Here is what I have been doing for the last few weeks: shopping. I hate shopping. This house was 'partially furnished'. It had no bed linens or pillows which is OK. I'd rather have new ones anyhow. This is not billable back to my company, so it is an expense I did not consider. These things are surprisingly expensive! I know that I could buy these items cheaper in the US. The house did have plates and cups, but no cooking pots or pans, no silverware or utensils. This stuff adds up. On a positive note, food is cheap! Brand name US goods are costly, but the local items are very cheap. I bought beef tenderloin (yes, you can buy beef here) for less than $3 per pound.
The mattresses in India must be made of thatch and concrete. I tried to find better mattresses, but that meant paying exorbitant prices for US or European mattresses imported for the expats & upper class locals. Amazon.com to the rescue! I bought a memory foam mattress topper for my bed and egg crate toppers for the other beds. I ordered them on Sunday and they arrived on Wednesday! I am not exaggerating on this point, I had sores on my hips from the lack of padding from these mattresses. The bunk I had in the navy was better than these.
I have been out in the evenings meeting my neighbors. I am one of the few Americans close by. There are several Swedes, and there is more French & German spoken than I expected. Today at the pool I was the ONLY person who spoke English as their native tongue. Surprisingly, there are quite a few newborns in the neighborhood. My neighbors, Harry & Lilibeth (Swedes) have a 6 week old boy named Axel and a 2 year old girl named Ileana. The sound of babies crying on a hot summer evening fills the air.
I have a little visitor nearly each night that comes in my bedroom:
This little guy, roughly 6 inches long is a welcomed visitor. These guys eat the little critters that I do not want around. He has even chattered at me before darting out of the room through a hole in the wall near the air conditioner.
Did I ever mention that it rains here? The power of the storms varies, but it can get pretty intense. We had a thunder storm that lasted over an hour with the hardest rainfall I have ever witnessed. One thing that weighs on every westerner that I know is the amount of trash and pollution in the waterways. Check this out:
These are (presumably) soap bubbles. The pile was at least 15 feet high in this runoff stream near my office building. This was caused by whatever pollutant was in this stream and the turbulence due to the flash flood caused by the thunder storm. It is sad. However, I remember driving on I90 past Gary, Indiana in the 1970s & 80s in disgust as the stench from the purplish-grey water made eyes water.
This place can frustrate even the most patient person. Here are some examples: When checking out of the Mayer Hotel the printer died and I could not get a receipt. I waited for 45 minutes while 3 people huddled around it to no avail. They asked if I could come back another day. The next day the hotel manager called me and I headed back to get my receipt. I checked it over and they had incorrectly charged me a higher rate on 2 of the nights than was quoted. I was there for about an hour before they had reconciled the bill and was out the door. While shopping for bed linens I waited for an hour at checkout. There was a promotion that included 2 free pillows with a purchase of more than 4000 rupees. Three young men plus what appeared to be the store manager could not get it to work. FINALLY, after they spent an inordinate amount of time on the phone (which I can only hope / dream that they called some help desk in China) was the issue rectified and I was able to leave. I needed an envelope while at work so I headed to the mail room. They did not have envelopes. Really? No envelopes in a mail room??? So I headed to lunch (just as the torrential rain started) and walked to one of the food courts that serves Indian food very cheaply. It's an odd arrangement where you order at a kiosk and are given a ticket for your food to be redeemed at one of the restaurants. I tried ordering 3 different items on that day's menu; all were sold out. So screw it, there was a coffee shop nearby. At least I could get a coffee and wait out the pouring rain, right? Wrong! The coffee machine was broken. On a side note, this food court is round, covered with a tarp and open in the middle. It was designed to have rain drain into the middle. This is how it looks:
If you look closely enough you'll see the rain pouring into the fountain.
Moving on... The house is slowly becoming a home. It won't truly be "home" until Nan, Court & Ef get here. I am doing my best to spruce it up and make it comfortable for them. Luckily, IBM has me working 12 hour days during the week and a few hours on the weekends, too. I say luckily since during my few moments of idle time, rare though they may be, I begin to miss them so much that I hurt. It is a deep welling inside of sadness bordering on despair. I have been gone for 5 weeks. How on Earth do my military friends do it for 6, 8, 12+ months at a time? I have no idea. Nancy and I spent more time apart than we did together the first 4 years of our marriage. That was brutal. I cannot imagine how much more miserable it would have been if we had had children at the time.
Enough of that. Thanks for reading!
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