Gecko & Ant Invasion

After we initially moved into our house, we had to evict a lot of geckos out of the house. Since those first few weeks though, we hadn't seen any geckos in the house for quite a long time. A few weeks ago we did see one living in our family room. However, the little sucker was too quick for us and would scurry behind the air conditioner before we could get it out. Oh well, not a lot we could do about it...so we just sort of let it be...after all, one little gecko in the family room (which is a long way from the bedroom where we mainly don't want them to be) couldn't really hurt anything, could it?

Well, since we have returned from Dubai, we have seen more and more geckos in the house. I swear our family room gecko had a party and invited all his gecko buddies over while we were gone. We saw him...(or maybe its a her...but we tend to like to think as the geckos in and around our house as all being males...if we have both females and males...yikes that could mean that they are reproducing and the females could be laying their eggs in our house)...in the family room one night. Too quick again for us to get. The next night, S was walking up the stairs when he yelled for me to get the broom...in our house this doesn't mean he's had a sudden urge to do some cleaning...nope, it means there's been a gecko sighting. Well, I get the broom, but the gecko scurries up the wall to the rafters...and let's just say it's the biggest gecko to date that we've had in our house. If I were telling a gecko tale, I would say it was like 2 feet long...in reality though, it probably was around 7 inches long. Anyway, we haven't seen it since that night, so maybe it died in our rafters of old age (I'd hate to think that it's still alive somewhere in our house, so it's just easier to think that it went back out the same way it got in or that it just up and died).

The next afternoon, S got home from work really early at 4:57pm. He's normally not home until between 6:45pm and 8pm. Anyway, he hadn't been home for ten minutes when he yells for me to get the broom. Sure enough there was a gecko on the door to our puja room (prayer room that we use instead for storage).

Anyway, I was able to snap this photo before we got it out of the house (don't worry you gecko lovers...no geckos were injured in the taking of this photo). Now our puja room is right next to the front door, so we didn't have far to go with this guy...however, he wasn't going to go out without a battle. We had him basically out the front door when he did a back flip off of the door at me and landed on the floor. Well, of course, I shrieked, but since S had the broom, he was able to get it out the door. After we had the door securely shut, I noticed that when the guy did his kung fu move at me that he also pooped...so, now I can put that I have had gecko poo flung at me.

Anyway, it's sort of hard to tell in the above photo, but this guy at some point in his life has dropped his tail. To prove my point, I have cropped and enlarged the gecko portion of the photo.

If you look closely, you can see that his tail is two different colors. From what little I know about geckos (I never have claimed to be an expert, so correct me if I'm wrong with this info), their tails will break off if grabbed by a predator. Then they will regrow their tail. I'm pretty sure this is what has happened with this guy.

Then yesterday morning, S saw another gecko while I was still asleep. He went to get the broom, but it was gone by the time he got back. He thinks maybe it was the one from the family room. Anyway, I probably shouldn't say this, because as soon as I do it will happen, but I have never seen a gecko in the house when I have been by myself. I keep trying to tell S that they are just attracted to him. More than likely though, he's home at night when geckos are active.

Anyway, just when we were starting to relax about the gecko situation (after all, S was beginning to not immediately put his shoes into the rubbermaid container...even a few nights the shoes sat out in the open all night long), now we have gecko fear again (and after the puja gecko, S has went to putting his shoes back in the rubbermaid container). Well, maybe it's not fear exactly...let's just say, I really don't mind them and I'm definitely not scared of them (I'm not the type who shrieks at the sight of a mouse and jumps on the nearest chair...I only shriek when the geckos flip off the walls and fling poo at me)...I just don't like to be surprised by them. Being that geckos can crawl anywhere (I haven't seen too many mice crawling on ceilings), the thought of them running loose in my house just freaks me out a little bit. If only I could train them to stay outside...if only, if only, if only.......

The biggest thing that is driving me nuts right now are ants. This story all starts about a month ago when the couple was here from the U.S. looking for housing (same couple I'm storing their food). The wife was kind enough to bring bags of brown sugar for everyone (thanks again J, it's greatly appreciated) as this is one of the items we can't have in our food shipment because India customs for some reason won't allow it. Well, I ended up with all of the brown sugar. Being the idiot that I am at times (hey, I'm not too proud to admit that I have my stupid moments), I left all of the brown sugar sitting on the kitchen counter. Sure enough, ants!

Now, the one good thing about ants are that they don't like household cleaners...especially kitchen ones that contain bleach. So after sacrificing two of the bags of brown sugar (the rest were ant free and went into the freezer) that were filled with ants, I bleached my entire kitchen. The ants were marching across the counters in a single file row...it was almost sort of cute for a moment...looked like something you see in a cartoon. That only lasted for a moment before my bleach attack.

Well no ants for a few days. Then I bought a couple of bagels that were individually wrapped in their own bags. Well, one of the bags had an itty bitty hole in it...the ants were back! Out comes the bleach cleaner again!

I think it was during the bagel occurrence that the ants also found some wrapped candy I had in a bowl on the counter. Now the candy had been there for a week or so...and had been ant free...but I guess the ants needed dessert after the bagel lunch. So out went a whole bunch of candy.

Well, I've already told the chocolate covered ants story from our food shipment. Of course, those were a different type of ant...still ants though.

After we got back from Dubai, I was finishing putting away all of our groceries. Well I had left on our counter a few boxes of those popular 100 calorie snacks. I figured they would be safe from ants as they are pretty well sealed up...nope I was wrong.

ants. I went to move a box of 100 calorie pack of Cheetos, and there were ants all over the outside of the box. Well I open the box, and sure enough, one of the packs had a minute little whole in it...just big enough for ants to get in. I open the pack, and out comes crawling about a gazillion ants. Hmmm...maybe I need to have a talk with the Walmart Frito Lay delivery person about this. Maybe I could get free bags of Cheetos for life due to my pain, suffering, and mental anguish of now having a fear of opening a bag of Cheetos full of ants. (OK, for the rest of you, I guess I should tell you this is a joke...I'm good friends with the guy who delivers Frito Lay to the Walmarts in B/N, and I know his wife reads my blog...so T, tell M about my potential lawsuit and see if he would be willing to settle out of court...instead of free chips for life, maybe free chips for a year???)

Anyway, after I got rid of the chip ants, we haven't had any ants for a few days. Of course, everything is now either in the fridge, in the freezer, in a ziploc bag, or in a tupperware container.

Tonight though, I go in the kitchen, and this is what I see.

This is my window ledge, and yep, those are ants. Now, only an hour earlier, I had been in the kitchen making supper, and I think I would have noticed these fellows. So where they came from, and what they are doing, I have no clue. There's nothing out for them to get to. Anyway, out comes the bug spray (figured a few too many for the bleach cleaner)...and so my battle with the ants continues.

Do geckos eat ants? Or should I be looking into getting a pet anteater? The thing is...I have yet to see a gecko in our kitchen where we have the ant problem...you would at least think that if I had to live with the geckos that they would at least be useful and keep the ant population to a minimum. Is this really too much to ask of the geckos?

Go Cubs Go!

Yep, that's right... the Chicago Cubs have clinched their division!

Now it would only figure that the Cubs would have a good year the first full baseball season that we are out of the U.S. After all, we moved to Beijing and the Chicago Bears had a great year and went to the Super Bowl. Let's just say watching the Super Bowl in a country other than the U.S. just isn't the same. For one thing, it was on a Monday morning. Not to mention that S had a meeting that he could not get out of and thus couldn't even watch the game. Then there is the whole annoying aspect of the game being dubbed over to Chinese...so at the same time you hear both English and Chinese.

Anyway, back to the Cubs (we are much bigger baseball than football fans). My husband S is the biggest Cubs fan in the world. OK, maybe not in the world, but definitely the biggest one in India if not in all of Asia. This has been a very long week...the Cubs lost 3 games to the Florida Marlins, and S was not in a good mood. However, with the Milwaukee Brewers being just as bad, the Cubs were still in first place and had a shot of wrapping up the division.

Well, this morning I woke up to hear my husband singing and in a joyful mood. I just knew this had something to do with the Cubs. Sure enough...the Cubs were winning and the Brewers were losing. Well, I listened to the end of the Cubs game on the internet. Then when I turned on the TV while I worked out, low and behold the Brewers game was on ESPN here, so I was able to watch them lose. So, it's official now...the Cubs are going to the playoffs!!!

Let's just say this is a great way to start a long weekend. S is off of work on Monday and Tuesday, and it would have been a very LLOOONNNNGGGGG weekend if the Cubs had blown it. However, now it will be a joyful celebration all weekend long. We don't even have to get up early to listen to the final two regular season games.

I guess I should make it official...I will go on record and say that WHEN the Cubs make it to the World Series, I will come back to Illinois. I will make the approximately 60 hour round trip journey just to be able to watch them on TV live (although I am guessing that the World Series will be shown here, but with the times of the games and time difference, it will be the middle of the night for us when the games start). Now, I can't say anything for whether S will come also...as you know, his job tends to get in the way of things like this.

Now, when the Cubs win the World Series, I'm not sure what I will do. Haven't thought this far ahead yet. Any suggestions?

Mowing Our Yard

Finally...as promised, a blog post about the mowing of our yard. Someone guessed that maybe our yard was being cut with manicure scissors. Good guess...and honestly that would have probably been faster than the method used.

When I was looking at houses, this house by far had the most landscaping of any that I saw. Our landlord has obviously spent a small fortune on making the yard look nice. Therefore, we have an agreement with our landlord that he will take care of hiring the gardener...I figured this way if the yard starts to look bad, he can't blame it on us.

We moved into our house on August 1. I see the gardener lady that our landlord has hired out in the yard every day all day long working away. Well on our inventory list of items that came with the house, an electric lawn mower was listed...as I had never seen this, I asked the landlord about it, and he told me that it was out in the guard shack. Fine, I thought...shouldn't be any problem then mowing the yard.

When we lived in central Illinois, we mowed our grass at least once per week. This normally started in April and lasted through October. At our last house in Morton, we had a push mower as our yard was pretty hilly and had some good slopes to it. We had a fairly good size yard...I'm guessing probably a half acre or so. I don't remember exactly how long it took to mow, but I'm guessing that it would take 3 to 4 hours (depending on whether or not we mowed the back yard...which since I'm pretty lazy and the back yard couldn't be seen from the street didn't get mowed every week).

Anyway, after moving into our house here, I wasn't really too worried about the yard...didn't really pay too much attention to it, since I think it looks pretty good. The landlord comes by every so often to check it out, so I figured it's up to him to say something to the gardener if he didn't like the way it looked. However, I did make the comment to S around the first weekend in September about whether or not they were ever going to mow the grass.

Yep! That's right...in the first month we lived in the house, the grass had not been mowed. In my opinion, it was getting pretty high...just easier for snakes to hide out. Anyway, two days after I said this, low and behold the doorbell rings (about 9:30am)...it's our head security guard asking me to open the sliding glass door on the front porch as the grass was going to be cut that day. They needed access to an electrical outlet to plug the lawn mower in.

Well, I look out the window to check out this electric lawn mower (I have seen a few in the U.S. but just not that common). What a sight I saw...it was taking 4 people to cut our grass! One guy pushing the mower, one guy holding the cord out of the way, the gardener lady raking the cut grass out of the way, and one of our security guards watching (OK, so maybe there were only 3 people doing the actual work, but it was quite the sight). Anyway, I watch for a couple of minutes and then go about my own business for the day...I sort of forgot that they were mowing the grass until around 5:30 pm when the doorbell rings, and the security guard tells me that they are done cutting the grass and that I can unplug the cord and shut the sliding door.

Yikes! It took them 8 hours to cut our grass...the yard here is probably half the size of our yard in Morton...so I'm guessing a quarter of an acre or so. There are quite a few more things to mow around here, but still it shouldn't take them 8 hours to finish the yard. Well, guess what...it would actually take them much more than 8 hours, because they weren't even close to being finished at the end of day one.

This is what our yard looked like at the end of the first day. Can you tell what part has been cut?

Yes, those are piles of grass clippings...I told S there was enough grass in our yard to feed all of the stray cows wondering around Chennai. I tried to talk my dad into bringing his hay baler to bale the grass. Is it a good sign when the yard looks dead after cutting the grass? In the U.S., we try to cut the grass frequently enough that it doesn't look that obvious when it has been cut. I guess that's not the norm here though.

Well the second day of the grass mowing did not involve cutting of any grass...it involved hauling all of the clippings from the previous day out of the yard. Yes, this took a whole day. After that, it pored rain, so our yard looked like this until a week later when they decided to finish the job. The only thing is, they wouldn't finish on the 3rd day either. I believe the 4th day involved hauling of more grass clippings out...by this time, I was really losing interest in this whole process.

We went to Dubai...and the mowing of the yard still wasn't finished. By the time we got back, it was finally done (so I'm guessing it took 5 or 6 full days to cut our grass)...and the brown looking yard was starting to look green again. We have been back from Dubai for a week now...normally, it would be time to mow the grass again. Obviously not the case in India...now I am curious to see how long they wait this time before cutting it again.

I also wonder what they would say if I told them that in the U.S. we cut our grass at least once if not twice a week. Also, I don't know...it may be a quicker process if they didn't wait until it was so tall. Just a thought though. Here is a photo of the poor guy pushing the mower.

Now our yard is perfectly flat...I took this photo out of an upstairs window...this guy is really putting a lot of effort into pushing the mower because the grass is so tall. Of course this is India...they can't make things easy...but maybe manicure scissors would at least be quicker, probably not easier, but quicker.

Our "Free" Time in Dubai

OK, this will be the last blog post about our trip to Dubai. If after this, you haven't had enough...let me know what questions you still have about Dubai.

Anyway, in Dubai, S and I had prearranged a few different tours...the dinner cruise, the city tour, and the desert safari. Beyond this, the rest of the time we were free to do what we wanted.

Well as I believe I have mentioned in a previous post, Dubai has a lot of shopping malls. Even though we thoroughly enjoyed just walking around in the nice clean cool environment, I didn't necessarily want to spend our entire vacation doing this. So out comes the good old trusty tour book. What to do, what to see...these were the questions to be answered.

Being the big animal lover that I am, I'm always on the lookout for a zoo, an aquarium, or anywhere to go to see some animals. So in the tour book, I read about the Dubai Wildlife & Waterbird Sanctuary. Great! A place to potentially see some animals...probably only birds, but hey it would kill an hour or two. Plus, the guide book said admission was free. Even better.

Well, in our hotel room, there were also some tour magazines for Dubai. This place was listed in both magazines as well as being shown on the map of where it was located. So S and I head down to get a taxi. We get in...and I should have just known right away there were going to be problems. The taxi driver didn't know this place...we showed him the address and the map...still didn't know. He gets out to ask another taxi driver...nothing. He then asks the bellhop guy...nothing. Then he goes in the hotel and is gone for a really long time. I told S that we should just get out and find a different taxi. By this time, about 10 minutes have passed...finally the driver comes out of the hotel with the concierge. The concierge says that he doesn't know of this place either (still don't know why it is listed in all of these magazines and books if it is so unknown of a place) and that the address is wrong...plus it would be the wrong time of the year to see any birds. Funny thing, because just the day before we had been going to the desert safari and passed a huge body of water with a bunch of flamingos on it (which I was pretty sure was this same place).

Fine, I tell the concierge to just have the taxi driver take us to Dubai Festival City. He tells me that it is under construction. I tell him no, that it is open and that we would like to go. The taxi driver takes off and we drive and drive and drive and drive. I know that according to the map I had that we were going in the right direction to get to Dubai Festival City. However, I have the thought that the driver is taking us the long way because he even turns around at one point and we start going by things that we have already seen. Finally he says something about no exit to birds. I say to him we didn't want to go to the birds and that the concierge was suppose to tell him to take us to Dubai Festival City (which by the way is a mall and is located on the map next to where the bird sanctuary was suppose to be). He says that is a different place, and we tell him that yes we know it is different from the bird sanctuary and that is where we want to go. So finally after a long time, we arrive at this mall.

The taxi driver hops out of the car and rushes into the mall. S and I are like where is he going? S finally figures out that the guy is still trying to figure out how to get us to the bird sanctuary (which an hour before I had gave up on seeing when we left the hotel). Well we look at the meter to see what the tab is so far...over 100 dirhams...so we go in the mall after the taxi driver and hand him some money and just walk off. So, the hour taxi ride around Dubai to get to this mall costs right at $30 U.S. dollars.

This is when we decided that we needed to spend a lot of time in the mall before going back to the hotel. Our "free" time was starting to get a little expensive. So this was the day we ate our lunch in the bathroom. The concierge was correct...it was still under construction as the entire mall complex was not open yet...so I know he knew where I was requesting that he tell the taxi driver to take us. It was just the taxi driver who didn't understand. Ughh...talk about frustrating!

Anyway, S and I had a good time wondering around yet another mall. Finally though, we decided it was time to go back to the hotel...our fare back to the hotel...only $4 U.S. dollars!

Taj Property Boycott

I am boycotting all Taj hotels, properties, and restaurants. For those of you reading this in the U.S., you may not be familiar with Taj. I believe that they are based here in India. They are a chain of fairly nice hotels throughout India with a few properties in other countries in Asia and even a few hotels in the U.S.

Now when I was booking our trip to Dubai, I picked the Taj Palace because there are 3 Taj properties here in Chennai that have a fairly good reputation plus the Taj Palace in Dubai received good ratings on the internet for a 5 star hotel...and it wasn't that expensive compared to some other 5 star hotels in Dubai.

Overall, our stay was really good. Our room was nice (we even had an outdoor balcony)...the lobby was nice (we popped into a couple of other 5 star hotels and the lobbys were really bad)...the breakfast buffet was good...so you are probably asking, what's the problem then?

Well we didn't have any problems until we went to checkout. Our room was prepaid, so our bill should have only included the couple of room service meals that we had plus S had used the telephone line to dial up to the internet connection through his company. Well then, you can probably imagine our surprise when the internet charges were about $500 (U.S. dollars). We were only there 5 days/4 nights...there must be some mistake.

Nope...the bill was $500 for S to use his own computer to call his own company's telephone line. The way his company works is that they have local telephone numbers set up in every major city around the world. Broadband internet connections in hotel rooms often aren't compatible with the company's system, so it's fairly common that S has had to use the telephone number to dial in. Up until this point all he had ever been charged was for a local telephone call.

Well as we were in a hurry to get to the airport, we didn't really have time to argue the charges. But as we thought more and more about it, the whole situation just really pissed us off. When S had tried to use the broadband connection, it had told him that the most he would be charged would have been $30 per day...so the bill would have been $150 not $500. Anyway, to make a long story short...after calls to the hotel management and to the Taj corporate offices...the bill stands. Supposedly, in the room somewhere, there was some notice about these charges. Well, I don't know about most of you, but I actually read everything in hotel rooms, and I don't remember anything about this...so my best guess is that it either wasn't in the room or that it was worded badly and therefore didn't register in my brain or that it wasn't clearly posted for us to see.

The sad thing is that for $100 per day...you would think that S had used the telephone line nonstop...this isn't the case...he really didn't use it much at all. The reason being is that the dial up connection was so very sssssslllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww. So I can't even imagine what the bill would have been had the connection been quicker causing S to have used it more.

It still just floors me that Taj can't better cater to business travelers. S says that he will submit the charges as a business expense, but that's not the point. I don't like to be ripped off...even if it is the company paying. These charges are ridiculous and outrageous! Anyway, I now refuse to ever stay or go to another Taj hotel including their restaurants...this really is unfortunate as two of the better restaurants that we have tried here in Chennai are at Taj properties.

Yikes! Only 3 Months Til Christmas!

I can't believe that the holiday season is fast approaching. S is already on me to get the Halloween decorations out. With it still being over 90 degrees here every single day, it really doesn't feel to me like it is the last week of September. But it is.

It seems weird to me to be talking to my mom already about what I want for Christmas. But I have been...after all if she waits until November/December to do her shopping, she will have a hard time finding any clothes for me. Not too many summer clothes floating around at that time of the year in cold central Illinois. So, she had best be buying my Christmas now...and had better be shopping at places that have a very liberal return policy...although probably no matter what, if I have to return summer clothes in the dead of winter, I'm sure I'll receive a few raised eyebrows. How weird is it going to be opening Christmas gifts to be getting not sweaters and sweatshirts but T-shirts, shorts, and capris?

Once again this will be another "flat" Christmas. Living overseas last Christmas also, I had to point out to anyone buying S and I gifts that they had better be flat, lightweight, and small enough to fit into our suitcases. Doesn't seem like it would be that big of a problem...but in the end, we had to end up leaving stuff at my parents' house until we could fetch it when we were back there in May. So, the same rule applys this year...small, flat, lightweight gifts only please!

I am stressing already about the Christmas shopping that I have to do. Living in Beijing last year at Christmas, there was an endless supply of different items to buy for everyone (although men proved to be somewhat difficult). Here in Chennai, it's a completely different story. I really don't know what I'm going to get everyone. I'm sure all my friends here who have been here longer than I have will be giving me tips...and we already have a Christmas shopping day planned, but I already know that in the end, it just won't be the same variety as I had last year. I'll figure something out.

My mom already knows she's getting a scrapbook of her trip to Beijing...I really have to get working again on that. Even though it's 3 months to Christmas, we'll be headed back to the U.S. in just over 2 months...and thus it needs to be done by then. No doubt that time will fly by. I guess then I should stop procrastinating and get to work on it!

Passport Information

Last night, I was talking to my cousin Beth and our friend Carrie (see Carrie...you are now part of my blog). One of the topics of conversation was about passports.

Getting a U.S. passport really is not that complicated. You need a certified copy of your birth certificate, two passport photos (most photo places will take passport photos), a completed passport application, and about $100. You have to apply in person at a designated facility (a lot of bigger post offices or county courthouses do this).

For awhile this past year, it was taking quite awhile to get new passports back. The reason for this is that in the very near future Americans will need a passport to travel to Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. I believe as of the end of this month, a passport will be required if flying into Canada or Mexico...and in another year or so, a passport will be required if driving into these countries from the U.S. Therefore, there was quite a backlog on the new applications for passports. However, I believe now this has been caught up and the time frame isn't that bad.

Anyway, I feel that everyone should have a passport. Most of you are probably saying to yourself...don't need one, no plan to travel out of the U.S., so why spend the $100? Well think about it...passports are valid for 10 years before they need to renewed (thus only costing $10 per year). Is there at all a chance that you will be traveling to Canada, Mexico, Europe, or anywhere outside of the U.S. in the next 10 years? If you would have asked me this same question 10 years ago, I would have said no. It wasn't until S took his first business trip to Spain 3 years ago that I thought I would maybe some day travel outside of the U.S. So, I applied for my passport at that time, but it wasn't until two years later that I ever used my passport. However, when the whole moving to China thing came up suddenly last summer, boy was I glad that I didn't have to worry about getting my passport.

Now chances are, you probably won't be moving out of the country like I did. However, if you don't have your passport, you can't come visit me! I know that India is not as desirable place to visit as China, but hey, I won't be living here forever (or at least I don't think I will be) and who knows where I will end up next. Also, if you don't have your passport, then if I would happen upon cheap air tickets here, you have no option to come visit.

And never say never. I never thought I would be living outside of the U.S. Now look at me...China and India. So don't be saying you will never have the opportunity to come visit me...you just never know!

With that being said...more information including the application form on obtaining a U.S. passport can be found here: U.S. Dept of State (just click on the blue words).

Thanks to those of you who have already done this...Mom, Dad, Beth, Diane...it honestly makes me feel better knowing that some of my family members would be able to come here if there was an emergency. When we moved to China, no one in my family (and I believe only S's two brothers in his family) had their passports. Now, certain other family members (hint, hint to Bud among other people) need to get theirs.

The Biggest and The Best in Dubai

During our short stay in Dubai, it became very obvious to us that Dubai wants to have the biggest, the tallest, and the best of everything. With the exception of Beijing getting ready for the 2008 Summer Olympics, I have never seen or heard of a city under so much construction as Dubai is right now.

Currently, Dubai is building the world's tallest building named the Burj Dubai (burj means tower). While the actual final height of it hasn't been officially announced yet, it is reported to come in over 700 meters tall but some say it will be over 800 meters tall (about a half mile). In comparison, the Sears Tower in Chicago is 442 meters tall. It is estimated to cost $800 million to build the building alone.

It will have double decker elevators that will go 40 mph. It will also be surrounded by water (I wonder if it will have a draw bridge and alligators???).

Sorry about the bad photo...the building isn't really leaning...I had to take the photo out of a car window while the car was in motion. I have a feeling when the building is finished, it will be very hard to take a photo to get the entire building in one shot.


Dubai also has the world's only 7 star hotel named the Burj Al Arab. It is designed to look like the sail of a boat and is built on it's own man made island. It is also tall...higher than the Eiffel Tower. It has it's own helicopter landing pad, and I guess the hotel will pick you up at the airport and transport you this way. The cost of a basic room is around $1,500 per night and goes up to around $30,000 per night for the largest suite. (I was going to try to tell you guys this is where S and I stayed, but I didn't think you would fall for it). S and I wanted to go in it and take a look, but you can't get in unless you are staying there or have reservations at one of the restaurants...with afternoon tea/coffee being around $100 per person, S and I decided that we didn't need to see the inside of it that badly (plus I didn't figure we would be allowed in in our jeans and tennis shoes).

Reportedly, Dubai is also building the world's first 9 star hotel.

Now S and I were having the conversation...when did the hotel rating system go beyond 5 stars? Who set this hotel at being a 7 star? And now there's going to be a 9 star? What's next...a 20 star hotel? Our guess...someone or somebody is just making this stuff up to make it sound really good. Well, if that's the case, if you come stay with us, you will be staying at a 50 star luxury house in Chennai, India. At a minimum of $1,500 per night, what's the occupancy of this hotel on an average day? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that one could probably get a room anytime there without any problem at all.

Another thing that Dubai is currently doing is building a bunch of artificial islands. Three of these islands, known as the Palm Islands (click on the blue words to read more about these islands) will in fact be shaped like palm trees. The point of these islands...to draw tourism to Dubai. The other big island project in Dubai is the World Islands (click for more info), which are man made islands that will look like the world. S and I didn't officially see any of this construction...although a few times we went past areas with a bunch of construction equipment that we were pretty sure were these projects. We've decided that in a few years we want to return to Dubai and take a tour of the city by helicopter (or maybe we'll be able to see the islands from the top of the world's tallest building).

Snow in the desert? Yep! Dubai has one of the largest indoor snow ski slopes (I think there is now one bigger, but knowing Dubai they probably have another one under construction that will be even bigger...they don't want to be outdone by anyone). Now this ski slope is attached to one of the malls, so you can actually stand in the mall and watch the people on the slopes and on the ski lift. I guess the temperature inside the ski slope is very cold...but you don't have to bring your winter clothes as this is provided. Now S and I don't ski (I attempted once in my life and failed miserably, so no ambitions to try again), but if you do, how much more awesome would it be to go from 100 degree weather outside to below freezing weather inside? We also saw kids tubing on the snow...that looked like fun to me. I'm also guessing that they probably have snowboarding and sledding available as well.

Anyway, these are only the highlights of what's being built in Dubai. There are many more projects going on, and within a few years, Dubai will be as well known a tourist destination as any other place in the world.

Save a Horse, Ride a Camel

OK, only country music fans will get the title of this post.

Anyway, one of my goals of going to Dubai was to not only see a camel, but also to ride a camel. Also, I wanted to get S on a camel, but I didn't know how far I would get with that one. Well, mission accomplished.

Please no criticism on the photo. We aren't exactly looking our best, but by this point, it had been a long day. We started the day off by going for about a 2 hour walk in 100+ degree heat without any water (remember can't drink in public). We did stop off in a couple of different hotels to rest in the air conditioned lobbys.

Then in the afternoon, we were picked up in the 4 wheel drive vehicles that you see in the background of the photo. After about an hour drive, we were well out into the desert of the Middle East. We were able to stretch our legs while the tires on the vehicles were deflated.

Then we were off on our desert safari. Now, it's really hard to describe riding through the sand dunes of the desert. I'll try by best...but honestly, unless you have experienced it...words just won't describe it to the full extent of what we experienced. There were 7 of us in the car...S and I plus two other couples we didn't know and the driver.

Now, as we begin our adventure, I turn to the lady sitting next to me...Australian, about my age...because I have to know...does she get car sick? I was only about half joking, but by the end of the trip, I would find out it really is a good question to ask of the other people in the car with you (luckily, no one in our car got sick).

Anyway, I was riding in the middle of the seat between S and the Aussie lady. I'm not sure I had the best seat in the house...nothing to grab onto. Everyone else had what we refer to in our house as "oh sh*t" handles. Well, let's say the Aussie said that word quite a few times. I don't think it ever came out of my mouth, but I thought it plenty.

The ride through the desert sand dunes probably lasted close to an hour. The first ten minutes were pretty cool...after that, my thoughts centered on when will this be over with??? We did make a couple of stops along the way. Anyway, growing up riding with my father's driving in snow and ice while plowing snow really prepared me quite well for this...also living the last year with the traffic and driving of China and India also helped out. If not, I think I could have honestly been sick very easily.

OK, taking photos during this ride was not the easiest task in the world. However, I do like how this photo turned out. Note the angle of our car versus the angle of the car in front of us. This ride could also be compared to a really long roller coaster ride...you never quite knew what the next turn would be like.

Anyway, during the ride, we stopped briefly at a camel farm and got to see some baby camels. Very cute! I was disappointed when S told me that we can't get a pet camel. At the end of the ride, we arrived at the campsite of the tour company just in time to see the sun set over the desert. Not as impressive as I thought it would be...sunsets over water are much better.

Right after arrival at the campsite is when we had the camel ride, and thus one of the reasons why we aren't looking our best...my stomach was still doing flip flops from the car ride.

Now, with the camel, I definitely wanted to ride it. The rides were very short...probably on the camel less than 2 minutes. I got on the camel, and S took my photo. He wasn't going to get on, but the camel guy told him to get on. Well, it was at this point that I figured out why the camels wear muzzles...S kicked the camel in the side as he got on it! Great, just what I need, a pissed off camel! Well, the camel took it well. Now, when getting on a camel, you do this when the camel is sitting on the ground. So, on command from the camel guy, the camel gets up. Now, I didn't realize until this trip just how looonnnnggggg of legs camels have...plus they aren't the most graceful animals. Good thing I was hanging on to the camel saddle, because when it stood up I went forward at about a 90 degree angle. Flashes of me going toppling head over heels off of the camel into the camel's path (besides long legs, camels have HUGE feet) went through my head. Anyway, having the camel sit back down wasn't much better than having it stand up. In the end though, S and I survived our first camel ride. I think we both agreed that we wouldn't want to ride a camel for any long period of time...however walking through the sand wasn't too easy, so I guess if I were stranded in the desert, riding a camel would probably be better than walking!

So, would I ride a camel again? Absolutely. Next up...riding an elephant. That's been my goal since moving to Asia...just haven't had the opportunity yet.

After the camel ride, we had time to rest before the BBQ dinner began. If it hadn't been Ramadan, our entertainment would have been belly dancers. No belly dancers...so S had to entertain me. His idea of entertainment...pondering whether or not there are scorpions in the desert...and then looking under the table we were sitting at to see if he could find a scorpion!

Anyway, the desert safari (even with the wild sand dune ride) and the camel ride were definitely the highlights of my trip to Dubai (not eating in the bathroom like my husband said his favorite part of the trip was).

Dubai Dining During Ramadan

Well pretty much everything I read about Dubai's restaurants being closed during the day during Ramadan were true.

S and I arrived in Dubai and checked into our hotel around lunch time on Saturday. We decided to go out looking for some place to eat lunch. Within a few blocks of our hotel, we found probably 20 to 30 restaurants...the only one open...Burger King. Just my luck! BK would be the last on my list of places to eat...I guess once you get food poisoning at a place, your stomach never really has a desire to eat at that place again. Well, we walked past it figuring we would find another place open...nope, BK was it. So, we go in and order. We get our food...and I guess we should have taken the clue that they gave us our stuff in a to-go sack that we weren't suppose to eat in there. Well, we didn't and sat down and proceeded to start eating. Well after a couple of bites, an employee comes up and kindly asks us to leave. I guess if someone would have seen us eating in there, the BK would have received a large fine. OK, we left...kicked out of BK. I guess it would have maybe been too much to ask to maybe have put a sign on the door "open for take away only," or I don't know...maybe they could have told us when we ordered that we were to not eat in the store. I guess everyone is just suppose to know this. It's not like Dubai is a big tourist city or that we were staying in an area with a lot of hotels or anything like that.

Anyway, we left and took our food back to the hotel room. Not a big deal really...however, there was no way I was going to show my face in that BK again while we were there.

We made sure to ask the front desk what time breakfast was being served...I didn't want to get up to find out that they had stopped serving before sunrise. No problem there...they were serving until 11am. The way they got around this is that they had huge curtains up that we had to go through to get to breakfast every morning.

The next two days it worked out that we were back in our hotel room at lunch time, so we just ordered room service. The first day we tried to order a pizza from room service but were told they were serving sandwiches only. However, they called back a few minutes later to tell us that we could in fact order a pizza. It was pretty good. The second day of room service didn't go as well. We decided to order a turkey sandwich...well when it came it was some sort of steak sandwich (which we never could find on the menu, so not exactly sure what we ate).

Now on our fourth day in Dubai, we had what S is calling the highlight of his trip...we got to eat lunch in a mall bathroom. After a very adventurous taxi ride to get to this mall (future blog post about this), we decided that we had better kill a bunch of time in this mall before leaving. Well as we would find throughout our trip, once again all of the restaurants were closed. OK, so that's a small lie, there was another Burger King that was open. Come to find out, all the BKs we saw all week were open for business. Well, this one had all of the chairs up on the tables, so we knew for sure that it was carry out only. We decided that we were going to have to eat in the bathroom. Luckily, this was a brand new mall and the bathrooms were very nice...and honestly, if I was going to have to eat in a bathroom, I would prefer to have it be a nice one. However, we decided that smelly fast food would not be good to eat in a mall bathroom. Attached to the mall was a mega store similar to Super Walmart, so we just bought some pre-made sandwiches and diet Pepsi, and we were set. Fine dining sitting on a toilet...how much fun are we having now?

On the last day in Dubai, we were once again at another mall. This time however when we were hungry, we were ready to leave anyway. Besides another BK being open, there was also a Subway, KFC, and Krispy Kreme open. We got a couple of subs and just went back to our hotel to eat.

Now come sun down, it was a totally different story for dining options. Dubai has about everything you can imagine when it comes to restaurants. We ate at Chili's one night. They also have TGIF, Applebee's, Starbuck's, Cinnabon, and every fast food place that you can imagine...plus a lot more non-chain places. It would be so nice if Chennai got any one of these places...only in my dreams.

Well one late afternoon, we were in yet another mall (OK, Dubai has a ton of malls, and even though we really didn't buy much, we went to I think 5 different ones...it was awesome just being able to walk around in a clean environment to look at stuff). We decided to go to a movie. Well we had a little bit of time to kill, and we were thirsty. Well luckily, it was around the time of sundown, so I figured that the food court would probably be opening. Sure enough, it was open for business...it was very strange though. There were a lot of people sitting at the tables with their food and drinks in front of them. However, no one would eat anything until the precise time of Iftar (when the sun is down and the breaking of the fast begins). Everyone kept looking at their watches and at the exact same time, everyone started eating.

Well, I got our drinks from McDonald's, but I had to also get a pie. Now, it's sort of an inside joke about me and McDonald's pies. To make a long story short, when we were on a trip in China, I ate a green bean curd pie and a pineapple/taro pie from McDonald's. Well, the local pie choice in Dubai...date pie. I guess the palm trees that we were seeing around town are actually date palm trees, so the date is like the national fruit or something. Anyway, I can't wait to see what type of pies McDonald's will have here in Chennai. The first McD's in Chennai is currently under construction...I'm guessing maybe curry pie (that just sounds gross), or maybe mango pie (that could be tasty)...now tradition says that I will have to try one of whatever flavor they come up with.

Besides not eating and drinking during the day during Ramadan, smoking is also not allowed. Now S and I don't smoke...however we were talking to some Australians who do smoke. They said that they were out one day and were dying to have a cigarette...so finally they asked someone if there was anywhere they could smoke. The guy took them down this dark alley to a stairwell for them to light up. This same couple was telling us that they had ran into some Scottish people who were having a hard time finding any alcohol...yep, no alcohol even at night during Ramadan.

Anyway, S and I didn't starve. We made do with the situation. I honestly can't see how the people who observe Ramadan make it through a whole month of not eating or even drinking one sip of water during the day. The heat in Dubai alone would make it almost impossible to leave the house knowing that you couldn't have any water...and maybe that's what they do. Night time did seem to be a lot more active with people on the streets.

Well, it's lunch time for me...maybe I'll go in the bathroom and eat today. I need to practice for the next time I have to do this!

S & J's Mini Mart Now Open!

I haven't been sitting around all week eating everything in sight...we have actually just got back from our trip to Dubai. Very interesting trip...but more posts on that later.

OK, back to the arrival of the food on Friday. After many delays, we finally heard that our food would be arriving on probably Friday. However, we do not receive a time (or time frame) that it will actually be delivered to our house...from what I had heard, they just show up and someone had better be home to receive the food. Well, Friday afternoon, I had a meeting at husband's office that I needed to attend, so I passed off the house keys to our head security guard in case the food would arrive while I was out. After the meeting, I considered staying around waiting for S to get done working, but decided instead to go back home to finish getting ready for our trip to Dubai since we were leaving early Saturday morning.

My friend called me around 5ish to see if my food had came as hers had just arrived. I told her no...well she knew that we were leaving in the morning and really needed to get our delivery that night, so she passed on to the delivery people to get my stuff to me (there are more than one delivery trucks, so her delivery people had to pass the message on to the truck with my stuff). I don't know what she said to them exactly, but within 10 minutes I received a phone call from the delivery people wanting directions to my house and within 10 minutes after that my food had arrived. Yippee! I was doing the happy dance!

Well due to the fact that I think India has every known bug out there, I decided that all of the boxes needed to be sorted through Friday night before leaving Saturday morning. After all, who knows where the food had been for the last 6 weeks, and the last thing I wanted to do was come home from Dubai to a house full of cock roaches.

Well S and I had 27 boxes of food...but also we received 16 boxes of food for some people who are moving here in a couple of months. So I start going through our food. One of the first things I come across is a box full of boxes of cereal (I had ordered around 50 boxes of cereal...we eat it non-stop). Well the box had a lot of damage on one of the corners. The box of cereal in that corner had it's corner ripped off (oh well, I figured...only 49 other boxes to eat, I guess I can sacrifice one). There was lose cereal floating around the big cardboard box, so right away I was glad I was going through everything...this would have attracted a lot of bugs...probably ants by the time we got back from vacation. Well as I'm cleaning this box out, I discover that besides lose cereal floating around that there is also dog food lose in my box. OK, now we have a dog...but she is living in the U.S. with my parents, and I hadn't ordered any dog food in my shipment...so how did I end up with lose dog food floating around in one of my boxes? Well after closer inspection, my destroyed box of cereal had a lot of dog food mixed in the bag...almost like the box got ripped open, the contents fell on the floor (along with someone else's dog food), someone shoveled it all back into my box of cereal. So anyway, I had to call my mom and ask her why she shipped me dog food flavored cereal!

The big brown chunks are the dog food pieces. Note the lower left corner of the box is completely gone.

Well, some of the rest of our boxes were in pretty sad shape, but in the end all we had to sacrifice were two boxes of cereal that were opened.

I'm pretty sure this is not how this box was originally packaged. I was confident that I would have some damaged stuff in it. In the end, all I had was a bunch of dented canned goods.

So, I worked away at emptying the boxes looking for bugs. S joined me when he got home from work. He was grumbling the entire time that this was a great way to start vacation. We got the majority of our stuff organized and put away.

In the end, it looks like we could open are very own mini mart. Some of the canned goods I may have went a little overboard with my ordering. Thus, my next shipment should be considerably smaller. I did realize that I forgot to order a few things. No big deal. I've lived this long without...what's a few more months? My mom did a great job of shopping for me...although I had to harass her about sending us a can of split pea ham soup...does she really think we would eat this?

Well, after we got done with all of our boxes, I insisted that we go through the other people's boxes. I had forewarned the wife that I was going to do this. So, S continues to grumble because now we have to sort through all of their stuff and repack it into boxes. Not to mention that we still had a mess of boxes and packing paper from our stuff. Well, everything in our friends' boxes was looking pretty good...that is until one of the very last boxes I opened. I knew there was a problem when the outside of the box was crawling with ants. I opened the box and one of their Hershey's chocolate syrups had came open. Chocolate covered ants everywhere! A few of their canned goods lost their labels (although I was kind enough to write on the can what the contents where...I don't know this couple well enough, or I would have just had them guess what was inside!).

In the end, I was glad to have stayed up until 11pm and went through everything instead of waiting until after we got back. I was also glad that the shipment came when it did...or I would have had an ant colony living in my house. Also, I was very glad that we ended up on the 9am flight to Dubai and not the 4am flight that we had originally thought we were going to be taking.

So, now I guess I don't have any excuses about not cooking dinner for S!

Food Has Arrived!!!!

Pretty sweet!

3 Months Later & 1 Year Later

Well it has been 3 months since we have moved to India. Also, as of this weekend, it will be one year that we have lived outside of the U.S.

So, my reflections on these milestones...

Is it really possible for time to fly and to stand still at the same time? It seems like only yesterday we were packing up in Illinois and shipping the pets off to my parents' house to live. It really doesn't seem like we have been in India for 3 months now. However, on the other hand, a lot has happened in the last year (read my post from July 11 about everything in the last year). Therefore, I can't believe it has only been a year and not like 5 years.

Is it really possible to feel that it is easy and at the same time feel that it is hard to live outside of the U.S.? S and I have found that we are really easy people to move around. We adapt well and quickly to new environments. It was a blast living in China and now in India. (Please note, life outside of the U.S. is not always so cheerful, but for S and I, our overall experiences have been good. However, this life is not for a lot of people...actually this life is very hard for most people...a big key to our success...be flexible! Also, not having children does make it somewhat easier for us.) On the other hand, it really is hard to live outside of the U.S. The biggest reasons for this are missing out on family gatherings, missing our pets, missing the structured and "normal" life of the U.S., missing Walmart, Target, and Kohl's, missing the Bears make it to the Super Bowl, missing watching the Cubs actually have a chance this year, missing having privacy, etc. We really have gave up a lot of things that are taken for granted to live the life we do.

So, if I could go back, would I do it again? ABSOLUTELY! I wouldn't change anything over the past year. No regrets at all! When we moved to China a year ago, my thought was that I wanted to live outside of the U.S. for years. I wanted to do consecutive assignments, meaning we would be gone for probably 4 to 7 years. Of course, things can change in a year. I got my wish on consecutive assignments (just didn't know they would be so close together). So, my feelings now...still the same. At this point, I would still like to do another assignment after this one, and I would still like to be gone from the U.S. for a few more years. However, S and I are not the norm for people living here in India...most of the other ex-pats with our company are counting the time until they can get out of here. As of right now, we are not doing this (OK, a small lie, I am counting the hours until we get to go on holiday to Dubai, but that's a different scenario...after a few days there, I'll be ready to come back to Chennai).

So even though at times I dislike India, this will only last for 15 minutes or maybe at the most an hour. I like living here. So, here's to another year...may I feel the same way this time next year...and if not, may it be only because I feel even better about life than I do now.

Our First Tsunami Watch

Last night, we had our first tsunami threat while living in Chennai...OK, I guess it was our first tsunami threat ever. In case you missed it, a pretty strong earthquake occurred down by Indonesia.

Now being from the Midwest of the U.S., I'm use to thunderstorm, tornado, and winter watches/warnings and know what to do in these situations. But, what exactly are we suppose to do with a tsunami watch? Well, luckily our company has a lot of locals who know how to find out just how serious the threat is to us. I guess if it would have been serious enough we would have evacuated our house (although at the time of this watch, S and I were in the middle of the city anyway, so no worries for us about having to evacuate this time). Most of the expats who work for our company live along the coast here in Chennai. Some of them have houses right on the beach...our house is inland probably about a half mile or so. I guess this tsunami watch was more to just stay off of the beaches than being a severe warning that an actual tsunami was expected to hit and cause extensive damage. It didn't last very long until they determined that there wasn't going to be a tsunami.

Anyway, the effects of the 2004 tsunami can still be felt here in Chennai. Some of our friends are living in houses that were flooded by the tsunami. I guess S has had the conversation with our driver about what happened during the 2004 tsunami. S said that our driver started to get all choked up talking about it as he knew a lot of people who lost their lives. While walking on the beach this weekend, we went by a local fishing village. There are a lot of new boats with the year 2005 painted on the side and the name of a business or organization that donated the boat to help the local fishermen out after the tsunami washed what little they owned away.

This morning, we woke up to find out that yet another major earthquake had occurred by Indonesia again early this morning. Since it was so strong, they are not thinking that it is just an aftershock from the one last night. There were more tsunami watches that were issued, but this time not for India. Since yesterday, there have been four major earthquake by Indonesia. Something tells me that the earthquake gods are not happy right now with Indonesia.

I don't lose sleep at night worrying about whether or not another tsunami is going to hit Chennai. It's just part of life here...just like tornadoes are part of life in Illinois (and I've been through some tornadoes)...or like hurricanes are part of life in Florida, Texas, the Carolinas, and the Caribbean. No matter where I live in the world there will always be some weather related challenge to incur...with some I will know what to do and with others, I'll have no clue. Be aware though. With that being said, I guess I should be reading up on tsunamis.

I Saw a Snake!

OK, so it was dead...but it was still a snake!

Yesterday, I was gone from the house for about 13 hours. I attended a women's club meeting and then had lunch with a friend that lasted about 4 hours. After that I had coffee with another friend, and then I had about a hour to kill before S would be ready to leave work. We had a dinner meeting to attend together.

Well on the way home after the meeting, our driver told us that our security guards had killed a huge snake that was in our yard that afternoon. He said that it was minimum 4 feet long. I asked him if it was poisonous...his eyes got really BIG and he said "yes madam, poisonous snake." OK, well the first two snakes we had were small, so I figured it would only be time before we had a large one in the yard (after all, my friend GSS Danie has had a huge one on her property that I have seen photos of, so I know they exist here in Chennai). Well when we got home at about 10pm last night, our driver asked if I wanted to see the snake. Of course, I want to see the snake. S wanted no part in the snake viewing...dead or alive!

Anyway, the security guards had the snake across the road outside of our property. They got it for me to look at. Well you know how fish stories work...where the fish caught is always at least 3 times larger than what it actually is. Well, here in India, I guess they tell snake stories. The snake was maybe 2 feet long and about as big around as my thumb. Whether or not it was actually venomous or not, I really don't know...and does it really matter...to me a snake is a snake. Size doesn't matter and whether or not it's venomous or not doesn't really matter either.

Nevertheless, I am very thankful that our security guards seem to have no problem killing snakes. I think the conversations I have had with our driver about how we don't have many snakes in the U.S. is paying off.

More Food Woes...

As I have previously posted, S and I are off to Dubai in a few days for a much needed vacation/holiday. Well, I have started the habit of getting a tour book for every country we visit. S thinks this is a waste of money...however, I did point out to him that since our entire trip is paid for by his company, spending $20 on a tour book isn't going to break us. Well, I just picked up the book on Dubai a few days ago...and now I am so glad I did.

Last night I was skimming the Dubai book when I started reading the section about Ramadan. Dubai is in the United Arab Emirates and the majority of the people are Muslims. Ramadan is the most holy month for Muslims. During this month, Muslims fast from dawn to sunset...besides not eating, they also don't drink, chew gum, and smoke. Well guess what...S and I are traveling to Dubai during Ramadan!

Not really having a whole lot of food for the past 3 months (or at least not a whole lot of variety of food), S and I were looking forward to eating quite a bit on this trip. Also, for those of you who don't know me well, I have to eat like every 10 minutes (at least that's what my husband claims). I definitely cannot go from dawn to dark without eating or drinking (and S chews gum all of the time). I function best if I eat 4 or 5 small meals a day. When I told S about this situation...he told me to stock up on granola bars to take along.

Well, I decided that I had better get on the internet to do some more detailed research on how exactly our lives will be affected by traveling to Dubai during Ramadan. The findings...even though we are not Muslims, we are still expected to refrain from eating, drinking, chewing gum, and smoking in public (including in cars) during Ramadan. In fact, from what I could find, it is illegal to do these things in public during this time even if one is not Muslim. So much for the granola bars that my husband suggested that I take along.

Restaurants are closed during the day during Ramadan. However, from what I can tell, some restaurants in hotels will be open...however, it sounds as if we will be ushered to a private room to eat and drink so that no one can view us doing these activities (and thus I guess will not be considered a public place). So my plan when we are out and about...to keep granola bars and water bottles in my purse and to eat and drink every time I am in the bathroom. I know...pretty gross, but I welcome any better suggestions.

Also, the other big thing that I am learning to research before traveling to countries (especially Asian countries) is what to wear. In China, pretty much anything went. I could wear whatever I would wear in the U.S. Here in India, not the case. It really is important that I wear shirts with sleeves and to wear capris, pants, or skirts below the knees...I only wear shorts in my house when I know that I'm not leaving my property. Well the research I have been doing on Dubai made it sound like that I should wear pretty much the same thing I wear here in India...until I started doing research on Ramadan...now it sounds like I should dress even more conservatively in Dubai since we will be there during the holy month. Long skirts to the ankles and long sleeves...yikes...it's even hotter in Dubai right now than it is here in Chennai. I think I'll probably take a few capris and skirts along and try to check out what other Western women are wearing.

Anyway, our nice easy trip to Dubai is starting to turn into a headache for me. I'm sure that I'm just worrying and stressing out about it more than probably what is necessary. However, my experience has been that I always prepare myself for the worse and then things always turn out way better than what I'm expecting. So, in the end, I know that our trip will go great and that we will enjoy ourselves.

Would you hear this in the U.S.?

On Saturday, S and I were out running errands. There is a bookstore that I had been wanting to go to for some time, and so we decided to finally check it out since we had some time before we had to pick our guest up at the office.

Like most bigger stores in the U.S., China, and India, this store had some background music playing. I wasn't really paying any attention to it until S came up to me and told me to listen to the lyrics of the song they were playing. Well the singer was Snoop Dogg...for those of you who don't know, he is a hip-hop and rap artist. I think the majority of his songs start out as having a lot of explicit words in them...a lot of times then a clean version of the song will eventually come out.

Anyway, the song of his that this store was playing was definitely not a clean version. It had the MF word in it quite a bit along with the N word...and the music was turned up loud enough that you could definitely make out what was being said.

Now, would you ever hear this type of music in a store in the U.S.? Probably not. I don't think this would even be allowed to be played in a music store. Here in India though...no problem. Husband and I had the discussion about whether or not they even knew what they were playing...or if the other people in the store knew of this song and what the words mean?

Anyway, we had quite the chuckle over this...especially since Chennai is a very conservative city. Only in India. Only in India.

Busy, busy.

I haven't forgot about doing a blog post on the mowing of our yard. I'm just waiting for them to finish so I can give the whole story.

In the meantime, it has been a busy few days for our household. Our house guest arrived at midnight Wednesday night. Since my husband had to get up at 3am, I stayed up to meet the guy. Then on Thursday, I went to a cooking class...I'm not sure it helped me at all, but I will try a couple of the recipes. Thursday night, I had to cook for our guest...ugh, since I'm not a cook to start with and not having our food shipment yet, this pretty much stressed me out.

Then on Friday, my husband had to fly out of town for the day and his flight back wasn't until late...which meant that I had to cook again for our guest, and he had to talk to me for the entire night. Luckily, a friend of mine let me raid her pantry...and our guest seems to have liked everything that I have made since he has been here. The last time this guy was in India, he got so sick that he had to be in the hospital for a couple of days. I think he is just happy to not have to stay in a hotel. As he does a lot of travel with his job, it's a nice change for him to stay with us...plus he has given us an open invitation to stay with him and his wife...chances are he will be moving from Illinois and the U.S. within the next year or so to another foreign country (the U.S. is actually a foreign country to him but he has been there for a few years now)...so yet another person for us to go visit. It has been fun having him around.

Saturday, our guest went to the office...but since S (husband has decided he doesn't like having his name used on my blog, so he will be referred to as S from now on) didn't get in until almost midnight, he decided not to go to work. We ended up running a couple of errands, and then picked our guest up and went with him and another co-worker out for dinner Saturday night.

Sunday, our guest tired from work and having jet lag...plus our driver who has been very busy with 3 adults to drive around...decided it would be a good day to rest. Our driver didn't come in. The three of us walked down to the beach and just had a relaxing day around the house. I had to cook again, but oh well, I haven't made the guy sick yet, so maybe I'm not as bad a cook as I thought.

Today, our guest and S are working, but tonight, our guest has invited us to go out to dinner. Fine by me...it means I don't have to cook! Tomorrow our guest is leaving.

Today I have been working on balancing our bank account...since I haven't done this for two months, it took me a couple of hours, but I think I finally got everything figured out. Also, I've been working on submitting our expenses from our move and from living in the hotel and apartment. 50 days of hotel and apartment living can really add up! It'll be a nice chunk of change to have back.

The rest of the week will also be busy. I have a couple of meetings to go to. S and I have a dinner meeting one night. Our food shipment is suppose to be arriving. Plus, I have to get ready for our upcoming trip in a few days.

So, anyway, continue to stay tuned for the yard mowing post...that is if they ever get done mowing the yard!

Internet Fixed

Well, Tuesday morning, the electrician showed up just as I knew he would. Only, I didn't know he was going to show up at 7:45am! Let's just say...this is very early in the morning for India...if a service person says that they will come to your house in the morning that means between 9:30am and 1pm. I was out of bed but hadn't showered yet and still had my PJs on. Oh well, at the time, getting my internet fixed was a little more important to me than worrying about what I looked like.

Well the electrician looked at everything and after a long telephone conversation with I'm guessing our landlord told me that everything was hooked up correctly. He said that he would go get the people from the internet company. Well, sure enough, he was back with them around noon (I was actually showered and dressed), and they determined that besides the power cord being broken that the actual modem itself was broken. They told me that they would come back on Wednesday morning with a new modem box. That's all fine and dandy...and appreciated by me...I understand that sometimes things are defective and break. However, I didn't appreciate the part about them questioning me about dropping the box (never happened), about why I unplugged the cord (sorry, didn't know that a cord could never be unplugged), and so on. The part of this that really irritates me is that I found out that the internet company is charging our landlord for a new modem. OK, this really irks me BIG time...the modem only works for a day and a half and then breaks, but yet a new modem will cost. I guess they have never heard of a product being defective?????

Well on Wednesday morning, I got up bright and early to make sure I was showered and out of my PJs. Well 1pm came and no one had shown up, so I gave up hope that they were actually going to bring my new modem. I really needed to go to the grocery store as Wednesday night a colleague of my husband's was coming in to stay with us for a few days, and I figured I ought to buy some food since our food shipment won't be coming for a few more days. Well, I decide to go to the store, but as I'm walking out the door, our driver and the electrician are walking up to the house and tell me that the internet people will be coming in 30 minutes to 1 hour. Fine, I say...I'll go to the store after they come. Well, 3 1/2 hours later...at 4:30pm, the internet people finally show up. I guess technically...it was morning somewhere!

Anyway, this time there were once again 4 people to change the modem box. Two from the internet company, the electrician, plus our driver. I'm not exactly sure why our driver needed to come in...the only thing I can figure out is that the electrician was probably telling him all about our problems all afternoon and that he wanted to see for himself what was going on. Anyway, I find it a little strange that our new modem is a different brand than the old one. I asked the internet people if it was a better one...I got a response that went something like "sorry madam, this is not America, this is India," which I took to mean that products in the U.S. are better than products here (true for the most part). I made the comment then that everything in America is either made in China or made in India. Then they proceeded to tell me that my new modem was made in China. However, there is a lot of truth that even though the stuff here in India (also the same in China) was made here (or made in China) that in fact the quality of products really is not the same as the quality of made in China/India products available in the U.S. It almost makes me wonder if the rejects are the ones that are left behind to be sold in the country they were produced in.

Anyway, internet is working again (for now). Steve's colleague got to our house at midnight last night. Today I went to a cooking demonstration...of course, the chef made everything look really simple to make. Ha!

Stay tuned for a post on the mowing of our yard...with photos!

Internet and Food Update

Well on Friday, Steve had our driver go to the internet company to see if the broken power cord off of the modem could be replaced. The response our driver received is that the cord is "use and throw." They wouldn't give him a different cord. Of course, this really irks me. It's not like we had been using the cord for a long time...only a day and a half before it broke! Our driver offered to pick up a cord for us at a store. I thought it would be best first to check with the landlord on the situation...after all, the modem should still be under warranty. Well, the landlord responded back that we would be much better off just buying a new cord. So, when we were out and about on Saturday, we stopped and had the driver run into a local electronics store to get us a new cord. Well, the new cord doesn't fit exactly, but it fits enough that at least the modem will now power on.

Of course, you know that can't be the end to the internet problems. Remember me saying that the electrician was going to come back and rewire something doing with the phone/internet lines...and remember me saying, why fix something that isn't broke? Well, the electrician came and rewired...of course, since the power cord on the modem was broke, I couldn't test out the internet connection when the electrician got done. Now that the modem is working again...of course, we find out that something is screwed up with the wiring, so the internet still isn't working! Ugh...very frustrating! Anyway, the landlord is sending the electrician back out to the house tomorrow morning. Luckily, the electrician is always on time, so I am confident that he will actually show up and be on time...and with any more luck, he will quickly figure out what the problem is and get it fixed. Hopefully then, the internet will fully be up and running for good. Crossing fingers!

Well, if you have been following along with my blog, you will know that we have been waiting for our food shipment to arrive for like forever now. Well, being our first shipment, I really had no clue how long it should take to get here once it leaves the U.S. I was guessing a couple of weeks at the most. It still isn't here and being that it should have left Illinois on August 10, it did seem like it was taking a really long time. Well, I guess some of the other spouses (who have received food shipments before and know how long it should take) were thinking the same thing. So, finally someone e-mailed the shipping company about when the food would be arriving. The response received back is not good. Come to find out the food just left Illinois on Friday, and thus isn't due to arrive in India until around September 5. When it arrives it has to clear customs, which can take a few days, and then we have to continue to wait as the people with our company who live in Bangalore get their food first before our shipment comes to Chennai. I'm guessing we won't receive our food before we go to Dubai in a week and a half. I hope I'm wrong, but at this point, it's not looking too promising. I guess our meals of Frosted Flakes and spaghetti will continue for at least a few more days.

Anyway, Happy Labor Day to everyone in the U.S. Labor Day isn't recognized here, so Steve still had to work today. I went and picked up our tickets for our Dubai trip from the travel agency, and then hung out all afternoon with a friend. Ended up eating Pizza Hut with her, her husband, and son for dinner. I swear it was the best tasting pizza I've ever had! We haven't had pizza here since our Domino's experience. We did eat out Friday night at a great Indian kebab restaurant, and on Saturday, we tried out a Mexican restaurant. However, for the most part during the week, it isn't feasible for us to go out to eat. Almost all of the restaurants don't open until 7pm, and by the time we would get done eating, we would still have a minimum hour drive back to our house. I guess I really need to scope out some restaurants closer to us. There just aren't a lot to choose from...and I just haven't got brave enough yet to try the ones that are closer to where we live. India is by far a place that you really want to hear from someone else that a restaurant is OK before you go to it yourself.

Anyway, I hope everyone has the day off and is enjoying it by cooking out. From what I have heard, the weather is still pretty nice in Illinois to do this. Here, the weather is the same as always...HOT...90 degrees plus every day. I was so excited the other morning when I got up, and the temperature was only 78 degrees out with overcast skies. I put on jeans and a long sleeved shirt! I have determined that any day the temp is under 80...so meaning that we are having a rare day when the temps are in the 70s...that I'm going to wear jeans and a long sleeved shirt. If I did this in Illinois when the temp is in the 70s, everyone would think I was nuts. However, here in Chennai, it's a treat to be able to do this. Of course, on the day I did do this, within an hour, the skies had cleared and the temp rose to 90 plus again...but I was already dressed for the day and refused to change!

OK, enough rambling by me. I hope everyone enjoys the fall in the U.S. I for one will definitely miss not having the cooler temps and fall foliage. Of course, I promise not to rub it in when it is hot here in the dead of winter in Illinois!