The move

Move is done, we still have a lot of unpacking to do and that will probably drag on for several more weeks.

We went with Leo Packers as the moving company. We also received a quote from Sahara Packers, they were a bit cheaper and Raffles, they were a bit more expensive. Leo did a pretty decent job, I would recommend them. A couple of glasses broke and there was a bit of damage on one of our dressers but overall not too bad.

So many things didn't work at the new apartment. Given it was a brand new apartment unlike the house which we had rented for the past 8 months, basic things like water, gas for cooking and telephone wiring for internet accesss were not hooked up. Prasad somehow pulled some strings to get the water and gas to work but Internet access had a to wait a couple of extra days. There is still a long list of items that are not working, now I know why people don't recommend moving into a new house in India. It's a full-time job to track down the handyman required for each item that needs to be fixed. The big bummer is that our fridge doesn't fit in the kitchen so now it's sitting in the family room, what an eyesore! The baker's rack that I bought in Ottawa many many years ago fits into the space where the fridge was supposed to be.

Sindhu has totally integrated into the community. One of her school friends welcomed her and introduced her to many of the girls in the complex so Sindhu is having a great time. Rushil also has a friend from his class who lives right above us, but he needs to expand his social circle. I think he will soon be banned from entering their home as he constantly wants to hang out with his new friend.

There are lots of noises we hear all day, sometimes you can hear a baby cry from a nearby apartment in the middle of the night. To reduce the noise, the home association has set some rules on when construction is allowed at the apartment, there is no such restriction when you live in a single home so we're constantly forgetting this . A funny incident happened the day before we moved. Prasad was getting a number of things fixed at the apartment. All day long, the handyman was drilling or knocking holes into the wall and making quite a bit of noise. The woman who lived above us was bothered by the noise and came down multiple times to see when the work would complete. Finally at 6:30pm, he was mostly finished but was working on some finishing touches which required him to drill a hole again. This caused the upstairs neighbor to become irate. She stomped downstairs and was visibly upset since there is a rule that no construction should be done after 6pm. This time Prasad was there and he watched her with amusement. After a a couple of seconds of yelling, she suddenly realized that she knew Prasad. Her son is in Rushil's class! She was utterly horrified. She apologized profusely and she promptly called me and told me about the whole incident and how embarrassed she was ! The next day she brought over a bottle of wine and dinner for us! Very sweet of her!

There is definitely a lot more activity at an apartment complex. I thought we would feel clastrophobic but the apartment is pretty spacious so it hasn't been an issue. The one negative is that there are more mosquitos here and they spray the area to reduce the number of mosquitos but I really don't like the smell and have no idea how bad it is for our health.

I'll post pictures of the apartment soon!