One Month In

We have been in this awesome country for a month as of today. We both are still in overload in terms of work and thus the amount of India that we have experienced has been limited; mostly to our going to and from school.

The Daily Commute
Today on the way home after eating at a new South Indian restaurant with our friends Tahireh and Kevin, our auto-rickshaw (tuk-tuk or cab) driver was terrible. He took us the wrong way and then stopped halfway after he turned around trying to tell us we were at our destination. I tried to show my dissatisfaction as best I know how, paid him and then walked to another auto.

When we got in, I turned to Becky and lamented, "I really need to learn how to express when I am dissatisfied with someone." And then I saw the look that no husband wants to see.

Mouth agape. Eyebrows raised. Silence.  "I NEVER thought I would ever hear YOU say that. You know how to do that better than anyone I know!"

Hmmm.  Is that a compliment? Maybe, but surely I wouldn't want that as my epitaph.

Here lies Isaac. He knew how to let you know he was pissed.

Not exactly what I envision.  Marriage, once again, causes some introspection, which I am pretty sure its supposed to do. It seems like that is what its about, sharpening one another and smoothing edges at the same times. Of course, Becky is pretty smooth already (I got the good end).  All this thanks to our daily commute.

Of course there is more to see...like people peeing, and pooping, and cows, and monkeys (though not on our commute, we've seen them driving through the city), and street dogs, and men showering (with a loin cloth), and plenty more...

On the way to school this morning from the auto-rickshaw.

School
Pretty much all our time is spent here...but that is not a bad thing. We are both feeling quite motivated to work, mostly because of the energy of our colleagues and students. They are incredible. Here is me on my first day and my classroom. Check out the awesome classroom library.

The Sights
Although we have not gotten out much, we did go on a 'tour' of Delhi our first weekend. The highlights were India Gate (a WWII monument), Gandi's Memorial, and holding a cobra.

This weekend we are heading to Neemrana for some relaxation and culture. As we get a little more comfortable at work, the blogging should pick back up.

iBeck

Changing the Conversation

Gulp. Plop. Rumble, rumble. Shake.  Bubble, bubble, bubble.

This is a familiar sound in Delhi.

You know the one.  Its the sound of air bubbles in the water cooler when filling your bottle.  Only this sound is coming from me, from my personal water cooler.  This running dialogue from my midsection has caused me to make some changes.

For the first time in my life, I am trying to make some notes of what I put in my body and from whence it came. It's more complicated than it sounds.

Fruit from home, was it washed properly? Did I wash my hands before handling it? Is there an issue with our drinking water? Should we boil 'filtered' water.  Isn't that just redundant? We had bottled water at dinner. But was the glass we used clean?

Of course, my stomach is not the only one in India that likes to talk about its situation.  It seems as if the status of ones bowels is appropriate conversation...at all times an in all circumstances.

Remember that health class where your teacher made everyone say penis and vagina? It broke the ice, made those words acceptable to use. The word in Delhi is diarrhea. Of course, Becky has jumped all over this.  She has been looking for an excuse to talk about her poop for as long as I have known her. While this may seem like a joke, I assure you it is real.  A typical conversation might start something like this:

"Hi Becky, how are you?"

"I have diarrhea. You?"

This is welcomed as a worthy barometer of ones state and met with a similar recap from those within earshot. The best part is the absolute joy in everyone's face when discussing this most delicate of topics.  We might as well be discussing new movie.

As far as stomach issues go though, we have been pretty fortunate overall. We will do our best to not let the conversation spill into this blog space in the future.

Jenny's wedding: Better late than never!

No, Jenny, that is NOT in reference to the fact that you were engaged so long before you got married.  Sheesh!  Don't be so sensitive!  Good thing Jenny doesn't read this blog or she might be pissed about that.  whew!

The title of this blog is referring to the fact that Jenny Chen got married on July 3rd and I am writing about it here in India about a month late.  Whoopsidasies.  You know how I do.  Actually, I'm usually ridiculously nerdy about getting things done on time/REALLY early.  For some reason blog writing doesn't fit the same pattern.

This story begins about 4 1/2 years ago when Jenny Chen got engaged.  We were all uber excited to find out that Jenny had found true love and were ready to see her get hitched.  Some of us were not prepared for Jenny to "settle down"so soon (*cough cough JUJ).  We all know how much of a player participator Jenny is and if you DON'T know Jenny Chen, see picture below as photo evidence:

Yes, Jenny likesa the twins!  ooooh daaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!

Jenny ain't cheap! 

I was very honored that Jenny chose to have me as a part of her big day.  I was one of her 3 bridesmaids.  The others were Juj and Lexi.

For some reason this is the only pic I have of me with Juj and Lexi.  They're on the left of me.

I found one!  Yeah!

Ok enough background!  On to the story.  The fun started when Juj and I met up in NYC for a bit to buy her shoes.  I guess that wasn't that fun but we also went out for Tex Mex the same day and THAT was where the real fun began.  I miss Tex Mex almost as much as I miss Juj.  :(  Unfortunately, I'm so used to Isaac taking pictures, I didn't even bring a camera to take pictures of this encounter but you can imagine what it was like.

This is NOT us in NY but someone at this club actually had a camera (thanks kath!) so here's a pic of me and Juj.

For Jenny's bachelorette party Lexi graciously offered to let us destroy, I mean stay in, her house. We had a great time eating cake and chatting about things like tea.

mmm cake!

Jenny truly was a "survivor" of her bachelorette party.  I wasn't sure if she would make it all the way through but I got her this Reba McEntire cd which really helped.

 After the party I was in one of my moods to make an ass out of myself so we hit the clubs:

Everyone should stretch if they aren't used to bustin' a move.  You could really pull a muscle.  Here's the proper form.  

Here's me clearing the dance floor with my Hammer Time move.  Oh wait, did I say clearing the dance floor?  I meant here's me GETTING THIS PARTY STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!

Katie and Rose!  Gorgeous!

Lexi and Rose love to take boob to boob pictures

extreme closeups are awesome.

After the bachelorette party we all managed to recover nicely and Lexi was even able to make my hair look halfway decent.  Here are some more pics of Jenny looking gorgeous on her big day.

We clean up nice......sometimes......

Double wedding?  Yes please!

Hooray for old married people!  

Yay!  I have friends!

And they lived happily ever after..........................

The End

India Loves Me and Texas A&M

I was already pretty sold on India, but something happened today that made our love affair official. Our grocery store bill came out to be 2004 rupees. After getting my 1 rupee change, I realized just how awesome this country is.

Gig 'em Aggies!

For non-Aggies, my class year is 2004 (a big deal in Aggieland); and the thumbs up (aka 'Gig 'em) that you see on that coin is the official hand sign of Texas A&M.

Thank you India, you made my day.

Our Humble Abode

As promised, here is our home.  Lets start with the door.

In English and Sanskrit...very cool.

When we walked in the door, there was a welcome mat for us.  Except, it wasn't a welcome mat at all.  This is actually colored rice that has been placed into a design.  India is a colorful country! We are told that this is often done for parties as well.

"Ooohhh, I wonder if this welcome mat is soft....ahhhhhh"

 It took me about 48 seconds to ruin this beautiful display.  Isaac the destroyer. The top of the picture is more rice floor art.

From the entry way, above, here is the living room.

Looking out towards the front of the apartment.

Looking back towards the rest of the apartment. 

Next to the living room is the kitchen.  I wish it was more open, but this is still a major step up from our kitchen in Thailand.

The best part is we actually have hot water from the faucet!

...and a full size oven.

The dining room.

 The office

The guest bedroom

You could stay here!  Bathroom attached!

Master bedroom or as our friends Mike and Erin like to call it, the boom boom room.

And the master bath.

Pre-equipped with Axe.

Basically, this place is gigantic and much bigger than we probably need. I really like the high 10ft ceilings.  The pictures really don't do it justice, so we might have to post a cribs-style video at some point.  Although, this is probably a little boring, so maybe we wont.

iBeck

India: The first 24 hours

We made it.  16+ hours on a plane, but we are here.  We arrived at our apartment about 9pm and marveled at how big this place it.  (Pictures tomorrow)

Becky, being Becky, started unpacking in the van between the airport and our apartment.  I like to take a little more deliberate approach.  I am finding however, that the deliberateness of a husband is greatly influenced by the will of his spouse.  I am happy to report that as of now, less than 24 hours of being in country, all of my bags are completely unpacked. Thank you Becky!

We tried to get some sleep around midnight, but that only lasted until about 4am when we both realized we were awake.  I told Becky about a nightmare I had...I dreamed that we had three sets of identical twins, one set were girls, and in my dream, I couldn't remember the first three years of their lives.  I felt like Harrison Ford in regarding Henry.  At one point in the dream, I was weeping while Becky told me, "Do you know how many people have been in this situation before us?"  Thanks Dream Becky for the words of encouragement!

After getting that off my chest, I went back to sleep whilst Becky laid restlessly next to me. She got up to workout while I mounted an offensive on my jet-lag.

At 7:45, we got picked up and headed to the school for our first day of 'work'. We started with an awesome breakfast at our Director's house.  The energy in the room was wonderful and we can already tell that the community at AES is going to be fantastic.

After breakfast, we had a few meetings.  One to get laptops and a tech introduction.  Then on to our section meetings.  I went with middle school while Becky headed off with the high school.  It is almost hard to contain our giddiness when we talk to each other about work. It is that good.

After lunch, we walked around the campus for a bit.  The campus has an incredibly natural feel.  The buildings really blend with the landscape.  It is a gorgeous school.

To finish off the day, we went on a shopping tour to Khan Market. Of course, it is monsoon season in Delhi, so the skies opened up as we arrived.  First stop, get an umbrella.  The rain made things considerably more difficult, but we grabbed a few needed items and returned home.

Some initial thoughts:

Delhi has a lot of green space.  We have a park across the street from our apartment and there is a huge park area just down the road from us.

The park view from our balcony.

The holy cows are definitely out and about.  I went onto our balcony to take a picture of the park across the street when I saw this guy.

Our school is awesome.  Our fridge was stocked with brownies, lasagna and beer (among other things).

Very nice to walk into the apartment and find some food.

That is all for now.  We will post some apartment pictures tomorrow and hopefully share a few funny stories and less boring blog summaries.

Love,

iBeck