After a disappointing start, things began to look up when I started work. I am working at Gray Matters, a school assessment company that wants to improve the affordable private school sector (and the education sector in general) through data-based assessment. These assessments will not only provide schools with needed information that will help them improve their student's learning outcomes, but it will also create transparency in the sector that will help parents be informed decision makers as well as pressure surrounding schools to also increase in quality.
I was really impressed with Gray Matters quantitative approach that was based heavily in research. Their passion was also infectious. The first week was mostly orientation. They really wanted all employees to have a deep understanding of the product, which was actually quite complicated and technical. The first week of work is always the hardest for me, because I feel like I'm not really contributing anything. Necessary, but still a little frustrating. By the end of the week I was exhausted, but felt like things were looking up. I liked my work, we were slowly getting the things we needed for the apartment, and my roommate and I cooked for the first time in India!
cutting vegetables....accidentally created India's flag
For the weekend we met up with the other fellows. One of the fellows lives way out of town (and requires a 2 hour bus ride to get to our place). She stayed over for the weekend since it was so far away.
One of the fellow's coworker's friend (I know, he said she said) was getting married at the end of the weekend and was invited to the wedding. Somehow, we were able to tag along. (Apparently, weddings invitations are often handed out in this manner). I was excited. One week in and I was handed the opportunity to go to a wedding. We arrived at 9ish (after getting all doled up in our fancy new salwar suits (traditional indian clothing). There was so many people, and so much food! Unfortunately for the groom and bride, they had to stand and take pictures with all of the guests, and weren't allowed to eat. The actual ceremony, contrary to that in the US, actually began after everyone was fed. Not surprisingly, a fair amount of people ate and then left before the ceremony started. Around 1:30am (yes that's correct, 1 AM!) the ceremony finally began and lasted for an hour as the priest coached the bride and groom through the very complicated ceremony. The ceremony was in Sanskrit, so the priest had to explain what he was saying in Hindi every two or three minutes. Apparently it irked a lot of the guests because it extended the ceremony even further. Around 2:30 the ceremony was over, but the wedding was scheduled to go on till around 3, even 5, with more ceremonies and rituals. We decided we saw enough. It was a long day.
were we invited?...kind of :)
Exciting and extravagant!
The long procession of the groom
confetti!
On the second week of work I was assigned several big projects (including a social media campaign and market research), I shadowed one of my business development co-workers on some sales calls to several schools, and I did a lot of research. I realized at this job, way more so than my past internship, there is a lot of sitting. I know this is "the real world" and that's how things work, but I definitely felt antsy at the end of the day. At least with school you sit down and study for 3 hours, and then you walk to the other end of campus and sit in another area and study for another 3 hours. You also have meetings and classes that you have to run to. At work you sit for 3 hours, get up to the bathroom, come back and sit some more. I thought school was sedentary, but "the real world" takes it to the next level. Thankfully, I just bought a mat and will be doing regular exercises in order to work off some of this excess energy.
As the weekend came upon us, me and the other fellows started planning a tourist adventure. We decided to go to Golconda Fort and Charminar, which is this huge watch tower structure surrounded by an even larger market place.
Golconda Fort
Charminar (view from the tower...I somehow forgot to take a picture of the actual structure.
Sunday was more laid back, but we decided to go visit the lake in the evening. There was this huge buddha statue in the middle of the lake, and we took a boat over to go see it.
Buddha!
Next weekend one of the fellows and I will be meeting up the Bangalore crowd in Pondicherry! It should be a fun weekend!
