Friends...

Matt is currently teaching Ishak how to play the Leapster while Jack and Owen play Legos with Ivashake (sp?). It is a school break this week so these boys were at our door early this morning to pick up Jack for a game of cricket. Very few words are exchanged since even their English is very difficult to understand - even for me. But, who needs words when you have Legos?

One small step...

but a HUGE moment in so many other ways. While Jack and I were sitting at the tennis courts watching Owen be miserable and crabby during his tennis class, a few boys came by, as they do every day at this time, and started to play a game of cricket. After a little while, Jack decided to go upstairs and get his own cricket bat which I had already accepted was going to be a nice trophy in his bedroom completely untouched. A few minutes later jack re-emerged equipped with cricket bat and tennis shoes (flip flops were gone).

Then he played. For the first time since we have left, Jack played with kids his own age. Anyone who really knows Jack, knows this was a huge step outside his comfort zone. I'm really proud of him but mostly I'm just happy for him. He's really missed his best friends and had a very sad moment just last night about this. So, even though he misses his good friends, he knows it's ok to try to make some new friends too.

On a side note, Jack came back up to the apartment later after he was done with a friend in tow. Jack said the boy just followed him up to the apartment and wasn't quite sure what to do about it. It was pretty funny really. They sat and played Jack's DS for a few moments. Cricket and DS - and international meeting of the minds or something like that.

More Pictures from Jaipur Weekend

If you're interested in seeing more pictures of the adventure...

http://picasaweb.google.com/nkelley66

"The Journey is the Destination"

"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."

Chris Kelley was the first to share this concept with me and although the words aren't his or mine, they are VERY appropriate for the weekend we just experienced. I couldn't have imagined that our weekend would take the twists and turns that it did and it was clear we needed to give ourselves up to the "journey" and enjoy it vs. trying to direct it. The weekend also seemed full of contradictions - I can't seem to think of them all right now but I know this thought kept coming to me... again and again. Is it a contradiction that I can't remember the contradictions now?

Our 3 hour journey to Jaipur Friday night took 6+ hours. By some miracle, we did come across a McDonalds on the ONE very straight road to Jaipur from Gurgaon which made the traveling easier and kind of fun for the boys. I think Owen is going to turn into a french fry.

We had quite an entourage on this trip - there is a picture of our crew above. Our driver Mickey and another Google driver named Lilett (who drove two other Googlers) were ultimately in charge of the trip and our itinerary. As I said earlier, we had to give ourselves up to this. It involved some "duty" on the drivers part to take us to family shops and family houses - again - part of the unique experience. It was Lilett's brother who made our hotel reservations and drove one of the cars. Micky drove our car. We had been told we were staying at the Imperial Hotel (5 star - $70/night? this should have told me something was wrong!) but the name of the hotel was actually Hotel Empire ($70/night - not 5 star). We met the others for a drink in the restaurant and the word creepy was used often and references to The Shining were made. I've never seen The Shining but I didn't think this was a good thing. After one night with no hot water, buckets for showers and 4 very stiff single beds for 6 of us (our nanny was with us) - we left. It was actually perfectly fine since we arrived at midnight, slept for 8 hours and left. The journey, the journey, the journey...

After meeting up with everyone in the morning (our Jaipur guide went to the Imperial Hotel - not the Empire Hotel), I pulled out my Fodor's guide and quickly made reservations at a fabulous hotel. Why not? We had just saved a bundle on our first night so we splurged on our 2nd night. It was fabulous - an old fort/castle place called Raj Villas - http://www.oberoirajvilas.com.


Now Jaipur - WOW. Forts, Castles, Camels, Elephants and fun shopping. What more could 3 boys and I want? OK - Owen might want some french fries. Jack, Matt and Owen were troopers and handled all the touring well. They were rewarded the second night with a fabulous pool, croquet and yes, for Owen some french fries (and for me the spa). Jaipur is very ancient and full of interesting things to see and watch. I think the car rides between the site seeing on day one was more interesting than the actual sites - the journey thing again...

If anyone comes to visit us - we will highly recommend this destination for one or two days - totally worth the crazy drive on roads with no rules and mostly giant trucks full of people (in the backs of the trucks) and the goods/produce going between the two state capitals.

I will post a link to more pics of our weekend.... we are all relaxing this morning after a very late arrival last night at our apartment. School will have to wait until after lunch. Think the boys will comply?

ps - it is now after lunch and I wouldn't call this complying!

pss - the other twist is that we chose to stay in Jaipur for the whole weekend instead of going to Agra (Taj) - we'll make that another weekend journey.

A Quiz...

The following are the four questions written on the white board in our dining room (please keep in mind that these are for an 8, 6 and 4 year old)...

1. What is the Taj Mahal?
a.) A Mausoleum
b.) A Volcano (we just studied volcanoes last week)
c.) A Planet

2. When was the Taj Mahal built?
a.) 2007
b.) 1635
c.) 1900

3.)Why was the Taj built? Matt knows this story and finds it intriguing.
a.) A King built it for his favorite wife (implies he had more than one?)
b.) To bury all dead people (gives away answer number one)
c.) For the fun of it

4.) What is another name for the city of Jaipur, India?
a.) Planet Earth
b.) The Pink City
c.) The Purple City


I'll be sure to post some pics.

Our planning was last minute and of this morning we had no hotel - everything was totally booked as John laid in bed frustrated as hell last night trying to find us a place to stay. Thankfully, Micky (our driver) has a best friend who's brother (follow that one) felt compelled to make us a reservation without asking us first. Do I know this man? I don't think so but it seems he knows John and I well enough to choose our hotel and make us a reservation. Someone up there likes me.

Jaipur and Agra - here we come.

Bursting the Bubble

So... we are plugging along trying to figure things out as we go and it's interesting to note how my feelings are changing about things. One of my biggest worries when we started this adventure back in December was the boys safety and what to do about their education while here. The solution for John and I was homeschooling because it took so much confusion out of our decision to move to India at the time. I think our theory became..."keep the boys close, keep them safe, keep them happy". Well, now that we are here, my safety concerns have eased quite a bit and I'm feeling a little cramped in the apartment. As I described this to John (worried he would think I was just bailing on the homeschooling thing) he quickly recapped my description with a "maybe we are ready to leave the bubble a bit more" - a perfect description. As much as I like our bubble, I think we will all benefit more greatly if we venture outside it on a more regular basis. With that said...

I actually went to look at a school here in Gurgaon that came highly recommended by a couple different folks. It is a private Indian school - all teachers teach in English - but most of the communication in the halls seems to be in Hindi. They gave me 3 applications this morning, asked for 600 rupees and told me to bring them back this afternoon and in addition, there seemed to be some confusion about in which grade each kid would be placed and whether admissions were open for those grades. I just stood there and tried to follow any instructions given to me. I quickly wondered... is this how the boys will feel? Even I was anxious a bit in this totally strange environment - how would an 8, 6 and 4 year old feel? At the same time, it looked and felt much like a school at home. The school year here is totally different - starts early April and goes year round with many breaks. So if we are going to take the plunge into an Indian school - April 4th is the day to do it. We might still have the option of the American Embassy School in Delhi but that wouldn't be until Fall since they run on the American school year calendar.

John went with me to drop off the completed and lengthy applications and we were both very unsure of what was happening. John leaned over to me and said... either we are 1.) very desirable or 2.) we were getting the total brush off. Hard to tell. That's how it feels most of the time here - just not exactly sure where you stand sometimes. No one is rude - actually, extremely polite most of the time. It's just that we are on the outside looking in for a change. We did not see any other American families so the boys would be a minority of one. Not sure what to think about this. I'll keep you posted.

Lastly, we are trying to plan a trip for the weekend. Think we will head to Jaipur - The Pink City. Forts, castles and shopping. I'll post pics!

Our apartment, our driver and more...

Here are some pics of our apartment as it comes together. I'm starting to like it and I even made my own appetizer in my kitchen while the cooks were there too (0k - I'm not sure cheese and crackers counts but...). It was fun to have the cooks try Cheddar Cheese and even more fun to watch them pronounce it! Again, they are fun and good cooks.

Hope the pics give you a feeling of our new surroundings. The man with Jack and Matt by the car is our driver, Micky. The man in the uniform and hat is Pria's husband (Robin) who watches my kids like a hawk when we are outside playing.

Our Living Room


Our Dining Room and our School Room


The hallway to the bedrooms


Matt and Owen's bedroom


Jack's Bedroom with Pria doing her thing (or the guest room!)


The apartment playground


Jack and Matt playing on monkey bars


Our driver Micky (our car in background)


Me and the boys minus O


Security Guard Robin (Pria's husband) - John said this picture looked like a prison pic - thoughts???

My very first bomb threat...

The following is copied from the Times of India news site one hour ago:

" All major malls in the city were evacuated following the threat. Visitors said they were turned away from the gates by security guards who said searches were being undertaken inside. These malls also house several cinema halls and shows from the afternoon on were suspended.

Television reports said the police had received a threat around 11 am that one of the malls would be blown up in the early evening, triggering the panic."

Bummer. It turns out that Jack, Matt and I were on the way to the mall when this threat was released. As we pulled up to the mall it was clear there was a problem - no entry - and our driver Mickey had a brief conversation with the security guard at the gate to get the full scoop and then we left. This was my 1st experience with a bomb threat and also my first experience trying to explain a "bomb threat" to an 8 and 6 year old. Matt had worked very hard on his schoolwork in order to earn this trip to the "Color my World" pottery painting store at the mall and he was heart broken - all he cares about is whether we can go tomorrow... the perspective of a 6 year old.

All I can say is that it's remarkably NOT scary. I feel like this could just as easily have happened at Briarwood. It doesn't feel real - at least not what I think of when I think of a terrorist threat.

We came home to our two cooks waiting for us and I also received a call from John who had already given me a heads up on a bomb threat of some kind and I think we all felt better after we got home. The quick stop at the bakery for a couple big chocolate cream fudge cakes didn't hurt.

Bummer on the bomb threat but, honestly, I feel very safe here and I feel like we are surrounded by people who want to keep us that way.

Our Indian Family and more

Some pics of our new family...

The first is just a pic of Jack doing his schoolwork. The second pic is of one of the cooks - Bali - and his #1 appretice Matt. The third is our housemaid Pria with Jack and then it's Owen with our aya Ricky and a pic of both cooks (Anil and Bali with Matt and the houseboy in the background).

I'll post some pics of the apartment later.
nak

Just another day...

Everything here continues to be good but very strange and different. There are a ton of people in my house doing everything all the time - my phone rings all day and people come to the door a ton but I never answer my phone or door and that's ok because neither one are ever for me anyway... Well, I guess, in some way, they are technically for me since they are delivering food, picking up things, coming to work, delivering laundry etc.. ALL VERY STRANGE. I find myself getting use to the activity and just ignoring it all. The house maid is here every day from 9am to 7pm. She is trying to speak more English but it's barely anything and I mostly just say hello and goodbye. She is a young Indian woman whose husband is a security guard at our complex (not a coincidence) and basically hovers around the house cleaning, ironing, mopping, wiping, dusting etc. ALL the time. It's very archaic though. Only yesterday I finally got proper cleaning rags and supplies for her and still, the Indian culture dictates that she brushes the rugs and floors with a short broom made from long strands of straw stuff. No vacuum. Guess what - I'm buying a vacuum. Pria, the housemade, will have to get use to it. I have to be careful because there is a pride issue associated with using a short broom and doing hard work - it's VERY important to her that I think she is doing a good job. At the same time... how good of a job can you do with a short broom made of straw? The whole thing is strange. Not glamorous. It can sound so glamorous as I describe it. Two cooks (who I adore by the way and are the best part of this whole deal), one housemaid, a bunch of house boys working for one head house boy who runs my apartment and a nanny (I'll get to her next). It's strange to be "called" to lunch - have people wait on you in your own home, serve your boys like they are the bosses, get up from the table to have it cleared by others and then to be called back later for dinner (after people have shopped, cleaned and cooked for you all over again). It's not glamorous but I am incredibly touched by how much they want to make us happy. The cooks are doing an amazing job and trying to stock the house with foods for the boys and clearly feel rewarded when they succeed in feeding them. Matt spends significant time in the kitchen with the cooks - mutual adoration. They always come out of the kitchen after dinner to chat and teach us a bit of Hindi (Maffi Chahata Hum - Excuse me) and to make sure everyone is happy. Then they come back out to say goodnight and the house boys clean up the kitchen. Sorry for my rambling - I just want to give you a flavor for how it works.

The nanny is being paid 5000 rupees a month which is generous - sadly. That's about $110 month and her hours are 9-7 Mon - Sat. Sunday's off. Oh and that includes any additional evening work - she is on call 24 x7 6 days a week. She is 21, educated and speaks good English. She is VERY subservient. It makes it difficult for me and makes me a little weary frankly. I don't feel I know her because all she says is Yes mam. Yes mam. Yes mam. It's a bit disturbing. She and Owen are working things out and that's most important since I need her to be with him while the boys and I work in the mornings. It gets a bit better every day. I have some strange day dreams like she is really some mean horrible person and the minute I leave she is wicked but... the truth is she is never alone with the children. Deepok (head house boy) and Pria are always here and so are the cooks. That gives me comfort. I'm sure she's wonderful and we will all grow to love each other but I'm giving myself the leeway to be a bit paranoid right now. I have hardly left the boys since we have arrived and only during the day to go down to the gym or run to the store. It's nice just to have Ricky (nanny) here as an extra set of hands to keep everyone happy. The days are long without the boys going away to school. John leaves the apartment at 7:30am so he can leave the office at 6:15pm and that's almost 12 hours with the boys - long day but we are falling into a good routine. They had their first tennis lesson today - Jack and Matt took a 1 hour lesson by themselves out at the court at our apartment for 300 rupees ($7) plus 50 ($1) rupees for the ball boy (required - not sure how I feel about that one - kind of like the boys picking up their own balls). They will do that a couple days a week which will be great. They had a great time doing it together - more about the fun and exercise than about the tennis frankly.

I promise - I'll stop the rambling soon.

Glad to hear red wings are kicking butt.

"It's fine".

We're in! It's interesting to me that this will be our home for the next 6 - 10 months (I know some of you are laughing when I say 6-10 mths believing it will be longer). In the chaotic process of moving in and unpacking, John and I found ourselves using one phrase over and over - "it's fine". Two key words that many of the folks around us - who speak very little or no English seem to understand completely. The amount of people in the house the day we moved in was staggering. I literly had to hide from the chaos at one point (in Jack's closet) with my cell phone to call John so I could share my utter amusement at the scene. An interesting point to note is that the boys were oblivious to the fevered pitch of activity. They walked right through the front door, into their bedroom, found the bin of Lego we had shipped and sat down to play in their own world for at least 2 hours. Thank God for Legos.

So, "It's Fine" has become my new motto. In just two days, things have calmed considerably, many of the problems have been resolved (on Friday afternoon we didn't have one completely functioning bathroom out of 3) and we've seemed to have already developed a bit of a rapport with our cooks and cleaning folks. The cleaners are working non-stop all day doing I don't know what - especially in the kitchen and laundry area. I had to decide if I wanted to take some ownership over my kitchen and I decided I would. It would be easy to feel like it wasn't my kitchen or that I shouldn't go in there but I had to set the precedent early that it was my kitchen and even then - it's still NOT my kitchen.

We found a small grocery yesterday (not what you are thinking of when I say grocery) that had some American brands so I bought some things for the kids to show the chefs who stock our kitchen. Google had requested a food list prior to our arrival of some basics - mostly for the kids - which I provided but the stuff in the kitchen when we arrived was a bit freaky if I'm honest. The only thing I recognized was the peanut butter (jiffy) and that's only because I think American's are the only wierdo's who eat peanut butter. EVERYTHING they stocked was spicy - even the potato chips so... I went shopping. It worked out great and the chefs are doing a great job with the kids. Tonight they ate Chicken Tikka (basically chix on a skewer) and palak (spinach) with spanish corn and rice and naan. OK - so they mostly at Chicken and naan. It's a start. Matt has already made fast friends with our two cooks and watched them make naan tonight. They love him. Big surprise. As a side note, the chefs also made them tuna fish and mayo on ritz crackers for lunch - now that is being a good sport!

My favorite thing about being in the house so far is at the end of the day when the staff comes to say goodnight. Each staff member makes an effort to say goodnight (in English) to each of the boys and the boys have become accustomed to putting their hands together (as if in prayer) and saying Namaste. It's very endearing and I'm glad they do it - it is clearly a welcome gesture.

Thanks for reading...
Namaste.

Just some pics...

Just some random pics. Today is moving day so I'll let you know how it goes. I'm not sure I'll have an internet connection this week... yikes so it might be a while before I post. Thanks for all the supporting emails - it makes this SO much more fun.
Nancy

Italia!

Tonight is our last night in the hotel if all goes as planned. Our drivers arrive tomorrow at noon to take the boys, me and our luggage over to the apartment. I'm excited and even happier now that I've heard our previously shipped items (many of the boys lovies and toys) have already arrived and are waiting at the apartment. I had planned our "going away" dinner tonight to be at the hotel's Restaurant Italia! which has been the biggest hit with the boys - a fabulously thin crusted cheese pizza. The rest of the menu is pretty good too. It's a place where the boys can watch all the cooking and even visit the station where the pizza chef makes their dinner. All the very Indian, Italian chefs were very playful with the boys and I believe the chefs enjoyed the audience. Anyway... back to my plan... which was to have dinner at Italia!... didn't go as planned... needed reservation...oops. So, I persuaded the managerial looking man (hard for me to ever know who is really in charge here) to let me order and have room service deliver it. I forgot to mention that the real reason we wanted to go here is because of the dessert - Melting Chocolate Surprise. Chocolate Granache is cooked in little pans until its crusty on the outside, melted in the inside and served with vanilla ice cream. Yum - tasted even better delivered to our room. While I'm talking about Restaurant Italia!, I should tell you what happened last time we went. We had all had a late and yummy dinner so John walked Matt and Owen up to our room and left me with Jack to fetch the bill etc. One last request from John... bring up a bottle of wine. We have discovered that wine is a specialty item here - not always available and not always good. So, I concurred and ordered a bottle of the house wine we had with dinner (some merlot by the glass). Our very polite waiter brought the wine, the bill and even was honest enough to confirm that a 10% tip was good and normal. As Jack and I walked away with our bottle of wine in hand... my mind started to re-calculate the bill. Hmm... something seemed off. The more I calculated (100 rupees = $2, 1000 rupees = $20), the more I panicked. Yikes - I think I just spent 4000 rupees on a bottle of wine! I kept walking trying not to laugh and wondering what John was going to do when I told him. Clearly Google can't pay for it - just not right. Can you return a bottle of wine? That's awkward enough in my own country - forget doing it here. So, the bottle sits high in our hotel room - undrunk - and a smile crosses my face everytime I see it. I think it will make it's way back to the states as a symbol - of what I'm not sure yet.
Buonanotte!

Safety. That's my topic. it really threads through every aspect of my day - especially since I have 3 little boys with me. What's become clear to me is that, in general, as Americans, our idea of "safe" seems different than an average Indians version of "safe". Whether it's venturing out in our car where we are the ONLY automobile which has one person per seat and actually uses seat belts, to the fact that a HUGE chunck of tile fell off the outside of our very nice hotel in the pool area yesterday (yes, we were down at the pool) and the staff gathered outside to look and laugh. Hmm - not so funny really. I heard a famous Indian actress on the tv the other day describe the fact that Indian's are somewhat use to tragedy and poverty. People get hurt, people get sick, people die. She compared that to the west where she felt there was a higher value placed on human life and where tragedy was rare - not a normal occurance. She hit a nerve with me. One of the things I'm hoping we are able to avoid during our stay is a trip to the hospital. Please... if I have one wish, it's that the boys don't get hurt or seriously sick on this trip. Don't get the wrong idea.. I'm not going to hole up in our apartment but I find that I watch my kids like a hawk right now and am probably more cautious about everything. There is NO chance they would survive a mistaken step into the road, it is obvious that most of the stray dogs are very unhealthy, and the mere presence of all the machine guns in the capital leave me no option but to be cautious. Please don't read this wrong.. India is very beautiful and the people are as well - it's just different.

A couple things happened yesterday that were odd and funny. The boys and I ventured out to the zoo and just like most of our experiences here, we, the Kelley family, were the main attraction. Keeping in line with my safety discussion, the zoo was a great escape but had a couple problems. Big ditches, holes etc. in the midst of all the construction. There were hundreds of Indians working in the zoo helping to build out some of the displays. It almost felt as if they were on display - it was odd. The boys had a great afternoon riding through the zoo on the back of a jeep like truck and we saw fabulous animals (pooping Hippos, lots of monkeys, a cool leapord and white tigers that looked as if they could easily jump over and grab us!), and a few sick ones too.

Owen just said to me... "mom, are we going to be poor in the new apartment?". I can't imagine what's going through that little guys head. I asked him what he meant and he said, "will we have any toys in the apartment?". Hmmm - still not sure where his head is at.

At the playground last night, John said to me... "you're wound up so tight... just relax!" If you can imagine, I wanted to shoot him. Of course I'm wound up tight. I have 3 little boys with me all day in a completely foreign country, surrounded by things, food and people who are different and speak a VERY foreign language. He later apologized and gave me a huge compliment which is what I needed.

Just when I was sure Jack was miserable, he wrote a letter to Jack Friedman telling him how much fun this all was etc. etc.. I asked him if it was true and he gave me an emphatic yes. Wow. OK then.

We move into our apartment Friday. Really looking forward to it. I'll let you know how it goes. I wonder if I'll miss room service?

Did I mention that India was beautiful?

Happy Holi!

It's Sunday now and it's almost been a week. The reality that this is NOT a vacation is hitting me hard. John heads off to work tomorrow and I am left in the hotel room with 3 boys and my first day of home schooling (with very limited supplies) staring me in the face. Please note that I am keeping my first week of school fairly simple and the curriculum focused on the fact that we are in India so it's not such a big deal but the prospect of being alone in India for the first time - with the boys - is a big deal. Since every outing requires a driver, I have to be somewhat organized - or at least I feel that I should be. Micky (our driver) is ready and waiting to take us anywhere but even our communications with him can be difficult so I really have to be clear myself about where we are heading, what I want to do etc. before I can ask his help. I know it'll be fine but I'll be wiped by the time John gets back to the hotel tomorrow (I'm also curious to see what time that turns out to be!).

Today was Holi Day - a national holiday also referred to as "The festival of colors". Paints are everywhere and we were advised to stay indoors until the "cease fire" of paint balloons was in effect which is sometime after noon. But, nonetheless, we were exposed to the holiday immediately after waking up because the gentleman who brought coffee to our room also brought paint and swiped bright pink across our foreheads as he said "Happy Holi"!

We've had a lazy day around the hotel today because the boys begged us for it. I'm a little stir crazy but they are happy. They are headed down to the pool in a bit for some much needed energy release.

Things worth noting:
-it's almost easier to order foods from the unknown category or Indian category for the boys vs. ordering american because at least they expect Indian food to be different. The problem in ordering cheeseburgers is that it arrives with an egg on top and cloves stuck in the bun - pretty funny. The only "western food" that has arrived as expected has been french fries and pancakes. Jack ordered a tuna salad sandwich which turned out to be pretty spicy (too spicy for Matt) but he ate most of it anyway. He must have been hungry!

-We saw our apartment a couple days ago and they are working on it feverishly. It's an old apartment in an old complex but they are doing their best to "freshin" it up. The art we saw on the floor was remarkably hotel like so we might be motivated to buy some new art. There are four tv's in the apartment (which is silly) yet we have to buy our own coffee maker. I thought that was an interesting fact.

-Matt continues to be the one everyone wants to touch and talk to. Go figure?

-At the Children's Park yesterday we were clearly a spectacle and at one point another father handed his little boy (1ish) to John and then went on to take a picture. (Please imagine John in this situation - he was totally mystified at what to do). Then the Indian gentleman gathered our family together in a group and surrounded us by his entire family and snapped more pictures. As we walked away - very few words ever exchanged - John just looked at me and said "what just happened?"

Happy Holi!

Day 3 - wow that's gone fast. A couple notable things. We've been out quite a bit - all by car - and have seen a vast array of unique things. The hardest thing, amongst all the fun stuff, has been watching the boys faces of concern and confusion as children their own age try to wash our car, beg for money or show off their deformities in the hope our heart strings are pulled (of which of course they are). Lot's of questions from all 3 boys on this issue which has lead to many discussions on poverty, education and the importance of staying in school etc. etc.. I love these discussions but I could see how heavy it weighed on Jack's heart (in addition to his back seat motion sickness). I think Jack feels safest inside our hotel room and is a bit weary each time we venture out. Frankly, I totally understand. This isn't like our vacation to the Cayman's or to Florida or a visit to the cottage.

The people in India have been wonderful since our arrival. There are MANY long obvious stares at our all American looking family - 99% out of curiosity and the occasional look that has something more to it. Interestingly I have not seen any other "obvious" American families at all. I see plenty of American folks here on business in groups of one or two but a "family" is a very rare site. The boys attract a lot of attention especially from the staff at the hotel. One example of Indian hospitality was while we visited the amazing Akshardam Hindi Temple today (http://www.my-india.net/tour/delhi/akshardham.shtml) - a nice young couple who was clearly joyful watching our boys decided to come over to meet Matt and pinch his cheek with sincere adoration. We later saw them with their own young son (2ish) who came over to meet our boys, shake hands and talk (in Hindi). The parents really wanted their son to meet the American boys - not that he'll ever remember it but I think Matt will. Later in the day, our hotel staff sent up a box as a present for the boys which included 5 chocolates - probably the highlight of Owen's day.

Another notable thing. It's become clear that food is going to be an issue with the boys. Owen has survived solely on some french fries, a fish stick, a few chocolate donuts with the occasional glass of orange juice (best orange juice ever - no idea why). Matt has eaten anything and Jack has been amazingly open to tasting (not actually eating but hey, one step at a time) new foods.

We are living in a two bedroom, two bath unit at the Radisson which is great and the best part for me is that there is NO kitchen - peeeerfect. I'm getting use to the dirty dishes just being taken away. This could be a problem later - we'll have to see.

Well, it's almost midnight and we are all awake except for Matt who has been sleeping since 4:30 (do the math - it's not going to be a good night for either John or me). I thought we had the jet lag conquered last night as we all went to bed at 9pm but lo and behold, Owen was wide awake from 12-3 and Matt woke up at 4 for the day which is why he is sleeping now.

Time to say goodnight.
Acha Shubhratri

Our first 24+ hours

I have so many thoughts swimming through my head. I could have started this post in so many different ways.... "We've arrived!", "We survived!", etc. etc... but the day feels remarkably unworthy of a big exclamation point. Let me just say, I think that's a good thing. It was one of those days where I was keenly aware of all that my boys were doing, thinking etc. and that "togetherness" was on the forefront of my mind. We have just spent the last 27 hours with each other - most of it confined to a 8 foot by 3 foot block of space on a plane. That is a LOT of togetherness. Everyone must have been up for the task because it was remarkably uneventful except for the little things both bad and good. Trivial arguments, trivial meltdowns (me included) and also the trivial tidbits of joy that sprang from our hearts and heads. The boys marveled at simple things which set my heart afloat. For example, as we took off from Detroit, it was yucky and foggy and rainy along with some snow. Couldn't see a thing as we took off but... 20 or so minutes later we cleared through a sheet of clouds and a wonderful sunshine blasted through our windows. The best part of this was watching the boys eagerly peering out the windows at the billowy thick layer of clouds with that look like you can just jump out and play on them - which is of course the first thing Matt asked... "what would happen if...". It was beautiful. The looks on their faces as we walked out of the Delhi airport and into the streets to our waiting cars was priceless as well.

The boys both decorated the covers of their journals and made their first entries. Matt drew a picture of Yaicha throwing up (which she does too often) and wrote below it... "I hope Yaicha didn't thro up". He then declared we had three things to do - study clouds, study static electricity, and go on a field trip every day. Sounds like a plan - one we will start tomorrow.