Caden's Field Trip

Wednesday was a big day for Caden - a field trip in the morning, and a birthday party in the evening. Wow was he excited for his day. The field trip was through Whitefield, to see buildings. They've been learning about different types of buildings all week, and so were going to head out to see some. Telling me all about it, he had SO MUCH FUN, and saw big buildings and little buildings, and a tall building and a house.
Oh to explore the world with so much wonder. It really is the little things in life.

A song in my head

One could probably make the argument that I've always had odd things going through my head, usually in some song format. Sometimes in the form of lyrics I've conncocted myself (think the Momma Jenny song). But lately, the songs in my head have been even more, uh, diverse than usual. Last week I had two songs in my head, concurrently, for most of the week. First was "I'll be home for Christmas" (and sorry mom, but I won't), and the second I couldn't recall the title until Katie helped me out (thanks SISTA) - "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio. Nice combo, huh? Other theme songs have been "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter, "Life by the Drop" by Stevie Ray Vaughn, "Life Less Ordinary" by Carbon Leaf, and "Hallelujah" by KD Lang among others. Friday, the Wizard of Oz classic lyric - "If I only had a brain..." Not sure why I've felt compelled to share this, but anyhow.
On a related note, I need to document for Caden's "scrapbook" that the kid still cries when I sing "On Top of Spaghetti" even in my best fun voice. He gets his alarmed and sad look, and last time I sang it, cried and said "why'd that poor meatball roll off the table?" "I cover my mouth when I sneeze, like this." Fascinating.

Angela's weight-loss plan

Knowing that this is a multi-billion dollar industry, I plan to publish a book one day and make millions. But for now, I'll give you all a free, sneak-peak, abbreviated version of my simple weight-loss secrets (having lost over 10 pounds in six months myself).

• First, move far, far away from mom, grandma, dad, grandpa and good friends (no offense to them, but they are a bad influence, and usually good cooks). And especially far from your sister and her "share a dessert" ideas! And leave the grill at home, how many veggie burgers did you cook on that anyhow?
• Remove all but occasional access to any foods you really enjoy. And not just desserts either; I'm talking milk, cheeses, crackers, candies, Mexican food, fast food, sandwich fixings, pepperoni, ice-cream, beef, chicken, cereals, coffee, muffins, chips, pretzels, cookies, gummy fruit snacks, pizza, pastas and so forth. At least 95% of your current diet can not be available.
• If you're like me, and like to work out when you are stressed, lop on a hearty portion of stress. The weather is nice and the gym is close -- get to it! You'll take a lot of "let it go" work-outs and runs here.
• But if you're thinking of giving up this diet, it's not that the food isn't good. We have an awesome cook (what a bonus huh - you don't even have to make your food). But you do have to get used to not picking what you eat - just whatever you can find, or whatever is made up for you. Craving stir-fry? Tough! Enjoy your overcooked chicken and veggies in spicy sauce. Craving a simple Boboli? Tough! Enjoy your overcooked chicken and veggies in spicy sauce. Craving a brat on the grill and corn on the cob? Don't be crazy! Enjoy your overcooked mutton and veggies.
• Another important aspect of weight-control is portion control. This is much easier when you eat food of roughly the same texture, accompanied by rice and flatbread, pretty much EVERY day. Why overeat today, even if it is good? You get more tomorrow!
• About every 2-3 weeks, go through a bout of, uh, tummy trouble unlike anything you've previously imagined possible. Really painful stuff. The positive side of this is you'll become comfortable talking about digestive health. And as one expat put it, here, immodium is just the fifth food group. Or as I like to say, India is a natural laxative.
• A less talked about aspect of portion control is fear of your food. Given the above pattern, this is an easy one to get, and will make you think twice about that second helping!
• Actually, you might consider "going veg" also, as in vegetarian. I'll have to figure how to explain the view/experience driving by the, uh, chicken and meat stores. It's nearly indescribable, except to say, it makes you think about vegetarianism.
• Now if this diet has you out shopping for some pre-packaged imported food, don't worry. That won't kill the progress - soon enough you'll learn that after sitting on the dock in Chennai for a month, melting and re-constituting, and at 3 times the normal price, it's just not the same food, and not worth it anyhow. Eat your overcooked, potentially naseau-inducing veggies. Tell stories about the food you once ate like fisherman talk whimsically of that one time...
• Now, since you might not be feeling committed to this diet, once in a while a bag of peanut M&M's will show up at your desk, a casual gift from some visitor who didn't realize they were transporting little nuggets more precious than gems. And you get to eat the whole 1-lb bag. ALL of them. And don't worry or feel guilty, the diet still works.
• And doesn't that speak volumes of a diet, it works?!

Of course, I've taken to using safety-pins to hold up my pants. I've decided not to get them tailored - uh, just in case, for some reason... they start to fit again sometime in '08. It could happen. Hopefully the book is out before then.

Poor Mother Earth

Our commute each morning (which has begun to take longer and longer) is host to a wide range of sensory... assaults for lack of a better term. The poverty remains the hardest to get used to, and the public urination the most unnecessary. But all these things, and the rapid pace of development, also take their toll on the Earth. The piles of garbage that line the street could I suppose be picked up. But underneath it is an unfortunate and more lasting impact as lakes are "filled in" and forests are cleared, and the pollution transforms the landscape. Lokesh's take on it was "that's chemical water - it gets the cows so clean" (as it is in fact where you frequently see cows being bathed by their owners stnading in it). Now if that isn't the glass half full view?!? Personally, I'm not altogether convinced that the foaming water can be that good for you. I hope that India is able to quickly reach a point to balance some of the "development" with some care for the environment.

Caden likes to color

And he's getting really quite good at it, if a little bit of a perfectionist (where does he get that from I wonder?). But on Sunday he decided what fun would it be to color a green power ranger, if he could BE one. So he slipped into the bathroom with his green marker. And when he was gone just a little too long, and it was a little too quiet, this is what we discovered:

Trip to Nandi Hills

In keeping with trying to see and enjoy Bangalore and surroundings, we set the next destination to be Nandi Hills – 65km out of Bangalore and 1,478m above sea level. Named after the bull of Lord Shiva, and also known to have been the summer haven of Tipu Sultan, Nandi Hills is known for the “tourist attraction” of a 600m high cliff face from which prisoners are believed to have been thrown. So it sounded like a great place to go and bring the kids.
Oh, and we were informed just before departure, Nandi Hills is also known for the monkeys. In zoos, monkeys are fun. Out of zoos, monkeys are as cute and fun as the stray dogs. Plus they are mischievous, and take food from the kids, and sit on your car... and stuff. But it was fun to get out of the city (if not out of the pollution) and see both history and a little nature. Caden thought every rock on the way there was a mountain, much to Wade’s chagrin (given that the “real” mountains were nowhere in sight). But still, Caden couldn’t wait to climb up the mountain. First of course, came the temple...
And of view of North Bangalore, in monsoon season, through pollution. Still, it was pretty and nice to see a new view of the surroundings.
Then Caden got to climb his mountain. Luckily for him there are no safety standards in India...at all. None.
But it was a good time for a Saturday outing and a good test of my ability to physically restrain my child (I can). So good times all around.
On the way back, we had brought a picnic lunch along with our favorite neighbors, Michele and Stacy, who was visiting from Minneapolis. Of course, you can't eat where there are monkeys so we drove a little down the mountain (after finding our driver who had wandered off and then after stopping for Caden, who literally three minutes in announced definitively he had to poop). So we got down the" mountain" and ate lunch at a, uh...restaurant? that had some seating and would let us sit there if we bought something. We selected warm beer and cough medicine/church wine and settled into our dirty plastic chairs amongst the stray dogs and more flies than I've yet seen. But what outing would be complete without just a little teeny reminder of at least one of the comforts of home? In fact I spent the whole next day at home, in bed, vomiting and in serious pain. Who knows why. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the awesome spaghetti and meatball dinner we enjoyed, but maybe I didn't have enough martinis to kill the germs from earlier?

Happy Birthday to ME!

Wow, have to say, this was a big birthday! First of all, I turned 30. Yep 3-0. I wouldn't go so far as to say I feel ambivalent about this - I did in fact consider a mid-life crisis of several sorts and "age" crossed my mind in several weeks leading up to it. But heck, I'd already sold our house and cars and moved my family to the middle of South India with what we could pack in an air shipment. Ahead of the curve I should say. And seriously, I like to think back to when one of our best family friends was asked about getting "old" by her son, and she replied without hesitation that she wouldn't be younger even if she could; the experiences and wisdom she'd gained with age were more important. And so, even with a little more reluctance and a little less grace, I turned 30 and will say, I wouldn't trade in the experience of the last six months (wisdom is still out to jury) even if I could be 29 again. I can't even describe the ways I've "grown up" of late - maybe even a little more patient, tolerant, empathetic and appreciative. The myriad of experiences here haven't always been fun - from homesickness to power outages - but they have been valuable.

And I said a little more patient... I still went for my birthday run - the annual three mile jog "to prove I still can" that I've taken the last 11 years. I wouldn't say I didn't break a sweat, but I still can. And I took some other advice I'd gotten regarding some stress at work, and along the jog - let it go. Time to move forward, and work on that wisdom piece of experience.

On the MUCH lighter side, birthdays here appear to be a BIG deal always. It seems however, that you can NOT celebrate before the actual day - WAY bad luck. To the point that HH last Friday was nearly postponed, lest... I don't know. But I am incredibly supersititous. Luckily don't really need a reason to drink so we just went (try not to mention the upcoming birthdays). On my actual brithday of course, at 6am, the SMS's started rolling in from my friends, team, driver, etc. The day at work was filled with birthday wishes of "many happy returns of the day" - I'm not totally sure what this means, but I think the jist of it is and many more. I had cake three times complete with celebrations throughout the day. The training team came to my desk with an enormous card and sang (and not bad singing either). My team had a surprise meeting with cake and a sweet card. Seven bouquets of flowers filled the house. Friends brought gifts of clothes and jewelry - seriously - pearls. WOW!!! I thought I was over the top by singing happy birthday to myself. They really do it up here. And to end the day at work, kicked off a mentor program that I am seriously excited about. I know I'm a geek, but hey, it's my birthday.

And then Wade, Caden and I headed out to dinner at BBQ Nation. I wanted to have a "family" outing to top off the day. But it was late, and India where nothing is a hurry even with a hungry three year old. And although the food was awesome and the martini was chilled, I was reminded why we don't ordinarily dine out with our adorable three year old (gaining that wisdom again). He wanted rice for dinner. White rice. But then "it wasn't cooked." I assured him it was; he said it was cold then. We got him ice cream - white. He changed his mind and wanted chocolate sauce. We went and got him some (buffet). He didn't want it then. We scraped it off. And so on and on. It wasn't totally picture-perfect, but he fell asleep in the ride home - and who can't love that conked out, head sideways way kids sleep in the car - adorable! It was a good day - many happy returns to all!

Anniversary / Birthday / GETAWAY

After a few long weeks, Wade and I were able to get out of Bangalore “just the two of us” if you can imagine. Not that every weekend was a romantic getaway in MN, but living four miles from mom and dad had it’s advantages for date nights! So, nearly six months into our Bangalore stay, I prepped Caden during the week about how everyone needs “special time” from now and then, and that “Dad and I are having some special time together on Saturday” and “you get to sleep over at Murphy’s” until he caught on – responding; “ok, when you get back, Dad will stay at Murphy’s and you and I will go get ice-cream.” Deal.
After packing up more for Caden than for the two of us (tiger cub, book, three outfits, an airplane fleet, a PBJ sandwich, etc. etc.…), we headed out to a “rural” resort 35 km out of Bangalore. If that doesn’t sound like a lot to you, you don’t live in Bangalore. Two and a half hours later, we arrived literally in a rural setting at an incredible, quiet resort – Taj Kuteeram. It’s only 9 rooms, and connected to Nrityagram, a traditional dance village. It was incredibly beautiful and very green. We settled into the room – a stone hut with modern amenities… and took a nap. Hey, I imagine most parents understand. We also joined the 5:00 yoga lesson in the meditation center – ok the “lesson” was just us and the yoga teacher, but Wade was a trooper even with the added attention – “no, like this sir.” I thought it was entertaining anyhow! Then we proceeded to the magic show, which was incredibly entertaining and well done. The resort was beautiful and rejuvenating – on Sunday we watched the dancers practicing at the village – they were really good. Apparently it’s a three year on-site program and pretty serious. But you can’t take pictures unfortunately. It wouldn’t have captured it anyhow – it was pretty cool to watch and we stayed a while. The drive home we were more prepared and decided to stop for lunch to break up the journey – why not the “Only Place” in Bangalore with burgers. We got to the restaurant to find a wait – just 15 minutes. 30 minutes later we were seated and ordered as promptly as possible. 20 minutes later our waiter returned… empty handed…and informed us “no more burger today” and asked what else we would like. Uh, the bill perhaps (we’d had soup and drinks anyhow). Well, one of my frequent observations (despite our limited dining-out) is that menus in India are more of a rough guide to what the place might have than anything else. Menus are usually LONG; offerings… not. So we stopped at the “grocery store” on the way home to grab cheese, wine and buns (for the canned hot dogs for the kids…mmmm). 45 minutes later, I was close to a breakdown and fantasizing about Simon Delivers. Easy come easy go with romantic retreat mood. Luckily, when we left we had both cheese and wine… and a date for me at Baskin Robbins.
Notably (for those of you that know him), after three years of pleading, Caden ate NOT-white ice cream. The same kid that burst into tears when I put chocolate sauce on his ice-cream – “ruining it,” had, after continuous tasting thanks to the Baskin Robbins folks, found something not-vanilla to eat. The first time he tried a couple new flavors he spit it out into my hand. The second time he swallowed it and said – white please. This week, he tried the “yo-yo blast” mango and orange sherbert swirl, and decided he liked it. Whose kid is this anyhow?