Oct 21-27: Back in work! (Sorta)

Towards the end of last week Gwen (my managers manager) let me know that because of the upcoming cyclone season she was able to swing some weight around and get some of us in the office again. I think the spin was that there was danger of flooding and thus needed to be all hands on deck. A bit of an odd claim since being very new I didnt think I would be all that useful. But I aint about to argue with the boss! Turns out she did have a pretty good reason for bringing me in, and thus why I try not to argue with bosses lol. But all of that to say that this week was actually my first week of (sorta) proper working, and it kinda flew by. So instead of splitting it into separate page days I'm just gonna list all the fun things out here.

21st:

First day back in the office, and effectively first day of work... WOOHOO! Attended many meetings. I was finally able to get my meeting with the RSO (Regional Security Officer), by this point there wasnt much that I learned there that I didnt already know - but I am glad to have that out of the way finally! I also learned all of the combos that I will need to know to get into my office every day, which is vital and cool. Turns out there was scheduled a classified pouch run tomorrow, usually that would be my wheelhouse BUT because I have no clue what I am doing and there wasnt any paperwork done to get me on the tarmac my manager will be tending to it, and will thus not be in the office tomorrow. Well let me rephrase, he will be in the office but like later in the morning. No trouble!

On the way home I learned an important lesson here. This was a lesson that had been told to me before, but like a child touching the oven I needed to learn the hard way. Basically I would have liked to walk home after work... But it was raining! And I didnt feel like dealing with that. As I was sitting outside of the office looking at Rapido (the uber app here) an auto driver pulled up and was like "Eyyy, Ive got you - hop in!" so I did, and told him where I was headed. Usually the price on Rapido is something like 78 INR to get to and from the consulate from my place. Whenever I hire a driver I always just up the price to 100 INR. Makes it easier to pay them, gives the fellas a bit of a tip for the service, and it helps get me a driver quicker (mostly). So knowing that when you dont use the app people like to overcharge I tried to offer 150 INR. Double the basic rate! A fair deal I thought. Then this dude shakes his head and is like "Nonono - 200!" freaking scammer. All things considered I made out easy with the lesson learned. Now I see why they always say; negotiate the price BEFORE you get into the TukTuk. I paid him off, but had to grumble about it a little bit.

Luckily with things like this it is usually easy to make peace with the situation. Not worth getting my knickers in a twist over less than 3 bucks, I mean jeez! Even if I OVERPAY I am getting door to door service in a private vehicle for less than it would cost to go downtown on the train back in DC. The most annoying element of this encounter was that it cleared out my stock of small bills, and at this point in my stay here that was the only way that I knew how to pay for autos.

OH. I also put in a ticket for my damaged water filter. The people I hung out with on Diwali made it clear that this should be a big priority - it is my only source of potable water afterall.

Oct 22:

Made my way into work, but it was trouble all around. Something was not agreeing with me and I ended up leaving the house a bit later than I would have hoped. But I did reach the office at mostly the right time. But there was something strange going on, there was an odd site outside of the employee entrance. A pile up of locals, looked like visa applicants arguing with the guards. This was very strange. As I approached a few people came up to me and started asking about when the consulate would be open again... And I was like... "I didnt know it was closed - Sorry, I cant help you!" and went inside. There I was given the whatfor from Gwen because I had not read my emails this morning. Slightly in my defence I had MEANT to quickly scan them as I was putting my shoes on to get out the door - but like I mentioned I had some troubles that prevented that. Anyways, turns out that the rains looked like they were going to be a bit bad so the CG closed shop just in case. But things were not bad, so w/e. I tried to get back into my little area of the office but Gwen was worried about my ability to get through the alarms.

OK. So I just hung out in a side room and tried to get access to my emails so I could start catching up on that. Eventually she got the approval from Shawn for me to go back into our little area. I went there and realized something dreadful! While I knew the combinations for most everything in this area... I didnt know the combinations for the doors themselves >< This was trouble. Because how am I going to get anywhere if I cannot get inside? I tried to go back to my original location but there was some confusion about the rules and I was sent back to the cage. I now know better on these items, but at the time I just sat there and read our emergency destruction protocols until Shawn rolled in.

Rest of the day was spent trying to make sense of my inbox. I am in so many mailing groups and I needed to organize everything into some form or fashion where I could make sense of it.

At the end of the day I went home and ordered taco bell to see what it was like here. It's alright. Different than home but acceptable. The biggest note I have is that their spicy tacos are very good!

Oct 23:

Happy birthday to me! There was trouble. You recall that I had made some purchases on amazon yes? Well the trouble is that when you do this in India they will not just deliver it to your address. There is an OTP involved. So the delivery people arrive they will either want an OTP from someone in person, or they will call you for the OTP. The trouble with this is that where I work I am not allowed to have my phone, so I miss the call, so the package is not delivered. Troublesome! During the day I was trying to deal with this and also trying to purchase a birthday cake because I wanted cake. The cake was also trouble. Found a spot that was a small walk off my beaten path home that had some good options, figured I would place an order online and just pick it up on my way home from work. The trouble came with OTP's again. I would be placing the order on my computer, then would go outside to try and do the OTP on my phone to pay for it. Never worked. Ah well, eventually I just gave up and decided to order in person. Work was alright. At home I called some family and then enjoyed my cake.

Some of the packages were delivered which was nice! And also I discovered that the address that I have been putting into these apps is technically wrong. The correct address just points somewhere else on google maps, so you kinda have to pick your poison. An interesting conundrom. Anything else today..... Hmmmm - Nope, I think that covers it!

Oct 24:

Not really much to say, more meetings at work and I actually opened the IPC proper proper today. So that was nice I suppose? There will be a work hosted haloween party coming up on Saturday that I planned to attend. There is a local spot that I really like getting food from called "True Bowl" my favorite part about them is that they are cheap. Basically every day they have a BOGO deal, so when I order from them I will get two meals for the price of one. One goes into the fridge for tomorrow and the other is for today. It is very nice! Did I mention that it is delivery as well? Very nice.

A small complaint about work is that everyone at the office already knows my name. It helps I suppose, but my gripe is that it messes up my script. Usually I would say something like "I'm Trevin, whats your name?" but that doesnt make any senses becuase they already know I am Trevin. It is a burden I must bear to be known without knowing. Hopefully I will get a better grasp on everyone here soon.

Anything else.... Nope!

Oct 25:

When I woke up this morning some of my buds were still online in the Discord VC, so I hopped in to chat a bit. It was nice to catch up.

Haloween party today! It was nice I suppose. I walked to the CGR to check it out and it was kinda slow there. There were pop up stands giving out candy, I think they called it "Trunk or Treating". Maybe I will particpate next year, it would be fun to do something creative like that. But as it stands I didnt have the time to prepare anything for that or a costume this go around. Oh well.

Side note, it was still bonkers hot out at this time. I dont know how people were living in the costumes that they wore. Some people did think I had come as either "Surfer Guy" or "Weird Al" which was funny, probably becuase of my very large hawiaan shirt that I was rocking.

While the party was ramping up it rained a bit and that made things interesting. Had to impromptu deal with a number of puddles that had formed. I also stuck around after the fact to help clean up.

TBH, the party was not my scene. I didnt have a good time. BUT I think I will continue to try and go to these gatherings in the future. One of the things I like here is the community and if I want to take advantage of the community I also must contribute to the community. A worthwhile sacrifice of a saturday night where I probably would have just hung out at home anyways.

Oct 26th:

Looks like I didnt write my journal this day. Which means I have nothing to jog my memory of it. Best guess is that I called the folks and Bailey on facetime to chat. And hung about the apartment.

Did I talk about Diwali at all? I dont remember, nor do I feel like checking. It is like combo Christmas and New Years here. Danny invited me to join the celebration over at the Pink Houses. Had a nice time, good conversations and dinner. There were also plenty of fireworks. The fireworks here are kinda crazy. Some of them really go off, and it kinda doesnt feel safe. After setting off one I didnt feel comfortable lighting them up anymore. The air quality was very bad. On my walk home I saw some folks setting off a truly spectacular chain of them and it took like a full minute to wrap up.