Will you find turkey there?

One of the ladies I have been working with here (actually I am working with her and her husband) invited us to celebrate Thanksgiving with her family. So we had the traditional turkey, gravy, stuffing, and mashed potatoes dinner. There was even cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie cheesecake – yum.

There was an accordian too, which is a whole story in itself. I think we can safely cross Accordian Player off of Dave’s possible future career choices.

Do you get updates on travel conditions?

I do get updates through work on travel conditions and advisories. We are actually waiting right now to hear if we will be allowed to go to Agra this weekend and visit the Taj Mahal. It would be disappointing if we weren’t able to go. However, we’re not stupid (at least not most of the time) and if my work tells us not to travel, then we won’t go.

How many of you will be travelling together?

Right now I am with Dave and two other people from work. One of my teammates is leaving for Hyderabad on Sunday. Dave is leaving for home on December 4th. This will leave two of us in New Delhi. When our time here is up, my coworker will return to the US and I’ll go on to Hyderabad to meet three other guys I work with.

We all leave Hyderabad after our last day of work and we all have different routes home. I am currently scheduled to meet one the guys in Frankfurt and have the last leg of my flight home with him. I’m not sure if that will all stay the same though. I wasn’t planning on going to Hyderabad – I just found that out on Wednesday, so I am working on getting my flights changed now.

Is anybody concerned for your safety (besides all of us at home)?

Yes. If anything like what just happened (and is still happening) in Mumbai occured here, we would be evacuated and sent home. We have daily contact with our boss back home, and have people at work here that are looking after us.

I know it’s difficult not to worry, but we really are very safe. We definitely had a lot to be thankful for yesterday.

I’d also like to take a minute to mention http://travel.state.gov/. From here you can view travel alerts and warnings. You can also register with the State Department before any international travel by clicking on the Registration with Embassies link.

Registration at the U.S. Embassy or Consulate (in the country you are visiting) makes your presence and whereabouts known, in case it is necessary for a consular officer to contact you in an emergency. During a disaster overseas, American consular officers can assist in evacuation were that to become necessary. They cannot assist you if they do not know where you are.

(Yes, I took that last paragraph directly from the State Department’s Website, and yes, Dave and I register through that site before any international travel.)