Yes and No .....

One more of the slang expressions used frequently in here to mean "not sure" I think .

Life has smoothened a lot now .We have gotten used to the foreign faces and their styles. We now know for sure which breads to pick for our breakfast out of the given dozen varieties, got used to buckling up as soon I get in the car and various other such subtleties.

It is really difficult speaking on face in real time and making the people understand when they have such a different accent and jargon of their own. You might consider yourself a champion of english but the way they speak it in here is very different.It makes you realise that we definitely speak a lot faster than what is needed and we always tend to eat out words.The people in office usually pinpoint and ask for those particular words which you either pronounced wrongly or hurried through just may be 'cause you were not very sure of it's usage or whatever.e.g. one person said that i would be able draw the complete picture only after speaking to Mr X , my manager pointed you would do what to a picture just because he had said the words "draw a picture " a little too fast. The trick is to just speak crisp and clear and give proper pauses.There is no fuss about the accent it is about speaking clearly.

I am neck deep in work these days and it is fun to work with some added responsibility of co-ordinating with the folks back in India and passing on the status and % completion to managers and others in here.It is definitely amazing to see that those TEFRA and TAMRA are not mere imaginary frankensteins which were created to bug us , they are a bunch of real rules which actually get applied to real money and people.The death claim is not a mere transaction it means much more.

From India everything seemed so virtual as if we are playing a video game wherein our opponent sends a puzzle in the form of a new tax law or some new ruling which has to fit in somehow with the existing behemoth and we keep on playing our shots by asking queries to the client , they play back their best game by trying to complicate the puzzle more and more as the game progresses and finally in the end we are victorious when there is congratulation mail saying your puzzle is solved and is a part of the system.Stay awake and alert for the next round of the game.In here it seems a little less virtual and the game seems to yield at leat some physical output.