A little bit of everything

Our house is feeling more like a home every day. We had family over on Wed night and started off the night  with smileys,  chicken poppers, mocktails and then continued the hosting by having  three family members for dinner…what a feast and even nicer that it was a group effort. Karan’s dad brought leftovers which I heated up on our gas stove, I made ghiya and his cousin helped me, karan did the rice and his cousin made some yummy potatoes with onions it was swadisthay ( that’s hindi for delicious). We went for an 11:30pm walk for ice cream from a vendor on the corner, so yummy and such a nice way to end our day. Believe it or not that’s the latest I’ve been out since I got here. Was nice to be out and about enjoying the quiet streets and feeling safe. There is no way I would be going out at night by myself here so having family and reason to be outside our complex was a little treat for sure. The good thing is I never was a partier so it never bothers me much at all.

We are lucky to live in an apartment complex with 24/7 security and gates/ fences a around the complex which allows for evening walks around the complex. Seven laps around is one mile which means I’ve covered more then a few miles since arriving 3 weeks ago. I do prefer to get my exercise by walking down to the shopping less then a mile away. Lately we have seen to be out quite a bit more and somehow shopping and eating always plays a role. Yesterday we went and got a couple items for the house, placemats, a pretty lantern and a shirt for me and I finally got my Ray ban sunglasses that I wanted…’m spoiled and I am so appreciative. Today we went to KFC which as most of you know I never ever go to back home but it’s  already the second time I’ve had it here. You can get a full meal for a couple dollars, the KFC here has seating and even their own radio station…crazy. It does taste better here then at home, but its KFC so aside from it being much cheaper its definitly a western restaurant. 

Really when I look back its been a pretty busy week as Thurs we were gone all day with his cousins. In the morning we ate some delicious bread brought over by an uncle.  Wow do they ever have a great variety of breads here and adding Nutella only makes them better. And believe me we eat lots of it,  we have toast almost every morning sometimes with jam or Nutella and sometimes with an omelette. Always convenient and easy as we can order the bread from the vendor downstairs and he will actually deliver to your door. It seems as though you can get anything delivered, so far we’ve had the following brought right to our house; medicines, meat, dairy, huge water jugs, and of course take out from a restaurant. 

Anyways sorry to get off topic back to our day thurs. Karan and his two cousins and I took a cab to Hauz Kaus. A nice new air conditioned cab was only about $1.75 more then if we had to take two auto rickshaws. Felt like we were riding in style. The cousins hadn’t been there before so we walked through Deer Park, then around the Hauz Kaus tank and stopped for some pics and enjoyed the greenery surrounding us, all the people enjoying the day off and the kids flying their kites as is a tradition here on the Indian Independence day.  We stopped for lunch at a fantastic little place called ” MiaBella” we all had great meals, enjoyed the air conditioning in the restaurant before going out on the terrace to take in the most beautiful view. The covered terrace overlooks the tank, the massive park, surrounding it as well as the monuments and you can even glimpse the skyline in the distance. One of the nicest views I have seen in the entire city, Peaceful, yet entertaining seeing the kites flying in the sky, people strolling around the tank, and men sitting playing cards below. Being there right before sunset made it all the more stunning as the colors were changing in the sky and the sun was casting shades of gold. We do have some great pictures, but to be honest i have not taken one picture since Ive been here. I’m sure that might shock you but I am with a photographer so lucky enough to have great images being captured each and every day. Hence all the pics on my blog have been taken by Karan. Every time I put up a new blog list or pics I’m amazed to see the views it gets and to already have over 1,100 views on my blog in a month was pretty amazing. I will try and keep some great entries coming. 

I did have a friend ask me to share the teas we are drinking here. We drink a lot of tea, every morning we start our day with a cup or two and then you are certain to have it anytime you go to someones place for a visit, even the shop owners will often offer you some chai. At home we drink a Darjeeling Earl Grey tea, from the famous San- Cha tea shop. We were even lucky enough to meet the Master tea taster last time we were at the store and he sent us a sample of the Love Pekoe tea which was a beautiful tea with rose petals in it. We only drink loose leaf teas and don’t even have a kettle but boil the water in a pot, with some sugar and then pour it over the loose leaf tea in a strainer. Delicious. 

A little bit of this and a little bit of that has made life fall into step here and looking forward to sharing so much more information on life here.