BLOG UPDATES
Namaste from India!
Mason Jones 12 August 2013 - 06:30
Namaste! Or welcome from India! After nearly 24 hours of traveling, over 12000 kilometers of flying, spanning across dozens of countries, spending time in four airports, and moving ahead ten and a half hours in time zones, we have finally landed and made it to India.
Over the next two weeks we will be updating you daily (provided we have a WiFi connection) via our blogs, our twitter account @TheIndiaImpact, and our Facebook page, all of which have a link at the bottom of this website. We hope to include pictures and videos of our journey and share them all with you while abroad and once we return. For the loved ones wishing us safe travels you should be receiving updates regularly as well...
Day 1 - We made it!
Ricky Bellinger, 12 August 2013 - 23:30
Our charter bus arrived at the hotel around 6 a.m., and most of us headed back to bed for a few hours to try and get acclimated to the Indian time zone. We did not meet as a group for lunch until 12:30, So we all took the opportunity to work out, swim in the pool, and check out the amazing hotel. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to walk around outside the hotel because a large political protest with over 100,000 participants was taking place in the streets.
After having a delicious Indian buffet we loaded back up on the bus and headed to the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple. Next to the temple was...
Day 2 - Life in 2D at ASB
Flat Ben (Mason Jones and Alison Lusk), 13 August 2013 - 22:45
Greetings from the 2-D world! Unfortunately, my Visa did not get approved before we left the States, but that couldn't stop my flat self from making the trek to India. My journey began with my own seat on the first flight and my own overhead bin on the second. Nothing like traveling in style! I've gotten lucky....Thank goodness Mark checked me in for that first flight and that I cleared customs once we reached India. My journey continues on day two of the India Impact...
Day 3 - Condoms and Elephants
Kathryn Scherich, 14 August 2013, 23:55
Today was the busiest yet! We started this morning with a visit to the future location of Vizhinjam Port. The view from the sand was picturesque, with large waves and temples in the background. The port will begin construction later this year. It is located near two major international shipping channels in an area with a depth that can accommodate the largest of cargo ships and the port will be near railway, making it ideal for the location. The construction will take place in three phases, each about ten years apart. The first phase will have an estimated cost of one million dollars and is expected to payout by the beginning of the second phase. It was extremely interesting to hear about the differences in this engineering task from America to India.
Day 4 - Not Just the Tip
Qi Chen, 15 August 2013, 23:55
Today began like many other days, with a heavy Indian breakfast. While the first couple of days, we clamored to try new foods, I think that the group is becoming homesick, gaining a newfound appreciation for chocolate chip pancakes and bacon. Those are safe; so is bacon.
Today could not remain ordinary, though, for we are in India and today is India's independence day. We started with a three hour drive to Kanyakumari...
Day 5 - Cruisin' into Kochi
Evan Reznicek, 16 August 2013, 19:20
This morning we left Trivandrum at about 8am. After a four hour drive through typical crazy Indian traffic, we arrived at Allepey. Here we disembarked for a half day houseboat cruise through the backwaters of Kerala.
Our tour guide gave us a brief description of the backwaters and the history of houseboats. The Kerala backwaters are a series of canals and lakes lying parallel to the Arabian Sea on the south west side of India. According to our tour guide, their formation is due primarily to the long monsoon season...
Day 6 - India is Rich With Tradition
Nicole Rissky 17 August 2013 - 22:50
Today we set forth on our trek to the Kumbalangi village. Located in the backwaters of the Arabian Sea, the village was accessible by a boat weaving through the vast number of Chinese fishing nets. These things were huge! Some Fellows made jokes of doing a mechanical integrity review of these contraptions but they seemed pretty sound to me. Only one man was needed to operate the fully manual machine and I can’t imagine how hard that must be when the nets are filled of fish...
Day 7 - A Melting Pot of Religions
Mark Krutty, 18 August 2013 - 20:15
Breathe in, breathe out. We’re a little over halfway through our adventure in India – and the chaos was met with the relaxing Zen that is early morning yoga. While I unfortunately have the flexibility of stiffened concrete, the majority of my class seemed to enjoy the breathing exercises, fragrant incense, and stretching that we opened our day with. Following yoga we shoveled in a delicious buffet breakfast and headed out for the day...
Day 8 - A Dream Coming True
Jill Langlas, 19 August 2013 - 16:15
Sometimes I feel like 90% of our days are spent driving down the bumpy roads and stuck in the honking Kochi traffic. But in the next three years, that should change with the Kochi Metro. We spent our morning at the Kochi Metro engineering construction building learning about the plans for the upcoming 3-year construction project. After a successful Metro system was added to New Delhi, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has plans to add a Metro system to Kochi, Bangalore, Chennai and many other major India cities. In Kochi, the Metro will add 25 km of elevated rail system with 22 stops directly above major highways. It’s hard to imagine all the difficulties that they have faced in planning this Metro system. Making a plan in such a densely populated city and acquiring land more expensive than...
Day 9 - Not Just A Lot of Bull ...Temple
Alison Lusk, 20 August 2013 - 15:15
Today was another fun-filled day for the India-Impact crew. This morning started off with a hectic morning as we boarded the bus at 5:30 to head to the Kochi airport. After braving the unorganized check-in and security lines, we flew from Kochi to our third and final city of Bangalore.
The director of ISB, Prof KB, described India as a “country very much under construction.” In particular, Bangalore is known as the silicon valley....
Day 10 - McLovin' It In Bangalore
Chris Raider, 21 August 2013 - 20:20
Day 10 - McLovin' It In Bangalore
Chris Raider, 21 August 2013 - 20:20
Our first full day in Bangalore started and ended in the confines of our hotel restaurant. The first order of business, on this fine Wednesday morning, was a visit to Bosch, a world leader in fuel injection pumps. Bosch is a 125 year old company that is located in 37 countries, and currently has 3 lakh (300,000) employees throughout the world. Bosch has a very customer driven business model, and follow the mantra “I would rather lose money than the trust of our customer”. Once we arrived at Bosch we were treated to coffee, and three riveting presentations about the history of Bosch...
Day 11 - Google Eyed over Sabre
Zach Garber, 22 August 2013 - 17:35
As an EECS student, today was the day I had been looking forward to for the whole trip. First on the itinerary was a visit to the Google Bangalore office followed by time at Sabre Holdings in the afternoon. Both companies are heavily involved in growing markets and we were able to hear about their strategies in the emerging Indian market.
We started the day at the hotel and departed around 8:30 for the Google Bangalore office. We arrived a bit early and spent about 15 minutes in the lobby taking pictures of each other with the Google logo in the background...
Day 12 - A Mystery!
Ali Zaidi, 23 August 2013 - 17:35
Top Secret!
Day 13/14 - Bye Bye India, We're Gonna Miss you so...
RJ Zeiler, 24 August 2013 - 23:35
When you have to be at the airport an hour and a half past midnight, do you sleep for the night? If you’re anything like us, the answer is no. Not when your luggage is still scattered haphazardly across your hotel room. Not when you just finished eating one of the most elegantly presented and delicious tasting dinners of your life. And especially not when you’re trying to make the most of your last hours on the ground of the beautiful and illuminating country of India...