What do the following songs have in common?
Camptown Races
Dixieland
The Lone Ranger
When the Saints go Marching in
Love Me Tender
She'll be Coming 'round the Mountain
Clementine
Three Blind Mice
The Toreador Song
There's no Place Like Home
America the Beautiful
Give up? Well all of these songs are played by our Doorbell! Yes, you read that right. No boring old 'ding-dong' here; the Sullivans get serenaded every time someone comes to the door. It's becoming a game: what song is next???
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
How do we sleep? Let me count the ways...
Jet lag has been rough, especially for Cory. The first few days we were here, we all were napping whenever we could, but Cory would fall asleep whenever and wherever she was. Here are a few photos. Words don't do some of these justice.
Cinco de My-oh-my-o
The girls refused to go down for naps today so I had the not so brilliant idea to go out and do some errands. We went to HomeTown (as close to a Home Depot that you can find in India) so I could buy a mattress. Once in the car I knew that this idea was going to be a big mistake. The girls kept saying “A Motorcycle, another motorcycle, a motorcycle!” Every time they saw one. Keep in mind that whenever on a road in Hyderabad, you can see several dozen motorcycles no matter where you look. My head was pounding by the time we arrived.
We went up to the 2nd floor where I looked at mattresses. The girls, instead, ran ON the display beds bouncing from one to another, first with their shoes on and then with their shoes off. I was having a hard time figuring out what I had written down as to the mattress measurements I needed (there's no such thing as a standard size here), I was sweating profusely, trying to keep the girls from both destroying merchandise and cracking their heads open, and preventing the salesman from thinking I was a complete idiot for thinking I needed a mattress 116cm (less than 4ft) in length. Once I decided to ignore the girls a little, I realized that I had written 196cm which made much more sense. To top it off there was an Indian family there who were also mattress shopping. They had a young boy of ~8years old who came up to me several times and said (in perfect English) “You need to control your children” and "you should be ashamed." What can you possibly say to that? Yes he was 100% right, even though it was impossible to control them, and yet it was completely rude and obnoxious to say. In hindsight, I should have asked him for some parenting tips. (I’ll file that away for the next time).
Unfortunately the check-out process was not much more fun for me. There was more sweating, more feeling stupid (didn’t know my cell#), and more little blonde girls running around out of control. We definitely should have stayed home.
Once we finally fled the store, and were in the relative sanctuary of the car, we saw the coming of something that we hadn’t even seen a trace of yet: rain. The clouds were pouring in, there was both noticeable humidity and the tingling of electricity in the air. If this storm was a preview of the coming monsoons, we are in for some really good ones! After these 100+ degree days, I can't wait to sit on the balcony (covered of course), watch the rain come down, and feel the temperatures drop.
Cinco de Mayo was celebrated at the Novotel hotel's Mexican restaurant having dinner with some new expat friends. My beverage of choice was a fruity little number called "Heaven", something that sounded great after my miserable day out.
We went up to the 2nd floor where I looked at mattresses. The girls, instead, ran ON the display beds bouncing from one to another, first with their shoes on and then with their shoes off. I was having a hard time figuring out what I had written down as to the mattress measurements I needed (there's no such thing as a standard size here), I was sweating profusely, trying to keep the girls from both destroying merchandise and cracking their heads open, and preventing the salesman from thinking I was a complete idiot for thinking I needed a mattress 116cm (less than 4ft) in length. Once I decided to ignore the girls a little, I realized that I had written 196cm which made much more sense. To top it off there was an Indian family there who were also mattress shopping. They had a young boy of ~8years old who came up to me several times and said (in perfect English) “You need to control your children” and "you should be ashamed." What can you possibly say to that? Yes he was 100% right, even though it was impossible to control them, and yet it was completely rude and obnoxious to say. In hindsight, I should have asked him for some parenting tips. (I’ll file that away for the next time).
Unfortunately the check-out process was not much more fun for me. There was more sweating, more feeling stupid (didn’t know my cell#), and more little blonde girls running around out of control. We definitely should have stayed home.
Once we finally fled the store, and were in the relative sanctuary of the car, we saw the coming of something that we hadn’t even seen a trace of yet: rain. The clouds were pouring in, there was both noticeable humidity and the tingling of electricity in the air. If this storm was a preview of the coming monsoons, we are in for some really good ones! After these 100+ degree days, I can't wait to sit on the balcony (covered of course), watch the rain come down, and feel the temperatures drop.
Cinco de Mayo was celebrated at the Novotel hotel's Mexican restaurant having dinner with some new expat friends. My beverage of choice was a fruity little number called "Heaven", something that sounded great after my miserable day out.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Good News...
We had a good experience at the Emergency room today...bad news is that we needed to GO to the emergency room. Cory learned a good lesson. She's not going to pick up sharp knives and try to cut cantaloupes or anything else with them again. Her finger got in the way. :( Poor girl, she was bleeding like crazy, so I wrapped her finger up in a wet wash cloth, got everyone's shoes on and headed off to the children's hospital. Yet another benefit of having a driver is that I didn't have to concentrate on driving and being a little panicked, I could just sit next to Cory and hug her.
Other than that, we're getting settled in pretty well. We have a maid coming every morning for 2-3 hours, we found out where the fuse box is, the new washing machine is hooked up, internet should be hooked up tomorrow (they were supposed to come today), bottled water should be delivered tomorrow as well. Maybe the best outcome of the day was that I finally bought a coffee maker. I haven't had any coffee since the plane, and Bill had his first cup today at work. Now watch...it'll be so hot tomorrow that I won't want a cup of hot coffee. I can always chill it down I guess!
Other than that, we're getting settled in pretty well. We have a maid coming every morning for 2-3 hours, we found out where the fuse box is, the new washing machine is hooked up, internet should be hooked up tomorrow (they were supposed to come today), bottled water should be delivered tomorrow as well. Maybe the best outcome of the day was that I finally bought a coffee maker. I haven't had any coffee since the plane, and Bill had his first cup today at work. Now watch...it'll be so hot tomorrow that I won't want a cup of hot coffee. I can always chill it down I guess!
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