorrow I'm going to see a training at a local university with my colleague - finally something interesting at my work
  

OK, that could be all for today...

First day at work

Today I went to work for the first time. I got pissed already in the morning because a guy from AIESEC was supposed to take me there the first day to indtroduce me. He called me yesterday evening to ask at what time I should be there and where exactly it is. He assured me several times that he would come early in the morning and we'll get to the company on time...Hmm, but it wouldn't be India if everything was so easy ;o) The guy came 30 min late but it was OK, we still had enough time to get to the company. BUT, he told me we needed to wait for another guy from AIESEC who knows where the company is. So we were waiting for the second guy for more than 30 min again. He came by taxi and together we continue to the company when after 45 min the AIESEC guys had a very lively discussion about where my workplace is. Finally, one of them called the company to find out that we were on completely wrong side of town. So we spent other 30 min in the taxi before we eventually arrived to our destination at 11 am (I was supposed to be there at 9:30).

They introduced me to my new boss who told me more about the company and introduced me to my new colleagues (two ladies...not a big team ;o)). He wasn't able to tell me much about my job and responsibilities. He just told me to go through what they've done so far to understand the business. Well, I don't know if I'm completely dull but I really didn't get the point. I understood pretty well what they do but not what I'm supposed to do.
Basically, there is one lady (Hema) responsible for all trainings. She search for all information about the topic (eg. Presentation Skills, Communication Skills) gather them and depending on client's demand, she prepares all materials (agenda, icebreaking games, role playing, ppt presentation, handouts...) for a training of few hours or even 2-3 days. Then, a profesional trainer or Hema (or me in the future ;o)) use all these materials for the training itself. After Hema had explained this all to me (eventhough it was not that clear as I'm explaining it to you right now and I had to process it a little bit in my head). Yeah, and if I had understood it well, I should do the same job as Hema does...so yes, it's a real curriculum development/management, i.e. preparing the whole training from A to Z. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll start to work on some project on my own. There is a big project for a university - one year training on Communication Skills; a little training on Business English for a Korean business man; and a project for a hospital to train Indian doctors and nurses to better communicate with foreign patients.
Well, I was not able to find out which of these projects is the most urgent so that I know what I should start to work on. Hema just told me that I should choose some topic from the proposal sagreed with the clients and work on it...well, so I'll try it and we'll see if I had understood well my task or not ;o)

By the way, Hema (45 year old lady who spent 15 years in USA and is very much different from other Indian women) and Ramya (young girl responsible for office management) are very nice. They laugh a lot and aren't serious about the job that much (obviously, the boss has no idea about this) I mean, they do a very good job but like to break rules and gossip about our boss as well ;o) But the boss seems to be nice too. He's just quite strict about respecting working hours and spam us with a lot of "useful" information. I hope I'll be able to negotiate with him about my working hours because I'm supposed to work every second Saturday from 9:30 to 13:00 which I don't like at all since the way to and from job takes me one hour. Keep you fingers crossed for me!

Getting around in Chennai

Saturday was a big day for me...well, all of the first days here are and will be big, but this was HUGE!!!. I decided to explore the city a little bit on my own and to use public bus for the first time. Goal was clear: get to my workplace and find out how long it takes.
Public transport system is really good in Chennai with many buses going to all parts of the city. However, travelling by bus can be tricky. First problem is to find the right bus stop and take the right bus. Basically, you have to go through these steps:

1. You must find out to which bus stop you should go.
2. If you succeed in this (usually with help of local people or more experienced expats), you must choose which bus you should take. Fortunately, names of bus stops and numbers of buses are usually written on the booth, so this is not the big issue.
3. You must get in the bus somehow. Usually they're so overcrowded that people are even hanging out of them.
4. And the very last little issue is to get off the bus on the right place. I don't think any of you would be so naive to think that there is something or somebody telling you names of bus stops. Moreover, you don't have much time to think about it and decide if you get off or not since the bus stops just for few seconds, people jump off and in, a guy selling the bills whistles and the bus goes on.
   

To make it shorter, thanks to IndiaMike.com, I was equipped with the number of bus I should take, names of departure and target stop as well as postition of the departure stop. After 30 min of walking I found the bus, after 15 min of waiting it came, fortunately it was not that crowded so I got in easily and after next 30 min when I was alternately staring out to get names of roads (and you already know that it's not easy at all) and into the map, I got to my target. I was so PROUD of myself!!! My first big victory over Chennai bus system.

I wandered a little bit around the area, I bought "fancy" flip-flops in Bata for Rs. 99 (divided by 2,5 = less than 40 CZK!) and I met Avinash and other AIESEC people to get a coffee with them. Then a new adventure started: one AIESEC guy proposed me to take me back home on his motorbike and I said yes what lately almost caused me several heart attacks. If the rickshaw ride was fast, this was fast and furious!!! The guy was tightly zigzaging among other motorbikes, rickshaws and cars, he drove terribly fast, braked at the very last moment and turned so sharply. Oh gosh, I was scared like never before! I almost wet my pants several times!!! And the guy was just not able to understand why I was so scared. I tried to explain him but he didn't get it and I'm sure he thought I was just stupid European ;o)

Fortunately, I have survived this crazy ride and to celebrate it I had a beer with my flatmates and we went to a nice local restaurant for dinner. Again, even the least spicy food was too spicy for me...well, I'll have to get used to it. And yeah, I'm a coward, I didn't eat with my right hand but used a fork ;o) But I'll definitely try it next time!!!


PS: I have a new roommate - rat. Well, I'm not sure if it comes back again after my impolite screeming welcome ;o)

First moments in India

So, here it is, my Indian experience has just begun. And it’s so strong and overwhelming that I’ve decided to try to write a blog and share all my feelings with you. Let’s see how long I’ll be able to do it. Hopefully, you’ll like it, and even if you don’t, I’m sure it will at least make me happy to write all my thoughts down ;o)

Before I start, I’d like to excuse to those of you (if there are any) whose English isn’t perfect. I’ve decided to try to forget about my mother tongue (what a nationalist I am ;o)) and to force myself even to think in English. I hope you’ll take this as a good opportunity to practice your English a little bit (eventhough mine is not the best illustration of fluent English) and after some time you’ll get used to it.

OK, let’s get the first part of my Indian experience started...

My big adventure started already on the way to Chennai. Plane transfer in Brussels that I worried about proved to be a little barrier to my smooth journey. A big yellow Transfer sign that I saw right after I had got off the plane was a big relief for me and I was happily following it. However, all my optimism was gone when the sign disappeard. You know me quite well, I like the order and when things are like they should be. So this annoyed me a little bit. However, when an airport service guy assured me that there really was a big Transfer sign (I just wonder what he must have thought about me ;o)) which I have to follow I set out to explore the Brussels airport once more. Well, to make it short: after asking few more people, eventually I arrived to my gate, I even got the boarding pass and board my plane heading for Chennai...The flight was long, but very comfortable thanks to kind, smiling Indian crew, good food and a big choice of Hollywood and Bollywood movies – this time I chose the Hollywood ones but I’ll definitely try some Bollywood one soon ;o)

Surprisingly, nobody was waiting for me in front of the Chennai airport with a big sign „Petra, welcome in India!“ Why should they bother at 1 a.m.? However, after sending a polite message to an AIESEC guy and waiting for 45 minutes withstanding curious gazes of many Indian eyes, I was picked up and could enjoy my first wild ride in auto rickshaw during which I made an incredible discovery: there are traffic lights in India!!! Well, but I should maybe point out that eventhough there are traffic lights, Indian drivers don’t care about them at all, at least at night. When we came to my new home, another surprise was waiting for me: trainees living in the flat didn’t know that I was coming so they were sleeping (it was about 2 a.m.) and not answering the door. Eventually, a sleepy guy wearing just a little shorts opened the door and let me in. I found out later that he was French and quite a nice guy. The only thing I didn’t like about him was that he told me I was not supposed to stay in the flat because two other girls are coming and there were only two free beds...Since it’s better to sleep on it, I didn’t bother with this little discrepancy between number of beds and their claimers and I went to sleep. Well, but if you think I slept peacefully all night long, you’re wrong. Fortunately, our flat is situated in a calm part of town so there are no cars honking under the windows, even the heat is not that terrible at night especially with a fan under the ceiling. However, full of emotions and lying on a very hard bed (floor would make the same service) I fell asleep very late.

The morning and my roommate (French guy Pierre) saved me from the restless sleep. It was a lovely, sunny morning, hot but bearable. Avinash (AIESEC guy responsible for incoming trainees) called me and assured me that I could stay in the flat and he would figure out where to put the other girls coming soon. First comes, first served ;o) Encouraged by this information I started changing this filthy whole into a nice place where I’ll be able to spend 7 months. The flat itself is pretty nice not only for Indian standards but maybe also for our European ones! The only problem is that it wasn’t cleaned at least for one hundred years! Thick layers of dust are covering all the shelves and happilly sleeping in every corner, lavabos and toiletes are black instead of white and kitchen tiles are perfectly concealed under grease. Just disgusting...With my Chinese flatmate Lynn (very nice girl, unfortunately she’ll stay just for 1,5 month) we launch into a cleaning process. With no detergents we weren’t able to do much about the mess but still we made a great work and were really proud of us. Even our flatmate Telcio from Brazil recognized the difference and was so ashamed that he did a one week old washing up ;o)

In the afternoon, Avinash picked us up and we went to the city center to get a copy of key of the flat for me (an Indian guy made it manualy just with a file, it took him at least 20 minutes, it cost me Rs. 100 and eventually when we came back, we found out that it didn’t work), to provide us with Indian SIM cards (one needs to give them a copy of the passport, picture and fill in a form, it takes ages!!!) and to do some shopping. I experienced the second auto rickshaw ride, this time on roads full of other cars, motorbikes, auto rickshaws crossing people. It was quite wild and scary but very soon I realized that Indian drivers are experts in their fields. The shopping mall called City Center is a great example of Indian variety: luxurious palace in the middle of dirty, ruined buildings and Indians sleeping on the sidewalks. Inside I got my first Indian meal, Ghee Dosa – huge, crisp pancake with three types of sauce; a bit strange but quite good and filling. And finally the shopping started! Majority of you know pretty well how much I „love“ shopping. The problem is that I really need to buy some clothes and shoes since I‘ve only brought 3 t-shirts, 4 pairs of trousers and 2 pairs of sandals which is definitely not enough in this climate where you sweat through at least 2 t-shirts a day. However, with Avinash saying: „It’s overpriced, it’s too expensive, the colour is too bright...“ I finally didn’t buy anything and just admired wonderful Indian outfits in all colours, shapes and prices. I’ll definitely get some of them (especially those lovely tunics!!!) as soon as possible but this time better without Avinash eventhough is a very nice guy and we had a great time together (Avi, Lynn and me).

OK, that should be all about my first day in Chennai. Hopefully, I will explore the city during the weekend and will be able to describe it a little bit and to attach some pictures as well. To conclude, here is a summary of my first positive and negative feelings:

POSITIVES

• the heat is not that bad as I expected...it will get much worse in April, though
• my flat is really nice – quite new furniture, microwave oven, washing mashine (we just need to figure out how it works ;o)), fans in every room and internet connection (it doesn’t work for the moment but Pierre is doing his best to fix it up – he calls the call center every)
• my flatmates (Chinese girl Lynn, French guy Pierre and Brazilian guy Telcio) seem to be very nice, let’s see what the girls coming soon will be like
• I was able to withdraw rupees using my debit card, eventhough I had to try it twice to persuade the ATM that Rs.4000 is really not enough for me to survive the whole month
• so far prices seem to be very European-friendly

NEGATIVES

• even the least spicy food is too spicy for me
• I don’t have a key from the flat and I don’t know how to get it – I don’t feel like having a new useless copy made
• my bad is hard as a rock
• there is no warm water, and gas pipe is broken so we can’t use the cooker
• I HATE THOSE STUPID MOSQUITOS!!! THEY’RE BIOLIT RESISTANT OR WHAT?!?!
• it will be much harder to orientate in the city than I expected– all streest look alike and usually you don’t find their names on the corner (or anywhere else)
• I haven’t found any brahman interested in me yet :o(

PS: I haven’t had any health issues by now. Let’s see how long it will persist ;o)