Why Finally India! ?
So why is this blog called Finally India! ? Because after 4 or 5 years of obsessing and learning about India, an amazing opportunity is only 5 weeks away. I'm going to INDIA! I'm going to spend June and July working in Chennai. I don't know if it will cure me or fan the flames of insanity, but I'm running full speed ahead. If I had my choice, I wouldn't have picked Chennia in June as walking outside will leave me in a little sweat puddle on the ground. But it's all going to be part of the adventure.
The first interesting step to getting there (besides the begging I've done for years...I'm not proud) is getting a work visa. Things that made me smile or say hmmmmmm:
The next step is the human pincushion step. And this is the part that remind me that it is a 3rd world country. I need immunizations. Lots of them. My appointment is next week and I'm sure I'll whine about it but at this point, I need immunizations like Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Typhoid, Polio, a flu shot, malaria pills for before during and after, and maybe some repeats of my childhood immunizations like MMR. I sure hope some of those have a side effect of weight loss!
So why is this blog called Finally India! ? Because after 4 or 5 years of obsessing and learning about India, an amazing opportunity is only 5 weeks away. I'm going to INDIA! I'm going to spend June and July working in Chennai. I don't know if it will cure me or fan the flames of insanity, but I'm running full speed ahead. If I had my choice, I wouldn't have picked Chennia in June as walking outside will leave me in a little sweat puddle on the ground. But it's all going to be part of the adventure.
The first interesting step to getting there (besides the begging I've done for years...I'm not proud) is getting a work visa. Things that made me smile or say hmmmmmm:
- For occupation, the closest thing to what I do would have me choosing "Businessman".
- I had to stand in front of the lunchtime crowd at CVS Pharmacy and repeatedly have my picture taken for the Visa because the cashier/visa-photographer could not make my ears show in the picture.
- The Visa asked me if I had ever visited a SAARC country. Hmmm...I didn't know because I've never heard of a SAARC Country. I googled it and it stands for Southeast Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka and later Afghanistan). No, I have not.
- The Indian government outsources their visa application process to someone else. I got a little snicker out of that. Even though you're supposed to be able to put pieces in at a time and recall them later, I'm on my third time of filling out the visa form. And I have a 24 page document to help out.
The next step is the human pincushion step. And this is the part that remind me that it is a 3rd world country. I need immunizations. Lots of them. My appointment is next week and I'm sure I'll whine about it but at this point, I need immunizations like Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Typhoid, Polio, a flu shot, malaria pills for before during and after, and maybe some repeats of my childhood immunizations like MMR. I sure hope some of those have a side effect of weight loss!
How exciting!
ReplyDeleteI look forward to hearing all about it. I went to India in Feb 2011 and I had such a great time. The food, the language, the sites, the people: it was all amazing.
I don't know if this will happen to you, but I had people wanting to take my picture everywhere I went.