our shipment arrived!

This is what it looks like when it has been 8 weeks since your house was packed

up in the USA, and you are waiting for the truck to pull up with your shipment.

What a day! It began around 10am when the rental company came to wrap up

and collect all of the rental furniture. We couldn't wait for that part to be over. 

It took what felt like forever, but they finally finished. And our shipment was brought in. HALLELUJAH!!! After living in London for an entire year without our personal items, we knew what we really missed. The couch was the #1 piece of furniture we yearned for. Those funky London couches were so uncomfortable! But overall, what we really wanted was to live in a place that feels like it's our home. Having our furniture and pictures to hang on the wall did just that. It's a wonderful thing!

SO MANY BOXES. Oh my gosh. It took them two days to move everything in. The first day was a lot of guessing about what goes where. There were lots of random boxes that I wasn't sure about. I wanted to clear out as many boxes as possible, so I was trying to be everywhere at once to direct people. Did I say Mike was not there? YEAH. He was out of town. Haha. But it wasn't really a big deal. I told my cook not to cook, so she helped put the kitchen together. Thank goodness for that! We spent so much time together organizing the kitchen. Our kitchen is AWESOME. There is so much room for everything unlike our dumb Connecticut kitchen. Anyway, there was much to be done.

The funniest thing is how many boxes were filled with things that were supposed to go in storage. It's a good thing we have lots of extra closet space to store all of it!

Having the Pippi Longstocking videos shipped here was probably my 

fault since I never took the time to go through the movies. So that's fun! 

But the piano books were for sure supposed to be stored along with everything

else in the living room. I don't know how those got labeled incorrectly! Huh.

We got two of these huge exercise balls shipped. Good thing they deflate.

And the Mazda car mats? SERIOUSLY? Who thought we needed those?

The most NOT funny thing was the food. They absolutely would not allow food of any kind. We knew they were wrong. But there was nothing we could do to convince them that it would be ok to bring canned and dry food. And then the clowns packed up two random boxes of food stuff! Hey, Mom, there are those canned mushrooms I need for the chicken and biscuits recipe! LOL. This was frustrating because there were a lot of food items we wished we could have brought. Oh well.

Oh yeah, and we got all of the bedding and pillows for our king-sized bed

that went into storage. Ugh. That stuff takes up a lot of space! And there was MORE.

Juno hid in the bathroom or behind the couch on the first day, so on the second day I put her little bed in this cozy spot beside the couch. She did not move from there! Except when the guys finally took a lunch break.

Oh my gosh, those moving guys were so nice and helpful. Since Mike was out of town and I knew we had a bunch of IKEA furniture to put together, I asked the missionaries from church to come over to help. I knew that the moving guys would only put together what was disassembled on the other end, so they wouldn't be building the new stuff. But they wanted to do it! They were like eager little boys with LEGO. So funny. I finally gave into it and let them build as much as they could before they had to leave. Why not? They built all of the boys' beds!

Here are the missionaries building our dining room table. The one guy was so funny - "Oh, Sister, my mom never lets me touch these types of things!" Yeah, exactly what I want to hear. Haha! One of the movers clued into what was going on and came in to oversee the work. I love it!

And this, Ladies and Gentleman, is the moment when I confirmed that we did indeed

get the wrong table. It was supposed to be dark like the chair legs! Dang it.

We only had two major casualties from the move. The first was one of the two elevators in the building. I'm pretty sure the movers broke it.

And one of the legs on this chair broke off. But the landlord's carpenter came in and built us a new one! How about that?



The carpenter also came one day to hang pictures for me. What a riot! He and his assistant spoke no English. But we did well with the words 'center', 'ok', and a few hand signals here and there. :)

We also had a visit from some painters who seriously spoke zero English. Thank goodness I didn't need to communicate with them! But I did show the guy the chair leg the carpenter built, and he somehow understood that I needed it stained to match the other legs.

That is one awesome ladder right there, don't you think? It does the job!

Oh yeah, and we had the pest control guy visit on the same day as our delivery since our cook told me we had cockroaches in the kitchen YUCK! They were little guys, but we still didn't want them. I was impressed that the guy came that day. That has been our experience here so far - you call for the help you need, and a couple of hours later a guy shows up at your door!

The curtain guys showed up every day for a week whenever they finished with one of the curtains. So funny! I was worried about that guy standing on the stool on the chair. Crazy! And, yes, this was also on our shipment day. The funniest was when they stopped by on Sunday morning at 10am. Really? They couldn't understand why I thought it was so funny.

So the boys have been tormenting me left and right with these plastic bugs we found in our shipment. Matthew leaves them everywhere! I don't know they make my heart skip a beat, but they always do. This one particular time I left the plastic scorpion by Matthew's door. But then the next day the cockroach was next to it. I was like "Matthew! That's not going to scare me! I was the one who put the scorpion there!" 

And then as I was just about to pick up that cockroach, I had a sudden thought - "Wait a minute, why is it so shiny?" HOLY FREAKING COW, IT WAS A REAL GRAND-DADDY COCKROACH!! So Gross!!!! I called Matthew out of his room so that we could inspect it together. We were pretty sure it was real, but I wasn't quite sure until I nudged it with a pen and ITS LEGS WIGGLED LIKE CRAZY! We haven't seen one since, so I think the pest control stuff has done its job.

It has taken some time, but I think we are just about settled. I will take pictures and do a video of the walk through of our place soon. And I will introduce to all of our new friends who help us so much. Wonderful people! We are loving living here. I hope we stay for a long time!

to market, to market ...

** i started this post on feb 20, and then i got kind of busy. more catching up after this. **

I've talked about shopping a little bit already, but still feel like I can devote an entire post to shopping in New Delhi. What an ordeal! It is much like London where you have to go to a bunch of little shops to get everything you need. But in London I had all of those little shops on my street. It was so easy. It's not like London at all though. Nothing is all in one location. And the shops are a little different ... Here are some examples:

On our street in London we had a cute little shop called Ryman's that was like 

a miniature Staples store. Here is the equivalent at 'C Block Market' in Visant Vihar.

I love that the owner posed for this shot! This store is like most I have visited - the space is very small, and every inch from floor to ceiling is covered with stock. They are always very eager to help. I have learned to simply ask for what I want, and then the little guy climbs the ladder or disappears into the back of the store to retrieve my items. At this store I bought envelopes, a poster board, markers and glue.

I really wish I had the guts to take a picture of this one, but I was too embarrassed. This was our equivalent of Boots in London which is like the section of Target with medicine, shampoo, soap, etc. It was a super tiny space! I needed contact solution, so I asked the guy, and he climbed the ladder kind of high and brought down my two options. They were good options, and they were good prices! 

This is what people consider to be the best market for American and imported goods - goods that are just about outdated, and way overpriced. I'm not the biggest fan, but my cook shops here for many ingredients that can't be found anywhere else.

This shop at the same market as Modern Bazaar has been my go-to place for many odds and ends for our home. It's like a huge section of Target with all of the home stuff - small appliances, linens, cleaning, storage, dishes, etc.

At most of these stores they will have many workers waiting around to help you. It's pretty much impossible to walk around holding anything because they like to collect your things for you and take them to the register. It's very nice and helpful! This man pictured above was wiping down the little plastic containers I was buying. (i still had to wash them with soap when i got home though.) At the smaller grocery stores there will usually be a guy who follows you around holding your basket for you. He will find things and make helpful suggestions. Haha. It makes me smile! I thought it would be annoying, but I really like it. They are so helpful!

Afternoon snack, anyone?

Little stands like this are EVERYWHERE. Cheap soda or bags of nuts and chips, 

all covered in a layer of dirt. Pretty much everything is covered in a layer of dirt!

Khan Market is one of the nicest markets. Lots of little shops. That's how they all are ... 

And see the guy waiting at the car? Pretty much EVERYONE has a driver. The cars are all crammed in wherever they fit, and the drivers all hang out and wait for their people to finish shopping.

Mike read an article explaining about how the Indian government has kept the big supermarkets out in order to preserve the small mom and pop shops. They've done a good job of it! So we were surprised when we found this store called Big Bazaar in the mall. It looks like a regular grocery store! And it isn't just the grocery store part. It's kind of like a Super Walmart covering several floors of the mall with clothes and everything. But it's not close enough to us for me to go there regularly.

(sorry my pictures feature that one man sniffing rice!)

The small shops have survived big time. Driving around New Delhi is like driving around a farmer's market. My cook does all of the food shopping though (thank goodness!). She has a fruit guy, a beef guy, a chicken place, a vegetable place, and a general groceries guy. The fruit guy, the beef guy, and the general groceries guys all deliver right to our door. It's all local stuff, and the prices can't be beat! I'll tell more when I do the post about our help.

And then sometimes you just have to take 

a picture of the random cow in the road:

DIRT - New Delhi has beautiful green parts and the people are so vigilant about keeping things clean for the most part, but it is a very dirty place. Very dirty. You have to have a maid clean every day because of all the dirt. The money is even dirty! The 1000 rupee bills are always crisp and clean, and people treat them like they are 50 dollar bills, too big to break. But they are actually only worth about $15. The 10's and 20's are used the most used (worth 15 cents and 30 cents, respectively), and they are gross! I always wash my hands after handling that money, and I'm not really that much of a germaphobe.

The cloth above is from wiping down the orange juice I bought. I order from Big Basket at least once a week, mainly for the soda. They deliver to your door which is really convenient. Oh, and soda prices are awesome here - 30 Rs. for a 300ml tin (45 cents for 10 ounces), and 30 or 35 Rs. for a 20 ounce bottle! But I do wash everything in soapy water.

Oh, and the receipts! This one is from the pet store where I buy Juno's "Intense Beauty" food. LOL. That's the kind she likes! Anyway, a lot of the shops have cash registers, but many write out receipts like this. It totally reminds me of playing "store" with my sisters when we were little. I'll have to show you some of my more amusing receipts later.

A fun thing about the pet store - It's this tiny little place in the neighborhood next door. Super convenient. We had just gotten the cat, and she is a scratcher. I asked the guy what he had for scratchers, and he pulled out this little catalog with all sorts of things available. I was like, ok ... I picked one out, he wrote down my address, and he said that he would deliver it the next day. How about that?! Sure enough, he showed up the following evening at my door with a fun little scratching post for Juno. Ha!

Mike's thing every Saturday has been to go shopping. Retail therapy for reals. I was a reluctant shopper at first since it's not my favorite pastime, but then we quickly needed many things for our apartment and the shopping had a purpose. I can do that! We really needed some area rugs since our entire apartment has marble floors, so we went to Dilli Haat one weekend. It's an outdoor market very close to us. It's a bit of a tourist trap, but it's still cool. People rent out a stall for two weeks at a time to sell their handicrafts.

This lady on the left was staring at me for a long time while I waited for Mike 

to look at some weird stall. I wish I could have gotten a close up of her face.  

I so badly wanted to buy little carpets for the boys, but we 

decided in the end that they wouldn't love them as much as I did. :(

So, we found a few good rugs. And Mike was happy.

I discovered this awesome place called Central Cottage Industries Emporium -

It's such a great store! Once again a little bit of a tourist trap, 

but full of lots of great stuff all in one place. All sorts of stuff!

We bought a few large pieces of furniture the first time we went, and had to take two trips home fitting it all in our car! My car is a Toyota Innova which is basically India's little version of a Toyota Sienna. We barely fit everything in those two trips. And then we went back a week ago and found some chairs for our bedroom, and barely fit them in the back of the car. Our seats were slid all the way up, leaning forward! See Mike? So happy. Hahaha.

It was really funny the following day when I told my driver I needed to go back. He asked, "Ma'am, heavy or light?" Haha! (oh my gosh, i LOVE my driver. can't wait to tell you about him.) It was a very light day though. So funny. I wasn't planning on going back, but the zipper was broken on one of the throw pillow covers I bought. They don't take returns, so I thought I had better go back right away to exchange it. Thankfully they had another cover like it, and they were happy to do the exchange.

Delhivery, anyone? I love these Delhi Delivery guys. So funny! Been trying to get a picture for weeks. And so many times I wish I could catch shots of complete families on motor bikes. It's pretty amazing, and so cute with the little kids. Most people on the back (especially on bicycles) don't even hold on. Amazing core strength!

This is the little market in the colony next door that has the pet store in it - Frolic Pet Shop.

It's a little post-apocalyptic like! Two levels of not much shopping.

Kind of gross too. There will usually be a couple of dogs lying around, and always pee along the edges here and there. And you never know if the pee is canine or human because the men pee all over New Delhi. Yuck! More on that in another post ...

ANYWAY, I went back last week to visit the post office. That story is way too long to tell - It involves the saga of the wardrobe key from London that we accidentally shipped to India, had to pay $90 to replace in case we didn't find it even though we told her for sure it was in the shipment, and then the landlady expected us to send it even though she went ahead and used the money to buy a new key, so I went to the post office with the little package to find out how much to charge the landlady, and then went back to mail it and the post office lady told me the package was too small (why didn't she tell me that the first time i showed it to her?!), and then I went back the last time to finally mail the key for reals ... Take a deep breath! SO, this is the post office. Funny!

They have one of those old printers from the 80's that you feed the paper into like a typewriter, and then you rip the paper off. Remember those? Yeah, I've seen them several times here. So high tech!

But I hear the India Post is super efficient. I hope so, because I so badly want to close the door on the key saga!

We have so many amazingly beautiful roundabouts that I drive past every day.

I wish I could get proper pictures of them. I love love LOVE the flowers!

Sometimes when you are shopping in New Delhi you are rewarded with something unique and beautiful like this nail art my friend and I saw at the mall last week. So cool! (my friend helped me find some indian tops i'll show you soon!)

SORRY. These posts always to seem to get away from me and become way too long.
One last shopping thing, I promise!

We went to this one store last Saturday for something specific, and experienced a typical Delhi shopping phenomenon. This is how the process goes - One person (like the guy sitting at the desk to the left) writes or types up your bill. In this case, and most often, they wanted our address and mobile number. While that one person is figuring the bill, which somehow always involves many conversations in Hindi and much confusion, another person takes your purchased items away behind a different counter.

Once you have the bill in hand, you proceed to another area where you actually pay your bill. In the picture to the right, Mike is paying the bill at the counter to the left. AND THEN you go to another counter, present your paid bill, and they retrieve your purchased items all wrapped up. That's the counter to the right. The guy stamps your bill to show that you have collected all of your items. The stamping is my favorite part - Bang, Bang! AND THEN, after they have stamped the bill, you show the paper to the security guard at the door so that you can leave with your purchases. Mike says this process is not about efficiency, it is about employing as many people as possible. I think he's right!

And that, folks, is a little bit about shopping in New Delhi. Are you jealous? :)