1st day at the studio

Oh, man I needed this. About to explode from the overload of culture shock yesterday, I headed into the DW studio today and guess what - its a DW studio. Movie art on the walls, artists milling about, dark as hell, people bitching about the DDR. Nothing could have made me feel better. Met the leadership team, everyone is cool. Had lunch at a Thai joint on campus with the Sup TD here and got a mini download on whats up. I haven't been beaten yet when it comes to hot food. Oh, shit, thats a lie. I was at a Salsa festival on a baseball diamond in Scottsdale AZ one year (random, I know, to have a festival for Salsa) and as we went from salsa hut to salsa hut I asked each one for the hottest thing they had, and then belittled their lackluster effort. More than one tent said, "oh, you need to go over to such and such tent, and ask whats-his-name for the special hot sauce". So that's what I did. And this hippie looking guy pulls out a sandwich sized zip lock bag that has enough of the runny orange salsa in it to fill a corner of the bag, takes a chip, and puts just a little dab on the chip. I eat it. It tastes sweet, the salsa is like a mango base. And then it explodes in my mouth like a hand grenade. Napalm gel slams through my face and down my throat in the most pronounced hot food pain I've ever tasted by leaps and bounds. And it doesn't go away. And this isn't a hot sauce festival where you can get a big glass of milk. So I continue to walk around with the group while my face burned like hell fire for over an hour. That time hot food beat me. But anyway, I got the meanest reddest looking thing on the buffet for lunch, and it was definitely the hottest Thai food I've ever had. I so wasn't expecting it that caused me to gasp and cough.
At around 2:30 the Paprikaas studio manager and his assistant took me to a couple more of the gated communities around the studio. I think it was a combination of I feel a bit better today (although I've still got a cough that was IM'd to me today "is so bad it echoes down the halls" and hurts, oh, God, it hurts), and spending the morning in the studio helped assuage my culture shock, but it went better today. The first place we went is the place I'm starting out in in April, "Waterwoods". It was clean, the yard for Shogun the Dog is big, and I was actually totally ok with it. I was sure I wanted a big house coming over here, and I might still, but having seen how they are completely and totally gutted when you move in, getting settled in a house here looks like a major undertaking that I don't want to deal with right off the bat. This "Waterwoods" joint is fully furnished, and already comes with the service staff hired. There's a sauna, and a steam room, and a gym, and a huge pool in the middle, and its right next to a lake.
We went to two other communities, and both were okay too. The second one we looked at was quite a bit bigger than the Waterwoods place, and had a huge vaulted ceiling and a large second floor. But a huge vaulted ceiling isn't actually much of a selling point for me as its not air conditioned, so the place was pretty hot inside.
The third place was by far the nicest of the three. Brand new, never lived in, the biggest, nicest yard of the three, electronic security system, servants' quarters, etc. Problem: there isn't a single rented house in the entire community. completely empty. Would be way too creepy to live in a huge gated community all by yourself.
Anyway, feeling better today about India. This isn't Kansas here, though, Dorothy. This is some hard core 3rd world shit.