I am back. I am here. I love Delhi. :)
Background first, and then I'll get to my love for India, where you will just roll your eyes at how happy I am:
Our last night in Addis, I threw Haven and Selah their first sleepover. We watched a movie which started AFTER their bedtime, and then the 2 Ethiopian girls and 2 little Segebarth girls lined up their pillows sideways on the double bed and lied down. If you know anything about four 6-7 year olds lying on a bed within reach of each other, you will understand why I slept on the bunkbed where I could see everything that was happening and be the grouchy "mom" that tells them to stop whispering/giggling/singing/tickling-and-touching each other/laying on each other/wiggling and go to sleep. All that said, the sleepover was really fun, and it was great leverage for getting them to obey the 3 days before ;)
My goodbye to Eyerus happened at an unexpected time, so that was good as I didn't have time to be all sappy. The goodbyes at the airport though...that was hard to watch. I couldn't help but cry when I saw Miyco hug all his friends. I can't imagine what he was feeling--but it must be impossibly difficult to say "goodbye for now" to his lifelong friends whom he's around 24/7 as he goes to a country where he knows almost no one and doesn't completely understand the language or the lifestyle. All will be well in the end, but it's gotta be hard now.
Stacy, Karlee, and the gang all had their tickets messed up, so we had to wait quite awhile to get all those fixed in Addis. It involved the little girls sitting on either the luggage or the carry on part of the luggage cart, playing silly games and listening to their iPods. They finally got their tickets and were bumped up to business class (Thank you, Karlee, for crying). Naturally, my ticket was fine, so I was supposed to be in Economy. But instead I snuck up to business class and sat next to them, which wasn't necessarily appreciated by the flight attendants--but they let me stay.
I come from a family where we did road trips growing up because flying was often too expensive, so...this was amazing. We had like 3 feet of leg room, our seats could recline into an almost flat position, the snack menu included gourmet food, and my spinach fritata [on real plateware with a tablecloth and real silverware] was to die for. It was purely lovely. I couldn't help but think that someone who designs the interior of planes must be twisted to create seats like the lopsided one with the bar sticking up into my gluteals on that one dreadful Royal Air Maroc flight, when they have the capability to make something this nice. I do realize that people who fly business class PAY for it, but still...isn't there a happy medium of reclineability and legroom without paying an extra $800?
We had a long layover in Germany, and by that point I was just antsy to come to India. Then the second (of the day--200th of the weekend) round of goodbyes began, and Haven kept telling me, "But I'm going to miss you, Marla," when I went to my terminal--and I'm going to miss all them, too.
I found my gate and my Indian people in the airport, and it was lovely to be surrounded by them again. I had eaten 2 spicy dishes while in Addis, and I probably had way to much of them both times. And, considering that if I cook, I make Indian food, I was missing my curries and lentils desperately. On the plane to Delhi, I could have screamed Hallelujah when they asked me if I wanted channa masala, palak paneer, or chicken curry. I am well aware it was not the best Indian food in the world, but it seemed to be at that time! (Funny side note: you know you are on a plane to India when the toilet paper runs out and no one cares or bothers to mention it to a flight attendant.)
Then, I got to Delhi :D As I ran up to Barkha, and gave her an enormous Indian hug for 3 minutes (not really following cultural customs here), I realize EVERYONE keeps taking glances at us, if not full blown staring. It's ridiculous, but that made me feel like I was truly home, and I could not have been happier. :) When we quit hugging, the heat hit me and I had a quick moment of "HOLY CRAP, it's hot here!" But that was probably just because I've been staying in the cool weather of rainy season in Ethiopia's mountains, and now I'm back to loving the heat and sweat and the blast of the fan on full speed.
The rest of the boring story: we stayed up til 5 a.m. talking about boys and life, she took me on my first "scootie" ride this morning, I am avoiding unpacking even though I have no idea where anything is in my luggage, I just ate bhindi and roti for lunch, I've already had fun times fighting with the ATMs, I need to hold a funeral for my hindi speaking skills, and tonight I think we are going to go to a 3 1/2 hour Bollywood movie--just because we can.
If you cannot tell with the amount of emoticons in the above text, I am inexplicably happy to be back! :)
Background first, and then I'll get to my love for India, where you will just roll your eyes at how happy I am:
Our last night in Addis, I threw Haven and Selah their first sleepover. We watched a movie which started AFTER their bedtime, and then the 2 Ethiopian girls and 2 little Segebarth girls lined up their pillows sideways on the double bed and lied down. If you know anything about four 6-7 year olds lying on a bed within reach of each other, you will understand why I slept on the bunkbed where I could see everything that was happening and be the grouchy "mom" that tells them to stop whispering/giggling/singing/tickling-and-touching each other/laying on each other/wiggling and go to sleep. All that said, the sleepover was really fun, and it was great leverage for getting them to obey the 3 days before ;)
My goodbye to Eyerus happened at an unexpected time, so that was good as I didn't have time to be all sappy. The goodbyes at the airport though...that was hard to watch. I couldn't help but cry when I saw Miyco hug all his friends. I can't imagine what he was feeling--but it must be impossibly difficult to say "goodbye for now" to his lifelong friends whom he's around 24/7 as he goes to a country where he knows almost no one and doesn't completely understand the language or the lifestyle. All will be well in the end, but it's gotta be hard now.
Stacy, Karlee, and the gang all had their tickets messed up, so we had to wait quite awhile to get all those fixed in Addis. It involved the little girls sitting on either the luggage or the carry on part of the luggage cart, playing silly games and listening to their iPods. They finally got their tickets and were bumped up to business class (Thank you, Karlee, for crying). Naturally, my ticket was fine, so I was supposed to be in Economy. But instead I snuck up to business class and sat next to them, which wasn't necessarily appreciated by the flight attendants--but they let me stay.
I come from a family where we did road trips growing up because flying was often too expensive, so...this was amazing. We had like 3 feet of leg room, our seats could recline into an almost flat position, the snack menu included gourmet food, and my spinach fritata [on real plateware with a tablecloth and real silverware] was to die for. It was purely lovely. I couldn't help but think that someone who designs the interior of planes must be twisted to create seats like the lopsided one with the bar sticking up into my gluteals on that one dreadful Royal Air Maroc flight, when they have the capability to make something this nice. I do realize that people who fly business class PAY for it, but still...isn't there a happy medium of reclineability and legroom without paying an extra $800?
We had a long layover in Germany, and by that point I was just antsy to come to India. Then the second (of the day--200th of the weekend) round of goodbyes began, and Haven kept telling me, "But I'm going to miss you, Marla," when I went to my terminal--and I'm going to miss all them, too.
I found my gate and my Indian people in the airport, and it was lovely to be surrounded by them again. I had eaten 2 spicy dishes while in Addis, and I probably had way to much of them both times. And, considering that if I cook, I make Indian food, I was missing my curries and lentils desperately. On the plane to Delhi, I could have screamed Hallelujah when they asked me if I wanted channa masala, palak paneer, or chicken curry. I am well aware it was not the best Indian food in the world, but it seemed to be at that time! (Funny side note: you know you are on a plane to India when the toilet paper runs out and no one cares or bothers to mention it to a flight attendant.)
Then, I got to Delhi :D As I ran up to Barkha, and gave her an enormous Indian hug for 3 minutes (not really following cultural customs here), I realize EVERYONE keeps taking glances at us, if not full blown staring. It's ridiculous, but that made me feel like I was truly home, and I could not have been happier. :) When we quit hugging, the heat hit me and I had a quick moment of "HOLY CRAP, it's hot here!" But that was probably just because I've been staying in the cool weather of rainy season in Ethiopia's mountains, and now I'm back to loving the heat and sweat and the blast of the fan on full speed.
The rest of the boring story: we stayed up til 5 a.m. talking about boys and life, she took me on my first "scootie" ride this morning, I am avoiding unpacking even though I have no idea where anything is in my luggage, I just ate bhindi and roti for lunch, I've already had fun times fighting with the ATMs, I need to hold a funeral for my hindi speaking skills, and tonight I think we are going to go to a 3 1/2 hour Bollywood movie--just because we can.
If you cannot tell with the amount of emoticons in the above text, I am inexplicably happy to be back! :)
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