Money

It's been about four month since we moved here to India and although there is plenty of things that I can complain about the one thing that I cant complain about is the currency used here. Recently the Indian Rupee has varied anywhere from 47-50 rupee per American Dollar. It is usually pretty easy to do quick conversions in your head to see if you think you are paying too much for something. Such as the 8 dollar pack of Oreos or 12 dollar package of 6 slices of ham. (lunch meat)
What I like most about the currency here is that the paper money has the denominations are distinguished from each other by color and size. The 5 rupee bill is green and is the smallest. While the 1000 rupee bill is the largest I have seen and is red-ish. I have heard that some people occasionally mistake 1000 bills for 100 rupee bills. I though have never had this issue. This is probably because I rarely get 1000 rupee bills since they are difficult to use. If you want to use a 1000 rupee bill at most shops you better have about 900 rupees or more in merchandise. Otherwise the shop keepers give you dirty looks and ask if you have anything smaller.
The only complaint about using money here is that many places do not keep change in their shops. I have received small candies or chocolates instead of change. The norm is that one candy equals one rupee. While I do not get my change back I do get candy so I guess that makes it ok.
In other news a storm is sitting off of Bombay right now so it has rained all day long and will most likely continue to rain for the next day or so. Fun. Because of the storm, the temperature dropped a degree or two which means that every one is now wearing sweatshirts and coats. I however still roam the city in my shorts and t-shirts. Because I still think it is hot. Ok, that's all for now.

Trip to the zoo

A little while back I took the boys to the local zoo with a friend of ours and her children. We had a pretty good time. We arrived around 1030 am which is when the zoo opened. As our driver pulled the car into the drop off area in front of the gate, we were followed by a pack of 8 or so young children who immediately started to beg from us while we attempted to get the kids out of the car. Believe it or not, it is difficult to get 4 kids out of an SUV while being hounded for change. I attempted several times to stop the kids from bothering us while we walked to the ticket booth but I failed miserably. Surprisingly Nathan was the most successfully when he screamed "This is MY daddy!!" to the kids who were trying to tug at my shirt. Luckily when we entered the gate the children did not follow. Although I usually ignore beggars here on principal alone, (even acknowledging them will make it worse the next time they see you. And they will remember a white guy.) I really can't stand it when I have my kids with me because I am trying not to loose them while also fending off the beggars.
The zoo itself was really nothing to write home about. we saw approximately 9 exhibits while walking the 1/2 mile or so to the elephant area. (this is where the kids really wanted to go) out of the exhibits we saw, over half of them did not have any animals visible. Out of the exhibits that did have animals, 3 were different kinds of deer and one was a tiger which was hidden in the undergrowth of the pen and barely visible. The exhibits were so spread out that at one point the kids asked if there was any other animals while walking between two exhibits. When we finally got back to where the elephant area, we found out there was no elephant in site. I don't know if it was not there at all or just hidden from view. The elephant area was rather large with a wooded area and only a path for the elephant to follow around the exhibit.
After finding that there was no elephant, we then had to walk back to the front of the zoo and I had to carry Nathan after he refused to walk back. During this whole trip I slowly discovered that our group was as much as an exhibit there than the rest of the animals. We were stared at, pointed at, and laughed at while they were pointing. I really don't mind this at all. We were the only white people there. Actually, the kids were the real attraction. Little white kids turn heads everywhere we go. whats annoying is that people will grab your kids and try to take their picture. They will do this even if you don't know whats going on. I was walking while carrying Nathan and Alex and his friend Rowan were slightly behind me. I suddenly noticed that Rowan wasn't with me anymore. A family had grabbed her and was taking her picture. Immediately I went over to where she was and yelled at the family and walked off with Rowan. People here have no problem doing this. It is not only annoying but a little scary. You need to be aware of where all the kids are 110% of the time. Most of the people here are innocent but I don't trust any of them.
After we left we were again hounded by beggars while waiting for the car. I gave one little girl an Oatmeal Raisin cookie which I was sure she would have thrown away since they are usually only interested in money. But, she ate it, and I felt that I should have given her two. That's all for now.

Diwali in Pune

So this last weekend was Diwali. I can honestly say that I don't remember ever really hearing about the holiday before. I probably did, but I really don't remember it. Diwali is referred to as the Festival of lights and is a national holiday here in India. It is celebrated in Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, but it is celebrated for different reasons. Where we live, the population is mostly Hindu. In Hinduism the holiday is celebrated in recognition as the inner light that goes beyond the physical being. It also signifies the Return of Rama to Ayodhya. Rama was a King returning to the city of Ayodhya, which is in northern India, after a fourteen year exile after which he rules for thousands of years. It also signifies the killing of Narakasura who was an evil demon who created havoc by the Lord Krishna. The main theme is the triumph of good over evil. the holiday is celebrated over five days.
However, in my ignorant American view of the holiday, it seems to me to be like Christmas and fourth of July all rolled into one. People give gifts, eat a lot of sweets, and are business's have massive sales around the Diwali Holiday. Along with that, for the entire five days and a few extra, fireworks are constantly set off from before sunset until around 1-2 in the morning. To be honest, it gets a little annoying after a while. On the main night of Diwali, we went to our friends house to watch some of the ceremonies and light fireworks. It was generally fun. We lit mostly sparklers and a few flower pots which mainly just shoot sparks up into the air. The kids really didn't like anything else. To them it was too loud. Others though did not have such reservations. the entire city sounded like a war zone until well after midnight. There are very few illegal fireworks here and almost every shop sets up a stand outside to sell them. Explosions constantly rang out and smaller firecrackers that sounded like little machine guns went off in between. The close ones hurt your ears. Especially when I was trying to cover Nathan's ears for him. and the far off ones sounded like something out of a war movie. When we returned to our society (apartment), we were greeted by the entire parking lot covered with debris from the fireworks. These piles were at least a foot thick. There was only a solitary path so that cars could still drive in. but even that was covered in cardboard casings and other trash. Honestly I am not upset that the firework nights seem to be over.
The other really, really, really annoying thing about Diwali is that it seems like everybody thinks they deserve money from you for the holiday. What happens is that your doorbell will ring and when you answer, someone that works in you society is there holding out their hands and saying "happy Diwali". Basically implying that you need to give them a gift for the holiday. Mostly all they expect is 10-50 rupees (20 cents-1 dollar) but it gets really annoying after the 5th to 8th time. I feel like I had every employee of the society come to my door and ask for Diwali money. I did give to the general fund for all of the cleaning staff and guards but that is about it. Towards the end I just acted like I had no idea what they were saying and I just closed the door. I even had a guard stop our car as we were leaving one afternoon and ask for it. It seems like they all get really greedy when this holiday comes around. I remember being slightly annoyed when the Salvation Army people stand outside seemingly every store in the U.S. I feel like giving to one isn't enough. But at least they don't hound you.
The last interesting thing I saw last week was a group of "ladymen" or Hijras. Its a little confusing but they are basically transvestites or eunuchs. This group went around to all the shops and hit up the shopkeepers for money. I "think" it was protection money. Not really mobish but to keep these Hijras from causing trouble for the shopkeeper. Mainly they will taunt the person publicly and make sexual advances in public. I had the boys with me so I think they left me alone because of that. But they gave me a long look so I think they thought about it. Fun. Most of these men were not convincing at all as women. I was more than fifty feet away when I came around the corner and saw them. It took me about 1.347 seconds to figure it out. I saw a show about them and I think culturally there is more to it but at the moment I just wanted to avoid them. ok, that is it for now.

It's Different!!

I have been seeing this commercial lately for a local ketchup brand from a company called Maggi. The also make several other products with the most popular one being Maggi noodles. These are basically ramen noodles in the U.S. but with masala flavor instead of the oriental, beef, chicken, and pork that ramen offers. They are so popular that just using the term "Maggi" means that you are talking about the noodles. And the worst thing about the Maggi noodles is that Nathan absolutely loves them. He would eat them for every meal if I let him. There has been more than one occasion where he demanded Maggi for breakfast. Now, I don't like to fight my son too much over what he eats for breakfast since I am usually trying in vain to keep them as quiet as possible so that Kathleen can sleep, but I draw the line at Maggi. I really don't think that those kinds of foods are appropriate for breakfast.
The ketchup commercial I see now is just a man and his son (I think) talking about something over some food. I have no idea what they are saying because I believe they are speaking Hindi. The tag line for the commercial is "it's different" referring to the ketchup. I don't know about anyone else, but referring to your product as being "different", doesn't really make me want to try it. What I usually think is, different compared to what?, and what does that even mean? You would think that they would want to say that the ketchup is great and how many people love it. But it does not really surprise me here in India that they would use that claim. I recently broke down and purchased a pack of the ketchup. Mainly, I did this to appease Nathan who strongly requested that I buy it every time we went to the store for a month. I haven't tried it yet but when I do I will try to remember to comment on how it tasted. Hopefully it is not that "different".

Field Trip!

Today Alex and Nathan's school went on a field trip of sorts to another school. I think the idea here was to let the kids have class in a different location for a day. I was asked to join the group at the last second since another child became ill and the mother could not go. Also this let me bring my camera along to visually record the days events. Fortunately the day began quite easy compared to other days. Kathleen agreed to get up at 7am with me to help get the boys ready while I got ready myself. This was a feat in itself since she gets home between 3 and 4 in the morning and at that point only slept for around 3 hours. My good fortune ended though when the boys went to school because as soon as we arrived at the school they decided that they did not want to go on the field trip and Nathan, in particular, wanted to go home. After about fifteen minutes of "convincing" they decided to go. The bus we took was not to awful compared to standard U.S. buses. It was however smaller and could not accommodate the 25-30 kids and teachers so we took two vehicles. It took a little while to actually go the 1o miles or so the other school since the drivers of the buses had to stop and ask for directions 3 times. The last time we stopped, we were traveling on a dirt road directly underneath the landing pattern of the local airport that services both commercial and military traffic. I will say that traveling in a bus on a bumpy dirt road is not the most comfortable ride available. We bounced up and down for quite a bit and constantly had to get to kids to sit back down so they would not go flying. As I said before the field trip was basically a normal class in a different setting. The kids played first and then had there snack. After that, they painted and were able to see a few of the animals at the school. ( This school had several different animals. They had rabbits, fish, chickens, cows, and water buffalo. The school was located adjacent to a farm and I think that they had some kind of co-op running.) The kids loved looking at the animals. Each one lined up to be able to hold the rabbit. Nathan did not do any painting as usual. He hasn't been participating in school activities lately. But Alex had a lot of fun painting his bag. First they painted a sheet of paper and then attached it to the side of a bag provided by the school. They also enjoyed the snack which was basically a tomato sandwich. I find this especially funny since if attempted to give them this kind of snack at home they would most definitely not eat it.
We arrived at the other school around 930am and we left at 1130am so the entire trip was only three hours from start to finish. The boys had a blast though. I hope that in the future we can do more of these outdoor activities especially since the rainy season is almost over. I can be assured that they had a great time since they were very sleepy the rest of the day. Tomorrow we are actually planning on visiting the Aga Khan Palace so we will see how that goes. That's all for now. More to come later.

back to school at last

Today after two weeks of no school, the boys finally had there first day back. Of course they were "very" excited to be going back to the classroom. At least they were until we woke up this morning and they refused to cooperate in any way. They did not want to eat or get dressed. When I did get them dressed, it took me ten minutes to convince Nathan to put his shoes on. On the way down from our flat, we did not take the elevator that Nathan wanted or the gate out of our society. This meant that I had to carry him crying to school. And, in our super humid environment, I was sweating like crazy by the time we got to school. At school, neither boy wanted to get their temperature taken. And, neither boy would willingly go into there classroom. I finally had to use the "ripping the band aid" method to leave Nathan in his classroom. (Don't worry, I stuck around downstairs for a few minutes just to make sure he was ok.) Leaving the school after class today was no picnic as well. Again we did not go to the correct gate for Nathan and Alex started up also. Only after a good nap did they seem loose some of today's crankiness. I can only hope that tomorrow is better getting them to school.
In other news I had been intendingto write a bit about the reverse attitude on skin color here. Where in the United States, people use products to become more "tan", here, the goal is just the opposite. There are numerous advertisements on TV that show products claiming to make your skin fairer. This is both for men and women. I cannot believe any of these products can be healthy for you. Exactly how do you de-tan your skin as one local store advertises as a service? I think it is unlikely that de-tanning is good for your skin or any other part of your body. Luckily for me I barely can become tan in the first place so I do not believe I would benefit from de-tanning services. If I find commercials to use as examples I will put them up here. But for the moment, I haven't seen any online. That's all for now, I will try to write more if we can ever get out of the house and do something interesting.

Shut down

This week the city of Pune is practically shut down do to fears over the spreading H1N1 swine flu. All of the schools have been shut down since Tuesday due to the scare. Its not so bad except that the kids are starting to want to do more than play in the apartment. Luckily we had a play date with one of the other Ex-Pats today so we did get out for a little bit but this will be interesting keeping them busy for at least the next week. Schools are not the only thing closed down. All the movie theaters in the city are closed and at least half of the malls. In general, if it is a public place that a lot of people might go to, it is closed. This is going to be true for the next week or so. I am currently most concerned about getting to the market to get groceries for the next few days. The place we normally go to is closed and suppose we could go to Shivaji Market but that wont get us any milk or cereal and such. I am sure we will figure this out in the next day or two but it should be fun. We finally have the opportunity to do some sight seeing this weekend but are going to be stuck in the house waiting for this whole thing to blow over. I know that seems petty but I haven't seen much of the area and I would like to see something besides the 3 mile area around our neighborhood. But the most annoying thing is we also have Alex's birthday next week. We've had problems trying to figure out what to do for his birthday since he is turning five. But, now it looks like that problem is solved since we have no where to go for his birthday and no stores are open to get any present for him. Luckily he is still young and we can probably push celebrating his birthday back a day or two and hopefully by then the stores will be open again. Well, that is all for now. More to come later.

Burgers and Bites

Burgers and Bites have been the only two things on my mind lately. We went to The Hard Rock Cafe last Sunday with a couple of friends and their kids. I had an actual hamburger! It was fantastic. I think we actually all had burgers. After having almost nothing but chicken and vegetarian gravy dishes, I was very excited to have a burger. I don't think it was the best burger I ever had but for overall satisfaction it definitely rates in the top five. It was actually quite expensive by Indian standards at around 300 rupees for one burger. However, this is only about 6 U.S. dollars so it was an ok deal for me. It was slightly undercooked and really needed a few more fries to come with it but after eating nothing but chicken and rice for 5 days in a row, it was fantastic.
The other B-word that I deal with on a daily basis is bites, as in mosquito bites. These guys love me. It must be the American in me or more likely the Buckeye in me. It is hard for me to go one day with out getting at least one bite. They usually target my feet or elbows for some reason but it is really annoying. There's nothing like a really, really itchy foot at 3 in the morning. I have resorted to spraying myself down at 7pm and closing up the windows at 6. but even with this it is difficult to avoid getting bit. I suppose in the future I will need some bug spray with 6000% deet.

The Quest

Finding things that you need here isn't really that difficult. Well, at least for the most part. I have become quickly adapted to the idea that a store that may seem to carry everything does not have the one item that you are actually looking for. It took us a few days to track down a power strip so that we could use our DVD player. (In our apartment there is only one power outlet on any wall. And although in America there are usually two plugs per outlet, here there is only one. This makes plugging in more than one item interesting.) To start with we did not know what to call the power strip. Names for things here are sometimes quite different than in the U.S. We later found out that the power strip or surge protector was actually called a "spike guard". After we knew this we found them in several stores but it took a few attempts to find a good one. I also have been having a tough time finding a plastic tub so the boys can take a bath. We only have a shower and they are really missing being able to take a bath. Even though I have seen them in our friends apartments, they do not know where they came from.
However, my main quest has been to try to find a reliable way to watch Buckeye football this fall. I was told that there would be no problem finding broadcast of Ohio State football. Unfortunately that is not the case. There is absolutely so way of watching the game on television here. I am really not surprised since we have at least six or seven cricket stations but other sports have only sporadic coverage. My only other option is to try to find a way to watch or listen to the games. With the time difference most of the games will start around 10:30pm. I think I can get the games on iheartradio.com but I am not really sure. My parents have offered to point theirweb cam at the T.V. but I am not really optimistic that this will work. If any one has any ideas please let me know. My quest continues to this day. It will not cease until I can listen to the Buckeyes win the Big Ten again. More to come later.

Business Time

Since we arrived here I have had the opportunity to deal with varying different kinds of local businesses. There has been everything from the local Shivaji Market which handles all forms of produce and meat, to Big Bazaar which is the local form of Walmart. Of all these businesses our bank has had me the most frustrated. To make a very long story short, the bank linked our bankcard to the wrong account causing every transaction (besides ATM) to be declined. This makes buying anything besides groceries difficult because we need to always have cash on hand. (In general it is always good to have several hundred Rupees on you anyways just in case.) We have tried to get the problem resolved several times, and each time the bank tells us that it will be taken care of within a few days. Though, as far as I know it still hasn't been taken care of. what astounds me about all of the hassle we have dealt with on this issue is that in the U.S. I am pretty sure it could be dealt with the same day. If not it may take a business day to change over. As of right now we are sitting at three weeks since we first noticed the problem. Waiting for service is very common here. We had a problem with our internet the second week we were here. The call center said it would send someone out so fix it. That was around ten in the morning. (no one will give any kind of time frame for when they would actually show up) About nine-thirty in the evening the technician actually showed up. We wanted to do some shopping during the day but we had to wait around all day for him to show. Finally we were fed up and just went anyways. From what I understand this is how things are done here.

Another interesting difference between the U.S. and India is the sheer number of people that work on a particular job. At Big Bazaar and other shops you will commonly find not just one person or two working in a department or area of the store. These places will have anywhere from five to ten people working. I saw eight people pushing approximately ten carts back into the store. From highly trained first hand experience I know that one person can easily handle that many carts. especially when the carts are half the size of common shopping carts from the U.S. When I went to purchase a DVD player, I had six sales associates helping me. Granted I was the only one in the department at that time but the fact that there were that many people just staffing that area amazed me. If I walked into any random American store I would be lucky if I ran into one sales person when I actually needed them. Even in the little store front shops this is true. one shop that I stopped into a few times not only was crammed with way more stuff than I thought would ever fit into the twelve foot wide shop, but also had five guys working there. A sweet store several shops down had four employees just behind the counter. Actually, all of this should not surprise me. with a population of around one billion it is not hard to believe that places can afford to pay people to work. And, of course, I am sure that the salaries being paid are probably not comparable to any U.S. wage. I know that a lot of people complain about minimum wage in the U.S., but if any random person here made seven U.S. dollars a hours I think they would probably faint.

Most of the shops I have visited would be very reminiscent of places in the U.S. in fact many operate seemingly very similar in set up and operation. Even the Shivaji market would remind anyone of a meat and produce market. Although it might be one from a hundred years ago. The market had four areas: Produce, which by far seemed the cleanest, Fish, Poultry, and Beef, which I am pretty sure was actually water buffalo. The produce section was a pretty standard building where each person set up their table with there goods. It is reasonably clean and they have a pretty large staff that sweeps the floor constantly to remove debris from falling produce. Our cook did all the shopping while I just watched. We ended up spending the equivalent of eight dollars for four grocery store sized bags literally full of veggies. I am not completely sure, but I it felt like it weighed around fifteen pounds of stuff, maybe more. The poultry and fish areas were pretty standard too. the fish was in its own building and the fish mongers had their stuff all laid out so you could see exactly what you were getting. They had everything that could be acquired locally from Indian salmon to jumbo prawns, to small hammer head sharks. We didn't buy anything from there but we walked through so I could see it. The poultry sellers had their own separate stalls that where they prepared the chicken to sell. And, by prepare I mean that they killed, de-feathered, cleaned and cut right in the open. I have worked around meat rooms before so the cleaning and cutting is not new but I haven't been there for the beginning of the process. Needless to say it was "interesting". I really didn't have a problem with it though. mainly because I was pretty sure that the chicken was fresh. Of course for any vegetarian or free range proponent, I wouldn't recommend going to this area. The last section was the "beef" area. I am pretty sure that the cutting area would fail health inspections in at least forty-eight states. The other person that went with us to the market was an American that we met a few days before. He assured me that the meat was good and took me to the butcher he goes to. Everything seemed on the up and up. I just ate some today so we will see if everything works out ok. The meat was cut on very large sections of tree trunks. It looks like they have been there a very long time. Some had the trunks up on legs others had larger sections on the floor. Waste from the "beef" is put into bins for grinding or they might toss small pieces out the windows. I noticed this because a hawk came within a few feet from my head as it swooped down and picked up some bits of intestines. Overall, the market was a very interesting experience. I think I will go back. I know how things work here now. You can pay American prices for stuff just translated into local currency if you go to some of the western grocery stores. Or, you can pay the equivalent of twenty dollars for almost two weeks worth of groceries at the market. I am pretty sure I know which way I will lean towards.
I am sure that I missed a few things about dealing with Indian businesses. But this is a pretty good picture of how things work. If you want something done you need to be patient. But eventually it will get done. And, If you want to save on food you need to be willing to go to the local markets. That's all for now. More to come later.

Jogger's park

Since we have gotten here I have noticed that there isn't very many park areas as we would know it in our immediate area. There are several playgrounds but they are not the best in the world. These playgrounds are usually very small, very muddy, and very old, and in poor condition. One is across the street from the school but I dont know if I would let the boys play there. the equipment looks as if it is going to fall over and the field is almost dirt or mud where the local boys play cricket. The playground in our society consist of a slide, two swings, a seesaw, and a merry go round. If any one from our hometown came across this playground they would probably assume that the equipment was installed somewhere around the 1970's. most everything is made of metal and in dire need of WD40. However the equipment is in fine shape for this neighborhood. the society next to us has a better playground but it is also only a year old so I am not surprised. The closest thing to a park is called the joggers park. It's about the size of two (American) football fields side by side. It has a brick paved path that makes a basic circle around the park and is approximately 500 meters long. I only know this because of the sign at the end of the track that said how far it was. (this is amazing because not only was the sign in English but there actually was a sign available.) Although it is not a huge park it is very nice because it is the largest open green area I have seen since moving here. I like that it gives the boys some room to run with out having to worry too much about whats on the ground. (even in our society the random stray dogs roam around and leave presents. especially in the sand around the playground.) The park is walled in and you have to pay the absolutely huge sum of 1 rupee for and adult and .5o for the children. So for the three of us it winds up being 2 rupees or about 4 cents U.S. They also have a playground out of the 70's but their is a lot less stuff to worry about. We spent about two hours before having to leave because it looked like it was going to rain. Coincidentally this started our three days of solid rain. I hope to take the boys back there soon.

Earlier that day I also went to the local golf course. I walked there from our apartment while the boys were in school. Its only about twenty minutes away on foot but I needed to cross several busy streets. When I crossed Nagar road, which is about 3 or 4 lanes across across on each side. (I am not sure since I was more concerned with not getting run down. ) At the red light there was about 3 dozen motorcycles a dozen or so trucks and about 2 dozen cars waiting ( and sometimes not waiting ) to go. To be honest I waited for some other pedestrians to cross so that hopefully the traffic would at least slowdown when coming near us. It mostly worked. It was at the golf course that I learned the foreigners and outsiders are blatantly charged at least twice as much for services. A round of golf for a local is about 600 rupees. Foreigners however, as clearly marked on the sign, have to pay over 1500 rupees. At our society the same thing happens for the gym. A one year membership is well over double for an outsider (or someone who doesn't actually own the apartment.) for a cab ride you better get the price up front. you can ask for a metered ride but you must absolutely know where you are going. Otherwise they will take you the most round about way possible so as to charge you more. A ride around town will still only cost between 20 rupees and 60, which is slightly more than a dollar, but it is the principle of the thing. That's about it for now. More to come later.

Rain rain rain

Today it rained pretty much all day. Literally. I woke up around 6am (I know, what was I thinking.) and it was raining pretty hard outside. I walked the boys to school in the rain. picked them up in the rain. And during the one break in the weather, we walked over to the mall across the street to get some ice cream for a desert. When we were ready to leave, it was raining. I shouldn't be upset since this is supposed to be the rainy season here. The first we were here it would rain, but not until afternoon and for maybe an hour at the most. Today was a constant hard rain. anyways, it wasn't all that bad. we had a couple of furniture items delivered from the store today so I guess it was ok to be stuck home. It was only a desk and a little cabinet for the kid's toys. at least now we have an area for our computer and their stuff.
I still find myself getting very tired in the afternoon. I must still be adjusting to the time difference. I never really believed in all that jet lag stuff until coming here. One day last week they boys and I just fell asleep on the couch and chairs in the living room. We fell asleep at around 5 in the evening and didn't wake up until about 745 which made trying to get them to bed really interesting. It's been getting better day to day so hopefully we'll be good in a little while. So that way when we go back to visit in the fall we'll be really screwed up.

First trip out of the apartment

Ok. so the day after we arrived Kathleen woke me up about 12ish to get going for the day. We didn't arrive at our apartment from the airport until about 2 in the morning and by the time we got the kids to bed it was closer to 3. We got up and got dressed and I got to meet the maids. they are two sisters who are I think in their early twenties. They seem really nice but they do not speak nearly any English and I speak no Hindi so communication is slow. Its amazing how much dust and debris accumulates in one day so it is nice to have a extra help cleaning the apartment. after they left we finally ventured out to see the neighborhood. we live in an apartment complex that seems to be about 10-15 years old. maybe more. the grounds look very nice from above but on ground level you can tell that some of the pavement and landscaping need some attention. the hallways also look like a coat of paint couldn't hurt. It reminds me a lot of college. our actual apartment it pretty nice minus a few minor details. We do have a very nice gym and also a pool that is available. I am still trying to get a clear answer as to how often and what they use to clean the pool before we go swimming. Again the pool is nice but looks to be a little older. The so called "premier" housing community is right behind our development or society as they call it. from the looks of it, besides the nicer landscaping and a significantly better playground it is really not all that better looking than where we live.
However, the face that live so close to our kids school and Kathleen's work makes our apartment ideal. we also live across the street from a mall that has an arcade and bowling available. There is also a McDonald's there and a KFC and Subway even though I don't think I will ever be able to eat at the subway. we are supposed to stay a way from raw veggies. It might take a while before I am ready to go down that road. Our apartment is also close to a local park is nearby but we haven't been there yet. I haven't been to the golf course yet either but that is only about 2 miles from here, allegedly. The neighborhood does look a little decrepit by American standards but from what I understand it is pretty decent by local standards. Some sidewalks either disappear all together or are falling apart. One section might be 6 feet wide while a few feet down the road it might only be 2 feet wide. A building might be very nice and well maintained while the next one is definitely not. Most stores are just little store fronts which can be pretty intimidating since I am sure they are looking forward to trying to make a buck off us. I am sure I will have more stories about our new city after a while.
Later that day during the first rainstorm of the day we took a walk to the boys school. it is only a few minutes walk down the road from the apartment. Its called Vivero International Preschool. I am really impressed with the school. I know its only been a few days but from what I can tell they really car about all the kids in there school. Every precaution available is taken for the kids safety. It is walled in but pretty much everything is so that isn't surprising. The kids must wear hats when playing outside so that they do not get too much sun. they are required to wash hands when arriving and after almost every activity. plus they must have two sets of shoes so that they can have an indoor set as well. it keeps any of the stuff from the street outside of the school. The staff and teachers are overly polite to the parents and do not mind at all if you show up uninterrupted like I did today when I came back an hour early by mistake. Alex seems to have picked up where he left off and Nathan is really enjoying his new school.
Lastly we went to a store called the Big Bazaar. The closest thing I can compare it to is a micro Walmart. I has just about anything you might need and is pretty big (about 4 floors) but nowhere near as big as a Walmart. We got some basic groceries but had to call it short since Kathleen got a call that her transport was on its way. On a side note one difference in products that took me about three seconds to figure out (at home) was butter. I bought what appeared to be a normal package of regular butter but failed to realize that it was one big block of butter instead of four separate quarters. I guess I will be chiseling butter for a while but now I now and knowing is half the battle. Well, that's it for now. More to come later.

Our new life in India

This week on Sunday the 5th we landed in Mumbai International Airport after our 15 or so hour flight. After some very long debate we decided to accept a job offer for my wife in India. The flight was actually pretty uneventful. I would have hoped for a different food choice since the dinner was geared more for the 95% Indian passengers. Nathan and Alex really didn't each much from there but I was proud that Alex actually tried the rice and ate most of it. He also actually slept for most of the flight which is more than probably the rest of us combined. But after losing pretty much a whole day we finally landed and proceeded to have to spend probably two hours waiting to get through customs and collect our suitcases. All ten of them.
While waiting to get through the swine flu line, Alex kept asking when we were going to get to India. I told him that we were in India and that we were just in the airport. He replied "Where are all of the elephants?" and had several people around us laughing. Luckily the people here have a pretty good sense of humor. The three hour car ride was our family's introduction to the traffic of India. It is the most insane thing ever. I couldn't count how many times we barely missed pedestrians, cars, bikes, or anything else on the road. in the last few days I have seen pedestrians crossing anywhere they please, bikes and cars randomly making Uturns and running red lights, and stray dogs literally sleeping in the middle of the street. It is by far way worse than Columbus on a football Saturday. Our first few days have been pretty interesting. next up shopping, McDonald's and the boys first day of school.

Tuesday

Today is day two of the boys two week swim class at the outdoor pool. Let's hope that it goes better than yesterday. Alex did great. He listened to his teacher and from what I saw tried everything that the class was doing. He moved up this time out of the preschool class and into the level one class. Nathan on the other hand did nothing. He did not even get in the pool. Other parents made it a point to tell me not to worry that they all go through it but I still felt like a fool standing for a half an hour trying to convince a three year old to get into the water. It's a little frustrating since he's been to the pool plenty of times. Today should be better. After that's all done we are coming back here so I can try to get more stuff done in the house. I need to have the house cleared out in the next three weeks so the people renting it can move in. It would normally seem easy but I haven't been able to get much done. The boys have been less than cooperative. and I am trying to be a little sensitive as to what I take out of the house. I don't want them living in a completely empty place for the next few weeks. But I also have to get a lot done so the cleaning can get done before they move in. Oh well, I will do it one way or another.

First Yard Work of the Year

A few days ago I decided that it was time to cut the grass and do other yard work for the first time this spring. I always forget how tiring it is to get out there and do it. I was absolutely exhausted after I was done. I only did the grass and sprayed some weeds. we have an above average size yard for a suburb around here but I didn't think I would be that tired. I didn't even bother to run the trimmer and do all the edging that I normally do. I guess I lost my rhythm for yard work over the winter. Even though I could probably shovel my whole driveway and not be tired at all. Well, at least it is warm.

Bowling with the boys

Today, my sons Alex, Nathan and I went bowling. They have been asking to go now multiple times a day for about a week. It doesn't help that there is a bowling alley right up the street from us and every time we pass it they ask to go. for the most part everything went well. I gave them the basic rules such as: Don't go past the foul line. And, never, never, never put your hand near the ball return opening. (I basically told them that if I saw them get near it we would stop and go home immediately.) The last rule I had to reiterate several times in the first few frames. I won the match with an astounding 109. Nathan came in second and Alex third. Alex though was trying to bowl mostly by himself so I don't think his score was too bad at 68. After the first few frames they really started to pick it up. They both ended up resorting to the between the legs method since they could not quite hold on to the ball to throw it. I did not though. (although, on a side note my friend Casey can score in the 180's by making an approach and at the last minute whipping the ball between his legs. He's beaten me several times by doing this.) We only bowled one game but I could tell that they were getting tired though. It was a pretty fun afternoon for only 11 dollars.

The only down side to the outing was that the bowling alley only took cash. Why, I cant say, but I did not have any on me. Luckily my mom stopped in to see the kids bowl. Grandma to the rescue!! I would definitely recommend a game of bowling as a fun activity for the kids and that's that.

The Great Orange Juice Flood of 2009

I work at a local Drug Store slash Grocery store in our neighborhood part time. I like working here because it gets me out of the house for a few hours every couple of days. And, the extra money isn't bad as well. Yesterday I was in charge of handling the dairy department of the store. Basically, I have to make sure the milk, eggs and other dairy products are filled and nothing expired is on the shelf. I arrived about five in the afternoon yesterday and went into the cooler to check on something. That was when I discovered that the floor was covered in orange juice. Who ever was there before me decided that stacking cases of O.J. to the ceiling was a good idea.
Really?
One stack fell over and seventeen half gallon cartons of O.J. literally burst open all over everything. It took me over two and a half hours to clean everything up. I had to remove four pallets of product so that I could get our floor machine into the cooler and clean the floors. I am pretty sure that around one hundred fifty dollars in product was wasted between O.J. lost and other products that were pretty much ruined from the juice. I should also add in the time it took me to clean it all up.
Really?
What I find funny is that if a cashier where I work is short in their drawer by even a few dollars, they are required to pay it back. But, I am pretty sure the person that decided to stack the cases of O.J. in the first place will probably not get in trouble at all. I think that he or she should be made to pay it back. It doesnt take a genious to know stacking ten or so cases of juice in a single stack is not a good idea. I am aware that most people do not consider this job the most important in the world, but you should at least take the time to do it right. Instead, I get to spend the majority of my time cleaning up 17 half gallons (or 8 1/2 gallons or 1088 ounces) of O.J. and that's that.

The most useful light in my kitchen

The most useful light in my kitchen is the light over the stove. It is by far superior than every other light in there. It has uses beyond simply lighting pots on the stove top. For reasons I cannot explain I will often go into the kitchen and forget to turn the main lights on. The switch is technically outside the kitchen so I often walk past it. And, even though the total distance back to the switch is roughly three feet, I usually just switch on the light over the stove. Its forty watt brilliance seems to be able to illuminate just enough to allow me to do what ever it is that I need to do. I also use it to supplement the main lights when I am preparing dinner after dark. The light over the stove does not get the respect it deserves. Some may consider it an underpowered afterthought. But, it is always there on standby waiting to be used. Whether cooking, preparing, or just pouring a cup of juice, the light over the stove seems to always be in the right place. This is why after much thought I decided that it is the most useful light in my kitchen and that's that.

Quarter sized cookies

Today Alex and Nathan helped me bake one batch of cookies from a recipe provided on the back of a bag of Nestle chocolate chips. They had a lot of fun helping me add the ingredients to the bowl but they did not like the mixer running. The recipe said it made five dozen cookies. I got almost three. Which makes me ask; how big are these cookies supposed to be anyways? Mine were about the size of a coffee cup maybe a bit smaller. They are not huge cookies by any means. But I guess that my cookies do not meet the Nestle standards on cookie size. In the future I will try to keep my cookies to an appropriate dimension so that I can get the full five dozen promised. Although if I get five dozen cookies I might feel worse about eating them because I will have eaten so many more cookies. Eating three dozen cookies must be better than eating five dozen. I guess that I will keep my current cookie size and feel better about myself.

Dad's Cafe

The other day I had a thought that when I decide to go back to work I have a bright future as a short order cook. For the most part, I decide exactly what I am going to serve the kids when it's time to eat. There's only so much that is available in the kitchen to cook. Today the menu includes spinach and cheese ravioli, chicken, maybe corn, and applesauce or fruit cup for desert. But as my sons get older they have this annoying habit of having their own individual taste when it comes to food. Both of my sons love sandwiches. While my older son loves all types of sandwiches, my younger son pretty much sticks with either PB&J or just PB. One likes fish sticks while the other wont touch anything breaded unless its chicken nuggets. My older son will eat most vegetables with a little "encouragement," while my younger son turns his nose up at anything that includes vegetables. He has made some improvement on the fruit side. I recently had someone give me the advice to try using ranch dressing as a bribe to get the vegetables off their plates and in their bellies but I have not tried this yet. I know that some people have extreme success in getting their kids to eat vegetables but I am pretty sure that most parents struggle with this everyday.
Snacking can also get out of hand and hinder eating at dinner time. My wife and I noticed that our sons were snacking too much. Now, they usually get one snack in the morning ( This is unless they sleep in past their usual 7:30 for some reason. But this doesn't happen all that much.) and they do not get a snack in the afternoon. This is mainly because my son gets home from school at 4pm and we normally eat dinner between 5:30-6. Cutting down snacks has significantly helped in getting my older son to eat his whole dinner. My younger son is still stubborn about what food he eats. I am hoping 3 is a turn around year for him.
On average I try to make the same thing for them at the same time. Not only does this show an attempt to get the boys to eat their vegetables, but with two kids involved, it stops some of the bickering about who has what. On a perfect day I try to make one dinner that is for all of us. This does not always work out, so many days I take the orders and get to work. I think it is good to give them some kind of choice so unless I have something in mind (like tonight) I will narrow choices down to 2-3 things and let them choose. I can usually get things going out in a pretty reasonable time. I am thinking about getting a table top bell to ring when the orders are up.

It came in the mail

Even in today's age of high technology most correspondence between you and the businesses still use the United States Postal Service. Even in a lousy economy like we have right now I still get mail that just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Both my wife and myself received letters from our bank recently to inform us that a branch was closing. The letter went on to give us the next few closest branches that could handle our banking needs. Two things stood out about this letter that made me scratch our head. To start with, this information did not have any strings attached to it. I did not need to call to verify the closing of this branch so why could this not have posted on there website or even sent in an email. In fact even posting a sign on this branches door as the bank closed would only have inconvenienced a small few who for whatever reason did not know of the closing. The second thing that confused me was that the branch that was closing was approximately three hundred miles from my house in another state. Why the bank decided that it was imperative to let me know that I could no longer make a six hour drive to deposit my money is still a mystery to me. But now, after probably wasting a dollar or so of their money to send me this letter, I know that I should not use twelve gallons of fuel to withdrawal that twenty dollars I need to go the movies. (well, maybe forty dollars since movies are really, really expensive.)
A second letter I received recently was from my Gas company. It wanted to let me know that If I didn't schedule an appointment to have my meter read, my gas would be shut off. It said that I needed to contact them by 1911264275. Obviously I made the call as soon as possible but again I was generally confused by this letter. Did this ten digit number correspond with a date that I should have know but did not? I tried several different approaches to reading this number but I could not determine exactly when I was supposed to contact them by. Maybe all the people that have been getting laid off were proofreaders. Is it really that hard to make a letter sent to a customer readable? I guess it is.

Treasure Hunt

Yesterday my son decided to start digging in the dirt next to our patio. He has been fascinated with this patch of dirt since we moved in a few years ago. (I think all boys have a natural attraction to digging in the dirt that supersedes all other functions) I even went the extra mile last year and built a 4 x 8 foot sand box for the boys to play in but for reasons I don't quite understand my older son still loves that patch of dirt. Yesterday however, he started a new game where he drew an X into the ground and declared that this was where the treasure was hidden and he needed help to dig it up. I am all for indulging my sons creative side but I cringed at the idea of having a hole next to our patio so I put off digging until it was time for him to go to school. He hasn't mentioned it since but I know this will probably come up again. (my son has a steel trap memory and can remember things that happened two years ago like it was yesterday.)
So I decided that in a few weeks I would bury something in the backyard for them to find. I haven't yet decided what to bury but I am going to draw a treasure map and we will follow the map to a strategically placed X. What to bury is the question. Obviously it has to be something that wont be ruined by being placed in the dirt. A box can be used but I still need to be aware that dirt is not good for a lot of things. And there should probably be pieces of treasure in the ground since I have two sons. Although I have been making headway into teaching them to share, putting two things in the ground reduces the chance of having issues. Also, I have been debating on buying something new or burying an older toy. Right now an older toy is more desirable since I don't want them to have the impression that there is a toy store buried in the back yard.
Personally, I think that this will be fun for them. Not only will it help there imaginations by pretending we are pirates or treasure hunters but the map will make them follow basic directions. The only conditions that I have to remember to tell them is that this is a game that they can only play with myself or my wife. Otherwise I can expect to walk out into the back yard and find a landscape that looks like the moon. Treasure hunt is a fun game, but having try and avoid dozens of small holes can be just a little annoying.