In light of the unexciting nature of the last few weeks, I thought I'd just post a few photos that have yet to find a home in other posts. Enjoy!
The trip to the Post Office was surprisingly uneventful. NOTHING went wrong, which is rare in India!
Some rickshaw drivers waiting for a gig.
View from a rickshaw.
Another, more interesting view from a rickshaw. Any and everything can be bought and delivered in India. Including mattresses.
The rickshaw driver enjoying some cold water (that I gave him) after bringing me home. He then tried to scam me out of money. Whatevs.
The best part about Dilli Haat, a local craft market we visited, was the food. I am enjoying some kachoori, which are pockets of bread stuffed with vegetables and then deep fried.
"Cold coffee" is a BIG deal in India. Bob can't get enough :)
On the left: one of our favorite Indian foods, chole baturri, which is a bit like chili. On the right... I can't really remember. I think it might be dahi bhalla, a yogurt treat that Bob likes and which I find a bit repulsive.
Before we came to India, I was already a strict vegetarian. Bob's favorite food was beef. Then he got almost fatal food poisoning from chicken here, and he decided that he would become a vegetarian until we leave.
When I first became a vegetarian, at the end of college, I was a vegan for exactly three days. During which I mostly cried because I was so hungry. So I started eating all my favorite things again: eggs, yogurt, butter, and most importantly, ice cream. Based on my reasons for becoming a vegetarian (which I won't get into), it makes more sense to be a vegan, but I'm just not one of those kids. I can't pull it off.
Now we don't have a choice. The problems with my favorite animal products are listed below.
Milk
It is straight nasty here. It comes out of a box that sits on a shelf in a store until you buy it. It tastes, um, sick. That is the best adjective I can think of. There is soy milk here, which we have with our cereal, but it is a lot sweeter than the soy milk at home. Cloyingly sweet. I've been skipping breakfast all together lately.
Cheese
The slices taste worst than government cheese. The only other option is paneer, which is like cubed cottage cheese. There is something about it that just isn't right. I think I could get used to it if I tried harder (and felt desperate enough).
Eggs
Taste very good. Make my stomach hurt very bad.
Icecream
They have ice cream at the store. We got it once. It does not taste like ice cream. It tastes like frozen milk. See note on milk, above.
Yogurt
We do eat yogurt here, but this is no Yoplait. It's called curd, it tastes like really sour sour cream, and you eat it with spicy food. It's good, but it's not a breakfast food.
Butter
We eat butter as well. It is the only thing keeping me sane. Mainly, we eat it on toast or chapatis (these little homemade tortillas we make). We don't have an oven in our apartment though, so we don't make cookies or cake or anything.
Bob is surprisingly holding it together pretty well. I am on the brink of self-destruction. Will someone mail me some Orange Leaf? Or any kind of ice cream? Please?
I've always liked mango, but they are so expensive at home, so I hardly ever get them at the grocery. India is the land of plenty when it comes to mangoes, though. They cost about 20 rupees here, or less than $0.50.
Did you know....
50% of the world's mangoes are grown in India?
Mango is the most consumed fruit in the world?
You can eat the skin of a mango if you want?
Mango is the national fruit of India and an important symbol in Hinduism?
Exported mango and fresh mango have distinctly different flavors?
Mango makes a delicious breakfast?
Me either! I have one for breakfast every morning, and I will miss them dearly when we go home and can't afford to pay $3 for one. If you can, have one and think of us!
It's Sunday, and I am trying to avoid thinking about the fact that Bob will be going to work tomorrow, and for the first time, I will be alone in India. Right now, Bob is making a delicious Indian dinner of chole with poori. Chole is his favorite food here, and he has pretty much got me thinking the same, especially since he can cook it himself. Note: Bob is a much better cook in India than he was at home, and he insists on cooking everything. Maybe that will change when he returns to work tomorrow, but so far I have enjoyed breakfasts of "almost organic" eggs, which come in packs of ten, not twelve, along with "lite" milk, which comes in a box off of a shelf instead of a carton from the refrigerator. I also love the Indian potatoes he makes, which are a lot like aloo tikki, which he usually makes along with one of the 24 boxes of Kraft Mac and Cheese that I brought from home. We'll be out of those soon :)
Anyway, I had a great week, despite the extreme heat and the insidious effects of jet lag. Here are some of the more interesting things we did/experienced:
1. First monsoon-like rain. I think it was on Thursday night, although I keep losing track of what day it is. On Wednesday night/Thursday morning, I slept for about 14 hours, which means it was almost impossible to fall asleep on Thursday night. Instead, I laid awake watching the first season of Parenthood (which is great, by the way). For hours, from our balcony windows, I could see lightning north of the city, toward the mountains. I've never seen lightning like this before. It was like there were a million paparazzi in the sky, all taking pictures of the city. Finally, near dawn, the storm moved in over the city (anyone who knows me well knows how afraid of storms I am, and how desperately I wanted to wake Bob up). There was thunder and lightning for about another hour, and then suddenly, it started to rain. It was like nothing else I've ever seen. It was kind of like one huge car wash-- the intense wind blew the rain in every direction. It encircled trees, cars, and everything else I could see from our apartment, and before I knew it the wind started to blow huge buckets of it up onto the balcony and violently into the window from which I was watching. The magnificence of the whole scene erased every trace of fear I had been feeling, and I screamed for Bob to wake up. "It's monsooning!" I yelled gleefully (and for which he still mocks me), but he let me drag him out of bed at 5 am, and we watched our first monsoon rain together.
2. First Hindi movie. On Friday morning, we went to join some of Bob's Indian friends for breakfast at a mall. We went to Bob's favorite restaurant, Haldirams, and ate some of the most bizarre things I've ever had for breakfast. Every bit of it was hot and spicy, but I have to admit, I liked it. Kind of. It will take some getting used to. A picture from breakfast is below. The girl sitting next to me is Prenna, and I think we are going to be best friends. She's so nice, and she always translates things into English. Also, the guy sitting across from me is Gaurav, and he is Bob's best friend. He is hilarious, in a pretty American way, which is rare.
Anyway, afterwards they begged us to go to the movies with them to see Ready, the new Salman Khan (read Indian Brad Pitt) movie. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. It was two and a half hours long (with an intermission, of course), there were about 6 Bollywood musical scenes, and did I mention there weren't any subtitles? Despite all that, Bob and I both had a lot of fun, and I was glad we went. Below is our favorite scene; be careful, the song might be stuck in your head for days, and you might catch yourself doing some of the dances.
3. First ride on the Metro. One night last week, Bob and I decided to go to a Khan Market, a popular market in Delhi. We could have taken a taxi, which would have been faster, but the Metro is much cheaper (about 40 rupees, or less than a dollar). The first time we rode in a general car, and I got so anxious and claustrophobic that we had to get off after about 4 stops. There were people literally all over us, and more people got on at every stop. There are only about 20 seats in each car, and the car we were in was filled with about 100 people, all grasping for the handles hanging overhead. We got on the next train, which came pretty quickly, and it was less full since it was so close to the one before. Bob also showed me the "women only car," which was less crowded, calmer, and cooler. After a few more trips, I feel much more acclimated to the whole thing, and I can see why the Metro is the preferred mode of transportation. Although it is the slowest (it took about an hour and a half to travel about 10km or about 6 miles), riding in a taxi or autorickshaw would have been expensive, and harrowing in and of itself-- a description of the traffic in Delhi will undoubtedly require a separate post!
4. First date night. On Friday night, our apartment complex finished work on its pool and had a big opening party and cookout. The pool was a little gross, mostly because of the monsoon storm that came the night before, but we got in anyway. Why not? The cookout food was delicious-- they served chaats (snacks) like chole, some sort of aloo (potato) stuffed with dal (lentils) cooked over hot coals, and butter naan, which might be my favorite thing in the world. We only stayed in the pool for about 20 minutes, since kids were staring at us like they'd never seen Americans before (Bob's white face must be giving us away), and the pool water was starting to gross me out. After a pretty thorough shower, we went out to meet Bob's Canadian friends from work for drinks. We went to a great rooftop bar called Jolly Rogers, which was fun but a little over priced, even by American standards. I got to meet Sharon, Bob's friend's fiancee, and she is, in a word, awesome. She's been here for about a month and she's great at traveling and exploring. She keeps telling Bob and I all the stuff she's discovered, all the fun trips to take, in and out of the city, and she's also just really funny and interesting. The Canadian guys were fun too-- they kept quizzing everyone on world history and geography, which sounds annoying but is kind of fun after you've had a couple of drinks.
Overall, I had a great first week. Depending on how I sleep tonight, I think I'm starting to beat the jet lag, and although I'm anxious about my first week alone, I'm looking forward to my first few excursions alone. Especially since another monsoon storm is moving in, which means it will be about 10-20 degrees F cooler tomorrow. By the way, I'm not sure they're really called monsoon storms, but Bob and all his friends, both Canadian and Indian, think it's hilarious when I say that. And you know me-- I'll do anything over and over as long as it's funny.
On tap for tomorrow:
Bob- work. He doesn't want to talk about it, since he's been off for a week. Poor kid.
Me-A trip to the mall tomorrow for some ready to wear Indian clothes, a new yoga mat (I have class on Tuesday night!), some slippers (I totally understand why it's gross to wear your shoes inside now), and about 20 passport photos (foreigners have to have them all the time here), and groceries. Wish me luck!
I just got home from my first day of work after the chicken/heat stroke episode. When I got to the hotel, all 3 guys at reception stood up abruptly and asked what I wanted for dinner. So I pulled out a menu, looked it over... Of course there is only curry this, masala that... not gonna happen. I closed the menu and said, "I will have cornflakes and boiled eggs for dinner... and I'll wash it down with some mineral water". The guys at the desk thought it was the greatest joke ever. I wasn't joking. When I walked away and went into my room, the waiter followed me, laughing and said, "Dinner sir... boiled egg and cornflake?". "Yes, boiled egg and cornflake", I said. He looked a bit concerned and walked away. I am now anxiously awaiting this delectable meal. Haven't they heard of breakfast for dinner? If they haven't, they have now :)
So yesterday and this morning I learned a few things...
1. I thought I saw some camel statues outside of my hotel yesterday. On the way back from work I realized they were actually camels...
2. Eating at a traditional indian restaurant is not the same as eating at an indian restaurant in the U.S. Some of my co-workers took me out to lunch yesterday at this restaurant. I truly felt like I was learning to read again. There are too many things to share about my lunch experience so I'll just say 2 things that stood out... 1. Don't try to grab nan bread that is shared with your left hand... huge no no... 2. at the end of the meal they give you a bowl full of warm water with a lemon in it. initially i thought, 'yes! this must be a traditional indian tea!' psych. it's water to wash your hands. i guess the lemon takes the indian food smell off of your hands... The whole experience was amazing and the food was great. I got chicken tiki masala... i know, 'way to step outside the box bob!'. it was delicious though! i'm not ashamed.
3. I went walking to look for a grocery store called 'Spencers'. Couldn't find it :( But some nice dudes did point me to a store close to the hotel that I can go to. On my long journey I did realized something... the pigs are no longer as cute as i thought. My last post unveiled this discovery of the pigs. On a 45 minute walk today I probably saw 50-75 pigs just walking around the streets...
The last day has been quite an experience. I'm still trying to get my sleep under control and I think I have today. I slept until 6:30am this morning so that's good news. I should have a full day of work today where I'm told they're throwing me a welcome pizza party. Should be fun. Well, I'm off to the grocery store!
It is currently 4am india standard time and I am wide awake and have been for about an hour. I'm counting down the minutes until the breakfast buffet at the optus premeir hotel in delhi opens up.
Some highlights of my first day (which would have been yesterday).... and not in any order....
1. The food is great so far! I had a masala peneer dish in the hotel with some awesome garlic nan. It was incredible. Although my stomach is feeling a little funny... Could be the spices... could be a parasite... j/k, but seriously.
2. Cricket... don't understand it, but indian's seem to love it. I was at the hotel bar watching the semi finals of the world cup cricket match.... Pakistan vs. India... I know, riveting, haha. It was fun though. One of the waiters was giving me a play by play of how the game is played and the rules and so on. I still felt very out of place thought. When everyone would start celebrating during a part of the match, I would look up excitedly not knowing what to look for, giving an awkward smile to the waiters as if to say, 'that was a great play!'.
3. The head bobble thing is true, but I feel like it's more of a head sway...
4. The driving is crazy. At one point while I was being taken to the hotel I noticed there were no lines in the road.... 8 lanes of disorganized traffic emerged... Also, honking is a form of communication on the roads. One for, 'hey it's me, i'm here, just so you know...', 2 for 'get out of my way right now'.
Everything is going great so far. The only bad thing that has happened is my shampoo and conditioner busted in one of my bags. Since my bag was searched in customs I'm convinced someone wanted to try it out and then forgot to screw the lid on all the way.
It is now 6:00 am. I shall now retire to watching grownups on streaming netflix as I wait for McDonalds to open up.
