After the first month

Sunday night, beginning of week 5 in Bangalore. I have a hard time remembering Houston - except missing my friends. The time here has gone fast and has been very productive, which I've learned is a very rare experience. It will be hard to catch up on everything tonight, but I really want you all to know that I miss you, but have really liked the trip so far. I have tons of little details, that may be kind of boring, but help put things in context. Even if you get bored of reading this, I'll look back as a journal of the trivial and routine and hopefully stupendeous and amazing. If you are reading this and want to know more, ask me a question - ok?

For the basics here is what we've done . . . . .

week one was in a nice hotel. Not super fancy, but there was a doorman and chocolate on the pillow. It was were I stayed last November and the staff remembered me (hopefully for my personality and not the tip I left last time!), but felt welcoming and they were good to the boys.
We found the school and started househunting, but without a lot of focus. But Saturday morning, there was a guy and 2 kids eating breakfast in the hotel. These were the 1st kids I've seen in the hotel, turns out Mike Krupa lived around the corner and they went to the same school - Canadian International School. We went to rugby practice with them that afternoon and Beth gave me a great rundown on getting settled - they've been here 3 months and gave me her relo person - Roopa Salhendra.
Well, Roopa was great and after a week of looking, found us this apartment in the center of town - more on this later. So the boys are in school, which is way outside of Bangalore - yuck, down a bumpy dirt road, past a farm and a couple of temples, but the campus is brand new and open buildings and it's okay.
My office was also in the process of moving, so I kept a low profile and started working through all the stuff it takes to relocate to Bangalore - Foreign Resident Registration - 3 trips to the main police station (old colonial building, lots of bats hanging from the trees).
It was going to be a week until the apt (flat) was ready, so we moved to a service apt. This had a kitchen and people that would order pizza for us. I started grocery shopping - eeerrrkkk! I was told that western products were available, but not the price! $5 for a jar of Skippy. One day I spent $35 on poptarts, cereal, and those jars of instant bisquick pancakes! But they are good to have in the panty, just in case. Oreos - forget about it, I'll wait for 2 more months . . .
Our staples are Ragu spagetti sauce and penne pasta - at least once a week. But more on food later too - be patient, there is a lot to catch up on!
So last Saturday (Apr 21) we moved to the flat in Richmondtown (Richmond Villa, No. 6 Leonard Lane, Ground Floor, Richmondtown, Bangalore, 560025). It's a 3 bedroom, ~3000 sq. ft (I think it's in feet and not meters - I need to check that!), but it's big enough, furnished with a combo of family cast offs, but good ones and new apartment quality furniture. The fact that the UPS (backup power), internet, water and appliance all work it considered a miracle apparently, so I'm not too worried about the furniture.
The boxes I shipped from Houston arrived on Sunday, after a trip to customs on Saturday and attempted bribe. (they showed me a handwritten paper with a list of items and an estimated duty, which I would have to come back and pay. OR, I could just give them 1/2 that now, and it would all be taken care of (about $60). I asked if I got a receipt for that (ha ha) and said I'd come back on Monday. Guess what - on the official slip - no duty! I guess they have to try . . .)

So now we have a place to live, a steady driver, a wonderful cook and cleaner. Our stuff. All we need is company! Come and see us - one room is a guest room. The area is great and not too hot, for India. And the dirty, stinky, yucky, fascinating (oh my!) part of life here is around the corner, nearer to the camel lot I saw the other day. But the flat is quiet and there are places you can go and forget you're in India.

I'm going to post some earlier emails I sent to Beth and my mom, my brother and some other friends. They've also got lots of details. I hope this isn't boring to you!