35-38.365.2014 India Adventures

Well, I didn’t post much while I was gone… I woke up on Tuesday feeling great and ready to conquer the week.
I had one pot of coffee with Juan at breakfast and we ended up so sick by the time we got to the office. I really didn’t recover a ton… I think between jet lag and acid reflux, my stomach kicked my ass. I had good moments and horrible moments. So, lots of sleep and not lots of social media.

Therefore, here’s a 4 day post!! Get ready!

Tuesday we went to the office and met the team. They were awesome and so excited to show us their work. It blew our minds! That night we went to Jaxa’s house for a dinner with her leadership team. Jaxa is our Director in India. Her home is beautiful and the party was great.

What they used to cook several dishes:

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Bill, Jaxa and her prayer room.

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The two sides… Jaxa’s gated community and a shanty town for construction workers. Completely normal in India.

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Wednesday was another office day. The drive to work is always amazing. The culture is very evident at every turn.

Folks hired out to sweep the streets with coconut leaves. They are actually very clean.

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It’s not uncommon to see cows all over the roads. They eat trash and block drivers.

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Tons of motorbikes everywhere. Also, no one follows any lanes… You just drive and honk to make your way. There was no accidents. People walk across the middle of the street, they ride bicycles, multiple people ride on the back not holding on and playing with cell phones, and then add cars!

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The hotel we stayed in was gorgeous. Full scale comfort with beautiful architecture & design, ridiculous service and great food/bars. The dessert case!

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The pool.

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They had 4 cakes sculpted to different cartoons. Wow!

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Thursday was our last day in India. We had purchased “kurtas”, Indian shirts, to wear to the office and of course, they were red & khaki. I think the team loved them!

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After work, our driver Chandru took us to a meat/fruit/vegetable/flower market. It was pretty cool, but also quite different. We parked and walked around which meant crossing the street in the middle of traffic. It didn’t smell great… People were staring at us (remember the kurtas!). But why go to India and not take a risk!?

We headed to the meat market first and saw cages of birds – parakeets, pigeons, ducks. And then cages of puppies, kitties and other animals. I FREAKED OUT. Until the driver told me it was the pet store… The meat market was next door. 🙂

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We weren’t allowed to take photos in the meat market. It was nasty. But the veg and fruit market was amazing and beautiful.

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And the flower market was cool. They take flowers and design then into beautiful pieces. The one in this photo is for a new house blessing. Amazing!

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We also saw a beautiful church… The oldest in Bangalore. It was extremely peaceful.

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Of course a day at the market wouldn’t be the same without some cows and stray dogs.

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Although I didn’t feel the best all week, the trip was overall good to experience. I have a feeling we’ll be back this year. But for now, I was excited to come home!! My flight from Paris was delightful… Amazing pods and just relaxing.

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And of course, I got to see my pooch!! FaceTime while in India, but the best was his wagging tail when he saw me!

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34.365.2014 India Day One!

Ok… We arrived! So far, so good. The hotel is amazing, the food is pretty good and we have a great day catching up on sleep. I took an Ambien last night and slept for a good 8 hours. The I woke up for a delicious Indian lunch.

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We had wonderful massages to relax. I even scheduled 2 more! Then our local director from the India office met us and helped us find all of the shipping venues. Driving is crazy!!

We then went to Commercial Street to find some deals. And some stray dogs. It really bothers me.

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And now to bed after a pizza dinner.

26.365.2014 Travel

Today we celebrated Max’s second birthday. We enjoyed some Donato’s pizza and a really fun Thomas the tank Engine cake. He was a lot of fun whipping through his presents and trying to stop and play with just one of them. And he did so good at blowing out his candle!

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Then we headed up to Columbus for our flight home which I was convinced was going to be delayed and/or cancelled. Well it wasn’t! The captain did tell us that we had a lot of turbulence which always helps my nerves. The ascent was beautiful!

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About an hour in I noticed that we started to veer to a different direction and change altitude lower. The captain confirmed when he came on and told us that we were landing in Detroit because the engine was losing oil. I surprisingly stayed super calm. The lady beside us had a panic attack and literally was moved to the front. Either way, we landed safely.

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Now we are waiting patiently to get a new plane and a new crew. Unfortunately, the crew arrived, but our second plane also had a mechanical issue that couldn’t be resolved. So on to a 3rd plane. We waited about 2-3 hours total. Oh yeah, and we had this lovely fire alarm too. What I find interesting is that no one got up and moved.

But we just landed and all is okay! We even got a little liquor for free on the flight. Baby needed that with the turbulence. 🙂

25.365.2014 Kids!

I woke up this morning to the sounds of 3 monkeys running around my moms house and her yelling, “Be quiet! Uncle David is sleeping!” So naturally, I ignored it for about 20 mins and then got up.

We played a TON today. Sam was so funny, “Will you play a game with me!?” And it was usually hide & seek, throw the ball in his face or wrestle. But I did have fun with all 3. The kids counting:

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Hiding in Nammie’s shower while Dave tried to find us:

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I found the perfect superhero capes for each of them. So after I bribed them for a photo, they got this present. The next two hours was running around and playing chase/hide & seek. Max’s favorite was when one of us carried him and scared the other two kids.

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Now off to bed so we can play more tomorrow.

24.365.2014 Standby

I had a very busy day… Of waiting. First, it was supposed to be a really busy day. Then I skipped a meeting to get caught up and was feeling really good. I was leaving right around 1 to catch a flight to Columbus. I checked my phone to see a notice from Delta that my flight was delayed… 3 hours! So I put my bag down and worked some more.

After feeling REALLY caught up, I went home, picked up Dave and headed to the airport… Where we waited in snowy traffic.

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We got to the airport and sat down for dinner… Only to see that our flight was cancelled!! So we went to the counter and was told that we were rebooked on a 9 am through Detroit. The lady told us there was a 7 pm we could go standby on. So we grabbed some food and waited some more!

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There were about 18 people on standby and we were numbers 6&7. My name was called for the last seat. I told the agent that I was traveling with someone else and she asked if we’d split up. I said no and magically a second seat appeared!

So, we caught the last two seats on a snowy, windy flight. Then we drove the 1 hr to Courthouse. But at least we are here.