Flying can be fun...

Well I made it over in one piece, with little travel delays and all luggage so that was a huge win. From Minneapolis to my residence in Bangalore it was roughly a 34 hour trip doorstep-to-doorstep and roughly 9,300 frequent flyer miles (13,000 miles if you include the multipliers).

I have to give a big shout out to Taylor, a friend and classmate from graduate school at Minnesota, for getting me hooked up with the upgrade. Traveling internationally in business/first class is just the way to go...

I was treated to a solid dinner of stuffed shells with champagne, Bose headphones, lay flat capable seating and an impressive movie selection, one of which happened to be the acclaimed the Hunger Games. I've never seen that film and I now feel kind of bad for making fun of people for getting so amped about it. It really is a solid flick, but I still think it was better when it was called Running Man and featured Ahhhhhnold.

After a smooth flight over the Atlantic, I arrived to the hustle and bustle that is London Heathrow. I've never been through London, not even as a connection. There must of been a handful of people telling me how I'd need 2-3 hours to navigate a connection properly and I was a bit nervous working with a 2 hour window (eye roll). Needless to say, I had plenty of time to navigate the 4th busiest airport in the world and would have made George Clooney proud.

The flight from London to Bangalore was far less glamorous. I was back in economy seating (thankfully with an aisle seat and a very diminutive woman seated next to me) for this roughly 8 hour and change flight. Overall it was a decent flight and even though it seemed as if 50% of the occupancy was children under 7 years old, there was relative peace for the duration of the flight. Upon arrival to Bangalore International it was quick work through customs and baggage only took a few minutes to recoup.

The drive to the airport to my residence for this assignment was about 20 km and took about 75 minutes. The drive brought back a ton of memories from my first visit to this country and outside of the big sign you see leaving the airport changing from Yahoo! to IBM, it's still the unique environment and landscape that I have come to know this place by. The sights and smells are the same and it's going to be an interesting experience as I learn to call this home for the next half year.

That's all I have for now. Time to unpack and get settled in. I've slept probably about 12 hours since Wednesday so saying I'm beat is an understatement. All in all I'm pretty relaxed and I'm super excited for work. The only thing I have to get figured out right now is how the transportation situation will work out to and from the office, but sleep comes first.

Cheers!

- Dustin