A Few Suspicions Confirmed

All right, so I didn't leave the hotel today. That's standard for the beginnings of our trips, since we're usually busy with business. But today, it was also because I woke up with a migraine, and so I spent the afternoon and evening sleeping it off and resting. I didn't even get to the spa today as I'd hoped! So I'll have to check that out late tomorrow or on Wednesday afternoon and report back. But I did manage to confirm a few suspicions that I had. #1 - the hotel is totally incompetent, although I must say that the woman we're working with now is really nice and quite funny. Our meeting started this morning with them being late (of course). I then found out that none of the emails I had sent with the details of our events here had meant anything. i.e. they did not have note of the menus we had chosen or the number of people that we had attending. And they were planning to check the rooming list and get back to me, which didn't happen. So not a good start. But I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. We walked around the hotel this morning to see the various venues, and our meeting room is lovely. We also looked in at the Island Bar, where we will have our welcome cocktails, which is a very hip-looking bar, home to a wine cellar that is not in the basement and circles around a cigar bar. In the evenings, they have a jazz singer, who sells her cds to sentimental drunk patrons as the night wears on. We also visited, and later dined in, 19, Oriental Avenue, where we will have our welcome dinner. The restaurant is actually three in one - a Japanese, Chinese and Thai restaurant, each separated by unobtrusive screens and varying in their decor and costume. We ate in the Thai part of the restaurant, but you can order from any of the menus. Our hotel escort, Rachna, was dressed in a sari, but chattered much in the style of an American teenager. And shops like one too, apparently, telling us that she returned to India after four months in the US with $120 in excess baggage! She insisted that I try the sushi (vegetarian) and that's when I confirmed suspicion #2: I don't like sushi. Even though it's vegetarian, it's covered in that horrible seaweed stuff, which tasted so fishy to me it was all I could do to swallow it! I did try, and mostly like, this local papaya salad, which looked like noodles but was actually shredded papaya with a spicy sauce. Not bad. For lunch, I ordered from the Chinese menu (though I think I should have had the tom ka gai, which is a VERY spicy Thai coconut milk & chicken soup, which I loved in Bangkok) and had the crisp chicken. It was okay, but not top of my list. In an effort to avoid Delhi belly, I made sure to have some Pringles and Three Musketeers when I returned to my room. However, I realized when I woke up at nine-thirty that to keep my migraine away, I do have to eat a real meal at some point. Confirming yet an additional suspicion (#3), which is that I'm not actually that fancy, I ordered pizza, a strawberry milkshake, and a giant chocolate chip cookie. And I'm off to eat it now - let's see if it's as good as home. Man, I could kill for a real Pepsi right about now! Tomorrow, off to Agra and the Taj Mahal!

It's not Europe, but I'd never been there before...Wilmington, Delaware

Well, today I headed off to Wilmington, Delaware, for a presentation to our newest firm. We picked a heck of a day to do it too - the coldest day of the year. Yes, here in lovely Jersey it was a balmy nine degrees when I woke up this morning...without the wind chill. So I thought to put on a lined suit, and wear a sweater over my blouse and OF COURSE I wore a warm coat, gloves, and scarf. But I still was unprepared for the bitter bitter cold. At any rate, it took us about two and a half hours to get into Wilmington, which is not a bad drive all in all, and a dream trip in the car when you've spent as much time in planes as I have recently! The little bit of the city that I saw reminded me of Philadelphia, with its buildings reminiscent of a more colonial style. But I felt like it's the city that everyone forgot, because it was EMPTY. Even our lawyers joked that you can always tell a New Yorker from a native because they'll stand on the corner to hail a cab, with one hand in the air, and they still won't be able to hail either cab. It was hard to tell if the lack of people was in part due to the bitter cold, or because there is just no one there. Which is a shame, because it was a pretty city, and I wish I'd seen more of it than the inside of our firm's offices. They were extremely hospitable, and in this case, that meant saving us from frostbite and having lunch in a conference room there instead of a local restaurant. I wish I had more opinions to offer on this little city, but I'll have to go back to fill you in. The local lawyers were happy to report that it takes them approximately six minutes to get into the office from home (is that supposed to be a good thing?!?!), so apparently, it's nothing like New York with regard to the living situation. And their marketing director commutes in from Philadelphia, which she quite enjoys. It seems a nice little city, and one worth exploring further...in the summer, perhaps.