banalities

really little of note has happened this week. most of my time has been spent in the office, attending meetings in order to familiarize us with different aspects of my company. it has been gratifying to learn more about my company, and to begin to get an idea of what my role might be. however, i've made big strides in terms of continuing the process of getting settled, which is significant for me, but not necessarily the most interesting source of anecdotes.

my roommates and i hired a housekeeper. he will come three times a week. i'd better not get used to it as i doubt i'll have one when i return to the united states. nonetheless, it is nice to not have to do dishes or clean the bathroom. one of the perks of living in india, i imagine.

today i went to a store called big bazaar. its kind of a department store, but with relatively low quality items. however, it's fairly inexpensive, and i needed to pick up a few more hangers, some food storage jars for lentils, other beans, rice, etc, and located not too far from my office. 4:00 pm on a thursday, and it was packed! in fact, it took about 45 minutes to check-out. sometimes things are less efficient here than in the united states, but i've learned from my time in senegal and drc that you can't worry about it and have to just let it go.

since i haven't begun any work projects yet, i have no responsibility after i leave the office. it's a really nice change of pace from school, where work never really ended and there were always tasks to do. i have taken advantage of having more free time to read (just finished tina fey's book, bossypants, which was not as good as I expected but still great) and get my money's worth out of my expensive gym membership. all in all, things have been really good so far, although i'm very much looking forward to and nervous about really beginning my job on monday