Just Pics

I don't really have anything to say today so here are a few random pictures that haven't been posted yet.

Anna is working on sitting up. She still needs to have something behind her but she is getting better.

Here is another shot of a street in Old City.

A close up of some of the carving at the step well. There was carving like this all over the place.

Us at the step well. There was a really narrow circular stairway at the end by where the water was. Anna liked to play with her hat.

A detail of one of the wall niches at the step well.

A flavor of chips that I assume is only here. It looked intriguing so I bought a little bag. It was interesting.

This is the back of that same bag. I thought it was funny how they described the flavor as "spicy mint". I had never thought of mint as spicy but it sure was.

One night while making dinner, she decided not only to scoot out of her seat but to turn over as well.

Old City

Today we took an auto rickshaw down to Old City. We went early in the morning partly because it gets hot here and partly because people tend to come out in droves on Sunday afternoons and we wanted to go before that. The auto rickshaws are pretty crazy. They have three wheels and are everywhere. There is one seat up front for the driver and a bench in the back. We squeezed three adults into the back seat. While we were driving out we passed another one that was just crammed with people. They were even hanging out the sides! Their motors sound like lawn mower motors and have a little lever that the driver has to pull up on to get it started. Naturally they don't go very fast so I wasn't too worried about having Anna just in the wrap while we were driving.

Here is a shot of where we were walking. It was all about 3 or 4 stories tall and pretty close together, this was a wider street. The green and yellow vehicle is an auto rickshaw and the guy in the hat is Steve.

We didn't have anywhere in particular that we wanted to see, just the place and get a feel for it. So we had the driver take us to a kind of central location. We got out and just started walking. At one point we turned up a very narrow "street" and were walking where people lived. It seemed to be wash day as just about every place had clothes on the line. It dead-ended though so we had to go back out the same way. We were fascinating to the people we passed twice.

The vase we bought. It's not quite a foot tall and is mostly black but with redish patches. It's made out of brass.

Steve from Jason's work came with us (the third adult). He had been given a request to buy a little brass bell for another guy's girlfriend (why she didn't ask her boyfriend we're not completely sure, Steve thinks it's because he is more reliable). So while we were walking and stumbled upon a brass shop, we decided to go in and look for a bell. They had a little, open air shop in one street and a huge, 5 floor store around the corner. We would look around and the guys in the shop would motion that there was more upstairs so we would head up. We saw three of the floors. Steve got the bell for the girlfriend and a little bell wind chime for his wife. We had not intention of getting anything until I saw these vases. I loved them and we didn't think we would be able to find the shop again so we bought one. Someday when I have a house, it is going to go in our Oriental themed dining room.A close-up of the detail around the middle. There was another vase that was shaped differently and had a big peacock design that was beautiful but we liked the shape of this vase better. It feels more exotic.

After the shopping, we decided we were done. We were all hot and sweaty so we decided to head home. Anna slept on the ride back which was impressive because some of the car horns are really loud and right on your tail. She was unfazed. I decided she was either really tired or had passed out from the heat. As she woke up when we went over the speed bumps, I guess it was the former. Also on the ride back we passed a number of carts or areas on the ground selling stuff. There were these totally cute little tables but I have no idea what I would do with one. I'm going to have to be careful about buying things here.

What's for dinner?

This is what Anna does when I'm cooking. I put her in there sitting up but it doesn't take long for her to scoot down. I'm just waiting for her to scoot out.

When we first got here, we thought about getting a cook. There are a couple of people in the office who have them and we thought about hiring one of them to cook at least a few days a week especially since I had forgotten to pack any recipes. Then I remembered allrecipes.com and have started cooking (also, it never actually got to the cook what meals we wanted her for so it was kind of out of necessity).

I started cooking this week. There have been a few challenges. For example, I don't have anything that measures amounts. The closest I have are two 5 oz bottles that I have been using as a rough guide and spoons that we eat with. Also, I have a hard time getting to the grocery store. Grace from work did get us some staples (like a 200 g bag of a cumin-coriander mix) so we have the basics but anything specific I have had to either go without or try a substitution with something that I have (like chili powder for cayenne pepper). I have been able to get a few things from a little market nearby but there are a lot of things on my list that weren't there. And I have yet to get any meat so everything has to be veg (as they say here).

The recipes have been a little bit tricky too. On allrecipes.com, there are reader comments which can be conflicting. The title may say that something is spicy, then one comment says it's bland and the spices need to be tripled while the next one says it's just right. Fortunately with my lack of measuring spoons I'm just guessing on the amounts anyway. Also, I have no idea what anything is so I'm just guessing on how it will taste. I basically choose what to make based on what we have.

So far, the things that I have made have turned out ok. They are often kind of bland though. I guess that's a sign that we are adjusting to the spiciness here. Or they will be hot but not flavorful. Last night we had to add a lot of spices to taste anything at all. This was surprising with the 6 cloves of garlic I put in there but at least it turned out ok in the end. The meals are easy to do. Mostly it's just sauteing all of the ingredients and letting it simmer for a while. Not having an oven really simplifies things. I made a flat bread called Roti and was so proud of myself. It turned out so good I had to stop myself from eating them as I was making them because otherwise there wouldn't have been any left.

Restaurant

Last night we went to a restaurant with a bunch of people from Jason's work. It was called Barbecue Nation. Naturally they had meat which was good. It's been a while since I had any. It is an all you can eat kind of place. The meal starts with a little grill in your table and they bring out skewers of stuff that is already cooked and put it on your grill. That way it stays warm and they have marinades that you can brush on the meat and dipping sauces. There was chicken, prawns, sweet peppers, mushrooms and potatoes. For some reason, I forgot momentarily that I was in India and was a little surprised that it was spicy. Oops. The dipping sauces were a mango sauce, a kind of thousand island and sesame sauce. They also had a mint chutney which was good. Jason decided Anna needed to try the flavors. She liked the mango sauce but did not like the mint chutney.

For the main dinner, there was a buffet with lots of different things, veg and nonveg. I had a tomato soup which was kind of sweet with croutons that were quite sweet. Then I had a bunch of different dishes but have no idea what they all were other than good. Lastly, there were desserts. Apparently Gujarat is known for having a sweet tooth and they have some good desserts. There was ice cream with toppings, an orange cheesecake that was lighter and tasted like a creamscicle, fresh fruit, a pineapple fluff stuff, and a couple of different pastries. I think I had the sweet ball things in a sauce that Hilary mentioned. The people we were with knew what I was talking about immediately and said that was it and that they love them. All of the desserts were wonderful even though I was pretty full at this point and Anna was starting to loose it.

We have noticed that things happen later here. As evidenced by the fact that Jason doesn't start work until 9:30. We were at the restaurant at about 8 and it filled up while we were there. This can get a little tricky with Anna's sleep schedule. Right now she generally goes to be at 8 so any time we go out with people she tends to stay up way past her bedtime. She seems to handle it fairly well because we are usually in a new place and she likes to look around. It does throw off her sleeping the next day though but it's not too bad. I guess I could shift back her schedule to reflect this but I like having her in bed early and having the evening to ourselves. So as long as she still handles the occasional late night well, we'll just keep with it.

Let's just say she will be labeled

(Gigi) I think it's interesting to see the difference in how they label the food here. The packaging is generally in both English and Hindi or sometimes just English. It makes me wonder what people do who don't speak English. Maybe they just know what's in the packages that they want.

Also, there are some things that I didn't realize are US standards like where the size of the package is. In the US, it's always on the bottom of the front. Not so in India. Generally it is on the back but I have also seen it on the top and it'll often be really small and hard to find. The nutritional information I know is just a US standard but it kind of throws me off when there isn't any at all. When it is there, there is less information and the order is all different. For example, on the jar of jam there is: energy, protein, carbohydrate, fat, vitamin B3, and minerals.

The expiration dates are different too. Generally, printed on the label it will say that it is best within so much time from packaging. Then, stamped somewhere on it will be the manufacturing date. It is also common to have the manufacturer's retail price printed on the label. Imported things will also have the date of import on a sticker. Imported stuff also has a lot of different languages on it. We had a package of pasta that had maybe ten different languages on it.

Everything has a little symbol in it that his a box with a dot on the inside. So far I have noticed these in either blue or green and I think it has to do with being vegetarian and the different levels of it. Pretty much everything we buy here has a green symbol but the bread's symbol is blue. I'm not sure what that means and wonder what the color would be if there were actually meat in something.

Pouches

Food packaging is different here. They seem to like to put things into pouches. Even things that you wouldn't think would go in a pouch. We get laundry soap in a pouch (powdered) our spices are in pouches and even our milk comes in one. Then the other day, Jason was visiting a construction site for a project that he was working on and they handed out little pouches of water. We thought that was funny.

The interesting thing about the milk is that we have a milk man of sorts. We buy milk coupons and leave them right outside our door at night, one coupon for each milk pouch we want and in the morning, there is milk on the doorstep. I don't know how much the milk costs in the store but we can buy 10 coupons for 110 rupees (about $2) and we go through about 2 pouches in three days.

At first we tried to close the pouch with a clothes pin after opening it (I love clothes pins for kitchen things like closing chip bags and stuff). That worked pretty well but then I found a little pitcher that the milk fits in so perfectly that I would have thought it was made for it.

Another funny thing about the milk is that while it is pasteurized, it is not homogenized. So, after it has been sitting in the pitcher for a little bit, there is a cream line and we have to stir it up so we don't get cream chunks in our cereal.

Food

I thought I would take a little bit of time and talk about the food here. I'm a little ashamed to admit that we never had Indian food before we came. I know, we knew we were coming, there are good Indian places in Philly but somehow it never quite happened. I guess we thought that we would have Indian food once we got here so what's the rush? So now we have had Indian food and we like it.

For those of you who know, we have never been big fans of spicy food. My example has always been that we eat mild salsa. Naturally I was a little bit wary of coming to a place that is known for some of the spiciest food anywhere. In fact, a lot of people asked us when we first came how we like spicy food. We have found, though that spicy doesn't just mean hot, it means with spices. They use more spices here than anywhere else I know and they aren't just herbs. They are more like powdered stuff that I don't even know what they are. We are adjusting to the spiciness. It's not as bad as I had feared and I find it doesn't hinder the flavor too much. We are worried about going to London after this. The British are not known for their exciting cuisine. We'll probably spend the first while just eating Indian take-out.

A couple of idiosyncrasies about where we are. The state of Gujarat where we are is a vegetarian and dry state. The dry part doesn't really apply to us but the meat is a little tricky. It is possible to get meat in the Muslim part of town but even there it's just chicken and fish and there is a guy that I have heard about who sells eggs. We haven't gotten to either of these places yet so really the only meat that we have has is when we order out.

My cooking at home has been western food. Mostly because I don't know how to make Indian food. So we have a lot of pasta. I made an Alfredo sauce yesterday and the other day put together a marinara of a sorts with fresh tomatoes. I was so proud of myself. I even put together a stir fry with veggies and tofu. Jason especially liked it because it wasn't Indian or pasta. I'm going to see if I can find some Indian recipes online and try to make those partly so I can make it here and so that when we leave, I can make it when we are back in the states and missing it.

For lunch, Jason has his food brought to him. A couple of guys in the office have cooks who make their lunch and bring it in and they share it with him. So he is really getting used to the Indian food. I tend to have left-overs from the night before. We are both getting used to the spice and Anna doesn't seem to be bothered by it. In fact, yesterday Jason decided that she needed to taste it and I decided to let him. So he gave her a taste. At first, she wasn't so sure but then she decided that she liked it.

Should have seen that one coming

Man, I don't blog for one day and I feel so cut off from everybody. I'll have to remember not to do that again.

So when we came here, we had every intention of bringing Anna's crib. I packed it up and it was with the rest of our luggage when we went to pick it up after the week with my brother. Unfortunately, we were thinking of other things and had forgotten completely about the port-a-crib in a box next to our suitcases. I remembered when we were on our way to NY and we didn't have time to go back and get it. We said we would just get one here.

Well we got here and as Anna wasn't rolling over from back to front yet, we decided to just have her sleep in the middle of the queen size bed that is in her room. Even when she did start to roll and would move around, I didn't think anything of it because there was a lot of crap on her bed that served as a bumper. Unfortunately, it also looked messy and un-moved in and I have been wanting to finish getting her room put together.

Then two nights ago I did. I pulled off the dirty sheets to wash, put down the blanket, moved her books to the little table and put her dirty clothes in a hamper. I felt so good to have that finally done, like in The Incredibles where she finally unpacks the last box. Then yesterday morning, we woke up to her on the floor.

Her cry was different and I could tell that something was wrong. When I went in her room and she wasn't on the bed, I knew what had happened and while walking around to the other side of the bed, I was so afraid there would be blood (we have tile floors). There wasn't. I scooped her up and took her to my room to check things out. She calmed down easily with her binkie and I gently checked out the back of her head. It seemed a little sore but definitely still intact. I checked our book What to Expect the First Year in the first aid section under head injuries. They mentioned things to look out for and to monitor her for 6 hours. I also compared the height of the bed to her height and the ledge around the bed only comes up to her chest so it's not as tall as I had feared.

After that, she had a great day. She was happy and took good naps but still woke up after a reasonable length of time. There weren't any problems that the book said to look out for and while I was quite shaken up, she has probably forgotten that it happened.

So now we really need to look for a crib. I asked Jason to ask at work where we could get one but he didn't get a chance. I'll remind him again on Monday. Rather than make her bed messy again, I got pillows and blankets and made a bumper all around her bed. So naturally she hasn't moved in her sleep since then but as I have now learned, it doesn't take much. Now I just have to hope she doesn't smother in her bumper.

Police Station

Working on her pout

So yesterday I casually mentioned that Jason had to go to the Police Station. I guess I should explain that one a little bit. For Jason's Visa he got a year long one (I don't know why it wasn't just 6 months like ours but oh well) and the India government requires people who will be in the country longer than 180 days to register with them within a certain amount of time of coming into the country. Quick mental math will tell you that 180 days is about 6 months and we are only going to be here for 3 so surely that's not us. Well, yes and no. Jason asked about it at work and they said that while he technically does not have to register with the government, it would be a good idea to contact the police station and let them know what is going on and that he is here. So he went the other day but they said there that he needs to go to the main station and talk to the police commissioner so that is what he was wanting to do yesterday. Unfortunately, he was never able to go so I think they'll try today.

Natually a hit

This was at Josh and Megan's house. We got out of the shower and Anna had pulled her arm out of her sleeve and was playing with/chewing on the sleeve. It was hilarious.

Today I took Anna to Jason's work for a little bit. People in the office (particularly the girls) have been wanting to see her and I had to go there to get more money from Jason to pay the cab driver so we went up. I was a little bit nervous because she was a sleep when we went up so I was worried that she would be cranky. Fortunately she is a really curious girl and was very interested in the new place and people. In fact, she barely made a sound and was happy to be passed around and admired.

Grace was really funny with her. She made sure that everyone knew that she was there. There are two different work areas. The larger one is where Jason works and we spent more time in there. Then we went over to the second area and spent a little bit of time in there. After that we sat on the bench in the lobby and waited for Jason to get us a ride home (he had to go to the police station anyway and we figured they could drop us off on the way). While we were waiting, Grace came and took Anna and showed her to the second work area again but this time, she took her to each person individually and showed her off as if she was her own granddaughter. It was very cute.

People always seem to point out her cheeks which are getting to be a respectable size. They even like to squeeze them a little bit. One thing that I have noticed that's different then in the US is that in the US, everyone would comment on her hair. Here, people don't, that I know of. Also, in the US people would ask how old she is while here people ask what her name is.

Monkeys

Yesterday while Jason and I were out walking, we saw our first monkeys (not this one, we didn't have our camera with us at the time). They were sitting on a house on the side of the road, abut 4-5 of them. They were bigger than I was expecting and not particularly cute. Then, last night when Jason went out for something, he said they were outside our building. This would all be just mildly interesting except for something that Grace said a few days ago. She was commenting on the nice breeze (strong wind) that blows through our house when the doors are open but gave us a warning. She said that we have to be careful that monkeys don't come into the apartment! When she said it, we hadn't even seen a single monkey anywhere, let alone anywhere near our open doors to worry that they would climb inside. I must admit it, we even kind of chuckled and joked that maybe it was just something she said to new people to freak them out rather then the sage advice of a local who knows what she is talking about. So after seeing the monkeys yesterday, I guess it is sage advice after all. Of course, I have no intention of closing my doors during the day, the wind is the only thing that keeps this place relatively cool. So I guess all we can do is keep closing the doors at night and hope that there is nothing particularly interesting about the inside of our apartment to entice monkeys to enter.

Look at me and my bad self

Today I was forced to be rough and tough and go out on my own. It all started when we realized that we were running dangerously low on diapers. In the grand tradition of me, I put off getting more as long as was humanly possible because 1. I always put things like that off and 2. the store where we knew they would have some is too far away to walk so we would then have to arrange a car. There is a car service that a number of the expats from the office have used before but the number that he got for them yesterday didn't work and we couldn't find their web site. We do have a grocery store closer to us but we didn't know if they sell diapers in the grocery stores over here.

So this morning, Jason asked about a work driver but they weren't too keen on the idea so we didn't push it. I thought I would then have to walk to the grocery store that was rumored as being near us (we have driven past it but that's not always a reliable way to judge distance) and hope that they sell diapers. So I put Anna in her wrap and was getting ready to go out the door when Jason called again with information. He had the right number for the cab company and the web site. He also had been talking to a girl that he sits near and she said that drug stores carry diapers (or nappies as they call them here) and we had seen one when we took a walk around our neighborhood the other day. So there were two options for getting what I now desperately needed as Anna was wearing the last diaper and had pooped.

So, since she was already happily in the wrap, I decided to "go with what you know" (our motto of a sorts) and walk to the drug store. So we took off down the street, just the two of us. The funny thing about walking here is that we are shamelessly stared at. People will ride by on bikes and just turn around and stare as they pass and quite a while after that. There are also a number of produce carts along the way and the people there stare at us as we go by too.

After feeling like I had a spotlight on me (maybe that's how I looked as the only blond out there) I got to the store. It was a little farther than I had remembered it but not bad. They had a few grocery items along with other household things. It wasn't really a drug store as just a little convenience store. I found the diapers and they even had recognizable brands like Pampers and Huggies. Yeah! Then I had to choose her size. At her last doctor's appointment, she weighed 13 lbs 11 oz and was wearing size 2. Unfortunately, neither of those numbers was helpful to me as the weights were only in kg and the sizes were more like S, M, L. I stared dumbly at the different packages for a while and decided to go with the medium Pampers as they had a little picture of a baby crawling on them and while Anna doesn't crawl yet she is closer to that then not. The weight range was 6-11 kg and that sounded better than 3-8 kg or 9-14kg. I then wandered the store for a little but more trying to decide if I wanted to get anything else that we could use or just wait until we go to the store again in about 12 diapers. I decided to wait although I did get myself an ice cream bar for the walk back.

By the time we got home, we were both very sweaty and Anna had started to get a little fussy. I couldn't blame her at all considering the circumstances and the fact that she had a really short morning nap. I changed her right away (no one should have to put up with poop for that long) and they were the right size. Yeah! They are not, however, the same as they ones in the states but I'm sure they will still work. Now, we are both pooped and that's probably as productive as I am going to be today.

Sunny, 72. The next weather report will be in 4 days.

(L.A. Story) That is so far from the weather here that it's not even funny. It is mostly sunny although it can get hazy and it's really hot. It's been in the 90's. This wouldn't mean much to me (as I don't yet leave the house really) except that we don't have central air. We do have smaller AC units in the bedrooms (which is good) but not in the main body of the apartment. This would be completely horrible except that there is a ton of wind. Air flow is the name of the game here and as we are on the 8th floor, there is lots of it. With all of our balconies, we open up all the doors and let the air flow freely. Add to that the ceiling fans and it can get hard to keep down loose papers (seriously, we have lost a couple out the back door).

The down side to all of this wind is that our floors get really dirty. There is an empty lot across the street which is just dirt and it blows in. My feet get so dirty that by the end of the day, I have to wash them before I go to bed. I think the wind is also drying me out. My feet are definitely starting on their callouses and I'm trying washing my hair every other day (which I have never been able to do before, not even in Utah).

We are also starting to get rain. We had a big storm the first day we were here with thunder and lightning (although I slept through most of it) and it has rained a number of times since then. These aren't the monsoon rains yet (though they will be coming before too long) but they have been just about every day and can get pretty strong if not for too long. The rain does cool things down but mostly I notice that it cuts down on the wind.

It is pretty humid (the rain has to come from somewhere) and I am just a little bit sweaty almost all the time. I have been surprised at how little this is all bothering me. While I have always taken cold much better than hot, I'm not that bothered by the hot and have taken the sweat in stride. Even Jason doesn't mind the wind (which till now has always been his weather nemesis). We are definitely being blessed to enjoy the weather.

(This picture is not here. This is on the mall in DC when we were visiting with Josh and Megan)

Exploring

Today we went out and about in the wide world. Jason has to work at least a half day on Saturdays so Sunday is really the only day that he is off off. If we weren't used to school when he is gone all day on Saturdays this would be more annoying than it is. Back to today. We arranged to have one of the office drivers (there are two and we can use them when they are not busy with office stuff) and Bindu's car take us out and about with Kaustav (an Indian from the office who is working here for just a couple of weeks, I didn't really get his story). There was some confusion with the car and we ended getting out later than we had planned but in the end it all worked out.

This is Adalaj Vav which is a step well that was built in 1499 for a chieftain's wife for hanging out with all her friends. While in the US we might just dig straight down and get a bucket, they dug in at an angle and used stairs to get to the water and offer lounging spaces under ground. It was then open from the top where the water was as well as at various points along the way. The lighting was really dramatic with the sun and shadow so the pictures were a little tricky, yeah for photoshop. We noticed that a big difference between here and if it were in the US is that here we were able to just climb all over it. In the US there would be guard rails practically everywhere so people didn't hurt themselves. I was also very glad that Anna is not older and was content to be in the wrap.

This is a view up the main well.

Here we are exploring.

This is the pavilion space as the stairs go downward.

Detailing of elephants along a wall.


Looking back up the steps.

From there we went to Sabarmati Ashram which is Gandhi's place. This is where it was really nice to have a native with us who could explain things. It occured to me that it was too bad that I hadn't seen the movie before but Kaustav was able to explain things to us. It helped us realize how great he is to the natives by thinking of what George Washington would be like to an American in about 1800. It's in the middle of town right along the river.

Gandhi's actual seat, wool spinner, etc in his bedroom.

Jason and Kaustav on Gandhi's porch.

Ellen and Anna in front of Gandhi statue (behind).

From there we went to the India Institute of Management. This is a really prestigious business school that was designed by Louis Kahn (a famous architect who taught at Penn). It was technically closed so we could only walk around the outside. As you can see, lots of brick.

Louis Kahn Plaza in the center of the campus.

Corridor

Lastly, we went to a famous Indian Architect's office that is still an active firm. It occurred to us that if it were any day but Sunday, we wouldn't have been able to go in there. hehehe The grounds were really pretty.


Anna was great for this whole trip even though it was hot and humid and we woke her up from her nap for it. She was able to sleep in the car (the well is in a neighboring town) so I think that helped. She was loved and admired everywhere. Sometimes too much so. When we got out of the car at the well, we were next to a mango cart (it's mango season) and one of the people wanted to hold her. Naturally we said no. Then when I was getting into the wrap, we let our driver hold her but he wouldn't give her back and started going down the steps with her! I was NOT ok with this and followed closely until we got to the bottom where Jason had to coerce her from him and give her back to me. I know they mean well but sometimes they are a little too friendly. Also, when we were at the well, another guy there took a picture of Anna and I. The lady by the mango cart got a picture with us also.

Tagged

Here is the view from our living room balcony. We are on the 8th floor. The day was a little hazy when I took this. Generally though we don't have much pollution and it's really clear.

I have been tagged by my sister Hilary. I was going to post pictures of our place today anyway so I'll just add a few extra ones to go with the tagging. So I will start with the tagging pictures and add the other ones after that.


1. Sink: Here is our kitchen sink. It's small and forces me to do dishes frequently which is good because we don't have very many dishes.

2. What Anna is doing right now: Sleeping, naturally. This is prime blogging time and it happens a lot as she is still doing two naps a day. As you can see, she is working on rolling over from back to front. She doesn't do it very often and doesn't quite make it all the way around when she does but she is working on it. Fortunately, she isn't doing it while I change her diaper yet. I thought about rolling her over but I didn't want to wake her up and she can roll over by herself, even in her sleep.


3. Laundry Room: We don't really have a laundry room so much as a porch for the washer with some bars to hang our clothes out to dry on. These clothes have been out since last night and the last time I checked, they were still a little bit damp. Apparently, clothes take a long time to dry when it is very humid and has rained (although they are covered so I don't think they were actually rained on).

4. Toilet: I wasn't going to take a picture of the bathroom because there is nothing really special about it but oh well. It does have pretty tiling. I think the hose next to the toilet is to clean the bathroom with, there is a drain that you can't see behind the toilet and a lip between this room and the bedroom.

5. Closet: We didn't bring many clothes with us because we knew it would be hot and I am in the middle of laundry so it's pretty empty. Jason's side has more clothes because he had to bring work clothes too. I also use this for toiletries' storage. As you can see I brought lots because I didn't know what we would be able to get here and I was shopping at Costco so why not?


6. Favorite Room: I don't really have a favorite room here yet so I guess I will say the bedroom because it has AC (more on that later) so I go there if I get too hot during the day. The door next to the bed is the bathroom and the closet is next to the doorway where the picture was taken. That blanket is very light which is good although sometimes is can get chilly with the AC and the ceiling fan both going.

7. Fridge: I added the bouncy chair for scale, it isn't usually right there. Our fridge is small but gets the job done. One funny thing about it is that it has a lock. I don't know why I would want to lock up my food, maybe if I didn't trust my roommate?


8. Favorite pair of shoes: Other than church shoes, these are the only pair I brought with us. I bought them right before we came and they are pretty comfy because they are Dr. Scholls. So far I've decided not to wear socks with them because I think it looks dorky. I'm thinking of getting some sandals here though because when we walk along the road, I get dirt in them and the dirt will come out of sandals easier. They do velcro tighter.


9. Self Portrait: I didn't shower with Jason before he went to work because he was running late and I didn't think he had time for me too so I haven't showered yet today but here I am, looking about like I have before but sweatier. I think I have decided that while I do like my haircut, I think the bangs are funny when my hair is in a ponytail (which it always is) so I'm thinking of growing them out.

10. Dream Vacation: As I am in India in Mango season I'm kind of having a hard time coming up with where I would want to go although family is always good to visit.

Now I will tag Amanda and MaryRuth.

Now on to the other pictures to tie these all together:

Our living room. There is a TV off camera and the door is to the left. Those windows look onto a balcony. There are also two ceiling fans.

The Dining Room. As you can see this is right off the living room and our bedroom is to the right. I think the chairs are kind of funky and the table is glass topped. Anna's seat is propped on two chairs so she can be a part of meals.
The Kitchen is if you turn around from the dining room. The door to the left (where the light is coming from) is the balcony with the washing machine. Behind the fridge is a pantry for our food. Notice there is no oven. We have a countertop stove and a microwave. Bindu (a woman in Jason's office who lives one floor up) has a countertop oven if we want to use it. Grace (the office secretary who is very nice) asked if I wanted an oven but I declined as it would just make the place more hot. The white thing next to the sink is our water purifier so we get safe water and don't have to buy bottles.

This little wall with shelves is next to the door to our bedroom and separates it from the next room and Anna's room (which I don't have a picture of but the door is visible to the right. There is also a sink to the right and another bathroom that you can't see next to it (towards the camera).

This is the room behind that wall. Anna's bedroom is to the right. I guess it would be a sitting room. The glass doors lead to another balcony and there is an unused master bedroom behind that door.
Here is the bedroom we don't use. I think it's the master bedroom because it's a little bit bigger and the bathroom is bigger with a nicer shower. We don't use this room because it has boxes in it from the office and it is more out of the way. Plus, I realized all of this after I had unpacked our stuff and didn't really want to move it. So the room goes unused. Rumor has it that when people come from the states to the office for a short time, we will be their host (which is why we got a three bedroom apartment rather than a two) in which case, they will get this room.


And finally, here is the view from the back balcony. As you can see, we are kind of on the edge of town in a newer area.