Flip Flop Heaven

When flip flops die, they go to heaven at the beaches of Chennai.

A Busy Week of Shopping

Yes, I am still alive. Just been very busy. Had visitors in Friday night and Saturday. New visitors came in then Saturday night, so we met them for dinner on Sunday. Yesterday, I picked up the wife, MR, and she is now staying with me at our house. S left for his business trip last night and her husband will be working 15 hour days. Since the hotel they are at is at least an hour drive from our house and then another hour to go shopping anywhere, it only made logically sense for her to move in with me. It'll save me a lot of time in the car.

MR and I have spent the last two days out shopping. Then in the afternoons we come back to the house and surf the internet. It is so nice having wireless internet, so we can both sit at the kitchen table, surf away, and still be able to talk.

The plans for the rest of the week: Wednesday--shopping, Thursday--shopping, and Friday--shopping. Today, I didn't buy anything, and MR got a couple of things, but it is still fun to just go out looking. However, after only going to a couple of places, we are pretty much wore out by mid afternoon. India just sort of does that to your body.

Don't worry...MR is getting to do other stuff besides shop. The car ride alone is her entertainment. Her first impressions of India: "WOW." Next week, when there are more visitors coming in, we are planning on going to the actual tourist spots. There are a few around Chennai, but seriously, just riding in the car is enough if you don't have the time to go anywhere else.

Cows at the Beach

The cows like to hang out at the beach sunbathing and catching some rays! Well, OK, maybe not, but cows can be seen at the beach here eating trash. Once again, I'm pretty sure this is another "only in India" thing.

Home Alone

This is the third week in a row that S has had to travel within India for work. He has been gone either two or three days each time. Next week, he leaves to go to China for a week. Then I think he is planning a trip to Indonesia in February. Then he has a trip to Thailand and Singapore later in February, which I will be going with him on.

So, what does this equate for me...a lot of time home "alone." I use the word "alone" loosely as there are still the security guards, the driver, the gardener, and the maid around every day. Having no kids and no pets though, it really is pretty quiet around here when S is gone.

A common question that I have received recently is how do I cope with S gone so much? Honestly, it really hasn't been a problem. I manage pretty well by myself, and I can easily entertain myself. We have been in India now long enough that staying by myself doesn't bother me (remember that I caught the rat when S was gone). Now, if S would have left me this much right after moving into the house, I probably would have been freaking out a little more. However, now, it's not a problem at all. I can watch what I want on TV, I can read, I can eat supper whenever I want, I can go to bed when I want, I can get up when I want...anyway, you get the point, I can do as I please (wait, don't I anyways even when S is here???)

Today was the first day that I have been out of the house since last Thursday. Yep, that's 5 days in the house without leaving. OK, that's a small lie...I did leave yesterday to go to the grocery store, but that was a quick trip since I forgot the grocery store that I like near us is closed on Tuesdays. The other grocery store by us is really bad...doesn't carry milk, eggs, the good bread I like, etc...so the the only thing I bought was bananas.

So, why haven't I been out of the house for 5 days? Friday, the car needed serviced after S was dropped off at work. For some reason, this process, which can be done in 15 minutes at Jiffy Lube in the U.S., takes all day here. Oh yeah, that's right, the reason being is that this is India! I guess I should be thankful that it only takes one day here and not two or three! Saturday, S went to work for part of the day. By the time he got home, we decided that we didn't want to go anywhere. On Sundays, we never go anywhere. Monday, S had to go to the factory, which is too far away for our driver to come back while S is working. Yesterday, besides the grocery store being closed, I had planned on doing a few other errands, but S had called and needed the car in the afternoon for some of his own work related errands.

Today, I finally thought I would be able to go out thinking S wasn't going to the airport until tonight. Nope, he had to go midday, plus he had to run errands beforehand. Well, being that I was on the verge of some major cabin fever (which I never thought would be possible in hot India), my friend came and rescued me. We went to lunch and did some shopping. One of the places we went shopping at was a Tupperware store. Yes, in India, real Tupperware at about half the price of the U.S. We inquired about having a Tupperware party, but I don't think that is a concept here. Then we went to pick her kids up at the American School. I've been to the school a couple of times before, and let's just say that it is the social hub for ex-pats in Chennai. We were there for probably 1 1/2 hours talking to other women. By the time we left, my friend had determined that I was going to eat supper at their house since S is out of town. I just got home about an hour ago (just in time to watch American Idol) after being gone over 8 hours today. It was a great day out with my friend!

So, what does tomorrow bring? I'm going to another friend's house to play mahjong. We play once a week. I really look forward to this as it assures that I have at least one social event on my calendar each week. However, my friend just announced last week that she is moving within a month, so now we have to find a new place to play mahjong. I hope we can as we have just finally built up a group to play. I would offer to host, but I live too far out for people to travel. It's much easier for me to travel into town instead of a lot of people traveling out to my house.

After mahjong tomorrow, I'm going to another friend's house for supper. Somehow when I was at the school today, I sort of invited myself. It started as a joke from me, but my friend ended up insisting that I come tomorrow night since S will still be gone. I'm looking forward to it.

S gets back Friday evening, and we have a work related dinner to attend that night. Saturday morning, he has to work, but then Saturday afternoon, I think we are going to be taking a couple of his co-workers who are in town out to some of the tourist sites. Then on Saturday night, the first of my Beijing friends arrives with her husband for two weeks. Her husband will be working, and her and I will be trying to stay out of trouble during the day. With this friend, that may be a challenge! I'm sure we'll have a good time talking, laughing, eating, and shopping. I'm really looking forward to her coming since S will be gone next week. Her being here will keep me entertained and hopefully will help the days go quickly while S is in China. Then a few days before she leaves, another Beijing friend is coming in with her husband for a few days, so then I will be entertaining her.

While I am disappointed that S is going back to China without me, I am going on the trip to Thailand and Singapore with him in February. Since I haven't been to either of these places before, I am really excited to be able to go along. I think the day after my friends leave, S and I will be leaving on this 10 day trip. It is actually mainly a business trip for S, but he will have a couple of days in Singapore that we will be able to do some stuff together.

Busy times are definitely ahead for me. I guess this is the reason why I didn't really mind being in the house for 5 days straight. At this point, I won't be in the house for 2 days straight until probably March. Time flies when you are having fun!

Monkeying Around in India

India has monkeys. Some parts of India, such as New Delhi, have a lot of monkeys...like tens of thousands of them wandering around the city. I have never seen a monkey in Chennai although S said that he saw some one night on his way home from work. Also, S sees monkeys whenever he goes out to his company's manufacturing plant. I guess they just hang around in the rafters. He said that they did a monkey round up and relocated around 75 monkeys out of the plant. This I guess was done on a Monday, and when S went to the factory a few days later, he couldn't even tell they had taken any away. So there are definitely monkeys here...I guess we just live on the wrong side of the town to see any on a regular basis.

I guess there was a report of monkeys breaking into homes and stealing cell phones and Cokes in some city in India. I don't know if there is any truth to this, but I guess anything is possible.

Anyway, I finally saw my first monkeys here when we were down in Mamallapuram.

This guy doesn't exactly look too friendly. Don't worry...I didn't get too close.

I'm thinking only in India would you find a monkey and a goat eating out of the same trash pile.

For whatever reason, this lady was trying her hardest to get the baby monkeys to come to her. Um, yeah, maybe not the brightest idea in the world...monkeys do have teeth and can carry rabies.

For Christmas, my mom and dad got us our very own pet monkey. Here he is hanging out with our cat, Shelby, in Illinois. Isn't he cute??? Anyway, he's the best type of monkey to have around...doesn't eat much, doesn't make a mess, and since he is a Cubs rally monkey, we are hoping that he will bring luck to the Cubs this year.

Anyway, with the bananas in our yard continuing to grow, I really hope that they don't attract any monkeys to our property. While it would sort of be cool to look outside and see a real live monkey in my yard, I prefer to not have any around. I have enough critter problems the way it is!

We Felt Like Movie Stars!

Since life is a little boring around here right now, I don't have anything exciting to blog about. So, I thought I would go back to some old things that I meant to blog about and never got around to.

Back in November, S and I did a little sightseeing at Mamallapuram. It was the day after Diwali, S had the day off, and since we just got the new car, we decided to go for a ride. Being that I had never been south of our house, I just told our driver to go in that direction. We didn't have intentions of going to Mamallapuram...it just sort of happened that's where we ended up. We stopped at a few of the tourist spots, but since we weren't expecting to be outside, we didn't have any sunscreen or bottled water, so we didn't stay long. I'm looking forward to a trip back to Mamallapuram in the next few weeks when we have some visitors in town.

Anyway, at one of the tourist stops, a couple of schoolgirls approached us and wanted to have their photo taken with us. Well the two girls turned into a whole mob of schoolchildren from Kerala (another part of India). We couldn't even walk because there were so many of them around us. They shook our hands, asked us where we were from, touched our hair, and crowded around for photos. I was sort of disappointed that they didn't ask for our autographs...maybe next time.

Can you figure out which one I am?

We truly almost felt like we were famous. Nope, just obvious foreigners! This same sort of thing happened to us quite a bit when we lived in Beijing and went to any of the tourist spots. Normally though, it was just a couple of people asking for a photo. Being white and living in Asia, we pretty much stick out like a sore thumb. There is no way to blend in with the crowds. People stare at us all of the time. Does this bother me? Nope. If I let little things like people staring at me get to me, I would have went crazy in the first month of moving to Asia. Of course, it has been said that we must be crazy to first live in China and now live in India. Maybe so...but if this is the case, then I'll be the first to stand up and admit it.

"I AM CRAZY. I HAVE LIVED IN CHINA. NOW, I LIVE IN INDIA."

Enough said.

My New Favorite Website

www.stuffonmycat.com

Love it! Makes me smile! Makes me laugh!

I've submitted some photos, so now I'm waiting to see if my cats will become instant internet superstars. We shall know in about 4 to 6 weeks.

The Return of American Idol!

Yes, only about 13 hours until American Idol starts here. For those of you in the U.S., you probably are watching it while I am writing this. Well we aren't so lucky here, so we have to wait a few more hours than you.

Last year when I was in Beijing at this time, watching American Idol was like following a cult. EVERYONE watched it. Even if you never watched the show in the U.S., you watched in Beijing. One reason is that it was the only decent thing on TV to watch all week. Everything else was at least 2 or 3 seasons old (the same thing here). The second reason being is that even if you didn't want to watch it, you watched it because that was what everyone else was doing. You didn't dare plan a dinner or outing on American Idol nights...not to mention even considering to call anyone during the hour it was on. If you did, they wouldn't answer anyway. Therefore, it was just easier to watch it, and then you would know what everyone was talking about when they mentioned Sanjaya, Blake, and Jordin.

The week that my good friend finally got engaged was also the same week that Sanjaya finally got voted off of the show. When I found out she was going to get married, my comment was something along the lines of "best news I've heard since Sanjaya was booted off of Idol." Since she watched the show, she also found my comment humorous.

So, anyway, don't be calling me between 8pm and 9pm my time on Wednesday nights (8:30am to 9:30am Wednesday mornings CST), because I won't answer. I'll be watching TV...the one hour per week that will be worth watching. Hmm, I think I need to check because it may be on more than one night per week...so there may be a couple times every week that you won't be allowed to bother me!

We Have Bananas!

When we moved into our house, I told S there were banana trees behind our house. He told me that I was nuts, and that I didn't know anything about tropical plants. Of course, he also tried to tell me that the tree in our neighbor's yard was a mango tree when it is in fact a coconut tree...S didn't know that coconuts can also be orange in color. Well we got back from our trip to Illinois to find bananas growing on our "non" banana trees. Since S is addicted to bananas almost as much as he is addicted to diet Pepsi, how cool is it to be growing our own bananas?

Now, if I could only figure out a way to make our own diet Pepsi...

Safety in India

HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I really crack myself up at times! The words "safety" and "India" should never be used in the same sentence. NEVER! I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing that in the local Indian languages there is not a translation for the word "safety."

For those of you who don't know me, I worked for 7 1/2 years in the Environmental Health and Safety office at a major university in central Illinois. While my background isn't in this field, and by all means I don't consider myself anything close to being an expert in this field, I did learn a few things while working in this office. Enough to know that Asia is a safety person's worse nightmare! This means that since living in China for 9 months and now in India for 7 months, I pretty much have to mentally block out the fact that I know anything at all about safety. Safety just isn't a concept here that has been accepted...not even close to being practiced at all.

While I was in Illinois last month, I had the opportunity to visit with some of my former co-workers from my EHS working days. I was telling them a few of things that I see here on a regular basis, and that they couldn't even fathom all of the safety violations that they would see in just one block here. One of my former co-workers (and still a good friend) actually retired at the end of December, and now I'm trying to talk her into visiting me here.

Colleen and I at her retirement party. By the way Colleen, I'm still waiting on my prize for traveling the longest distance to attend your party!

Anyway, on returning back to our house from our trip, I found that one of our bathroom doors wouldn't open. To make a long story short, someone from the lock company finally came out this week to look at the bathroom door handle. After banging on the handle with a hammer and jiggling the door for about 2o minutes, and it still not opening, he finally determined the handle was broke and would have to be replaced. Duh! I could have told him that! Replacing the door handle turned into a major ordeal just to get the old handle off of the door. He finally had to pull out his electric drill. I was quite impressed that he had one as power tools here in India aren't that common. Then he went to plug it in, and I just about died when I saw what he was doing. I was dying to take some photos, but I didn't want to explain why I wanted photos of him changing the door handle. Luckily for me, his drill bit broke, and he had to go get another one. Perfect time for me to take photos.

Here's a photo of the door, and the drill plugged in. Look closely at the drill setup. Do you see anything wrong with this picture? In case you can't see it very well, here are some close up photos.

Hmmm...like I said, I'm no expert in safety, but I'm pretty sure that this isn't a good safe setup. My door got fixed though, and no one was electrocuted in the process, so I guess that's all that matters. Another successful day of life in India.

Dog Food

So, I have been pondering a question in my head for quite awhile now. Since, I haven't came up with a right or wrong answer yet...of course, I haven't really researched it much...I thought I would pose it to my blog readers.

The question:

What do the pets of vegetarians eat?

Honestly, I never thought of this until one day I was in a grocery store here, and they had vegetarian dog treats. I bought a package and took them back to my dog and my brother's dog who seemed to like them OK. However, in looking through the different bags of dog food, I didn't see any without some sort of meat ingredient included.

Anyway, I had sort of forgot that I was trying to figure out the answer to this question until today. I was in a different grocery store here and was looking through the freezer cases (which by the way, any local corner convenience store in the U.S. carrys more frozen foods than any of the grocery stores here). Well, in the freezer, there were frozen packages that were labeled "Minced Meat Dog Food" with a large photo of a dog's head on it. This was in the freezer right next to the chicken sausages, salmon sausages (first time I'd seen those also), and mutton cubes. So, the next obvious question is: is this food for dogs or food for humans that is dog meat?

I haven't heard of "dog" being a meat of choice for human consumption here in India. In China, dog is a delicacy, and one of our friends did have it once...not by his choice...but he did try it just to be polite.

Anyway, I didn't pick up and inspect the frozen package today. Maybe next time I'm in the store I will. Either way, I don't think I'll be purchasing any any time real soon. However, maybe some of my friends here with dogs would be willing to buy some and cook it up...just don't invite us over for dinner that night!

Christmas at My Grandparents' House

Christmas at my grandparents' house every year is very informal. We snack on appetizers all day long and then order pizza for dinner. After eating for awhile, we have a grab gift exchange, and then we go back to eating. In between eating and opening gifts, I did get a chance to catch up with my grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles, and cousins and to see how big my cousins' kids had grown in 6 months.

Talk about torture...for both the kids and the adults. Getting the kids to sit still and not having anyone crying to get a Christmas photo is nearly impossible. All the kids (and some of the bigger kids) want to do is open the gifts. However, we started the tradition of the Christmas photo a number of years ago, and it is now fun to look at the old photos to see how much the kids have grown over the years. So, now the older kids know that this is not optional, and they must sit still for at least a couple of minutes. The kids range in age from the oldest being 12 1/2 to the two youngest being 1 1/2...let's just say that it isn't quiet at all at my grandparents' house on Christmas.

Here's a photo of my grandparents. (Special note to Grandma & Grandpa: I bet you never thought you would be seeing a photo of yourself on the internet for the whole world to see!) In typical fashion, Grandma has to hold Grandpa's drink while he and Jaidin open a gift and my aunt watches.

This is a photo of my cousins' girls, Katie and Piper, dressed in the Indian outfits that I brought them. They are both 1 1/2 years old with Piper being older by about 2 weeks. (Special note to Becky: How does Katie like seeing the photo of herself?) Aren't they cute?

Christmas at my grandparents' house was fun as always. Looking forward to next year!

Snow, Sleet, Freezing Rain, Rain, Snow...

This was pretty much the weather pattern the entire time we were in Illinois...plus obviously, it was COLD!!! Last December, we had great weather with none of the above, but this year was a completely different story. I guess we couldn't luck out two years in a row.

Not driving much in over a year combined with the bad weather was not a good thing for us. We slid off of our parents' ice covered driveway into the ditch. S wasn't happy because he had to cancel a whole day of meetings. Of course, this had to happen on the day that my dad and brother were gone out of town working. Luckily, our neighbors came by, and we were able to push our vehicle out of the ditch. One other time, we were backing out of the garage and hit our parents' truck. This wasn't really weather related except for the fact that we were looking for the piles of snow and other obstacles that are always around my parents' house. No damage to the truck, but our Envoy needs a new bumper. Let's see, I also filled the car up with gas and drove about 30 miles with the gas cap off. Oh well, at least we didn't go off and not pay for our gas this time...that happened to us in May when we were back in Illinois. All of our car incidents were minor, but given the number we had in the few days we were back, I hope that when we do eventually move back to the U.S. (and have to start driving again) that it isn't in the middle of winter!

So, here are some winter related photos from our trip:

My brother plowing the driveway out. Does the truck have any tires???

The dogs like to play king of the snow pile. Before it started to melt, the snow pile was so high that they could barely make it to the top.

My brother's chocolate Lab, Riley, and my yellow Lab, Libby, actually sat still in the snow for about 2 seconds in order for me to snap this photo. They love playing in the snow!

S's first time on a snowmobile! Don't ask me how he grew up in central Illinois and has never been on a snowmobile before...he's such a city boy!

So, what do you do when you are snowed and iced in out in the middle of nowhere in central Illinois? Strip off wallpaper! My mom wanted the wallpaper off of her kitchen walls. Didn't have to say that twice as S hates wallpaper, so off it came. It actually wasn't too bad off a job with three of us working on it (plus our helper...our cat, Tobie). Tip for those of you who have never stripped wallpaper before...liquid fabric softener mixed with water. Just spritz it on the glued paper backing of the wallpaper, and it scrapes right off.

Anyway, the weather here in Chennai has been much better than the weather in Illinois. It has been getting into the low 80s every day, and even with the humidity making it feel like it is in the 90s, it is actually tolerable outside. Now, if it would only stay like this the rest of the year, I may never want to leave! I don't think we'll be so lucky, but one can only hope.

Lobster = Wine

When S and I lived in Beijing, we made it a point to make friends outside of the people that S worked with. No offense to his co-workers, but sometimes it is just nice to have dinner when the talk isn't all about S's company...plus it is nice to meet people who aren't from central Illinois or have never lived in central Illinois...one of my favorite things about being an ISE is meeting people from all over the world. Some of these non-company friends are now friends for life.

On Saturday night, S and I went out to eat with some new non-company friends that I had randomly met. This couple is American and have lived in Chennai for about a year now. However, they haven't met a lot of people due to their work and travel schedule. S and I are very lucky to be overseas with a large multi national company. We have a great benefits package plus there are other American ISEs here with our company. This means that we already have a built in network of people to meet. I can't imagine being the only American ISEs in an area for a company. However, this happens quite a bit for other people. While initially it was somewhat difficult for me to meet non-company people here...people with kids I feel have it a little easier because you can more easily meet people at the school or through play groups...I have slowly been building up a network of non-company friends here. Now it is time for S to start meeting the husbands. He hates the idea initially, but he always ends up having a good time when we get together with these couples.

So, back to Saturday night (and to why Lobster = Wine)...we met up with this couple at a restaurant we had never been to before. It was an Italian restaurant set outdoors. Another very nice evening sitting outdoors...a definite advantage to living in Chennai in the winter! We had a great time sitting, talking, drinking wine, and eating our food. Soon though, it was time for the evening to come to an end.

We ask for our bill. When it comes, one of the items listed is lobster. Well no one in our group had had lobster. Luckily...before we started complaining that our bill was wrong...our new friends knew at this restaurant that lobster was the code word for wine. Huh? Why not just list wine as being wine? Well, Chennai is located in the state of Tamil Nadu in India, and Tamil Nadu is a dry state.

Yep, that's right...in a country where one could probably use a drink more often at the end of the day than in other places...alcohol is hard to come by. You can't buy it in stores...legally that is. A lot of stores that are frequented by foreigners will sell you alcohol, but it's not on the shelves...you have to ask for it. A friend of mine buys her wine from a local person who comes to her house with the wine in black garbage bags. I have heard of people driving down to Pondicherry...about a 3 hour drive one way to the next state...to get beer and booze. The problem with this is that foreigners can't buy it in large quantities...so we would have to have our driver get it. Plus, I guess if the shopkeepers see the driver loading the alcohol into a vehicle with foreigners in it or a car with Tamil Nadu license plates, they will write down the license plate number and call ahead to the checkpoint at the state border. At the checkpoint, I guess cars with foreigners are almost always checked for alcohol making it nearly impossible to smuggle any into Tamil Nadu.

So how do S and I cope with living in a dry state? Well, we are only social drinkers. We have never drank at home unless we are having someone over for dinner. If we go out to eat and are by ourselves, we very rarely will have a drink...we just stick to water and diet Pepsi. So, really this isn't a huge issue for us. Also, here in Chennai, it is legal for a restaurant to serve alcohol if they are attached to a large hotel. Of course, then there is a large tax on top of the price of the alcohol.

So, the next time you are out and get a bill with lobster on it when you haven't had lobster to eat, only become concerned if you are eating anywhere but in Chennai, India...lobster is slang for wine here.

What's New in Chennai?

Not too much, but I'll give an update to those of you who care about our boring lives. Sorry about how long of post this is...you might want to grab a drink and a snack before reading any further.

Let me first flash back to before we left for the U.S.

Yes, we did receive our food shipment about 5 hours before we were to leave for the airport. Luckily I was all packed and ready to go...and luckily the delivery people were notified by a few different people to get our food to us ASAP. I guess originally we were scheduled to have our stuff delivered last...ugh, that would have been a nightmare. Since the delivery people weren't planning on bringing our food to us so soon, they had to unload about half the truck to get to our boxes.

I started sorting through the boxes to check for bugs...no ants this time, but instead we had two boxes with mold in them. The culprits:

Yep, that's a can of tomato soup and a can of mandarin oranges. One box also had a freshly smashed cup of applesauce in it. While I worked on putting away the food, S had the fun task of washing gunk and mold off the two boxes of canned goods.

In the end, I got all of the food put away. Having just received the shipment, it did make it hard shopping for food while I was in the U.S. Our next shipment goes out the first week of February. I kept thinking that I didn't need anything because I have X number of it in my pantry already. However, then I had to think that I will be using the stuff up. It really is hard to buy food in December that won't be consumed until March, April, and May. Since my mom is in Florida for the winter, I'll probably end up ordering some more food online right before the shipment goes out...or talk my brother into picking some stuff up for me. Anyway for now, we are good.

A photo of S's pop supply for the quarter. The sad thing is that not only will all of this be consumed before the next shipment arrives but also that what you can't see is the other stash of pop we have on the other side of the room that also will probably be consumed.

Critter update: we returned to our house in Chennai to find a dead rat in one of our rat boxes. So, that's rat number two. We also found a dead frog in our gecko room (sun porch) plus I saw another frog (or maybe it was a toad...never could quite figure out the difference between them) in the same room last night. Our driver told me that while we were gone there was one snake in the yard. So that makes snake number 6 (but who's counting?). I've only seen one gecko so far, and it was in the gecko room. None in the house, which is a good thing. However, we do have a gazillion ants in the house. I've been feeding them Terro that I brought back with me, but so far I'm not sure it is doing anything but attracting more ants.

I've been working (very slowly) at getting the house organized and cleaned. We took down the Christmas decorations, and I've unpacked our suitcases. I've got most of the laundry caught up. S did some cleaning in the house, but there is still a lot to do. Now, I'm working on putting away everything out of our suitcases and getting the regular decorations back out. Plus trying to get fixed everything that broke while we were away. We came back to two A/Cs being broken, and the door handle on the bathroom broken. Only in India would these things break when we were away and not being used. We completely turned off all of the A/Cs before we left. Plus, the bathroom door that won't open is on a bathroom that we don't even use. How then did it get broke?

S and I went out for the first time ever on New Year's Eve. We had a great time at GRT Temple Bay (it's a beach resort) in Mamallapuram, which is about a 30 minute drive from our house. The party was outside, and it was a beautiful night. This made me realize why we don't go out in Illinois for New Year's Eve...who wants to travel around in the cold???

A photo of me, S, our friend JC, and his friend who is visiting Chennai. We had a great time with unlimited food and drinks, entertainment, and of course fireworks at midnight. The best part of the night...having a built in designated driver. I don't think the combination of alcohol, jet lag, and India driving would have been a good thing for us to attempt. Of course not getting home until 1:30am didn't help much with the jet lag. We did get some sleep, and then we were able to watch the ball drop in New York live as our CNN channel was covering it, and it was 10:30am our time.

So what exciting will be happening with us in 2008? Well the first few months will bring traveling and visitors. S will be making a trip to Beijing at the end of the month. Normally, I would be figuring out a way to go along, but one of my Beijing friends will actually be coming to Chennai at this time while her husband does some work here. She'll be in town for 2 weeks and is coming to see me and India. Right before she leaves, another friend from Beijing will be coming also for 2 weeks. They will overlap for a few days, so for over 3 weeks, I will be busy with them. I'm very excited to have them coming to see me, and I'm looking forward to showing them "Incredible India."

S will also be making a trip to Singapore in February, and it sounds like hopefully I'll be able to go along with him. I've been in the Singapore airport quite a few times, but never seen the country. I've heard that the shopping is great, the food is great, and that it is very clean. I can't wait to see it for myself.

Then in March, my cousin and my aunt are coming to visit us. I'm very excited about this! My cousin really wanted to come to Beijing, but it just didn't work out before we moved. Then she said she wanted to come see us here. Since she works for a school district, she was going to come in the summer when she is off of work. I suggested that she come over her spring break because it should be cooler than the summer months will be. Not wanting to make the trip alone, she somehow talked her mom, my aunt, into coming with her. My aunt also works for a school district and just so happens to have the same spring break as my cousin. She told me that India wasn't really on her list of places to ever go to (and honestly I don't really blame her or anyone else who doesn't have the desire to come here). However, she thought about it and decided that if I could live here, then she could come survive here for a week visit. Plus, she said that if she were in my shoes and lived in India that she would want people to come see her. Very true! So, I'm really looking forward to their visit!

Besides this, our company has 4 or 5 new families moving to Chennai this month and next. It'll be good to meet some more people and to be able to help them out in anyway that I can. S and I will also be starting to plan our vacations for the year. Right now, we don't know if or when we will be making another trip back to the U.S. before Christmas. I'll keep everyone posted on that issue. We are planning to probably go to Hong Kong & Macau maybe in April. I just found out that good friends of ours will be in Thailand in August for a week, so maybe we'll make a trip there to meet up with them. Plus I would like to make it back to Beijing sometime this summer...probably not for the Olympics...and I would like to go back to Europe again...just haven't decided which country yet. Hopefully, we'll also be able to travel around India...have to make sure that I make it to the Taj Mahal while I'm living here.

2008 is definitely shaping up to be another busy year for us. I have decided that I'm way to busy to try to keep our house in order, and thus I am finally hiring a maid. We are definitely in the minority among foreigners by not having a maid. I can't think of anyone else that I know here that doesn't have at least one maid working for them. It's almost like taboo and unheard of not to have someone working in the house for us...I'm sure our driver and security guards have had conversations about why we don't have a maid. I've said all along that I would get one if I happened to hear of one looking for a job. Well that's just what has happened. A friend of mine had to move across town, and her new home is too far for her maid to travel to daily. Since her maid only works a few hours each day and lives close to me, it should work out well. Plus I feel good about hiring someone who comes highly recommended from someone I know. I think she is starting next week, so I'll let you guys know how it is going.

Well, congratulations if you have read all the way to end of this very long post. For now, I think I've pretty much covered everything that I can think of. Tomorrow I'll try to do a post about our trip to Illinois. In the meantime, have a great day!

New Year's Resolutions

Here is my list of resolutions for 2008. Pretty much the same list that I've had the last few years.

1. Read more books.

2. Scrapbook more.

3. Exercise more.

4. Blog more (a new one for 2008).

5. Travel more.

6. Be better about remembering birthdays and anniversaries on time.

7. Learn more about the culture of India.

Not a terribly exciting list. My resolutions are more of goals than resolutions. I keep it pretty simple in order to actually accomplish these goals. Any improvement on the previous year is considered a success in my book. I don't understand why people make resolutions that they are just going to break in the first week. "Don't eat chocolate." Yeah right, like you are never going to eat chocolate again in your life. How about instead "eat less chocolate" or "only eat chocolate once per week."

Also, I feel that my resolutions can be added to at any point during the year. If you want to improve on something in your life, why wait until January 1 to start? If say for example I think of something that I want to do or improve in my life on November 21st, do I have to wait until January 1st to begin? No, just start whenever you think about it. I think most of us know the areas in our lives that need improvement, and I think it is silly to wait until a specific date to begin. Just do it now!

All of my above resolutions are pretty vague...I think I used the word "more" in about every one of them. However, in my head, I have quantified most of the resolutions. But once again, if I actually put in writing exactly how many books per month I would like to read, then it's just setting myself up for failure...and who wants that? Not me.

So, how did I come out on my resolutions for 2007? Well like I said, most of them are listed above. I have just renewed them for 2008. Overall, I would say that I did pretty good with my resolutions. At different points during the year, I was better with certain ones then with other ones. For example while living in Beijing, I was really good with the exercise one. However, moving to India that one sort of became a lot harder to do. No more built in gym where I lived, and no more nice sidewalks with places to walk to. However, on the other hand, after moving to India, my resolutions to read more and scrapbook more picked up. These things pretty much didn't happen at all while living in China. Average everything out for the year though, and I think I came out pretty good in the end.

So, good luck to everyone who made resolutions for 2008. I wish you well with achieving your goals. I have a feeling that 2008 will be another great year!

100th Blog Post

One hundred blogs posted on the internet.
One hundred blogs posted.
Take the time to read one blog.
Ninety nine more blogs on the internet.

(sing to the theme of 100 bottles of beer on the wall).