Tuesday, November 15, 2011

This is India



Adaptability is the one word I would use to describe India. The country where waiting is the norm and nothing ever works right, yet I love it. I live in an exciting world here where the rules are different and you have no choice but to let go because this is India. The lines on the road to not exist and when they say be there in five minutes they really mean five days. I guess I had some training on the waiting game during my time through Europe where we live in Ish time and people suffer from manana syndrome. Ah well this is life outside the US. It's funny, once you leave the US things may not work right and they may or may not ever get done but, everyone is more relaxed. There is no such thing as time. Ok, back to India right? You are itching to know more than things don't work. Here it goes….. Everything is amazing the food, cloths, ok not the smells but I don't think the smell of urine mixed with pollution is pleasant anywhere in the world. One of the hardest aspects here is seeing people use the streets as their personal toilet system. In comparison, in the US people go outside in the mountains in private where here just walking down the street people are using it as a toilet, out in the open. (As seen in India: do not pass urine here) Moving on, going to the stores and haggling over a few cents with the "mini taxi" is probably one of the highlights. It's almost a like a game how low can I get them to go and the reality is no matter what it's still a good price to me (we argue over literally ten cents). Another thing about India that is well I don’t know if it is good or not maybe good for me considering I am a legend in my own mind is the constant pictures taken of us because we are westerners. One day we just go out of a meeting and were sitting on the steps and one by one people started to come out to take our pictures and just stare at us. Pretty soon we were like animals at the zoo only we did not have the protective gate around us. We had people surrounding us in a circle taking photos no less than a foot away. I think this is all the excitement we can handle for now, till next time I am MOOOOOOing off.


Oh wait just kidding did I forget to tell you about the random monkeys and cows in the streets? Yep at one of the places we visited there were monkeys roaming the island, Elephanta Island. Yes, I did get a monkey he is being sent home to my father's office as we speak. As for the cows well, you get used to having them around. Don't walk without looking down. Ok there is a brief intro to India exciting I know you can't wait till next time. Love, laughter, smiles, and adventure, till next time

Stephanie