Memoirs.

Ok, it’s been sometime since I wrote anything here.

Reasons:

1) I was scheduled to fly out of the country (I did.)
2) I had to finish my backlog work at office before flying (I did.)
3) Incase you still didn’t get it, I was B-U-S-Y.

Right.

I’m on an assignment in Europe for 40 days. I will miss my family, friends, band and Bangalore in that order. I do not want to stress myself by thinking as to what to write in my blog; it should be Captain Cook types you know – free flowing and all that! Gee, I guess I’ve even lost my sense of humour.

I have been here before, saw a lot of places and I do not see the point in seeing them again. So, I’ve burnt a lot of movies. My hotel has an audio system and I can sit and watch them by connecting my laptop to the audio system. That is called being resourceful and making yourself comfortable. Learn, especially when you’re alone and you do not have another colleague accompanying you.

I am not the traveling kind, do not like it too much. I’d rather be amongst the company of family and friends and have a good time. The thing that puts me down the MOST, is having nothing to do, and having no company. The first thing I do in such a situation is to make sure that I keep myself occupied somehow or the other. In this case, the movies should do the trick.

I am a pure vegetarian. So, I obviously have problems with non-vegetarian food. And when you are in Europe, it’s kind of difficult to find restaurants that serve the kind of vegetarian food you’ve been used to over the past few years. So, what do you do?

1) If you are the experimental types, you go around the city and find out what places you can visit and eat at.

Pro: You can “EXPERIMENT” and try new varieties of food.
Con: It would be very useful if you learnt how to read the menu card. (It’s not in English you see)

2) If you are the opposite of 1), then you take food from home, not too much – the baggage limit doesn’t let you take more than 20kgs for 1 piece of check-in luggage OR find an Indian restaurant, eat there.

Pro: You can eat the kind of food you like. Even the menu would be in English.
Cons: You get a lot of stares if you keep going to the same place everyday, even if you are from the same country and then you start thinking – “What the heck? I give them business! So I will go there anyway!” and you go like the proud fellow countryman you are.
You do not get to “EXPERIMENT”.

What do you do at work then?

You try and “FIT IN”.

How do you do that?

Er, I will tell you after 40 days. But the stuff that seems to be working OK as of now is to learn the local lingo. You know – even a greeting or a couple of sentences here and there would be a good start. They actually appreciate it, and if you learn the accent as well, ah – you score more points with the people.

Also, it becomes simpler, if you learn to be humourous, albeit in English – but it’s really ok, as long as you get the point across – they will laugh with you, even if they do not speak in the same language when you are sitting with them for lunch, they’ll continue to talk in their local lingo as if you never freaking existed. But there would be a couple of nice chaps here and there who would now and then try to translate what the conversation is all about.

But then again, you cannot blame them. They are used it so much that they may not intentionally do it.

Anyway, I found some football fans here – Oh yeah! You’re in Europe and if you happen to be an avid football follower, you make sure you talk about it. And now, I will start playing football from next week! J Another topic that both parties can identify with, music being the other of course.

Ok – time for me to pack and get going. Otherwise, I will miss my bus. Indian dinner, here I come.

Get off my property.