India 2012 ~ Day 4

The last two days have been very slow and restful. Lots of sleeping, reading and enjoying the noises of cultural busy-ness in the world around me.  A completely different world to begin with and this time around, I get to experience it in a completely different way.  I look forward to every minute.

Yesterday was all down time; mostly reading (finished the last 120 pages of a book I've been working on for over three months) and sleeping--both relatively high on my list of "vacay must-do's".  Today was more of the same.  Slept late (win),  showered (win), hair dryer died (EPIC FAIL), yummy breakfast (win), started a new book (win), out for a couple of errands with Shal & mom (win), homemade chicken curry for lunch with mom, Shal and Inika (win), orange & basil ice cream with coconut pie yumminess for dessert (double win), lay down for a bit of reading--or you know--a 5 hour nap-- whatever (win).

Utah County exists in it's own realm of reality.  Life is fairly quiet.  Yes, there's traffic, but it's minimal compared to what you would find just past the point of the mountain in Salt Lake City.  There's more yelling within the confines of closed windows than there is honking of horns so even the traffic that's there doesn't make much noise.  I live at the end of a cul de sac in a quiet neighborhood nearly a mile away from any kind of "real" traffic.  If I can hear a honking horn it generally means someone just pulled up to the neighbors house and is either in a hurry or has been waiting in the driveway for another passenger longer than they feel like is necessary.  Taxis in Utah County are few and far between, but definitely more prevalent than when I was growing up--as a kid I only ever saw taxis on tv.  The existed in my mind like unicorns and money trees.  In my neighborhood there's rarely such a thing as a stray dog-- chances are it belongs to someone in the neighborhood, it's just a matter of picking the right house to return the animal.  At home I hear lawnmowers, yard tools and the occasional bird most have fled the scene to prepare for winter.  

The sounds of Bangalore are wonderful!  In the mornings I wake up to a chorus of honking horns, calling birds, barking dogs and melodic chattering in languages I will likely never be able to speak and would be hard pressed to understand... which sounds chaotic and annoying but it makes me happy.  Something about being in a foreign country makes the sounds less obnoxious and more magical.  :o)  

Shal (Shali's sister-in-law) and Inika (Shali's niece) came to the house for lunch today.  Inika has a super cute new black lab puppy, Zoe.  Shal drove mom to run some errands and I rode along.  I super-love the traffic here.  Ridiculously chaotic and yet, very few wrecks.  Cars travel in all directions on the same road, with no concern for how close they are to the next vehicle or which side of the road they are driving on.  In India, the driver sits on the right side of the vehicle and they drive on the left side of the road (British influence?).  As we're driving along, motorcycles are passing on both sides of the car in both directions... lol  Making a u-turn is rarely a clean swoop with no oncoming traffic in either direction, you cross the first lane of traffic as soon as you are able and then wait in oncoming traffic until there is room for you to go the other way.  The cars behind you and all other motorists either stop and wait or go around (on either side of course).  It's ridiculously chaotic but completely normal here and I love it.  

I was reminded today of my stay at the hospital on my last trip.  It' funny to me that more than 5 years later it's still so fresh in every one's mind.  I'm sure they remember the story better than I do-- I was pretty out of it.  All I really remember is that I'd rather stay in an Indian hospital than and American one any day of the week and twice on Sunday.  Everyone I came in contact with at the hospital was wonderful, gracious and caring with an absolutely angelic bedside manner.  It wasn't something that I'd want to repeat, simply because it took away from my time to see all the beautiful things there are to see while here!

Tomorrow will be much more interesting, I'm sure with lots to write about.  Lunch with my friends Kaila and Matt who are also here from the US (for their jobs) and then Shali will be here tomorrow night!  Sunday is a day trip to Mysore, which I'm DEFINITELY looking forward to.  That was one of my favorite and most memorable trips last time.  Stay tuned to hear all about it!  If I have good signal on my cell I'll try to upload pics to FB throughout the day.

Anyway-- that about covers my day.  It's after midnight local time and I'm ready to sleep again.  

शुभरात्रि!  (Goodnight!)