Mangoes Galore!

We have 13 mango trees in our yard! Needless to say, we have more mangoes than we could EVER consume. These green mangoes which are growing in our yard are cooking mangoes. Priya made a mango curry for us which looked like very dark applesauce. It was very sweet but of course with a "little bit" hot, as she says! Translation: No Indian food can be well-prepared without chili powder! It was to be eaten with flatbread. It was interesting but probably won't be on the menu again :) We are giving them away in bagfuls to everyone who works for us so at least they are being eaten. The yellow mangoes are probably what you've seen or had in the stores. They are the most juicy, yummy fruit you can imagine. I've decided they are a combination of peaches, oranges, and pineapple rolled into one fruit! Sorry I can't bring some home this summer to share, but I don't think customs would be too thrilled about that!

Zach's Prom

Zach and Sam

Stylin' !!!


More Zach and Sam!

Checking out the tailoring!

This past Saturday Zach attended his first prom. He is a sophomore but at the American School the prom is open to all high schoolers since the enrollment is smaller than most high schools. For this event, he had a suit tailor-made which is very common and fairly inexpensive here. It was held at a nearby hotel and he said they had a great time just goofing around, eating and finishing off the night with a huge Conga line!

CNN coverage of Chennai

I recently saw this on CNN International edition. The CNN reporter Liz Neisloss has a son in Emma's class and she has very accurately portrayed the political climate and the "climate" in general of the city of Chennai. Watch the video if you want to see what this city really looks like!

Click on the link below to see the report:

http://www.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=viewThis&etMailToID=1649636359

Shake Rattle and Roll!!! To the Taj Mahal...

These are the lights jumping up and down (a long exposure of the car lights)
that Zach took from the bus window. He is keeping the camera still but the bus is making it jump!

We took a tour bus to the Taj from our hotel. The benefit of this was that being in an organized tour, we were a "little" better able to fend off the hawkers, vendors, and beggars that greet you on your way inside the Taj since we were in a large group with a tour leader. However, the bus ride I can only describe by showing you this picture Zach took on the bus on the ride back home. There were no shocks and we rode 4 hours there and 4 hours back bouncing up and down like slabs of meat! Zach was not moving the camera, the bus was!!! We called it the Shake, Rattle and Roll express :)

The Taj itself is impressive and filled with beautiful marble mosaics. The story behind the Taj is just as beautiful and tragic as the building itself.

Click here to read the story:
http://www.tajmahal.org.uk/story.html

Zach took some fabulous pictures and it would have been nice to stay a little longer and soak up the sight but we had to move along with the tour and were glad we also got to see Agra Fort and the factory where the original family(their descendants obviously) still makes the tiles that were used in the Taj. We bought a set of coasters with the beautiful inlay work that will be our souvenir of the trip!

You know you're in India when...

Monkeys at Agra Fort.


Snake charmer with two snakes.

Elephant with camel in background.

You know you're in India when you stop for a bite to eat and there's a snake charmer, an elephant, and a camel in the parking lot!!! On our way to the Taj Mahal, we encountered this sight at lunchtime. Back on the bus, Zach laughed and said, "You know you're in India when...!!!" We also saw these monkeys on the same day at Agra Fort. Never a dull moment!

Track Tournament in Delhi

Zach clears the bars in high jump!



Emma finishing her race.


Zach's power running!


Emma, Ahnalies, and Ali between events.

The last weekend in April Zach and Emma both participated in the SAISA track tournament held in New Delhi for several international schools. Emma competed in the long jump, 100 meter dash, 200 meter dash, and 400 relay. Zach did the high jump, 200 meter, 100 meter dash and the 4 X 100 relay in which he placed 5th. Regardless of how they finished, we were just proud that they had gotten up at 5:45 a.m. for the last several weeks for morning practices 5 days a week!

The event was two days long and they stayed with host families who happened to both be American. The heat was the main concern. Farid and I flew up for the second day and the heat was 106 degrees all day. There were several collapses, cramps, and one girl on our team had to be admitted to hospital for extreme cramping. Way too hot to compete, but all they did was stop competitions for a little while since the nurse's office could not handle any more kids! Overall, I think the kids had a good time though. In addition to the competition, they had movies, dinners and dances and met several new people. Farid and I were pleasantly surprised at how clean Delhi was compared to Chennai.