The past month has shed some light on what seems to genuinely matter to our family, as a change in living situations will do. Some things I did not think to worry about at all prior to coming here have turned out to be much bigger issues, while other things I did worry about have been absolutely fine.
For instance. I was concerned about the idea of not bringing any toys or books (aside from a guidebook, one board book for Nora, a Disney stories book for Sage, and one novel for Naomi) to India. We did bring a few finger puppets for Nora, which we used on the plane, but then we keep misplacing them or forgetting them; also, I did buy her a toy phone in the college store here, which she occasionally plays with, and enjoys. We also brought 2 ipads for the girls with games, and most importantly, BOOKS (primarily borrowed from the Cincinnati library's kindle selections, a way of reading that has been new to us, and absolutely WONDERFUL). Oh, and some of those rubber band thingies that are all the rage now, and some lego contraptions set for Naomi that fit into a sandwich bag. So a few things. But this is essentially nothing compared to the endless toys, hundreds of books, and other entertaining playthings like bikes, scooters, balls, etc we have at home.
It turns out, while all of those things are fun, they have not really been missed. Naomi spends her time making creatures and mobiles out of found objects from Nature, Sage has pretend teaparties with sand and leaves (and, let's be honest, trash), and Nora collects rocks, draws in the sand with sticks, and pretends to sweep with branches and leaves. Toys are great , and I am sure i will go right back to buying them ad nauseum as Sage's birthday approaches, but quite honestly, they are probably no better than nature. And nobody--despite complaining about everything else under the sun--has even once complained about not having toys.
On the other hand, something that has turned out to be very, very important to us is good food. We have not had an oven, stove, or boiling device that accepts milk (I do not trust the milk because the faculty here boil it before drinking even if chilling in the fridge afterward, so I think I should too) while here, and had a fridge for about 2 of the weeks only (though we are still keeping fruit there and hoping no one notices). I expected to run into issues with the girls not liking food, but actually our biggest issue has been food availability. Due to a variety of factors, most of our meals are either PB&J on very bad processed bread, or pizza, various types of cheese sandwich, various types of fried rice or noodles, or various deep fried or skillet fried breads from a canteen half a mile away from our room. We can't seem to time our visits correctly to get "meals" (a dish with rice, curd, sambar, and some other type of side), and we are very, very, very sick of the canteen.
Thinking about eating at the canteen now makes all of us (except for Nora!!) want to cry. In the case of Sage, she actually does cry. But I want to too. Even if I can live on a few starch based meals per day, I absolutely, positively love eating fresh salads, broccoli, carrots and hummus, strawberries, blackberries, grilled meats, simply baked fish, tossed bean salads and burritos, etc. Oh my! Good, healthy, fresh, tremendously varied homemade food is very important to me. While we certainly make sure to have good food at home, and are able to spend frivolous money on things like unusual fish or super delish almond butter, since "good food" has always been available to me, I don't think I had any idea how much I love it.
BUT, it is important to mention, that I do still genuinely like homemade South Indian food (for instance, I LOVE every south Indian dish we have had at a restaurant or hotel). So this is not really an India thing, but rather a living in 1 room with no kitchen in a place with not a lot of nearby outside food options. Probably it would suck to not have a kitchen in Cincinnati as well. And I don't think anyone here would argue that it's healthy to survive on puri (a deep fried Indian bread) and mediocre American pizza, etc, alone.
PS--I deleted this post yesterday because I worried that it might come across "the wrong way", ie, as a criticism of Vellore, CMC (the hospital here), etc. That isn't my intention. Having reread what I've written a few times now, I think it is ok. And also the truth.
For instance. I was concerned about the idea of not bringing any toys or books (aside from a guidebook, one board book for Nora, a Disney stories book for Sage, and one novel for Naomi) to India. We did bring a few finger puppets for Nora, which we used on the plane, but then we keep misplacing them or forgetting them; also, I did buy her a toy phone in the college store here, which she occasionally plays with, and enjoys. We also brought 2 ipads for the girls with games, and most importantly, BOOKS (primarily borrowed from the Cincinnati library's kindle selections, a way of reading that has been new to us, and absolutely WONDERFUL). Oh, and some of those rubber band thingies that are all the rage now, and some lego contraptions set for Naomi that fit into a sandwich bag. So a few things. But this is essentially nothing compared to the endless toys, hundreds of books, and other entertaining playthings like bikes, scooters, balls, etc we have at home.
It turns out, while all of those things are fun, they have not really been missed. Naomi spends her time making creatures and mobiles out of found objects from Nature, Sage has pretend teaparties with sand and leaves (and, let's be honest, trash), and Nora collects rocks, draws in the sand with sticks, and pretends to sweep with branches and leaves. Toys are great , and I am sure i will go right back to buying them ad nauseum as Sage's birthday approaches, but quite honestly, they are probably no better than nature. And nobody--despite complaining about everything else under the sun--has even once complained about not having toys.
On the other hand, something that has turned out to be very, very important to us is good food. We have not had an oven, stove, or boiling device that accepts milk (I do not trust the milk because the faculty here boil it before drinking even if chilling in the fridge afterward, so I think I should too) while here, and had a fridge for about 2 of the weeks only (though we are still keeping fruit there and hoping no one notices). I expected to run into issues with the girls not liking food, but actually our biggest issue has been food availability. Due to a variety of factors, most of our meals are either PB&J on very bad processed bread, or pizza, various types of cheese sandwich, various types of fried rice or noodles, or various deep fried or skillet fried breads from a canteen half a mile away from our room. We can't seem to time our visits correctly to get "meals" (a dish with rice, curd, sambar, and some other type of side), and we are very, very, very sick of the canteen.
Thinking about eating at the canteen now makes all of us (except for Nora!!) want to cry. In the case of Sage, she actually does cry. But I want to too. Even if I can live on a few starch based meals per day, I absolutely, positively love eating fresh salads, broccoli, carrots and hummus, strawberries, blackberries, grilled meats, simply baked fish, tossed bean salads and burritos, etc. Oh my! Good, healthy, fresh, tremendously varied homemade food is very important to me. While we certainly make sure to have good food at home, and are able to spend frivolous money on things like unusual fish or super delish almond butter, since "good food" has always been available to me, I don't think I had any idea how much I love it.
BUT, it is important to mention, that I do still genuinely like homemade South Indian food (for instance, I LOVE every south Indian dish we have had at a restaurant or hotel). So this is not really an India thing, but rather a living in 1 room with no kitchen in a place with not a lot of nearby outside food options. Probably it would suck to not have a kitchen in Cincinnati as well. And I don't think anyone here would argue that it's healthy to survive on puri (a deep fried Indian bread) and mediocre American pizza, etc, alone.
PS--I deleted this post yesterday because I worried that it might come across "the wrong way", ie, as a criticism of Vellore, CMC (the hospital here), etc. That isn't my intention. Having reread what I've written a few times now, I think it is ok. And also the truth.
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