The longest day

So today was the longest day I've ever had, clocking in at 80 hours. I'm not kidding, I spent over 3 day with my longest nap being about 2 hours. Saturday: 6am WDS shift, 10am gig, P-rade, KJ 35th, packing ALL NIGHT. Sunday: more packing, 8 hour flight, 5 hour layover in Frankfurt, 9 hour flight to Bangalore, arriving at 1am local time on Tuesday (Monday took a vacation). Tuesday: 3 hours of customs, baggage claim, and cab ride to Infosys campus, unpacking, quick nap, and report to work at 9am. Full day of orientation, briefing, filling out forms, and wandering around campus trying to be productive. finally, bedtime at about 11 tonight.

. . . let's never do that again, please.

On to the good stuff. I slept on and off on the plane-- never too long or too comfortably, but enough to keep me awake all day today. I flew Lufthansa and the flight attendants were great, the food was good, but I was so happy to get off that plane. Anyway, my room is fantastic. It's very spacious and well equipped, and eco-friendly (lights turn off automatically if you leave and take your key with you, low-flow toilet, and conservation reminders everywhere). I have pretty much everything I need, including tons of closet space ;) Getting in was a whirlwind though, everyone's accent was so thick that I had trouble understanding and usually just said "Yes." in hindsight, probably a bad move.

In the morning, I was a little afraid-- I didn't know anyone, was really tired, had no idea what I was supposed to do or where to go, and oh yeah, in a foreign country. I didn't have breakfast, for fear that I wouldn't know anyone, and then tried to make my way to work. Since I couldn't read my map, I decided to go with whatever direction most of the people were going. In retrospect, a poor choice. However, after wandering around lost for a little bit, I got there on time. I met a bunch of interns, most of whom had already been there for a day (I was one of the last arrivals). The few of us who had gotten in this morning or late yesterday spent the morning with Nidhi filling out forms and going through the intern handbook, but there was plenty of time to talk to each other. We ate at La Terrace restaurant on the first floor of the ECC (Employee Care Center, the hostel where we're all staying). It was 180 rupees for a buffet lunch, or about $4.50. Not bad for delicious Indian food! and get this-- La Terrace is the most expensive place to eat on campus. There are multiple food courts where you can grab lunch for the equivalent of about 20 cents. I think we're going to try those tomorrow.

After lunch, we had to get even more passport-sized pictures taken, and then got a campus tour. This place is incredible-- not only in what it contains, but how beautiful and well-put-together everything is. The campus has many beautiful buildings and lawns that house food courts, shopping, a convenience store, a Microsoft store, a store to get a cheap cell phone (they gave me a SIM card), bookstore, library, gym, pool, sauna, multiple juice bars, many restaurants/food courts and even a hair salon.

In the afternoon I met with my student mentor, Dr. Rao, to discuss my project. (if you're not MAE, skip the rest of this paragraph). I'll be working on plate buckling under different displacement and boundary conditions, which is cool because I've only done column buckling before, in Mikko's class. I'll also be using finite-element-based software, but I haven't done anything with finite elements. Dr. Rao says it will be okay though, and I believe him.

After that, I went back to my room and unpacked most of my stuff, taking about 45 minutes to nap briefly. I then walked around trying to find an intern that know--no luck, so I just went to La Terrace for dinner (where lo and behold, 6 other interns were eating. The conversations are pretty interesting, and I'm looking forward to getting to know these people.

After dinner, I took a bike ride around campus with Ami, another intern. Infosys keeps bikes all over campus, so you can ride them wherever and whenever you want. Both of us were sad not to have brought money to buy delicious pastries at the bakery :)

anyway, thus concludes my 80-hour day. Sorry for the long post, consider it 3 days worth. I'll post pictures soon! and actually get this thing decently set up. I am SO excited for the next 10 weeks!!!!

-Margaret