Could this be Ground Hog Day (the movie)?

Yesterday was the shortest day of the year in Bangalore.  June 22 was the longest.  There is barely an hour and a half difference beween the two.   

 

Dec 22, 2008

Sunrise> 6:37 AM

Sunset> 5:59 PM

Hours of Daylight> 11h 21m 51s

Jun 22, 2008

Sunrise> 5:55 AM       Sunset>

6:48 PM

Hours of Daylight> 12h 53m 25s

 

In the winter we have nearly 3 more hours of light a day than in Minneapolis where the sun rose at 7:48 AM and went down at 4:34 PM on Monday.

 

Weather is similarly consistent.  Here are the averages for high temps of the day.  It got down to a record low of 54 degrees here one time!

Jan-81   Feb-86   Mar-90   Apr-93   May-91   Jun-84   Jul-82   Aug-81   Sep-82   Oct-82   Nov-80   Dec-79

 

Small talk requires a whole different skill here.  People give you a really funny look if you bring up the weather wondering why on earth it is worth mentioning when it never changes.  You hardly ever see anything about it in the paper.  Why waste ink on something that is always the same? 

 

Something that has taken me time to adjust to is when people talk about summer here they are referring to March through June, not the months I typically think of as summer.  I don't think the other 9 months have a nomenclature.  They are just "not summer" as far as I can tell.

 

 

 

Thank you to our realtor: Seth Johnson

Thanks to Seth Johnson, our house had an offer in an amazingly short period of time given the housing market.  It went on the market the beginning of Oct and the sale closed on Dec 1.  If anyone needs a great realtor I recommend Seth.  He went above and beyone to help us.  Tell him I sent you...

 

Seth H. Johnson, Coldwell Banker Burnet,  612-827-9437  direct,  612-889-7853  cell, www.cbburnet.com/seth

 

I'll save the long story about what it's like to arrange a house sale closing from across the world for another day.  Big learning... assign limited power of attorney to someone who can sign papers for you.  Overnight mail take 3-4 days each direction and costs alot!

O' Tannenbaum

Our little Christmas tree for our first holiday in India.

A snail's pace

Kind of puts futility into perspective, doesn't it?  A nights journey through the yard, across the sidewalk, up the stair, navigating the porch just to end up in a dead end corner.  I've had days like that.

Google knows...

Google knows where I am apparently.  When I search for something now days, I get references within documents originated in India primarily.  I can't quite convince Google that sometimes my point of reference really needs to be Minnesota, not Karnataka.  Could Google be "Big Brother"?  It also seems to read my email because all the links offered in the sidebar are relevent to whatever my email is about.

Big leaves in Bangalore

 

Jessi being decorate with mehndi ink

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehndi

Breakfast Biking in Bharat

The sea shipment arrived this past week, and an important item in the manifest was our mountain bikes. Upon reassembly and pressurizing the tires, I casually mentioned to a fellow expat, Alex that he would have to show me some of his biking trails, as he has often talked of several trips he has taken. Apparently, there is a Sunday morning biking group that goes out into the country side for 30-40 km rides. Alex invited me to go this Sunday past, and so we ventured to Varthur and beyond.

Departing Palm Meadows at 6:45 am seven intrepid adventures headed South towards Jessie’s school (2 through 7 on the map), which meant that we needed to traverse the narrow road atop an earthen dam on the road to Varthur (2-3). At the dam we encountered dense fog for the next 10 km or so, and it did not burn off until we were quite a ways into the country side.

Other than being on the highway from Palm Meadows to where we turned into the country, which was kinda busy with traffic and other hindrances, the ride was peaceful trek through the fields and coconut groves of rural Karnataka.

Breaking for chai somewhere around 9 or 10 on the map, we continued deeper into the country traversing fields with people harvesting sugar cane and coconuts, planting rice, irrigating, and tending to livestock. We rode through several villages where the people were just beginning their day. In most of the houses it appeared that there was no electricity; so, their day begins when the sun comes up. People were out and about, talking in groups. The children were playing. Our entourage caused a bit of a stir whenever we went through a village. The children always waved their hands and yelled hello or good bye with big smiles, and we always returned a kindly reply accompanied with smiles.

Since we were out in the country, and since I have seen several TV programs regarding the whereabouts of big snakes in India, I was acutely aware of me immediate surroundings at all times. No one in the group encountered such a critter, which was fortuitous, but the possibility was there – especially around the rice fields with standing water. Two dangerous critter encounters to report upon. The first was when I almost collided with a chicken in the road as we went through a village. I was not sure of the outcome of striking a chicken, and you never know just how much the fowl was going to cost if it suffered a premature basting. The second encounter was with a cow. As you are gliding by on your bike, and you must pass within inches of the south end of a north facing bovine, your thoughts center around if you’re going to get past the howitzer before it goes off.

Somewhere between 18 and 21 on the map our fearless leader, Arun, stopped and chatted with a local person as we passed through another village. He then indicated that he wanted to backtrack a bit to see if a well they had been searching for the past two months existed. We ventured down another path for 200-300 meters, and indeed, we did encounter a well. It was a big hole in the ground – there was no fence around it to keep things from falling into it. The well was about 10 meters across, and the water level was down from the surface about 8-9 meters. The well was lined with a wall of granite blocks cemented together, and it had a staircase that went down to below the water level that was made of granite planks cantilevered out from the wall. The granite steps looked to be about 4” thick by about half a meter wide, and they stuck out from the wall of the well about a meter. The story of the well and this cycling group was that on a previous trip, with much higher water level, one of the members of the group jumped into the well for a swim, which we did not do, of course.

Further on, around 22 – 23 on the map, we encountered 10-15 frames of silkworms in the road soaking up sun as we went through yet another village. Silk worms are quite large – about 8-10 cm in length and almost a cm in girth. These were white as snow, and I do not know if they are any other color.

Leaving the silkworms, we quickly encountered the hustle and bustle of urban civilization, and we scurried back to the safety of Palm Meadows around 10:15 am. In total the trip was about 37 km in length. Many thanks to Arun for leading the trek and for having the presence of mind to take a camera to document our travels. I must say that it was quite liberating to know that I can make such a trip. I would never attempt it without a guide as every little trail goes somewhere and nowhere at the same time, and it is quite easy to get lost. Even with the use of a GPS we found ourselves repositioning a few times as were on a trail of dubious destination. Upon our return, Alex and I went to his house for a medicinal bloody mary, which was the perfect end to a successful foray into the countryside of Bharat.

Bakrid Festival

Tomorrow is an important festival in India call Bakrid.  Schools are closed in honor of this day and many people will be celebrating with their families.  http://festivals.indobase.com/bakrid/index.html

Oh Rats!

Today when we got our sea shipment we discovered we have 9 new family members... Grandma Rat, Grandpa Rat, Papa Rat, Mama Rat, and 5 baby rats.  And they didn't cost us anything to import from the U.S. or perhaps Dubai. That's in contrast to the cats that cost almost $5000 to bring across. 

 

Good news from the shipping company... they have never, ever heard of anyone else having rats show up in their shipment.  So rest easy, expats to come.   I was kinda bummed not to have a rat story to tell like all the expats that have preceded me.  Now I have my very own rat story.  And I have cats to finish the story for me!