home

Feels so good to be home! Good to see Sarah, good to shower in my shower, good to sleep in my bed, good to see chloe and jack, just good! It'll also be good to drive again :)

The flight home was nice, the one from Bombay to Atlanta wasn't very crowded at all and i had a row of 3 seats to myself! I laid down for like an hour nap but that's it. The rest was spent watching movies.

Departure

Getting all packed and ready to go! We had to buy an extra suitcase to put some of the stuff in, I think we'll still be under the weight limit though. Just finished a lamb curry lunch, was very good, another 2 hours and we head to the airport!

tip top tailors

Today was a nice day of shopping with vinay kaka. Our plan was to get some clothes made so we started with a cloth shop to pick out the materials. Then we headed to tip top tailors to drop it off and get measured. The whole process reminded me of the book I'm reading , "a fine balance", which is about india in 1975 and centered around two tailors lives. I think the sewing machines in the shop today were from the same time period, very old, powered by a pedal!

A journey

I forgot to write about this but thought I should before I forgot! Yesterday dad and I made Vaibhav take us exploring since we were bored. I googled things to do in aurangabad and found something called zafar gate, where women were supposed to be weaving on the streets like they did 100s of years ago and have different shops. We hopped in a rickshaw and headed that way. When we got there it was quite different, mainly buses and some mechanic shops, but nothing else! The rickshaw driver told us that stuff was long gone. So we headed to the market. We decided we wanted to find somewhere to buy art, but Vaibhav had no idea where to find that. We both started googling for stuff on our phones. We found a couple places and asked for directions. We were told "head down that street until you see a temple on the left, don't turn left, turn right, then you will come to it.". We got a good laugh at the "don't turn left, turn right" instead of just telling us to turn right. We walked for awhile and couldnt find it, we determined the directions were a bit off. I got out my phone and noticed my GPS had picked up a signal, google maps had the art store so we started walking, following the GPS directions on my phone. Alas, we arrived! The art was very disappointing though, it wasn't the real stuff, just cheap posters of ghandi or buddhas. We considered it a good exploration and went home sweating and tired!

the calm

Everyone has left now, the calm has come! I'm enjoying the different style of company and interaction with aunt jyotsna. She's able to relax now and hang out with us more, less time in the kitchen. She even played carrom with us tonight, and did quite well!

expectations

Today, actually yesterday, was a good day! I went to Beeby Ka Mukhbarra (mini taj mahal) that's a rickshaw ride away from the church with Vaibhav, Hursha, and Kshitija. We went in the morning while Jeevan and Vipul were at school :). Afterwards we sat at a shop nearby and had some soda and snacks while laughing at a guy that had movie producer posters up in the shop and was wearing all white with a huge mullet. Wish i would've taken a picture!

Came back for another wonderful meal, i think Aunt Jyotsna is in the kitchen almost all day hard at work. I read my book while the others took naps, Uncle Baru and I played carom somewhere in there too. After the kids got back from school , Vaibhav, Hursha, Kshitija, and I took them to Cididad Gardens (the zoo). It got dark pretty quick but we still had fun. Enjoyed some ice cream afterwards.

Later that evening we celebrated Apictcha's birthday. She's the daughter of the grounds keepers. They have 2 sons also. Her name means expectations, they had already had 2 sons and were expecting a daughter, it turned out to be a girl so she met their expectations and was named after that. She turned 10.

That's all for today! Vinay Kaka gets back from his pastors meeting tomorrow, he's been gone for a few days. So after that we might have some day trips planned.

Oh, and i'm uploading more pictures now, so be sure to check those out!

the market

Just got back from the market with Vaibhav and Ajoba. It was good to get out in the mix of things. The sounds of horns and the random smells are good. Ajoba says I have the same laugh as my mom, hah! I like the small outings that I get to go on now that the cousins are older, seems more like normal life.

Day 4

I think its day 4 of this trip. Today we were supposed to go to dualtabad fort, but it turned out we weren't ready early enough so we didn't go. The day consisted of a lot of chess and carom since it was hotter than the other days, which probably means it was ok that we didn't go to the fort since it involves lots of walking. Vaibhav and I took a trip to panchaki, not sure exactly what it is, but it involves a water powered grinder and a mosque that's a few centuries old, and has a lot of little shops setup around the pool of water. Was able to find some cool buys. On the way back we sat and had some Pepsi, yummy. The rest of the day involved eating. I think hursha and kshitja leave tomorrow, that will be sad! I'm going to have to start being more aggressive about getting out to do things or I think I will start to get stir crazy soon. Good night!

pictures!

pictures have been uploaded! click the photo album link at the top. lot's of these are thanks to Vaibhav (pronounced waybo), he likes to take pictures :)

Sunday!

The day started early, around 730 or 8 to have breakfast befor church. There we're supposed to be big festivities today but they were canceled because a church member died during child birth last week. Church lasted for about 2.5 hours, of which I understood the word amen, and other random English words that were mixed in, but very little. After that the cousins teased me that they had trouble staying awake usually, and how it must be even worse not understanding anthing! Did lots of meet and greet and lots of kisses on the cheeks from old ladies I don't know. Oh, and before that dads cousins showed up unexpected to suprise ajoba(grandpa) and that was fun. They stayed for lunch which was gigantic and the trying to get you to keep eating never stopped! Food is great though, they keep trying to make seperate curries that aren't as spicy for me, I finally convinced them that I didn't think the spicy version was very spicy and am now eating that. Then LOTS of pictures were taken of everyone. Which was followed by a good afternoon nap. Cards, carrom, badminton, and ice cream followed.

Oh and almost forgot! Me, kshitja, Rachel, and jeevan all rode a camel! They were selling rides on the street for 5 rupees each, which is 10 cents. Ill upload the pictures as soon as I can! Goodnight!

going to sleep

Laying down for bed now. Had a great first day! Had a couple naps today, a few meals, played some badminton out front with hursha, kshitija, vipul, and jeevan, they are all so big now! Except hursha, kshitja is even bigger than her now! The girls took me down to the market in a rickshaw around 7 so they could pick up a birthday card for ajoba, we also sat and had some chocolate mousse, but that's a secret! Somewhere in there we played carrom and uno too. The only downside is everyone speaking a different language than me when we're all just sitting around. Well that's my update, goodnight!!

arrival

So we are finally here in mumbai! Took some big crowds at the baggage claim, some gliding through customs, and a short bus ride to the domestic airport to make our way to some airport chairs for the night. Its midnight here and our flight leaves at 730am, so we have a bit. Ill be reading "a fine balance" and maybe watch a movie, wish us luck!

airplane tech

Oh how far we've come. After watching a free movie on the built in touch screen display I played trivia against other passengers. Was doing pretty good until it reset after landing. Hello NY!

the atlanta airport

Boo to Atlanta for not having free wireless! Delta also loses for not allowing us to change to an earlier flight so that we would have extra time in new york for a home cooked meal with one of dad's friends. But Chinese food for lunch was good as we continue our wait for the next flight that leaves in another 30 minutes

waiting #1

so here we are, about to embark on our magnificant journey. checked in and made it through security with no glitches and now waiting for our flight to atlanta, 30 more minutes! :)

From India Trip

the trip!

blue is on the way there, red is on the way back. Each way is about 25 hrs of travel.... A little less on the way back since we don't have to go through NY.


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/me will be missing sarah soon!

leaving soon

leaving 10/30/08 @ 9:38am .. should probably pack soon!