Fail to register with the Foreign Registration Office in Goa since your visa was sponsored by Bosch Limited in Bangalore so they decide on the spot that you have to register there - no matter that your work contract says employment in Goa and that you don´t actually live in Bangalore. Of course your PAN (tax) and bank card get sent to Bangalore and you can´t get a phone card and gas connection in Goa since you´re not registered there...
Travel to Bangalore (5x), Mumbai (2x) and Hyderabad and register for two local frequent flyer programs in the first month.
Make a lot of friends among your collegues, expats and locals.
Experience Goan Monsoon with 300 mm of rainfall in 24h (Germany has around 750 per year...)
Move manufacturing into the new Bosch site still under construction and get completey utterly swamped at your new job. Spend 12 hour Sunday shifts during moving and not get bored because the roof of the new hangar hadn´t been leak tested before the Monsoon started...
Hire and fire your first driver in the first two weeks, then hire another one at 80% above market rate and don´t care because he´s 100% reliable.
Join the ceremony when the site becomes operational and manufacturing begins while construction is still going on (blessed machines to become an optional line item).
Be part of the team that wins the biggest Bosch pharma order in India ever - the project had been in preparation for 2.5 years!
Find a great appartment after only one week of searching and then wait for 30 days for the rental contract, caught in the Triangle of Doom between Bosch bureaucracy, a landlord in the UK who doesn´t want to be called while on holidays in Italy because of roaming charges and a broker who can never be reached and doesn´t turn up for half the appointments she makes.
Enjoy the above views from the living room and kitchen balconies... ;) Yes, that´s the sea behind the trees.
Fail to actually visit the beach just 300 meters away in the first month staying in the apartment because you´re just too swamped with work during the week and travelling on many weekends (see cities visited above...) :(
Watch the race between your sea freight and the migration of your Bosch EMail box to the Indian server and celebrate the victory of matter of electrons when your sea freight arrives after 6 weeks, a full week before your mailbox - in spite of a strike of dockworkers at Mumbai harbor (cliché but true...).
Manage to finally get internet at home.
Have your son and daughter join the a nice school / kindergarden and drop them off every morning on the way to work.
Celebrate Independance Day at school, disguise your daughter as a tiger and get to know some of the other parents - whom your wife of course knows already from her Zumba class.
Have another month of monsoon...
Come late work because the rain and storm uprooted a tree that fell across the only decent road between school and Bosch.
Mentally prepare yourself for your clothes to get mouldy in the wet climate but utterly fail to appreciate beforehand the things that mould can grown on: suitcases, shoes, pocket knife cases, flashlights, SLR digital cameras, cupboards, computer mice, office chairs, backpacks, scissors, iPad covers, ...
Help prepare and join the official inauguration of the new site with the Goan Chief Minister, the head of Bosch Packaging and the head of Bosch India among the guests.
Spend a week to prepare the hangar and exhibit machines for the Chief Ministers plant tour that takes about 15 minutes to complete.
Celebrate family day at the new facility a day after the inauguration.
Fail to move into the newly inaugurated site because the admin block is still not finished...
Finally write this update to friends, family and collegues at home on the first completely free weekend since moving to India, hurray! (after a couple of hours spent at the pool without rain for a change! ;) )
