New Delhi- Day 7

Julie,

Today was "tourist" day. It was our time to do the cultural dash and get out of the hotel and experience some of New Delhi. I had a really great time and felt like I was able to see a lot of the things I wanted to see and was even able to get a few souvenirs. We hired a driver for the four or five hours we were out on the streets... can you imagine how much that cost???? $22 (1000 rupees) split between the six of us! Crazy huh?

First before we headed out, I brought out all the problems we have been facing as a team. I just pointed out that we've been failing to each fulfill our duties for the team as individuals and we needed to recommit ourselves to the team for this last term (before we get new teams). It went over pretty well. A few people expressed their opinions as well and I think it helped to resolve the silent tension that was going on.

After that we jumped in the car and headed to the Presidential palace and parliament. That wasn't something I thought I would care to see but it was really cool to see. It was crazy how different it was from the rest of Delhi since all the roads are narrow and CROWDED and you'll notice in the pictures below that was not the case here. Wide streets, lots of room.

We were only there for a couple of minutes, took some pictures, and then we headed on to the India gate. The India gate is a memorial to all the soldiers of India and has a guard and and eternal flame at its base. To be honest, I didn't know much about it before hand so it was really cool to be able to see it.

India Gate

Had to prove I was there :)

This is how the women ride around the city on bikes.

Crazy that they ride passenger and ride side saddle with how nuts the 

traffic is.

After the India Gate, we decided to head to DLF Emporio which is a really rich, high-end mall. It was crazy. Louis Vutton, Armani, Etc. It amazes me that anyone shops at those types of places, but I guess they do. We spent about 45 minutes looking around and filming some video and then it was time to head on to Canot Place which is like a market place to shop. On the way we saw the Lotus temple and I also got some good shots of the streets and the people. It is crazy to see the disparity in income here. Coming from a ridiculous mall like that and then to see the shanties along the road and all these people that live on the streets. WOW!

Ok so this is the Louis Vutton store. Yeah that's right, count 'em

TWO door men to open the doors for customers as they enter.

When did one become just not good enough?

Saw this kid on the side of the road and snapped a shot as we drove by. 

Wish we could have stopped and at least given him an apple.

Hard to shake the image of the face from your memory.

The Lotus Temple

Someone told me this is the largest brick structure in the world.

Pretty cool looking.

This little boy was hanging around Canot Place. Some of the Duke students

had the great idea to take the fruit they put in our rooms every day and take it to the

homeless kids we saw while we were out. I gave this apple to this kid and then went 

back and found him to take a picture. Crazy to think where life will lead him, he's in a 

tough position. Amazing how our Heavenly Father makes it all work out in the end right?

I've never really conceptualized how blessed I am to be in America and have all that I have until now.

Maybe it is the fact that I am a father now, but seeing kids like this really gets to me.

Why was I so blessed to be born to such a wonderful affluent family with all the opportunities I have?

Well we finished up at Canot place and did some shopping. It wasn't exactly the type of market I was expected for shopping, but I got a few things for you and boys! I'm sure glad we are closing up this residency and that it is time to come home to you guys! I want you to know I love you very much and am so grateful for all you do. You are absolutely amazing picking up all the slack at home while I am away and being so supportive of me with my schooling. I am so blessed to have you as my wife and you are definitely the LOVE OF MY LIFE!

I love you babe!

Love ya,

Brock

New Delhi- Day 6

Julie,

Well today is what we like to call a gauntlet. Just a brutally long day of classes, classes, and more classes. We started out with marketing and it actually was a little more engaging that it has been. Probably because the case we were discussing was one we had all spent a lot of time on the day before for our case write up so people had more of an opinion. BUT class was still three hours long, which felt like a really long time.

During class we had a little "visitor" that has actually been hanging around the last couple of days and I forgot to mention it. I guess it is only in Delhi that you can have a 5 star hotel and still have a mouse running around the conference room. Not to mention that we have mentioned it multiple times during class, yet every day we come back he is still spotted running along the wall on the right side of the room. Not only that but today he caused both Stats and Marketing to stop for a second when one of the girls would scream and jump out of their chairs claiming they either felt or saw the mouse running around near them. It was pretty comical.

After marketing, we had a speaker who is the Managing Director of Harley Davidson for India. Harley Davidson is brand new in India and they actually haven't even started selling bikes yet (they start this April). He was a GREAT speaker! It was so refreshing to have such a great speaker and have him speak to topics other than public policy or pie in the sky ideals of what the area will become. I feel like most of the speakers we have are a waste of time, not because they aren't great business people, but because they don't share very much relevant information.

After the speaker it was lunch and then on to stats. Stats was another good class, but today seemed to go a little long, I just was so ready to be out of class. Normally after the second class we are out for the day, but today was not the case. We still had one more class, CCL, and two hours of it. The class ended up being rather interesting because of a huge debate generated by the students on the structure of the class. CCL is suppose to be the flagship class the differentiates this new MBA program and a lot of students who are passionate about the international portion of this MBA have been really disappointed with it. All of them had really strong opinions and so for an hour they laid out all their complaints and concerns. Luckily I guess they got things resolved to work together to fix this stuff because it was getting really uncomfortable in there.

After class was dinner. After dinner was suppose to be another speaker, but after 9 hours of sitting and listening to professors and speakers I checked out. I came up to my room and read some really interesting cases on Real Madrid and the iPhone. Tonight I met with my team to finish up a stats case and now here I am again. It seems like our team is having a few issues that haven't really arisen till now. We are beginning to realize that Kerry hasn't ever done anything dealing with the content of any of our assignments since the very beginning. She does well at keeping us organized but never actually contributes to the content. Also a lot of our team feels really disjointed right now. Not everyone is putting  in the effort and I feel like we are all depending on others to "carry the banner." Anyway, I am sure we are going to have to have a discussion before leave here or Term 3 could get really ugly.

Well tomorrow is the culture dash so hopefully we will have some great pictures and videos of India.

I love you!

Brock

New Delhi- Day 5

Julie,

Well today is going to be a no picture day since we didn't leave the hotel and I forgot my camera to take any pictures of the CEO/Alumni Dinner night tonight.. don't worry it wasn't as spectacular as Dubai so there wasn't much to take pictures of.

The morning started out as a rush as I was slow to get up and so that is why I missed you. Our first class today was stats which should actually be renamed to econometrics, because that is really what we are doing. I am LOVING this class. The professor is really good and its a shame he didn't get tenure at Duke. He is only an associate professor and must not have the publishing of research he needs for Duke to keep him around because it definitely isn't based on his teaching skills. He is a VERY GOOD teacher and I love the way he teaches the class. It has gotten me really excited about the ways I can apply regression analysis at work. It also feels like I am really able to get a firm grasp on this material which I think we definitely help in my application of it throughout my career after I graduate. It is at times like these that I am glad I did the executive program as opposed to full-time because now I can take what we are doing in class and trial it at work right away. Also while I am in class, I am constantly thinking "so if we were to try and do something like this at Foot & Ankle I would need these numbers or those numbers, etc. and I immediately want to go back to my room and start emailing people to see if we have them.

After statistics we had a speaker from the local Price Waterhouse Cooper and it was really dry. I ended up studying our group case the entire time. I had planned to take half my lunch afterwards and start typing my section of the group paper, but the speaker ended up going over time and then they allowed a question and answer session. Because I had planned something, I was going absolutely NUTS! I feel like with a lot of the international students there is zero groupthink or concern that "Oh maybe someone in this group doesn't want to sit and here me ask all these questions and I can just ask him these questions when he comes to lunch." Needless to say by the time we were 15 minutes over I felt like I was going to explode.

We ate and then I rushed to my room, but by that time I only had 15 minutes and I didn't want to be late to marketing because of the new singing rule so I scraped that idea. I ended up drafting an outline by hand during class because for most it we were discussing a case about a life insurance company and it was BORING! You could tell the whole class was dead and luckily it didn't drag on forever like it would have because I was working on this other stuff.

After class, we had a two hour break so I went to the gym and did my crossfit workout for the day and then met up with Hao to complete our section of the paper. This is where I REALLY started to get bugged. I had already spent 2 hours on our section drawing up an outline so he could type up the paper and after an hour he only had a paragraph. Because of that, I then took the second part of it and in the next hour I typed it up before our CEO/Alumni dinner. At that point he only had two paragraphs.

When we got back from the dinner, he called my room and asked if I could help him with his part. I ended up reading over what he had and getting rid of all of it. I felt so frustrated, but rather than raise a problem about it, it was easier and probably better for our team chemistry to just let it go so we could get this part done and move on. Luckily, now it is finished and submitted.

The CEO/Alumni dinner went off really well. The speaker was Nandan Nilekani who is like a business rock star here in India. He is well known in the global business world and is worth something like $1.3 billion. I was a little surprised Duke was able to pull in such a high profile speaker, so everyone was pretty excited. Overall I have been really disappointed with all our speakers since we started as we get very little actual business advice. It is either focused on public policy or current outlook, but these are some of the most successful business people in their parts of the world. Why can't they tell us some of the lessons they have learned along the way?

After the speaker the dinner was really good and then I headed up here to my room and as I told you before ended up working on that paper. Its been quite a day for having never left the hotel. :)

Thank you for being such a wonderful support and I want you to know that I love you and the boys VERY MUCH!

Love ya,

Brock

New Delhi- Day 4

These are the some of the make shift "homes" you see along

the road.

Julie,

Well today was an interesting day in many respects, but with how tired I feel right now, I am sure happy to have it over with.

The day started out with our marketing class. At the beginning of class a few of us were literally one minute late and this really bothered the professor (sidenote: I left the 20th floor breakfast restaurant with five minutes to spare, but our elevator proceeded to stop on EVERY floor on the way down. It was seriously the longest elevator ride ever!). Anyway, the professor decided to instigate a new rule that if you are more than 5 minutes late to class, you are required to stand up in the front of the class and either sing or dance. That will be quite interesting to see if anyone ever has to follow through.

Both classes went well today and each were only 2 hours long instead of the usual 3 hours long. Instead of lunch today we were given box lunches to take with us because today were our corporate tours all afternoon. I signed up to go to Fortis Heart Institute which is the second largest healthcare provider in India. I was interested to see what kind of innovation they were developing in healthcare and the trip turned out to be worthwhile, but it was LONG!

We left the hotel about 12:45pm and didn't get back until 6pm. The bus ride there was pretty smooth without much of the crazy traffic. When we arrived, we were given a tour of the hospital which was pretty interesting. It was amazing how busy they were. You can see in the pictures how packed their waiting rooms were and it seemed like on every floor and every corner was another waiting room that was packed.

Fortis Escorts Heart Institute

The Hospital

This is one of the main floor waiting rooms. Amazing how many people there are.

They fit four people to a room on some floors, but they also have private rooms. 

India is an 80% cash pay country so people choose the level of service they want.

This is in the pediatric cardiac ward. So sad to think of little

kids with major heart problems.

This is the MAIN waiting room entrance of the hospital. 

I couldn't believe how many people there were.

After the tour, they took us down to their conference room and we had presentations from their Chief Strategy officer, CEO, and Managing Director (3 separate guys) and we were stuffed with healthcare in India facts. Most of it was actually pretty interesting, but it was like 2 hours straight of talking and my chair was SO UNCOMFORTABLE and I was on the front row. Bad choice! Needless to say I was grateful when it was over and with how much homework I have to do tonight that was all I could think about on the way home.

Once I got back, I came up to my room and started reading the two cases we have due for marketing. Today was a "per diem" dinner day and since I had zero interest in going out somewhere I just ordered a room service sandwich for dinner... not very good.

At 8pm we had a team meeting that I was definitely not effective in. I just kind of plugged my way through it and then came back here and here I am.

Two additional notes. First off because of the corporate tour today was the first day I wore my suit coat and lucky me I had a nice little surprise in the pocket! I am sure you were wondering if I would find it, but I did and it made me grin from ear to ear. Babe I love you so much and that love note made my day!

Secondly, I have been reflecting a lot today on vulnerability. For some reason that has seemed to be the theme of New Delhi for me. Almost to the effect of like the new kid in class. To some degree I feel open and exposed and I guess insecure. It isn't like anything has happened, but maybe it is just being in such an unfamiliar land. It also seems like at times like these that I grow the most, but sometimes I wish I could just curl up in my bed or fly back home. It is usually during these times that I am sitting very quietly, not interacting, and thinking a lot. The feeling comes a goes, but it has definitely been a theme during this trip.

Well I have NO IDEA how tomorrow we are ever going to get everything done that we are suppose to. On top of all the homework and everything else, tomorrow night is our traditional CEO speaker/Alumni dinner that we have at each residency (the one where we have to wear suits and ties and they usually have crazy things like an ice sculpture of the Duke Fuqua School of Business sign).

And Sorry I am not as good at conversing on skype as I am at writing you. For some reason writing has always been an easier forum for me to express myself than speaking directly one on one.

I want you to know that I love you very much and I miss you and boys!

Love ya,

Brock

New Delhi- Day 2 and Day 3

Julie,

Day 2 and 3 have been all day in the hotel, which all together hasn't been that bad considering how busy I feel right now with everything going on and considering the fact that it seems like every time we go out, at least a few people come back and get sick... more on that later.

Oh before I go any further, I got the rickshaw video to work so here it is in all its glory. :)



Day 2

This is our classroom

Day 2 started out with our first statistics class which was 3 hours long! It actually didn't end up being that bad and I am really liking my statistics professor. He is an Italian that speaks with an accent, but he is also quite engaging and won the class over by starting class with a simple statistics example of counting the number of red M&Ms in a bag, so in order to get a sample size everyone in the class got a bag of M&Ms. Learning and bribery... :)

After Stats was lunch and then our second GMI course. I really liked Jennifer Francis, I thought she did a good job teaching the course, but again it was macroeconomics so nothing spectacular to report on this letter.

After GMI they scheduled 1 1/2 hours for a CMC course on how to do use the career compass website. Since I have already been using it for a while, I decided to skip it and I went to the gym. I was happy to find out that they actually had a bar and some free weights so I concocted my own crossfit workout. It was really strange having such attentive service in the gym as I worked out. Every time I would go to change weight on the bar, the guy would jump out of his seat and come over to change the weight on the other side trying to anticipate how much weight I was going to put on. It was a very nice gesture, but definitely out of the norm. I starting to wonder if this is how royalty feels with servants attending to their every need.

This is a sidenote from my day record, but I also just wanted to comment on overall how CRAZY involved the service is here. At breakfast they have 2 chefs dedicated to omlets and about 20 staff members just for our group every morning. Then in class there are always staff members around and any time anything happens were the professor needs help with the computer or needs a pen, etc it is like the help is there within seconds. The housekeepers come by the room probably between 5 and 10 times s a day to see if you need anything. Today when I asked him for an extra bottle of water he gave me 4! Oh and here is another crazy thing. Today I got in the shower and went to use my face soap and lo and behold the housekeeper had taken my blue travel soap dish and cleaned out every part of it from the left over soap. Can you believe that? Even more so every public bathroom has a bathroom attendant that keeps the place clean and then when you approach the sink he turns on the water for you as you are walking up, squirts the soap into your hands and then hands you a towel when you are ready to dry your hands off.

Now transitioning back to my day the bathroom attendant led to my next awkward moment. After the gym, I decided it would be nice to go over to the locker room and sit in the steam room for a while. I didn't have a swimsuit, but I figured I would just wrap a towel around myself. Well apparently, I wouldn't have been able to use to swimsuit anyway. When I got to the locker room the attendant gave me a towel and then proceeded to instruct me to undress and put on the towel. Then as I slowly took off my shoes and socks, stopped to get a drink, opened the locker, etc he continued to stand about 2 feet away from me and watch. There was no effort on his part to look away or go about his business while I changed. Finally it got to the point that I just figured, "K, I guess this is how it is going to be." He just watched me the entire time while I undressed and put on the towel. I couldn't believe it. Then even more so when I went into the steam room (now take note I am the ONLY person in the entire locker room) I sat down to relax and then about 2 minutes later I look up at the glass door only to notice he is standing right at the door peering through looking at me. What???? Anyway, I wasn't in there for very long, but that was definitely a weird experience. As we have talked about it with others we have concluded it comes down to more of an issue of most Indian having no sense of privacy and personal space because those are two things that aren't part of their culture. As Americans we are a much more individual culture with personal space and all sorts of privacies where as in India in general, they are a much more communal culture and so I am sure to that guy everything was perfectly normal. However, for me it was NOT!

After the gym, I studied and then went to dinner at the Monsoon restaurant here in the hotel. It was really nice with about a 6 or 7 course meal that took 2 hours to finish. The food was delicious and it was a fun experience to be in that type of restaurant without having to see the check afterwards.

After dinner I did some more homework till I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and then went to bed.

This is the basement lobby outside our classrooms. 

The entire hotel is a contemporary design.

Day 3

This is the view from the courtyard in the middle of the hotel.

Day 3 started out with another stats class and I am really liking our stats professor. I did get cold called today on a homework problem I wasn't prepared for, but I managed to work my way through it ok. 

After stats, we had the marketing director of Idea Cellular here in India come speak to us. I was actually much more intrigued then I thought I would be and it was fun to sit and listen without taking notes. All the innovation ideas allowed my mind to wander and contemplate innovates I could create dealing with patient process and patient experience to give them a better experience then they are experience from ANY other medical office. It was fun. 

When the speaker was finished we had lunch and then started our Marketing course. I think I am really going to like this semester because I really like this professor as well. He is an Indian and is very engaging when he teaches. 

One thing I forgot to mention about yesterday and today that was occurring all the time and even during this marketing class was the power going out. Every 15 to 30 minutes the entire hotel's power would go down and if I was in my room, I'd be sitting in the dark for 30 seconds before it came back on. Apparently this is a very common occurrence for India and we were only seeing the minor amounts of it. Minor or not, I'd say it happened probably a dozen times in a 12 hour period (7 of those hours being while I was asleep so there may have been much more).

After Marketing, I went to the gym again and this time I was able to follow the crossfit workout posted on crossfit dixie's site. It felt really good to do a full workout like that again and I think it has helped keep me healthy why I am here. That is another thing, EVERYONE has been getting sick around here. The common term being used is "Delhi Belly" but essentially it means a lot of people have been laid up and so I have just been trying to be very diligent about washing my hands and staying away from anyone that says they are sick. I feel bad for them because they seem to feel so miserable, but I definitely don't want to join them!

Tonight I worked on more homework and had dinner with my team as we discussed a case assignment we did that was due tonight. And now it is midnight so with my apologies, I am off to bed to get my beauty rest.

Love ya babe,

Brock