We made it! And apparently can steal wifi internet from our neighbor across the hall so we should be able to keep in touch. The flights and everything went really well. We got Suri all checked in and they fed her and gave her water in Brussels. The plane ride was good. Realllllllllly long, but good. When we got to the airport in India we went to baggage claim with about 500 other people all huddled around one turnstyle waiting for our bags. It took about an hour, but we got all our bags and they wheeled out the pug. We flashed some papers to the guys in customs and they just let us walk out the door. They wanted to see the dog's paperwork but they didn't check bags or anything. Then the folks from the school met us outside and drove us to our apartment.
We got in our place around 3am and went directly to bed. We got up again to catch a van to the school to do a bunch of paperwork and orientation stuff. We were supposed to be there at 8 am but when we showed up there was no van. Apparently some other people got in and didn't realize we were coming so they took off without us. So we waited around the apartment for about an hour and a half trying to call people and figure out what was going on. We have a very nice desk manager named Buwar who tried to be helpful but really doesn't speak english so that didn't do much. We eventually got to the school and started working on health forms, signing up for cell phones, bank accounts, and other things like that. We grabbed a quick sack lunch and went downtown to registration office which was all in all about a 5 1/2 hour adventure. The traffic is rediculous and it takes over an hour to get downtown (which is only about 4 or 5 miles away). So after driving an hour to get there, spending 2 hours waiting and filling out paperwork, and another 2 1/2 hours to drive back home we got back to our place around 5:30. We hung out for an hour then caught another van to go to dinner. We drove around and picked everyone up and went to a nice little chinese restaurant. Then it was home and back to bed. We got to sleep around 10 last night and are now up at 6am which is a good nights sleep all things considered. Today we are going to do some unpacking and cleaning up then we are going back to school at 9 to finish doing all our paperwork stuff. (They just brought in people from banks, hospitals, phone companies, etc to the school to have a little business fair-type thing where we can walk around and get all the things we need). Hopefully we will finish early this afternoon then we are planning to come back to the apartment and adventure out around town to try and buy cell phones and do some shopping and exploring.
So the city is pretty crazy. There aren't really any street signs or traffic lights or even any real defined intersections. There are some on the major roads but mostly its a twist and turn of back roads and streets that seem pretty hard to navigate. The driving is just as wild as it looks in the videos, everything is chaotic but it all seems to flow and work somehow. Our apartment is huge, I'm not sure square footage but it is comparable to a house for sure. We have 3 bedrooms, each with its own bathroom (one of which is also the laundry room) and wide open entry/dining area . It's really nice. We have US-style toilets and walk in showers and big closets (which is great since we have a lot of stuff). So it looks like we will have at least one guest room and turn the other bedroom into an office/storage area/bedroom depending on how we feel once our stuff gets here. The floors are all marble and the walls are all concrete or tile so I think if we want to hang stuff we have to have people come up and drill holes. It sounds like we can paint too which is exciting so we may start that sometime in the next week as well. They have provided all sorts of food and books and maps and city guides and everything we need to get oriented so we feel well taken care of.
The weather is what we expected, humid and wet. The rain is actually alot like Washington in that its pretty light and drizzly but every once in a while they get a huge downpour for 20 minutes or so. It's not raining all the time though, it's actually really nice because it gets windy when it's stormy out which feels really good. I'm guessing the temperature is around 80 but it doesn't feel very hot. We've been wearing jeans and long sleeves and been very comfortable. EVERYTHING is air conditioned too so actually we are freezing cold most of the time so it feels good to go outside. Our apartment has about 7 million air conditioners and humidifiers that are running constantly to keep the moisture out which seems pretty necessary or else everything gets really damp. We are still trying to figure out the balance of how much A/C we need to keep dry without freezing to death. I think we're getting close.
Well, our battery is running low so I will end here. We got our laptops from the school yesterday so once we get an electric adapter for this computer or figure out how to get hooked up online with the school's laptops we will send out some more updates. We've taken a number of pictures already and I'm going to try to get the video camera out and take some shots of our apartment and surrounding area once we get settled. So that will be coming soon. But for now everyone is safe and healthy and having a good time. More to come!
We got in our place around 3am and went directly to bed. We got up again to catch a van to the school to do a bunch of paperwork and orientation stuff. We were supposed to be there at 8 am but when we showed up there was no van. Apparently some other people got in and didn't realize we were coming so they took off without us. So we waited around the apartment for about an hour and a half trying to call people and figure out what was going on. We have a very nice desk manager named Buwar who tried to be helpful but really doesn't speak english so that didn't do much. We eventually got to the school and started working on health forms, signing up for cell phones, bank accounts, and other things like that. We grabbed a quick sack lunch and went downtown to registration office which was all in all about a 5 1/2 hour adventure. The traffic is rediculous and it takes over an hour to get downtown (which is only about 4 or 5 miles away). So after driving an hour to get there, spending 2 hours waiting and filling out paperwork, and another 2 1/2 hours to drive back home we got back to our place around 5:30. We hung out for an hour then caught another van to go to dinner. We drove around and picked everyone up and went to a nice little chinese restaurant. Then it was home and back to bed. We got to sleep around 10 last night and are now up at 6am which is a good nights sleep all things considered. Today we are going to do some unpacking and cleaning up then we are going back to school at 9 to finish doing all our paperwork stuff. (They just brought in people from banks, hospitals, phone companies, etc to the school to have a little business fair-type thing where we can walk around and get all the things we need). Hopefully we will finish early this afternoon then we are planning to come back to the apartment and adventure out around town to try and buy cell phones and do some shopping and exploring.
So the city is pretty crazy. There aren't really any street signs or traffic lights or even any real defined intersections. There are some on the major roads but mostly its a twist and turn of back roads and streets that seem pretty hard to navigate. The driving is just as wild as it looks in the videos, everything is chaotic but it all seems to flow and work somehow. Our apartment is huge, I'm not sure square footage but it is comparable to a house for sure. We have 3 bedrooms, each with its own bathroom (one of which is also the laundry room) and wide open entry/dining area . It's really nice. We have US-style toilets and walk in showers and big closets (which is great since we have a lot of stuff). So it looks like we will have at least one guest room and turn the other bedroom into an office/storage area/bedroom depending on how we feel once our stuff gets here. The floors are all marble and the walls are all concrete or tile so I think if we want to hang stuff we have to have people come up and drill holes. It sounds like we can paint too which is exciting so we may start that sometime in the next week as well. They have provided all sorts of food and books and maps and city guides and everything we need to get oriented so we feel well taken care of.
The weather is what we expected, humid and wet. The rain is actually alot like Washington in that its pretty light and drizzly but every once in a while they get a huge downpour for 20 minutes or so. It's not raining all the time though, it's actually really nice because it gets windy when it's stormy out which feels really good. I'm guessing the temperature is around 80 but it doesn't feel very hot. We've been wearing jeans and long sleeves and been very comfortable. EVERYTHING is air conditioned too so actually we are freezing cold most of the time so it feels good to go outside. Our apartment has about 7 million air conditioners and humidifiers that are running constantly to keep the moisture out which seems pretty necessary or else everything gets really damp. We are still trying to figure out the balance of how much A/C we need to keep dry without freezing to death. I think we're getting close.
Well, our battery is running low so I will end here. We got our laptops from the school yesterday so once we get an electric adapter for this computer or figure out how to get hooked up online with the school's laptops we will send out some more updates. We've taken a number of pictures already and I'm going to try to get the video camera out and take some shots of our apartment and surrounding area once we get settled. So that will be coming soon. But for now everyone is safe and healthy and having a good time. More to come!
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