Costco!

So last week my schedule got moved around and I ended up going to one of the campuses I normally travel to on Mondays on Tuesday instead. A new doctor that I had never met before was riding with me to the hospital. He was really friendly and after finding out where I was from, he began to tell me about his trip to the U.S. two years ago. He described his experiences in San Francisco, L.A., Vegas, the Grand Canyon and other places on the west coast. We had a really entertaining talk about all of our favorite things in these various places. As we were wrapping up his trip, he excitedly says to me, “Oh, there was this one store that I went to while I was in the U.S. It was the best place I’ve ever seen. Do you know Costco?” I started cracking up as I listened to him go on and on about the many benefits of Costco. I agreed whole heartedly with him and told him all my favorite aspects of the store.

Then he started to tell me that when he visited his brother in Australia, he asked him, “Hey, do you have Costco here?” The brother had apparently not heard of the awesomeness that is Costco so he said, “We have to go there!” He told me, “I made him a member!” as though it was the best news he could share. I died laughing and told him that he had probably changed his life. He did say that Australian Costcos did not live up to the U.S. standards and he was slightly disappointed but still thought it was worth signing up his brother. I then went on to the explain the differences in Sam’s Club vs. Costco and how many of us are snobby when it comes to comparing the two, as many of us know Costco’s superiority! ;) He laughed and understood saying, “I see…it is Costco’s rival. Hmmm.” He was so serious that I could not help laughing during the whole conversation. I then went on to explain the concept of snowbirds and how in Phoenix, during the winter months, they take over Costco on any given week day for lunch. All you’ll see is a sea of grey heads and a giant line at the food court! He laughed. We literally spent almost an hour talking about how wonderful Costco can be and I will never forget the last thing he said to me. He said, “Next time I go the U.S. I plan to spend an entire day of my trip at Costco. I know I can spend the whole day enjoying there.” Hahahahaha!! That literally made my whole day!

Water Fun Always Helps

Friends are difficult to make here. I don’t know if I understand it fully but men and women just aren’t usually friends and I’ve tried to make friends with local women and it is a major challenge due to the fact that they don’t have disposable time, income or the ability to go do anything without permission. I’ve never had such a hard time making friends in my life. But I think I have found one and even if it breaks a little bit of the cultural norm, I’m grateful that he wants to hang out with me every once in awhile. My new friend is a co-worker from one of the campus locations that I travel to and he’s the head of English department there. His English is great and we are able to communicate well, therefore naturally it is easy to be friends with him. A couple weeks ago, he took a bus to Calicut and we went to see the new Avengers movie…now mind you, I haven’t seen any of the superhero movies except I think I saw Ironman (judge me all you want!) so I wasn’t like super psyched to see The Age of Ultron. But any form of entertainment in English coupled with someone that wants to hang out with me…I pretty much would have seen anything! The movie was actually pretty decent and I have now stolen all the previous Avenger-esque movies from my friend to borrow. I’m working on it. J

After the movie, we went to my apartment to have lunch and visit with my neighbors (who he had met at Easter) and then headed to the beach. It was a perfect way to end the day. The sun was starting to go down, he joined a pickup soccer (futbol) game and I just enjoyed watching the waves roll in. There’s always plenty of trash around so I easily found a bottle and decided I would do my best to write a message and send it out to some lucky soul haha. Except my throwing arm was not strong enough and it kept coming right back. You know the movies make it look so easy…you try it sometime! It’s not J As we were getting ready to leave, we could see a storm making its way in and it was awesome! The dark clouds and lightning over the ocean was such a beautiful sight…plus the weather cooled down. I love the ocean for so many reasons; I always find something new to marvel at. God always gives me such a peace when I’m watching his beautiful creation at the beach.

The next weekend, my friend invited me to Wayanad, a place a couple hours from Calicut that is in the mountains. He had a wedding function he needed to go to and said that we could explore the area after the function. I agreed just for the chance to get out of the city, hopefully get some cool breezes and again just to have some company. We met halfway there and the bus ride was really pleasant riding up towards the mountains. It was barely cooler but every little bit helps. We first stopped at this lake and walked around a bit, rented paddle boats and ate popcorn. Then we headed to his friend’s wedding reception. It was the usual gig, people asking me where I was from, what I was doing here, if I was married etc. while he caught up with his friends. We had biriyani and left shortly after. Then we went to this dam, one of India’s largest, which also had a park and a pretty lake. We walked around a bunch and then saw a crowd of people in this wooded area and went to check out these awesome swings. There were giant wooden swings hanging everywhere from these trees so people young and old could enjoy. I hadn’t been on a swing in quite awhile and there was something fun about it being in the trees. We took turns pushing each other and of course drew quite a crowd. I think he’s getting a taste of what it’s like being a foreigner here because we constantly have to move on when there’s too much of crowd for my liking. I had a little group at the bottom of my swing taking photos and just generally watching me act like a kid.

 When I was tired of being the show, we moved on to the lake and were lucky enough to get tickets for the last boat ride around the lake. We split the cost with these 3 other random guys who were nice and spent a little more time out on the water. It was a beautifully cloudy day and perfect for being outside. After our boat ride, we got an ice cream and headed back to the bus stand to go back home. On the way back, we traded favorite songs (English, Hindi, Korean, Malayalam) on our IPods. It was finally cool and I relished in the cool breeze on the way down the mountain. Good times J

Oh the Joys

So recently I went to a coworker's wedding ceremony in the southern part of India...even more south than where I am. It was a LONG hot journey by train (7 hours), then another hour by bus (also sweltering even though it was nighttime!) and then we finally arrived at like 10:30, had dinner and went to bed. I was staying with her neighbors while the rest of the crew that I came down with (10 other coworkers from my school) squeezed in at her parents house. I was never more grateful to be put at the neighbors with a bed, a shower and quiet! The next morning, I did my best to look nice for the wedding but this area put a whole new meaning to the word humid and I was a dripping puddle from the moment I walked outside for the entire rest of the day. It was crazy embarrassing because I could literally wring out my handkerchief and you could see that I was soaked through my entire outfit. Oh Lord, I don't know how they do it! Who plans a wedding outside in the summer in S. India??!

So after taking pictures at her house that morning, we all head in a party bus to the church. And when I say party bus, I mean it. My coworkers who were becoming friends danced up and down the aisles the whole way there. It was hilarious and fun, although we were a sopping disgusting sweaty mess by the time we got there. The ceremony was Catholic so there was a lot of chanting and singing in languages I didn't understand. We had to stand the whole time and at one point I felt so light headed that I had to walk out of the church and find a chair. After the ceremony, we climbed aboard the party bus again and headed to the reception. It was literally the shortest reception I've ever been to. We were all seated, the food was served, she took some photos on a stage that had glaring hot lights and then it was over. I never saw her sweat once...the power of the Indian female! Amazing! Or some incredible makeup...IDK.

The main reason, other than the wedding, that I traveled down south was to spend some time with my friends from Calicut who live in Kottarakara but have been working in Calicut. They are the ones who own my apt and made it all wonderful for me. We planned to do nothing much except relax, watch some TV shows, play games, drink wine and eat dark chocolate...and that's pretty much exactly what we did! It was heaven and we got a giant thunderstorm which we could watch on the porch and then spent an evening at the beach with yummy food. I had such a nice time and was feeling all good coming back to the city but I swear the moment I got back, the day to day problems kicked me in the butt and I almost lost my happy attitude. I rode back in comfort, an AC compartment and all went smoothly. Plus I got to skip the bus ride!

It was about dinner time when I arrived back in Calicut and so I decided to grab some food from my favorite restaurant not too far from the train station. It's not that close to my house otherwise I think I might eat there every day. They have a beautiful peanut butter banana smoothie and I got that with a nice salad. So I get off the train and my suitcase handle breaks...sigh. But I will not be thwarted...I still go to the restaurant and pick up my food for dinner. I'm in the rickshaw on my way home, carrying all my stuff, food in hand, ready to have a peaceful night and once again..problems. It's challenging to get into my building because I have a chain lock that I have to open that doesn't turn very easily. I put most of my stuff down to open the gate...lock up the gate,..open the lock to my door...again put all my stuff down except for one bag which I accidentally swing around knocking my majestic peanut butter smoothie off my suitcase, popping the lid off as it falls and spills all over the carport area in front of my door. So sad :( :( :( I know that I have to attack the mess immediately or else I will have an ant army ready to invade.

So I haul over the water and hose down the entire porch watching the remnants of my happiness spill off the side into the grass. I tell myself, no use in crying over spilled milk and so I press on. When I walk in and put all my stuff down. I see that an army of ants have already invaded and that I should have allowed the rest to join the party! Ugh!!!!!!! So from the top of one wall, across the kitchen floor leading up the other wall and onto a shelf where I mistakenly left a small package of cookies is an insane amount of ants. The package was totally unopened, yet these ants have X-men mutant like powers and are able to get into anything that's not in an air tight container. So out comes the ant repellent which I'm sure is really healthy for me to be breathing...and I go on a killing spree. I then have to sweep them all up and throw out the cookies which means I need to get this trash completely out of my house. We have two different garbage spots at my apt. They are both in the back of the property. One is just a trash heap where we can throw all non-food items. The second is a deep well that I'm always scared to walk back to because there's too many places for snakes and scorpions to hide but thankfully I never have seen anything other than...you guessed it. Ants! But it is a tricky spot because it's steep and usually damp so we have learned how to throw our trash right between this tree so that it falls directly into the well without getting too close. I certainly do not want to test out how deep this well actually is. So I gear up, aim carefully and boom...the trash lands right in the tree! For the LOVE!!!! I decide I can't be bothered to risk my life to get it out so I leave it and hope one of the 10 stray dogs will try to get it out and in the process hopefully fall into the well. Two birds with one stone I say!

It's been a solid hour at this point and my salad is beyond wilted and I have yet to unpack a thing. I review the events in my mind and all I can do is laugh at the absurdity of what it takes to do the simplest of things here. I did not let the enemy steal my joy and nothing else crazy happened for the rest of the night. :) Whew! Hope you enjoyed this installment of "How India Might Make me Lose my Mind!"