Happy Diwali!!!

Fireworks have been going off in our neighborhood at all hours for the past week, but last night marked the big Diwali celebration. After playing some horshoes, eating some delicious McDonald's, and watching (and setting off) fireworks from a friend's balcony for a good 4 hours, a tired Ruby and I returned to our apartment to find our landlord had decked out the front yard these beautiful candles and flowers. The holiday apparently commemorates a lot of things (the triumph of light over darkness, the return of Lord Rama from his 14-year exile) and is one of the biggest holidays for hindus, jains and sikhs. Happy Diwali!!!

Lighting Stuff On Fire!

Last sunday we arrived back from an awesome vacation in Sri Lanka (post to come) where we had some great weather and hung out on the beach for a couple days. Upon our return however, I immediately headed out to watch some celebratory effigy burning for the hindu celebration of Dussehra. As the story goes (or as I understand it) Dussehra is the celebration of the victory of Lord Rama over the demon, and king of lanka, Ravana. Ravana apparently stole Rama's wife and brought her to Sri Lanka, so Rama had to go kick his ass (along with his brother and son) I had heard from our friends Jason and Justin that there would be some big effigies set on fire near their neighborhood of Visant Vihar. After a little searching, and some help from a friendly tuk-tuk driver, we were able to join a crowd bound for some Dussehra fun down the road in Air India Colony. As we approached the school grounds where everything was going on the crowd became immense, with people lining streets and perched atop the school building itself. Check it out. These people had a great view of the three tall effigies (Ravana, his son Meghnadh and his brother Kumbhakarna) that were to be set on fire following a reenactment of the battle between Rama and Ravana. While we couldn't really see the dance from our spot within the crowd on the field, we could see the massive figures of the demon and his family. Everyone was super excited to see these guys go up in flames, and after the reenactment the first one was lit. I expected that it would burn gradually until the wood broke and it fell to the ground. Wrong. Arjun, one of the drivers at AES who we had run into with his children on the way to the grounds, informed me that inside of each figure were tons of fireworks, and that the burning would be way more intense. Indeed it was. Once Ravana's brother went up the crowd began to cheer. His son (whose burnt corpse I would later raid along with tons of schoolchildren) was next, leaving the demon king Ravana for last. Of course, his demise was loudest and brightest. Once the big guy went down all the children (us included) rushed towards the fallen demon bodies to salvage a piece of the corpse. Apparently they are to be kept in the house for good luck until the next burning, when you get a fresh one. After much effort and a couple splinters I was able to grab myself a piece of Ravana's son Meghnadh (Ravana was all gone within seconds). So now when we walk Ruby we have the protection of Lord Rama. Needless to say we are way more hardcore. Stray dogs watch out!

The Only Real Sport at the Commonwealth Games

LAWN BOWLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you ever want to see a different type of athlete make your way to a lawn bowls match. With the Commonwealth Games being held here in Delhi for the past two weeks we thought it would be a perfect time to check out this awesome, bocchi-like sport. After driving around Nehru stadium with our friends Kate and Jason looking for the entrance for a bit, we were able to find the ticketing booth where we could pick up the 50 Rs. tickets I had purchased earlier online. Though there was a huge line it seemed most people were trying to buy tickets for some of the more popular events for later in the week (we would soon learn that lawn bowls was NOT one of the more popular sports). As a result, we got to bypass the line and a helpful volunteer came out of the back of the booth with our tickets a couple of minutes later. We also got to skip the long line of people trying to get into the stadium to see the track and field events. Instead we were whisked through the entrance to the lawn bowls "rinks" and into the action. As I mentioned earlier lawn bowls is similar to bocchi, except don't ever tell a lawn bowler that. We ended up watching the Canada vs. Cook Islands match with some relatives of the Canadian bowlers (and avid bowlers themselves) and they had some no-so-kind words for the inevitable bocchi comparison. The major difference between bocchi and lawn bowls, aside from the more complex scoring system in the latter, is that the bowls used in lawn bowls are "on the bias". Basically this means they are like thick donuts with no holes and so they can travel on a curved path towards the small white ball (called the "jack"or "kitty"). The Canadians spent a good deal of time explaining some of the finer points of the rules and strategies in lawn bowls, but I've totally forgotten it all. What I do remember are seeing some sweet bowls from some incredible athletes from islands and countries that don't often get the chance to be in the spotlight. Go Niue!

Back with a vengeance....and garlic naan pizza!

Sorry we've been gone for so long! The end of the 1st quarter at school and our October break meant we have not been able to do as good a job updating as we would have liked. But we're back, and we haven't been completely lame over the past couple weeks. For example... A couple of weeks ago we decided to experiment with one of the delicious treats we've been eating here in Delhi. Moti Mohal, our local north Indian restaurant, has the most ridiculously large garlic naan that we have ever seen. Even more impressive is the not-so-subtle teardrop shape. Regardless of whether or not they are tears of joy or self-pity, when you've finished one of these guys you are definitely crying. Our first time we ordered one Kelly had the genius to wonder what could happen if we made pizzas out of these deliciously garlicky bread tears, and once she proposed it I couldn't stop thinking about it. Finally a couple of weeks later we organized some other, equally excited friends and put our plan into action. While there were some setbacks (our Indian-sized oven, some questionable pepperoni, and a garlic naan that was pizza-ed with the garlic on the bottom) we ultimately prevailed, and a delicious tradition was born.

Sorry!

Sorry for the delay. We've been busy and have not been giving the blog the attention it deserves. Since we last posted, Jake got Dengue Fever, also know as Break Bone Fever. It's transmitted by mosquitoes, so we are being super careful and applying repellent EVERY time we leave the house. He was out of school for a week. He is now feeling MUCH better. He's been back at school and back in the swing of things. On Mondays and Wednesdays, Jake is taking Hindi classes. He's already learned a lot and has been practicing on Ruby whenever he has free time. Our weeks have been busy and the weekends even busier, but we managed to get out of town last weekend to head to Jaipur in Rajastan. Jake and I, along with 12 other newbies and their families, headed in two vans for a 5 hour drive towards the desert. We did some shopping, visited a Monkey Temple, saw the Amber Fort, and checked out some of the other sites. I'll post some pictures in the next post. One of our friend's shipments arrived yesterday. When we asked about the status of ours, we were told that India is experiencing it's worst monsoon season in 10 years and they did not know where our stuff is. I expect we'll get it in early October! We are missing everyone, but time is flying by so quickly that is it going to be winter break before we know it.

Monsoon Season

At first I thought Monsoon season? Ha, it doesn't rain that often, and when it does, it's only for an hour or two. And then, there was this week. The rain is incredible, coming down in torrents, lasting for hours. Yesterday on my way to school, even wearing a raincoat, I was completely soaked after the 5 minute walk. Last weekend, while shopping, I got caught in a storm for maybe a minute and was drenched from head to toe. The street where was I walking was flooded past my ankles within minutes. So here we are, on Saturday morning, ready to enjoy all that Delhi has to offer. Instead I am laying on the couch playing on the internet because the rain is crazy. My plans for once is calms down: shopping for fabric and arm weights (I started Jazzercize class this week. Yes, it is awesome.). Beyond the weather, all is good. We have successfully completed and enjoyed two weeks of teaching. We purchased our first Indian rug, from Kashmir, right outside Srinagar. (See post entitled Carpets and Ruby in India, picture number 10.) Our apartment is feeling more and more like home. We have met a lot of great people and made good friends. We have booked a trip to Neemrana Fort for a faculty retreat next weekend, Sri Lanka for a week in October with a group of new teachers, Hong Kong in November for Thanksgiving with my brother, and Philly/Boston/Vermont/Amsterdam for Christmas and New Years. Ruby is still going well. She has made some nice dog friends and so far successfully evaded the mean street dogs. Her only problem is sometimes having to wait to pee until the monsooning stops. Jake found a place and group for weekly soccer and ultimate frisbee if he decides to join. Our biggest frsutration now is waiting for our sea shipment to arrive, as no one seems to be able to give us a clear answer when it will get here. Of course, silly me, put our umbrellas in that shipment, so they should arrive just about when monsoon season is over. We love and miss everyone! Come visit! See you at Christmas!!

FAQ

How is living in India? So far...great! It's definitely a little bit different then we expected, but we are really enjoying ourselves. Living close to the school and embassy makes everything easier. We are very busy with school right now, so exploring is temporarily on hold except for some weekend market shopping. Did you make friends? Yes, there are some great fellow newbies and we are getting to know a lot of other teachers. For those familiar with Tuesday Night Dinners, we have started it up here in Delhi. This week will be hosted at our house. You have a maid? How's that? Weird. But also nice. The housekeeping profession here in Delhi is very established, and most receive what is considered by local standards to be a middle class income. Our housekeeper/cook/dog walker takes Ruby out a couple of times during the day and also does a bit of cooking for us. She is an AWESOME cook who has worked in the past for Italian, French, Korean and American families, so her repertoire is pretty varied. Just the other day she made us an amazing spicy, coconutty vegetarian dish from her home state of Kerala! What have you been eating? Delicious Indian food (Kelly LOVES all the choices), as well as Thai (there's a good place within walking distance), middle eastern, italian...you name it! We even had DELICIOUS mexican food in Connaught Place (the heart of New Delhi). Each state in India also has an office here in Delhi (most in our neighborhood) so we've also been able to eat some great food from other parts of the country. Last week we went over to the Sikkim House and had some tasty veggie and chicken momos (steamed dumplings)! Tasty! We havent been doing a very good job of keeping track of the names of Indian dishes that we like, but we will promise to do better! How's the weather? Wet. It gets pretty hot and humid and then pours down rain. Thankfully we are in climate-controlled buildings for most of our day, truly a luxury! The air quality right now is quite nice, however it will get much worse as the temperature gets nicer (cooler) because people will start burning whatever they can find to stay warm. What's the time difference? When and how can I talk to you? Delhi and the rest of India are on India Standard Time (IST) which is currently nine and a half hours ahead of the US. We have Skype and can be reached through that, our name is rjkabroad, and soon we will also have a Vonage setup that forwards calls from a US number through to our Indian cell phones. That means you'll be able to call us for the price of a regular local cell phone call in the US! Yay! Call us! Aside from that e-mail is still a great way to get in touch! Are groceries and other things super cheap? Yes and no. The commissary on the embassy compound has a lot of US groceries and for the most part things there are about the same as they are in the states (sometimes a little more expensive, sometimes a little cheaper). Indian grocery stores vary widely depending on whether or not you go to the stores closest to our neighborhood (jacked up prices for the diplomatic community), or to the open-air Indian markets (much cheaper with good bargaining skills). For the most part we've been able to find all the groceries we want/need EXCEPT for avocados (sold imported sometimes at a local supermarket) and mangosteens (Kelly's favorite fruit that isn't in season right now). How's your stomach? For the most part really good. We wash all our vegetables in a cleaning solution used to disinfect stuff for babies, but we still get the brief bug on occasion. Outside of our home, the school, and the embassy, it's just a matter of figuring out from people what is safe to eat from different places. Do you have extra space for me to visit? We certainly do! We have an extra bedroom and an office/bedroom as well as two living room couches! How's Ruby? FANTASTIC. She loves being walked at all times throughout the day and it totally blown away by the all the different smells. A walk around the block takes forever because she stops every few feet to get some hardcore sniffing in. We do have some stray dogs in the neighborhood, but with our selection of sticks (we have 3), we're ready for anything. The security guard for the house next to us is also a huge animal lover (think Ace Ventura), so he makes sure that all the canines and felines around us behave. All the exercise she gets means that she is super tired by early evening, and usually curls up right on our pillows on the bed! How's the wedding planning coming along from abroad? Great! We already booked the venue and got The Jonas Brothers! Is there anything you are really missing? Ummmm yes. Our families and friends!!.............also being able to communicate with everyone around us. Sometimes its hard to deal with the language barrier, but Jake's Hindi classes start in a couple of weeks!

Carpets and Ruby in India

Picture of the rug party

Starting Week 3

We've spent the last week and a half trying to get our apartment together, going to trainings at school, and enjoying our new home. We are feeling pretty settled now. We have gathered all home things and have moved on to decorating. This week, we purchased fabric and had our couches upholstered. The day before a man showed up on his motorbike with a non-electric sewing machine. For the next two days he and two other men upholstered our couches, with one man turning the wheel to make the sewing machine work, one man doing the sewing, and one man attaching the pieces to the furniture. It was pretty cool. So, we now have dark brown living room furniture and it all matches. We also picked out paint samples and a few rooms should be done this week. We are pretty terrible at interior design so we'll see what happens! We attended our first carpet party this week. The carpet man comes to someone's house with a ton of carpets, and lays them one at a time on top of each other, creating a huge pile. Then he peels them back off the pile, one by one. If you like one, you shout out to put it in your pile. You can take as many as you want to "test out," with no pressure to buy. We now have 7 gorgeous rugs in our apartment. We are hoping to narrow it down to two keepers. School starts on Monday, so we'll be spending this weekend in our classrooms, trying to relax, getting last minute things together, etc. We hope all is well with everyone back home! We miss you! Send us letters or emails!

India, Day 4

We are still getting settled and getting our bearings. I can now name three roads in New Delhi and three markets. Ruby was a little jet-lagged at first, getting angry when we didn't feed her at the odd times of day when she was hungry, but she has gotten back on a schedule. She is loving the smells of India, which makes each walk we take annoyingly slow! So far, the stry dogs have not been a problem, but we are carrying a stick and keeping our distance when we have Ruby with us. Our school has been awesome at transitioning us into life where without overwhelming us. We have one cellphone (still working on getting the iphone a sim card), drinkable water and internet in our apartment, a cable hookup coming tomorrow, and upholstery samples on the coffee table waiting for our decision. Tomorrow after training, we are headed to buy some paint and curtains for the living room. We got access cards to the embassy facilities today, so we can take about a 5 minute walk to a stocked commissary, a bowling alley, gym facilities, and a pool! Probably the most challenging thing we are encountering is setting up the apartment. There's no one stop shopping. We have about thirty things on our shopping list and each comes from a different store in a different market. You have to hunt until you run into what you need. A drying rack at one place, nails at another, trash bin somewhere else. There are many things we haven't seen yet. Eating has been easy, as the school has been feeding us lunch and there are a bunch of decent take out places right in our neighborhood. Jake is working on taking a short video for us to post and we received a request for more pictures. I'll put both up as soon as possible. We miss everyone!

More India pictures

The park that our apartment overlooks: Our door name plate:

More pictures

In India!

Jake and I arrived in India around 12:50am after two pretty uneventful flights. Ruby handled the flying much better than expected and did not even poop in her crate on either of the 8 hour flights! It was only 87 degrees when we landed, but it feels much hotter than that. Our school picked us up and we headed straight back to our apartment. We were greeted by a welcome sign made out of colored rice and a Hannon/Nelms nameplate above our door. We LOVE our new apartment. It's on the second floor in a house on a park. Three bedrooms, two baths, great AC. Because our time is all messed up, we spent the night moving furniture around and unpacking. It's now 7:30am and we are still going. We took a short walk around the neighborhood and now we are resting back in the AC. Our plan for today is to see the school, buy some essentials, try to get on a regular sleep schedule, and get a feel for a neighborhood. Check out our pictures and send us lots of emails! We are missing everyone already but really excited to be here!

Rice Welcome Design

Our living room

Our dining room

More pictures coming soon!

Safari: Machatu Game Reserve, Botswana

Leopard Lions Elephant Cheetahs

South Africa Pictures

Driving on the left! Cool Plant Jake and David in the Drakensburg Mountains Kelly relaxing Our hike World Cup: Brazil v. Netherlands Jake and Fay at Cape Point

An Update from Philadelphia

We did not do a great job updating from South Africa, but we promise to do much better from India. We had a fantastic time at the World Cup and the safari after with Jake's parents. I'll post a few of the 1,500 pictures we took! Check back next week for an update about our arrival in India, our neighborhood, and our apartment.

Hello, South Africa!

Jake and I have arrived in South Africa, without Ruby but with Jake's parents. The journey required two overnight flights, but gave us a long layover in Paris. We went into the city, saw a few sights, and had some baguettes. Unfortunately, our camera cord is at home, so you will have to wait for our return to the States to see photos. We are writing now from the home of friends of Jake's family in Bloemfontein, 4 and a half hours driving south of Jo'burg. They have been amazing hosts, making sure we are warm in the South African winter, well-fed, and get to see all the sights. We arrived yesterday morning and sat outside on the deck for tea. After exploring their home, we had a nap, some dinner, and headed off to our first World Cup match - Honduras v. Switzerland. We were in the minority routing for Honduras and the exciting game ended in a 0-0 tie. We have not been able to buy any vuvuzelas, so Jake has been using his hands as a horn. Today, we went to a large farmers market and had delicious spring rolls and pancakes (more like crepes) for breakfast. We are off for a nap before tuning in to some more soccer and getting ready for a delicious dinner that will include GIANT mushrooms. Tonight at 8:30, we'll be watching the USA v Ghana game along with you. Talk to everyone soon!

Our New Apartment

We just found out today where our apartment will be! We will have a 3 bedroom apartment on the second floor in Malcha Marg, which is one block north of the American Embassy and our new school and one block south of a bunch of shops and restaurants! The apartment faces a park and gets lots of light. There is a top deck for relaxing in the months that aren't the current 113 degrees. Start planning your trip - we'll have room for you to stay!

Our School Calendar

Starting to Pack. Countdown to India: 90 days!

Today, we got our storage unit - 10x10 feet. We have started to sort and pack - so far we are working with almost 20 bins in different shapes and sizes. One pile for storage, one pile for ship by sea, one pile for ship by air, one pile to donate, and one pile to fly with us! Ruby would like to ship by sea (see picture), but she will be on the airplane with us. We are already starting to plan our vacations and trips home. We will be back in the states, with visits to Philly, Boston, and Vermont, starting December 18th.

Welcome to our blog!

As you know, Jake and I have accepted jobs in New Delhi, India. We will move on July 24th, after spending almost a month in South Africa for the World Cup. Don't worry, Ruby is coming with us. We are very excited for our move! Here are some answers to some commonly asked questions: 1. Where is New Delhi? New Delhi is in the northern part of the country. Check out the map! 2. Do you need a lot of shots? Jake does! I have most of them from traveling before. Ruby needs a few, but she isn't scared of needles like me. 3. Isn't it hot there? Yes. It can get very hot in the summer, but in winter it can get chilly too. We will have air conditioning in our apartment. 4. Where will you live? Our school provides us with an off-campus apartment. We won't know exactly where until much closer to our departure, but it will probably be in the Vasant Vihar neighborhood. It will be furnished and we will decorate it with beautiful Indian fabrics. 5. What will you do with all your stuff? We'll store some, ship some, sell some, and toss some. 6. What will you be teaching? Jake will teach 6th grade math, and I will teach 2nd grade (all subjects). 7. When can I visit? Anytime you want! The school year is from early August until late May (to avoid the hottest time of year). We have a week off in the fall, 2 weeks at Christmas, and 1 week in the spring. You are welcome to visit us or join us somewhere for one of our vacations. We plan to explore India, travel around Asia, and of course come home to visit. 8. What's your schedule leading up to the move? We are in school until June 23rd. We are trying to book lots of weekend trips to see friends in other cities before we go. On June 23rd, we fly to South Africa, and we fly back July 17. We'll be in Philly for a week and leave for India on July 24th. We hope you'll be able to join us for a goodbye party/Kelly's birthday party on July 18. 9. Will you have a toilet? Yes, a normal toilet, at least one, maybe more. Thanks for reading!