2 years and some change

Well, today is the 2 year mark of me being in India.

Looking back, it's been an adventure, a roller coaster, anything but what I expected.

I've started (and continue to) learn Bengali. I can read, write, speak (to a certain extent) and understand quite a bit. I never imagined I would be learning a new language so late in my life that would be essential for every day, well, maybe Spanish (or brushed up I would say...) if I had stayed in the US. It was hard, and still is...I still have problems trying to say exactly what I want to say in bangla. I either say things in direct translation from english to bangla, which doesn't work, or I say them wrong! It's a work in progress.

Plus...I've had lots of things to learn to deal with, such as the traffic, the stares, and the hardest, being dependent on someone, and living with the in-laws.

The traffic isn't so scary now, I can still remember the first day I arrived in Kolkata. We had taken the Rajdhani Express from Delhi to Howrah. It was an adventure. At Delhi, we had gotten a porter, which I had no experience with, and while we were waiting to board the train, some guy had come up to DH and asked if he wanted his ears cleaned. W-O-W!!! Talk about shocking! I had never taken a train ride before, we had taken over the right side of the train (the bigger part of the compartment) and we spent the night watching movies and just talking and watching the scenery. We had gotten off the train and went to wait in the pre-paid taxi stand to go home, we had numerous taxi drivers try to rip us off, and DH asked me if I wanted him to pay the extra or if we should wait. I said wait...I can still remember the feel of the sweat dripping down my back and face, bap re bap! It was so hot and humid.

The ride home...well, I was seeing things for the first time, and I was scared! The traffic was horrible, and scared the living daylights out of me!! But now I'm cool with it, and I joke with DH about waiting to see how my family deals with the traffic. hehe!

I've always been independent, I hate being dependent on others, and I **HATE** being treated like a child, and always having to tell someone where I am going and what I am going to be doing. I guess, that is just the Indian culture, and I have to deal with it, but having to tell my MIL where I am going and why I am going is getting old. I'm 27 years old, I need my independence, so I'm waiting with bated breath for the day we move out.

Also...the food, the adapting was not so bad...but there are some foods that I can't stand, but I still have to eat...like today...we're having gugni (chick peas)...which I can't stand...but I'll eat it for lunch, and maybe try to convince DH to take me out for a celebration dinner!

Yeah! 2 years!

trains, sardines, fish

 Well...it's that time of the year again. WEDDING SEASON!!!!


We have been invited to...about 4 since February. We don't go to many weddings, DH is very uncomfortable at weddings for some reason. Well, we went to one Thursday, because the young man who was a good friend and ex-work colleague of DH's. We had been going back and forth about going because it was quite some distance from our house. Then DH was swamped with work, and all that.

Well, I had promised the young man that we would come, and I don't take lightly to breaking promises. So we ended up going.

I had previously told the boy that I would wear a sari. Well, stupid me, I didn't practice before, I thought, oh! how hard could it be. Well, even with this Youtube video showing how to wrap it, it didn't happen. I tried really hard to get it right, but the fabric was just fighting against me. *sigh* Instead I wore my salwar suit that I wore for our wedding.

So...we get ready to go and we catch a bus to Ultadanga, where DH tells me we are going to take a local train. No big deal, right?

Well...I was *WRONG*!!! It was insane! One train came, that wasn't ours, and people just pushed on, and packed that train so full, that people were freaking hanging out the doors. Oh, and someone freaking jumped off the train onto the platform and ran straight into me! So...I put my purse over my shoulders, and prepared to get on a train like that. Hmm! Then the next train comes, and we are trying to get on it, and people are pushing! We didn't manage to get on that one. We took the next one though, with DH pushing me so I would get on. Right before the train was about to leave DH was still outside, so I see him pushing himself onto the train. We push in and in. This train is packed to the brim like sardines.

A man sees me, and tells me to come inside. So I push myself past all the people and go into one of the aisles between 2 benches. The guy then told a younger man who was sitting down to "give their guest a seat" and then tells me to sit down. He asked me where I wanted to get off, I didn't know the station name, so I asked Indra. The guy seemed pleased to see that I wasn't alone, and then proceeded to fall asleep while standing up. LOL

Then, about 1 stop before we needed to get off, we got up. It was an adventure, now I'm kinda not wanting to visit Mumbai, as DH says I will face this all day, every day. Yeah!

So, really, we didn't go to the wedding, we went to the bou-bhaat, which is the reception for the groom's side of the family. We went, met the bride, who was gorgeous (although a bit too decked up for me...but traditional Bengali style)! Then...it was time to eat...well, it was a traditional Bengali meal, which meant fish! Fish fry, fish curry...lots of fish. Needless to say, I only ate a bit of rice, and some gravy. :-)

We had fun! :-) And the train on the way home was MUCH emptier, thank goodness!

Funny things

So...a friend's son had his 4th birthday party on Sunday (27th) and we had purchased him a gift. There was some ideas to make given with the gift. Here are some "examples" that made me laugh and grab my camera!!

This looks more like a loaf of french bread to me than a hot dog?!?!

Um, since when do we carve watermelons? and since when do they look more like pumpkins, and have a stem??

Ok...this one i can't figure out how to flip it on here...but seriously, a clown that looks like a freaking snowman, and a lamb, that as DH puts it looks like a baby moose with a "with either a wardrobe malfunction or an off-shoulder dress" rofl...

I mean seriously...do the people who make these things up even know what they are drawing? or so do they just draw what they "THINK" something should look like??

It seems a bit strange to me...

Today I was eating lunch by myself outside. Which gave me plenty of time to people-watch because I didn't have to keep up my side of the conversation.

This is what I saw.

There was 3 people sitting at the table next to me, 2 older ladies and a boy. Well, the boy was addicted to his game boy, and his mother was feeding him. The boy wasn't even looking up from the game, and just opened his mouth while his mother shovelled the food into his mouth.

I was aghast! I mean, this may be a cultural thing...but seriously, it if was my kid, he would have turned off that game and ate himself. geez!

One of those days...

All in all I would consider myself quite lucky. In the transition after the move from the US to here, I haven't had many bad days. I haven't had many emotional breakdowns.

But, the last few days with being sick and a lack of sleep, since Saturday we went out with some friends at 5am for breakfast (more in a minute, will give it a post of its own =P) and not sleeping, I was a mess, and I should have expected.

I was feeling very sorry for myself, and wondering why I had given up all I did to come here? I was feeling very lonely, as DH works a lot...and I don't have many of my own friends, and I didn't want them. I just wanted to be alone and sit in my pity. I suppose its this time of the year, I mean it's almost Christmas, and I'm so far away from my family.

Anyways, I was a major b***h. I admit it, I was, and I apologized to DH a lot. I was just missing my mom, and siblings, and M & J. It was just everything. I have also had a lot of other things on my mind.

I am much better today, but I broke down and cried a lot. I wanted to go home, I looked at prices of round-trip tickets to go home for Christmas (Rs 60,000, way too much right now!!!) and texted my family and told them I missed and loved them.

I even told DH I wanted to get away, and I am hoping that perhaps we can go away for Christmas weekend, or if nothing else, we can get turkey?? Let's see :-)