A Christmas Miracle

In what can only be described as a true Christmas Miracle, one of our own gets to go home for Christmas!  Sadly, it is neither me nor Matt, but our buddy Ben, who has been with us since the beginning (or at least since July).  Of course we are happy for him, but we here at She's Gone Rogue just wouldn't be us if we didn't resent him just a little bit (okay, a lot) for leaving us here in the lonely, dusty, trash-filled streets of Baroda.  Thanks, buddy.  

 

Bye Ben.  We'll miss you.  This sort of looks like an obituary photo.  It isn't meant to.  It is supposed to be nostalgic, but not depressing.  Okay, it can be kind of depressing.  

Sometimes I don't know if I'll ever get out of here.  Maybe one day, when I have a long gray beard and two or three marbles rollin' around upstairs, they'll let me out. (Shawshank quote of the day.)  

In other news, Merry Christmas Eve, everyone.  I'm trying to be a little less bah humbug and a little more holly jolly, but sometimes it doesn't work out that way.  However, in the spirit of Christmas, I dragged Matt across the street to see Frosty the Snowman and take pictures.  

 

Meeerrrrryyyy Chrrrristmaaassss!  Ha.  This kind of looks like an obituary photo, too.  Feel free to use it if we die here.  

Oh yeah, we did, in fact go to Mumbai last weekend.  Matt took Monday off work and we flew out Sunday morning, then back here Tuesday morning at the crack of 6:00 a.m.  We stayed at the J.W. Marriott (using points, of course.  We could never afford that if we paid), and it was pretty fabulous.  The room was super nice, but the best of all was our access to the executive lounge, which had a beautiful sunset view, and all the free food and drinks we could stuff into our emaciated bodies.  And stuff we did.  

 

View of the super fancy pool and beach from the executive lounge.  Can you believe we got all this for the price of free ninety-nine?  Yeah, it pays to be married to a man with Platinum Marriott status. 

We only left the hotel to go downtown once, and we immediately regretted that decision.  Mumbai is huge (pop. 15 million), and very India.  It is nice to get away from Baroda, but the minute we left our hotel, we didn't feel far enough away.  We won't make that mistake again.  

Ahhh yes, India may have finally broken me.  I don't know if I can ever fully recover from this place.  But then I think about another (modified) Shawshank quote:  There are places in this world that aren't made out of trash.  There's something inside... that they can't get to.  That they can't touch.  What's that, you say?  Hope.  

Don't worry, I'll never lose hope.  I Hope that you all have a wonderful and happy Christmas.... I Hope that you don't forget about the little people (us Barodians, if you will) during the holiday season.... and most importantly I hope that some day, some time, I will be out of India, leaving it behind me forever.  I hope.  Happy Holidays.