Catch-up entry and COWS

Feeling guilty because I haven't updated this very much lately... Too much to do, yowsa what a distracting country! In a good way, but wow.

On Saturday past, I went out with a service that contracts with Ingenix to "orient" us travellers to the city, and she took us to many places, and for the most part, did give me a much better idea of what the city has to offer and how to get day-to-day things.

We saw lots of the malls in the area, of which there are many. There really is little in the way of small changes between the two types of stores that I have seen so far. Either you have a very modern, multi-story mall, kind of feels like smaller versions of Rosedale stacked 3-4 stories high, or extremely small (10 people max occupancy) stores scattered around with more of a strip mall feel. These are, from what I have seen so far, more the day-to-day stores, with the malls being very much more the Nike, Apple, and high-end stores that don't really get you "everyday" things.

I finally found a place that supplies power sockets that change the shape from US to India for plugs (major YAY), so I don't have to keep walking around the house having only one of my electrical appliances plugged in at a time... Need to go back there for a power strip, as the computer room/study is still under-plugged. :)

Ate out at an italian restaraunt, that was good italian, but the remarkable thing about it was that it is mostly composed of couches with coffee tables. So, this means that it is majorly comfy when you are waiting for your food and socializing, but different to try to eat your food when it comes... all in all a fun experience, however. And good to occasionally get non-indian food.

On that score, I have eaten out a few times, at "indian" restaraunts, though, really, unless you go really high end restaraunt, everything here is somewhat indian. The two or three "asian" or chinese restaraunts, and the one mexican, that I have eaten at all have a distinct indian influence... But the traditional Indian restaraunts.... mmmmmmmm.... I have truly come to the right country for me. The flavors are so much stronger than in the US, and very good food.

The other main thing that I found out with the Saturday training is that, once Judy is at the apartment during the day, it will be spoiling in the extreme. EVERYTHING can be delivered to pretty much anywhere in the city. From shampoo to McDonnalds, to groceries, to liquor. Pretty much any shop wants the business enough that they will deliver any order above 3-10 dollars to the apartment when they are open. Sadly, I am at work most of the hours that shops are open, so that so far I haven't been able to take advantage of this.

I am interested to try the McDonnalds here, because it is soooo different from the US. Their burgers are either chicken, potato patty, or vegi, and they have other things like curry platters that look like they are a kind of bread bowl filled with curry gravy and vegatables. I may just end up appreciating McDonnalds, which will be a blow to my sensibilities (I had a sense of guilt, even as I enjoyed it back home)... The main McD's near me has a huge delivery number posted, and I got quite a chuckle out of the numbers. They express my own feelings about McD's, for those biblically minded out there: 66-00-666.

Other than Saturday, I really haven't done a whole lot. Work takes most of my days - I work 10AM-8:30PM most days, and then go home to crash, getting up in the morning to check woerk e-mails before I leave for the office. I am trying to switch over to doing some e-mails when I get home, but usually after talking with Judy I just get too tired. Sucks, because most of Ingenix folks are working when I get home at night, but are themselves home sleeping when I get back up the next morning.

Anyway - more to come... I am well, and extremely well fed and watered. :) Other than that, I am leading a boring life, for all that it is extremely interesting at the same time. I would assume that when Judy gets here I will do more exploring and traveling, but for now, I just get so busy with living that I haven't packed much more in.

Oh, and I "learned"/experienced a new way to eat a new type of Mango today, which I really hope doesn't make me severely ill. :) There is a smaller version of mango here that is REALLY sweet, and you pretty much beat the heck out of it so that the insides kind of liquify, then clip off a very small hole from the stem and suck/pour out the mango. Really tasty, though breaks the cardinal fruit rule of "travel advisors" of never eating or getting the skin of fruits near your mouth, due to that being where the bacteria seem to hang out... Oh, well, what is one day of illness compared to awesome mango-ness!

Below is a typical (not kidding) street scene on my way to work in the morning. If you can't see well, I think you can pop the picture open and scroll in... Gotta love a country that worships it's steak. All kidding aside, I think the animals here are just plain fasinating to watch every morning.

Peace all - Joel