Thursday was my last day in India. At noon I went out to buy a external hard drive to save all my pictures to. I think that was the only purchase that I made that would have been cheaper in the US.
That evening was a reception for our company’s CEO that was in town for a couple of days. A high percentage of the Pearson India employees from New Delhi were there dressed in their saris and suits, about 500 people. The event was outside on the lawns of the Imperial Hotel, a 5 star hotel. At the reception during the social time I was introduced to Marjorie, the CEO, and had about 15 minutes with her. She was interested to hear about the experience. She mentioned she heard very good feedback from the management staff that I worked with. She also mentioned she was told by just about every one else should had spoken to at the reception that this was also my going away party since I was heading straight from the reception to the airport.
Later in the evening Marjorie gave a brief speech, said that the food was now ready and this would be the last speech for the night. The about 5 minutes later she gets up to the podium and starts stating that this event is also the going away party for someone that stayed here a little longer than he was originally supposed and has an impact here in India. She then announced my name and called me up to the podium. She said a few more things like “He is now standing a little bit taller than before” and a few other comments. Then she asked if I wanted to say anything. I was totally unprepared for this and said no. Then she gave me a final thank you and I raced down from the podium. This was definitely a suprise and an honor. Here is a pic that someone in the audience had taken of me at the podium.
That evening was a reception for our company’s CEO that was in town for a couple of days. A high percentage of the Pearson India employees from New Delhi were there dressed in their saris and suits, about 500 people. The event was outside on the lawns of the Imperial Hotel, a 5 star hotel. At the reception during the social time I was introduced to Marjorie, the CEO, and had about 15 minutes with her. She was interested to hear about the experience. She mentioned she heard very good feedback from the management staff that I worked with. She also mentioned she was told by just about every one else should had spoken to at the reception that this was also my going away party since I was heading straight from the reception to the airport.
Later in the evening Marjorie gave a brief speech, said that the food was now ready and this would be the last speech for the night. The about 5 minutes later she gets up to the podium and starts stating that this event is also the going away party for someone that stayed here a little longer than he was originally supposed and has an impact here in India. She then announced my name and called me up to the podium. She said a few more things like “He is now standing a little bit taller than before” and a few other comments. Then she asked if I wanted to say anything. I was totally unprepared for this and said no. Then she gave me a final thank you and I raced down from the podium. This was definitely a suprise and an honor. Here is a pic that someone in the audience had taken of me at the podium.
I then ate quickly and was off to the airport. I had one issue at the immigration area where they were expecting me have a registration stamp. I was told in the first week that I did not need a registration stamp since I was there less than 6 months. I had a nervous half an hour wait at the immigration area before they finally said ok and gave me the stamp of approval to move forward.
My flight left at 1:40 am. I then had a 9 hour flight to Amsterdam, a 5 hour layover and another 9 hour flight to Minneapolis. I did not sleep at all on the flights and watched 7 movies and a couple tv shows. I arrived in Minneapolis around 1 pm on Friday. My parents were there to pick me up. We went straight to my house. They picked me up a Subway sub to eat. Then I took a nap from 3-9 and went to bed at 9:30 to wake up around 6 am on Saturday. That amount of sleep helped the lack of sleep for 48 hours to get home. The 32 degree air temp was freezing cold to me. I did not like seeing my breath already.
