I Love Weekends

It appears that against all odds, I have successfully survived a full week in India. Granted, Matt only worked four of the seven days, but still, it's an accomplishment that deserves to be recognized. I'll gladly take your praise in monetary form. The weekend was pretty successful, though "hot as balls" to quote my husband. Friday night, we were all a little stir-crazy so went out to a different hotel for dinner (yeah, we know how to party). We had Thali, a Gujarati staple, which is basically a bunch of different vegetables and sauces in little dishes on one big plate, with rice and naan and other bread-stuffs. It was delicious, and unlimited, and at about $5 per person, one of the more expensive meals I've had here. that, some of the crew met up in our room and we worked out a plan on how to sneak alcohol into the billiards room so we could drink and play snooker (I learned from China the first time that snooker is basically only tolerable with alcohol). For those who don't know (and why would you) snooker is pretty much a really difficult form of billiards with a huge table and cues, and tiny balls that are color-coded instead of numbers. We still don't know all the rules, but we're getting there. Back to the plan: we ended our devious plotting by pouring rum into a water bottle and then taking it down with us and pouring it into Pepsi. I feel like I'm in high school all over again. Not that I ever drank in high school...
Anyway, things didn't get too out of hand (except Ivan kept hitting the balls off the table and into the windows... none broken) but I guess the hotel staff thought we were too rough and cut our party short by simply turning off the lights on us. We got the hint. Saturday we went and ate some good South Indian food (I guess it was South Indian... lots of curries and stuff) and then walked around in the ridiculous heat for a couple hours. Then back to the snooker table, as it's basically our only form of entertainment at this point.
Sunday the entire group (all 9 of us, including a baby) went to see the Laxmi Vilas Palace here in town. Even though it's one of the only "sights" to see here, apparently no one knows where it is. We had to show the tuk-tuk drivers on the map how to get there. I can't really tell you much about the history because while our guide spoke English, none of us could understand him, so we kind of just walked around blindly.I do know it was built in the 1890s and has had five generations of "kings" living there, including the most recent one whose family still resides in the upper sections. I don't know what the guy is the king of. Baroda? Gujarat? I could probably look that up, but I wouldn't want to lose the mystery. After the palace, we wandered around looking for some other something that Andrew read about in the guide book, but astonishingly, no one in town knew where or what it was. Had lunch at "Barbeque Nation" which was the first meat I've had since getting here.

Today I went to the bookstore, Crossword, and walked around enjoying the A/C and looking at just about every title. It's a really nice place with lots of books and some DVDs, although they're not nearly as cheap as China. Too bad. I bought the last Twilight book (don't judge me... you have no idea how low I can stoop) and started reading it in the coffee shop on the second level of the store, all the while getting stared at (disapprovingly) by the traditionally dressed Indian men behind me. Ahh, sticks and stones. All in all, a fairly successful few days. Hopefully I can navigate the rest of the week without any major breakdowns (I've only had one so far... on our second day... I repeat, don't judge me).
Incidentally, the personal trainer here turned out to be a total creeper and I've quit him completely. I'm sure he's not all that bad and that it's a cultural gap at the very least, but I figure if it's making me uncomfortable, I don't have to do it just to be polite (actually, I didn't figure that, Matt did. He's much more sensible than I am). The trainer "stalked" me outside on day two after our session and asked me if I wanted to come in and watch him exercise and talk to him. That was basically it, and now that I write it down, it seems really harmless. But man, you wouldn't think so if you saw him. Also, Saturday he came and creeped around the snooker table and watched us play for a while. Everyone agreed that he's a creeper not to be messed with. It is amazing the lengths I will go to avoid this guy... I have completely altered both my workout and sitting out by the pool schedule so as not to coincide with his.

Also, the food at the hotel is paid for by the refinery, so everyone eats dinner here almost every night. I guess it was foolish of me to think I was included in the free food extravaganza, but I did. I can't say I was surprised however, when we got a call from the front desk saying we needed to stop charging my meals to the refinery as they weren't paying for me. Busted. This company sure does know how to make a girl feel welcome. I think if they could, they would charge me for half of the price of the hotel room, since I'm sharing it with Matt. I shouldn't mention this to them. I don't really care about the dinner except that it's kind of social hour for me, and now I'll have to skip it (it's $20 a night for the buffet, and call me cheap, but that's just ridiculous when I can spend $2 outside and be happy). I wore a tank top AND an above the ankle skirt today... hear that? That's the sound of the rule book being thrown out the window.

I love Vadodara

That's probably an overstatement, but I am enjoying myself much more than I thought I would on this the first day of my India adventure. This morning I went and did breakfast with the crew before work, and was pleasantly, nay, fantastically, surprised to see the breakfast is actually really good here! (We have a thing about breakfast. As you know, it sets the tone for the day.) We have an omelet station and eggs made to order, pastries, fruit, cereal, and some Indian stuff that I'm sure is delicious but might make me regret eating it later. Later, when all the workers had gone and I was left to my own devices, I headed to the fitness center to work off some of the million pounds I gained while sitting on my rump for days on the plane. It's a pretty good gym, but hot and small, and the attendant stood in there and watched me the entire time I ran on the treadmill... which wasn't very long, I'm afraid. Then Assam (or Hassam... Asham?) the attendant explained that he is a personal trainer, and can help me "lose all that weight". As much as I love to be told I need to lose weight, I was pretty excited when he showed me all the ways to firm my triceps. That's all we did. A million different exercises for the backs of my arms... yet I won't deny that I needed all of it. My arms were shaking something fierce by the end of it, which I'm taking as a good thing. He wouldn't let me do ab work because he said we'd done enough, but I think it had something to do with his shift ending. In the end, he made me lay down on a mat and proceeded to stretch me out in a way that seemed mildly sexual (for India... I mean, they even have separate security checks for women at the airports) but completely unthreatening. Then he told me I was limber. I was pleased. Then he showed me the massage room and sauna and said he hoped I would let him massage me sometime. As I was leaving, he said he'd see me tomorrow, and I said yes, maybe. And he said, no, not maybe. I will see you tomorrow. It is the only way to lose the weight. So I guess I'm locked in now. I'm actually really excited about it. I've never had a personal trainer before, and a free one is even better! At least I think it's free. I'll probably be in a lot of trouble if Matt finds out I've spent all our money on getting fit. On second thought, after he sees how good I look, he'll probably forget it. Maybe.

After the gym, I took a tuk-tuk (one of those three wheeled things where they drive you around) for the first time (in India) to the Vadodara Center. It's basically just a department store with a small super market on top. I bought the essentials (shampoo, body wash, crackers, noodles, water and of course, peanut butter) and then had lunch at the food court. Most of it was under "renovation" although there's no telling how long it's been that way, and there was only one place open, so that's where I went. I asked what their best dish was, and the guy told me they didn't have one. "So all of your dishes are bad?" I asked. Yes, he said. Yes. I don't think he understood. Or maybe he was just trying to be honest. I ordered... something. I meant to write it down, but forgot. It was a huge wafer-y thing stuffed with potatoes and spices and lightly fried or baked or something. It came with either a dipping sauce or a soup, which wasn't great, but that wafer-thing was delicious! Well, just the inside was delicious. I was going to take a picture, but all these people kept walking past my table to stare and I got embarrassed. Look at the foreigner, taking pictures of her food. See how she uses a fork. So childish!

Later I hopped in another tuk-tuk, this one driven by a toothless man who charged me the same price as the other guy, much to my surprise. Then I read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by the pool (it's fantastic, by the way). I know it doesn't sound like much, but for my first day, I quite enjoyed myself! Also, the day's not over yet, but it's so bloody (yup, I'm saying bloody now) hot outside I don't think I'll be doing much else. I hear it will be getting much much worse as this is only the start of summer, so wish me luck.

Now I'll leave you with a few random things I keep thinking about: I think I'm retaining water here because my calves and ankles seem to be perpetually swollen. Either that or I'm developing cankles, in which case thank you Lord for sending me Assam the trainer. Also, I have been wearing bug spray (with DEET) and am taking Malaria pills every day, but I still somehow seem to have huge mosquito bites all over. This always happens to me. Hopefully the DEET killed them after they bit me, but who can know? Also, last night on the dessert buffet, there was a small brown and pink cake labeled "barfee". Seriously. you can't make this stuff up. The Indians got offended when I used the word "barfee" but to me, that's what their cake looked like. That's a derivation from a Jack Handey quote. Hope you enjoyed it.

Oh, and another thing for those who I haven't told yet: the hard drive on my computer crashed the day before we flew out of Chicago. Can you believe it? Luckily we were able to get in to see a "genius" at the Apple store that night and they fixed it for me OVERNIGHT and for FREE! Apparently it was some sort of manufacturers error for this year of computer. They also gave me a new keyboard because mine was cracked. I couldn't believe it! That's probably hands down the best customer service I've ever gotten. Thank you, Apple. It makes me want to purchase Apple products exclusively... which is probably why they do it in the first place. Anyway, they were able to retrieve my data (all my pictures, too!) with the exception of some software I installed, including my camera software. So I'll re-install that and then get some pictures to you as soon as I can. Love to all, write me back while I'm still in good spirits!