Finding The New "Normal"

 

The last week we have been trying to find the new "normal." With the Foreign Service life style...there is no true "normal." Things are constantly changing. Maybe the only normal IS change!? 

Now that we have been in our flat for a few weeks, we are starting to find our new rhythm.  We brush our teeth in the kitchen sink (my grandmother would gasp in shock over our lack of decorum!) because that is where the reverse osmosis water filter is.  We have 7 dehumidifiers in the house that have to be emptied 3 times a day (that is a job for the little Muggles to do). There is an air filter in every room. Between the air conditioners, the dehumidifiers and the air purifiers, we are learning to sleep with LOTS of white noise--to the point that we only hear the faintest honking at night when we stand by the window. 

We still have to play the game of "what does this switch go to?" or "Which switch turns on/off this light?" It is compounded because all of the wall plugs/sockets have switches too. SO.MANY.SWITCHES! We have made the mistake of plugging things in at night only to find out in the morning that they had not been charging because the switch was off! HAHA. To make it even more complicated the switches are different that in the United States...in the U.S. Up means "on" and down means "off." Here it is the opposite--I feel like I am in a Mary Poppins movie where "up is down and down is up."  You also have to turn on a switch for the hot water heater. If you do not turn it on 30 minutes prior, you take a COLD shower! The oven is on a switch too...we are becoming really good at setting the oven clock because you have to reset the time before you can use the oven! HAHA. 

There are some other things we are slowly becoming accustomed to. It is a cash society still. For years we have never carried cash. But here we are learning how to use cash again! There have been a few weekends that we forgot to get cash on Friday and were counting it closely to make it through the weekend! Indian money is SO colorful. There are bills in all different sizes and colors! I am constantly getting it confused. 

Speaking of shopping, there are a few malls that look like malls in the U.S. but they are HUGE and full of stores that are really expensive and we would NEVER shop there. Then there are small stores along the street that sell niche things. There is a linen store for clothing made from linen, there is a cotton store for cotton made clothes, there is a butcher, fruit sellers, vegetable seller (not the same as the fruit seller), bakers, bike stores...etc. We have learned which fruit and vegetable vendors we like. We also buy bread and eggs from a  guy that brings eggs stacked up on his peddle bike in a precarious tower. He also sells bread of all kinds, so we buy those from him too. So much of our day is planned around which day and what time the vendors are in our neighborhood! haha 

Milk is delivered by a milk man. It is fresh so it does not stay fresh long. So we order it and Lady Hiva wakes up early in the morning to bring it in from the front door because it will spoil in the heat and humidity if it stays out too long. When we do buy fruit and vegetables, it all needs to be washed, so it is an all-family event. We wash, cut, peel and work until it is all ready to eat! 

WE love that it has been mango season since we arrived. I think we have bought over one hundred kilos of mango since we have been here! hahah. I am now buying double what we can eat so I can freeze half. 

Lucky Dragon misses his Costco bacon, so we bought a whole bunch of bacon and cooked it all at once. I then layered the bacon with parchment paper and put it into baggies, so he can heat up his bacon every morning just like "olden times." (his words)

Tried some gourmet chocolates!

The butcher was a whole new experience. I went and ordered what I wanted with lots of gestures because they spoke very little English and I speak no Hindi--or any other local dialect for that matter. They have people in the back that cut up your meat for you--several cutting chicken, some cutting pork and others cutting water buffalo. For religious reasons you cannot buy or eat beef in India, so they will sell water buffalo. It takes similar to beef. I am not much of a red meat eater so chicken and vegetarian work just fine for me! 

Travel is a whole different experience. Traffic is CRAZY!! There are many times I am sitting in the passenger seat and I am pumping imaginary breaks with how close we drive to others. Especially after the taxi I was in was hit last week (see the last post). One taxi a few days ago stopped halfway into our drive and said, "Too much traffic, get out and take another taxi!" Needless to say, I was NOT happy about that! (then he was brazen enough to charge me for the full fare! Luckily, Uber refunded it) Crossing the street is a whole different experience! We have to train our brains to look right, left, right instead of left, right, left when crossing. But even then it is not sufficient because there are all kinds of people that drive on the wrong side of road or take a turn and perpendicularly cross 4 lanes of speeding chaos! EEK! When crossing you have to just commit and walk. DO NOT hesitate or stop. The cars will go around you. Focus on your destination and just keep a steady pace--that is a trick I learning while crossing the street in Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam years ago. Made a good lesson for today's use! 

Walking around you have to dodge the bird poop coming from above. Lots of parakeets and pigeons that have strangely accurate drop zones. You have to dodge stray dogs (lots of them) and their dog poop. You have to steer (pun intended) away from the roaming cows and their poop...so lots of poop dodging. Another reason we are thankful we do not wear shoes in our home. 

We also have been finding things to do. We have had a badminton tournament in our living room. It is amazing what you can do in a room with nothing to break! (the two Muggles are pretty good at badminton). We have the kids in swimming lessons several times a week, they have gone to are class (which they love), tried hip-hop dancing, Bollywood dancing (one of Lady Hiva's favorites), and yoga (which is outside so it turns into hot yoga haha). 

Monsoon season is upon us. They have braced all of the trees and the stores are selling boots, coveralls, and umbrellas. So far there has only been a few storms at night. The lightning and thunder is so loud in our high rise flat! But it makes for some beautiful scenery. 

We have very little things here, so we make due with what we have. Both little Muggles love to read and have been filling out their "Brain Quest" workbooks. We built a store out of moving boxes for Koala Bear to sell "cupcakes" and we built a restaurant for Lucky Dragon to sell food. It is amazing what some tape and old boxes can do when you use your imagination! These two also put together our new breakfast table for the kitchen!