Home Again, Home Again

Originall published May 7, 2010 on our other blog.

So we are back in the US and it is good to be home. The flight back was loooonnnnnnggggg. So when you come visit us, be prepared for quite a trip. My tail bone had never been so sore in my life. I was really wishing for a business class seat!

The top 10 great things about being back in the US, in no particular order:

1. You can drink the water out of the tap


2. You actually understand the rules of the road while driving


3. It isn't 113 degrees (although since I've been back, I just can't get warm!)


4. Everything is green in Seattle


5. You recognize the food you eat


6. You get to sleep in your own bed (when you can get over the jet lag that is - I've been up at about 3 a.m. most days this week)


7. You understand the programs on TV


8. Your cell phone works so it is easy to get in touch with folks


9. We are back with Rebecca


10. You can get a hamburger if you want

We haven't actually settled on a house yet, however. Out of all the places we looked at, we liked the home that Marty and Donna were living in the best. It looks like the landlord simply wants too much in rent, however, so I am not optimistic that Marty and Donna's place will work out. So we are considering our other options. The current second choice is more in the flight path of the airport so there is a lot of airplane noise. I'm not excited about that, but it has a lot of things that we need, and that we didn't find in other places. So we'll see how things work out.

To Find a Home

Originally published May 1, 2010 on our other blog.

We’ve been in Delhi this last week looking for a home for when we move.  It has been an interesting experience.  We communicated with Radil, our consultant, prior to coming to Delhi and let her know what we were looking for.  A flat with at least 3 bedrooms and an office (or 4 bedrooms where one could be used as an office), servants quarters, in the area around Vasant Vihar, where Marty currently lives.  We wanted to stay in roughly the same area since Jaya, who will be our cook/housekeeper, has a roommate who owns a nearby restaurant and they need to stay in the area.

The day started with Radil meeting us in the hotel lobby and presenting us with an agenda for the day.  It read something like, leave the hotel, spend all day running up and downs stairs looking at one flat after another in heat so hot that you could bake pottery in it until you cry uncle.  Or at least that was the way it turned out. 

Radil had compiled a list of some 35 flats that she wanted us to see.  We needed to climb the stairs to look at most of them since the lift was out in most of the apartments.  I can tell you that climbing a million stairs in 113 degree temperature is a way to get a workout!  Even though we did take time out for lunch, by about 4:30 we were pretty wilted and were ready to head back to the hotel.

We saw some pretty nice flats, some absolutely horrible flats, and a lot in between.  Michelle’s favorite was a ground floor flat with a basement.  In the basement was a full ‘disco’ dance floor, complete with flashing lights.  Sorry, but we won’t be living there.  It had a bedroom in the basement, which ‘is not strictly legal’ here in Delhi.  So it was back to work, climbing stairs and looking at flats and hoping that in the next flat, the power would be on so someone could turn on the ceiling fans.

The biggest problem was that virtually all the flats only had one servants quarters.  We really need two.  One for Jaya and one for Joginder (our driver).  At the end of day 1, we had found only one place that had two servants quarters.  It was a home, with an upstairs and downstairs.  It was older and had been renovated.  However, the landlord was pretty proud of the fact that he had turned over 15 people down from renting the flat.  I had a unsettling feeling about the landlord, so we crossed that one off the list.

At the end of two days of looking, and returning to a couple of flats, we had two possibilities.  One was Marty and Donna’s current flat.  The other was another flat that had two servants quarters, but was closer to the airplane flight path (planes flying over made it impossible to talk).  We’ve asked the agency to start negotiations for Donna and Marty’s flat.  If things work out, it will be nice because 1) Jaya and Joginder can just stay where they are; 2) we can leave all the appliances we are buying from Donna and Marty in place and don’t have to store and move them.  The flat has some drawbacks, but it the best that we’ve seen and we’re excited to get the process under way.

I don’t have a picture of the outside of the flat, but I did take this picture of a huge moth we saw while looking at all the flats.  Becca, this is for you!

Old Delhi

Originally posted April 18, 2010 on our other blog.

Yesterday, I went with Donna and the girls down to their favorite jewelry shop in Old Delhi. The Wikipedia entry sure doesn’t do this part of the city justice. Old Delhi used to be the capital, until New Delhi was built. We took the subway down to Chandi Chowk, and walked a short distance to the shop. I didn’t take many pictures, but the Wiki entries all show these broad streets with few people. The reality is you can almost touch the shops on each side of the little lanes if you stretch your arms out. This is a more accurate representation (although there weren’t many people yet).

We were there before most of the shops were opened (only about 10:30 or so). Note the wiring. Somehow I don’t think that it meets whatever safety standard there is in the US. Down these little alleys you have people, motorcycles, scooters, and peddle rickshaws all squeezing by each other. The sights and sounds can be overwhelming.



Then, off the busy alley, there is a quiet little dead-end lane. You step through a door, and it gets really quiet. The lane is lined with these small little apartments (I can’t remember the real name). There is a Jain temple (the one in the Wiki is not the one in the lane) all carved in marble down at the end of the lane. Apparently, when the capital moved to new Delhi (sometime around 1945 I think), many people locked their apartments and moved south. Inside many of these little places, it is still 1945.

Biking In Delhi

Originally posted on April 18, 2010 on our other blog.

I went on my first bike ride in Delhi last week. We left early one morning, and headed out to the “bush”. From Marty’s house, it is amazing how quickly you get from city to no-city. Here’s an example of a little green valley we rode by.



On the way we saw a lot of people walking to work or just out for a morning walk. Everyone greeted the two westerners with a hearty “Good Morning”. We also saw a lot of peacocks, which I gather are pretty common in the area where we were riding. Everyone was carrying a two-liter bottle of water, which Marty said was their ‘bathroom’ (in other words, no toilet paper, use your left hand and wash when you are done). That is why you don’t handle food or anything with your left hand here.



We also met a bunch of workers, who were apparently hauling sand for construction of some sort. You can’t really see it in the picture, but they are bringing their donkeys up the trail. They had a shovel attached to each one and they would (apparently) load the donkey and use them to haul the sand.



You don’t ride over any branches in the trail and this is why. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such large thorns. Tire liners and tubes with sealant inside are a definite must! I wonder if any tire/bike/liner manufactures would like to use us as testers for their products?



Out in the middle of nowhere is Sultan Ghari's tomb. Apparently this is one of the first Islamic tombs and was built in 1231 AD. Marty said that there is usually a guard sleeping on the top of the tomb inside (the real tomb is down underground). He said that if you want to go in, they will charge you. Sometimes it is Rs 100, sometimes only Rs 30, you never know what they will ask for. We didn’t go in, but maybe I’ll go back someday.



Just so you know that I was really there. By this time, it was probably around 7:00 a.m. and I was starting to feel the building heat. It is hard going from very cool Seattle weather to the hottest April on record. While I’ve been here we’ve hit around 43 or 44 degrees C (109-111 F). By the time we got back to the flat, I was really struggling



And for Rebecca, who loves cows, we saw this one out back of the tomb.

The Beginning of a Long Month

Originally posted on April 11, 2010 on our other blog.

So the month of April will be a long month for me. As I write this, it is Sunday afternoon (April 11) and I’m sitting in my hotel room at the Hyatt Hotel in Delhi. I’ve been in Delhi for about a week (I left Seattle last Monday) and will be here through next week. After that, I’ll head to Japan for a week, then home for a couple of days, and then back to Delhi with Michelle for a house hunting trip. Whew! It will be a busy month and I’m tired just writing about it.

It is HOT in Delhi and it is only April. I left Seattle to the normal rainy weather with a temperature of about 45 F (7 C). It has been about 100 F (38 C) while I’ve been here. I can’t wait to see what it is like when we move in July!

I was chatting with Marty, the person I’m replacing, and he said that his family took every chance they could to get out of the city and into the hills. The British used to move the capital from Delhi to Shimla in the summer. Based on what I’ve seen of Delhi in the summer so far, sounds great to me!

Since my last trip to India, the traffic hasn’t improved, so I guess that I have this to look forward to for the next several years. When I took this picture, the traffic was in neat, orderly rows, a very unusual occurrence! Usually, it is cars and motorcycles and buses and people and everything else all over the road. It seems that the marked lanes are only vague suggestions. There are usually at least three cars and several motorcycles across in a two lane road. I just ignore what is going on and leave everything to the driver. It all seems to work out.

Nothing to do with India

Originally posted on my other blog on March 9, 2010

OK, this has nothing to do with India, but I just couldn't resist posting a link. I only like some of OK Go's stuff, but they have some really inventive videos. Remember the treadmills? This new video is my all time favorite so far! Gizmodo reports that the vide took two days and sixty (!) takes to shoot this video. To reset the machine took thirty volunteers about an hour. Lots of other fun information in the report.

Why Do We Have So Much Stuff?

Originally posted on my other blog March 8, 2010

In February 2010, I interviewed for a position that would take our family from Sammamish, Washington to New Delhi, India. I have since been notified that I received the position and that I would receive an offer and the announcement has gone out to the group and family and friends.

It is an interesting experience when you tell people that you are moving your family to India for three years. Usually they blink a few times wondering if they actually heard you correctly. Once they decide they did hear you correctly, one of two things happens. Either the person starts talking about how incredible that is and what a wonderful opportunity and how they would love to do something like that or the person gets a funny look on their face and says something like, “are you crazy”? At various times I have thought both of those things since we’ve started down this road. It is an incredible, wonderful opportunity and yes, sometimes I do think I’m crazy.

Moving to India has changed many things about the way I look at my life, our home, and our possessions. It even has changed the way that I think about things like birthdays and Christmas. You need to think carefully whether the gift will be useful in India. Here are some of the things that we own that we will need to sell or leave:

1. Pretty much anything with a plug due to the differences in voltage. This means things like televisions and electronics. It also means things like vacuums, blenders, hair dryers, appliances, and all the electric tools in my shop.
2. Our cars
3. Our boat
4. My motorcycle (*snif*)
5. Our piano
6. Some of our furniture
7. My road bike (the roads are terrible and a road bike would be virtually useless)
8. All the stuff out in the shed (lawn mowers, gardening tools, etc.)
9. Almost everything in the garage (Brenton, you know that box of stuff you have hanging around out there? Well, you need to come get it or it is going away!)
10. A lot of the books on our bookshelf that should have been given away long ago
11. All that junk that accumulates from living in a house for 10 years (ok this stuff is going to the dump not to storage)

Much of the stuff that we spend our lives acquiring will be largely useless. Many of the things that I thought would be cool to have or that I thought I couldn’t live without are now way down at the bottom of the importance list. I’ve been thinking about what that says about how I spend my time and money. The good news is that it is a great time to reorient to what is really important.