Travel in India

I'm falling behind on posting by nearly a month and a half now. It is now March 12th and I've got weekends of travel to catch up on. I can't believe how fast the last month has gone. Before arriving in India, Suzie had sent an invitation to Walter, another collegue, and I to go to Jaipur as her friend was visiting. I was excited to go on an adventure and discover traveling in India. I drove with a collegue, Ritesh, and his wife, Kathi, which took about 4 hours. The fields along the way were beautiful and filled with mustard. We stopped on the way to get the 'best breakfast' ever, according to Ritesh, at a roadside place. He said I shouldn't eat anything, so I had a bit of his aloo paratha and a chai. Yummy! The food here has been so good. I have discovered myself muttering 'uuuuhhhhhmmm' in the middle of eating becuase it is tasty. I do miss having tofu and other delights at 150 though. Kathi also taught me some more Hindi. How to write the numbers 1-10 ...

The first week here was definitely a change of pace. Especially after walking so much in Australia, my body was confused over the lack of walking here. There isn't much area condusive to walking as traffic is chaotic and places spreadout. To the right is one street that has a bunch of shops, everything from auto repair to framing to matress foam. You can see the number of cars, but can't hear the honking. Luckily my housemate Durand is a regular gym-goer, so I got a membership my first day. Rather expensive comparitively, but will keep me sane as I can pound the pavement, bike through the Mission, or go to dance class at ODC or SF Dance Center. It took some getting used to having more structured days: get up, drive to work, work, drive to gym, gym, drive home, turn on hot water heater for shower, eat dinner, shower, read/movie/work, sleep... repeat. vs. get up, walk/run to shuttle, work, shuttle home, walk to restaurant/bar/cafe to hang out with friends, sleep. This was peppere...

I was rather paranoid about remembering names as I didn't want to hurt anyones feelings. It didn't turn out to be so scary as everyone was so happy, helpful, positive, kind, interested..... To meet everyone, I traded Ghirardelli chocolate and Jelly Bellys for Hindi words or phrases. Here are the phrases. Iska kitna paisa hoga? - How much does it cost? Accha hai - It's good Aap accha karreheho? - You doing well? Aise hee -> Just like that. Semi-affirmative, used to avoid a question Khana khane chalo - Let's go eat Yeh kya hai? - What is this? Dhanyavad - Thank you. Welcome Aap acche hai? - You doing well? Jhkaas - Awesome Kaise hai aap? - How are you? Kal milenge - See you tomorrow Mujhe ye chahiye - I want/need this. Mujhe ye do do - (Please) give me this Hanji - yes, politely Yeh theek nahi hai - That's not right Yeh galat hai - This is wrong Jaldi chalo - Let's go quickly! Pecche /Aage and upar / neeche - back / forward and up / down Mujhe batao - Tell me ...

Indian Airlines- Flight no. 854 departing for Dehli First time to India. I spent two weeks in Australia before coming to India and talked to friends about what I expected it to be like when I arrived in Delhi. I'd talked to a bunch of people before coming over and was told of the color and the sound and the smell and the number of people and the food. All I could expect was to feel a blast of all of these upon walking out of the airport and I wondered how I could save that initial impression and keep it forever as a memory of the vunerability of moving to a new place. Despite all my anticipation of being enveloped by new surroundings, the exit was less eventful than I expected. A sign with my name was easily spotted and as I exited, I heard my name being called and turned around to find my new roomates, Karen and Durand. They made my arrival and adjustment easier than I could have ever wished for, including a great first meal at Pujabi by Nature. Oh the paneer!

It's taken me 3 weeks (this post was actually made on 2/5/07, but has been pre-dated to show when I intended to start the blog) to decide on a name for a blog and it still required help from Suzie. She's been successfully blogging for a few months now, although it's become a bit sporadic lately, as she will tell you herself. I wanted a title that meant something to me, but was easy-ish to remember. Since I'm ever wanting to speak additional languages, I thought a Hindi word would be fun, so I've been thinking them over in my head. I was leaning towards 'hanji', a polite way to say 'yes', as it was the first word I was taught. Priyanka, a new collegue, said it would come in useful and make people happy. She's right. Suzie suggest 'chalo' or 'let's go', which struck a chord. Seems to fit well with my willingness to go and do and move, whenever, whatever. 'Hanji' and 'chalo' were both taken, so I took Lonely Plane...