Survived typhoon & Indian experience

College:
Yesterday I decided to withdraw from the graduate classes I was trying to take online. It just wasn't working out for me. Just too many things I'd rather be doing than reading about nursing theory & research. Figured I'm only going to be here for a few years & I know the time will fly by. I was having a terrible time focusing on the school work & just getting further & further behind. So I feel much better now & don't feel guilty spending time writing on my blog, which I'm considering my journal. I also want to get to research the places we are going to visit & have time to do some volunteer work. Sometimes we just need to cut our losses. When I told Jesse I was withdrawing, he say I was setting a bad example for he & Brooks. I had to remind him that I already have 2 degrees & at 50, I've paid my dues. That shut him up! The worst part is not being able to be on facebook any more - it was fun keeping up with the college set. My kids might be glad I can't check up on them quite so closely.

Work:
Yesterday I started working for Cadmus (John's company). I'm just helping out to free some of the people up to do more important things. It was nice to get to be around some other people (other reason I wasn't enjoying the online learning - no social contact & you know I crave social contact). Anyway, there are 5 people there from the US office & several Chinese. So it is nice to make some friends. I'm part-time, so I can come & go as I please (being the boss' wife doesn't hurt either). I worked on a very unexciting spread sheet today. Learned some stuff about Excel that I didn't know before, so that was good. Not sure if is was as much fun as Brooks' internship with Cadmus this summer where he got to organize a closet for the marketing department!!

India:
John will be traveling to India in a few weeks, so he gave me the task of getting a visa. He left this morning (Wed) for Thailand, so I'm on my own. I checked online & found out where it is located, which is between home & the office. So I ventured out yesterday on the bus to try to find it. When I realized where it was, the bus had already stopped & the next stop was too far to go back. We had a level 1 typhoon hoisting (that's what they call it, guess there is a flag somewhere). I am discovering with the buses that you really need to know where you are going & where you need to get off. It you wait until you see the place you want, it is too late. They don't stop every block. So I missed the embassy yesterday and just went on into the office.
So today, after hanging around home to great another Cadmus person who is staying here (saving on hotel expenses), I ventured out again. Today was level 3 typhoon hoisting, so the rain was coming down pretty hard. I watched it a good part of the morning from my window - lots of lightening & thunder & rain & clouds. It was great, the buildings kept coming in & out of view through the clouds. I didn't notice too much wind, but at 31 floors above the ground, I guess I wouldn't. Because it was raining so hard, I decided to just take a taxi. I found the embassy on the 26 floor of one of the buildings - it wasn't easy to find. OK, so this was the noisiest place I've been in a very long time - it gave me a headache. I guess Indians have a reputation for yelling a lot & it is true. It wasn't a very big office & there were 3 windows & each one had people yelling. Only one guy was actually angry. I think because they were all speaking English & none were native English speakers, they feel like they have to yell to be understood. I didn't like it. I'm not so sure I'm going to like India.
So I went to one window & the man had to tell me several times what I needed. He was way worse than the people you get on the phone for customer service. Finally he shoved 2 papers at me & said to fill them out & have a copy of my passport. I did this & went back & he directed me to a different window. I waited in a line of about 7 people. One of them was a woman from the US, I think she said Kentucky. Anyway, I picked her brain on how this all works. She's lived here for 6 years, so was very helpful. She said I had to have a copy of my passport & 2 photos (which I had, fortunately) and EXACT change. She said they are usually very strict about having the exact amount of cash. I figured I was there, so I'd just give it a try (I didn't have a passport copy & didn't know what the cost would be). I was the last in line & the woman ended up being very nice. When I handed her the passport, she just gave me a look & said you should have brought a copy, then took it & copied it for me (nice). Then she didn't ask for exact amount either - I lucked out. I guess I just looked dumb enough. I was told to come back on Monday before noon (they only do visa stuff from 9:30am to noon. I would need to bring another HK$315 exactly in cash. The amount I paid today (HK$275, about $30US) was for faxing. She explained the would issue the visa on Monday morning, but then I couldn't pick it up until Monday between 5 & 5:30pm. Interesting!

Typhoon:
This sounds very exotic, but I think it is just another name for hurricane, but not as severe. Apparently they go from level 1 - 10 (10 being the worst). All of the buildings have a placard as you enter that posts the level for the day. Today they read "Typhoon level 3 hoisted today". It didn't really seem to bad at level 3, just lots & lots of rain.
This is definitely the rainy season. I think it's rained everyday since I've been here & I've hardly seen blue sky at all. I don't mind after a fairly rainless summer in NC. It is interesting how they handle the rain here. Everyone carries umbrellas with them & every store or building you go into has an umbrella rack at the entrance with long narrow plastic bags to put your wet umbrella into if you don't want to leave it in the rack. Nice touch. The office buildings & apartment buildings have someone at the entrance with a mop & squeegee to wipe up the water that gets tracked in. They wipe it up immediately. I wonder if they have special people who only work when it rains & it is their job to wipe up the water. At our apartment building it was the front door attendant, but at the office buildings it looked like a janitor type person doing it. They keep everything very clean.

Communication:
I think it is very interesting that I spoke with more family today, than I probably do in an average week or maybe month at home. I had a conference call with my parents & sister (my sister-in-law & nephew were visiting my parents so I got to talk to them too), talked to Jesse, Brooks & Sue Lezon (another sister-in-law). This was all in about an hour this morning (for me, night for them). My boys wanted to get credit card info, so they could make some purchases.
Hope Brooks does better than the first time he bought some sporting equipment online when he first left home 4 years ago for prep-school. I'll never forget it. John read an email from the company with the invoice for something like $600 for soccer cleats, shorts & socks, and he was rather upset about Brooks spending so much. I took a look at it & immediately knew what had happened (because he'd told me about the purchase & said he gotten cleats, 3 pairs of different shorts & a pair of socks). Well, instead of getting 1 pair of each of the shorts, he'd ordered 11 pairs of the black ones. I called him & said he'd only intended to order one pair. I told him in the future to look at the $ amount & when it says one pair of shorts is $260 - there might be a mistake!!! Luckily the woman at the help desk had kids also & was very understanding & redid the order.

Good night from me. Good morning to you all!!