Since Suzy and I moved into our new place I have looked out my bedroom window and watched the ladies across the alley knitting. They often go sit on each others balconies while they knit and visit with each other. I am also a knitter(though not as good as they are. They knit sweaters without any pattern at all!!) and I have been longing to go sit and knit with them. They always seem like they are having so much fun.
Well, today I got my opportunity. Suzy and I were watching Grayson and Deakin while Stephen and Amber went out for their date night. The boys love to go up on our roof(we have a flat roof) and hang out up there. So, while Suzy cooked dinner I took the boys up there. We were looking down at all the hustle and bustle in the ally and the boys got the attention of the ladies knitting. They smiled at the boys for a bit and then motioned to come down with them! : ) We hurried downstairs and I looked at my pattern to see what squares came next in the blanket I am knitting and headed back to the alley. It was a lot of fun. The boys played with the two ladies children while I knitted away. They even called me their friend!! : ) What a great evening it was!! And now I can say that I am part of the knitting community out back. : )
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Voices from home
Last night I called my best friend, Leslie. Wow! It was so good to hear her voice. I was so excited to actually be talking with her that I didn’t know what to say! I think I didn’t realize how much I missed her until I got to talk to her. I miss hanging out with her, goofing off(we did PLENTY of this!!) playing games, drinking coffee(sometimes WAY too much!!) being able to share what is on our hearts with each other, and so many other things. She is the one person who truly understands me, and accepts me for who I am without trying to change anything about me. I miss her so much!
I also got to talk to my little sister the other day. I’ve been able to email her and have gotten a few emails back, but there’s just something about being able to hear her voice and actually have a conversation. I miss her and the boys tons!
I think that’s one of the hardest things about being so far away
I also got to talk to my little sister the other day. I’ve been able to email her and have gotten a few emails back, but there’s just something about being able to hear her voice and actually have a conversation. I miss her and the boys tons!
I think that’s one of the hardest things about being so far away
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Pick of the litter
Since we moved into our house we have had several women stop by. All of them were offering their services for house cleaning and/or cooking. The first one to stop by was a lady who used to work here or something. She knocked on our door one after noon and after about five minutes of her speaking in H!nd! and our trying our best to figure out what she was saying, we finally decided she was offering to clean for us. At one point she walked into our dinning room, then into Suzy’s room and finally mine. All while talking about cleaning(I think). We finally decided to call someone to translate for us. And this is when we figured out she used to work here. We told her to come back later when Kishan(one of the guys who takes care of this place while our landlord is in Delh!) and talk to him. It was quite the adventure.
After this incident we had several more ladies stop by. One of them even had a reference letter from the person she worked for before! But because we are only two people we don’t feel that we need help to clean our house. But, if we wanted I’m sure we could have the pick of the litter!!
After this incident we had several more ladies stop by. One of them even had a reference letter from the person she worked for before! But because we are only two people we don’t feel that we need help to clean our house. But, if we wanted I’m sure we could have the pick of the litter!!
Our house has been invaded!!
This morning Suzy went and picked Grayson and Deakin up because we were going to watch them all day today. Stephen and Amber needed a good day to just rest and not worry about taking care of the boys since they have both been sick for the past week. We had a fun time with the boys today, but the most interesting part was when our house was invaded by five other small children.
We have a VERY small porch on our house. More like a hallway with a gate that leads directly to the main street through L@undour. (the part of Mussoor!e we live in) Grayson was picking apart some small daisy type flowers in our living room saying he was going to clean them up, but they pieces were too small for him to clean up, so I told him to go out to the porch and do it. Deakin followed him out there so I went to make sure the gate was latched. While I was out there several small (maybe K-2nd gradeish) saw the boys and stopped to say hi. One of the boys was trying to figure out how to open the gate the whole time. I wasn’t sure I really wanted them on our porch because I thought they might come into the house and I had my computer in the living room at the time. But, he finally figured out how to open the gate. I brought Deakin inside and told Gray to stay on the porch and try not to let the kids inside. Soon we saw several little face looking through the window and not long after that the door opened and the faces were peaking inside our house.
They all decided to let themselves in and proceeded to invade our house. I put my computer under the couch and we did our best to keep them in the living room. One of the girls saw me winding yarn into balls (yarn here just comes in a big loop) and showed me her backpack. It had a giant whole in the bottom and she was asking me if I could fix it for her. I got my needle and thread out and began to fix it. While I was doing this the five(it seemed like WAY more) were turning the TV on and off, fighting (and I mean fighting!!) over the remote, trying to play with Grayson’s toys (which he was not too happy about) and getting into everything! It was pretty hectic. Deakin was not sure what to think about it all. The two boys finally left and when I finished with the backpack we tried to get the girls to head home also. I was pretty sure their parents would be starting to worry about them soon. It took us awhile, but we were finally able to herd them out the door.
I’m still not sure what I think about this invasion. It was kind of fun, but also slightly stressful.
And that concludes the account of how our house was invaded.
We have a VERY small porch on our house. More like a hallway with a gate that leads directly to the main street through L@undour. (the part of Mussoor!e we live in) Grayson was picking apart some small daisy type flowers in our living room saying he was going to clean them up, but they pieces were too small for him to clean up, so I told him to go out to the porch and do it. Deakin followed him out there so I went to make sure the gate was latched. While I was out there several small (maybe K-2nd gradeish) saw the boys and stopped to say hi. One of the boys was trying to figure out how to open the gate the whole time. I wasn’t sure I really wanted them on our porch because I thought they might come into the house and I had my computer in the living room at the time. But, he finally figured out how to open the gate. I brought Deakin inside and told Gray to stay on the porch and try not to let the kids inside. Soon we saw several little face looking through the window and not long after that the door opened and the faces were peaking inside our house.
They all decided to let themselves in and proceeded to invade our house. I put my computer under the couch and we did our best to keep them in the living room. One of the girls saw me winding yarn into balls (yarn here just comes in a big loop) and showed me her backpack. It had a giant whole in the bottom and she was asking me if I could fix it for her. I got my needle and thread out and began to fix it. While I was doing this the five(it seemed like WAY more) were turning the TV on and off, fighting (and I mean fighting!!) over the remote, trying to play with Grayson’s toys (which he was not too happy about) and getting into everything! It was pretty hectic. Deakin was not sure what to think about it all. The two boys finally left and when I finished with the backpack we tried to get the girls to head home also. I was pretty sure their parents would be starting to worry about them soon. It took us awhile, but we were finally able to herd them out the door.
I’m still not sure what I think about this invasion. It was kind of fun, but also slightly stressful.
And that concludes the account of how our house was invaded.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Passport...part two
Sunday came and we decided that because of the culture that Suzy and I would go to D3lhi instead of Stephen and I. So, we spent the evening at the Clover’s playing games. We were planning on taking an overnight bus so we left the Clover’s about 10:30 so we could catch the 11:30 AC bus. When we got to the bus station there was a bus getting ready to pull out, but it wasn’t an AC so we decided to wait. Stephen came with us to the station so we found a set of benches and waited. We waited till about 12 when Stephen went and asked someone when the next AC to D3lhi was going to come. He came back to report that there wouldn’t be any more busses(AC or not) till 4:30am! So, we went back home.
Monday night we left the Clover’s at 9:30 to make sure we didn’t miss our bus. When we got to the bus station there were about a dozen busses to D3lhi sitting around! It’s amazing what the difference of an hour can make. But even with all the busses to D3lhi there weren’t any AC busses with seats left. So, we got on one of the cheap ones.
We got as comfortable as we could and tried to get some sleep. Some time around 4:30ish we went over a big bump and Suzy went flying out of her seat and landed in the isle! It was pretty crazy! Then around 5-5:30ish we crashed. Yes, you read that right. Our bus crashed. We never did figure out what happened or what we crashed into though. We hit something in front first, bounced off and hit a bus behind us, bounced again and hit whatever the first thing was. The whole front window was shattered and the bus driver’s arms had all kinds of cuts on them. Part of the back window was shattered too, but not as bad. We all just sat there for a few minutes. Then everyone started gathering their things and getting off the bus, so Suzy and I did the same. There were a couple other busses sitting just down the road and everyone was getting onto these, so again we followed. We had to stand on the bus the rest of the way, but it wasn’t much more than 30 minutes. And that was our adventure to D3lhi.
We got to the embassy ok and got everything taken care of there. My passport will be ready to be picked up in about two weeks. We got some lunch and headed back to the bus station where we got a deluxe AC bus back to D.D.
To be continued...
Monday night we left the Clover’s at 9:30 to make sure we didn’t miss our bus. When we got to the bus station there were about a dozen busses to D3lhi sitting around! It’s amazing what the difference of an hour can make. But even with all the busses to D3lhi there weren’t any AC busses with seats left. So, we got on one of the cheap ones.
We got as comfortable as we could and tried to get some sleep. Some time around 4:30ish we went over a big bump and Suzy went flying out of her seat and landed in the isle! It was pretty crazy! Then around 5-5:30ish we crashed. Yes, you read that right. Our bus crashed. We never did figure out what happened or what we crashed into though. We hit something in front first, bounced off and hit a bus behind us, bounced again and hit whatever the first thing was. The whole front window was shattered and the bus driver’s arms had all kinds of cuts on them. Part of the back window was shattered too, but not as bad. We all just sat there for a few minutes. Then everyone started gathering their things and getting off the bus, so Suzy and I did the same. There were a couple other busses sitting just down the road and everyone was getting onto these, so again we followed. We had to stand on the bus the rest of the way, but it wasn’t much more than 30 minutes. And that was our adventure to D3lhi.
We got to the embassy ok and got everything taken care of there. My passport will be ready to be picked up in about two weeks. We got some lunch and headed back to the bus station where we got a deluxe AC bus back to D.D.
To be continued...
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Passport...part one
I would like to take a moment to advise anyone who is traveling abroad to not loose your passport. Let me explain.
Last Wednesday the Clover’s, Suzy and I went to the bazaar to buy what we needed to set up house in Muss00rie. We had made a few purchases when we got to the metal works store. This was where we were going to buy the bulk of what we needed. The shop keeper began to show us some of the things on our list. We picked out two of almost everything since next month we will be living in two different flats. We were there for at least an hour trying to get him to show us the “simple” products. Finally we felt we had what we needed and he began to tally up our purchases. I went to get my wallet out of my purse when I realized that it was unzipped. I got a sinking feeling in my gut. I reached in knowing my wallet was gone. I had just gone to the bank that morning and had close to $300 in rupees along with my passport in my wallet. We looked all around the shop but it was really gone. Stolen.
We finished up at the shop and went back to the Clover’s. The man they are staying with is a retired police officer so he was able to help us with what we needed to do. He called the police station and had someone come to the house. I called my bank and had my card shut off while Suzy did some research about the embassy.
The next day Stephen and I went down to the police station to turn in the report and get it certified. We were planning on heading to D3lhi to get my passport taken care of. But when we called we found out that the embassy would be close on Friday for a three day weekend. “Oh, yeah. Saturday is the 4th of July.” So, we postponed the trip and instead had a picnic of BBQ chicken, potato salad, fruit salad, brownies and ice cream for the 4th.
To be continued...
Last Wednesday the Clover’s, Suzy and I went to the bazaar to buy what we needed to set up house in Muss00rie. We had made a few purchases when we got to the metal works store. This was where we were going to buy the bulk of what we needed. The shop keeper began to show us some of the things on our list. We picked out two of almost everything since next month we will be living in two different flats. We were there for at least an hour trying to get him to show us the “simple” products. Finally we felt we had what we needed and he began to tally up our purchases. I went to get my wallet out of my purse when I realized that it was unzipped. I got a sinking feeling in my gut. I reached in knowing my wallet was gone. I had just gone to the bank that morning and had close to $300 in rupees along with my passport in my wallet. We looked all around the shop but it was really gone. Stolen.
We finished up at the shop and went back to the Clover’s. The man they are staying with is a retired police officer so he was able to help us with what we needed to do. He called the police station and had someone come to the house. I called my bank and had my card shut off while Suzy did some research about the embassy.
The next day Stephen and I went down to the police station to turn in the report and get it certified. We were planning on heading to D3lhi to get my passport taken care of. But when we called we found out that the embassy would be close on Friday for a three day weekend. “Oh, yeah. Saturday is the 4th of July.” So, we postponed the trip and instead had a picnic of BBQ chicken, potato salad, fruit salad, brownies and ice cream for the 4th.
To be continued...
Monday, August 3, 2009
Home sweet home
We have found a home! It’s been awhile since I didn’t have to live out of my suitcase or live in just a small room. After a week of house hunting Suzy and I found a REALLY GREAT house!! It is a two bedroom house with a living room, kitchen, dinning room and bathroom. We also have a flat roof and are able to hang our cloths on the cloths line up there to dry. And to top it all off there are no leaks or mold! What a joy it is to unpack everything and set up house.
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