My first blog is a long one, hopefully I'll blog more often and the rest of them will be short.
We still sort of feel like we're on vacation, well at least I do since I'm the only one still at home now, the kids and Prasad are back to their schedules. My parents, sister/her family, my cousin/family and his parents have been here so it feels more like our past India trips rather than us moving here. The kids had a great time with their cousins. My sister has left today and we'll be going to Hyderabad this weekend so after we're back and move to our rental house, I'll feel like we're really living here. We're still staying at a service apartment but since we have a kitchen, I have been to the large grocery stores and the small vegetable markets. They even have an organic vegetable store called Namdharis, it reminds me a little of Trader Joes.
The malls in Bangalore are just wonderful. The have a play area for the kids in most of the malls so the kids love going to the mall, they have good food courts, so Prasad doesn't mind going and the shopping although expensive is lots of fun and the best part is that the restrooms are clean.
Our house/apartment search: We really debated on whether we should live in an apartment or a home. One apartment which seemed very ideal and we nearly closed on was situated right next to a lake which hosts the treated sewage in Bangalore. When the wind blows in a certain direction, you get a good whiff of the sewage. We finally settled on a home in a gated community. The community has a decent club house and pool and it’s situated close to our work and school and although it is above our budget it doesn’t break our bank like Palm Meadows so it seemed ideal. We’ll move in a few weeks.
Buying a car. As you all probably know, someone will come to your home to help you with pretty much anything. Other than the usual cook, driver, housekeeper, delivery of groceries, there are other not so usual services that are provided such as the bank will send someone to your home to a open a bank account. And the car dealer will come to your home to test drive the vehicle, he will come to your place to sign the papers and he will then deliver the car to your home!! I could get used to this. We’re planning to buy a Toyota Innova.
First day of school – August 11th : It went surprisingingly well. Sindhu and Rushil are attending an international school and Monday was their first day. Rushil was very nervous and apprehensive. He cried a little when we dropped him off but overall it went well. Sindhura was looking forward to going back to school and making some new friends. She and Rushil managed to find their bus for their return journey and they came back on their own. All the schools have school buses that pick up and drop off the children. It really is wonderful and saves the parents gas and a whole lot of time. Sindhu has been taken her role has a big sister seriously and dutifully drops off and picks up Rushil at his classroom. Sindhu found a friend that just moved from Palo Alto, she's half American and half Canadian :-) Rushil also made a friend but in typical male fashion, they never exchanged names. On his 2nd day, he happily went into this classroom with no tears and no fuss. He even brought in a Hanuman book and the teacher obliged and read the book to the class, he was thrilled!
I was a little worried about Rushil's food allergies but luckily there are 2 other boys with nut allergies so the teacher is taking special precautions. The kindergarten (Prep II) class seems a little chaotic so I'm still nervous about his allergies but I guess we'll see how it goes. The school provides all meals including breakfast :-) The food is pretty good , they have Indian and Continental options. Sindhu has to wear a uniform, I'll send you pics when she gets her formal attire, right now she only has her PE outfit.
Today I met a woman from France who has a 6th grader who does not speak a word of English. They just arrived a week ago. I think the adjustment Sindhura and Rushil have to go through is nothing compared to hers. Sindhu did say at the end of the day that she misses her friends back at home, It'll take some time but she’s on the right path. Today she made another new friend from Sri Lanka whose father is a pilot at King Fisher Airlines.
It's quite interesting to meet parents from the school, they all have such interesting backgrounds. There are quite a few Indians (non NRIs) that also attend the school which I didn't expect. Today I met a woman who opened an Indian designer clothing store in Whitefield, I will have to check it out :-)
The school had an all day session for the parents last weekend to educate us on their philosphy. They are very open to parental input and involvement. They have many functions, sport days, and solicit parental involvement which I really liked. They place a large emphasis on community service. As part of their curriculum, the children will be teaming up with children from less fortunate schools and ophanages which I was quite impressed with as.
Our Mysore/Nagarhole trip : My sister/family and all of us took a trip to Mysore and Nagarhole National Park last week. As soon as you leave Bangalore, there is quite a cultural difference. Most of the women wear Indian attire unlike in Bangalore where it's not necessary to even own Indian clothing. I was hoping to really expand my Indian wardrobe but I can't seem to justify it since I can manage with Western clothing. Don’t worry I’m not holding back that much, I should really go back to work as I actually have to time to shop now. Anyway back to Mysore. We visited some temples, palaces, saw lots of monkeys, we did some souvenir shopping. I have finally collected some interesting pieces for my Gollu/Bommalu Koluvu/Doll display during Dassera. The children experienced their first Indian style latrine at one of the rest areas. I liked Mysore, the city has a charm and with all the beautiful palace buildings, it's makes for a quaint town. My sister and I squeezed in an ayurvedic massage at the Indus Ayurvedic Center. I highly recommend it. I felt wonderful after the massage. I also had a ayurvedic massage at Nagarhole park and I'm now an ayurvedic convert. I'm going to convert to ayurvedic beauty products. . We stayed 2 nights at the Kabini River lodge at Nagarhole National Park and I highly recommend this place. It was a beautiful park, all the meals were served at the resort and the food was good. We went on a few safari rides and saw spotted deer, sambars, elephants, a leopard, exotic birds, and monkeys (they were at the lodge and were causing some havoc there too :-)) This park is a tiger reserve and although we saw tiger tracks, we were not fortunate enough to see a tiger. What I liked best about this resort was how organized they were, they had a schedule which they stuck to and the park rangers were very passionate about their work which was great to see. We're definitely looking forward to doing a lot more travelling over the next couple of years.
We went to see a Hindi movie (Jaane Tu Jaane Na) the first week we were here and to my horror they didn’t have subtitles :-( but we still enjoyed the movie. Prasad had to translate for Sindhura and I but it just isn't the same. The movie was cute and we enjoyed it just the same, but I'll be watching it again with subtitles. I'm planning to take a Hindi class while I'm here so I can get around this problem.
In case anyone is wondering, I'll be going back to work on October 15th.
We still sort of feel like we're on vacation, well at least I do since I'm the only one still at home now, the kids and Prasad are back to their schedules. My parents, sister/her family, my cousin/family and his parents have been here so it feels more like our past India trips rather than us moving here. The kids had a great time with their cousins. My sister has left today and we'll be going to Hyderabad this weekend so after we're back and move to our rental house, I'll feel like we're really living here. We're still staying at a service apartment but since we have a kitchen, I have been to the large grocery stores and the small vegetable markets. They even have an organic vegetable store called Namdharis, it reminds me a little of Trader Joes.
The malls in Bangalore are just wonderful. The have a play area for the kids in most of the malls so the kids love going to the mall, they have good food courts, so Prasad doesn't mind going and the shopping although expensive is lots of fun and the best part is that the restrooms are clean.
Our house/apartment search: We really debated on whether we should live in an apartment or a home. One apartment which seemed very ideal and we nearly closed on was situated right next to a lake which hosts the treated sewage in Bangalore. When the wind blows in a certain direction, you get a good whiff of the sewage. We finally settled on a home in a gated community. The community has a decent club house and pool and it’s situated close to our work and school and although it is above our budget it doesn’t break our bank like Palm Meadows so it seemed ideal. We’ll move in a few weeks.
Buying a car. As you all probably know, someone will come to your home to help you with pretty much anything. Other than the usual cook, driver, housekeeper, delivery of groceries, there are other not so usual services that are provided such as the bank will send someone to your home to a open a bank account. And the car dealer will come to your home to test drive the vehicle, he will come to your place to sign the papers and he will then deliver the car to your home!! I could get used to this. We’re planning to buy a Toyota Innova.
First day of school – August 11th : It went surprisingingly well. Sindhu and Rushil are attending an international school and Monday was their first day. Rushil was very nervous and apprehensive. He cried a little when we dropped him off but overall it went well. Sindhura was looking forward to going back to school and making some new friends. She and Rushil managed to find their bus for their return journey and they came back on their own. All the schools have school buses that pick up and drop off the children. It really is wonderful and saves the parents gas and a whole lot of time. Sindhu has been taken her role has a big sister seriously and dutifully drops off and picks up Rushil at his classroom. Sindhu found a friend that just moved from Palo Alto, she's half American and half Canadian :-) Rushil also made a friend but in typical male fashion, they never exchanged names. On his 2nd day, he happily went into this classroom with no tears and no fuss. He even brought in a Hanuman book and the teacher obliged and read the book to the class, he was thrilled!
I was a little worried about Rushil's food allergies but luckily there are 2 other boys with nut allergies so the teacher is taking special precautions. The kindergarten (Prep II) class seems a little chaotic so I'm still nervous about his allergies but I guess we'll see how it goes. The school provides all meals including breakfast :-) The food is pretty good , they have Indian and Continental options. Sindhu has to wear a uniform, I'll send you pics when she gets her formal attire, right now she only has her PE outfit.
Today I met a woman from France who has a 6th grader who does not speak a word of English. They just arrived a week ago. I think the adjustment Sindhura and Rushil have to go through is nothing compared to hers. Sindhu did say at the end of the day that she misses her friends back at home, It'll take some time but she’s on the right path. Today she made another new friend from Sri Lanka whose father is a pilot at King Fisher Airlines.
It's quite interesting to meet parents from the school, they all have such interesting backgrounds. There are quite a few Indians (non NRIs) that also attend the school which I didn't expect. Today I met a woman who opened an Indian designer clothing store in Whitefield, I will have to check it out :-)
The school had an all day session for the parents last weekend to educate us on their philosphy. They are very open to parental input and involvement. They have many functions, sport days, and solicit parental involvement which I really liked. They place a large emphasis on community service. As part of their curriculum, the children will be teaming up with children from less fortunate schools and ophanages which I was quite impressed with as.
Our Mysore/Nagarhole trip : My sister/family and all of us took a trip to Mysore and Nagarhole National Park last week. As soon as you leave Bangalore, there is quite a cultural difference. Most of the women wear Indian attire unlike in Bangalore where it's not necessary to even own Indian clothing. I was hoping to really expand my Indian wardrobe but I can't seem to justify it since I can manage with Western clothing. Don’t worry I’m not holding back that much, I should really go back to work as I actually have to time to shop now. Anyway back to Mysore. We visited some temples, palaces, saw lots of monkeys, we did some souvenir shopping. I have finally collected some interesting pieces for my Gollu/Bommalu Koluvu/Doll display during Dassera. The children experienced their first Indian style latrine at one of the rest areas. I liked Mysore, the city has a charm and with all the beautiful palace buildings, it's makes for a quaint town. My sister and I squeezed in an ayurvedic massage at the Indus Ayurvedic Center. I highly recommend it. I felt wonderful after the massage. I also had a ayurvedic massage at Nagarhole park and I'm now an ayurvedic convert. I'm going to convert to ayurvedic beauty products. . We stayed 2 nights at the Kabini River lodge at Nagarhole National Park and I highly recommend this place. It was a beautiful park, all the meals were served at the resort and the food was good. We went on a few safari rides and saw spotted deer, sambars, elephants, a leopard, exotic birds, and monkeys (they were at the lodge and were causing some havoc there too :-)) This park is a tiger reserve and although we saw tiger tracks, we were not fortunate enough to see a tiger. What I liked best about this resort was how organized they were, they had a schedule which they stuck to and the park rangers were very passionate about their work which was great to see. We're definitely looking forward to doing a lot more travelling over the next couple of years.
We went to see a Hindi movie (Jaane Tu Jaane Na) the first week we were here and to my horror they didn’t have subtitles :-( but we still enjoyed the movie. Prasad had to translate for Sindhura and I but it just isn't the same. The movie was cute and we enjoyed it just the same, but I'll be watching it again with subtitles. I'm planning to take a Hindi class while I'm here so I can get around this problem.
In case anyone is wondering, I'll be going back to work on October 15th.
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