In looking back through my last few posts, you may get the impression that I am frustrated, angry, or uncomfortable with India.   Rest assured that is not the case.   I learned a long time ago (back in Shiliguri) that you have to have plenty of patience or India will wear you down quickly.   So despite many problems and setbacks I and my family are doing very well and are very happy to be here.  In fact, India itself is causing far less stress than the Dilbertesque problems my wonderful employer is throwing at me.   I wish I felt comfortable relating these problems, because that would be more interesting than my tales of the mundane.

We are also very excited to be on the verge of two big milestones.   Tomorrow I expect to take a lease on a car, with a driver we are very comfortable with.   Also, tomorrow we start moving into the house.   Tomorrow night is our last night in the hotel.  

I have been searching online for some explanation of a slightly annoying practice that is affecting Abby and Max.   The Cheek Pinch.

"Indians often use this gesture with children as a sign of affection."  From a useful page that answers several questions about Indian culture and practices.

"Kendra names Mumbai, Pinch-Cheek City. Because everywhere she and Cleo go they get an affectionate, but very firm, pinch on the cheek. Indians love children, as staunchly as the British frown upon them."  Not much of an explanation for the practice, but an interesting read.

"Travel with two young blond children attracts a lot of attention. This is in general not meant in an unfriendly way, but at times it would get a bit annoying for the kids. What was really a nuisance is everybody trying to pinch the kids in the cheek. “NO PINCHING” were English words Frank and Marit learned really quickly. Mum and dad would support this by warning of the attacks and by pinching back if necessary. The kids also didn’t like posing for photographs."  The pattern continues, foreigners taking kids to India who file this under ANNOYANCES. 

"If I pinch your cheek and that hurts you, I won't question WHY it hurts you and try to convince you that it shouldn't, that it's silly, will I? I'll just accept that it does hurt you (or perhaps even offend you), and perhaps will try not to do it again. "  This is no explanation at all, and takes us close enough to Godwin's Law that I will give up.

Therefore, I leave it to you, my dear readers who have far more knowledge about India than I to explain this annoying practice to me in the comments.   As I have learned (and still get reminded frequently) that in India, you have to take all things in stride.   Maybe a compromise will be to tolerate pinches that do not bruise and get upset about a practice far worse: strangers that put my kids hands in their mouths, especially Max because he sucks his thumb. 

Maybe the solution is to buy some T-shirts for the kdis that say "enna thodaathE!"

I have imagined various trips around India during the months leading up to our move to India.   Mahabalipuram is an ancient temple town about 45km south of Chennai and I had always planned to make that one of our first journeys outside of our Hilton cocoon.    As I had been there twice before, I thought I  had correctly imagined how the day would play out.   When I had been there in the past, it was as just another boring tourist.   This time it was with a couple of people charming enough to bring out the paparazzi.    Looks like we are not alone in this experience:

In South India, meanwhile, Sloane regularly caused uproars that verged on riots. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to travel as part of a rock star’s posse, take your grinning pink baby to a bustling temple complex in Mahabalipuram. For an Indian tourist, a 1,200-year-old stone carving of a reclining Vishnu is dullsville next to a real-life Canadian infant in a
baby backpack.

                From:   8 Essential Lessons We Learned About International Travel with an Infant
                           2: The Magazine for Couples



Abby and Max were clearly the star of the show.   As we pulled up to outside the Shore Temple they even managed to disarm the very persistent souvenir sellers that immediately swarmed around us.  

I had not adequately warned my family about this part of visiting a tourist attraction in India.  The touts were very persistent.   I had to stand between the touts and the kids, then back up to give them room to get out of the car.  

We made to the relative calm inside the gates of the shore temple and had fun climbing around on the temple and statues that are 1300 years old.  I don't think the kids have a concept of just how old that is.

We headed next over to the Five Rathas.   We only had our video camera, which doesn't take good still photos.  Rather than make this an entry about the wonderful sculptures and carvings of Mahabalipuram, I will focus on the paparazzi/Entourage like excitement that we (or accurately Abby and Max) caused. 

We had numerous people coming up to us and asking if they could have a picture of Abby and Max (sometimes they would ask for a picture with Joshua and Sarah, but the older kids were usually spared the crush of attention).    I would sometimes look around and see people taking pictures from a ways away.  Others would push in and setup the picture they wanted.
 

I can't imagine their description of these photos when they load them up to show relatives would be any better than "Here is a picture of our kids with some strange American kids ... No, we didn't even ask their names." 

This image from Google Earth shows the path of my soon to be daily commute. The house we are likely to rent is a the bottom of the image (codename: Butter Hutt). We will go first to the American International School (AISC) to drop of the older kids, then I will go to work (yes, I work in a cloud). Home to School is 13.5 km (8.4 miles) Total commute is 23.5 km (14.6 miles) This is half the distance of my commute in Arizona, but will take 20 minutes longer. I expect the start to finish, including the drop-off at school to take about an hour and fifteen minutes. I have already started getting used to working on the laptop in the stop and go traffic. Getting caught up on email before I get the office is the only good part about this.

We have been working on this transition for several months, all the way back to May when we were first formally given the opportunity.  Each day has had its share of frustrations and accomplishments.   Some more than others.   Last Wednesday we met with  the school.  They had put Josh and Sarah on a waitlist and told us not to expect to get them in until the end of the year.    Instead, one student left suddenly and Sarah was in.  The wonderful principal at the school didn't feel  good about accepting one sibling without the other, so they waived the rules and let Joshua in.    That was a good day.   So good that we ordered pizza and ice cream for dinner then went swimming at the hotel pool after it was supposed to be closed.  I was in such a good mood that I jumped in with the kids, even though my swimming shorts are still in the sea container.

 

Other days, like yesterday (Thursday) are the opposite, from the frustration of getting the air shipment out of jail to problems with house hunting and car renting to finding out the hard way that all of the electrical outlets in my hotel room are on the same circuit as the air conditioner (and that plugging in a 500 watt converter is just too much ).   We have been in mental and physical transition for the better part of 4 months.   We are all ready to settle down at something we can call home, and have it not change the next week.

 

That said, I am settling into a routine, we are up at about 6:00, try to be out the door by 7:30, drop the kids at school at 8:00, then I am in the office by 8:45.    I am typing this and answering all the emails I received overnight while in the car.    It is my goal to clear out my overnight emails by the time I reach the office.    The afternoon/evening ritual is not as worked out, but we are getting more consistent.

 

Amy bought a card reader yesterday, so I can get the pictures off the camera and post.   Amy also setup her blog today, I will link to it after she posts.

It has been a long, exhausting 10 days, but I am somewhat hopeful the worst is over.  The kids are in school, we are looking for houses and I have started working at the office.  I have time to post this from my Blackberry because I am at the airport cargo terminal.  We are trying to find my air shipment (including my computer) at the customs holding area. This place is crazy typical of India.  The first stop was the "Entry Pass Counter". I had to stop there to get a pass to get past security, but I didn't have a bill of shipment to prove I should go through.  After a few minutes I just walked in without a pass and found my shipping agent (who had the bill).   Now, they are saying that they can't find my boxes but to not worry as this is normal.

On the wall at that counter they had the instructions for getting your shipment through custom painted in big letters, running from ceiling to floor.  I was able to follow the first half of the instructions, but the lower half was covered in a wainscotting of thick brown spit.  Standard interior decorating for public places.

Anyway, I have no cell phones, despite hours of effort. We have no house despite days of searching (but this may change today). We have no car (except for the $125/day rental at the hotel. But we are here and not complaining. 

Four months of stress and planning are behind us.  We are at the airport and ready to go.   Our absurdly large baggage train almost caused problems.  We had 4 of 11 bags come within 3 pounds of being over the weight limit. 

Max and Abby are very tired, their little bodies burning adrenaline into the night trying to keep themselves awake.    As long as they sleep on the plane I don't care what they do in the terminal.  

The only other noteworthy item was going through security.  We realized in the airport parking garage that we could take an extra carry-on for Max.   We grabbed a small bag that had two blankets in it.  Nobody realized, and I forgot that I had put two cans of Monster in that bag.   We found out when Sarah ran the bag through security.   The TSA people got a good laugh out of Sarah's explanation that I have a really bad addiction to Monster and that I was worried about not having any in India. She was correct.


Max gets the last word (I handed the Backberry to him for a minute):

Hsdjjhhhsdjldf


Shawn