Blogging more than once a year is an accomplishment for me. At some point I will write something substantive, but I can't really be substantive after midnight, and it isn't happening tonight.
So. Vellore. We’ve now been here basically 3 weeks, and I think it is safe to say that we are sort of, kind of, used to it. Naomi is loving her new school, and is angry with us whenever we bring up the idea of going home. Her favorite thing here seems to be the plethora of good-climbing-trees, lots of nature in general to play in, the novelty of a new school, and lots of free time spent at busy playgrounds. I guess that was more than one thing.
Sage has had a harder time in school from the beginning, as I think I’ve mentioned before. But she is less commonly upset about going to school in the morning, and she is generally happy when we pick her up.
Nora is having a great time. Her "creche" is great--lots of individual attention, lots of toys, some other babies to toddle around with.
The food situation is still an issue (the kids are not eating well balanced diets with plenty of protein, fruits, vegetables and dairy; Sage is mostly eating chapathi, and I have begun to consider ice cream a "serving of dairy"). But the all sleeping in one room situation is not. And for some reason our hostel has suddenly virtually emptied out such that it feels like we have much more than the one bedroom for hanging-out space.
Last weekend we took a quick trip to Bangalore by 4 hour first-class train. The train station was full of adventurous monkeys swinging from all the various lines and stealing everyone's food. The train was fun. And Bangalore itself was a great escape. I had read a bunch about Bangalore having terrible congested traffic, and feared that it would be insanely overcrowded and perhaps overrated. But it was actually really a nice break, and since they have lots of one-way streets in Bangalore, as well as railings in the middle of the streets, I felt a lot safer walking around than I do in Vellore. In Vellore one is theoretically supposed to drive ont he left side of the road, but in reality drivers are constantly crossing over to the wrong side of the road to pass someone. There are rarely any seatbelts in the cars that you can hire here, there are no street lights at night, few traffic lights (which one can ignore by honking one's horn and blinking one's light while charging through a red light full speed), and all in all the bottom line is that driving here is by FAR the most dangerous aspect of India. I assume.
So anyway, Bangalore. Did I mention men wear motorcycle helmets in Bangalore? The women and children riding behind them don't, but still. I have yet to see a helmet in Vellore, even among all the physicians who live on Bagayam college campus.
We stayed in a nice hotel in Bangalore with amazing buffets of mostly delicious Indian food, with some western food as well. The first day we went to see the Bangalore Palace, then ate room service (steak and pasta) while watching a bollywood show and then The Sound of Music on TV. The second day we went to Cubbon Park (an amazing Central Park-like oasis in the middle of the city with absolutely stunning trees--see below), and Industrial and Technology Museum, an Art Museum, another small palace, temple, and parliament house. Then we drove home.
Tomorrow (hopefully) I will write some thoughts about CMC hospital, medicine here in general, etc. For the time being, this will suffice.
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