NUTS (Night Under the Stars)

My first saree...Jon's first kerta....check it out!


http://picasaweb.google.com/lauravandyke/NightUnderTheStarsMarch2008

The weather

Just 2 weeks ago, I was wearing my sweatshirt in the house, turning on the space heaters, and wishing for winter to end. Last weekend, I was telling everyone back home how fantatic the weather was (very spring like, pleasant and gorgeous). This weekend, I would like to say that the heat is here, and it is HOT! How did this happen? 5 day Spring?! what's up with that? And if it's hot now, oh my...what are we in for in the coming months?

Walking alone...

The other day (ok, let's be honest, this actually happened 3 or 4 weeks ago, but I've been meaning to write about it since then!) I walked to my friend Becky's house from school. It was about 7:15pm and already dark, but she lives very close to school in a nice, safe diplomat neighborhood:) Well, despite this knowledge, the walk was dark and I was on the street by myself, and my mind began to wander. So, I picked up the pace and broke out into a jog. However, when I saw someone walking down the street towards me, I would slow down so as to save any energy for later, necessary running. At one point, someone was walking right down the middle of the road (not a busy road - a neighborhood street completely empty of cars or tuk tuks) towards me. He/She appeared to have on a large hoody with the hood pulled up over his/her head. He/she was fairly big and bulky, and began to make my quite nervous. I mean, really, hoody's can make people look freaky/creepy in the dark. Well, as we got closer to each other (heart racing...), I realized that this person was quite LARGE (hearting beating faster...), and then I remembered that I live in India (heart slowing down....), and that, duh, it's a cow....a large cow with his large hump, who apparently rules the roads of this neighborhood. I gave him a nod and continued on my way.....

Our Second Visitor!

Jon's friend, Martin, came to town and stayed with us for several days. I would post a picture of Jon's and Martin's adventures together, but when I asked them if they took any pictures together during their outings, they immediately laughed at me. Is that a girl thing? Allison and I couldn't take enough pictures together:)

One of the highlights of his visit was our trip to Karim's....meat fest! Racks of lamb, kebabs, chicken tandoori...mmmm mmmm....(note the yummy leftovers in the following picture). Rest assured that when you visit, we will take you there.

Other than this highlight, life has been moving along. We're doin' our thang. We were supposed to update this blog on Monday with pictures from our weekend trip to the Taj Mahal, but due to my second cold/flu of the past 3 weeks, we bailed. I'm finally on the up and up, and it looks like the weather is too! Yay! the cold is almost gone! i can stop sleeping in sweatshirts and fleeces, and for a month or so, we may actually enjoy full on, beautiful, nice spring weather. Around April, though, the heat will supposedly be back in full force.

Our First Visitor!

My good friend Allison was in town last weekend, and it was fabulous:) We saw the sights of Delhi (perfect as I have not seen much of the history of this city I call home....in my defense, however, it is not until the current months that the weather is bearable enough for long days of sight-seeing and shopping) and we hit up some great markets. We ate delish food, including a trip to one of the top 50 restaurants in the World (according to Restaurant Magazine), Bukhara. It was indeed delightful.

Oh all the sights we visited and the good food we ate, our favorite part of the weekend was probably our ride on the Delhi metro. As we exited the station in Connaught Place, we trailed behind an Indian couple, who had evidently just rode the Metro for the first time. First they struggled to figure out what to do with their metro token in order to exit the automatic gates, but the cutest part of all was the escalator episode. They immediately hesitated upon encountering the moving stairs. The husband kept nudging his wife to go forward just like everyone else. She refused until he did so first. So, he stepped in front of her and...froze. Meanwhile we had already boarded the escalator, but I wanted so badly to run back down and help them overcome their fear. Ultimately, they gave up and took the stairs. I hope they give it another try:)

You check out more pics of Allison's visit in Picasa!

Bali pics!

Bali pictures are now uploaded into Picasa. You can check them out by clicking on the picture link at the right. Enjoy!

Bali Highlights

We're back in Delhi now and have already started school, but I thought that I'd take a moment to share a few more Bali stories. Here are some of the highlights:

In just about every bungalow/guesthouse that we stayed in, we had other houseguests. For example, flying ants decided to sleep in our bed one evening while we were at dinner in Ubud. A swarm of moths fought with all their might to squeeze through the window cracks (losing their wings along the way) just to be close to our lamps in Munduk, a rat/mouse left little treats for us scattered throughout our bungalow and stole our soap (no lie) in Permuteran, and geckos sprayed our room with junk from their trunks in Keliki. How sweet.

We went on a couple of fantastic dives! We saw 2 green turtles about a meter in width. Jon woke one up, it turned its head, yawned and floated away. very cool.

The people in Bali are incredibly friendly. It's a culture without a word for hello. Rather, they greet each other with smiles. We went on a bike ride with a guide named Dewa, who took us to his house, shared with us lots of Balinese history and culture and fed us some amazing tea and the best rice crackers we've ever had. The Balinese pride themselves on their soil because in every home, the families can grow everything they need - you name a vegetable or spice, and they've got it in their backyard.

Lak Lak (the above photo)! yummy! Lak lak is a balinese breakfast dish of 5 small (about the size of half a golf ball) pancakes made from rice flour with palm sugar and coconut sprinkled on top. Absolutely delish!

Last but not least, I must speak of the massages. In 20 days, I received 10 massages. Scalp, foot, body, facial, foot/hands and feet/hands/shoulder/neck massages. I have definitely found my favorite massage style....the balinese got it goin' on:)

Well, that's about it! Stay tuned for pictures!