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!