Over the River (technically river bed) and Through the Woods (coconut palm grove) to Grandmother's House We Go!

Jackie, soooooooooooooo cute

Awwwwwwwww

She was unusually calm for that moment

Cuddles the cutest Pekingese   

Maash (you say it mash) the pug and Andrew

We just got back from my grandma's house in Vellore. It was a three and a half hour drive. The visit was so fun; the best parts were playing with her almost 3 month old black lab puppy named Jackie and her 8 year old golden lab Ginger. Jackie is just now in her biting stage but that's puppies for ya. The other great thing about going to her house is that she makes the best food and my dad and I look forward to that every time she comes or we visit her. We only got to stay from 11:00 yesterday to 11:00 today, but it was still fun.

Ginger, Such a sweet old dog.

I've been wanting to tell you that I've made some friends. There names are Cuddles, Maash, Chico and Pumpkin, and one potential friend who is the only human among them named Twisha. Here are some pics I took:        

Abby: Who Turned Out the Light?

What if you went to a nice mall and were just eating your dinner at the food court and the lights just go out?  Here, everyone just goes on eating like nothing happened, like it happens every day! Well it does happen every day. It actually did happen to us at the mall and it happens at our house all the time, but our apartment building  has generators. That means the electricity goes out with in thirty seconds or less the generator kicks in. The fans lights, TV and fridge come on but not the microwave or the washing machine. Sometimes it happens at really weird times and places like the mall or while you're in the shower. I just stand there when I'm in the shower because it's a little weird showering in the dark! But at my grandma's (on my dad's side) in Vellore, they get seven hours of power outage with no fan or anything and they just have to live with it! Sorry I couldn't put any pictures but there would be no point!   

Abby: It's Raining, It's Pouring, The Tires Feel Like Popping!

 On Wednesday my dad took us to the mall. He hired a car and driver because he doesn't like driving in the dark. On the way home it started sprinkling and and that became rain and that progressed into heavy rain. Just as it became heavy rain I heard and felt the tire closest to me just go boom and my side kinda went down. The driver opened his door and told us to get out of the car. So we did and we kept away from the rain by standing under the awning of a sari shop while the poor driver had to spend fifteen minutes in the pouring rain changing the tire! Thank goodness for spare tires! (The funny thing is that this was the only 15 minutes of rain we have had since we have been here!) Here are some pictures.

Abby: Peelings

Peeling garlic

There are two things that are used in almost every Indian meal; ginger and garlic. In the US they both usually come in powder and ready to use, but here they only come like they were just plucked from the ground.

 So you have to peel them which makes you want to scream (at least with the garlic) because most of them are pretty small.


Ginger on the other hand is a completely different story. It is fun and easy to peel because it is so big. Here are some pictures:

Ginger

Finished garlic

Finished ginger

 

We also shelled some peas!

   

o

Andrew: Pictures of Everything

This is at a restaurant. It had a lot of interesting things there. This is one- a rope bed. How comfortable would that be?

We were at a furniture shop and they were selling these. I call them "AC's" aka "Air Chairs"!

This is a picture of a gecko, apparently. They might not have very many of these in Texas, but there are a TON of them here.

Today I want to talk about something called... breakfast! This is really good. It is kind of like a pancake with fresh coconut and syrup in the middle. I opened this one up so that you could see it. Even though it is kind of hard to cut, it is really yummy. I don't remember the name.

Hi as you can see here my hair is overgrown! Which one do you like better, before........

or after??!

Abby: On the Street

Bad traffic

Even though India is tropical you might not know by the streets of Bangalore! Here it's very dusty and the streets are packed with cars except for a few hours of the day. Since there are so many cars there are lots of traffic jams, some that can last for hours. Once we were thirty minutes away from our apartment and we got stuck in traffic. So it took two hours to get home (it was the early part of rush hour). When you are stopped, there are people trying to make a living from selling things that will probably only make them less than two dollars a day! Once I saw a man selling Dora balloons to try to make a living.(did you know that they have Dora here and she teaches Spanish to preschool Hindi speakers!) It's kinda comforting to know that there are many people wanting to help them like Compassion International and World Vision, but still so many don't have help.

People on bicycles share the road too!

Another thing that we see and hear are the birds. They are tons of them- some beautiful and some even more beautiful. I love their songs in the morning. One of my mystery flying things that was guessed was the kite and it's song is the best. Tomorrow we are going to the seminary where my dad will be a professor and we probably will get to see and hear the rose ringed parakeets that are one of my mom's many favorites. When we lived here before (when I was three) they used to sit right in front of our window! I'll have to tell you what other wildlife lives there tomorrow!      

Abby: Flat Stanley and Flying Things

Have you heard of Flat Stanley? You may have read the books, but there's also something people do when someone visits or moves to another place. They and the people that they left behind take a picture of themselves and send it to the other person. Then the other person takes pictures with the picture and sends them to the other person and vice versa. Well, I figured Andrew and I could do that, but instead of just one person, we could do it with anyone of you that wants to. (If you have a pet you can send in a picture of them instead of you.) If you want to do it with either of  us just email me to this address dietitianmom@gmail.com and we will give you our address and further instructions (please tell me us if you want to do it with Andrew or me or both).


On another subject, we went swimming today!!!! There's a pool in the apartment and when you're in it you feel like you're in a tropical resort! The water was freezing, but it was definitely worth it. It does get hot during the day, but it's still so cool at night that the water doesn't heat up much.

There's another thing that you might find interesting. They're what I like to call; The Four Flying Things. I'll give you some hints of what they are. The first rhymes with bite, the second only flies at night, the third is called the city bird and the fourth is the most evil flying thing in the world. What do you think they are? In a week I will give the answer.