Last day in India

So, it is with mixed emotions as I say farewell to India for my second visit. I completely enjoyed working with the matte painting team and rest of company in Bangalore. It is such a nice feeling to interact in person with so many people that I've only seen on a video conference call, email or telephone. Nothing can replace actually being in the same room as someone. But as I write this I am so looking forward to seeing Tamiko, my girlfriend, after being away for two weeks. The time feels even longer when I think of when I've seen her last.
I had a great last day, the team took me out to Lunch, Philippe joined us which was such a nice bonus, and they gave me a very nice present for my visit and help. I will post a photo of it later. As I ponder some of my daily interactions while I pass the time before leaving to go to the airport, I'm amazed at how rich and diverse the experience has been. Something I am not used to and probably would never get used to is how pampered I feel in the Taj or at the office building. Everyone stops and says, "hello" and gives me their undivided attention. It can be quite the experience when just leaving the hotel I pass 8-10 hotel staff and all of them stop what they are doing to say a greeting and how is your day. Or like a few nights ago, while in the downstairs restaurant, one of the senior staff popped by my table and said, "I've noticed you have ordered this meal many times Mr. Bouffard. Would you like our Chef to prepare something special for you. I believe you have had everything on our menu." I was taken aback but at the same time it was how I was feeling. Then the Executive chef comes over to my table and gives me some options for what I would like. For the last four nights of my trip I ate like a king, or at least felt somewhat like one. After each of those meals the chef came over personally and asked if the food was to my liking. One made me laugh, by my answer. I said the meal was "very good" and he countered "Very good or Excellent, Mr. Bouffard? There is a big difference between the two." He said it with such pride, and I had to admit yes there is a big difference between the two. Excellent would be the best answer.

Friday--day of leisure

Well, I finished my first week of two in India. I didn't realize today was a holiday or may have decided to travel somewhere. It is a festival of the harvest today. It took my a couple days but as of Thursday I was fully acclimated to the time zone, of course the funny part after next week I will be doing it all over again when I'm back stateside.
Things are going well at work and I am interacting with team nicely. I am enjoying being on the floor with them instead of only cross-site. My week has been relatively boring at night since I felt tired early for most of it. I was walking back from work and Dagan must have seen me for he jumped out of his car to wave me over to see if I wanted to join him and his fiancee, Bree. I obviously had no plans and welcomed the company. We went to a nearby restaurant and were joined by the Animation Supe, John Hill. It was nice to hang out and talk shop.
Today has been very leisure. I woke up late, called in for room service, spoke to Tamiko on the phone, and have been relaxing finishing up book number two while I've been away. Now I will begin some work on comic and have lunch. It feels weird to be so removed everything. My week feels like I'm in a bubble. My life for most part is contained solely in the business park where my hotel and work resides.

India Part 2

Well I am back in India, for another work trip. It is a much shorter journey of only two weeks. I left LA this past Saturday. Tamiko dropped me off at the airport. It was a sad departure for us both since I had only gotten back from Christmas vacation visiting family in Boston only just less than a week. The flight out was different as I flew to Hong Kong for my layover. This stretch of trip was VERY long, roughly 15 hours. The seats and service were great but there is really only so long you can stay cooped up. I ended up watching 4 movies, read almost an entire book, ate twice, and slept here and there. I was looking forward to the Hong Kong airport to see how different it would be but sadly it didn't really feel all too different from any other airport. Everyone spoke English very well. The only fun part while waiting for connecting flight was all the food in the lounge was Chinese. The good part was the flight from there to Bangalore was short (less than 6 hours).
Arriving India was no problem and the driver that work sent was waiting for me right outside. The ride to hotel was roughly 1 hour and I was able to continue reading the final chapter of the mystery I began on trip out. Thanks Tamiko for such a great gift, the IPad made this flight and stay in India so much simplier this go around. I didn't have to carry any books or magazines and I carry it with me to breakfast and dinner. I finally got settled into hotel room at 5am Monday morning, and went into work at 10 am so I could properly adjust to time. It was great seeing everyone again in person along with new faces. What I felt last time I was here returned again in abundance, this feeling of being part of their team and a sincere happiness and gratitude of my being here. It's hard for me to explain but definitely makes me want to help as much as possible while I am here. So began my 2nd India trip.

Vegas trip

So this weekend, Tamiko, Kiyong and myself went to Las Vegas for a quick get away and gambling trip. I noticed this time around Vegas was definitely less crowded and money was not flying around. The tables in the Casinos were set at a cheaper dollar amount too.
We gambled, lost some money, ate at some different places, and had a grand ol' time.

DC day 4

We are flying on our way back home now as I write this. Shrek 4 is the movie of choice funny enough. Luckily the airport was not crowded at all and we got through security and everything pretty quick. The day started out with us realizing that the continental breakfast wasn’t what we hoped it to be (we missed it earlier due to late wake ups). So we quickly packed up all our stuff, booked the super shuttle for our return, and check out/left bags for pick up. We realized our day was shorter than we thought. We ate one of our best breakfasts at the Corner Bakery. The weather got increasingly hot so we took the metro to the Smithsonian. We started off at the Castle building (original building for Smithsonian). Here we saw the tomb of it’s benefactor/creator. On display was Albright’s pin collection. We quickly glossed over this. Headed back out to the Air and Space museum portion. Here we quickly realized we did not have adequate time to see all that we wanted. This place rocked though. We saw Lindberg’s “Spirit of St. Louis”, Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed, Wright Bros. original Wright-Flyer, Apollo 11 landing capsule, and many other amazing aviation sites. This museum is densely packed with tons of great items. Our time was unfortunately limited. We headed out after buying some random soveigners. We went walking for a good place to eat lunch but after each step the sun and heavy humidity beat us down. We luckily found a very good pub that someone recommended as we read it’s menu outside. It was one of the better places we ate. After that we had only enough time to catch a metro back up to our hotel and find the Super Shuttle already waiting for us. A quick pick up of luggage and hop into the van brought us to our flight home, where we are happily relaxing our tired feet as we reflect on a great first vacation away together.

DC 3

Today we went down to the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the National American Art Museum which is part of the many Smithsonian museums. This show did not disappoint at all, and was actually the highlight of our trip. This was George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg's private Rockwell collection. It comprised about 45 paintings/drawing of Rockwell. They show was laid out very well and had a great short 15 min interview with Spielberg/Lucas on Rockwell. We quickly went through the rest of the museum and saw some nice Thayer paintings along the way. The Portrait Gallery Museum is also part of this museum. Tamiko really enjoyed the Rockwell which was a nice bonus. We went over to a pizza place across the street. Here we had a very good meal. Afterwards Tamiko wanted to go back and see the Rockwell show again (it was free) which really made me happy because I never tire seeing Rockwell's work. We headed down to the National Archive. Here we saw the original Declaration of Independance, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. This was very awe inspiring. Sadly both the Declaration and Bill of Rights had been handled so much over the years that most of them were illegible. Still to see these magnificent documents of American history was breathtaking. We walked around the rest of the Archive and enjoyed numerous sites. Surprisingly this ended up taking most of the day with little much open still we decided to take in a movie, "The Switch" with Anniston and Bateman. It was a bad little comedy. I liked Bateman and the child in it. We found Chinatown around the corner and ate at a promising place. It turned out to be some of the worst Chinese food either of us had, and by this time on a Sunday most places were sadly closed. Must say that the food in DC that we discovered has only been so-so. One day left so we hope to fix that.

DC part deux

So 2nd day in DC. We walked down for breakfast at a nearby coffee shop, Carribou. The temperature was quickly getting warmer. We tried the famous DC metro today ease up on all our walking and it was great. We rode it to the South Congress stop and we were only 2 blocks away. We had a tour through the new Capitol Visitors Center. This place is great. A large basement structure below the Capitol to house visitors and give tours of Congress. Security here is tight. Actually all over DC you can see the change in how you can access the city. All major sites have battling ram guards blocking any vehicle from colliding onto the premises. We were shown a 15 minute movie on history of the Capitol. Afterwards we had an awesome Guide who took us all through various portions of the Capitol building. We all got headsets and she spoke to us through them. The rotunda is just spectacular. This tour is over a half hour and was all free. We walked over to the Supreme court across the street, and then to the Jeffersonian Library of Congress next door. We headed back into the heart of the Mall, by the many buildings of the Smithsonian. Here we went to the Natural History Museum. This place is awesome and totally free. We saw some great dinosaurs bones, mammals, and other setups. Afterwards we tried to find a good seafood place but ended up eating at Elephant & Castle pub, which I believe is a famous pub/chain in London. Food was good. Afterwards Tamiko indulged me to a stop over at Barnes & Noble across the street. I powered up on a mocha and we split a Chocolate puff. Another day down. It’s going by so fast.