what have i done in india lately

Just saw a commercial where a guy and girl were passing fireworks between them. Then the woman takes a rocket firework and finds a jewelry box on it. She opens it up and the dude takes the ring and puts in on. It did not seem like a dude ring to me. Confused. Another commercial has a girl and guy obviously having some meeting to see if they would be a good match when a dude comes in and apparently is upset at being jilted by the dude. My favorite commercial lately has been the one where the old dude yells at the young dude with headphones to not cut in line and to respect proper queueing. Oh that and the young Hindustan commercials for Pepsi which are so obviously the 20 years later and in India version of the Choice of the Next Generation ads.

There was a great article about India, she hugs, she punches, she hugs again. Before R&R I was definitely being punched. Repeatedly. Now I suppose I’m getting hugged. I have had some difficult but rewarding cases lately in ACS – talking at length with a paranoid schizophrenic, helping with parental abduction cases, visiting hospitals.

For one whereabouts visit, I traveled to Auroville. The 20 kilometer village is an experiment in people from around the world living in harmony. A lovely idea, a beautiful place, delicious food. Some things are a bit over the top and I can see how others have been a bit freaked out by the place, but the goal is impressive and it was nice to see some true hippy crunchy commune living still surviving. The nursing home in Pondicherry was not as nice, looked more like a scene from that movie about when Hemingway was an ambulance driver in WW I. Someday I’ll return to both places and actually see them fully but at least I can check the two off the list. Oh, and the score is now up to three for finding people that have been reported either dead or near death far from that state.

We finally did our dance!!!! I can’t believe how nervous I was but at the end of the day we rocked the house!!!! There were some mistakes but overall it was pretty rad and we got lots of compliments! Later that night we went to Kryptos for dinner to celebrate making it through and also Holly’s birthday. Good day.

Friday night was the pub crawl. I had my handy dandy ghost Halloween headband with blinking lights and it was agreed ahead of time that when I placed it on my head we would head to the next place. I also handed out voting cards so we could be all official with our judging. Starting at Chipstead I met some Irishmen in town on work. Then we headed to 10 Downing Street where we were treated terribly and forced to listen to multiple Abba songs while Bridget paid almost $20 for a vodka tonic. However, Katie was able to argue a partial refund. Classy. Finally we danced our way out of the hellish British pub wannabe and made it over to Bike and Barrel. Awesome music (yeah put a ring on it) and dancing, shots for Holly’s birthday, the goofy costumes (to be fair the waiters at 10 Downing Street also had disturbing costumes involving fake G money gold chains), the guys looking down from above kept up there by the nets – B&B did not disappoint. One of our crew was forced to wear the rent a shoes – Chennai’s version of the loaner jacket! Holly barely avoided a water attack by me. A wine glass was broken.

From B&B we headed over to Dublin. Although getting a drink was super hard, Dublin had some advantages. When we first walked in there was a big Marilyn Monroe with the face cutout to take pictures stop. Yeah. And then there was crazy 80’s music all over the place and a lot of other coworkers dancing it on up. There was just a bunch of silliness. But fun. And then we walked to Havana in the rain. One of our dance class songs was playing when we entered but when it finished music was over and last call happened. So we sat around and drank and then returned to my place. Where Holly handed me her DVD of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I went to the balcony with Behrang and Mark and upon returning there was a bunch of people doing the Time Warp in my living room. Awesome.

Last night was the murder mystery dinner party. I had never done one of these so I had really looked forward to it. Everyone looked awesome all dressed up 1920’s style. I was Color Pencille, an artist of ambiguous medium. While the evening was a ton of fun, there is something totally creepy about playacting super sleazy dude behavior with married coworkers. I realize this is the basic premise of Halloween but still. A bit creepy. Oh heck yeah, November tomorrow….NANOWRIMO!!!!

sriiiiiiiii lanka

Somehow I get 20 holidays a year - 10 American and 10 Indian - and yet it STILL feels as if I have way too few 3 day weekends. So this past weekend I headed out to Sri Lanka with Behrang and Holly. My first trip to Ceylon was with my mom in January and it was fantastic - we crashed a wedding at Galle Face Hotel replete with gorgeous dress and backhandspringing dudes and drummers, we made a very uncomfortable driver take us to a casino which we hightailed out of after realizing WHY the driver was so uncomfortable, we visited the elephant orphanage and the temple of the tooth and saw lots of Buddhas. It ruled. So I was very excited to head back.

The flight was terrible. The seats' designers must have been trying to impress vlad the impaler. Although the in-flight video describing the safety procedures was top notch, awesome cartoons dudes with fabulous mustaches. When we checked in to our hotel they tried to give us a room with only one queen bed when we had paid for one with two queen beds. Quite a rucus was caused when Holly fought the man and instead of taking a rollaway bed she DEMANDED another queen and got them to actually bring a boxspring and a mattress from another room!!! It rocked. Thankfully that hotel was really only our flophouse for the evening since our flight got in so late and Galle is such a haul.

The next day we took the BEST van ever to Galle. Four hours of luxury. The a/c was not the best, the van was not so new BUT the seats were like big comfy couches and they leaned all the way back. Oh yeah. It ruled. As did our glamorous hotel. The Galle Fort Hotel. Colonial style. Boutique hotel. Gorgeous guy checking us in as I checked him out. Oh Ewen. Heart. A welcome bottle of Lion Lager that was pretty much a 40. We had the library suite. A lovely lunch and then a great stroll along the top of the fort to watch the sunset over the ocean. Perfection. Dinner at some rooftop joint called Mama's; yummy prawn curry with eggplant and pumpkin and lentils and coconutted on up green beans. MMMMMMMMMMMM.

Sunday was beach day. Gorgeous blue and green water, golden sand, lovely waves and swimming. A delicious prawn and beer lunch. A stroll to see a buddhist temple on the hill and a climb down to some rocks to watch the waves crash and the seaspray surprise a couple looking to be all romantic and then some policemen freaking us out. Beautiful.

Monday I had a morning stroll through town and also walked around the top of the fort to enjoy the morning light. Another beautiful breakfast at the hotel, delicious coffee and tea and fruit and buffalo curd hot cakes, so yummy. Wrote some post cards, packed up, had a lunch at another luxurious hotel on the way to airport. Made my way home even though I was convinced I would not leave. Back to reality!

over the r&r hump

Life was pretty rough up until R&R. I got to the point of really hating my job which left me too exhausted to enjoy everything else. To be clear, I hated the job I was doing but still loved my career. Non-immigrant visa interviewing is a horrendous grind and adjudicating over 15,500 visas in 12 months had drained me. Additionally, since the numbers were high and the number of adjudicators low, the overall atmosphere was highly pressurized. A constant feeling of time pressures caused me to treat applicants with a tone and an impatience that I wouldn't have thought myself capable of stooping to. So I hated what I was doing and I hated how I was doing it. Which meant that my R&R was desperately needed. And I was AMAZING at resting and recuperating - visiting so many people, hugging my niece and nephew, aerial fabric lessons, seeing cousins' new houses and babies, camping, kayaking, touring the national mall on a segway, trying to eat my weight in sushi and steak. It ruled.

Returning to India was difficult. It was the first time in my life where I wasn't ready to return to where I was living at the end of a trip home to Philly. While home, I exaggerated in my mind the dirt, noise, confusion, frustration of life here. I've been much happier since returning. Although I do think a lot of that is due to switching jobs. I am now doing American Citizen Services which is what I have always wanted to do of consular work. The pace is a lot more manageable and in general I am able to provide the service people come in for. The non-appointment work is incredibly rewarding as we are helping people out when they are facing some of their strongest difficulties.

Since I've been back I've laid pretty low. However, I did go out one night to a coffee shop many floors above a car dealership that had pool tables and salsa. It was pretty cool and I bought tickets for their big dance-a-rama coming up where they'll have two weekends full of dance classes and I'll finally get to flamenco!!!! And there is a Pirate party. Oh yeah!

I was in Bangalore and Hubli for over a week for work and during the weekend Holly met up with me and we went to Kabini River Lodge. A rustic cabin, set meals and safari rides! There was a giant net hung between multiple trees that I got to climb and chill in as if it was the biggest hammock EVER. During the evening safari we saw elephants in the wild including baby elephants!!! So cute. Lots of beautiful birds and deer and water buffalo. The morning safari brought an exotic lizard and a fox and a saucer boat ride! Yes, saucer boat. Holly and I were the only ones saucer boating, everyone else chose the big motor boat. Wimps. After we got out in the water, the paddler guy tells us that under the water is fish, snakes and crocodiles. Given that Holly had the ACS case where an Amcit was killed by a sea crocodile, she was none too happy to hear that! But the sun had just risen and the morning light was incredible. The river we were on was dry during the summer season and the trunks of trees sticking out of the water looked like beautifully eerie dancers striking soulful poses. Inspiring. Overall we survived and at the end of the drive back to Bangalore there was way too many desserts at Hard Rock Cafe. Pretty darn sweet!

overdue post about mark's visit

May 29…Chennai to Mumbai

Got on the plane rather early, arrived in Mumbai on time and had the hotel car pick us up. We were greeted at the door and were able to check in in our room instead of at the front desk. Taj Mahal tower, beautiful hotel, my favorite part was the book listed a service called “destiny planner” for the hotel astrologist. Got up and out right away to Elephanta Island and saw the caves and the monkeys, climbed on top of the caves, were hassled to pay more to be up on the hottest part of the boat, the roof. Our revenge on the boat company for not letting us onto the roof without pay despite our deluxe tickets came when on the way back the Coast Guard pulled the boat over, demanded the license of the driver and gave them a ticket. After arriving back in our hotel we showered and we went to the Harbour Bar where we could stare out at Gateway of India. Mark had the bar’s signature drink which came with a story acted out and a lighting of the brandy before putting into the drink, I got a champagne and gin and lemon-y drink; we also ordered tapas – ham and caramelized fig and also some potatoes raclette with rosemary. Then we took a long walk and saw the University and the cricket pitch and the high court and the Prince of Wales museum and the oldest library and the railway station. Back to the hotel for a nap and then dinner at the rooftop middle eastern restaurant Souk. I had a spiachy crepe-y think and Mark had some delicious lamb. Worst part of the day …the rose ice cream, yuk it tasted like soap, I mean it seemed like a good idea but GROSS. And I just realized that was not in fact the worst part, just remembered that this is the day that Mark’s brother passed away. Mark had been more prepared, I had really thought his brother would recover.

May 30…Mumbai to Shimla

Got up and packed pretty early to catch the plane to Chandigarth. The hotel car picked us up and we had a hair-raising ride through the “Foothills” of the Himalayas up and down and around curves that lasted FOUR hours. Eventually reached our hotel and relaxed. Had an amazing glass of wine watching the beautiful sunset. There was a note in our room warning us not to leave the windows open during the day or the monkeys would take our belongings. When we got back from our drinks we found a birthday cake in our room. The housekeeping staff insisted it was our birthday. Oh well, who was I to argue? We had dinner at the buffet restaurant, where I tripped and fell, catching the attention of our neighbors who stopped by to tell us we look like fun. Thanks.

May 31….Shimla

The next morning I worked out by doing bunches of flights of stairs and realized the altitude made the air thinner. We breakfasted and dressed and caught a shuttle up to the town. Walking up the stairs and ramp to get to the ridge road was a challenge! On the walk in we saw our first glimpse of snow-peaked Himalayas….amazing! We saw Christ Church where we lit candles and abandoned shoes and spoke to a nice couple and their cute kid. There was some political rally happening and the Indira Ghandi statue was flanked by pink tarps. We walked around some more exploring. We then explored the Mall and the Lower Bazaar, the “rabbit warren” shops. We started walking up to the monkey temple but when realizing how steep and far the walk would be we decided to wait. We then headed back to our hotel for some snacks and drinks. I then went to the pool and then we watched the sunset. I read and Mark slept, it was an early evening without dinner…but with much needed rest.

June 1…Shimla

We slept well and had our breakfast. Then we headed on out and walked back into town and up to the Monkey temple, with a rented monkey-beating-stick in each of our hands. Nearing the top we heard a woman scream as a monkey jumped on her and stole her dupatta. The monkey then proceeded to perch himself up on the hill and wrap the dupatta around his own neck and head as a lady would. When reaching the top, we were informed to take our glasses off so monkeys wouldn’t steal them. A man with a telescope showed me the six points of interest. Again, snow-capped peaks were visible. We then descended and went back to the hotel for lunch. After lunch we walked ourselves to the former Vice Regal lodge where we had a quick tour and then walked the grounds and walked on back. Overall that day we walked probably 14 kilometers and NOT on flat ground. We had kebabs and watched the sunset with wine and then retired early due to the necessity of an early start.

June 2, Shimla to Agra

We did the crazy ride back ½ way in the dark. I slept through the hardest parts. We got there with plenty of time to spare, having started at 4 in the morning. Took the plane to Delhi and the car was waiting with Holly’s awesome driver Sonu. We drove to our hotel in Agra and checked in (another 3 hours in the car), taking advantage of our view of the Taj Mahal from our room by ordering room service – a selection of real wines and beer for room service at normal prices!!!!!! Crazy!!!!! After lunch we went over to Agra Fort and got swept away by the majesty and beauty of times gone by. Then we went back and ordered a bottle of Chardonnay to watch the sun set over the Taj Mahal from our hotel room. Luckily, Sonu called to say that due to a VIP visit tomorrow the Taj Mahal would only be open until 7 a.m. …..changing our morning plans!

June 3, Agra to Jaipur

Up early to see the Taj Mahal. Bicycle rickshaw…poor guy was determined to do the whole ride! We could have walked but he seemed to really want to take us. Took lots of pictures and wandered around but had only limited time….again. The last time I was at the Taj Mahal I also only had limited time, must be fate! Then we had breakfast and got back on the road. We stopped at Fatehpur Sikri. This time we did walk up to the place and were harassed the entire time. Although the place was beautiful I felt unsafe much of the time because of the tourist predators. Another 5 or 6 hours on the rode and we arrived in Jaipur. We went to Amber Fort and it was AMAZING. It was HUGE and surrounded by mountains and the desert. We were allowed to wander through every nook and cranny and it was so easy to watch time melt away. Afterwards Sonu took us to our hotel, which was FAR out of town, far far far. In fact when we went down a dirt road for a long time before turning onto what didn’t even seem a road to get to the hotel. But it was worth it. The hotel is an old hunting lodge and we had the master suite with a huge balcony, our own sitting room, a dressing room. The lodge is on what was once a lake before it went dry and the place is filled with stuffed animals (not plushes but stuffed animals). Dinner was prepaid and in the dining hall, EXCELLENT. Okay, not the food but the entire creepy/phantasmogoric atmosphere. The food actually seemed like strange cafeteria food. I think they have frozen dishes for westerners that they microwave. Eh, the ambience outweighed the food.

June 4, Jaipur to Jodhpur

In the morning we went into Jaipur to check out the Pink City a bit. We went to Jantar Mantar, an observatory built between 1728 and 1734. So all the equipment seemed to do rudimentary crap but darn was it cool looking, especially with bright blue skies and mountains in the background. Rajastan is amazing in many ways for the light in the desert and the grand scale of things. My facebook has pictures which can describe it so much better. We then got back in the car for another long drive to Jodhpur. We went straight to our hotel, which had been recommended by friends. We checked in to our “luxury tent”. While it wasn’t as much of a tent as I’d hoped, it did have a canvas top and a really cool feel to it. The grounds of the hotel were fabulous, especially the pool! We slept well after booking the camel safari for the next day and eating.

June 5, Jodhpur

We woke up and the sandstorm that had been going on the day before persisted. Very strong winds. We first went to Mehrangarh Fort and walked around, seeing the beautiful views, the cool chariots, the canons. Jodhpur is the blue city and this was much more obvious than the pink city of Jaipur. All the houses were bluewashed and this was an amazing effect looking down on it from the Fort. In the afternoon we went on our camel ride!!!! Okay, it was cheesy and touristy but it was still fun! First we drove (no surprise!) and stopped in Osean where we explored a ridiculously old Hindu temple and then a Jain temple. We were really the only tourists in the area that day and so attracted many curious onlookers. The wind was blowing so we didn’t get sweeping views of the dunes but it was still very cool to be in them. I had never been in that type of desert with sand everywhere. Finally we went to where we would get our camel ride and had tea. And then FINALLY we got on the camel. So it was one camel (Hero was his name) for the two of us. I still loved it. And we were led around by someone. I still loved it! Camels walk funny. They are tall. The feel of them walking in the sand is cool. And it was all pretty. A great way to end the trip. After we went back to the hotel, had dinner. The next morning we pretty much just packed and caught our plane. A great trip though!

holidays

We were called home just in time for Thanksgiving. After we arrived home we found out the Keralan guys had in fact been able to depart. We were just happy to be home for turkey. My friend Holly had a whole lot of us over and a wonderful day of eating happened. Afterwards we headed to another colleague's house for dessert. Although the holiday months had a lot of really fun gatherings and plenty of fellowship, I hit my wall during the season. I had been hoping that I wouldn't go through the standard period of absolute resistance and "honeymoon over" that is common to people living abroad. But it hit me. And it hit me hard. Right during the holidays. I experienced more homesickness than I'd ever had, probably due to now having a niece and a nephew both uunder 5 years old to miss. It's been hard for me to blog mostly because I didn't want to talk about this time. There were lots of party and bollywood dancing was still going on and Natalie was with me but I went through a supreme funk. Everything I had once thought was cute or quaint or cool about India started to infuriate me. I had been warned that this was normal. There are charts showing the cycle of emotions that people go through...I had just thought that since I knew about the cycle I would be able to avoid the down part. Unfortunately I was unable to control the flood of frustration with never being able to get as many menus as there are people or constantly being followed all around any store getting harassed or the interminable cacophony or the inability to think a few steps down the line. As hard as I tried to check myself and remind myself how fortunate I am to have my dream job and to have been posted in such a great country, I kept going to the dark side and feeling down. Because of this, I don't feel like writing about a lot of the holidays. So I'll skip talking about the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas and pick back up with my mom showing up at the end of December.

Keralan Craziness

The phone call in the tuk-tuk was to ask me to intervene on an emergency American citizen situation. Without going into detail an American citizen older gentleman and a young Frenchman had washed ashore in a sailboat with faulty equipment and the authorities were not so happy about it. I spent the next four days being the messenger girl between the gentlemen and my contacts back in the Consulate and beyond, bringing food and ice cream and water to the boat, and generally trying to be of help in a strange situation.

The first night just finding the boat was difficult because we had no idea where we were and it was storming (a large factor in why the boat had come ashore). However, the next morning I was able to see what a beautiful place it was. There was a large mosque near where the boat was docked and lots of fishing boats so that when one looked to the shore around the cove there was a harbor filled with colorful boats and pretty almost Mediterranean looking buildings. To get down to the boat we would drive down this pretty shoddy road where goats kept blocking our way and looking snidely at our car like, "yeah, I could take you".

If we turned the other way instead of going down the hill we would get to a pretty touristy beach town. Over the next few days we got to know that beach well as it was there that we would go for our meals. At the end of the beach we were able to climb a small cliff to get to a lighthouse which we were able to climb. One awesome thing about India is the lack of safety precautions which allowed us to climb all the way to the top and then get to the outside balcony. What a view!!! Mountains in the background and gorgeous ocean as far as one could see.

So much wonderfully delicious fish! The hotel had awesome baked yogurt which became my new favorite food! Because I kept not knowing when I would check out and we kept renting a car, the hotel loved us. They sent us free desserts. The head housekeeper came to meet us (I thought we were in trouble at first) and give us gifts (cute little frames!). When we called for room service and asked for tiramisu they said "We are sorry but we are out of mascarpone, would you like us to make it using vanilla pudding instead?" Um, no, no I didn't.

Although much of the time was pretty stressful juggling phone calls and changing stories and regulations, the area was beautiful and we did meet some great people. I can't wait to go back to Kerala and do a backwaters tour...and be completely on vacation!

beginning of the end of november

The end of November was quite a ride. Luckily I was chosen for quite a few opportunities. I got to help with a Foreign Commercial Service trade tour for energy efficiency products companies. I also got to go to Kerala with Natalie. Originally I was sent there to do a welfare and whereabouts visit, which is when a consular officer visits an american citizen child who has been abducted, in many cases by one of the parents, to ensure that the child is safe and accounted for. Kerala is beautiful, tons of palm trees all over and beautiful temples and the ocean and gorgeous light. We had to take a pretty long car ride inland up into the hills for the visit. Our driver did not speak much English and I didn't really know where I was going. After many stops to ask random people directions, the car stopped in front of a house. A very nice older lady beckoned for me to come into the house. She apparently spoke no English but smiled a lot and kept waving me in. She sat me down and looked expectantly at me. "Tea?" "Tea?" "Tea?" she kept asking quizzically. "Sure, thank you" I replied. Then I saw out the window that people were surrounding Natalie and it appeared she was motioning for me to go outside. So outside I went. Down the lane and behind the car a woman and a kid were seemingly conversing with Natalie and I thought maybe these were the people I came to visit. But no. They were just curious about the redhead in their lane. And it quickly became obvious that this was in fact not the house that I was supposed to be going to. Another man came down the lane. He got in the front seat of the car and drove with us to make sure we made it where we had in fact been heading. The visit was fine and Natalie had a nice time wandering around the village during it. Once we were back at the hotel we decided to try the other mission: figure out if an american citizen woman who was reported dead was in fact deceased and if so and if possible to get a copy of the death certificate. I had only a vague address but I found a tuck-tuck and took off for the general area. Thankfully I found the woman alive and she was a lovely lady. Unfortunately the power was out and so she had to go looking for I.D. by candlelight. It simply added to the strangeness of the day, which would only get stranger. On the way back to the hotel my phone rang, starting the really strange journey that was to occupy the rest of our Kerala trip.