Summer Life in New Delhi

We returned to India at the height of monsoon season, and the city was greener 

than green! Which is nice after being in super dry California during the summer.

It rained like this practically every day!

This post is a random, hodgepodge of things that happened in the summer when we
returned to New Delhi. Just imagine it all happening with massive heat and oppressive humidity.

We don't see many monkeys in our neighborhood. In fact, we really don't see any monkeys ever.
But this one afternoon we saw this huge guy sitting on our balcony. He really was big!

I don't know if these pictures can accurately portray our excitement, but we were super excited!

How's this for random?

One day I went to the ATM to withdraw some money, and it was closed. That alone wasn't so odd. It actually happens all the time - especially at the mall! The Citibank ATMs there run out of money practically every weekend.

This time though I asked the guard when it would be open again since I truly did need some cash. (have i written about all of the cash we go through here? it's insane.) Well, the guard said they were refilling the money in the back as we speak, so I could sit inside and wait a few minutes until they finished.

That alone was such an Indian thing, I thought, but then it got even better when this guy who was also waiting took off his flipflops. That's pretty much a common occurrence anytime, anywhere. I've tried so hard to get a picture of the tuk-tuk drivers who will drive with their sandals off, most often with one foot on the gas pedal and the other up on the dash or tucked under their other leg up on the seat. So, yeah, always the bare feet. :)

Our cook was off during the entire month of August after her son's wedding, so we were tragically on our own. I was actually looking forward to it, but then when the reality of it set in we were really struggling. It was so bad that we braved the Subway nearest to us that is the worst ever. THE WORST!

This is a common type of market here - lots of shops crammed all together, electricity wires
all over, lots of motorcycles, guys hanging around, stray dogs galore, dirty and crowded.

Yeah, so they made our sandwiches at their usually sluggish pace with the usual questionable looking veggies, and then when they got to Collin's sandwich they said THEY RAN OUT OF BREAD!! That's an all-time low for those guys, and it was the final straw for us! The Subway we like is at Khan Market, and thankfully it is a good one. It isn't close by so we don't go often, but it's there if we get a hankering.

Driving out of the market ... That's India for ya!

And here we are coping without our cook ... I made a lovely salad, and roasted 

some veggies ... Well done! And bought the pre-made meat at FoodHall. :)

And that's probably the best meal we had.

Thankfully Manjula was in town for a couple of days, and she came over to check on us. When she offered a family member to cook for us, we totally took her up on it.

What a joy to see all of those veggies getting washed,
accompanied by a lovely meal. HOORAY for a cook!

Funny Story -

    So my driver took our substitute cook shopping just like he always drives our regular cook to the market. I had a running list going on a piece of paper on the counter that was for me, not her. It had things on it that I usually pick up when I go to the markets that I shop at. But she took my list, thinking it was for her. The funny part was when I got a call from MY DRIVER - "Splenda, ma'am ... liquid or packet??" Laugh. Out. Loud. I think the driver was shopping with the cook! Hahahaha!!

First Day of School
First Day of 9th Grade in HIGH SCHOOL ! ! !

School starts super early here - August 9th - but Michael was more than ready. Our youngest is in high school! That's kind of hard to believe. It makes sense that Michael is at that point in his life now, but when I look at our family as a whole it is hard to believe that my four kids are so grown up and OLD. And it's a strange thing for me now to not be homeschooling, and to have everyone pretty much stable in their lives. I've never been on my own during the day to do my own thing. Never! Thank goodness for English class. I've basically taken over all of the prep work for this first year of teaching, starting out with a new curriculum, since we've lost almost all of our expat teachers. It's kept me super busy. With that and trying to keep up on blogging, and overseas living paperwork and planning and ridiculous nonsense, and the other million little things I always have on my to-do list ... I've been really busy! And Michael is loving school! He has such a busy life there. He played volleyball for the first three months which took up a lot of his after school time. And then he's always hanging out after school until activities end at 5pm, and hanging out with friends there on Saturdays. It's an awesome campus, a safe place for the kids to spend time together. 

This is a shot I took at the high school on back to school night. It's a pretty cool place.

A week later was Indian Independence Day celebrating 69 years of independence
from the British Empire. I love that our two countries celebrate the same thing. :)

The malls always do such a nice job of decorating for every holiday and festival. 

It's one of my favorite things! 

Continuing with random things -

Here is where I get my hair done, at the Toni&Guy in Vasant Vihar D-Block Market.

Motorbikes, of course! Haha.

But, yeah, I pay a fraction of what I paid in London to get my hair done. Boo-Yah!
It take HOURS, literally, and an assistant on the ready to co-blow dry my hair (always
make me laugh!), but they do a really nice job. I always throw in a mani/pedi since it's so cheap.

So ... THIS happened ... We had mosquitos in the car every morning during monsoon season. Every dang morning! Michael and I did our best to kill them, but one got me and gave me that blasted Dengue Fever. Darn it! Or it could have been a mosquito from English class. I've gotten a few bites going there in the evenings ... So, I didn't go in for a blood test since I didn't want to brave the Indian hospitals when there is no treatment anyway, but I am pretty sure I had it. It was incredibly frustrating. I was getting ready for English class one afternoon, and all I wanted to do was lie down to take a nap. Why was I so tired? I went to bed when I got home at 8pm, and stayed in bed for days. Fever, huge headache behind my eyes, achy, nasty taste in my mouth ... Not fun at all. I was sick for a good five days, and didn't feel quite right for two or three weeks. Let's not do that again!

This might be my favorite random India picture.

HAHAHA! Documenting my Diet Coke run at Modern Bazaar

where the guys always carry my box to the car. Nice selfie, right?

Thankfully our cook now includes boxes of Diet Coke
in our grocery order that gets delivered to the house. :)

Two fun random shots -

#1: On my way to English class - Much nicer ever since I decided to read in the car. :)

#2: I'm always trying to get a good picture of the street-side barbershops. This one is good!

Remember when the Dalai Lama visited Michael's school?
This time it was US Secretary of State John Kerry. Not as exciting, but cool nonetheless.

September 5th was a very auspicious day!

From Wikipedia: "Ganesh Chaturthi is the Hindu festival celebrated in honour
of the elephant-headed god, Ganesha. This is a very auspicious day celebrated 

to pray to the god so that every new activity that is started is successfully 

completed without any obstacles. He is the God of knowledge."

Last random thing ... I was walking by my huge window the other day, and saw something odd out of the corner of my eye. What the heck?!

This guy in the servants' quarters next to our apartment started hanging out his clothes to dry IN THE TREE! Everyone hangs their clothes outside to dry - t hat's normal. But no one hangs them in a tree. I don't want to see that guy's underwear outside my bedroom window!

Thankfully, last week a huge broken branch on that tree finally broke off which made the entire tree shift and his clothes-drying branch is too far away now. Sorry, guy! He has gone back to hanging them all along the stairs like he used to, which is still a little odd but much better.

Blanket, shirt, underwear and jeans ... NICE

JAIPUR comes next! Stay tuned ...

CA Adventure, a FIRE & Magic Mountain

What's a trip to California without hitting up a couple of amusement parks? We decided this year to do a day at California Adventure. We love that place!

And we love these photos they do on the rides. So funny!

We headed over to the newish Cars ride to get a Fast Pass for our first chance to ride.

The line was super short, so we went on it right away, and got a Fast Pass for later. We loved it!

I have to say that it went a LOT faster than I was anticipating. Hahaha

It turned out to be probably the hottest day of the year. NO JOKE. Which turned out to be a good 

thing for us. There weren't as many people in the park, and the lines were short for everything!

California Screamin' is by far my favorite. WOOHOO!!

I was thrilled that the line was super short for the Little Mermaid ride,

and the boys gave in to going with me. Look closely - They loved it!

The park was so quiet that we had gone on almost all of the rides by the early afternoon.

We were melting in the heat, so we took a break at the hotel and swam for a little bit 

before going back in the evening. There were way more people at night when it was cooler!

It turned out to be a great day!

It was strange though in the early evening when these massive dark clouds moved in overhead. That was not a normal thing for Southern California. After only a couple of minutes I said that those clouds were looking like smoke to me. Sure enough, there was a huge fire raging in my hometown where my parents' house is. When we drove up there the next day, we couldn't even go on the freeway as all of the exits were closed for that part of Santa Clarita. It was crazy!

This is from my parents' backyard where you could see helicopters flying

overhead carrying water, and lots of ash collecting on the ground and on the cars.

Collin took some amazing photos from the hill behind my parents' house.

This was a humungous fire that was not under control.

Thankfully, it was all on the other side of the freeway, and 

we were safe. My parents live where that arrow is pointing on the map.

The smoke though ... So much smoke!

A few days into the fire, we drove up the hill to The Habit to pick up some burgers for lunch. The fire was immediately behind the houses up there, and it was scary. We could see the flames right next to the road!

The Habit is in this huge shopping area with Target, Staples, Kohl's and stuff, and lots of little stores and places to eat. The parking lots were practically empty! I was looking forward to getting a salad from Panera Bread, but they weren't even open. Anyway, the manager from The Habit was standing outside when we drove up, and asked how we got there. Well ... the road we came up on was closed when we drove back down! Good thing we got there when we did.

Thankfully they were able to keep the fire from reaching the houses in that area. I was so worried. They actually did a really good job of saving hundreds of homes that were threatened.

This burnt leaf FELL OUT OF THE SKY. Isn't that crazy? Just fell out of the sky in front of Matthew's face! It was so bizarre to go to the movies with a fire raging in the background.

On our last day in the United States, the boys and I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, CA and had the best time ever. We had an inside connection that got us on a few rides pretty quickly, and that made all the difference in the world. We had the best time we've ever had there! That is excluding the time David's shoes flew off on X2. THAT was the best time! haha

Tatsu is terrifyingly fun! Isn't this picture hilarious? I HAD to buy it.

AND THAT, PEOPLE, IS THE END OF OUR SUMMER HOME LEAVE. :(

We were very sad that it ended, but at the same time we were anxious to go home

to our own beds and bathrooms and closets. It's hard to live out of a suitcase for so long!

My dad drove us to the airport, and we said our sad goodbye to Matthew ...

Yes, Matthew stayed in California! He had no reason to return to India, so he didn't! He took 

the ACT for college, and has been doing some serious bike riding (and eating of hamburgers).

We barely made it into the airport with our wits about us, and Mike had 

some SERIOUS check-in rage. I can't decide if this picture is funny or scary!

I think it's a good thing Mike and I are not of the same temperament. Most of the time I am just laughing at him, like I am in this picture. Yeah, so the check-in counters at the United terminal at LAX are under construction, so they had self-serve computers outside for people to use. For international check in! What a mess. It's tricky for India because you have to prove that you have a Visa in order to fly there. So a person had to come over to help us. And the stupid India travel people put us all under separate reservations. SO a retired not-so-smart-and-condescending grandma lady helped us. Oh my gosh, I thought Mike was going to blow a gasket. Chill out!!

We flew through Tokyo on our way back, and treated ourselves to some awesome sushi

in the airport. And we picked up some Japanese treats to take home with us. Yum. :)

This is the most UNBECOMING photo, but it perfectly sums up our humid arrival. We came back to monsoon season in full bloom. My hair was instantaneously damp and curly, and my glasses were totally fogged up! WOW.

We were happy to see our driver Sharma, and hop into our air conditioned Toyota Innova. 

(ok, not our car ... but you know what i mean.) 

WELCOME BACK TO INDIA ! ! !