Our first night time site visit went well. That is to say, we all stayed awake. To cement our new upsidedown schedules, we returned to the hotel at 7am for a well deserved beer. Then it was off to bed. Afterall, we had to get up early (1pm) to catch our next flight.

The people here are friendly and helpful in the extreme. Sometimes the translations don’t work out so well though. Yesterday, Mark had arranged for a friend and former colleague to show us about the city. We were to meet that afternoon, however the schedule changed and Mark wanted to let the whole group know. The concierge desk agreed to forward the message to us all. This morning, 15 hours after we met for the outing, I found a typed note placed in my room. The note read, “This is to inform you that Mr. Mark had left the message that Mr. Ride has arrived.” I guess it’s the thought that counts.

The food here is wonderful, despite the well justified fear of it. It takes awhile to get used to doing a risk assessment of the food on the table prior to judging what looks or smells good.

Mark’s friend also had us back to his house for “high tea” after the city tour. It amounted to a light supper and was a quite tasty repast. It was also interesting to see where and how he lived. While he was in a corporate position equivalent or higher than our group, his home was a very modest and small apartment. Kudos though. His wife and two children were delightful, and we couldn’t have asked for better hospitality or a more cordial host.

Another tidbit: I had the chance last night to sit in on a bit of an accent neutralization class. The Indian instructor was doing excercises with his Indian students to teach them how to say words like native English speakers. He stops after a bit and asks is there are words they would like us to pronounce so they can hear what a native speaker sounds like. On my right is a British guy. On my left, an Austrailian. Who were the three of us to tell them they had an accent?