Thanksgiving in India

Well, here it is the day after Thanksgiving and I'm having a real hard time getting into the holiday spirit. It is interesting living in a country where Thanksgiving and Christmas are not celebrated. I'm not sure if it is the weather (which really feels more like mid September than the end of November), the lack of Christmas music wherever you go, the lack of Christmas decorations around the house, the fact that we don't have all the TV commercials reminding us to go buy that perfect gift for that special someone, or exactly what. However it is clear that the whole holiday season thing hasn't really sunk in yet for me.

Michelle and Becca are gone to the market to purchase a Christmas Tree (artificial, of course) and we'll start decorating later today or tomorrow. We didn't bring our Christmas decorations (see the previous post about the interesting things that come when you move around the world and the things that get left behind), so we are missing the tradition of redecorating the house with the turn of the season. So I figure the lack of the holiday spirit is a temporary situation that will be remedied soon.

While Michelle and Becca are gone, I put on Christmas music, gathered all the photos we took yesterday, and figured I would sit and write about our Thanksgiving yesterday.

We were invited to spend Thanksgiving with our friends, the Cleggs. So even though we missed our children and all of our family and friends in the US, we had a place to go and share our Thanksgiving. It was a really wonderful event and we are really thankful to the Clegg family for hosting the event.

After a morning where Michelle baked pies, a turkey, cookies, and rolls, we headed out the door. When we arrived, we saw some traditional Indian festive decorations.

Strings of flowers on the gates and a walk lined with fragrant flower petals.

Large decorative bowels with floating flower petals and candles.

But once you came through the front door, it looked (almost) all like a traditional American Thanksgiving. Friends hanging out in the kitchen, kids all over the place, conversation, food. It was a wonderful time! One thing that made it even better, the Clegg family had a caterer set up tables, bring (and wash) the dishes, decorate, bring flowers, provide the juice and clean up everything after it was all over. Laura Clegg said it was the best and easiest Thanksgiving ever! The cost on the caterer was about double the cost that we paid for our turkey. Caterer ~ $180, turkey ~$70.

Carving the $70 turkey!

Friends in the kitchen. From left to right, Teresa Osorio (good friend), Sister Ann Jackson (the Mission President's wife and good friend), Laura Clegg (good friend)

Almost all the kids - there were so many, I'm sure there are a bunch that aren't in the picture.

The tables and chairs that the caterers set up.

Yummy!

Why do we always take pictures of people eating? They really aren't very flattering.

It's Amazing What Moves when You Move

By now everyone has heard that all of our stuff finally cleared customs and has been moved into our flat. In fact, as I type this, Michelle is unpacking the last box and helping me organize the stuff that moved over for the office. I have to say, I LOVE sleeping in my bed, rather than the air mattress.

Remember one of my first posts pondering the question about why we have so much stuff? Well, I thought we had made some good headway before we moved by getting rid of a LOT of stuff that just didn't seem that important anymore. I think we actually did make some good headway. But we still kept things that we weren't quite ready to part with. Stuff that held memories for us, things like that. We marked those type of things for storage, because it was clear to us that we didn't need them with us here in India. But it didn't seem to matter much.

Things that got marked for India must have gone somewhere else, because they didn't make it here. Things that got marked for storage did end up here. We got a big chuckle out of some of the things that made it to India. Michelle took a picture of some of the things that we just couldn't live without -- apparently.

In the front row you can see Michelle and my graduation tassels, two from our High School graduations, the others from our University days. Then we have 'burn baby' the doll that Rebecca carried when she was a very little girl. (Ask her to tell you why she is called 'burn baby'. It is a good story.) On the back row we have art projects from Rebecca (the tall green figure), Jameson (we think - the brown clay thing with three cups) and Brenton (the clay square cup), Michelle's Barbie and Ken dolls, and Brenton and Jameson's arrows of light from Webelos days. I don't think we could have made it for three years without these things so I'm really glad that they got shipped here by mistake.

So what should we do with all of these treasures while we are here? Remember the travel photos with the garden gnome? Maybe we should have the "adventures of Burn Baby in India" or something similar.

On the other hand, all the toothpaste that our Dentist prescribed for us all seems to have gone to storage.

Isn't moving an adventure?

Catching Up

I am really behind on our blog posts, so I'll try to do a bit of catching up with these posts. Let's see, what has happened? Well, we went to Agra and never posted any pictures. So I'll start with a Part 1 of our Agra trip. It is entitled "On the Road" and has all the stuff we saw while riding around in the car. It was our family's first trip out of the city to the 'country' and you see some pretty amazing things. In the slide show, look for little cars packed full of people, a car stuck in the mud up to the undercarriage, some monkeys, a couple of camels, women carrying huge bundles of grass on their heads, and lots of very typical things that you see riding around here. Of course, Part 2 - the Agra Fort and Part 3 - the Taj Mahal are still to come - someday.

The trip to Agra was really amazing and a lot of fun for our family. You will see we went with the Clegg family, who have become our good friends. If you come to India, the trip to the Taj is worth the effort. It really does live up to its billing as a wonder of the world. It is a great sight to see and a great love story. The Agra Fort was as interesting to me as the Taj. It has a lot of very different styles of architecture, representing the various kings who lived there. I'll write more on them when I post the other videos.

Anyway - here is "On the Road - Agra Part 1".

On October 7, Rebecca turned 18 years old. What a great age! It won't be long before she is off to the University (BYU we all hope) and Michelle and I will be empty nesters. That is a somewhat scary thought, although we are really looking forward to the whole grandparent gig (congratulations again to Jameson and Becky).

Michelle and I spent some time trying to figure out how we could make Rebecca's 18th a birthday to remember. Finally we hit on the idea - an elephant! So we figured out where we could 'rent' an elephant for her birthday. Well, I have to say that it was a huge hit with her and her friends. All the folks that showed up later in the evening (and there were lots), were disappointed that they missed the elephant ride.

Here's a short video of one of the rides - link here. Here are some pictures of the day.

Here's Raja (he's 45 years old and weighs in at 3 Tons), his trainer (the guy on the ground), his driver (on top of course), and the Birthday Girl.

Some friends that came to ride the elephant and celebrate Rebecca's birthday.

Elephants have really stiff, course hair - who knew about that?

What's a celebration in India without flowers?

And what's a birthday without cake?

Our driver Jogender (on the left) who bought the flowers and arranged the elephant and one of the guards (on the right) who helped put the flowers up.

Our stuff is now here, and I'll publish another post about that in a day or so.

I’m Back from the Land Down Under

This last week I was down in Australia and New Zealand for a business trip and just got home early this morning.  It was a last minute thing as I stepped in for someone at work for presentations on IP Commercialization.  I really enjoyed the sessions and the comments by people who attended indicate that they also enjoyed the sessions. 

My experience on this trip was a bit like traveling back in the late 70’s or early 80’s.  Somewhere between Delhi and Singapore, my laptop decided it wanted to act like a brick instead of a computer.  So scratch email, for the most part and phone calls home (I use my laptop for that).  Although my mobile phone would probably work, I hate to think of the international roaming charges, so it stayed turned off and in my bag.  Since I was a late pinch hitter, I also didn’t stay at the same hotel as everyone many nights.  It was a bit difficult to coordinate the whens and wheres of travel without a mobile phone.  I did manage to get a few email to Michelle so she knew what was going on.  But it was really hard not being able to chat like we usually do.  Yah, I know.  Whine, whine.  It all worked out.

It nice to see New Zealand.  I told everyone that my Mom had lived in New Zealand for about 18 months for our Church, including the immigration officer who stamped my passport.  The people from New Zealand seem to be really thankful that we would spend enough time to fly all the way down there to meet with them.  They realize that unless you are flying within New Zealand, outside of Australia (about 5 hours away), everywhere else in the world is a long, long plane ride away.

The weather is just turning spring down there and it was weird to leave from Delhi where it was still finishing up the monsoon season and step off the plane where the temperature was substantially less and spring was all around.  While we were in New Zealand we met with Weta Digital, who did special effects on lots of famous movies, including Lord of the Rings.  They had a shop called the Weta Cave (Weta are a type of cricket that lives in a cave) that has lots of props and things from the movie, including Aragon’s broken sword and a full size Orc (very scary looking).  They also do a lot of work with Microsoft on Halo and have a full-size drivable Warthog (which I didn’t get to see or drive – darn it).

I also really enjoyed Sydney (what I got to see of it).  It has a fun downtown area and lots of things that you can walk and see.  Of course, all I saw was the inside of conference and hotel rooms.  But still, it looked fun and I wouldn’t mind spending some time there with Michelle and Becca where we could just go see all the stuff.

One thing that was funny to me.  Every meal that was served at the seminars we put on had some sort of curry dish.  I told people that I’d eat anything on the menu except for the curry.  I’d leave the Indian food for when I got home.  They all laughed.  I can tell that it hasn’t been that long since they were able to have a nice steak or anything at all made with beef.

I’m hoping to get the first part of our trip to Agra posted soon.  Sorry for the delay.  It has been a bit busy.

Biking Video Redux & A Short Update

If you watched the prior video I posted, watch it again (you can expand it to full screen now and actually have good quality). I figured out how to post things from Vimeo and the video quality is much better.

I'm working on some slide shows from our trip to Agra, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, I'm headed out of the country for a week long trip to fill in for someone who couldn't go from the states. So I may not post much this week.

One day at the market

Special edition by roving reporter Michelle

Shopping in India has been a real treat!  Sometimes I miss the local Target store where I can buy anything and in a relatively short amount of time.  When you go shopping here you never know what experience you might have.  You have to watch where you walk.  Sometimes the road is so uneven that if you don’t you will trip on the uneven walkway.  Also you might end up stepping in something messy or even step on some one.  There are always lots of sales people and most of the time they are vying for your attention to buy something.  And there is a different store for everything.  If you want fruit or veggies you go to one store.  If you want bread you go to another store. If you want anything else there are several stores selling the different items.  It always takes lots of time and there is hardly ever any parking space.

I usually don’t go to the store alone.  I have a friend who is always willing to get out and go anywhere with me and today was no different.  We went to the store to look for yarn.  Kind of a tricky thing to find here because most of the time if you want yarn or thread, you get some one to sew the item for you.  But we needed yarn for an object lesson.  After we finished our shopping, we were standing by the side of the mall waiting for our driver to come pick us up to go home.  Since shopping is always a different experience we often take our cameras with us and take pictures.  My friend asked me to take a picture of her.  I was standing by a guard post with about a foot of space between me and the wooden structure.  My friend was posing and I was getting ready to snap the photo when all of a sudden I was pushed out of the way (with a little bit of force).  I looked over to see what the deal was and I saw a rather large cow walking by me.  Apparently I was in his way!  As I said, “Shopping in India is always a real treat!”

Riding in Delhi - Redux

This post has be updated - I figured out a way to link the video to Vimeo, which should give much better quality.

I was able to squeeze my bike into our air shipment, which means that I have it here in Delhi. My friend introduced me to a group of people that ride and I've been startign to ride with them. Of course, they have been doing this for years virtually year round and I've been doing this for days. I am really out of shape compared to these guys, but they are kind and ride slow and do easy rides when I ride with them. Not wanting to slow them down forever, I started riding a bit more often by myself. It is going to be a long time before I am in their league, but they are really welcoming and it is fun to have a group to ride with.

In my efforts to get into shape, I've been riding to India Gate and back. It is between 22km and 25km, depending on the exact roads I take. It has become my standard 'get in shape' ride. One morning I shot some video of the ride and I've been using some demo video editing programs to edit it into something that is more interesting than my last attempt. (See the boring video tour of our flat for an example of just how bad video I edit can be.) I think this effort is light years better than the last, but I will leave it to your judgement. Hopefully it gives you some insight into some of the things I see on an early morning ride.

Here is a shot of the rout from my flat to India Gate and back.

Here's the video. Hope you find it interesting. It was fun to try to edit this.

Ride to India Gate from The Tahi on Vimeo.

We’re in our new home!

The big news for the week is that we are now in our home.  Our air shipment was delivered on Saturday and we spent the night last night.  Of course, the air shipment is pretty limited, so we are running with only a few things.  We are sleeping on air mattresses, we have a card table and a few folding camp chairs for our dining set, we have a few pans, plates, forks, etc. in the kitchen.  However, all the essentials are here, including a sofa and two chairs that we purchased here while we are waiting for our sea shipment to arrive.  There are no drapes yet, the place echoes terribly (all the marble floors, no furniture, no drapes, etc.), we are still figuring out how to turn the lights on, but it is home and we are happy to be here.  It is strange that we are so ready to leave a 5 star hotel for the almost empty flat, but we are really glad to be here.  Now Becca has the right sized spoon to use.  Here’s the only utensil we had before our air shipment got here.

Today I’ve been thinking about how miscommunications make for funny experiences.  At the hotel they have a big buffet for breakfast.  In addition to all the food set out, they have a couple of chefs behind the counter that will fix eggs, omelets, etc.  There are also a couple of other stations, one of which will fix you pancakes or french toast.   One morning Michelle decided she wanted french toast using the bread they had at the toaster station rather than the bread at the pancake cart.  She told the guy that she wanted two slices of french toast, but wanted the bread over by the toaster.  He said ok and told her the toast was over across the room.  So Michelle went and picked up bread and brought it over to him.  Bottom line, he fixed four slices of french toast with his bread and four slices with the bread that Michelle brought.  Of course, she really only wanted two, so I had french toast that morning.  We have had some other experiences like that where you think you are communicating, you think you understand what the other person is saying, but at the end of the day, it turns out you weren’t even on the same planet let alone having the same conversation.

We are still trying to get our car ordered.  At this point, I don’t think it will come before we loose our temporary driver.  I’ll have to call and try to get an extension.  Otherwise, we may get to try out the mass transportation here in Delhi!

We have had a lot of rain from the monsoons.  One day, Michelle and I want to a market to pick up some things and have lunch.  While we were in lunch, it *really* started pouring.  After we finished eating, we waited a while to see if the rain would let up.  The rain started slowing, so we headed out the door.  Not ten steps down the lane and it really opens up again.  We ran to a store and took cover under the awning.  We couldn’t see where our driver was parked, so we tried to call.  Of course, with all the people trying to get out of the market and call drivers, etc. we couldn’t get through.  I ended up wading in water up to my knees to find the car and our driver.  By the time we found the car and picked up Michelle, I was as wet as I’ve ever been.  Think standing in the shower with your clothes on.  You would almost be as wet I was. 

 

We also went looking for some furniture.  We need a cabinet for our DVDs and sooner or later I want a few things made here.  They have these really cool coffee tables that are made out of really old carved doors or window shutters.  Anyway, we went to this place that has a warehouse in a ‘farm house’ out in the country.  It was a pretty cool place and they have lots of things.

 

 

Cool painted cabinets

 

 

 

 

 

Some stuff that is carved

 

 

 

 

 

We really liked this one, but the drawers are too shallow to hold DVDs

 

 

 

 

When we were there, I noticed the woodworking tools that the craftsman use.  Some of the pieces they sell are really old and they have craftsmen that fix them and make them look new again.  They do pretty good work with their tools.  Wonder what they would think of my stuff back home.  I am really spoiled by my tools back home and probably couldn’t produce anything worth having if I used the tools these craftsmen did.

 

Their table saw

 

 

 

 

My table saw

 

They do most of their work by hand and these are the tools they use.  These really aren’t much different than the hand tools that we tend to use in the states – except for the fact that we tend to use hand tools that are much better made and cost an awful lot more!

Testing . . . testing

So a week or so back, I tried to post a boring video tour of our flat to our blog. It was more a test of whether I could actually post video than anything else. I am a terrible videographer and frankly have no idea how to edit or utilize video (slide shows, on the other hand, they are my thing). The prior test didn’t work out. I’ve reworked the video and will try to post it again just to see if it works. Watch at your own risk. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

On another note – does anybody actually read this thing? No comments on my entries either means that the post was too boring, or that no one is reading. So let me know if you are out there, ok?

Raksha Bandhan

Today is Raksha Bandhan (see here) which I think is a pretty cool festival.  Apparently it isn’t a day that is taken by everyone as a holiday (the busses still run, shops are open, etc.) but some businesses and our driver took the day off.  It is worth reading at least the first paragraph or two of the wiki entry I linked to above, but the festival is designed to draw brothers and sisters closer together.  The name of the festival means “the bond of protection” in Hindi and a few other languages.  On the festival, the brother will go to his sister’s house and she will tie a rakhi or holy thread on her brother’s wrist.  The brother, in turn, offers a gift to his sister and promises to look after her.  The sister presents sweets to her brother, or the brother and sister exchange sweets, I didn’t really understand that part when our driver was explaining it to us.  In any event, I think it is a pretty cool festival.

How often as parents do we hope our children ‘get along’ and take care of one another.  When our children were smaller, I was happy if there wasn’t any blood when I came home from work.  Today, with all of our children leaving home, getting married, and starting families of their own, I appreciate more the sentiment of the festival where a brother makes that ‘bond of protection’ to his sister.  Of course, I’m reading all kinds of western values into what is happening and the reality here within the culture is very different.  Still, it is great to think that your children will take care of one another. 

Sorry, no pictures to go along with this post.  go read the wiki entry or search for rakhi on the internet.  You’ll get the idea!

Happy Independence Day

Today is India's independence day. On 15 August, 1947 the British handed over rule to the people that live in India There is a pretty good description in Wikipedia of the various festivities that happen. Of course, since it was Sunday, we missed out on everything. Our driver had the day off so we had to take taxis to church today. Attendance was down since it was difficult or impossible for some folks. Apparently a lot of the buses weren't running today, which made it difficult for people to get to church.

I've thought a lot about our own country's independence and how it brings out patriotic feelings and a deep gratitude for those that have sacrificed their lives for our freedoms. It was really great to see that the people here have the exact same feelings of patriotism and gratitude.

Michelle gave a talk today on the parables of Christ. She focused on the parable of the talents. She did a really great job. One thing that we have noticed, is that many people who convert to the church here in India make great sacrifices to join the church. A lot of them go against the wishes of their families or give up position or station in life. Our Branch President is quite young (in the 25-30 range) and comes from one of the top casts here in India. He is a very humble and spiritual man, but as you can imagine, his family was less than pleased that he decided to join the church. Many of the Saints here are so very faithful and work so hard to be good examples and to share their faith with others.

Weekly Update

We have been here a whole week now and things are moving along, if slowly. I think you learn patience here in Delhi. It took almost a whole week to get signed up for mobile phone service and get them activated. I'll probably head into work sometime this week. I am getting ready for a bit more structure in my life. Maybe mid week or there abouts. We'll see depending on how the errands we need to get done go.

Rebecca went to Seminary last week. One day, on the way to the church, she saw an elephant. The driver stopped so she could take a picture. She was really excited.

One day we went to look at furniture and saw an ox cart pulling a bunch of logs. I think they were headed to the shops to be cut up and made into furniture. The "old" vs. "new" is pretty much anywhere you look in Delhi. Lots of opportunities to see the juxtaposition.

I've talked about the traffic in Delhi before. Here's a good shot of a two lane intersection. It is simply amazing how traffic can be going all over the place like this and it all works out with no accidents or anything.

We were out to the flat today and officially took possession. Of course, our stuff is somewhere between Sammamish and Delhi and so we aren't ready to move in yet. The hotel is nice, but I think we are ready to move into the flat - and we've only been in the hotel a week. I made a video of the flat, but I can't seem to get it uploaded. I've worked on it for a week (I wrote this post last Sunday), so I'm just going to post this without the video and maybe I can figure it out later.