In honor of India playing in the Cricket Cup final on Saturday, I bought a shirt at the Reebok Store on Commercial Street with the India flag on it. I got lots of compliments on it. I'll have to have Susie post a picture, but it's very Reebok looking.
Today at lunch another coach couldn't believe my shirt. She said she tried to buy one at a different Reebok store and they wouldn't sell it to her because it has the Indian flag on it and she's not Indian. Having bought mine at Commercial Street, the tourist shopping area, of course they sold me one. She was bitter and we were all bewildered. Why not sell her a shirt? It seems too odd to make this up.
Another topic at lunch was how little the US knows Asia. Stories include someone from TX thinking that Asia is a country, a NJ partner mistaking Bangladesh for Bangalore, and people from AL calling Bangalore Bangadore or some such word I'm not familiar with. Many people at lunch were poking fun at these supposed morons but I gently inserted that I only know Asia so well from my mission. After all, the public school system in the US mandates a World Civ course that focuses on Europe with a rather bland glance at Asia culture for maybe two weeks. So let's forgive our US counterparts and blame the system instead. I also mentioned to my coworkers that my wife's cousin is in Okinawa and I had no idea it was closer to Taiwan than the rest of Japan until I looked it up on a map after the earthquake last month.
In honor of the holiday today I worked 10-2:30 only doing hardly anything, then came home, worked out, watched "The Emperor's New Groove" with Maggie, and avoided the maid while she asked Susie for a loan. 
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(1) Mon Apr 04 2011 07:12 make believe:
Today is the Indian New Year, which meant only six people showed up to work in my area. So I went for a nice lunch to Toit with the other coaches, Ross my boss, and Mickey and his wife, Ross's boss. We were sharing war stories from India. As Mickey says, you just can't make this stuff up.
Technology has come a long way. I remember in Hong Kong, but 10 years ago, we had to wait over a month for the VHS tapes to be translated to Cantonese and sent to us. I don't know if it's faster now merely because the branches in India are english, or if the system is faster. One thing that irks me right now is I can only watch and not read the sessions. I do better reading than listening and don't understand why they can't upload the speeches more quickly.
I'm excited for Sunday. We'll pack a lunch during the 30-minute break. It reminds me of choir tour senior year of high school. We were in Cincinnati the Saturday of conf. On Sunday we bussed from OH to Orlando and made stops in TN & Atlanta to do LDS firesides inbetween conference sessions for local wards. It was a neat experience. After the TN fireside, the ward made us box lunches to eat en route to Atlanta. After the Atlanta fireside, we were allowed to use the showers in the stake center as we rode the bus all night to Orlando from there. That was 1998.
Listening to conf is getting me excited to go to Hong Kong, especially to the temple. (1) Mon Apr 04 2011 10:08 oh zion:
We didn't get to watch General Conference this week. But we do get to watch it next week. Sat they are doing the sessions back to back 2-8 pm including priesthood. We will most likely go to priesthood only. That is way too much to ask of my kids. Besides, I've already started watching the Sat morning sessions online today anyway. We will attend on Sunday from 9:30 - 11:30 and noon to 2, and hope the kids behave.