This week has been incredible. Incredibly good in many ways, incredibly challenging in others and incredibly rough in some. We have begun adjusting to life in India with the most immediate priority being sleep. Before going through the experience myself I'm certain that I underestimated the effects of a 12:30 hour change on the body or perhaps more accurately just never really thought very deeply about it. I remember seeing Zach and Courtney napping midday when visiting and just thinking it a "curiosity"--now I understand that the feeling of dragging your body out of sleep and its natural rhythm is much more like being swaddled (tight wrapped) in a wet blanket and bearing the weight of an anvil while being forced to function as if it were reality when all you want to do is enjoy the delightful comfort of drifting back to sleep.
We have found a nanny for the girls and are beginning to feel a little more settled in that way; we still don't have many of our things but just knowing that the girls feel comfortable during the day is a huge weight off our shoulders, in particular, Laura's. On Saturday we took a tour of Delhi while Anita watched our little ones. It was nice to hear Maya shout in glee as we walked out that she had the pleasure of spending some time with Anita at the playground! Music to our ears that our spirited little one is so readily adapting to her new Shirley (oh I wish she was really Shirley!). We saw some amazing sights around Delhi--Gandhi's eternal flame, a cultural artisan museum, Parliament, etc.
This is the first meal that our Ayah prepared for us. We sampled some Indian cuisine and were extremely impressed. It was all perfectly delicious.
This is our kitchen. It boasts the biggest fridge I've ever seen outside of the good ol' US of A. We also have a full sized stove.
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| Bedroom--walls to change colors soon. |
This is our balcony, which is notable for two reasons. First, it is awesome and overlooks the back of the faculty residence area to the tennis courts and the community beyond. Second is that due to the immense humidity here, every morning these windows are completely covered with condensation. We can barely see out of them.
We don't have laundry facilities in our apartment but were happily surprised this week when Durjen, our dhobi, showed up and told us that he would be taking care of our laundry. It is an added expense but in keeping with the philosophy of the school of trying to remove all barriers to us being great teachers (spending time doing our own laundry in this case) we decided to give it a go. Durjen brought our clothes back wrapped in a white sheet like a present. Upon opening, the presentation only improved. Some of the clothes were layered, some color coordinated, all of it seemed to form interesting geometric designs. It was a true work of art in an art form that I hadn't even realized existed.
1 comment:
Yeah! We love reading your blog. The food looks very delicious, we are jealous. Also, good call on the laundry service-- we tried doing our own laundry for about 3 weeks, then realized that someone else would do a much better job. I was never strong enough to ring the water out, so I would do my best then Ben would use his giant hands and ring out just as much water as I did from every piece of clothing. Anywhooo, more pictures of everyone, but especially the girls:) love you guys!
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