Happy New Year's Eve! 2007 was a very long (yet it seemed to fly by) but great year for S and I. I won't bore you with the details of what we did...if you really want to know just read some of my early posts plus you guys know everything "exciting" that has happened since I started this blog.
I must say that S and I have survived 6 1/2 months of living in India. The 6 month mark passed on December 14 while we were in the U.S. I thought of writing a blog on that day, but really the 6 1/2 month mark is more important to me. Why?
It was after living in China for 6 1/2 months that S asked if I wanted to move to India (another 2 1/2 months after that is when we moved). He did go to work today, but I don't think he will be "popping" the question to me tonight...although it is New Year's Eve, so who knows.
Seriously though, S and I have full intentions of staying in India through 2008. We are looking forward to another busy year with 2008, and we just hope that it turns out as well as 2007 has.
Well, for the first time in our lives, S and I are actually going out for New Year's Eve. Normally, we are just stay-at-home and watch-movies-and-TV type of people...often falling asleep well before midnight. In fact, if we would stay awake until the ball dropped in New York at 11 pm our time, I considered that a good New Year's Eve. However, this year, we are headed to one of the beach resorts with a friend of ours to ring in the New Year.
Definitely had to have a couple of naps today or there would be no way...with jet lag and all...that I could make it to midnight. Last year in Beijing after just arriving back from the U.S., I think S and I were both sound asleep by 8:30 pm. Speaking of sleeping...I guess I should go wake S up from his nap so that we can leave.
Goodbye 2007!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Internet Phone
When we were getting ready to move to China last year, someone suggested that we get an internet phone. Being that I don't really keep up on the latest in technology unless it directly effects me, I really had no clue that such a thing existed.
Over a year later...and let's just say that if I could only take one item with me to a deserted island, it would be my internet phone (assuming of course that the island was equipped with DSL internet). For less than $40 per month, we are able to call for unlimited minutes any U.S. telephone number. We also were able to get telephone numbers that are local numbers for our parents to call, which means they don't even have to call long distance to get us. All of this works via the internet. The calls are so clear that many people don't even believe that we are not in the U.S. The internet phone has to be the best thing since sliced bread!
There have been a few problems with the phone...the main one being is that we have to have internet working for it to work. This time last year when we returned to Beijing following our trip to the U.S. for Christmas, the internet was down for a few weeks following an earthquake in the ocean that caused problems with some fiber optic lines. Also when we moved to Chennai this summer, we didn't have the phone working for over two months until our high speed internet was hooked up in our house. Since this time, it has been a big pain in our house as we only have one internet hook up. This means we weren't able to leave the phone hooked up at the same time as the computer. To disconnect the computer to connect the phone was a 10 to 15 minute wait for the phone to boot up. That's OK it worked the first time, but often times the phone would have to be reset after being unplugged...another 10 to 15 minutes. Very frustrating if I just wanted to make a quick phone call.
Well all of our problems have finally been solved...my brother got us a wireless router for Christmas. Now the phone is hooked up all the time, my computer is on line all of the time, plus S can use his work computer...all at the same time. As soon as baseball season starts again in a couple of months, we'll get our other computer hooked up solely to be able to listen to the games on the internet. Plus now, we can be surfing the net while watching TV. Life is grand!
So anyway, for those of you who know our internet phone number, feel free to call at any time. We look forward to talking to everyone. Don't forget that we are currently 11 1/2 hours ahead of Illinois time...but don't worry, if you call and we are asleep there is no way we can hear the phone ring in the bedroom...sound doesn't carry well through concrete walls! If you don't have our phone number, just send me an e-mail, and I'll be more than happy to pass it on to you.
If you don't have time to call me...that's OK too...e-mail and blog comments are always welcome as well!
Hello, Hello, HELLO? Can you hear me now???
Over a year later...and let's just say that if I could only take one item with me to a deserted island, it would be my internet phone (assuming of course that the island was equipped with DSL internet). For less than $40 per month, we are able to call for unlimited minutes any U.S. telephone number. We also were able to get telephone numbers that are local numbers for our parents to call, which means they don't even have to call long distance to get us. All of this works via the internet. The calls are so clear that many people don't even believe that we are not in the U.S. The internet phone has to be the best thing since sliced bread!
There have been a few problems with the phone...the main one being is that we have to have internet working for it to work. This time last year when we returned to Beijing following our trip to the U.S. for Christmas, the internet was down for a few weeks following an earthquake in the ocean that caused problems with some fiber optic lines. Also when we moved to Chennai this summer, we didn't have the phone working for over two months until our high speed internet was hooked up in our house. Since this time, it has been a big pain in our house as we only have one internet hook up. This means we weren't able to leave the phone hooked up at the same time as the computer. To disconnect the computer to connect the phone was a 10 to 15 minute wait for the phone to boot up. That's OK it worked the first time, but often times the phone would have to be reset after being unplugged...another 10 to 15 minutes. Very frustrating if I just wanted to make a quick phone call.
Well all of our problems have finally been solved...my brother got us a wireless router for Christmas. Now the phone is hooked up all the time, my computer is on line all of the time, plus S can use his work computer...all at the same time. As soon as baseball season starts again in a couple of months, we'll get our other computer hooked up solely to be able to listen to the games on the internet. Plus now, we can be surfing the net while watching TV. Life is grand!
So anyway, for those of you who know our internet phone number, feel free to call at any time. We look forward to talking to everyone. Don't forget that we are currently 11 1/2 hours ahead of Illinois time...but don't worry, if you call and we are asleep there is no way we can hear the phone ring in the bedroom...sound doesn't carry well through concrete walls! If you don't have our phone number, just send me an e-mail, and I'll be more than happy to pass it on to you.
If you don't have time to call me...that's OK too...e-mail and blog comments are always welcome as well!
Hello, Hello, HELLO? Can you hear me now???
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Back in Chennai
S and I arrived back to our home in Chennai at 1:30am Sunday morning safe and sound. We were lucky to make it out of O'hare airport in Chicago on Friday as scheduled. Chicago was receiving snow and most flights were either cancelled or delayed. After the concerns about getting off on time were gone, our trip back home was pretty uneventful.
It is great to be back at our own house. Sleeping in my own bed again is like heaven! We had a great time in Illinois, but it was extremely busy. This was our third trip back to Illinois since moving overseas and by far it was the busiest of all of the trips. The weather was very uncooperative at times. My body was instantly thawed out as soon as I stepped out of the airport here in Chennai. It was about 75 degrees and very muggy when we got home. Our house stunk after being shut up for over 3 weeks. It is also extremely dirty!
Well, this is all I'm going to write for now as I'm sure that being tired and writing this is not the best combo. I'm not really thinking clearly enough to write a very productive blog. I'm trying to get my days and nights straight again. More later on our trip to Illinois and what's new in Chennai. Just wanted to let everyone know that we are back home.
It is great to be back at our own house. Sleeping in my own bed again is like heaven! We had a great time in Illinois, but it was extremely busy. This was our third trip back to Illinois since moving overseas and by far it was the busiest of all of the trips. The weather was very uncooperative at times. My body was instantly thawed out as soon as I stepped out of the airport here in Chennai. It was about 75 degrees and very muggy when we got home. Our house stunk after being shut up for over 3 weeks. It is also extremely dirty!
Well, this is all I'm going to write for now as I'm sure that being tired and writing this is not the best combo. I'm not really thinking clearly enough to write a very productive blog. I'm trying to get my days and nights straight again. More later on our trip to Illinois and what's new in Chennai. Just wanted to let everyone know that we are back home.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Merry Christmas!
OK, OK...I have taken enough grief from everyone about when another blog would be posted. Honestly, I thought I would have had a lot of time to blog while being in the U.S. The reality has been that this has by far been the busiest and most hectic trip back to the U.S. we have had since moving overseas. The weather hasn't been cooperating too well, which has messed up some of our plans for seeing some people while we are here. My apologies to these people...you know who you are. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to control mother nature!
Overall though, our trip to the U.S. has went well. We have been having a lot of fun seeing people, playing with our pets, eating, shopping...and soon to be opening some Christmas gifts! However, I am almost physically 100% exhausted (not to mention almost 100% frozen cold). It has been a long two and half weeks. I am almost ready to go back to India. A few more things to do in the next few days, but come the end of next week, and I'll be ready to get back on that plane to go back to my "home."
Anyway, I hope that all of my family and friends around the world have a very Merry Christmas! If you are traveling at all, be safe. S and I have already had our fair share of minor mishaps while traveling...more on this in a future post. Let's just say for now that not driving much ourselves over the past year plus combined with bad weather is not necessarily the best combination in the world for us. We are in one piece uninjured, but our car will need to go to the body shop when we leave the U.S.!
Well, I had hoped to make it to 100 posts for 2007, but since this is only the 96th one, and there are only about 10 days left in 2007, I'm not sure if I'll be making it or not. I haven't set a goal yet for 2008 on the number of blogs that I will write...maybe that will be part of my New Year's resolutions. It's not that I don't have anything to say...it's just making the time to sit down and write that is the challenge the most of the time.
So, Merry Christmas to everyone! Looking forward to a great 2008!
Overall though, our trip to the U.S. has went well. We have been having a lot of fun seeing people, playing with our pets, eating, shopping...and soon to be opening some Christmas gifts! However, I am almost physically 100% exhausted (not to mention almost 100% frozen cold). It has been a long two and half weeks. I am almost ready to go back to India. A few more things to do in the next few days, but come the end of next week, and I'll be ready to get back on that plane to go back to my "home."
Anyway, I hope that all of my family and friends around the world have a very Merry Christmas! If you are traveling at all, be safe. S and I have already had our fair share of minor mishaps while traveling...more on this in a future post. Let's just say for now that not driving much ourselves over the past year plus combined with bad weather is not necessarily the best combination in the world for us. We are in one piece uninjured, but our car will need to go to the body shop when we leave the U.S.!
Well, I had hoped to make it to 100 posts for 2007, but since this is only the 96th one, and there are only about 10 days left in 2007, I'm not sure if I'll be making it or not. I haven't set a goal yet for 2008 on the number of blogs that I will write...maybe that will be part of my New Year's resolutions. It's not that I don't have anything to say...it's just making the time to sit down and write that is the challenge the most of the time.
So, Merry Christmas to everyone! Looking forward to a great 2008!
Friday, December 7, 2007
Yes! We are now in the U.S.!
S and I safely arrived at my parents' house in Illinois on Wednesday afternoon. We had a somewhat interesting trip from Chennai.
We arrived at the Chennai airport on Tuesday night to a traffic jam. The international part of the airport is very small and fairly easy to navigate. Normally it only takes around 30 seconds from the time you turn off of the road until reach the front door. Well on Tuesday night, it took about 20 to 30 minutes. At first, our driver thought they were doing bomb checks, which made logically sense since there have been some bombings in the northern parts of India. Well come to find out, this wasn't the case. All traffic was being routed through the crowded parking lot since the main road right next to the terminal was full of people...all Muslims. What was going on with all of the people???
Well we finally figured out that some of the Muslims were going to Jeddah. Jeddah is in Saudi Arabia and is the gateway to Mecca, which is Islam's holiest city. Muslims are required to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime. So, the only logical conclusion we could draw from all of the people was that there was a group of Muslims from Chennai making this pilgrimage and that since this is such a big occasion in their lives that all of their families and friends turn out to see them off. This equates to a big mess at the airport for us!
Anyway, we had a good flight to Frankfurt, Germany. The second strange thing happened to us as we were getting off of the plane. There were about 5 policeman checking passports of all of the passengers. For those of you who have never traveled internationally, this is not the norm. Well when we got to them and they saw our U.S. passports, they just waved us by. Obviously they must have been looking for someone in particular. We didn't stick around to see what happened.
After that, we had to switch terminals to catch our connecting flight to Chicago. Well for some reason, this lady...who didn't speak one word of English and who we are pretty sure had never flown before...latched on to me as she was completely confused and lost to what to do. She was headed to Los Angeles, and we finally got her through security and to her gate. We are pretty sure she spoke Russian or something like that. I guess I just wanted to help her because if my parents were in the same situation, I would hope someone would help them out as well.
We were a little concerned that our flight from Frankfurt to Chicago would be delayed due to a snow storm in Chicago. However, we ended up leaving on time and actually arriving early to Chicago. Luckily my parents had been checking our flight status on the internet and saw that we were due to arrive early, so they had left early to come get us. We were welcomed to Chicago by cold weather and snow on the ground. Definitely a change from warm Chennai.
Overall, the trip from our house to my parents' house was long, but not near as bad as what I expected. Have the flight broken up into two equal segments of 9 hours each is definitely better than the direct 13 1/2 hour flight between Beijing and Chicago.
My brother greeted me at my parents' house by throwing a snowball at me in the house and saying "Welcome to Illinois." Don't worry...he has a payback coming.
We went and got our first rabies shot on Wednesday night. No foaming at the mouth, chasing cars, or drinking out of toilets...yet!
Jet lag has been much easier this trip than when we traveled between China and the U.S. Wednesday night, we went to bed at about 7:30. I woke up at 1:30 in the morning, but stayed in bed and managed to fall back to sleep from about 4 to 6. S woke up at about 2:30 and stayed up all day...this is actually not that different than what he normally does, so he was OK later in the day. Last night, we went to bed at about 9:15, and I woke up at a little after 4 this morning. I would have preferred another hour or two of sleep, but compared with waking up at 1 or 2 in the morning for numerous nights coming from Beijing, I'll take sleeping until 4. Plus getting up at 4, when S is still sleeping, has the advantage that I actually can use the internet. My parents' only have dial up internet. Luckily, they have two phone lines as S pretty much has the one line tied up the entire time we are here as he dials in to do work on his computer. I have to beg him to log off so I can use the internet. Since the other phone line is for my parents' business, we can't use it for the internet.
Yesterday, we stopped in to see my grandparents. Then we went to S's parents' house. It was S's mom's birthday, so we took her, his step-father, and his aunt out for lunch.
Today, I have to go get my hair done. I have this thing with not letting anyone in China or India touch my hair. I have heard of too many bad experiences...such as D who had like 12 people watch her get her hair cut in Sri Lanka and L who had a 4 hour hair cut in Chennai. No thank you...I'll just wait until I'm in the U.S.
After I'm done with that, S and I are planning to head out to start some shopping and then we have a Christmas party tonight. This weekend brings another Christmas party, a nephew's wrestling tournament, and another nephew's band concert...oh and of course, more shopping!
So, anyway, it feels good to be back in IL...even if it is the middle of winter here. We lucked out last year by not having any bad weather the entire time we were here. This year, we aren't going to be as lucky, but that's OK as I have missed the snow. The cold weather...now that's a different story...but I guess I can't have the snow without the cold weather. Plus I can survive for 3 weeks until I go back to sunny, warm Chennai!
We arrived at the Chennai airport on Tuesday night to a traffic jam. The international part of the airport is very small and fairly easy to navigate. Normally it only takes around 30 seconds from the time you turn off of the road until reach the front door. Well on Tuesday night, it took about 20 to 30 minutes. At first, our driver thought they were doing bomb checks, which made logically sense since there have been some bombings in the northern parts of India. Well come to find out, this wasn't the case. All traffic was being routed through the crowded parking lot since the main road right next to the terminal was full of people...all Muslims. What was going on with all of the people???
Well we finally figured out that some of the Muslims were going to Jeddah. Jeddah is in Saudi Arabia and is the gateway to Mecca, which is Islam's holiest city. Muslims are required to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime. So, the only logical conclusion we could draw from all of the people was that there was a group of Muslims from Chennai making this pilgrimage and that since this is such a big occasion in their lives that all of their families and friends turn out to see them off. This equates to a big mess at the airport for us!
Anyway, we had a good flight to Frankfurt, Germany. The second strange thing happened to us as we were getting off of the plane. There were about 5 policeman checking passports of all of the passengers. For those of you who have never traveled internationally, this is not the norm. Well when we got to them and they saw our U.S. passports, they just waved us by. Obviously they must have been looking for someone in particular. We didn't stick around to see what happened.
After that, we had to switch terminals to catch our connecting flight to Chicago. Well for some reason, this lady...who didn't speak one word of English and who we are pretty sure had never flown before...latched on to me as she was completely confused and lost to what to do. She was headed to Los Angeles, and we finally got her through security and to her gate. We are pretty sure she spoke Russian or something like that. I guess I just wanted to help her because if my parents were in the same situation, I would hope someone would help them out as well.
We were a little concerned that our flight from Frankfurt to Chicago would be delayed due to a snow storm in Chicago. However, we ended up leaving on time and actually arriving early to Chicago. Luckily my parents had been checking our flight status on the internet and saw that we were due to arrive early, so they had left early to come get us. We were welcomed to Chicago by cold weather and snow on the ground. Definitely a change from warm Chennai.
Overall, the trip from our house to my parents' house was long, but not near as bad as what I expected. Have the flight broken up into two equal segments of 9 hours each is definitely better than the direct 13 1/2 hour flight between Beijing and Chicago.
My brother greeted me at my parents' house by throwing a snowball at me in the house and saying "Welcome to Illinois." Don't worry...he has a payback coming.
We went and got our first rabies shot on Wednesday night. No foaming at the mouth, chasing cars, or drinking out of toilets...yet!
Jet lag has been much easier this trip than when we traveled between China and the U.S. Wednesday night, we went to bed at about 7:30. I woke up at 1:30 in the morning, but stayed in bed and managed to fall back to sleep from about 4 to 6. S woke up at about 2:30 and stayed up all day...this is actually not that different than what he normally does, so he was OK later in the day. Last night, we went to bed at about 9:15, and I woke up at a little after 4 this morning. I would have preferred another hour or two of sleep, but compared with waking up at 1 or 2 in the morning for numerous nights coming from Beijing, I'll take sleeping until 4. Plus getting up at 4, when S is still sleeping, has the advantage that I actually can use the internet. My parents' only have dial up internet. Luckily, they have two phone lines as S pretty much has the one line tied up the entire time we are here as he dials in to do work on his computer. I have to beg him to log off so I can use the internet. Since the other phone line is for my parents' business, we can't use it for the internet.
Yesterday, we stopped in to see my grandparents. Then we went to S's parents' house. It was S's mom's birthday, so we took her, his step-father, and his aunt out for lunch.
Today, I have to go get my hair done. I have this thing with not letting anyone in China or India touch my hair. I have heard of too many bad experiences...such as D who had like 12 people watch her get her hair cut in Sri Lanka and L who had a 4 hour hair cut in Chennai. No thank you...I'll just wait until I'm in the U.S.
After I'm done with that, S and I are planning to head out to start some shopping and then we have a Christmas party tonight. This weekend brings another Christmas party, a nephew's wrestling tournament, and another nephew's band concert...oh and of course, more shopping!
So, anyway, it feels good to be back in IL...even if it is the middle of winter here. We lucked out last year by not having any bad weather the entire time we were here. This year, we aren't going to be as lucky, but that's OK as I have missed the snow. The cold weather...now that's a different story...but I guess I can't have the snow without the cold weather. Plus I can survive for 3 weeks until I go back to sunny, warm Chennai!
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
It's T-Day!
Yep, today is travel day...well actually most of the travel will occur on Wednesday, but since we will be leaving our house tonight, I have designated today as T-Day.
I think I'm pretty much ready to go. S and I packed the suitcases on Sunday. Yesterday, I worked on my mom's scrapbook all day. I had one page to finish this morning, and I got it done first thing. I wasn't too worried about getting the book finished as I could have finished it in Illinois at my friend's house if I had to. However, it does feel great to not have to worry about it now.
Today, I have been just picking up the house and doing some last minute things. This afternoon I'm going to go play Mahjong like I normally do every Tuesday afternoon. This will be a good way to kill some time waiting for it to be time to go to the airport.
We will be leaving the house at 10:30 tonight for the 30 hour trip to my parents' house. Hopefully, there won't be any bad weather in Chicago that will delay us coming in. After a long trip like this, the last thing anyone wants is to make the trip any longer than necessary. Unfortunately, this has happened to quite a few people, and it isn't fun. The first time S and I went to Beijing last summer, we were delayed 9 hours in Chicago, and this was after our 5 hour layover from the flight from Peoria...then to make matters worse, we find out after the fact that we could have been in the lounge the entire time because we were flying business class. We didn't know this since we had never flown business class before.
In other news, there will more than likely be a dejavu moment here later today. Remember our first food shipment didn't arrive until the night before our trip to Dubai. Well guess what? Our second food shipment is due to arrive today. It once again was delayed a couple of weeks and should have been here a long time ago. Anyway, I have a feeling it is going to show up about a couple of hours before we are set to walk out the door. This means that I need to be 100% ready to go so that if it does show up late, I can take care of it and not be stressing about finishing getting ready to leave as well.
A couple of people have asked if I will continue to write this blog while I am in the U.S. The answer to this question is yes, I'm planning on it if I have time. I don't think anything horribly exciting will be taking place while we are in Illinois, but I do have some old posts from things that we have done here in India that I haven't got around to writing yet.
So to all of my friends here in India, China, and wherever, I wish you safe travels if you are going somewhere for the holidays. If not traveling, enjoy a peaceful holiday season. For my friends and family in Illinois, I will see you guys really soon. Looking forward to spending the holidays in the U.S.
Happy Holidays!
Julie
I think I'm pretty much ready to go. S and I packed the suitcases on Sunday. Yesterday, I worked on my mom's scrapbook all day. I had one page to finish this morning, and I got it done first thing. I wasn't too worried about getting the book finished as I could have finished it in Illinois at my friend's house if I had to. However, it does feel great to not have to worry about it now.
Today, I have been just picking up the house and doing some last minute things. This afternoon I'm going to go play Mahjong like I normally do every Tuesday afternoon. This will be a good way to kill some time waiting for it to be time to go to the airport.
We will be leaving the house at 10:30 tonight for the 30 hour trip to my parents' house. Hopefully, there won't be any bad weather in Chicago that will delay us coming in. After a long trip like this, the last thing anyone wants is to make the trip any longer than necessary. Unfortunately, this has happened to quite a few people, and it isn't fun. The first time S and I went to Beijing last summer, we were delayed 9 hours in Chicago, and this was after our 5 hour layover from the flight from Peoria...then to make matters worse, we find out after the fact that we could have been in the lounge the entire time because we were flying business class. We didn't know this since we had never flown business class before.
In other news, there will more than likely be a dejavu moment here later today. Remember our first food shipment didn't arrive until the night before our trip to Dubai. Well guess what? Our second food shipment is due to arrive today. It once again was delayed a couple of weeks and should have been here a long time ago. Anyway, I have a feeling it is going to show up about a couple of hours before we are set to walk out the door. This means that I need to be 100% ready to go so that if it does show up late, I can take care of it and not be stressing about finishing getting ready to leave as well.
A couple of people have asked if I will continue to write this blog while I am in the U.S. The answer to this question is yes, I'm planning on it if I have time. I don't think anything horribly exciting will be taking place while we are in Illinois, but I do have some old posts from things that we have done here in India that I haven't got around to writing yet.
So to all of my friends here in India, China, and wherever, I wish you safe travels if you are going somewhere for the holidays. If not traveling, enjoy a peaceful holiday season. For my friends and family in Illinois, I will see you guys really soon. Looking forward to spending the holidays in the U.S.
Happy Holidays!
Julie
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Sod Harvest
Right in front of our house is a sod farm. The last couple of weeks has been harvest time at the sod farm. I thought maybe everyone would like to see a couple of photos of the harvesting process.
These photos were taken off of the balcony of our house. There are about 8 to 10 ladies working to carry the pieces of sod to a truck out on the road. I had been asked what the women wear when they are doing "labor" type jobs. Well they wear the typical Indian sari, which is one long piece of fabric that is wrapped to look like a dress...there is a small blouse worn underneath of it.
The women carry the sod on the top of their heads to the truck waiting on the road. Women carrying things on their head is a very common sight here. They carry buckets of water, bricks, sticks, baskets of fruit, and pretty much anything heavy...I don't think I have seen a wheelbarrow since I moved here.
This is actually the second sod harvest that has taken place since we moved into our house on August 1. As soon as they are done with the rolling of the sod, they will then work the ground completely by hand, and then squat and plant the sod seed by hand. Then over the course of the next couple of months the sod is watered every day by hand...no sprinklers...and they weed the sod by hand...no pesticides sprayed to kill the weeds here. A few months from now, the sod will be ready for harvest again.
These photos were taken off of the balcony of our house. There are about 8 to 10 ladies working to carry the pieces of sod to a truck out on the road. I had been asked what the women wear when they are doing "labor" type jobs. Well they wear the typical Indian sari, which is one long piece of fabric that is wrapped to look like a dress...there is a small blouse worn underneath of it.
The women carry the sod on the top of their heads to the truck waiting on the road. Women carrying things on their head is a very common sight here. They carry buckets of water, bricks, sticks, baskets of fruit, and pretty much anything heavy...I don't think I have seen a wheelbarrow since I moved here.
This is actually the second sod harvest that has taken place since we moved into our house on August 1. As soon as they are done with the rolling of the sod, they will then work the ground completely by hand, and then squat and plant the sod seed by hand. Then over the course of the next couple of months the sod is watered every day by hand...no sprinklers...and they weed the sod by hand...no pesticides sprayed to kill the weeds here. A few months from now, the sod will be ready for harvest again.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Germany Trip, Part 3
Just a couple of more stories about our trip to Germany that I wanted to share.
The first one being about the freak shower head accident. Thanksgiving morning I was showering in our hotel bathroom. I had been in the shower for probably 10 minutes or so and was getting ready to get out. The shower head somehow fell and hit me between the shoulder blades. I don't know if it broke and fell and hit me...if it fell, hit me, and then broke...or if it fell, hit me, and then broke when it hit the bathtub. Anyway, the funny part of this being is that S hadn't showered yet. So, when he went to shower, he had only the hose to use...just imagine showering with a garden hose! Anyway, the hotel fixed it, but we went from a nice big shower head to a little bitty shower head. Over the course of the trip, everyone had this story changed all around...the favorite one being that I was swinging around the shower head like a monkey. Seriously though, I wasn't even near the thing when it fell. All I know is that it hit me and that it hurt!
The other story actually happened when we got back to India. We landed at about midnight here in Chennai. By the time we got through immigration, got our luggage, and got back to our house, it was 1:45 in the morning. However, we couldn't exactly make it to our house. Up around the corner from our house, there was a large truck blocking the road. I'm not sure if it was stuck or broke down. They told our driver that it would be moved in 10 minutes...which in India time could equate to maybe being moved in the next couple of hours. There was absolutely no way to get around it...brick walls on both sides and it is the only way to get to our house. So, we decided to walk.
Now let's just say that I don't like walking in India during the day...much less at night down a narrow dirt road without any street lights at 2 am. Our driver did walk with us, and luckily it was somewhat clear with the moon being pretty full...however, I hope to never have to repeat this experience again in my life! We made it safely to our house. Then I had to wait up for our driver to get through with the car so that we could get our luggage. Normally, I would have said forget the luggage until morning, but since S was leaving in a few hours to go back to the airport to fly out on a business trip, we needed the suitcases. It only took about 45 minutes for the truck to move, and I was finally in bed at around 3 am. I told S that I should have stayed up the rest of the night and slept during the day...then I would have been over jet lag before going to the U.S. However, I decided since I had a bunch of stuff to do during the day this week that this wouldn't be a good idea. So, jet lag awaits me in a few days.
The first one being about the freak shower head accident. Thanksgiving morning I was showering in our hotel bathroom. I had been in the shower for probably 10 minutes or so and was getting ready to get out. The shower head somehow fell and hit me between the shoulder blades. I don't know if it broke and fell and hit me...if it fell, hit me, and then broke...or if it fell, hit me, and then broke when it hit the bathtub. Anyway, the funny part of this being is that S hadn't showered yet. So, when he went to shower, he had only the hose to use...just imagine showering with a garden hose! Anyway, the hotel fixed it, but we went from a nice big shower head to a little bitty shower head. Over the course of the trip, everyone had this story changed all around...the favorite one being that I was swinging around the shower head like a monkey. Seriously though, I wasn't even near the thing when it fell. All I know is that it hit me and that it hurt!
The other story actually happened when we got back to India. We landed at about midnight here in Chennai. By the time we got through immigration, got our luggage, and got back to our house, it was 1:45 in the morning. However, we couldn't exactly make it to our house. Up around the corner from our house, there was a large truck blocking the road. I'm not sure if it was stuck or broke down. They told our driver that it would be moved in 10 minutes...which in India time could equate to maybe being moved in the next couple of hours. There was absolutely no way to get around it...brick walls on both sides and it is the only way to get to our house. So, we decided to walk.
Now let's just say that I don't like walking in India during the day...much less at night down a narrow dirt road without any street lights at 2 am. Our driver did walk with us, and luckily it was somewhat clear with the moon being pretty full...however, I hope to never have to repeat this experience again in my life! We made it safely to our house. Then I had to wait up for our driver to get through with the car so that we could get our luggage. Normally, I would have said forget the luggage until morning, but since S was leaving in a few hours to go back to the airport to fly out on a business trip, we needed the suitcases. It only took about 45 minutes for the truck to move, and I was finally in bed at around 3 am. I told S that I should have stayed up the rest of the night and slept during the day...then I would have been over jet lag before going to the U.S. However, I decided since I had a bunch of stuff to do during the day this week that this wouldn't be a good idea. So, jet lag awaits me in a few days.
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