Superbad. Superdad.

I went to India in December, 2010. 

While this is somewhat of a retrospective post I want to share a few things about the traveling part of this trip.

The people of India are awesome and I had a great visit getting to know the team.  The client joined me in India during my second week and it was a great visit.  My team of 30 (at that time) showcased some cool stuff and what our team has been doing.  I love my team!  But for this post I am not focusing on work.

I discovered bitter lemon.  This is not a fruit but is actually a delicious drink made of quinine and the lemon pith.  Yes, it's rather bitter.  I read that quinine can help treat malaria (how convenient that I was on my way to India) but in large doses can cause Cinchonism.. sounds pretty nasty.  So while the ingredients might remind you of terrible illnesses or might read like an assassin's cocktail, this is in fact the best drink ever made.

Then is also when I discovered Business and First Class flight.  ("So THAT'S what they do up there!")  Having made several flights to India, I was looking forward to this class and it was awesome.  In Business class I had my own "pod" with a tv and lots of space, and more importantly a seat that folded nearly flat and horizontal, giving me a chance for some good shut-eye.

First Class (which I took from Germany to the U.S. on one leg) on the 747's is in an exclusive 2nd floor section.  It is a notch cooler in that you also are given free jammies and lots of coddling, and   When we landed, for example, I was slow to pull my things together and the non-First Class people were disembarking already. As I was then escorted down the ladder the flow of people was stopped for my sake so that I could make my royal exit in luxurious peace.  I learned later that first class involved lots of caviar and champagne, but apparently I slept through the caviar, and I was not fated to meet the champagne until my February 2012 trip (future blog).

While I was on the return flight I was perusing the available movie choices and having a hard time finding a movie that was appropriate for a clean-cut Mormon man.  German culture (Lufthansa) tends to disregard movie ratings which makes identifying a clean movie option even harder.  So where I could normally disregard rated R movies and yellow flag the PG-13's, I was somewhat in the dark here.  Eventually I found my way to the Family Movies section and selected a movie I had not seen and that I knew was clean....

Despicable Me!

While most are drinking their wines and watching their grown-up whatevers, picture if you will a (nearly) 40-year-old man, sitting in Business Class, eating his pasta, sipping a citrus-y lemon drink, headphones on, laughing out loud at a wonderfully funny Disney film.  Yeah, I got strange looks.  Even from the flight attendants.

But I didn't care.