I have not been writing like I hoped but I have either been too busy or just not in the mood.
Things seem to run in extremes for me in India. I am either very happy and could see us staying here for 3 or 4 years or I am ready to call it quits and come home today. Just last week I was having a rough time. My plans feel through on a few occasions and I was feeling very isolated and alone. I had just reached the point of sitting and crying and wishing I was home. Within an hour of starting to cry, I received a phone call from our old relocation agent. He had a new client who would be moving into the neighborhood later that week and they wanted to come and meet us. The wife was nervous about living where we are because it is more isolated than many other areas and her husband was hoping that meeting a fellow American would help her feel better. They were at my house 2 hours later and when they left, she was confident she would be OK and I was ready to face India once again. God knew that I needed a new friend in that moment because the timing was absolutely perfect. I have since decided that I must make plans to have lunch with a friend at least once a week. It is not a luxury here but rather a necessity.
To back track some, we had a great time over the Christmas break. The first week we went to Hong Kong and stayed at Hong Kong Disney the first 3 nights and then went into the city for 3 nights. We all enjoyed Disney. It did not have as many thrill rides as the children would have liked but it was the Disney we know and love with caring people helping you have a magical vacation. We also enjoyed the time in Hong Kong where our favorite thing was the food. N was so excited to have a real McDonald's cheeseburger that we did not even make it out of the airport before he had his first one and it was the last meal he ate on the way back to India. We also got to eat at his favorite restaurant, Outback, while Ken and B enjoyed the dim sum and dumplings.
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| Ocean City Park, Sinterklass |
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| Merlin @ HK Disney |
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| Army Man @ HK Disney |
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| They took B hat and he got the pirate gear. |
After Hong Kong we went to Taipei for 2 nights and met a friend, Tiffany, from the USA. Tiffany is from Taiwan and her son is the same age as B. The boys both were so happy to spend some time together.
She brought us a suitcase full of items from the USA. Our family and friends sent money to our old babysitter and she purchased most of the items for Tiffany to bring. We just paid the extra bag fee which was a lot less expensive and more reliable than shipping. Tiffany took us to Costco in Taiwan and we purchased even more items to bring back to India. There are some things you just can not get here while others are just extremely expensive. For example, we purchase taco seasoning from Costco which was about 3 USD for a large container. Here, it is 3 USD for a single packet of the same thing. By purchasing it in Taiwan I saved over 25 USD. It is similar for cheese and chocolate chips.
The following week was Christmas and Ken took that week off as well. I think there was a total of 5 days that no one left the house and the boys played online games together, calling me in to help when they needed another player. All three of them thought that was the best Christmas week ever.
We are currently planning trips to Ooty and Goa and I now have those planned and all the reservations made. N's birthday is coming up and we will have 4 additional 12 year old boys at our house for 24 hours. That is my next big adventure. After the party it will be time to plan our summer. This is still very much in the air. Right now we plan to take a two week vacation somewhere either at the beginning of the summer or the end. We also plan to let the boys come to the USA for at least 3 weeks. There old sitter has offered to let them come and stay with her so they will be in Austin for at least one week. The details are still no where near completion. Part of the problem is we had originally planned not to come back to the USA this summer, however almost all of the other expats have told us the non-working spouse and children typically leave for most of the summer. Since the Indian schools are in session in June, July and August and most of the expats are gone, that would leave very few play date opportunities which would drive us all insane. I will let you all know as the time gets closer what the final summer plans will be.
I will try to be more current in the future with my posts.
