simple Saturdays

Z and I take one day a week for ourselves. We chose Saturdays. It is nice to have a day that we can stay in our pajamas all day if we want to, eat comfort food, go on a date, and most importantly limit speaking in Hindi! Today we left the house early to go shopping in the morning and eat out for lunch. While shopping we were followed down the street by a woman begging for money. We have a 'don't give money' policy...if we have food we give that instead. In this city the beggars strategies seem to be the same...they try to pester money out of people. Beggars in the capital city have different schemes, on two occasions in the capital little kids have pinched me to try to get money from me...that usually does not evoke me to have compassion, pinching is not how you get what you want in life.
After shopping we decided to eat at our favorite restaurant for lunch...but soon after our lunch I realized we need to find a new favorite restaurant. At the restaurant there was a HUGE group of women playing some sort of lottery...one lady was shouting out numbers while the group filled in tickets. This made it hard for us to have any sort of conversation during our meal. The food was delicious as usual but as soon as we were finished eating I saw a mouse running across the floor! I suddenly remembered that no matter how tasty the food is or stylish the ambiance, this is still India and restaurants do not have health code inspections.
We are now home and Z is watching a football game that took him 26 hours to download from itunes...it definitely feels like a normal American Saturday now.

Wedding season

Countless people have mentioned to us that it is wedding season...I love weddings! To my dismay we have not been at the top of any one's invite list.
We have only attended one wedding thus far, and technically we were not invited...it was blatantly obvious we were wedding crashers, we did not look like neither the bride or groom's distant relatives.
Today we had another wedding encounter, this time on the road. We were stopped in traffic while a groom's wedding procession played music and danced in the street. I did not understand what was so fun about stopping traffic and dancing while cars and buses honked and encroached closer and closer. All commuters seemed very annoyed. I have seen scenes in Bollywood movies where the whole community happily parades down the street preforming a special choreographed dance for a wedding procession. I for one was very disappointed, it was nothing like Bollywood depicted!

the perks:

There is a person to do every job imaginable here...

• After our clothes are washed and dried Z or myself take them to our corner press walla who irons them with an old school coal heated press.


• Our house helper R comes every morning for two hours. She washes dishes, dusts, cleans the floors, unclogs pipes, exterminates bugs...there is not much that she does not do.


• Fruit and vegetable vendors come to our neighborhood daily. I literally walk out my gated garage and grocery shop.


• There is a neighborhood milk man, but he does not deliver cow milk...instead it is unpasteurized water buffalo milk...am I weird for liking the taste of it?


• Our home security system, a guard who patrols the neighborhood at night...while patrolling he either bangs a drum, rings a bell, or blows a whistle. I am not sure what the reasoning is behind the noise but I get pretty ticked when it wakes me up at night.
• I have a tailor who makes all my clothes...I personally think he does a fabulous job!

The livin' ain't bad, ain't bad at all...

ok, ok...

I have sucumed to creating a blog ... It is mainly for my own cathartic release and for your entertainment because I sure have encountered some crazy things here in Curry Land.
Here is a random list of what I have experienced thus far...



- First evening upon arriving I saw a man riding an elephant down the major highway of the capital city...this made me feel at home.



- A teenage boy climbed the tree in front of our house to look through our window...I yelled at him in English and Spanish because at the time I lacked the capabilities of yelling in Hindi.



- I have taken a 3 hour road trip by bus...I do not want to relive the experience so that is all I am going to write about that.



- While traveling by bicycle rickshaw a man on a motorcycle was too busy staring at us and not paying attention to the road that he ran over a little boy, the little boy had to be taken to the hospital because his leg was broken...I now cover my head while traveling for every one's safety.



- In order to rent a house we had to give our landlord a copy of our marriage licence.

- At a restaurant we were mistaken for other foreigners (because we all look the same...) who a week prior had walked out with out paying their bill...We straightened the situation out and Z mended international relations by paying for their mistake...If the white guy who ditched his bill is out there reading this you owe us $2.

Crazy things happen but it makes this place even more endearing to us. Z and I love it here and we plan to experience all the adventure, culture, and laughs this place has to offer.