We decided to tag along with Bobby on one of his business trips to Delhi. While he worked, the boys and I took a small group tour of Old Delhi. Our guide was exciting and very fun for all of us.

First he took us to visit a Sikh temple. I was truly impressed by the Sikh community, especially their compassion and community projects.

 

Everyday, the Sikh temple prepares food for hundreds of people (from all walks of life) at no cost. We got there at the tail end of breakfast time so not that many are in the hall in the picture. Volunteers prepare the food and clean up afterward.  Money is donated by people in the Sikh community. They welcomed Gabe and Max help out in the kitchen for a while. The pots were HUGE!

 

Next, we went to visit a mosque. It was pretty empty and we did not spend much time there because the beggars were driving us crazy.

Our tour also took us down the narrow streets of Old Delhi where we sampled fresh jaleebi, one of Max’s favorite things. We shopped in a whole spices store. We took a rickshaw through the wedding district, followed by a meal at a small restaurant . It was good but spicy, just not Kerala spicy.

And of course we had to visit the Arch before we left Delhi. We had a hard time getting there. The street vendors were VERY aggressive toward us. We grabbed a couple of pictures and then left.

The annual holiday of Onam is celebrated by Malayalam-speaking people around the world. It is a harvest festival, but also celebrates the story of a king named Maveli, who was so beloved by his people that the gods became jealous and killed him. Before he died, Vishnu granted him one request, to be able to come back to Kerala once a year. Onam is the occasion of his annual return to visit his people.

Since next week is Onam and most people are off work, Bobby’s company held their festivities today. They kindly invited the boys and I to join them. We had a great time playing games and eating a traditional meal on a banana leaf with our hands! On the way home, Max asked when we could have Onam again and was disappointed to find out that happens only once per year.

I’m trying to use some of the new features of this site to not take up so much room while showing you the pictures. Each picture has a caption that should show up if you click on it or scroll over it. Also I believe the pictures are supposed to enlarge if you click on them.

 

Hello, friends! Many of you have expressed an interest in visiting our family here in India. We highly encourage you to come. In our experience, India is full of beauty and wonder. I decided to compile a list of advice that can help you have the best experience by preparing you for things that may seem unusual or unnecessary to someone from America (where most of our potential guests currently live) but are likely to occur during a visit here. For those of you who have already traveled in Asia, you probably already know some of these things but of course some of them are uniquely Indian.

 

So, if you come to visit, BE READY TO:

TRAVEL

1. Spend a fair amount of time in the car. With the traffic pattern, it takes longer to go a mile than you will think it should. The good news? More time to see new and exciting things through the windows.

2. Clutch the “Oh Crap” handle a lot.  Between the holey roads and the many “near miss” moments on the streets of India, that handle will become your friend. It will take a little getting used to.

3. See a million dollar house right next to the slums. There are very few “rich areas” and “poor areas” in these cities. Mostly, it’s all mixed up.

PEOPLE

4. Answer a million questions. People here are very warm and curious. They will ask you tons of questions, sometimes very personal ones. We try to have a good attitude and just answer them all with good cheer. It makes everyone’s day better.

5. Have you picture taken all the time, sometimes without your permission. Indians love pictures, especially selfies. We are often asked to pose with someone we have never met so they can document that they saw us weird forgeiners. Sometimes we just catch a glimpse of someone taking our picture while we were not watching. This is particularly true if you have any physical traits that are rare like red hair or if you are an African American, like my boys. Then you almost reach super star status.

6. Have people concerned about you. One of my favorite attributes of Indian society is how much everyone wants to help you do whatever you are trying to do. They genuinely care. Occassionally, this means that they think they know where you should be going (say to a hotel) when you really need to go to another place (like your apartment).

7. Start everything late. Due to the unpredicatable nature of the traffic and other things, start times or the length of time it takes to get places are, at best, approxiamate.

8. Be targeted by the color of your skin. We notice this mostly when we go to the more touristy areas. Beggars will swarm to you in groups because they are hoping that you will give more generously than their. I’ve even had beggars tell me that I did not give them enough when I gave them the same as the Indian woman next to me. They are VERY persistent and sometimes will follow you even after you told them “no” or have already given them something. I have it on good authority, that there are many government and non-government programs and organizations set up to help people in these situations. Also merchants (especially if you are shopping not in a mall or other place with set prices) will give you a higher price than they will to Indians. Bobby calls it “the white tax” but I think it’s the same for any foreigner.

FOOD

9. Not eat the food on the domestic Indian flights. This may sound rude, but trust me, your gut bacteria is not up to the job you will be taking on if you do eat it.

10. Eat a lot of fried foods when traveling. When in doubt, order fried foods. Frying kills a lot of bacteria and makes it less likely you will get sick.

11. Ask for no ice, even though it is utterly hot outside. You can never be sure what quality of water went into making the ice. Most stores and restuarants do usually keep at least a few bottles of water chilled and will produce them when asked. But be careful. It’s best to be safe, which occassionally means drinking warm bottled water.

12. Drink more soda than usual. Soda is pretty widely available and thanks to the treatment process the water goes through while making the soda, you can always trust that it will not make you sick. Since we have moved here, my favorite sodas have been the lime and apple flavored ones.

13. Ask for non spicy food, even if you really do like some spice. Very few foods actually have no spice here. Even the Big Mac was too spicy for Gabe. So unless you really do love HOT food, always ask about the hotness level and then ask them to adjust it a few notches lower than the terminology you would use in the States. Trust me here.

14. Buy prescription antibiotics over the shelf. If you do get sick, don’t worry. Antibiotics are readily available and very inexpensive. You will feel good again in just a day or two.

TOLIET

15. Take the toliet you get. You never know what you will see on the other side of the stall door. Sometimes the fanciest places will only have squatter toliets, or no toliet paper. Equally, sometimes the more rundown places will provide soap and western style toliets. It’s toilet roulette everytime.

16. ALWAYS carry a travel pack of tissues with you, especially if female. Instant toilet paper. Totally worth it.

17. Bring hand sanitizer with you. So useful!

RANDOM

18. For the noise level. Everything makes noise, and quite a bit of it too. If you need silence to sleep, bring ear plugs. And get used to taking louder than usual too, especially when outside.

19. Scratch! Mosquitos are everywhere! Really, everywhere! Outside, in stores, in buses, in cabs, in airplanes. Bring bug spray and keep a tube of it in your around town bag.

20. Prepare yourself mentally before you leave your home. Most of the above items are nuisances, but totally surmountable. If you prepare yourself mentally before you leave, they probably will not bother you while on your trip and you can focus on just enjoy the many wonderful things about India!

When Bobby decided to attend the only Racquetball Tournament of the year in India, the boys and I went along to the city of Hyderabad. We made sure to arrive a day early so we could see a few of the city’s sites. Of these, Fort Golconda was everyone’s favorite hands down. Have a look at this beautiful piece of history.

Hope you enjoyed this taste of India.

Once you experience the serene and magical beauty of southern India on a cruise through the backwaters that crisscross the Kochi area, you will understand why the Indians call it “God’s Own Country”. You will probably even agree.

Leading up to my birthday, I was too tired and busy to really think about what I wanted to receive or do to celebrate. Fortunately for me, I have a wonderful husband who made the time to think about and plan out a special treat for me that the whole family was able to love. I would almost always prefer to go on an adventure or do an activity than actually receive a “thing”. And sharing said adventure with my husband and boys just makes the experience complete.

So Bobby booked a trip on a traditional-style Kerala houseboat. Due to his travel schedule, we were only able to stay one night but people often book these boats for a long weekend or a week of vacation.

Once we had explored the boat, we spent the first several hours just soaking in the sights and sounds of life on the river. This activity absorbed all of us, even the fidgety six-year-old. There was much to see and feel. We all smiled constantly. And it was so relaxing.

All our meals were included and they were terrific! We ate so much! They even took us to a fresh seafood store so we could pick out what we wanted for dinner. The King Prawns were the best!

Towards sunset, they parked the boat by a lagoon for the night. Bobby and I took the boys on a walk around the lagoon and we all watched the sun set together.

We played card games together and got bitten by mosquitoes before bedtime. We tried to see the stars but the clouds covered.

The mattresses were good and we all slept through the night. Bobby and I woke to our boys running up and down the stairs to the upper deck. They always tell us that they want to have stairs in our house. We ate a delectable breakfast of crepes filled with sweetened shredded coconut. Then they pointed us back the way we came. It was time to go home. But when we did, we were all smiling like this:

What a happy birthday!

Saturday we decided to check out the local Children’s Garden.

We got in for 10 rupees a piece (rupees exchange for about 63 or 64 for one dollar at the moment to give you a sense of scale) and Max was free. Both boys had a blast even in the heat and humidity. Bobby and I walked away with a sense of nostalgia. While the garden was full of the type of playground equipment that was more common in America in our youth, it also had many things that were uniquely Indian. We did not photograph everything but we thought some of you might enjoy experiencing this vicariously.

I am sure we will go back. There were parts of the park we did not really get to see and playground equipment I know the boys would have like to have tried out more. If you come visit us, your kids can also know the joy of climbing the giraffe’s neck and feeding their water bottle to the creepy goblin trash can.

When Bobby and I spent the last 3 years finishing a long list of tasks to get to the point that we could finally move to India, we knew there would be just as much for us to do once we landed. We set out on our first full day in the lovely city of Kochi ready to start knocking things off our list.

To start with, our plan was to sign up for the banking account first, cooking gas second because of the long wait time necessary to actually get a gas canister, and then register with the police as all resident foreigners are required to do. But we quickly learned that neither the bank or the gas company would accept us until we had proof of address, which we needed to register with the police first to get.  We also quickly learned that while Bobby is perfectly able to get by in business without a single word of Malayalam, we will not be able to do the same in our everyday life. Good thing I was already looking forward to learning some! No one at the gas company spoke any English (nor has any of the delivery or installation men, though the police and most cashiers do speak a little English) so first we had to call one of Bobby’s colleagues and have her translate to tell us what they needed from us so we could get gas so we could cook in our home.

We went to the local police station like it told us to do online, but they sent us away to the central police station who also did not really know what to do with us. I don’t think they actually have many expatriates register with them. After talking to at least five people, we finally found someone who pointed us to a teeny tiny notice on a wall that announced the new way for Foreign Residents to register, which is online and then to drop off copies of their passports in the international airport, an hour from the city. Wouldn’t that have been nice to have known when we flew into the city?  But we do have 180 days to drop off the paper copies so Bobby can just do it when he goes on his first trip next week. First problem solved. Did  I mention that all the forms at the office for the Foreign Residents to register are in Malayalam? No other languages at all. Makes me chuckle. Glad we have friends.

We did get cooking gas today too. Sreeja, the same colleague that helped with the police, helped with the gas company and convinced them that we were not crazy Americans and that, yes, we actually do live here now (everyone, police included, are so sure that we are confused and need help getting back to our hotel) and we really do know what we are talking about when we say we need cooking gas, It took her three days to convince them, but she did it and I just turned on my stove for the first time about three hours ago. This really does help solve a major problem. Now I can cook whatever I need to for my family, No more trying to eat only what we can microwave or eat without cooking or eat out only at restaurants Bobby is sure our gut bacteria can take (a short list at the moment).

The bank is supposed to be taken care of too. Bobby is going in the morning on his way into the testing house to finish it up. We shall see. The poor man has spent most of this past week filling out documents and getting pictures and making things for “requirements” for the police and the gas company only to have them ignore them in the end. I think he did do some of his actual work sometime in there too. I can’t blame him for being frustrated. We seem to keep finding hidden rules. I told the boys to think of it as a treasure hunt today as we were carted around the city from police station to police station as they all tried to figure out what to do with us.

Funny, that we had almost no problems our first night here when we went to the mall and bought our washer/dryer, TV, and microwave. They were delivered the next day and installed the day after that.

There is still much to be done. This is only the tip of the iceberg. This place is too big and too full of life and newness to adequately describe in one blog post so I didn’t even try. I just thought you might be interested in what the Creasman family has been spending the majority of our time doing since our hop across the ocean. I can’t wait until we get all the basics of life settled and we really get to delve into this new city. It is so full of life! When we do, I will be sure to share the treasures that we find here on the Creasman Experience.

When many people expressed an interest being kept in the loop as our family experienced all the changes that would come with this move to India, I decided that the easiest way to accommodate everyone was to open a page like this. Quickly, I found that a year had passed and I had posted nothing on it. And it seemed likely that nothing would be happening anytime soon. Just as I had decided I should post something about the benefits of patience and waiting, Bobby came home from work one day out of the blue with a plane ticket with my name on it. Suddenly, it was time for house shopping. Kochi here I come!

As you can see in the picture (in all the pictures) although it is technically the rainy season, there is no rain. India is actually experiencing a drought at the moment. The weather has been calm and serene.

But the weather is not the only thing that has been accommodating. The people here are so kind and warm. Not just in the hotel or the Testing House but everywhere. In the mall. On the street. At the museum. I love to make these sincere people smile. It’s the goal with every person I meet. Their smiles are so real and deep, so from the heart, that it feeds my soul.

Other than house hunting and spending time at the Testing House working with their staff , Bobby and I have spent time doing things like getting cells phones, findings sources for school supplies, pricing washing machines, checking out the grocery store and what is actually available on the store shelves and taking care of other household necessities.

Bobby and I have seen many apartments by this point. As requested, I am going to post some pictures of the one we have chosen as our new home. We have finished negotiations on price with the owner who is a wonderfully sweet woman who kept her home in great condition. But we still have to get it approved by the board. I don’t think we will have too much of a problem with that though.

That’s enough pictures here! I don’t want to bore you. Bobby and I feel really good about this place. It will give is plenty of space for the boys. We can have some office space for Bobby. And looks like we will even have a little room for visitors. So now you all know, if you ever come to Kochi, you have a place to stay and what it looks like.

When I was a child, I loved Amelia Bedelia. She made me laugh on almost every page. Gabe never really took to her so I haven’t thought about her in a long time. Now, thanks to Max, she is back in my life and with more meaning than before.

Max never likes to pick books at the library, but last week something about the Amelia Bedelia books connected with him. Don’t ask me what. He chose a few to bring home and they were the first ones he wanted to read too.We started with the very first Amelia Bedelia when she starts working for Mr. and Mrs. Rogers. As I read to Max, he wore a very concerned look on his face. At first I thought maybe he wasn’t understanding the humor in the books, so I started stopping and asking him what he thought the Rogers were trying to tell good old Amelia to do and then had him point out how that was different from what she thought they were saying. But that concerned look stayed concentrated on the book until the last couple of pages when the Rogers discover that they want Amelia to stay around.

Max turned his eyes to mine and said “Mom, she’s just like ___________ and ____________ (names withheld, but he named a few of the several kids we know who are on the Autism Spectrum). Her brain just works a little bit differently than their’s so she doesn’t always understand what they mean.”

My heart did that Mommy-melty thing, when you fill up with a mixture of tenderness, pride of your child, and gratitude all at once. I opened the book back up to the last couple of pages for examples and steered the conversation through related subjects. I know we covered how everyone has value and should be treated with respect even if we don’t understand them as well as how when we know someone is different from us, sometimes we can change how we do things (like the Rogers changed how they phrased things to make sure Amelia would understand what they wanted) among other things.

Last week, we read these books more often than any other. We’ve been back to the library again since then and returned with three more. Guess what he wanted to read first! I have no doubt that soon we will have read the entire series. But that’s okay with me. Anything that helps my child to find beauty in the people  around him is more than welcome in my house.

Bobby had a manager’s training course set up in Chicago for the beginning of August, so the boys and I decided to tag along.  I gave the boys each the right to choose the one attraction that they most wanted to see. Then we choose some more that we all would enjoy.  We ended each day exhausted, but it was still a ton of fun. I’m blogging about some of our favorites places and pictures.

I gave the boys the option of driving downtown (where the majority of the attractions we wanted to see are) or getting passes to ride the train and buses. They answered right away: trains and buses!

The Field Museum. Katy’s Pick.

The boys liked the underground exhibit the best. It pretends to shrink you down to bug size. Then takes you through a typical underground scene.

 

 

The Egyptian Tomb exhibit was also a big hit. I couldn’t resist taking a picture when Gabe found the opening to the mummy on the floor below.

 

 

 

 

We spent a long time looking the walls from an actual tomb wall. And Gabe loved the large assortment of mummies.

 

 

Gabe really liked laying on the replica Egyptian bed. I had to keep telling him to get off. Max liked the shrine to the cat god Bast.

 

 

 

 

 

The other exhibit that the boys really liked was the Evolving Planet exhibit. It was spilt up by several red lights that read “Mass Extinction”. Gabe kept running from light to light yelling “Mass Extinction!” All the dinosaur fossils were smack in the middle of this exhibit. Gabe wanted pictures in front of all of them with him pretending to be the dinosaur. Max wasn’t as into it.

 

 

 

Shedd Aquarium

 

On the crowded train on way to the Shedd Aquarium. Ready for some dolphins.

Fun submarine!

 

 

Penguins but not a very good shot of them. I do like how the boys are colluding in front of them though.

 

 

 

 

Beluga whale and trainer during the Ocean Show.

 

Max REALLY wanted to pet some stingrays. We spent the longest time in one place at the Aquarium here. I couldn’t believe how playful these Stingrays were. I actually had one reserve course and come straight back to me so I would pet him again.

 

 

 

Max liked the biggest fish the best. He ignored all the little ones and then watch the big ones for quite a while. Though I think the Spider Crab freaked him out.

Max actually lying down on the train bench on the way back to the hotel. You know they’ve had a good time when they are exhausted at the end.

Lincoln Park Zoo– Max’s choice. And free, may I add.

 

 

 

This was Gabe’s favorite spot. It was a small spot off the side. It had a little mist spraying and lots of wood and metal climbing spots.

 

End of zoo pictures. Our feet were sore. We got a good view of the city from there as well.

Legoland Discovery Center: Gabe’s choice.

 

 

Lots of fun creations. It was enjoyable but I’m kind of glad we got the after 3pm e tickets. It was small. But it was the only thing Bobby really got to do with us on this trip.

 

The Star Wars legos were my favorites. Maybe, I’ll get the picture Bobby took of me on Darth Vader’s arm and post it too.

 

 

Factory tour with Bobby.

 

 

 

 

Building stations and a whirlygig ride.

 

 

Coolest bathroom stall doors ever!

The last thing we did before we hit the road home, Bobby and the boys built cars and raced them time after time.

 

It was a long and expensive couple of days. But they were well spent.