Day 1- XIME

The trip to India started at with a 9:40pm flight out of JFK. I was really impressed with Ethiad Airways. We were served food at least three times and had a variety of movies and TV shows to choose from during the 11 hour flight to Abu Dhabi. We also got blankets, sleeping masks, ear phones and pillows for free. If you know me well you know I'm not a flyer. At all. So getting me on a 16 hour flight is a big deal. I thought the time would pass by slowly but before I knew it we were in Abu Dhabi.

I didn't really know what to expect from Abu Dhabi. It a nice airport and it was fascinating to see people from cultures I'd never been exposed to before. We had to go through security again but after that all I had to do was wait for the 5 hour flight to Bangalore.

While on line by chance met up with another person in my class and then the both of us meet up with another person from the class on the bus ride to the airplane. We somehow had picked seats near each other as Lou Anne and I sat together and Darrell behind us.

We all were worried about finding the taxis that were to be waiting for us but they were just outside the airport doors. There another classmate, Omeed, was already waiting for us. We separated two to each taxi for an uneventful two hour ride to  XIME (Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship).

Whenever I travel, cars seem to break down so of course the car that Darrell and Lou Anne were in began to overheat. After a few tries, we got to the school safely and got to meet our professor, Dr. Kanti Srikantaiah for the first time.

Honestly, my first impression of India was a little bit of disappointment. It reminded me so much of Jamaica (where my parents are from)  in the overall look to it, the poverty, even the palm trees! 

Still, we got to XIME at around 5am, were shown to our rooms and were able to sleep briefly until it was time to meet out hosts.

                                        From left to right: Omeed, Darrell, Dr. Kanti, and me

The class notes section goes into detail on the school and what we learned in our lectures so I won't go into that. I will say that our hosts were very friendly and we had a nice lunch with them. The only Indian food I'd had previously was chicken tikki Marsala which I learned later, is from the UK, not India. So needless to say, I didn't know much about the food. Indian food is fantastic! I could go on and on about the food.

Class notes 

We arrived in Bangalore in the early morning and then registered at XIME. XIME is short for Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship. It was founded by Prof. J. Philip is the 1990s. After settling at the school we participated in two lectures from President Philip and Professor "Sam" (Sr. Dean Tyagaraj). Through the lectures I learned that India has a very good sense of where it correctly stands in the world and where they want to be in the future. For example, it was mentioned by President Philip that India has an excess in professionals (about 1 million) who graduate every year. It is understood that other countries, particularly in the west, have a shortage of professionals. India realizes that other countries are in demand for their surplus of workers so they try to fill that need.