Psst...Chennai

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Getting information on Chennai has been pretty anachronistic. In the happy glow that followed Flag Day, I skipped off to the overseas resource center to read the reports written by previous officers, hoping to hear tales of adventure and heroism as they bravely adjudicated one of the largest visa loads (read, one of the largest visa backlogs) on the planet, how they helped little old ladies visit their slick, racy grandkids working in Silicon Valley or stopped villains of visa fraud.

But these people just seemed disappointed that there wasn’t a Starbucks on every corner yet. They were downright bitter about living in a place with crazy traffic, chaotic roads, masses of humanity jostling you at every street corner, hot, smelly, dusty, dirty, etc. But I raised a wary, wise eyebrow when I realized these jaded people didn't really sign up to live and work in India, where cows and elephants still have the right of way, but red traffic lights are suggestions. No, they seemed to have thought they were moving to Florida, just with bigger mosquitoes and better voting machines.

So I moved on to explore that most reliable, modern resource technology offers--blogger entries. But that didn’t last long, since they wrote more about their vacations than work, and I couldn’t blame them. By far the greatest source has been just good ol' word-of-mouth. People are coming out of the woodwork with Aunt Millie and Uncle Fred who’ve lived there for years or a college friend who just flew back.

They talk about how wonderfully nice the people are, and how hot it is, how friendly and welcoming people from Chennai can be, and how hot it is, and the rich and varied culture with dance and theater and art.. They also say the workload is “challenging” and, yes, it is blazing hot 24 hours a day, and you can’t really walk anywhere because your feet will melt on the sidewalk (ed.: No, no, that's not true. There are no sidewalks in Chennai.) But there are nearby resort towns and miles of gorgeous beaches, too. Add to that the fact that, while the State Dept. doesn’t exactly lavish luxury onto its employees, it also doesn’t let them languish in strange and foreign environs, and I’m confident I can handle whatever Chennai offers, as long as the insects aren’t any bigger or scarier than they were in New Mexico.

(Ed.: Okay, so I realized after writing this entry, that I had basically just expanded on ideas I already wrote about. Sorry, I'm new at this blogging thing. I'll work on it, honest.)