A little late but as promised, I've uploaded most of the pictures from the Delhi trip onto Picasa. You can see them in the "Images From India" slideshow, or you can click the slideshow to look through them. I've chosen a picture showing exactly how huge the Taj Mahal really is, that little black on the bottom is me.
Our supervisor, Badri wasn't here this morning, nor were any of the people on the security team that I knew so I asked Bala of switching to introduce me to some of the security people, with whom we will be spending this last. So far in security we've gone over some of the basics of network security, such as using a TrendMicro server, layer-7 content filtering, defining traffic types using class-maps and match statements, and using zones to lock down a router and its connected networks. In the upcoming days I'm hoping to learn more about CISCO crypto-maps and different VPN types.
This will be my last week here in Bangalore before leaving. It will be nice to be back home, and I'm really looking forward to the 2 week trip in Europe that I've been planning, but I'm going to a miss a bunch of friends I've made here.
Bangalore is a city of almost 6 million people and it takes an hour and a half to go from one side of it to the other. In spite of this, you run into people you know almost everywhere. In the 5-6 hours I was in town on Saturday with friends I ran into three other people I knew, and Chase ran into a few people he met from an activity a couple weeks ago. I later found out that I was in the same area as bunch of people from the church, but didn't see them. Other people have communicated this to me as well, that as soon as you've met a couple people, it feels like you know half the city.
This week I had a cookoff with Swetha and a bunch of her friends, which we had been planning for a week or two. Swetha made an Indian dish; a dal, chapathi, and fried potatoes in the shape of (angry) smiley-faces. I made a cheese fondue, which had to be very modified to fit ingredients available here, but still turned out alright. Those present judged, chose wisely, and I'm now the proud owner of a new pair of sunglasses, the stakes of the cookoff. I guess promising chocolate fondue this week if I came away the winner may have been cheating a little bit, but if political campaigners can do it, so can I. I'll even follow through on my promise if I can find chocolate chips: can I find them....Yes, I can!
Also went with several friends to see Salt with Angelina Jolie. It had the chick, shooting, a predictable plot, and people punching each other, all the makings of a good action flick. Not even comparable to Inception the other week, but still decent.
I wish I could find some way to express more about my experience here in India, things I've learned about the mixture of old culture and new, the divided political climate, the acknowledgement and almost acceptance of widespread corruption, the way English vocabulary is used slightly differently, the way they think of themselves and their perceptions of outsiders, the tradition of joint-family houses and the ties one feels to his/her home state even after removed from it for generations. I suppose the most valuable parts of an experience are also the most intricately difficult to communicate.
This week is going to be pretty full of activity, in addition to trying to enjoy my last week, I have a paper to finish writing, security to study, last-minute preparations for my trip to Europe, and more never-ending LSAT stuff to go through. Plus I need to make sure that I successfully get everything in my apartment in once place; it seems that every time I go anywhere I manage to forget something. I should start picking up things from around my apartment right now just to make sure I don't accidentally leave housekeeping some unwanted gift.
-Scott
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