Today was our first working day, and on schedule was a half train the trainer training (boy that felt very redundant to type) followed by a visit to the corporate office our Indian consultants that are conducting the clinical trial with us. We learned that the work day is shifted back about two hours from typical US hours, their hours are typically 10a-7p or so with a lunch at 2-3p. Unaware of this schedule, Ellie and I work up at went to breakfast early. Same hotel breakfast buffet, but today I was a bit more adventurous in what I tried. I ordered the same egg white omelet as the day before, and then I ventured over to the traditional breakfast line. I tried several different dishes, and as I was perusing, a nice gentleman on the wait staff started talking to me about the dishes. I couldn't really understand what he was saying, so I just nodded and smiled and said that everything looked delicious. Apparently my kind nodding had actually been to order a traditional Indian breakfast dish called a "Dosa" from the grill. I wasn't too upset about this because I enjoy trying new things, but I did feel like quite a greedy American when I sat down to my table and three plates of food were in front of me. The dosa was delicious and I made sure to thank the waiter that had recommended it.
A few hours after breakfast we had our first meeting in a conference room in the hotel. This area of the hotel has yet to be renovated and in order to walk down the hallway I had to duck - the ceilings must have been about 5 feet tall. Boy did I feel out of place! I spent the next few hours walking page by page through our training manual on how to prepare animal specimen for mock procedures and how to talk to a physician about conducting the procedure. The four gentlemen I was training were very perceptive and eager to learn. Two of them have MD's so they are very familiar with the finesse required for medical procedures. The only challenge I found in working with them was the distinct difference in non-verbal communication. Here, nodding yes is something that can be done either by an up and down head motion, a side to side head motion, or an S-shaped head wobble motion (trying to be culturally sensitive here, I promise...). I found it very difficult to be teaching people something new and not be able to rely on affirmative nods to know that they are understanding what I am saying. After finished a 5 hour session working directly with them the entire time (lots of talking!) we went back to the hotel restaurant for lunch.
Lunch was a lot of fun because our Indian colleagues were able to explain many of the dishes to us. After visiting the buffet line we came back with full plates of food, and the waiter from breakfast recognized me and brought several additional dishes for me to try. Our Indian colleagues, excited to see that I like to try new dishes, requested that even more dishes be brought over. Needless to say, I ate SO MUCH food for lunch. I didn't want to be rude so that meant trying everything....what an experience.
From lunch, we drove over to the corporate offices. The drive over was more explaining about the geography of the area we were in and how things operate. The entire time there was honking on the road, and as it was afternoon time the cows were migrating so they were taking up an entire lane of traffic in certain parts of the road. No one seemed phased by any of this except for Ellie and me. The office is a commercial part of Noida, and was a very different-looking facility than an American office park. The office was very welcoming when we arrived and had our names on the sign in the front lobby and presented a bouquet of flowers with us when we arrived. We were introduced to some of the staff in the office, and then spent time in meetings discussing the trial.
After meetings, one of our colleagues took us to the Mall of India for Ellie to pick up some travel items. Again, the traffic to get there was extraordinary. Security to drive into the mall parking deck was tight and involved a search of the car, and inside the parking deck there were attendants to help cars back in very tightly to preserve space in the deck. The mall itself was huge with many American stores, including Chili's, Gap, Columbia, Cole Haan, etc. We ended up finding what we needed at a store called "Big Bazaar", which seemed like a smaller version of a super-walmart.
Returned to the hotel took close to an hour even though we were only a few km away because of...yup, traffic. I really have no room to complain about traffic in Atlanta anymore. At least there is some sort of order when the lanes are blocked. I was utterly exhausted after such a long day, so we opted to not eat dinner (lunch had been quite large...) and head to bed. I had call scheduled with Clearside in Alpharetta at 2pm EST, which was 11:30pm our time, so I set my alarm and crashed in bed, clothes still on, until my alarm went off. Woke up for the call, then showered and went properly to bed. Utter exhaustion.
A few hours after breakfast we had our first meeting in a conference room in the hotel. This area of the hotel has yet to be renovated and in order to walk down the hallway I had to duck - the ceilings must have been about 5 feet tall. Boy did I feel out of place! I spent the next few hours walking page by page through our training manual on how to prepare animal specimen for mock procedures and how to talk to a physician about conducting the procedure. The four gentlemen I was training were very perceptive and eager to learn. Two of them have MD's so they are very familiar with the finesse required for medical procedures. The only challenge I found in working with them was the distinct difference in non-verbal communication. Here, nodding yes is something that can be done either by an up and down head motion, a side to side head motion, or an S-shaped head wobble motion (trying to be culturally sensitive here, I promise...). I found it very difficult to be teaching people something new and not be able to rely on affirmative nods to know that they are understanding what I am saying. After finished a 5 hour session working directly with them the entire time (lots of talking!) we went back to the hotel restaurant for lunch.
Lunch was a lot of fun because our Indian colleagues were able to explain many of the dishes to us. After visiting the buffet line we came back with full plates of food, and the waiter from breakfast recognized me and brought several additional dishes for me to try. Our Indian colleagues, excited to see that I like to try new dishes, requested that even more dishes be brought over. Needless to say, I ate SO MUCH food for lunch. I didn't want to be rude so that meant trying everything....what an experience.
From lunch, we drove over to the corporate offices. The drive over was more explaining about the geography of the area we were in and how things operate. The entire time there was honking on the road, and as it was afternoon time the cows were migrating so they were taking up an entire lane of traffic in certain parts of the road. No one seemed phased by any of this except for Ellie and me. The office is a commercial part of Noida, and was a very different-looking facility than an American office park. The office was very welcoming when we arrived and had our names on the sign in the front lobby and presented a bouquet of flowers with us when we arrived. We were introduced to some of the staff in the office, and then spent time in meetings discussing the trial.
After meetings, one of our colleagues took us to the Mall of India for Ellie to pick up some travel items. Again, the traffic to get there was extraordinary. Security to drive into the mall parking deck was tight and involved a search of the car, and inside the parking deck there were attendants to help cars back in very tightly to preserve space in the deck. The mall itself was huge with many American stores, including Chili's, Gap, Columbia, Cole Haan, etc. We ended up finding what we needed at a store called "Big Bazaar", which seemed like a smaller version of a super-walmart.
Returned to the hotel took close to an hour even though we were only a few km away because of...yup, traffic. I really have no room to complain about traffic in Atlanta anymore. At least there is some sort of order when the lanes are blocked. I was utterly exhausted after such a long day, so we opted to not eat dinner (lunch had been quite large...) and head to bed. I had call scheduled with Clearside in Alpharetta at 2pm EST, which was 11:30pm our time, so I set my alarm and crashed in bed, clothes still on, until my alarm went off. Woke up for the call, then showered and went properly to bed. Utter exhaustion.
