A Mexican in India – 3 – Life in Bangalore

August 17th, 2010 by Dariela Escobar

I got to Bangalore’s airport. I could feel the heat coming from outside already. Ankit (from AIESEC Bangalore) and Caetano (a trainee from Brasil) were waiting for me, then I met Mariane and Raunaq, and the 5 of us went together in Raunaq’s car to an AIESEC congress (LCong 2010), where I met more trainees (Mareike, Juliana, Eric, and Claire) and many AIESECers.

I had 2 suitcases and one bag so it was impossible for me to find anything without fully unpacking throughout the whole weekend! But on the contrary, a smart lizard was able to find what she was looking for inside my bag… food! A lizard chewed my bag and made a very big hole right next to the zipper trying to get to a pack of sweets that I’d brought from the Netherlands, the lizard didn’t get to them, but unfortunately neither did I, since I was scared they’d been lizard-contaminated, and decided it was best to throw them out.

On Sunday we came back to Bangalore and I got to my first flat in the city, Raheja Residency…. Here I shared a room with Juli from Brasil and had a great time!! But even though I liked this flat and the people living in it (Juli, Mareike, Eric, and Emi), the distance from here to my work place and the un-killable bugs in the kitchen made me search for a new place.. So 2 weeks later I shifted to a new place in Benson Town with Caetano, Maddy, Aurelien, and Virginie.

On the 2 weeks that I lived at Raheja Residency, I spent between 3 and 5 hours everyday on a bus, so I was always tired and I didn’t do anything other than work.

My first days at work were good, but there was too much information for me to absorb, names of people and places I’d never heard before, numbers of buses, words in Kannada, …  but I found that the office is very nice and it was a safe, clean place and a hideaway from the problems at Raheja and the horrible buses! And I finally got to meet Zia and Venkat and begin my work!

On the first weekend I stayed in Bangalore and got to know the city a bit. I went to Majestic, Malleshwaram, and to a very big shopping mall (Mantri Square) with the girls from work (Sunitha, Keerthi, and Sheethal) and I went to a club and to Brigade Road with the trainees.

On the second weekend, I went to Goa with Juli, we went by plane, and we stayed at Silver Moon Guest House in Anjuna beach. We spent the weekend in the touristic beaches of north Goa, eating in restaurants with expensive fish and beer, driving a rented scooter, shopping, and sunbathing.  I also met Luis, Kamila and other trainees that were attending a wedding at Baga Beach. It was an amazing trip and I had a lot of fun with Juli, but it still felt like a holiday anywhere in the world, I didn’t feel completely in India yet.

Do you want to watch my pics?? Click here!!