Jane Goodall's visit

Several months ago our neighbors hosted a fundraiser cocktail party where Jane Goodall was the guest speaker. I can remember watching her on TV as a child and was fascinated by the life she led living with the chimpanzees. We were able to have our photo with her and get an autographed book. Unfortunately Ted was unable to be there as he was en route to the US.

Please don't say thank you

I was at store today shopping for some silver jewelry. Whenever I shop, unless I am extremely irritated with the shop, I am polite. I like to say please and thank you. But today the sales clerk, very nicely said you don't need to say please and thank you, I am here to serve you. I told him I believe being polite (saying please and thank you) was important to me. I explained that by me being polite he could still help me and that I felt it would be rude of me to forget my manners! The other funny thing was he kept wanting me to sit down while looking at jewelry but the fact that I am so short made it hard to get a good look at the jewelry, so I stood. I actually joked and asked if he would get in trouble if I didn't sit down:) Soon I will be back to the US where it will be hard to find a salesclerk in a three mile radius of the store and I will wish for a brief nanosecond I was back in India!

Traveling ATM

We needed to get quite a bit of cash to purchase something for a friend who had to leave India suddenly. Banking in India is an interesting experience as is just about everything else. The bank that we bank at, or I should say Ted banks at (I am not on the account-too much paperwork involved for that!) is located in the city and is quite a drive in and I hear from Ted quite an experience inside. I have never been inside since I am not on the account. But I have an ATM card with Ted's name and use it to get rupees at just about any ATM. The ATM however limits the amount of money you can take out, that is if the ATM has power. It is not uncommon for ATM to either be out of cash or unable to give cash to due power outages.

note the sign written on cardboard~power cut

Since we needed a large amount of rupees today we emailed the bank president to request money to be delivered. We have done this once before and I must say it is pretty convenient! The guy drives a two wheeler to the house with a brief case loaded with rupees. He comes in and Ted gives him a check. The only glitch was that Ted made the check out wrong and the guy spoke no English, but we got it figured out! So we got the rupees, ordered our friends stuff and didn't have to visit the bank or the ATM everyday for a week! I am quite sure I will never again have an ATM show up on my door step!

17 years of wedded bliss

Today Ted and I are celebrating 17 years of marriage! If anyone would have said on our wedding day that we would celebrate 2 anniversaries in India I would have laughed in their face! But here were are! We are being joined by friends this afternoon for a Midwest cookout complete with beef ribeyes smuggled in by Ted! I am so blessed to have Ted for a husband and as a result three beautiful kids! Happy Anniversary Ted, I love you!

Another Chicken Bike

We were driving down the street and I saw live chickens being weighed on scale outside a shop. I asked Bhaskar to turn around so we could see how these chickens would be transported, instead of turning around he just backed down the busy street. Makes sense, this is India after all...what road rules?? We saw the chickens coming toward us, they were tied to a bicycle! More photos of a chicken bike. I seem to be a bit obsessed with this but only a few more weeks and I will never see anything like this again! The guy didn't seem happy at all while I was filming and taking his photo but as soon as we passed him he was smiling from ear to ear!

Koimbedu Fruit, Flower and Vegetable Market

Thursday morning I arose before dawn to begin the drive to one of the largest fruit, vegetable and flower market in Chennai. The market actually starts to set up around 2 am, wholesale goes from 5-7am and it is open to the public from 7-9am. My friend Liz and I left at 5 am and arrived around 5:45am. It an amazing sight to see the hustle and bustle of this huge market just as the sun was rising. There were lorries and bicycle carts all over the place waiting for goods to be loaded. We started on the vegetable side. I have never seen so many vegetables in one place. The colors were fantastic! We saw so many vegetables some that we had never seen before. People were eager to pose for photos but had a bit of a hard time understanding that I couldn't give them the photo. I wish I could go back and give them a copy but it would be impossible. I was constantly being told to get out of the way as people were on the move with produce! I can't tell you how many times I got wacked with a sack of something! There were a few bicycle carts but no shopping carts or trolleys here. Mostly it was pure and simple man power. Men carried gunny sacks on there back, they had metal hooks hooked through the bag to hold them. Others carried baskets on their head piled high with boxes and some just stacked things on their shoulders. The market was alive with people! I kept thinking that this was what India was all about. We must have walked for about 2 hours and then we headed to the fruit section. There were rooms piled high with mangoes, watermelon, bananas, pineapples, etc. We bought a few things. One interesting thing was that a few times prices were quoted to us by a young person and when the older person came over the price shot up drastically! People continually asked where we were from. One laborer who had very good English asked my why I was in India. Of course I told him that my husband was working here. He wanted to know what I did so I told him I was a mom with kids and just stayed home with them. He then looks at me and says, "You are a housewife." That still makes me laugh because I didn't think he would understand if I told him I was a housewife. Too funny! So an incredibly wonderful experience again in India. I really enjoyed getting out and experiencing what India is really about. We discovered that we missed the flower section but at that point we were so hot and sweaty we decided we would just imagine what it would have been like! Enjoy the photos of a very busy market in Chennai!

Market at dawn

Tea time

Banana leaves that will be used for plates

Sorting limes

Chili peppers

Beautiful eggplant

Sorting coconuts

Beans and peas...what gorgeous colors!

Celebreties in Chennai

One advantage of being an expat besides living in a foreign land is being able to experience things you can't or wouldn't in your home country. Yesterday I had two awesome experiences! The first was a cooking demonstration by world famous Italian chef Antonio Carluccio, in which he prepared several dishes. He seemed just what a Italian chef should be...round and jovial! He kept the ladies laughing with stories and jokes. The event was concluded with a lunch that included one dish in which he demonstrated. It was a fun morning! To make the event even more memorable they took my photo while there (not the best but oh well) and it was in the Indian Express today! I was surprised when a friend asked if I had seen my photo! So if you are interested check out the Indian Express.

The evening ended with listening to author Jeffrey Archer discuss his new book Path to Glory. He has written a number of best seller fiction books, none of which I have read. But now I have a signed copy of Path to Glory which I am anxious to begin reading. He is an extremely popular author in India and he is touring 12 cities here. I think he said his books are published in 6 Indian languages! His talk was followed by a buffet dinner. It was a fun evening out with my neighbors Dave and Liz (who took my photo). Keeping busy these last few days before Ted returns is helping time pass faster.

Interesting fruits

I looked out the window to see Sampeth getting something out of the tree. This tree has this curly fruit hanging all over it. This is the same tree where I often see and hear green parrots, which are difficult to photo! I wandered out back to see that Saraswathe had a pile of this fruit gathered up in her Saree. They offered me to try one, at first I said no and then decided to be really brave. Not a bad taste. A bit sweet, sort of reminded me of raw cauliflower but with a bit of a woody texture. As the fruit ripens it becomes a beautiful shade of pink. Very interesting. They told me the name but of course I couldn't begin to pronounce it let alone remember it so just enjoy the photos of this interesting fruit.

The chicken bike and the rickshaw horn...

It was a glorious day in Chennai. Ever since last year when I first saw the chicken bike I have had this internal nagging that I had to capture it on film or well digital format. So I scheduled the morning to drive the streets of Chennai looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. I of course had to explain the whole needle in the haystack to Bhaskar! We drove for sometime with no chickens in sight. We were driving through one area and Bhaskar said it was where Brahman people (strict vegetarians) lived, so we headed to the meat eater section! But again no chickens on bikes. I was beginning to lose hope when Bhaskar announced we would drive to the wholesale chicken area which happens to be by the used car part (ie junkyard) of Chennai. I kind of felt like I was cheating but hey I am desperate, only another month here so desperate times called for desperate measures. We drove through and saw no activity. I had actually decided that I would pay someone some rupees if they would just tie up some chickens for the photo. Alright, please keep your animal rights views to yourself. When at last we had a photo! A guy had about 10 chickens tied to his scooter but then we struck gold and saw a guy tying chickens to his BICYCLE! So at last I got my chicken photo!

A banana shop

a goat stallA cock fight

Do you want that chicken with or without with flies?

Chicken scooterThe chicken bicycle!

Logan also did something today that he has always wanted to do...reach out the window and honk an auto rickshaw's horn. We kept our eye out for the perfect opportunity when finally it happened. Bhaskar slowed down and told the driver that Logan wanted to honk the horn and he did it! What day. I guess for some of us it doesn't take much for a good day huh?

Logan fulfilling a dream :)

The wine shops

The local wine shops are an interesting place. Alcohol in India is not available in the grocery stores but must be bought at a wine shop. The wine shops are all over the place and seem to be a pretty popular place, especially on pay day. I really love the whole ambiance the wine shop has to offer.