Status Report: Our First 100 Days

The 100 day marker has passed for the Sullivans in India. Here's a quick summary of our time here:

Things we're not having trouble adjusting to and things we like:
New Friends
the golf course: Boulder Hills Golf and Country Club
having 2 pools to go to: one at the golf course, one at the apartment complex
Paying $15 a month for our 2 cell phones
Paying $100 for the YEAR for TV with DVR
Great restaurants
Great food
a maid
a cook
a driver
never having to park the car
tropical fruit that is cheap, delicious and readily available.
Inexpensive clothes and shoes

Things we're having trouble adjusting to:
the Indian way of saving face: saying things they think we want to hear instead of just the plain old truth
The lack of efficiency which occurs in an attempt to employ the masses (explaining this may require a separate blog entry)
not having good wine or paying a fortune for wine that is good
Having all kinds of stores sell squash rackets, but none of them sell the balls


Things we will never understand and can only laugh at:
traffic
cows, buffalo, and goats walking down the road
salesmen telling me that this "shoe, bra, outfit, whatever, etc is very comfortable Madame"
The Indian 'Head Bob' which can mean either "yes", "no", or simply "my ears have registered that a sound emitted from your mouth", yet all versions of the head bob look pretty much the same. I can't tell the difference yet, but I'm working on it.

Things that I acknowledge and then move on:
men peeing on the side of the road all the time
power outages (thankfully our apartment has a full power backup generator otherwise this would fall under a different category)
Not being able to drink or brush teeth with tap water

Things we miss:
friends & family
a good steak
Central air-conditioning
good cheese (although it wasn't as ubiquitous in VA as it was in Paris, we could still get it)
my garden
the independence of having your own car and driving it yourself