What's Doug doing??

Everyone is very interested in how Doug is doing with this move to India. For those of you who do not know him personally, Doug is my spouse, Saturday night date for the last 18 years, personal support network and my biggest fan. I am eternally grateful that he agreed to give up his career temporarily, man the fort and come to India. So for the last 6 weeks as we prepared to move and have been in India, Doug has been orgnaizing the kitchen, packing and repacking the cupboards, running errands and waiting in line at all the public offices. He thinks we are now in a routine and is ready to commence some more productive efforts during the day (aside from watching the cook cook, the housekeeper clean, the gardener weed and playing squash). He may work, teach, consult or invent something new...all to be seen. If you are interested in keeping up on his journey, you can see his blog at:

http://whitemanforlease.blogspot.com/

Bad Habits, Not Really bad in India

As a parent I am constantly telling my children not to stare, pick your nose, belch or pass gas (loudly anyway) in public. These things are essential to preserving your own dignity in North American society and out of respect for those around you (especially in the case of the passing of gas). Outside of Western society and crowded planes, these habits have different meanings and level of offense.

First of all in India, it is not considered rude to stare and in fact, you will find as a fair skinned person – you are stared at quite a bit. Add blonde and female and there will be entire buses that peer out of their windows at you as you sit in traffic. Ignore it and get used to it, no matter where you go, if you are foreign, the local population is generally curious about you and checking out your differences.

Spitting – we do not see this too often in the US and I have experienced it in China, but spitting is quite a sight here in India. People like to chew on betel leaves and tobacco which forms a most putrid red mixture. You can tell a heavy spitter the minute they open up their mouths because their teeth are stained red like clay. The government is trying to get people to stop spitting on the monuments, on hospital floors or in the holy water near their temples. If you make it to India, you won’t go more than 5 minutes without seeing a stream of red spit streaming out of a group of people. The only good thing about spitters here vs. China, they don’t accompany their spit with disgusting guttural noise.

I haven’t come across any of my normal habits that are considered vile over here, but when I do, I will let you know.

p.s. this picture I borrowed but I have seen ones that say "Do not spit in holy water"

Avoiding Late Fees

Blockbuster doesn't exist in India- or I have not seen one yet, but we do have a small movie rental place in our gated community. In order to be a member of the movie rental we had to join the pool club; it's not clear how they are related to us either. The deposit is Rs500 (which is about $11USD) and you can rent a movie for Rs50 (or about $1.20) which is much cheaper than the US Blockbuster chain which I think averages $4.99USD. We took advantage of this local store and rented Night At the Museum 2 on Saturday night, we had already seen the movie, but our choices for new release DVDs were quite limited. Fast forward to last night, Tuesday, the doorbell rings at 7pm. The clerk from the movie store came on his scooter to collect the movie. I guess there are no late fees in India.

Saturday Night Fever

Despite my best efforts, I have gotten sick in India. Not Delhi Belly but a case of the flu (self-diagnosed of course!). This is the first time in about 10 years I have taken a real sick day, since working from home in the US has allowed me to muddle through most any sickness I have had. When you have to drive an hour to the office, meet face to face all day and risk exposing 10,000 people to your cold - you think twice about dragging yourself in. After a pretty productive week at work and a good trip to the nursery to find some plants for our terrace, we headed out to a nice Thai dinner on Saturday night. A general malaise set in and I was in bed by 9, only to wake up with a fever of 101 and a full body ache. Fortunately I shipped an arsenal of familar over the counter pharmacy remedies and then some heavy duty antiboitics. I began to run through the checklist of potential viruses or deadly diseases I could have contracted, all from the comfort of my bed via my iPhone web access...Could be flu, H1N1 (and this was the only vaccine I did not get before I left for India), Japanese Encephelitis, Malaria or the common cold. I typically jump to conclusions, fearing the worst as it could only be my luck as the sole income earner now to be sick! Fortunately I brought along my personal Chemist, Doug, who calmly told me that Malaria and Japanese Encephelitis require bug bites, which I was seemingly devoid of. Secondly, he gave me some regular motrin and 2 tablespoons of Robitussin and put me back to bed. I did feel better and was able to watch my alma mater, University of Michigan, win their first home football game of the season. However, as Sunday passed by I seemed to get worse and developed a cough that leaves me sounding like E.T. Now having a sick day far away from your real home, is not so much fun. One of the downfalls of living in a third world country means that there are intermittent power losses...Well one of those happened today and knocked our TV and internet out, so I tried to pass the time with solataire (the kind with real cards) and naps.

For those of you celebrating Labor day today, enjoy the last hurrah of summer in the US and I will continue to nurse my flu/ cold wrapped up in my snuggy and isotoner slippers.

Waist Not!

I had this vision of myself in India; healthy, thin and glowing from my new vegetarian diet and increased yoga practice. I even packed my skinny jeans, the ones that really only fit me after a round of the flu back home. The future me allowed the old me back in Michigan to eat lots of hamburgers, fries, mixed drinks and everything I thought I would miss in India. I stopped checking in on my weight because I just knew that arriving in India would trigger any excess to melt away.

Let's review what I have been eating: chipatis (basically wheat, water, butter), dahl (beans), gravies (i am not sure what the ingredients are but all Indian food has some sort of gravy you dip the chipati in), masala potato chips, domino's pizza and a lot of cappucinos (non-fat milk is not an option). Healthy? Not so much. High carb, sugar and unknowns - you got it. Since the scale at the gym is only in kilograms, I haven't tried it because I am not sure I want to know or be forced to do the math. Clothes fit the same as when I arrived but those skinny jeans are still folded tightly on the shelf waiting to bust out in India.

I am on a mission to get healthy, find a cook that can follow the ayurvedic principles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayurveda) and get into a yoga routine again. Finding a yoga studio here is seemingly impossible because it seems that the local Indians don't really do yoga at a studio! I may have to organize my own class and get a teacher to come to my house or park. There is one positive option, a personal trainer for 20 one hour sessions a month for Rs4000 or roughly $90, I may have to indulge.

Christmas in September!

I recently heard the saying that an army runs on it's stomach...well this platoon of 5 was headed for an ambush! We do like Indian food, and yes, you can buy American imported items, but things are just not quite the same. Today was a very exciting day at the house, we received a care package for our friends Jacqui, Lauren and Julia (see picture of the necessities - poptarts, cheetos, fruit roll-ups and gushers) and our air shipment arrived.

Generally I think of myself as a light packer, I can survive a week in Asia or Europe with one smaller roller bag and a purse/computer. I tried to be light but we still arrived with 20 bags between the five of us at the airport and then proceeded to spend $500 at SPAR (walmarts poorer sister store) on items like pot holders, salt-n-pepper shakers, paper towel, food, kitchen towels, pillows and so on. I packed the air shipment on July 27th, so I really could not remember what we were receiving. Just to give you a sense of how much life has been like camping, these were the items we got the most excited about opening:

-Queen sized bed blanket

-Bath towels

-crockery/ pots with handles and lids that fit

-legos (not really a necessity, but makes the kids happy thus me happy)

-cork screw

-jelly

-shampoo

-motrin

-mouthwash

So happy days are ahead and our Sea shipment should be here in a few more weeks bringing mattresses, bikes, scooters, tennis rackets, clotheses, my 40 pairs of shoes (that will be it's own celebratory blog), bedding, more towels, peanut butter, miracle whip etc...

There was one additional surprise in the air shipment, apparently i shipped a package of turkey bacon. Disgusting you say? I agree. I knew I had purchased some in July but could never find it in the fridge, apparently it got packed and has been sitting in its air tight package for the last 5 weeks. We opted to carry that one right outside...I hope the cats across the street find it :)

Potty Talk

It's time to talk business, what are the bathrooms really like in India? Since all of us have to use a bathroom, and some of us require more facilities than others - this is a serious matter. The options in India range from the side of the road (most common for Indian men) to a standard western style toilet with toilet paper available. However, finding what suits you at the time you need it most can become like searching for a needle in a haystack.

As an American I have a hard time thinking I can successfully use an Indian toilet, see picture above, however I have learned that it really facilitates the "going" (see attached diagram). Can you believe that? I guess we haven't tried in the US hence the need to advertise laxatives on TV. That diagram was actually on a website I found advocating the return to the Indian toilet for "health purposes." The only place I have actually seen this type of toilet was in a few homes we looked at with servant quarters, apparently the help likes a traditional squat. Most often I have tried to time my bio breaks with a trip to the mall, a nice hotel or upscale restaurant. Even then, toilet paper availability is slim. Just today at work, there was not one sheet of toilet paper in the bathroom on my floor, I had to make a quick dash to another floor. If you are wondering why toilet paper is not standard, most bathrooms have a little spigot for water so you can use the left hand to clean and rinse off. I will carry toilet paper in my purse before I conform. These spigots are present in the offices and nice hotels as well, a few times when the rest room has been full, I have paused for a moment to see if I can hear anyone using the spigott. Not yet!

On to toilet paper itself, I am used to shopping at Costco in the US and purchased 30 roles of the economical "Kirkland" brand for roughly $14.99 USD. In India, 10 roles (which a much smaller circumference) were available for Rs700 which translates to $14.89 USD. The kids are getting rationed 3 squares per use :)

Oh and if you are coming to visit me, we have three western style bathrooms equipped with toilet paper, hand sanitizer, flushable wipes and a room freshner.