The Farm

We spent the weekend with our friends in Nandi Hills outside of Bangalore. Teena had heard about a weekend farm/farmhouse--a city getaway. It was amazing! The house was beautiful, fun farm animals, beautiful landscape, wonderful food and lots of time to veg. The 5 little boys loved it. We got to take a ride on an ox cart and feed the animals. Here are some pics...

Techie Friends

I know most people in our fast paced society converse by means other than the phone or personal visits...email, text messaging, social websites, blogs, etc. There is really no need to actually hear the other person speaking if you don't have to. I'm ok with that because I'm not a big phone person--i forget to pick it up and dial-a-friend-- and I love being able to edit my words:)

But one thing I've noticed living here, is that with the majority of my friends it actually makes our conversations a lot more enjoyable to not talk on the phone:) Whether they are Indian, British, German, Danish, you name it (except Americans) the conversation is always laced with "I'm sorry, say that again?", "What was that?" "I didn't get that", and saying "yes" yet only being half, maybe not at all, sure of what you just agreed with:) Without being able to read lips it is hard to get through very many sentences without having to ask for a rewind/repeat of that word or sentence. And add a southern U.S. drawl with rapid speed (is that an oxymoron? speed drawl?:) (either way that's my accent:) and the poor person on the other line is probably just bewildered:)
So I am very grateful for text messages (which i now live by), email, blogs, IM, etc. My friends of every tribe and tongue can understand me and I can understand them.

Ok, I do love to be face to face with people and believe true friendship can only deepen when you are conversing in the same room...screaming kids and all...but for those in between times--gotta have the tech props!

Bath Time

Most people will probably think this video is uneventful (boring) but i thought i'd post it for my Mom who loves to give the boys baths (ok, maybe love is a strong word, but she serves me by doing it). And for those who haven't seen our "bath tub" before on the blog, i thought i'd post it again for you to get a glimpse of bath time in India and as a reminder to love your tub (those in the u.s.) :) Real tubs are very rare here. Ours comes complete with toys and bubbles:)

A Few Pics...

A Tropical Autumn

The past month I have been missing fall...crunchy yellow leaves, pumpkin patches, apple picking, sweater-wearing-football-watching weather. What's funny is that I never missed that in the U.S. After we moved from Minneapolis to Houston I was so excited not to have to endure another winter that I didn't desire any of signs of it coming:) Well now that we live where there are no seasons I've been a little nostalgic about it.

Yesterday morning when I went outside to jog I found a great surprise...
Our complex is beautifully landscaped. On one side of the building there are about 6 trees with little yellow flowers blooming. I'm not sure if it rained during the night or if it was windy, but most of the flowers had fallen to the ground. It looked like fall! Instead of crunchy yellow leaves it was bright yellow flowers...and no sign of winter...perfect! Isn't God so cool!? Not that the flowers fell off just for me:) but He woke me up, got me outside (a huge task in itself) and showed me a little gift of "fall". I had to get the camera.

As a side note...i do love the weather here. You really can't beat California-like weather year round. And right now, even though everything is still green, the temp. is feeling very autumn-like.

The Time Has Come...

I knew it was highly likely that at some point while living here my vehicle would collide with a person(s)...not just the usual car, rickshaw or pole. And it indeed happened.

Saturday as I was driving to grocery store #2 (I usually cannot find everything on my list at one store) I had my blinker on signaling a right turn into the parking lot. 3 guys on a motorcycle passed me on the right side, ran into my car, kept going and tipped over, skidding onto the asphalt. My heart sank as I covered my mouth with my hands in shock. They all got up thankfully, and now began the crowd of onlookers gathering around to try to decide who was at fault. In Bangalore you don't call the police when there's an accident, (you just keep going if it's minor or let the crowd decide who's at fault if it's major) especially when you are riding illegally on a motorcycle (3 or more is illegal) or a white foreigner who doesn't know the laws of the land. So the self-appointed judge of the group (he spoke english) declared me not at fault but asked me to bring the guy who was scraped and bleeding to the hospital. I drove him to the nearest clinic as he began to cry and hold his arm. I started to get those same feelings that I had when Corban was lying on the ground crying with a broken arm. It hurts to see someone in pain. I put my hand on his shoulder as I drove to try to give some kind of comfort--we didn't speak the same language. I stayed at the clinic until he was treated and stitched. He had scraps on his forarm, ankle and little toe. I was then handed the bill.

I had already decided i was going to pay for him, which is why i stuck around, but i thought it was humorous that everyone else assumed i was paying for him too. Thankfully it was only $20. Meanwhile i had left the kids with the housekeeper to go shopping and had now been gone about 2 hours. I had bought them saturday morning breakfast (muffins) at the store so it was now noon and they still had not eaten breakfast!! Sounds like my last emergency experience. But my housekeeper was gracious and so was the Lord...no one died!! My biggest prayer while driving here..."Please Lord, help me not to kill any person or cow." Thank you Lord!!

Food...for Thought

SALSALICIOUS!

After a year+ I have found salsa that doesn't taste like ketchup and doesn't cost $4 a jar!!! I am so pumped!! I bought every jar they had at the store (this happens when you find something you like here b/c you never know if they'll stock more! i often buy granola bars by the dozens when found:)
Mexican food tastes 500 times better with salsa! We are still minus cheese but to me salsa beats out cheddar any day. I couldn't stop saying how wonderful my cooking tasted the other night simply b/c it had salsa poured on top of it:) Brian says our taste expectations have been lowered since living here:) I won't take that personal...he did have two heaping plates of fajitas:) My mexican food can't touch Papasitos, or even the craving of Taco Bell at this point, but it just got alot more mexicany in my mouth:)


COMFORT FOOD

Our friends in Minnesota told us of the days when they lived in Japan...every night they indulged in a bowl of homemade brownies and vanilla ice cream. Sounds great right? But would you do that if you lived in America...every night? They don't:) Right Christa?:) (Ok, even if you are a dessert addict you might atleast mix up the nightly menu a little, right?)

I really think there is something about living abroad and being just fine with gluttonly eating the same food over and over that you would normally never let your self eat on a daily basis. It's called comfort food and it overtakes any sensible thoughts of health, maintaining weight or willingly feeding addictions.

Our comfort food has become vanilla ice cream with crushed up Oreos. Fantastically we can get oreos imported from Indonesia here!! And when you make it yourself (i mean crush the oreos yourself instead of buying "cookies n'cream") it comes very close to Blue Bell! Try it! Even when Brian decides to take a night off i still sneak in the kitchen and get a little mini bowl of it:) It's so satisfying and i really do enjoy every bite of it...it's American...it's a treat that has become habit.

Our other addiction, and has been before we moved here, is pizza. We order Dominos atleast once a week and lately have been eating way more than we should of that stuff. We recently found out that Papa John's is now in Bangalore! Oh No!

Musical Chairs (See Post Below)

Concert (See Post below)

Party Week

Friday Brian's company had a huge celebration to mark the milestone of 150,000 customers in 1060 days (a little under 3 yrs). I've mentioned before that they are growing like crazy and Mr. Ghosh, the founder and president wanted to have a day of fun for the employees, customers and their children. We went in the morning and stayed til around 1:00 when I took the boys home for a nap. (The event was 9 hours) We came back to see the last of the party and pick up Brian. Most of the activity was dancing, singing, and skits performed by the employees and customers who had practiced for 2 months! We didn't understand most of it because we don't speak the local languages. But we could tell everyone around us was having fun:) When I came back with the boys they were ending with a concert and most of the crowd was jumping up and down like a mosh pit:) Brian said most of his employees had never been to a live concert and came to tell him that this was the best thing they had ever been to. I'm not sure that they were able to get much work done today after such a great party:) I'm including pics of some of the cultural dancers and a video of the concert (see video above). I missed getting the best part...a girl, dressed like a man (Elvis?), lipsinking in a silver sequined jacket!:D

Yesterday the boys and I went to a friend's birthday party at Pizza Hut (kinda like we used to have parties at McDonald's in the states--maybe they still do?:). We had a great time and I included a short video of musical chairs (see video above) to take everyone back to their childhood party days:)

Last night Brian and I got to go on our 2nd date in a year!!! Thanks to our dear friends who are trading kids with us:) They were in the last post's pictures (minus Isaac the dad).

Can You Read Me Now?

We are finally back up and running on our computer/communication life line. It felt like a month, but in some ways a forced sabbatical from the internet is always beneficial. We've experienced internet disablement a number of times here...it makes you appreciate technology when you get it back.

We've had a busy two weeks...lots of hanging out with friends which is always great. Brian is off tomorrow for Gandhi's birthday!

I'm including some recent pics just to show the boys and I'm sure I'll make up for lost time with more posts soon. There are some pictures of our friends from Ohio who live here...they are leaving in November at which time we will shed tears. They may possibly return in February which we are selfishly hoping :)