life in the month of october

oh blog. you totally overwhelm me. i think about you all the time, and how funny this or that would be to post, but somehow it never seems quite so easy.
this month was one of the most overwhelmingly satisfying and tiring months ever! since i came back to india thinking it was my last year, i quickly filled up each three day weekend with a trip. here is that experience, in a nutshell...
trip 1: dharamshala, home of HHK the Dalai Lama, travel companions Thinh and Laura.
there are so many funny parts of this trip. starting with the fact that both laura and i had packed our bags and brought them with us on friday. i had a middle school dance to run, she had a concert to attend, then we rendezvoused and headed to the train station. funny part #2. laura booked a little later than us, so she had a 2nd class bunk while thinh and i had first class. all our worrying was without when we discovered that the conductor didn't even care that the cute blond was on our bunk without a ticket. so laura and i had our first shared bunk experience after a very healthy dinner provided by thinh of doritos, pigs in a blanket and nuts.
our trip in dharamshala was incredible. we laughed a lot, we caught up with each other, we reminisced about the 'early india days,' and just enjoyed each other's company. laura and thinh also made me climb a mountain, thanks guys.
the 'flawless' trip ended quickly at the airport when we found out our flight was cancelled and we had to take the train back. the 3 hours of waiting at the train station were EQUALLY as fun as the entire trip....ahhhh. love it!

trip 2: dubai to visit maureen's friends
meeting maureen's life in dubai was fabulous. it was so nice to put faces to names, and spa experiences to spa experiences:) we spent a VERY indulgent 3 days with her friend erika and her two children. we ate well, drank well, shopped well, and laughed well. a mighty fine trip indeed! this trip ended with a lovely experience at indira gandhi international when i was pulled aside for swine flu screening. a week of quarantine flashed in front of my eyes as they busted out the MERCURY thermometer. really india? stick that in my armpit. thank goodness i was not febrile.

trip 3: goa. oh goa. you rained on us the entire time. dang you. better luck next year.

retrospectively i wouldn't plan three in a row again. it was too crazy. but really? when else in my life will i have three weekends in a row to travel in and around india?!?!?! maybe next year. yup, that's right. i'm staying for year 4. i fear that leaving next year will be so sad. my friends here are just phenomenal, and they're really more like family. i'd be crazy to leave now......

well, it's time for dinner here @ parent/teacher conference world. so i'll go for now. i feel like there is so much more i could write.

MUCH LOVE to all of you who are still logging on!!!!!!!!! besos y abrazos.

the month in review (ish)

the last month of delhi has truly been a blast. year three is so comfortable both with friends and with school. the things that used to seem like such a struggle are still a little troublesome....but they don't ruin days like they used to. the bizarreness of this place also continues to amaze me as well....today we saw water buffalo running along the "highway."

it's the little things that make delhi special. it's waking up with a broken cell phone and getting it fixed for $5 when you planned on having to replace it. it's the delivery of ice for a party, in addition to the delivery of delicious food and beverage.

what i've realized about things this year is that i've got something really good going on. last night about 50 people came over to celebrate my friend doug and my birthdays. i cannot explain the pure joy of being sang to by my family and friends here....and in beautiful harmony! it was one of the BEST parties i've ever thrown, totally one of those nights that you never want to end.

despite having rained all week, i'm feeling lots of sunshine in my life now!

Monsoons. What a mess.

Monsoons. What a mess.
Last year at this time it was raining almost daily, making footwear quite the challenge, as all the walkways are a very slippery smooth walk. However, for some reason, this year we’ve gotten the humidity but not the rains. Until yesterday, when it rained, but was soaked up so quickly that 2 hours later everything was dry again. Today, on the other hand, it rained heavy for a few hours this afternoon, two separate storms (so far). This disruption of norms has quite the rippling effect. The rains flooded our art room at school, made the pool quite dirty, and flooded the hang out area. Then there was the city itself. Streets flooded and downed traffic lights made the trip home quite the adventure. By that I mean a nightmare. The traffic was crazier than usual…. and I’ve never seen so many policemen failing to actually keep order, it was the mass quantity part that surprised me, not the later part. At one point I thought I might get out of the car and just walk. The roads are now torn up in new places; potholes have turned into swimming pools. But the air is cleaner, for now at least! Once safely back at the home front I found my kitchen rug mysteriously soaked, reeking of sewage water. I’m bound to experience quite a few more power cuts this evening….so, that’s it for now.
xoxo

other things delhi

my car just got towed. what was a very fun shopping experience turned a little not fun but yet a little fun when i realized my car had been towed. of course, we walked around thinking maybe it might have been somewhere else, but after talking to traffic police decided that we had to go to the tow lot. of course the tow lot isn't a "lot". it's actually on the side of the road, and the police officer sits on a random public bench and collects the 6 dollar (300 rupee fee), 200 for the towing and 100 for the bad parking spot. it's funny though. there were at least 6 other cars parked where mine had previously been. i'm chalking it up to having exited the car with 4 foreign females.

dreamstate

perhaps i've been walking around half awake, perhaps it's the heat, maybe the probiotics?. who knows. i just walked through the market and had some weird sort of out of body experience, do i really live here?
does the fact that i make more mean i have to pay more for services which have fixed prices?
need i really pay the auto driver more for waiting even though the price he quoted was double what it should be?
does the girl at the light think she's going to get me to give money by wiping the nose of the baby and then touching me?
i guess year 3 doesn't make me a pro at this whole india thing. just saying.

don't forget to read the other new post.
peace.

i'm back.

I’m back. Arrived last night to what is making up to be “world-class airport.” Was a little surprised with the health check before immigration….really? Like you would fly for 15 hours and then tell them you were sick? Navigated through duty free (again) and the luggage reclaim just fine. I didn’t feel so bad about my overage fee after many of my colleagues showed up with many more than two bags.
Side note, electricity just cut for the 3rd time in 10 minutes, and my pot of coffee isn’t even done yet, ARG!
Came home to a house that was WELL taken car of. With the exception of a few plants that need to be stripped and given rebirth, the house is pretty unscathed. It was apparently so hot that the basketball size candle on my coffee table is not a deflated version of a Frisbee. My plants are thriving outside and must be enjoying the rains. After checking out the place, I went down to try and start my new, to me, car. I purchased a green Maruti 800 (with AC!!!) from a friend that left. It does, however, come with a little trick. Apparently, after it’s sat for a while in the heat, the gas evaps out of the carborator. If you are a car person you might just want to stop reading. So I have to take my handy dandy leatherman and open the air filter cap, remove a gas line, take a little bit with a plunger and put it in some hole. Believe it or not, I actually got all these instructions, again, from my friend Dharma who is in Peru, on facebook chat. Dad, I thought you’d get a kick out of that. The car jazz was not successful. I am going to try it again now.
So night one went quite well, went to bed at 12:30am, and woke up @ 6:15. Clearly this isn’t my preferred 8 hours, but I’ll take it on night one!
So, with my Alterra Blizak and Tizan on the pot in the living room (kitchen is sans power) I’m back on the couch, watching another rerun of Numbers, listening to the dogs barking, waiting for the power to come back on so I can post this!
MUCH LOVE!

highs and lows of 2008-2009

it's been a long time. sorry blog, if anyone is actually still reading you! so, i write this on the eve of my departure from year 2 in india. i go home with sweet tales and memories of a year well lived and well spent, and anticipate the return for year 3.
so, the top ten highlights.
1. my new digs and all the rad parties i had there
2. the friendships of new and old that continued to blossom ...and give me strength and support
3. travels: thailand, mumbai, kerala, rishikesh
4. going to my first ever: book launch and fashion show....
5. finding new shopping delights with tricia and maureen
6. actually being able to manuever around delhi, with a map of course!
7. the new workout craze, thanks in part to liz, chris, kendra, gene, and julie!
8. being able to come home 3 days early for jules' wedding
9. feeling like a real expat
10. paying off my loans

lowlights:
1. bombings
2. no week without walls
3. missing christmas at home
4. drama
5. loss of grandpa bill
6. missing brooke and roses' weddings.
7. missing births of new babes!

Thanks for sticking to this. I promise to start fresh next school year!
See you in the USA I hope!

indian machismo

i've been dying to talk "to" this subject for a while. i admit, however, i couldn't come up with a catchy enough title for it. either way. i take taxis to school most everyday. every morning i wake up, get ready, and call C Block Market Taxi stand. the conversation usually goes something like this
them: "hello"
me: "uh, yes, taxi stand? i'd like a taxi please, B1-24"
them: "d for delhi?"
me:"NO! b for bombay, 1 by t-w-e-n-t-y f-o-u-r"
them: (any take on the following): "(silence, then hang up), yes madam, coming, right away"
me(screaming at the phone which is now disconnected): seriously? i call every freaken day....ahhh!

a little sidetracked....back to the taxis. i usually take a taxi or an auto home as well. some days i read, listen to the ipod or talk on the phone. lately, however, i've been doing a lot of noticing.
the setting is usually the same. taxi/auto going too fast, dude in front slams on brakes with or without brake lights, we almost crash into it, my heart leaps into my mouth and we stop 3 cm before their bumper. it's what happen next that varies according to the machismo. (would machindian have been a better title?)

in the fall a taxi behind mine crashed into us. the driver sped ahead (i relaxed) but then proceeded to cut the other driver off, force him to stop. then he got out and whacked him. one might call it a bitch slap. it was awkward and uncomfortable. had it not been for the 2 cases of beer in the trunk i would've ran into an auto.

just last week before my 630am workout (eat your heart out!) we had one of the above mentioned scenarios....the slamming on the brakes. this time we sped ahead of the driver and slowed down. i knew this situation all too well and started firmly telling the driver to just keep going....but he slows down just enough to creep past and make this creepy eye contact, which basically means, what the *#$*#( you #*($@(#*.

and today, which was the inspiration to post, was the macho tuk tuk driver. he flew over speed bumps, careened around traffic circles....and then yelled at the police officer who was (very poorly) controlling the street lights. after yelling he continued the stare down far into the middle of the intersection...nice, dude.

it's these little things that keep it real here in india.

do you want to play holi with me?

school's out, for wednesday at least. today we celebrated holi with millions of indians. the streets clearly out, the morning is spent throwing colors, and then a visit to the temple! holi celebrates the welcoming of spring. this year there was a genuine effort to throw "organic" colors at each other. either way you look at it, it's a mess. a very fun, colorful, rowdy, messy mess.
fabulous day off!

india mike

found this cool website from my friend jon. has tons of forums and articles about, you named it, india. i just read an article about a man's travels through india and found this quote quite approp.
enjoy!

"Every westerner could benefit from spending at least one full year in India, during which time you will be broken down, disassembled, reassembled and honed into a full-fledged human being, for better and for worse.... Namaste!"

a saturday in delhi

laura, julie, kate and i on our way to q'ba

yesterday was an exceptionally fun delhi day. one of those days that you can't plan. it started with a little trip up to connaught place. laura and i were going to check some of our favorite shops, because, afterall, in delhi shopping has become my hobby. we did our buying and moved on to a place in my new "LOVE, DELHI" book. it highlights some of the funkier places that are not to be missed. so, we headed to triveni tea terrace, after about 4 rickshaw drivers that didn't know how to get there i realized i should have brought the map. kate and julie met us there and what was suppsed to be this funky little place where all the "artsy folk." it wasnt actually all that great, but it was a sweet location. the restaurant was apparently closing, which really just answered everyone's desire to go somewhere else. so we headed to q'ba. famous (to us) for it's 1+1=4 Happy Hour equation and shwarma. So, one drink each turns to two, then three, and you guessed it, 4. not wanting the fun to end with came back to my house and sat on the porch for another few rounds. and just like that, saturday was over.
great day in delhi with great gals:)

and life goes on.

my apologies for skipping out on parts 2 and 3 of thailand. things got busy, as things often do, and the stories will have to be told in person. the last few weeks have been a whirlwind. january was filled with musical rehearsal. 20 of my colleagues and i spent the last 4 or so months rehearsing for "once on this island." it was the first time i actually had a role in a production that wasn't very backseat. my character was ti moune...it was magical. we performed in the "theater under the stars" aka 'outside' to a combined 2 night crowd of about 300 people! we raised almost $1000 for a local charity. it was such a great experience, so fun to be a part of something. it gave all of us the opportunity to get to know each other better in a place that is seemingly small, but realistically HUGE.

the day after the musical finished thinh and i went to bombay (mumbai) to see our friends tom and isabelle and their new baby margeaux. i think it was lunch on saturday when i realized what a trip my life has become. i was eating lunch with friends that i made in new delhi on my 3 day holiday in bombay. i love that once i leave here there will people i know (and love) all over the world. amazing how the world has become that much smaller in 1.5 years.
we loved mumbai. it was so much more liveable. but, then again, might we have felt the same about mumbai if we started there instead of delhi? we visited many of the spots that were bombed in november's attacks, bombay is suffering. the people are resilient and are joining together to hold their government accountable for the mistakes they've made. leopold's, below, opened the day after the bombings. it was SO full of life when we went, it embraced all walks of life and had a very special vibe. it was one of the highlights for me. lately so much has been going through my head. i've struggled to put thoughts into words, and sometimes i've avoided the thoughts by using other words. missing christmas at home seems to have made the year seem longer. i didn't get my wfb fix nor did i see my niece and nephew gaga over the excitement of it all. the little things that i've previously held onto seem much more important now, in retrospect. hard to balance the bliss of thailand with the loss of home.

time for bed, and shantaram. becky 630, the book 270. i'm getting there:)

i love thailand part one: chiang mai

there is nothing much more fascinating than arriving at the airport the night winter vacation begins. guaranteed to see fewer than 150 people that you work with or teach. we arrived in bangkok early morning just to board another plane up to chiang mai. we decided to leave bangkok for the end because of all of the fabulous shopping opportunities.
chiang mai was incredible. because of it's location on trade routes, they figured out tourism early on. It's one of the easiest places I've ever travelled, it was a great introduction to thai culture. chiang mai has "walking streets" on saturday and sunday nights in addition to a night bazaar every other night. the shopping possibilities are endless, as are the culinary options. we met up with gene and kendra one night and ate bugs. all sorts of em. we chased them down by sangsom, thai whiskey, which on that ocassion, and a few other throughout the trip, knocked me off my booty. it was so dangerous that eventually we had to declare "no sangsom nights." chiang mai was the adventure sport part of our vacation. we did a one day trek with elephants, rafting and "trekking." the following day we did the "flight of the gibbons," ziplining through the jungle. no gibbons sitings, unfortunately. you might have seen it on Amazing Race....super cool:) 11 lines, 2 bridges. it was def. one of the highlights.
post bug night we had a late start. ended up renting a motor bike and heading up the mountain to check out some wats, palaces a beautiful sites. we ended up visiting a coffee plantation in a hmoung village. it was actually about 3km from there when the tire went flat on our motorbike. and.......since it wasn't a vespa, we were in a pickle. long story short the first car to pass us was a pickup with just enough room in the back for our scooter and us. we were so grateful for the 36km trip back to chiang mai. killer story.
the next day we explored some more, and then jetted off to koh samui to start the beach part of the vacation.
check out pics...http://picasaweb.google.com/rebeccagalvan/Thailand200802?feat=directlink

natural gas.

in delhi, there is always something exciting hiding around the next bend. just so happens that we are in the midst of a natural gas strike. i just talked to laura and we admitted to knowing nothing about how the products in our house run, and what the real impacts for us, the off campus dwellers, will be. school has undergone a series of changes to prolong the efficiency of the gas we do have as well as our generators that run on diesel. at time of print school has enough energy of some sort for about 4-5 more days. this being said, it could get ugly in delhi, lack of food, heat, cooking gas, etc. although the government has declared this strike illegal as it is an essential service, the strike goes on.