Furry critters, oh my!

RRRRRRAAAAATTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!

Need I say more?

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone. You probably have heard my "unpleasant" experiences with the Indian postal service, so most of you who are reading this will NOT be getting an actual card. I love sending and receiving cards but while we're in India, this will have to do.

May your new year be blessed! We are blessed and thankful for all the friends and family who give of love and support. God Bless us everyone!

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Parry's Corner

Parry's Corner is a famous market here in Chennai. It's an historic place that's been there many, many years. People always say you can only take Parry's corner in small doses and now I know why. It's crowded, overpowering, hot and at the same time so colorful and quaint--almost like a step back a few decades. I kept seeing things that would have reminded me of shopping in the 1950's. The pictures speak for themselves except for the last part where I had to put away my camera. Just as we came up the last street, we encountered water, then manure, then manure and water and at that point it was too late to turn around. Whichever direction we went, we had to go through "sludge"! Now I grew up on a farm, but the heat, the crowds, the smell and the sludge under my feet were just too much!!! When my friend asked me how I liked Parry's Corner, I told her, " I went, I saw, I'm done!!!"

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Dancing Queens in India

One of my Danish friends is leaving in December and while we are sad to see her go, we are excited for her to be returning to her homeland. She threw a going away party last week and it was a blast. A high point was when everyone got up and starting dancing and singing along to the ABBA hits! My sister-in-law heard about it and sent me this YouTube video "Dancing around the World" which I'll also share. I wish we had videotaped our dancing and maybe we could have competed because so many nationalities were present but you'll have to make do with some fun photos!

Here's the link for video--if it's slow loading click for high resolution:

http://wherethehellismatt.com/videos.shtml?fbid=WcBKWWD0vQ9

Here's our version from India:

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Emma's Birthday

Emma celebrated her 13th birthday with friends from school. Even though it was the last rainy day of the storm and we had to cancel the go-carting, they still managed to have fun. They swam, played guitar hero and watched movies. Emma is growing up fast and we are so proud of her and how well she's managed this international move.
You go girl!

Tropical Cyclone Nisha

We survived tropical cyclone Nisha! The storm stalled over Chennai for about 3 days and dumped lots of rain. We mopped up lots of water around windows because even though they were shut, they are not tightly sealed and the wind blew it straight in. I think I used every towel in this house to soak up and mop with and I'm still washing towels today! However, I'm not going to complain as many people suffered severe flooding. Our drivers who had driven to the house on motorcycles were soaked from the waist down. Here are some of the sights we saw on the road this week:

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Photo Contest

Every year one of the relocation companies holds a photo contest for expatriates. This year there were over 500 entries and Zach and I decided to put our photo skills to the test and enter some pictures. I've been taking a 10 week photography course and Zach had a year long course in school. Even though he didn't win this year, it was actually he who inspired me to take the course. (Thanks Zach!) Surprisingly, I did win one of the judges choice awards (from the Japanese consulate general!!!) Photo contests are very arbitrary anyway and I actually preferred another picture over the winner. I also won a drawing for a 2 night homestay somewhere in India! So it was a good experience overall. I'm taking the prints they made of Zach's pics from the Taj Mahal and making a photo collage to have framed.

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Thanksgiving in Chennai

It's hard being away during the holidays but several of us got together this year to put together a Thanksgiving dinner. Thanks to the Vannette's generous use of their house, Lisa's donation of the turkey, Betsy's expertise with cooking the turkey and lots of other people bringing wonderful food, I think we pulled off a successful and delicious Thanksgiving! Only two weeks till Christmas break!

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Terror Attacks in Mumbai

As I'm sure you've all seen on the news this weekend, Mumbai was under siege by terrorists with 100+ people dying and many more injured. Mumbai is several hours by car and a short flight from Chennai which was quiet during this assault. The only difference was we saw very increased security in some places, which we welcomed. We tend to not go to large public places anyway but still I'll have to admit targeting hotels where Americans stayed is a little unnerving. But putting it in perspective, it could happen ANYWHERE AT ANY TIME! While this happened to go on in India while we're living here, there were terror threats in New York subways. So I guess we just all have to pay attention, pray for peace and trust in God to protect us.

Thanks to everyone who emailed or called to check on us. It's nice to know we're loved :)

Emma's Class on Safari

Emma's 7th grade class went to King's Sanctuary at Nagarhole National Park this past week for safaris and other team building activities. They toured the Tibetan monastery of Sakya and the Mysore Palace. They traveled by train and bus and toured the park in jeeps. They arrived back after a night train ride and were ready for a nap!

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Maldives, take me away...

We spend our Diwali holiday in the Maldives, or heaven on earth as we called it! We mainly relaxed on the beach, took walks around our island and snorkeled and ATE! We had never snorkeled so it was fascinating for us. We saw baby sharks and tropical fish (since our aquatic knowledge is limited--we often referred to Finding Nemo characters in the Disney movie to describe what we saw underwater!) Since the Maldives may disappear underwater if global warming continues, and the newly elected Maldivian president wants to buy land in other countries such as Sri Lanka and India in case they have to relocate their citizens, we were thankful to have this opporunity and hopeful that it never comes to that.

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OBAMA!!!

Well, history was made this week with Barack Obama's victory. I was so excited and moved to tears by his speech which signaled that maybe there is light in the midst of all the chaos that been surrounding us. I just hope and pray he can achieve the things he has promised. Of course, he won't deliver them all, but I really liked the fact that he was asking all of us to be part of the solution. It will be an interesting four year journey.

Since Farid's family was visiting, we celebrated with an OBAMA cake and watched his speech again. I wanted Zach and Emma to realize the importance of this day. It was a fun evening!

KEEP THE BEAUTY INSIDE???

See our fence? It still gives me the creeps every time I look at it! There is this strange dichotomy in India. I posted earlier the pictures of our beautiful yard. However, no one can actually see it unless they are allowed inside our gate. So I guess the goal is to keep the beauty INSIDE your garden walls. The shards of glass are meant to keep out "undesirables". Most fences, which are actually concrete walls here, are topped off with either glass or barbed wire. So there are all these beautiful gardens hidden away from public view. I think it's a shame, especially when our only other viewing option is all the trash and garbage strewn along the roads and highways.

It's Puja Time!

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Once again it's Puja Time! The annual blessing on everything related to the house and the running of it: the car, the motorcycles, bikes, the generator, the yard, the security gates, the house itself. They light incense, toss flower petals, throw puffed rice and walk around the house with a burning watermelon which they then smash on the road in the front of the house - sort of reminds me of Halloween actually :) Here are photos from this year.

STEP INTO MY GARDEN...

Take a tour of the flowers in our yard... When we moved in last year, there was basically a bare yard. As you can see from the photos, the yard is in full bloom now. This is not due to any green thumb I have, but to our wonderful gardener who is out there every day weeding, watering, cleaning, and fertilizing. We do not personally employ him, but he is employed by the owner of the house. Of course the tropical climate helps too because there's an abundance of sunshine and things bloom continually around here. I'm enjoying it now late in October but also look forward to crisp October days full of changing autumn colors!

Diesel shortages in India

Here's a fellow expat's news report about the diesel shortage in India. I believe it was filmed on the road going to our house. We usually see these long lines of buses in the morning waiting for their fuel. I guess fuel headaches are universal at this point! Click on the link below to see the report:

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/08/25/neisloss.india.diesel.cnn?iref=videosearch

Meet Our New Neighbors

Behind our house


By our bedroom window

On other side of house

When we got back in August we realized we had new neighbors on all three sides of us. We were fortunate last year that we were surrounded by empty lots. However, Chennai is experiencing a housing boon and we are right smack in the middle of it. Over here, when a new home is built, a "village" literally moves in. Whole families set up shacks, huts, tents and live there while it's being built. We are now awakened by hammers, generators, smoke and lots of shouting orders pretty early in the morning. I guess growth is a good thing for Chennai but we miss our little bit of peace and quiet (and for those who live in Chennai you know that your home is your sanctuary!) I'll be very surprised if construction is finished before we leave...

School: Year Two

First Day of School
Zach grade 11, Emma grade 7

If we compared last year's first day of school picture(which I cannot locate at this moment!) with the one from this year we'd see that obviously both Zach and Emma seem happier this year. Last year was full of unknowns (people, school, culture, poverty...) This year is full of promise. They have come back to good friends, and the school and culture is no longer alien. As for the poverty (see my post about our new neighbors) that never goes away, we just accept as best we can and pray that there's a better way and thank God for all the bounty we are blessed with!

More summer highlights

As I mentioned in the previous post, on one weekend I attended three weddings and a golden wedding anniversary. I wanted to share photos from my niece Crystal's wedding to Thomas in June. They were beautiful, the wedding was beautiful and we all enjoyed celebrating this happy occasion. Congratulations Crystal and Thomas!

We also attended the baptism of Katie and Laurel. We were godparents for Laurel and I was godmother for Katie. Bless you both on your journey with God!

Summertime....and the livin' is easy...

Grandpa manning the ice cream maker on Father's Day!

Fun down by the river!

Melissa, Josie and Emma down by the Ohio River

Sunset on the family farm...

It's not summer without a hayride. Of course Dad
enjoyed using his new tractor!

Just an update of our summer holiday before I get back into the blogging groove! We spent 7 weeks in Kentucky and loved every minute of it! I attended 3 wedding and a golden anniversary party (all in one weekend!) and loved it because I got to visit with family members from both sides of my family and my coworkers all in one weekend! We also did all the doctor's appointments but it wasn't too bad considering that was sandwiched between eating out at way too many restaurants to list here :) Othertimes were spent barbecuing, camping or hanging out at the county fair (kids choice--not mine!) We got to see almost everyone we wanted to see and just enjoyed the fresh air, sweet tea, cherry picking, porch swing, kind of life we have in Kentucky. It was great to see you all and we're looking forward to Christmas! In the meantime, tune in to see what we'll get into here in India!