Tuesday, November 23, 2010

I Love Expats

Don't cry for me, Amurica - things are looking up!  Just when things seemed very bleak indeed (we hit four months in India, my hair started falling out, we're facing a third Thanksgiving in a foreign country all alone, etc, etc...), I met a huge group of women expats, and they are all awesome!  Last week I went to that expat meeting that one lady told me about, and I met lots of women from all over the world!  Ain't that fine?  Apparently these ladies have been meeting at the WelcomHotel once a month for about a year, and no one at the hotel ever thought to tell me about it.  Thanks, hotel staff.  Appreciate ya'll.

In addition to meeting all those wonderful people, I got in touch with a woman who teaches yoga in Baroda, and I signed up for classes!  Yesterday was my first class.  It is awesome, and it is cheap!  I payed about $25 for two months, and the classes are three days a week.  Try getting a deal like that in Chicago (no, don't try.  You can't get one).  While I won't say that I am a natural at yoga (it's quite the opposite, in fact) I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I'm not horrible, but at one point the instructor, Smita, looked at me and said "Oh.  You need a lot of work."  True dat.  The next class is tomorrow, so we'll see how I do.

Today I was invited to a brunch meeting at a British lady's house.  It was a little overwhelming because there were probably 25 women there, and I hadn't met most of them.  They were all really nice and super talkative, but I felt like I was telling the same story over and over again:  "My name is Caitlin, I live in WelcomHotel... yes, I have lived there for four months... no, I'm not getting an apartment... yes, it's very boring and difficult, etc."  I exchanged numbers with a lot of people, and have already had invites to go shopping and such later in the week.  See, I knew it would get better!  Okay, I know that's not true, but I'm feeling super positive at the moment.  Don't burst my bubble.

Also, Matt talked to our hotel manager best friend, Faiyaz, about setting us up with a Thanksgiving dinner through the hotel.  Faiyaz went paintballing with us the first time, and he was on my team.  I think I impressed him with my natural paintball talents, because he has set up a whole Thanksgiving menu for us... for freeee!  I don't know that it will be a very "traditional" dinner, but anything will be better than last year's Indonesian KFC debacle.  Won't it?  I'll let you know.  At least this year, I have something to be thankful for: expats.  (No offense to everyone else... I'm always thankful for you guys.)

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