Change your name to something very easy to sign, like "C" before you move abroad. I had to have a new bank account opened. There were literally at least 20 places my signature was required. Apparently they didn't pass the consistency test. I had to sign more papers to counter the problem of my "T" not having a high enough hump sometimes. Not a problem I ever expected to hear I had. But feedback is a gift. Since Wednesday is hump day, I'll wait til then in the future to sign documents. I'm sure that will be more auspicious.
January 31, 2009
4 months / 4 power supplies
We are burning through power supplies at the rate of one per month so far. I'd hate to have to pay out on power strip lifetime warrantees here. You'd have to have Lloyds of London as a backer. Luckily the power strips have, as yet, protected the devices on the other side. Smoking electronics is not a pleasant smell. And indoor fireworks is a sight I'd like to avoid in the future.
January 28, 2009
Where do the buffalo roam?
Growing up, I would exclaim "Look a buffalo!", just to be corrected... "That's a bison. Buffalo live on the other side of the world." So here I am, on the other side of the world, and I exclaimed "Look a water buffalo", just to be corrected... "That a bison!" What's up with that? Where do the buffalo roam? Are they like unicorns, just mythical creatures?
January 23, 2009
Fire Extinguishers
In an office building today, I observed four bright red buckets of sand hanging on a rack with the words Fire Extinguisher on them. I thought, wow that's primitive. But then I gave it more thought and questioned whether perhaps it's brilliant instead. For example... how do I know if there is anything inside a traditional fire extinguisher. I've tried shaking one before and still couldn't tell. But I can see the sand is right there! How do I know if the propulsion of the traditional extinguisher is going to work? All I need is my arm for a bucket of sand. You decide...
January 18, 2009
How can the words "9ish tomorrow?" seem so empty...
They left a chapter out of the books. It would be called "How to Say Goodbye to Other Expats". We are the fortunate ones though. We can say "See you again, in Golden Valley!" Tomorrow will be a day of mourning in Bangalore for others who aren't as lucky.
How do you send off people with a blog called http://loudamericans.blogspot.com/? With a lot of noise and an informal neighborhood parade of course. In Minnesota it's possible the police would have shown up.
BON VOYAGE, Murphys. WE WILL MISS YOU! I'm not sure how you build what feels like a life long friendship in a few short months, but this ranks up there with the hardest goodbyes I've said.
Thank you for the warm welcome and thank you for the warm goodbye. See you again, state side! -Allison
January 17, 2009
Terrifying tabbies!
- Glow worms are yummy...
- We live way to close to the nuclear power plant.
- Aliens have invaded our cats!
- Look into my eyes...
- Hey, I can see in the dark!
- Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated...
January 15, 2009
Almost rear ended... by a cow!
Cows are docile creatures, right? They just stand around looking like they are chewing a big wad of gum getting ready to blow a bubble. That's my prior experience anyway.
On the way to work one morning this week, HOLY COW I saw a MAD COW! One cow apparently encroached to close to another cow and their was an immediate altercation. Our car almost took a beating from the REAR END of a cow. We managed to avoid the rearing back cow but the guy on the motorcycle behind us was not so lucky. He went right down to the ground under his bike.
New rule... BEWARE of cows! Along with the dogs since rabies is rampant here.
January 8, 2009
Bengaluru Babbler, 2008
Since moving to Minnesota, each year we have published Minnesota Musings to share our year past. This year we are publishing the Bengaluru Babbler, and we are only sending hard copy to those who are not Internet users (it was mailed in Dec). So, please follow the link to Bengaluru Babbler for our 2008 Holiday News Letter!
January 7, 2009
Best of Kerala Tour
During the 2008 year end holiday period we traveled to Kerala, which is another state here in India on the SW coastal region of the country. The state offers many unique vistas, and some very nice beaches. After over nine months of pretty stressful life, moving to India, etc., the Thornes in India needed some decompression time. Another expat family had taken a trip to Kerala in the fall, and in talking with them and how they booked their trip, we decided to engage the same travel agency that they used. Nirmal at Oriana Travel arranged a wonderful trip for us - The Best of Kerala Tour. Part of our trip was to attend a wedding, where the daughter of a Minneapolis friend was marrying a son of Kerala. Nirmal worked that into the itinerary, made all the arrangements, hired a driver, and we had a great tour of very beautiful country with no worries as everything was already taken care of by Oriana and its very capable staff.
Day 02:25 December, 2008
On Christmas day we did a tour of the Tea Museum in Munnar, and then took a nice hike in Eravikulam National Park to see the Nilgiris goat. After lunch and a little shopping in Munnar to acquire some munchies for those periods when room service was not available, we retired back to Tea Valley. Tea Valley is perched on a cliff at the top of a tea plantation. The view from our room was spectacular! A village down in the valley kept us in music on Christmas eve and day as the valley was a natural amphitheater. The road into Tea Valley from the highway was interesting, and you have to be from the western US to appreciate. One lane, few turnouts, dugout with loose rock, and a steep cliff to one side - almost four wheelin' quality.
Oh, yes, the food. Our hotel bookings (all of them) included breakfast and dinner. Lunch was extra. The hotels served food buffet style. The food was quite good with many dishes to select from. You haven't lived until you've had fresh naan cooked in a kiln! Jess found it a bit hard to find Jessie friendly food as she has not yet succumbed to eating Indian style. She was very happy the last resort had pizza 24/7. Again, there are specific time periods for the buffets; so, keep some munchies handy.
Day 03:26 December, 2008
Well, what goes up the mountain, must come down the mountain. Leaving the Munnar area, we spent about four hours going back down the mountain to Kumarakom to the Lake Song Resort. The drive was uneventful with the exception to the elephant ride that Allison has addressed in another post. The only comment I'll add is this: at my mostly ossified stage in life riding an elephant was a dumb idea, and the pain in certain parts of my carcass has not yet yielded to the medicinal application of Kingfisher beer. Mr. Kuriakose did a nice job of pointing out the flora as we were traveling both up and down the mountain. Tapioca, rubber plantations, cashew nut trees, cocoa trees, coffee both in the tree and drying on the ground, peppercorns both on the plant (a vine), and drying on the ground, vanilla beans, cypress trees (imported from Australia to fuel the tea plants), and many other things now forgotten.
We checked into the resort, said goodbye to Mr. Kuriakose (he would meet us in Alleppey), and proceeded to investigate the new environment. The Lake Song, named for the "song of the lake", which turned out to be a gaggle of white farm geese, is a very nice resort on the edge of Vembanad Lake. (Vembanad Lake is part of a chain of lakes known as the backwaters.) Jessie especially liked the swimming pool, the hammocks, and fishing - she actually caught a small (3 inch) fish. Several pictures of her goofing by the pool are in the Kerala album. We were interested to observe the gardeners trim the coconut palms during our visit - a lot of work. True to our quest of decompression we stayed on the resort property, choosing to not discover other attributes of the area.
Day 05: 28 December, 2008
After two nights of r-n-r, we departed Kumarakom on the Ayodhya Paradise house boat for a one night trip across the lake to Alleppey - the destination for the wedding. We boarded the house boat a bit late as the crew went to the wrong resort, but we were soon on our way. Traveling by house boat is very relaxing. The boat was staffed by three capable young Keralites, a cook, a captain, and the other guy. It was hard to figure out who played which role at any given moment. We stopped for lunch, then toured around the lake stopping later on in the afternoon for ice cream. Years ago, I don't know when, rice paddies were dredged out of Vembanad Lake. The paddies are enclosed by rock walls, which you can see in the pictures, and they are below sea level. Vembanad Lake is called the backwaters and is connected to the Indian Ocean. So, we were surprised to find an ice cream shop in the middle of the lake on the corner of a rice paddy. The real draw we found out was not the ice cream, but the monster fresh water prawns they sell you out the back door. The ice cream was Rs. 100; the prawns were Rs. 1000.
Upon leaving the ice cream shop and heading for our mooring for the night, the crew let Jess captain the boat, which was an immediate hit, and a lot of work. Jess was captian until her arms got tired of constantly correcting the wheel. We docked at a rock wall enclosing a rice paddy for the night, and the crew set about preparing dinner. The houseboats are not allowed on the lake after sundown to give the local fishermen a safe environment without fear of having their canoe overrun by a house boat.
Once the sun went down, the mosquitoes came out, and were they thick. Montana and Minnesota have nothing over hungary backwater bugs. So, we retired to the safety of our room for the night. At some point in the night, Allison woke me with the phrase "there's something in here with us". Ok, we're in Southern India, parked next to a rice paddy, what could be in there with us? Cobra? Russel Viper? Something with claws? All possibilities; so, after my imagination settled down, I started to listen to the noises she was concerned about: rats. More rats came to visit the Thornes experiences in India. To explain, they were not in the room with us; rather, they we in the space above the ceiling. Upon investigation the next day, no rodential evidentia was discovered anywhere IN the room. Needless to say, not an extremely restful night for the adults.
Day 06:29 December, 2008
After breakfast, we proceeded to Alleppey jetty for disembarkation. There is not much difference to house boat traffic and vehicular traffic. Both modalities utilize their horns, get congested, and jockey for position. Fascinating culture! We docked at 9:30, and I had been kind of curious about how we were going to link up with Mr. Kuriakose, but hey, no worries! He was at the jetty, and we were soon on our way to the Arcadia Regency hotel in Alleppey. We spent two nights in Alleppey visiting with Erica Johnson from Minneapolis, who flew in for the wedding, and Joe Fish's family at the wedding. [Joe, Erica, and Allison all worked together at Target, and Erica was part of the 2006 Italy wedding trip.] Erica was traveling with her daughter Paige, and Jessie and Paige hit it off and had a good time flying kites on the beach and goofing in the waves.
We're getting pretty comfortable with navigating around Indian cities. Jessie wanted some bangles to go with her wedding outfit; so, we struck out on a walk to do some shopping. Problem solved, we returned unscathed with bangles, a Rs. 20 watch for Jess, and two bottles of wine for the adults, who were still nursing elephant injuries and had run out of Kingfisher. Erica was staying at the Keralite Heritage Home Stay in Alleppey (they're called home stays, not bed and breakfasts), and Alice Thomas, who was operating the home stay, hooked Erica up with a theatrical performance of a Kerala tradition, the Kutiyattam, which was very interesting. When we arrived at the performance, the actor was still getting his makup applied, and another man demonstrated how to interpret the facial expressions and drum music that is the program.
Day 08 :31 December, 2008
We departed Alleppey early as we had another long drive to Kovalam and our final destination. Not soon after departing Allison got a call on her mobile. It was Alice at the home stay, and Erica had been quite ill the night before and had left some stuff behind. So, we returned to Alleppey, retrieved the abandoned belongings, and proceeded to Kovalam. This was just a long drive, with not much of interest to discuss, which is good because this post is getting wordy. We arrived at the Travencore Heritage resort late in the afternoon and got settled in. We had a wonderful cottage with a great view of the Indian Ocean. The Chowra beach was below us, and we got wonderful wave sound, which we discovered was pretty unusual as other cottages did not get such great sound. Our cottage had a great porch, and within minutes of settling in Allison announced "I am never leaving this spot, this is perfect". Each morning, we had coffee on the porch, toying with the Asian Ravens over sugar packets, and each afternoon we shared Kingfisher while Jess consumed a pizza.
The Travencore had a great pool, which Jess enjoyed. Allison had two massages, one being the now infamous "foot" massage". We spent three full days at the Travencore. Nirmal and Kuriakose had set an agenda for us, but we were just enjoying ourselves too much to leave; so, each morning I sent a message to Mr. Kuriakose that we were not coming out. We spent two days on the beach. We all enjoyed playing in the surf, and we had pretty good surf with waves in the 2-4 meter range.
The beach was a working beach. There were many fishing boats on the beach - on the order of hundreds. Some canoes, some larger, all working, all powered by paddles. The larger boats would make a large u shaped traverse into the ocean dropping several hundred meters of fish net. Both ends of the net are anchored by "tug of war" teams on the beach. Once depoyed, the team would pull the net into shore. Once the catchment area of the net approached the beach, other men would be in the surf howling and slapping the water to scare the fish further into the net. The whole process took about an hour and a half. Once the bounty was on the beach, the local market guys would come down, negotiate a price, and carry off fresh fish to the market, during which time the next boat was depoying its nets.
There was one night when the whole fleet of canoes went out to sea at sunset. I got up early enough to see them coming back into the beach by surfing their canoes on the tops of the waves. The canoes were large enough to have 3-4 persons in them; so, canoe sufring is not a trivial activity.
Day 12:04 January, 2008
Our last day in Kovalam was spent going for a quick swim, checking out, getting lunch at another beach, doing a little shopping, and returning to Bengaluru. We were happy to see Imtiaz's face as we left the BIA terminal baggage area. It's about an hour and a half drive from the airport to the house, and it was a little weird as it actually felt like we were going home. Allison and I both commented about that reality as we had separate and similar thoughts on the phenom. When we entered the house, the tabbies were happy to see us, and we did indeed know we were home.
The pictures for this post are located in the Kerala album on our Picasa site. They are in no particular order as to attempt to order pictures prior to uploading to Picasa is futile. I wish I knew what data Picasa used to reorder our pictures so that I could manipulate to a sequence that made sense. So, the pictures that look like mountains are from Munnar, house boats are from Kumarakom, Jessie doing flips by the pool were at the Lake Song Resort, wedding and kite flying was in Alleppey, and everything else was Kovalam on the beach.
Day 01: 24 December, 2008
Imtiaz, our driver, dropped us at BIA for our first experience at domestic flying within India. We worry too much. BIA is a great and modern airport, and it works just the same as every other airport we've every been in. Getting through security is different, especially after the Mumbai attacks, but they managed the queues quickly, and soon we were on our way. We left Bengaluru on Kingfisher Air, and even though it was only a little more than an hour flight, we were pleasantly surprised to get a hot meal on the plane. Once we landed at Kochin in Kerala, we gathered our bags (the airports in India provide FREE luggage carts, rather than charge you $3.50). Nirmal had arranged for us to be met. Our greeter was easily found, and soon we on our way to Munnar to the first hotel with our driver, Mr. Kuriakose. It was Christmas eve, and the drive was about three and half hours. We made one mistake during this phase of the journey. Nirmal asked if we wanted to stop for lunch, and having just eaten on the plane, we indicated no only to learn that restaurants are not 24/7, as we expect them to be in the US. In some cases, even room service is available only in selected hours. Needless to say, that by the time we got to dinner at the hotel, we were really hungry. Munnar is up in the mountains in tea country, and the road from coastal Kochi into the mountains is reminiscent of winding western mountain roads in the Western US of fifty years ago. There are a lot of large buses moving people about; so, rather than having to worry about getting smucked by a logging truck, as is the case in the US, you have to worry about getting smucked by these buses, which are all driven by NASCAR wanna bees. Needless to say, Mr. Kuriakose was very familiar with the road, its challenges, and got us safely to our hotel The Tea Valley Resort. We spent two nights at Tea Valley. Christmas eve they had a program of fireworks and a local drum / dance ensemble. The guy dressed up as Santa Clause was a bit different - by western standards, anyway.
Day 02:25 December, 2008
On Christmas day we did a tour of the Tea Museum in Munnar, and then took a nice hike in Eravikulam National Park to see the Nilgiris goat. After lunch and a little shopping in Munnar to acquire some munchies for those periods when room service was not available, we retired back to Tea Valley. Tea Valley is perched on a cliff at the top of a tea plantation. The view from our room was spectacular! A village down in the valley kept us in music on Christmas eve and day as the valley was a natural amphitheater. The road into Tea Valley from the highway was interesting, and you have to be from the western US to appreciate. One lane, few turnouts, dugout with loose rock, and a steep cliff to one side - almost four wheelin' quality.
Oh, yes, the food. Our hotel bookings (all of them) included breakfast and dinner. Lunch was extra. The hotels served food buffet style. The food was quite good with many dishes to select from. You haven't lived until you've had fresh naan cooked in a kiln! Jess found it a bit hard to find Jessie friendly food as she has not yet succumbed to eating Indian style. She was very happy the last resort had pizza 24/7. Again, there are specific time periods for the buffets; so, keep some munchies handy.
Day 03:26 December, 2008
Well, what goes up the mountain, must come down the mountain. Leaving the Munnar area, we spent about four hours going back down the mountain to Kumarakom to the Lake Song Resort. The drive was uneventful with the exception to the elephant ride that Allison has addressed in another post. The only comment I'll add is this: at my mostly ossified stage in life riding an elephant was a dumb idea, and the pain in certain parts of my carcass has not yet yielded to the medicinal application of Kingfisher beer. Mr. Kuriakose did a nice job of pointing out the flora as we were traveling both up and down the mountain. Tapioca, rubber plantations, cashew nut trees, cocoa trees, coffee both in the tree and drying on the ground, peppercorns both on the plant (a vine), and drying on the ground, vanilla beans, cypress trees (imported from Australia to fuel the tea plants), and many other things now forgotten.
We checked into the resort, said goodbye to Mr. Kuriakose (he would meet us in Alleppey), and proceeded to investigate the new environment. The Lake Song, named for the "song of the lake", which turned out to be a gaggle of white farm geese, is a very nice resort on the edge of Vembanad Lake. (Vembanad Lake is part of a chain of lakes known as the backwaters.) Jessie especially liked the swimming pool, the hammocks, and fishing - she actually caught a small (3 inch) fish. Several pictures of her goofing by the pool are in the Kerala album. We were interested to observe the gardeners trim the coconut palms during our visit - a lot of work. True to our quest of decompression we stayed on the resort property, choosing to not discover other attributes of the area.
Day 05: 28 December, 2008
After two nights of r-n-r, we departed Kumarakom on the Ayodhya Paradise house boat for a one night trip across the lake to Alleppey - the destination for the wedding. We boarded the house boat a bit late as the crew went to the wrong resort, but we were soon on our way. Traveling by house boat is very relaxing. The boat was staffed by three capable young Keralites, a cook, a captain, and the other guy. It was hard to figure out who played which role at any given moment. We stopped for lunch, then toured around the lake stopping later on in the afternoon for ice cream. Years ago, I don't know when, rice paddies were dredged out of Vembanad Lake. The paddies are enclosed by rock walls, which you can see in the pictures, and they are below sea level. Vembanad Lake is called the backwaters and is connected to the Indian Ocean. So, we were surprised to find an ice cream shop in the middle of the lake on the corner of a rice paddy. The real draw we found out was not the ice cream, but the monster fresh water prawns they sell you out the back door. The ice cream was Rs. 100; the prawns were Rs. 1000.
Upon leaving the ice cream shop and heading for our mooring for the night, the crew let Jess captain the boat, which was an immediate hit, and a lot of work. Jess was captian until her arms got tired of constantly correcting the wheel. We docked at a rock wall enclosing a rice paddy for the night, and the crew set about preparing dinner. The houseboats are not allowed on the lake after sundown to give the local fishermen a safe environment without fear of having their canoe overrun by a house boat.
Once the sun went down, the mosquitoes came out, and were they thick. Montana and Minnesota have nothing over hungary backwater bugs. So, we retired to the safety of our room for the night. At some point in the night, Allison woke me with the phrase "there's something in here with us". Ok, we're in Southern India, parked next to a rice paddy, what could be in there with us? Cobra? Russel Viper? Something with claws? All possibilities; so, after my imagination settled down, I started to listen to the noises she was concerned about: rats. More rats came to visit the Thornes experiences in India. To explain, they were not in the room with us; rather, they we in the space above the ceiling. Upon investigation the next day, no rodential evidentia was discovered anywhere IN the room. Needless to say, not an extremely restful night for the adults.
Day 06:29 December, 2008
After breakfast, we proceeded to Alleppey jetty for disembarkation. There is not much difference to house boat traffic and vehicular traffic. Both modalities utilize their horns, get congested, and jockey for position. Fascinating culture! We docked at 9:30, and I had been kind of curious about how we were going to link up with Mr. Kuriakose, but hey, no worries! He was at the jetty, and we were soon on our way to the Arcadia Regency hotel in Alleppey. We spent two nights in Alleppey visiting with Erica Johnson from Minneapolis, who flew in for the wedding, and Joe Fish's family at the wedding. [Joe, Erica, and Allison all worked together at Target, and Erica was part of the 2006 Italy wedding trip.] Erica was traveling with her daughter Paige, and Jessie and Paige hit it off and had a good time flying kites on the beach and goofing in the waves.
We're getting pretty comfortable with navigating around Indian cities. Jessie wanted some bangles to go with her wedding outfit; so, we struck out on a walk to do some shopping. Problem solved, we returned unscathed with bangles, a Rs. 20 watch for Jess, and two bottles of wine for the adults, who were still nursing elephant injuries and had run out of Kingfisher. Erica was staying at the Keralite Heritage Home Stay in Alleppey (they're called home stays, not bed and breakfasts), and Alice Thomas, who was operating the home stay, hooked Erica up with a theatrical performance of a Kerala tradition, the Kutiyattam, which was very interesting. When we arrived at the performance, the actor was still getting his makup applied, and another man demonstrated how to interpret the facial expressions and drum music that is the program.
Day 08 :31 December, 2008
We departed Alleppey early as we had another long drive to Kovalam and our final destination. Not soon after departing Allison got a call on her mobile. It was Alice at the home stay, and Erica had been quite ill the night before and had left some stuff behind. So, we returned to Alleppey, retrieved the abandoned belongings, and proceeded to Kovalam. This was just a long drive, with not much of interest to discuss, which is good because this post is getting wordy. We arrived at the Travencore Heritage resort late in the afternoon and got settled in. We had a wonderful cottage with a great view of the Indian Ocean. The Chowra beach was below us, and we got wonderful wave sound, which we discovered was pretty unusual as other cottages did not get such great sound. Our cottage had a great porch, and within minutes of settling in Allison announced "I am never leaving this spot, this is perfect". Each morning, we had coffee on the porch, toying with the Asian Ravens over sugar packets, and each afternoon we shared Kingfisher while Jess consumed a pizza.
The Travencore had a great pool, which Jess enjoyed. Allison had two massages, one being the now infamous "foot" massage". We spent three full days at the Travencore. Nirmal and Kuriakose had set an agenda for us, but we were just enjoying ourselves too much to leave; so, each morning I sent a message to Mr. Kuriakose that we were not coming out. We spent two days on the beach. We all enjoyed playing in the surf, and we had pretty good surf with waves in the 2-4 meter range.
The beach was a working beach. There were many fishing boats on the beach - on the order of hundreds. Some canoes, some larger, all working, all powered by paddles. The larger boats would make a large u shaped traverse into the ocean dropping several hundred meters of fish net. Both ends of the net are anchored by "tug of war" teams on the beach. Once depoyed, the team would pull the net into shore. Once the catchment area of the net approached the beach, other men would be in the surf howling and slapping the water to scare the fish further into the net. The whole process took about an hour and a half. Once the bounty was on the beach, the local market guys would come down, negotiate a price, and carry off fresh fish to the market, during which time the next boat was depoying its nets.
There was one night when the whole fleet of canoes went out to sea at sunset. I got up early enough to see them coming back into the beach by surfing their canoes on the tops of the waves. The canoes were large enough to have 3-4 persons in them; so, canoe sufring is not a trivial activity.
Day 12:04 January, 2008
Our last day in Kovalam was spent going for a quick swim, checking out, getting lunch at another beach, doing a little shopping, and returning to Bengaluru. We were happy to see Imtiaz's face as we left the BIA terminal baggage area. It's about an hour and a half drive from the airport to the house, and it was a little weird as it actually felt like we were going home. Allison and I both commented about that reality as we had separate and similar thoughts on the phenom. When we entered the house, the tabbies were happy to see us, and we did indeed know we were home.
Christmas Eve: same and different
January 6, 2009
Painful Pachyderm Top 10
- 3 people on a 2 seater elephant... OUCH!
- Even the elephant honks at corners.
- 30 minute ride??? I thought you said 30 feet!
- 30 minutes on an elephant is like 30 hours on a horse.
- Wow, is that a bowling ball or an elephant dropping? And is THAT a kick stand?
- Some things just shouldn't be done bareback.
- There are easier ways to see vanilla beans on a vine. Next time I'll walk to the spice garden.
- Yay!!! The road is closed and we have to turn around early.
- Another "Once In a Lifetime is Enough" lesson
- Got to hotel, called Aryvedic Spa, asked what do you recommend after an elephant ride? Bad question.
Sorry Saari
Over the holidays we were priveledged and honored to attend a wedding in Kerala, India. I decided to wear a Saari for the occasion.
It became apparent pretty quickly when other guests started to arrive before the ceremony that I wasn't dressed quite right. We didn't have a common spoken language to discuss the problem but I'm pretty sure I was being asked questions like:
- Are you going to a Toga Party?
- What... did your husband dress you? (Actually the answer to the question was yes!)
- Did you get your dressing instructions off the internet? (Well... the answer to that was yes, too)
Luckily (or not) I was able to convey a hand gestured request for help rectifying the attire faux paux. I was imaging this to be a quick tuck here or there. Instead I found myself quickly unwrapped all the way down to my petticoat. RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PARKING LOT! I fear there are now pictures of me floating around on YouTube or FlickR somewhere because there sure were a lot a people with video and camera equipment aimed my way. The attached picturer is an "after". I thought about enclosing a "before" picture, but when I looked at one, I could totally understand the concern of the women who helped me. When we finally returned to the hotel later that day, I learned I actually had the top on backward too. I guess I should feel lucky that no one decided to fix that problem for me in the parking lot before I could resist.
Christmas Cards!
It has been so great to get so many Christmas cards from our friends back home! Thank you! They have never been appreciated more than this year. With everything so strange and new they've been a huge comfort and have helped us feel less remote. They will all be part of our house decorating scheme next year since we have very little of our Christmas stuff here.
It is nice to know that for 94 cents and about two weeks delivery time the US Postal Service is proving the world is indeed flat. We even discovered that Amazon will deliver books and DVD's here in a relatively reasonable amount of time and cost. Thanks Sally & Dave!
January 5, 2009
Terminology differences
20 years ago... A wonderful day skiing at Big Sky, Montana. Saw a sign for a 1/2 hour foot massage. Ahhh! Relief for sore feet. A soak in a warm foot bath followed by the perfect attention to aching toes that had been in ski boots all day. Almost heaven!
Fast forward to last week... new shoes, hot sand, rough pavement, aching feet. Saw a sign for a 1/2 hour foot massage. Ahhh! Relief for sore feet. Went to appointment. Was asked to remove clothing and lay down on floor. What???! What more do I need to remove for a foot massage? My sandals are already off my feet and I'm wearing shorts. And wouldn't this be easier if I was sitting on a chair? Well... Turns out that in Kerala India in an ayurvedic practice "Foot Massage" means you lay down on the floor and are massaged with hot coconut oil with a foot. There are somethings that once in a life is way more than enough.
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