Ohm... Shanti Shanti...
I'm south of India, city of Chennai (formely Madras), province Tamilnadu. Surprisingly enough, everyone here speaks enough English to communicate with outlanders. The native language is Tamil but most of the time you don't hear it, unless you're in a little village; or perhaps they all stop speaking it when they see a whitey.

I feel like a rock star. Surely, I'm the center of attention. Most people here have never seen a white person before. I bet they've never seen blond hair either. I don't know if I can handle all this popularity. Now I know what being a super hot woman in New York feels like. This is probably not going to change the way I look at super hot women, though.

On Partying...

There is a dozen of night clubs in Chennai. However, they all close down at 11pm. WTF??? At exactly 11pm the music stops, the lights are lit, and the bar is closed. Nobody really kicks you out at this point but 20 minutes later everyone wanders off anyway, thristy and craving more excitements. Fortunately, at this point everyone is unafficially invited to an afterparty - the party is at our office/hotel.

 

 

Back to Business

I'm here on a long business trip, which lasts about a month. There is a plethora of .NET developers to teach. What's really funny is that a lot of them are women. I always thought being a computer geek is a privelege of the male race but in this country many roles are reversed. If I'm in a bar talking to a local lady, chances are she's a programmer. You can tell it right away by the first words from their mouths. A classic example is "Do you play 'Dungeons and Dragons?' I love strategy video games." OK, maybe not the exact words but you get the picture.

On Whacky Food

If you are a New Yorker like myself, who is used to variety, you'll suffer greatly. Food out here is fairly basic; there is not much of a choice. Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Italian? Forgetabout it. Be prepared to eat the same stuff every day.

Also, food is just too damn spicy. Asking the chef NOT to put hot stuff into your dish won't help you. The standard response is, "Sorry, my friend, this is just part of the food."

Here's me munching on a Dosa. It's filled with chili peppers. This picture was clearly taken before I took the first bite

 

 

On Culture

But enough of my bashing. There were interesting things to see, like this unfinished sphere in Auroville - The Town of No Religion. This is the only place in India where people don't practice any religion. I didn't meet many people around there so it was tough to make anything out of it but I liked the concept.

 

Here's another interesting thing - getting blessed by an elephant. One leans in and the elephant blesses him, i.e. lightly taps him with its trunk.

This particular elephant won't bless you unless you give it a coin.

There were also nice temples; unfortunately we weren't allowed to photograph. Gotta respect that...

My acting hasn't stoped at UCBT. Shortly I realized that simply being able to instantly come up with witty comebacks is not enough to be an actor. Surely improvisation is a great skill to have but it alone does not make you an outstanding improviser.

Even great stand-up comedians from Woody Allen to Larry The Cable Guy are, underneath, primarily good actors, and then secondary, comedians.

To be great, you must go back to the basics and learn some real life acting skills.

Of course in my case, I was born with it. ;-)

My scene partner Faye and I did a scene from a fairly recent play. Click here to watch it. Apologies for the video quality; we were using a Hi8 camcorder.

On another note, here's a headshot I had made back in 2005. Promise me not to obsess over it too much.

Ahh yeah!!! This is what separates boys from men and girls from ..., well, I don't know. Anyway, Chelsea Pears has surprised me with its fascilities. This is no ordinary gym. To tell you the truth, it has been ages since I've seen a sports complex like this one. Bodybuilding, basketball, a real race track, boxing ring, you name it. Hell, they even have Beach Volleyball with real sand. No need to go to Florida, although noone wears bikini.

My eye caught the huge ass climbing wall, and in no time I was exploring it. Here's me on the way up. Don't stare at my ass...

"Don't look down". That tip never works.

This is my climbing mate and old friend Olesya. She's had enough climbing by this point.

Here's me again, showing off.

Here's their website, in case you ever want to check it out:
http://www.chelseapiers.com/sc/climbing.htm

This is indeed the best mountain on the East Coast.

I'm back from snowboarding, Quebec, Canada. If you are looking for a great mountain to snowboard at, the great state of New York is probably not the best option. I've found this place just 2 hours north of Montreal, called Mont Tremblant, (pronounced trum-loo). What's so great about this particular mountain is that it has slops on both Southern and Northern parts of it Once you're up at the very top, you get to decide which way you want to go. Plus the place usually has plenty of snow and it's rarely too crowded.

 

 

 

I've just got back from Barcelona, Spain and LOVED IT. People there start partying at 6pm and don't stop until 6am. That's Thursday through Monday morning. They also don't eat until late night, so all restaurants are closed until 9pm. But hurry up; they close at midnight, and after that there isn't even a McDonald's open. Yeah, this ain't New York for you, but still it's a lot of fun. Unfortunatelly, some fucking cocktool stole my digital camera, so no pictures this time. However, that didn't bother me that much becase the women were slim, sexy and very friendly. :)

Don't ask me why or how I got here. It's a long story. I think one night I got really drunk and my former boss used the opportunity to convince me to go. The unofficial version is as follows: I was young and I needed money. Kuwait just seemed like a good place to earn living as a male belly dancer.

Environment

So, here I am. To the right of me is Persian Gulf, though locals prefer to call it Arabic Gulf. To the left - a chain of American restaurants and shopping malls.

Culture

To tell you the truth, I expected at least some action, good or bad, happening. Kuwait turned out to be a very quiet and conservative country. People here spend evenings pacing back and forth through shopping malls with only one goal - to buy the latest cellular phone. I guess it's a status symbol. My Kuwaiti friend has about 25 headsets she has bought in the past 2 years.

By the way, people here love American cars. Fords and Jeeps are popular here. That's where we're making money. Woohoo!

Alcohol is banned, so I had to smuggle some in. You could probably get some at the US Army base, but it's too far of a drive. Food here is nice, especially Lebanese cusine. Kabobs are the best.

It seems the country is becoming more and more liberated; most women no longer cover their faces, just their hair. The process is slow. There are plenty of stores selling female swim suits but you'll never see a woman wearing it outside the house.

This is the picture of the Kuwait Towers.

Here is some local architecture. Temperature outside is about 112 degrees Fahrenheit. Everything is build with concrete to withstand the heat.

Taking Care of Business

Once again, I'm back to the drawing board. It's 2004; .NET technology is still fairly new; and I have to train the masses. Luckily I have good students this time.

I was standing about 100 meters (300 feet) away from the World Trade Center when the first plane crashed into the North Tower. Check out the eyewittness interview I gave to http://dhbit.ca. Show #56 is located under Downloads -> Show Archives. This is a Canadian Internet radiostation called "Does Humor Belong In Technology," only this particular show was not just about the laughs.