First day of work

The four of us arrived here in Pune late Monday night (or early Tuesday morning, depending on how you look at it), and proceeded to take the first two days off. Both of them have been quite useful, as it's taken a little while to get over jet lag. Both days have been rough come late afternoon, and it's been no problem getting to bed early. The problem is getting up. The past two mornings have both been spent waking up before the crack of dawn and wondering whether or not I'd fall back asleep (today was successful after three hours of staring at the ceiling; yesterday notsomuch). We're still obviously feeling the effects of some jet lag.

Over the past couple of days, Ajay Hingne (pictured with the four of us above), the Operations Manager at Virgo Engineers, has been a tremendous help in getting us used to the city by taking us to several restaurants and pointing out some useful places to know. Ajay spent about 8 years in the United States, so he's been very helpful in sort of bridging the gap between Indian and American culture (formidable, to be sure). We've taken a brief tour of Pune, which I found to be larger than I had thought, though for a city the size of Los Angeles, that shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. We had lunch Wednesday on the top of a building in Pune, and we got to take some neat photos from the top of the building. We also visited the University of Pune (main building is pictured), which featured some of the first examples we've seen of architecture from the British Raj.

Today (Thursday) was our first day of work. Donna and I are working at Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital, so after the dizzying ride through the Pune traffic (Vishnu, our driver from Virgo, took us), we arrived and were introduced to the hospital. It's eight stories high, with four major wings on each floor. I'll post pictures later when I bring my camera to the hospital. In any case, our first day entirely consisted of a tour of the hospital and then eating lunch. The hospital is not air conditioned except in a few areas where either the hospital caters to the upper class (who return the favor by paying extra) or where absolutely necessary. The hospital is bustling with patients and doctors and has a wide range of health care options. It will definitely be a fascinating experience working there this summer!

In world news relating to India, it appears that India-Pakistan relations aren't exactly peachy. The newspapers in Pune seem to be indicating increased animosity between the two nuclear powers, and given the history of violence between the two countries, it perhaps is not surprising that the US State Department issued a travel warning to, well, us. The Indians are indignant and insist that their country is a completely safe country. Also, Hillary Clinton seems to be making plans to travel to India as Secretary of State, presumbably to bolster potential talks between India and Pakistan.

For more photos, click here. This album (and others) will be updated throughout my trip, and I'll provide links here as it gets updated.