omg a new post!

Hello! And you thought this was dead. *RESURRECTED!*

First off, congrats to Kolina and Reid! +1 to 'KoReidna'

What I have been watching: House MD, Firefly, World Cup, random movies (a lot of animated ones have come out recently)

What I have been reading: Sherlock Holmes, Malcolm Gladwell, Freakonomics, The Fountainhead, and a few other fantasy novels that I can't remember right now.

What I have been playing: Soccer

Where I have been traveling: picasaweb.google.com/andrew.ck.li

My time in India is quickly coming to an end. Here's my schedule:

Sept 1-6: Southern France for wedding

Sept 7-17: Dublin for work

Sept 18-Oct 2: Last two weeks in Hyderabad

October 3: Triumphant return to the bay area

I'm hoping to move in to SF when I get back. Anyone looking for a roommate?

goooaaallll!!

We hit a sports bar on Friday with a bunch of other Googlers. They were a pretty raucous crew. We ended up singing some karaoke songs too. Pretty good stuff. The guy had his mac full of downloaded karaoke videos that were pretty clearly pirated because the background pictures were of the wrong bands. It was kinda weird to see Coldplay on the screen when we were actually singing Oasis.

Did a bit of shopping on Saturday. Things are definitely cheaper here. Retail prices at the department store were probably half or even a third of prices in the bay area. I also found a pirated copy of The Hangover around the apartment, complete with audience laughter, poor resolution, and people getting up and blocking the camera. I watched it all the same and I think the crazy Asian guy in the film stole the show.

Sunday I met up with Rahul and his other friend from the Gurgaon office at this cinema complex that had a food court and some gaming systems set up that you could pay to play on. Got killed at wii tennis a couple of times then went to 'Cream Stone,' which I guess is like Cold Stone hahah.

One awesome thing is that I get to watch a lot of soccer here. I'm currently watching Chelsea versus Manchester United :D. I don't even know who to cheer for. Both teams are stacked with great players. Maybe I'll just cheer for offense.

Mumbai and a hectic work week

I finally found some time to upload my Mumbai pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/Andrew.CK.Li/Mumbai#

My camera actually ran out of batteries on Saturday so I didn't get to take any pics of the Elephanta caves, but you can check out Lee Anne's album: http://picasaweb.google.co.in/LeeAGrant/Mumbai02#

The city itself was pretty neat. On Friday night we went to this super swanky club that was expensive even by US standards and a live electronic band performed. We hit up a bunch of touristy things over the rest of the weekend. Just look at the pics =)

I've been doing pretty well otherwise. The work week has been very hectic thus far, which is why it took me so long to get these pics out to you all. I think I'll be sticking around Hyderabad this weekend resting up and maybe exploring the city a bit.

By the way, it's kind of a big pain to apply for a visa to China from India. That is all.

The Office

Here are some pics of the office: http://picasaweb.google.com/Andrew.CK.Li/HydOffice#

Week one has gone pretty well. I'm finally over my jet lag, though I ended up sleeping for a large part of the long weekend. The Diwali celebrations were pretty crazy. Lots of aerial fireworks were going on for pretty much the entire weekend. It got so smoky!

At one point, I went to a new store called "Hyper City" and it was humongous. It was very modern and I was like, am I still in India? It was like Safeway + Target combined. I'll take pics when I go back.

We (me and some other expats) have plans to go to Mumbai (aka Bombay) over the weekend. Maybe I'll see some Bollywood stars?

Btw, I set up a Skype account using my email: andrew.ck.li@gmail.com. Skype me!

@Macmahon: Go Trojans! :D

@Kenric: Feel better soon

@MTV: Neener!

@HYD: Get back to work! =P

New digs

Hey all! By popular demand, I've started a blog to keep everyone updated. First things first, pics of the apartment:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Andrew.CK.Li/MyHyderabadApartment#

I've settled in pretty well, though I'm still a little jet lagged. Friday was a holiday due to Diwali celebrations, so I ended up hitting the gym at the office (yay Google!) and taking a long nap. I might try to see some fireworks tonight.

I don't really like that countdown gadget on the right. It's got that little white border on top and it comes with an ad underneath it. If I get really annoyed, I'll find a better way to do it. Better yet, if you're really annoyed by it, find me a better solution ;)

I'll try not to neglect this thing as time goes on. Feel free to send me friendly (or angry) reminders to make new posts =)