Week 2:

I've now been in Bangalore for a little over 2 weeks, and it simultaneously feels as if I just arrived and that I've been here for months. Work at the Cisco TAC lab is fantastic! Every single day I am learning new configurations. Among other things, I've configured a stack of 5 Cisco Catalyst 3750 Switches, several ASAs (network security devices), a bunch of 6500 Series switch chassis, done work with redundant fiber lines, and done image restoration on about every type of device Cisco sells. Somehow the service cases that come in have managed to ween me into this stuff, typically introducing me to one or two new handleable things at a time, rather than throwing me straight into the tricky stuff. Looking back even just two weeks it's clear that the lab setups I'm working on now would have taken 4-5x the amount of time when I started here.

In addition to all the lab experience I've been gaining, I've been studying from a CCNA Certification book by Todd Lammle, so far I'm 500 pages through the 800 page text. My goal is to take the test this upcoming Saturday for the cert. After that I'm going to have to start splitting my study time between CCNP certification and LSAT study.

After CCNA Study and some StarCraft II matches with friends back home on Saturday morning, Chase and I grabbed some lunch further into Bangalore, and joined a poolside party put together by the Ives Club, a group mostly consisting of expatriots here in Bangalore. It was really cool to speak with people from around the world that have been here for everywhere between 1 week and 3 years and hear about their experiences. I got to meet a ton of people, including a few girls that I could probably take out without creating some kind of familial caste war.

Went to Church at the 2nd Branch Building this Sunday, which is my favorite branch. Whatever Chase may tell you differently, it is my favorite branch because of the exceeding righteousness of the people, and has absolutely nothing to do with the fantastic air conditioning in the building. Although the branch is really small by Utah standards, the lessons are incredible! It's very clear that the lessons are well though out, and a lot of preparation goes into them. The teachers do a great job of connecting the lesson with their situation and culture as well. While teaching about Ruth, a connection was made regarding the relationship between Ruth and her mother-in-law, and the relationships of mothers-in-law and daughters here in India. I had no idea, but evidently most mother-daughter-in-law relationships are pretty tense, so much that the teacher used a pair of wooden daggers to symbolize it. Are mothers-in-law that difficult in the US?

We've been invited to attend the wedding of a coworker, Rameesh. The wedding is going to be held about 12 hours away from Bangalore, so it would take the entire weekend and the a bit, but an Indian wedding isn't something I'm going to pass up easily. Hopefully I'll have more updates about that next week.

-Scott