Animals, Ovens and Late Dinners....

Animals... there are animals everywhere in India. Come on, there are cows and dogs on the road sometimes sprinkled in the mix of traffic. We are experiencing all the different animals, there was a monkey hanging out in the park across our house. There are lizards and cockroaches that come into the house. I have not seen any in our house but according to Mira and Vim, they have spotted both!! We have had our house treated with 'pest control' so hopefully the visits from the creepy crawling things inside our house is no longer going to happen!! So far no encounters with any truly dangerous animals... like a cobra or tiger! If we do, we will let ya know! Hey, its India, anything is possible.

Ovens... I took it for granted that ovens are a standard item in houses. I even packed cake and brownie mixes in our sea shipment. It was a bit of a disappointment that there was not an oven in our house!! No Oven!! Really? No big deal, we will buy one (and expense iy, of course). Not so easy... full size ovens are not readily available!! Went to several stores, nothing... they have an oven that is about 30% bigger than a toaster oven that they tried to tell me was a full size oven!! We will keep looking. Otherwise, one of our neighbors has one, it won't be hard to cut a deal... let us use your oven, and we will give you some brownies or a cupcake!! Not a bad trade, right?

Late Dinners.... Here dinner is after 8 and sometimes 9! After 9 for dinner.... really? Back at home, there were some nights that I was fast asleep after 9!! We would eat dinner by 6 back at home. Here we are stretching it to 7. The funny thing is if we are going out to dinner, they don't serve dinner until after 7pm. We have been to several places where we are the first to get there (right at 7) and when we are done with our meal, and ready to pay, the crowds start filling in. I guess we can be sure our food is fresh, right??

That is all I have to share today.

We are off to Mysore tomorrow. Our first road trip. I will post when we come back. Enjoy your weekend!

No Alarm Clock

No, there is no alarm clock in our house. Seems odd, right. But actually we don't need it!! We have the beauty of the 'mother natures' alarm clock! Yes, I am awaken each morning with the sounds of the birds. No, not pretty song birds humming a nice melody. No, it is large crows, squawking away!! Yes, it is loud, and it is starts at the same time everyday - 6am!! The crows here are kind of like roosters, right. What is up with the birds and their early morning racket? The big question - do they adjust to daylight savings time? Actually does India adjust to daylight savings time? Hmmmm!

I will post tomorrow about more animal stories - this will be about animals inside the house!!

Take care!

Stuff....

Just some general things...

Manjula the maid is AWESOME!! She cooked dinner 2 days in a row and it was great!! It was traditional south Indian type food, but it was really good!! She cleans really good too! I think that she will work out good! The bummer, I don't get to see her. She comes at 9am and leaves at 5. And well, lets just say, my hours are a wee bit longer than that... I will get to that in a minute. So anyways, back to Manjula, I wish that we would cross paths! We will manage.

Back to my work hours.... Most of you know my hours back at home... early in and early out! There were some days I was in by 5am, and home by 3:30. Well, here it is not quite working out so nicely. I get to work by 8 or 8:30, and try to leave by 6. However yesterday, it was 7pm before I left!!

Today we did a web-cam-skype session with my brother and parents. It was really nice to be able to see each other.... gotta love technology. Vim took them on a tour of the house and the surroundings. Again.... technology at work!! With wireless, a lap top, and a web-cam we were all over the house. It was nice to be able to show them our 'home'!! They were even able to say hi to our driver over the skype session. Devaraj came in to say hi!! It was nice.

Speaking of Devaraj, he has an interesting set up. His wife and son live in Mysore and he comes to work in Bangalore. He lives at his sisters house during the week. He is only able to go home on the weekends if we don't have him driving for us. So now on Sundays, I feel guilty if we keep him here working and away from his family. Anyways, to make up for it, this weekend we are taking a road trip to Mysore. He will be able to spend time with his family and we will be able to see Mysore! Win-Win!!!

OK, that is all for now!!

General Update....

Well, today is 1 week since we have moved into the house. It is coming together!!

The kids are getting used to things. Each of the bedrooms have their own bathroom with shower, but right now we are all using one bathroom to shower in - Milan's. One thing that we are learning to deal with is the Geysers. It is basically mini-hot water tanks that service the showers/bathrooms. You have to turn them on before the shower (at least 20 minutes before so the water get nice and hot), and the hot water does not last long (it is only a 3-4 gallon tank). So basically, my shower time is cut in half.... no more 15-20 soaking showers!! To conserve power, you basically turn the geysers off when you don't need the hot water.

That brings me to the next thing.... power. The power goes out A LOT here!! Sometimes it is out for just a few minutes. Sometimes it is out for a half hour or more. This is typical for India. As a result, they sell 'power-back up' units. These things basically store power so when the power goes out, there is a secondary source. So, we have 2 of these units. We had to figure out what to hook up to these units. first we started with the TV and the Fridge. Seems practical, right. Then we went to hook up the wireless, which also requires a power backup. OK, now the toss up. TV, Fridge, Internet..... which 2 get the power-back up?? You probably guessed it, the fridge lost that battle. So now, we are set up with internet-wireless, and the vonage is working. The wireless is a little temperamental, so we are still working out of our set-up in the hallway sitting on a stool! I really have to take a picture of this!

The power situation is interesting. We have a washer and dryer for the clothes, but you can't run them both at the same time... if you do, you trip the fuse. Does not seem to efficient!! Basically it is one load at a time!! I am sure that I will write more about the power issues.... It will be something that we will just have to learn to deal with!

Today we have our first maid starting with us!! It is a huge adjustment!! Most of you know that we have never had a cleaning lady or anything, so 'training' her is going to be a bit of a struggle. She is mopping the floors right now, looks good to me. We will see if she passes the Vim test!! Her name is Manjula. She is really nice, but she can only speak Hindi!! I am struggling to communicate, but we are managing! She can cook too, so tomorrow, we will have her make some dinner. I am not sure what... I think I will let her decide. I will keep you posted on how she works out.

One other thing I wanted to write about... Milan. He is totally fitting in here. The other day we were at dinner and we were just talking about things that are different in India. He says in his very confident manner 'yes, I know things are different, this is India'. It was funny... I think you had to be there to get the full effect!! He is really adjusting well. Oh, another funny story... the other day, I was getting ready for work. The driver was already here and he was cleaning the car. Milan looks out the upstairs window and yells to the driver whose name is Devaraj - 'Devraj, madam is coming in 5 minutes'!! Milan is referring to me as madam!! What happened to 'mommy'???

There is more to share.... but I will save it for another time.

Tell me what is going on back at home??? How is everyone doing? Send emails....

Take care!

WE ARE OK!!

In case you are reading the news about the Bomb blasts in Bangalore and were concerned. Please rest assured knowing that we all are OK. As the news states, they were centered in the city area, and we are in the out-skirts. There was nothing in the area where we are in. They did close some areas of the city off, but nothing is impacted where we live.

At work, they kept things going. There was no panic or threat to us here. We are still working away.

We will post more later!

Take care!!

An Interview with Milan and Mira

Milan:


What do you like most about India?
I love going swimming everyday in the pool everyday at the hotel and going on the slide. I like our new beautiful house. It is beautiful. And I get my own bathroom.

What do you miss from home?
I miss my friend Arthus. I miss him so much. Arthus I hope you are having a good day in France.

My dad fixed the TV so I am happy. I miss all my friends in my class.

These are Milan's words - verbatim!

We see if we can get more another time.

Mira:

What do you like about India?
My room with the pink curtains.

What do you miss the most about home?
My cousins and nana and bapa.

Thursday, July 24, 2008: Today was Mommy's birthday. We went to Little Italy for dinner and the power went out at the restaurant. We had to walk up some very very steep stairs in the dark. And it was pouring rain outside and I got soaking wet!! Thank you for my interview! and Bye!

MOM:

Today's dinner was nice despite the power going out. Actually it happens so often that it does not phase us! The food was amazing!! This was a restaurant perfect for Vim! It was all vegetarian!! He could pick ANYTHING on the menu! And the food was amazing! We ordered Indian red wine.... not so amazing. It was a little like drinking vinegar! An awesome thing about the restaurant...... the owner came to talk to us and he told us he delivers to our housing complex!! That is great!!! Oh another interesting thing about this restaurant (and many others), they try to mix cuisines! Like the Thai restaurant serves Indian food. Chinese places serve Indian too.... OK, it is India so it makes sense to serve Indian, right? So what do you think that Italian restaurant had.... no, not Indian. I don't think that you will ever guess! It is Mexican! Mexican and Italian, who would think that would go together??? Well, we will be trying it out at some point so we will let you know! The Italian was great, so I am expecting that the Mex would be just as awesome!

Oh, the decor in the place was really modern... almost like a chic New York Restaurnat! Very nice!!

OK, it is 10pm, so we are off to bed. Good night!

Feeling Old!!

Ok, being the baby of the family and part of the 'younger' end of the specturm amongst family and friends, I have never really felt 'old'. And actually I sometimes rubbed-in 'my youthful' age whenever possbile. Well, now the tables have turned!!!

In my new job in India I am one of the oldest!!! When looking at my group and the groups of my peers, I think that there are maybe 2 or 3 people at the same age or slightly older and the rest of the group is younger. The group is about 75 people!!!

The average age of the people in my group (13 people) is 27!!!!!!

It is really weird!! Me, OLD? And to top it off, the people in my group call me ma'am!!

General Stuff

I forgot to add in the last post.... our Vonage is still not working!! I am not sure when that will be set up. We have Internet it the house, but no wireless router so we are stuck using the laptop at the top of the stairs, sitting on a little plastic stool. The good thing was that we packed the stools in the air shipment. The bad thing, we did not get a desk or additional table with the rental furniture! After we get the wireless router we can move our computer freely around the house!! Anyways, I will let you know when the Vonage is up and running!

We have a TV and a DVD Player, we also have a Satellite dish (Tata Sky) but it is not set up yet. So the only thing that we can watch on tv is DVD's. So maybe that DVD burning frenzy that Vim was on before we left has paid off!!

I don't think that I commented on the weather here in Bangalore. It is awesome!! Sunny everyday. Don't get me wrong, it rains too (it is actually rainy season) but it is usually short and intense, and then the sun comes out. It sounds a lot the weather in Florida, right? The good part here is there is that is does not get sticky and humid like Florida!! The rainy season is approaching the end and they say that it will give way to cooler nights! So far the nights have not been to hot. Don't worry, I will be sure to post more about the weather.... in December when all of you back at home are shoveling snow!! : )

Oh, another interesting thing that is happening now that we are in the house.... a endless stream of 'help' coming to the door!! We get people that want to do our gardening, people that want to clean. Sounds like a good thing right.... well not so much! The trouble is finding someone that meets our criteria. The first issue that we encounter with many of them is the language barrier.... they can't speak English!! Gosh, I wish I could speak Hindi!! My Gujarati is not getting me very far here!! There is a lady coming tomorrow that is really good and comes highly recommended, but she can't speak English only Hindi! We will see how that works out. There have been a few that have come that can speak English, but they are in top demand, so they charge more and are working 2 and 3 jobs in a day. We are looking for an all in one - cook, maid, nanny.... that can stay all day!! Lets see if we can get it!! We will keep you posted!

Funny story about hired help, there were some guys that took up shop in our garage before we moved in. The were doing ironing on a cart for people in the neighborhood. Vim quickly felt violated that these guys were in his space. It was not long after we moved in that he told them he had to leave. I told him that we could of worked out a deal, they can use our garage as long as they do our ironing for free. Seems fair to me. Then Vim thought to see if he could work that arrangement out, did not go so well. They could not understand him, he couldn't speak Hindi, and all they kept saying were prices for ironing!! We both have to learn hindi.... fast!!

Phones!!!

We are now fully-reachable!! OK, almost....

Both Vim and I have local mobile phones (yes cell phones are called mobiles here, so when in India, do as the Indians do!!) and we have a local home phone. I am not sure how completely secure this blog is so I will not post it here. If you want our numbers, email us.

Also we have a local mailing address!! Again, email us and we can give it to you.

One thing that was in the air shipment that was just awesome to have back........ my sonic care tooth brush!! Oh, how I missed that tooth brush!! Over 2 weeks with just an ordinary tooth brush was awful! My teeth never felt clean. I was so nice to have it back in my possession - ahh, my teeth are so happy! For those of you that have one, I am sure that you can relate! If you have never used a sonic care..... ya gotta get one. It is awesome. But just be warned, once you are hooked you will feel withdrawal when you don't have it for any extended period of time!!

We are in the house!

We stayed the first night in the house! It was a little weird, but nice. The house really echos because it is really empty and there is a lot of marble/granite. Hopefully it gets better when we get our furniture in the house.

The kids did really well. They slept pretty good despite the fact that it rained with lightening almost all night. It was then that I realized that some of the curtains that I had bought did not block out the light very well. The morning light was streaming in at 6 am so, there was not much sleeping in either!!

We had gone out for a big shopping trip yesterday. No, there is no Meijers or Target. No sams club or anything like that... We went to a store called Spar. It is India's answer to answer to Meijers. Lets just say that it is not quite the same. Nonetheless, we were able to stock up on the things that we needed.

Cooking in the house was really nice. We had kitchardi for dinner, and it was yummy and in the morning.... chocolate chip pancakes!! It was really nice.

We are heading off the bed soon so it will be night number 2!! Good Night!

Mira and Milan

I thought I would put a quick post about Mira and Milan.

They both are excited about moving into the house! They are looking forward to sleeping in their own beds! We are glad to have 'sleeping-space' too. Four of us on one bed for over 2 weeks was a bit rough!

Milan is really enjoying India! Honestly!! Every time we are out and about Milan will add a random comment 'I love India!'. It is really funny! He still has Puppy with him everywhere. Puppy has not been washed since we got here and it is driving Vim nuts!! Milan still has his phone that he takes with his where ever we go. He 'calls' his friends and pretends that he is telling them all about India.

Mira is also doing well, however she is feeling the most home sick. She keeps saying she wants to go back home to Nana and Bapa. And she sometimes gets teary and says that she misses Nana and Bapa. She misses her room and her things. I think that once her bed and furniture arrive, it will help. All in all she is doing good and enjoying everything!

They loved the TV in the room at the hotel since they had a lot of 'american cartoons'. They would watch cartoon network and disney channel. Cartoon network had Tom and Jerry on it!! I enjoyed watching it too!! And the other channel that they would watch - Indain music videos!! Yep, and they really enjoyed it. It is a bit of a surprise since we never really watched inidain movies at home. It is nice that they took and interst in it on their own!!

What are the kids back home doing? Have them send us emails!!

YEAHHHH!!!

We are moving into the house tomorrow (Sunday)!!!!!

Today is Saturday evening, and everything that was supposed to come together today did (for the most part). We will be checking out of the hotel tomorrow. It is a little bittersweet. We will be leaving all the families that we have met over the past few weeks. It has been so easy for the kids to hang out since we all were staying at the same hotel. We will now have to 'work' at keeping up the contact. There was another family also moving into their house this weekend. To celebrate, we had a pizza party Friday night. There are pictures on the slide show of our gathering.

It was really nice unpacking our air shipment today. There was some really 'home-y' things like easy-mac, Hershey's chocolate syrup and microwave popcorn! There was toys, Lego's and games for the kids and they were thrilled. The kids had their bikes. The bummer was that Mira's bike was damaged in transit, the wheels are bent. We will see if they can 'repair' the wheels here. It was a bit of a bummer since the bike was brand new!! Besides the bike, there was only one other thing that was slightly damaged. Everything else arrived intact. Looking at all that we shipped, we realized that there were so many other things that we should have packed, or thought that we had packed. I guess that is what happens!! Oh well! We will make do!

Tomorrow we go grocery shopping so that we can actually cook in the house!! The first meal planned.... kitchardi!! We are SOOO tired of eating out!

Enjoy looking at the slide show. I added some pictures of the house. It will take some getting used to with the rental furniture. I am sure that once 'our' things are in the house, it will be more comfortable!

The Front of our NEW house!!

Our Car - 2008 Chevrolet Tavera

Mira with our Car

Back door to the patio

Family Room

Dining Area

Kitchen Pantry

Washer, Dryer, and Dishwasher - in Kitchen

Kitchen

Kithchen

Palm Meadows Pizza Party with new Friends

Pizza Party

Milan minus a tooth!!!

 

Moving into the House!!

We are getting close to moving into the house!! Everything is supposed to come together today.

The rental furniture has been delivered. But they did a 'bait and switch'. We picked out leather sofas, the delivered cloth. We picked out all wooden bed frames/headboards, one is metal. But at this point.... it is OK since it is only temporary!! Our sea shipment is supposed to arrive at the end of Aug, and once that arrives we will have our own furniture/beds!!

Our air shipment should be delivered today at 3:30pm. I am crossing my fingers but not holding by breath!! : )

The rest of the appliances have been delivered. I think that we still have to work on following up on the 'hook-up' of some of the things.

So, as you can see.... it is coming together. The one thing that the company the is facilitating all the work is supposed to do is clean the house. Are any of you surprised that Vim is not happy with the 'cleaning' that they have done! He is planning to the a 'Vim clean' before we move in!!

Today is Saturday here, we will stay at the hotel one more day just in case any of the things don't come together as planned. And to allow for some time to 'clean'!!

By the way, if any of you have been trying to call us on our Vonage number and unable to get thru.... sorry! We should have it set up soon after we move into the house! I will put a post when it is up and running!!

How is everyone doing back home? Enjoying your summer?? Please post comments or send emails and let us know what is going!!

The Drive to Work

The drive to work is about 10km (yes, it is all metric here and the celcius still messes me up!). Anyways, the drive takes about 10-15 minutes, not bad, right. The interesting thing... there is not one traffic light. Nope, not one. So you may ask, how do you regulate the traffic??? This is done with a very simple concept.... speed bumps. Yep, speed bumps strategically placed where there are intersections, or in some cases, just to slow the traffic in general. The average speed is about 40kmh. But back to the speed bumps, the speed bumps are usually a single 'large' bump, but occasionally they are smaller and in a set of 3. I am convinced the guy that came up with the idea has a brother that owns a 'shock-absorber' company!! One thing is for sure, these speed bumps take a toll on the cars suspension!! And to add, travelling these speed bumps with a full bladder is just torture!!

How is the drive back home?? Any big construction projects??

General Update!

Here is an update on a bunch of things.

Firstly, for those of you that were still concerned about my tummy troubles, rest assured, I think that I am on the recovery path!! It took about a week, and included frequent visits to the restroom and a lack of desire to eat. With the latter to be an alarm since me and food are really tight!! I am not 100%, but things are looking up. And since my approach to tackle this was to tough it out(nope, no immodium here), this hopefully has 'toughened' my tummy! Lets hope my theory works!!

Next.... India is such a service oriented country.... This is really a hard concept to grasp. At restaurants, especially the nicer ones, there are at least 3-4 waiters (yes, always waiters, not waitresses - I will have to write about that later) that are completely attentive and responsive. Then there is the driver, he drives you around whenever, wherever and in between driving, he just waits. This drives Vim crazy. One day after our driver (Devaraj) dropped me off at work, I had him go back to the hotel to take Vim and the kids shopping. Vim was all worried that driver was just going to be waiting around for him. I had to explain that 'waiting' is what he does.

Next.... making friends... Like I mentioned earlier there are several other families that are in a 'holding pattern' at the hotel until their house is ready (it does provide comfort knowing that we are not alone!). Well, we have started making friends!! There is the family from Atlanta - with four kids - James (12), Sarah (10), Olivia (5), William (2), all the kids get along really well. Then there is the family from NY with 3 kids - Talyor (8), Andrew (9) and Lauren (3), and the family from Australia with a daughter - bella (2). It really feels like we have a connection with all of them. Every time we are at the restaurant, we are bound to run into one of the families, and sometimes all of them. It is really nice, the kids love it!! Every afternoon they are pool side swimming, playing in the sand and just hanging out. Yesterday, we actually went out for dinner with the family from NY. We went to a really nice pizza place. The kids had a great time. It will be nice to keep the friendships going once we get into our house.

Lastly..... Even tough I paint a negative picture about the 'hotel' living, it actually has been great. One, it really has brought the 4 of us closer together. We have had a lot of 'together' time. It is nice. We probably have had more meals together as a family over the past week and a half, than what we have had for the last 6 months!! Really!! We have played games together, we have all watched the same tv shows (yes only 1 tv in the room) and many times it was either cartoon network or Disney channel and we have just hung out and gotten on each others nerves. It really has been great!!

that's all for now....take care...

Time

Here in India, time is an interesting commodity! People have a whole different approach to time when compared to the US. Back home, everyone felt rushed and felt that they never had enough time. In many cases, they wish that they could add more time, to do more. Here in India, people take time in whole different perspective. There is a different sense of urgency.... wait, there is no sense of urgency! This is also represented by Indian Standard Time - for those that are unfamiliar, it means anywhere from a half hour to 2 hours past any 'planned' time. We are witnessing that here.

Here is a specific situation of delays..... our house. When we first got here, we were supposed to move into the House over the weekend. It is now Monday night, and yup... still in the hotel. What is the latest prediction for a 'move-in'... maybe SATURDAY!! Yes, a week later than planned. And no one seems to be bothered. At this point, the critical piece to holding up our moving in is the arrival of our air shipment. Yes, the one thing that was supposed to arrive with us, is delayed!! We actually may get possession of the house before Saturday, but we will not have any bedding, towels, pillows, etc.... because they are all in the AIR SHIPMENT! UGHHH!! But, instead of getting all uptight, I guess, I need to take the 'Indian' approach... hey, its only time!! (Time.... living out of a small hotel room, with all belongings still in suitcases, and did I mention, all 4 of us are sleeping on the same bed!!)

Hope that you all are making the most of your time!!

Enjoy!!

Please post comments!!

Food and Friends

We will start with an update on the food. Lets just say, we have not had one bad meal here!! I guess that is partly because I have not done any of the cooking!! :)

No honestly we have excellent food that is really tasty. And it is really cheap!! All the food when we eat out is about half the price from the US. It is really nice to get great food, cheap!!

We have tried typical south Indian food, Indian Chinese, pizza... it is all great! The food alone would be a good reason to come visit Bangalore!

The downfall to all the yummy food is the tummy troubles. If you had to guess out of the 4 of who was going to be plagued with the tummy troubles, who would it be?? I think if were guessing, it would be Vim. But those who guess Vim are wrong.... it is me that has been struck - go figure!! It is lasting a few days now, but it will hopefully pass. The good thing is that the kids have done remarkably well!! They have been eating everything and no-adverse reaction!!

On the Friends side.... We have met some wonderful families already. There are 2 families from the states. One is from Atlanta and they have 4 kids, and another family from New York with 3 kids. We have also met a family from Australia with one little girl. The great part is that they all have kids that are about the same age as Mira and Milan. They all have been hanging out at the pool and the play structure. The other great thing is that all of these kids will be going to the same school as Mira and Milan. Making these friends has definitely helped the kids (and the big people) feel more comfortable about the move!!

We are targeting moving into the house on Monday!! Fingers crossed it all comes together!!

That is all for now!

First Day of Work and First Look at the House!!

We will start with work first. Today was the first day, surprisingly it went well. I spent the most of the day trying to get ID badges, computers, and learn my way around the building. From the outside it looks really modern, but inside there are some weird things. Example, some of the elevators only stop on some of the floors. There are parts of the building where the stairs to not go to all the floors (ex going from the 2nd fl to 3rd fl can not be done in a certain part of the building). I am really not sure how that happens. I just took someones word for it, maybe one day I will go exploring. At GM India the ID badge is key to move around the building. You can not get in our out of you area without your badge. Even to go the bathroom you need your badge. Back at home there were several times that I had forgotten my badge and I was able to manage. Here in India, I think that if I get to work and do not have my badge, it is best to just turn around, go back home and get it!! All in all the first day was good. I still have yet to meet all the people on my team. I think that it will take some time.

After work, we went to see the house!!! This was the long awaited walk-thru!! And..... we were pleased!! The house is very nice. There are a few minor things that need to be addressed prior to us moving in. One is a deep-clean that passes Vim's quality standards.

In the house there was a struggle over the master bedroom. I must have told Mira that she could pick her room. And well, she picked the biggest room. It took a little negotiating, but we were able to get the master room for us!!! Unfortunately we did not have our camera to share pictures. However I think that it will be better to show pictures when we move in some of our things.

We are still targeting moving in this weekend.

Milan made friends with the neighbor that has a cool dune-buggy type car. He was not shy to make friends and take the car for a spin. Again, I am sure there will be photos to come!

My next post will be about the food here in Bangalore. One word..... yum!

All the best!

PS please send email updates on what is going on back home. What is the latest news, gossip? Store closings, Openings (is Taco Bell on Roch Road open??)?? Construction?? Anything!!!

Driving in India

For those of you that have had the opportunity to witness the driving in India, you will completely understand this post.

The driving in India can either be seen as organized chaos or sheer madness. In the initial perception it seems like the latter but then after you watch the 'process' you can see that there really is a method to the madness.

First to set the stage, there are no lines on the road, and if there are, the are clearly ignored. The are different sizes of vehicles on the road all of which operate at different speeds. There are large trucks, cars, rickshaws (3-wheeler), scooters/mo-peds, bicycles, slow moving tractors, people, cows,..... the list can go on. Now when there are all of these types of 'things' on the road, everyone feels that they have the right of way. They are all pining to get ahead of the other person. The horn is key in the process.

The beeping of the horn is used all the time. The key to understand what each beep means. Really, there is a 'science' to it. A beep is used to let someone know that you are passing, or just to alert someone that you are there. Sometimes you beep to let some one in or say thanks. Then there are those that just lay on the horn to be obnoxious and hope that it will enable them to get ahead. It usually works.

The other thing that is a big difference is the 'space' around vehicles. Just as we have a radius of personal space that can vary from cultures, there is the same with the 'space' around the cars. By ignoring the lines in the road, people use every bit of space to get thru. In this case the scooter usually has the advantage. The cars are typically within inches of each other when stacked up at a light of in traffic. It is key to keep hands in side the car, otherwise they can definately get taken off!!

All of this brings up the question, will I drive in India? Today my answer is a big NO. Who knows, that may change. Oh, another factor is that they drive on the 'other' side of the road from what I am used to!!

So far our car is 'ding-free' but I am certain that with the driving styles here it will not stay that way. We will see how many days that it will last! I will post a picture of our 'ding-free' car.

Take care!

The Indian Tooth Fairy

The Tooth Fairy visited us in our hotel room!

Milan lost his first tooth! The big question... does the tooth fairy give dollars or rupees in India?? Dollars!!

Check out the picture!

We have arrived!!

WE MADE IT!!

It was after a tearful goodbye that we boarded the plane. All luggage that was 'overstuffed' made it without any extra charges, and we had our hand luggage also loaded up with tons of electronics (laptops, wii, playstation, dvds, cameras.... you name it, we had it in our handluggage!!). Needless to say, it made the security clearance a bit of a challenge! Once we cleared security, it was smooth sailing!

The kids loved the perks of flying business class... the big kids loved it too!! The layover in Frankfurt was a little long - 5 hrs, but we managed just fine! Then we were off to our final leg of our journey. Again, the extra leg room and the seats that recline fully were awesome!! We arrived in Bangalore at just after midnight. We managed to collect all of our luggage (none of which busted open... phwew!) and made it right thru customs - yes, even with all the electronics!


The first day was a little groggy with the jet lag but we managed to leave the hotel to go to see our house. You will see a picture below. It is nice. It looks like it is vacant so it should not be long before we are able to move in.... hopefully! The kids were able to experience some of the sights of life in India.... the stray dogs, the cows on the roads, and the 'crowds'. I am not sure if they are able to really take it all in! It will take some time.



We are now on day 2 and things are going OK. Still a bit of jet-lag, but that is expected. The kids are enjoying the hotel complex with the pool. There are a lot of kids at the pool and Milan is the social butterfly making friends with everyone. Mira is a little shy! Tomorrow we plan to take the kids to their school because we have some paper work to clear up with them! Hopefully they are pleasantly surprised with the school!