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!
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Flight #1: Washington Dulles to Doha, Qatar
Our first red-eye flight was thankfully uneventful. The flight was only half full meaning that the four of us had 6 seats to ourselves. Sammy sprawled out right away making herself as comfortable as possible and fell asleep not long after take-off. The rest of us weren’t quite so lucky.
The 4 of us arrived at Washington Dulles with 5 suitcases, a huge carseat bag, Jasmine’s crate. A very nice sky-cap helped us weigh our bags before we checked them in and we discovered that we had 2 overweight suitcases not just the one we were expecting. I took control of the re-distribution of heavy stuff (namely sunscreen, and other toiletries). The resulting reshuffle, created a different overweight bag. Time to re-re-distribute the heavy stuff again. Success! Once we were confident that we were only going to pay for 1 overweight bag, we proceeded to check in. All of the ticketing gate, all of the Qatar agents were wearing face masks. Qatar airlines was taking precautions against swine flu. Strangely enough, the girls didn’t comment on it at all, at least, not until we received our own masks on the plane.
Once we arrived in Doha, we headed straight for the kids play area. This was a godsend. The girls ran around, made new friends, climbed up and down ladders, through tubes, and down slides for the duration of our lay-over. The burned off energy & got tired at the same time. :)
The 4 of us arrived at Washington Dulles with 5 suitcases, a huge carseat bag, Jasmine’s crate. A very nice sky-cap helped us weigh our bags before we checked them in and we discovered that we had 2 overweight suitcases not just the one we were expecting. I took control of the re-distribution of heavy stuff (namely sunscreen, and other toiletries). The resulting reshuffle, created a different overweight bag. Time to re-re-distribute the heavy stuff again. Success! Once we were confident that we were only going to pay for 1 overweight bag, we proceeded to check in. All of the ticketing gate, all of the Qatar agents were wearing face masks. Qatar airlines was taking precautions against swine flu. Strangely enough, the girls didn’t comment on it at all, at least, not until we received our own masks on the plane.
Once we arrived in Doha, we headed straight for the kids play area. This was a godsend. The girls ran around, made new friends, climbed up and down ladders, through tubes, and down slides for the duration of our lay-over. The burned off energy & got tired at the same time. :)
Sunday, April 26, 2009
A Date.
Our passports and visas are finally in hand. Plane reservations have been made. We'll be flying out on Tuesday April 28th, arriving in Hyderabad on April 30th, my 34th birthday.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Thanks, but I pack ALONE
Pack pack pack. That's what I have been doing all weekend. What do we need to carry on the plane and what can we wait a few weeks for and include in our air shipment? Decisions, decisions. Thankfully with the Easter holiday, we had a houseful of family and they were excellent at occupying the girls, so I could actually pack in peace.
Now there are some people who may appreciate offers of help when it comes to packing. Not me. I have lived and learned. I will never forget how Cory "helped" me pack for a trip from Paris to Virginia. I was 4 months pregnant with Sammy & Cory was 17 months old. We were flying from Paris to London to Philadelphia to Charlottesville. This particular trip was a few weeks before my brother Pat's wedding. It was just Cory and I making this trip as Bill was still working in Paris and would fly in for the wedding later. I remember packing the backpack I used as a carry-on while on the floor of our Paris apartment bedroom and Cory peeking inside. Not wanting any "help" I tried to keep her away from my bag as I packed, repeatedly having to remove her not-so-idle hands.
I finished packing and the next morning we cabbed it to Charles de Gaulle airport and from there flew to London Heathrow. The flight to Philly was a surprisingly good one. We were lucky to be the the last row of the plane where there were only 2 seats instead of 3, so we had extra space and no one to bother. Win-win. Cory was also able to walk around the galley smiling at the flight crew and back and forth down the aisles at will. She was a good ambassador by saying 'Hi' to people with aisle seats and sneaked into first class to check out what they were doing behind that curtain. ;)
Once in Philadelphia after an already very long day, I couldn't find my cell phone in my backpack. I looked and looked and looked. I dug and dug and dug. Only after emptying out the entire bag did I discover that it was no longer there. Cory had succeeded in "helping" me pack.
Now, in a normal situation it wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but circumstances conspired against me. We were returning to our new house where we had just moved, didn't know anyone, didn't have a landline at the house, nor did we have internet service. I was also pregnant and had my first appointment at the new obstrician the next day. I spent part of our 6 hour layover reacquainting myself with the use of a payphone, calling my parents & in-laws to let them know we had arrived and were phoneless. We were severely jet-lagged, tired and cranky by the time our flight to Charlottesville left that evening. After retrieving my giant suitcase, carryon, stroller, carseat, and toddler, I dragged everything, including my "is she pregnant or just fat?" self out to the curb get a taxi to take us home. What I then discovered was that at 10:30pm on a weeknight at Charlottesville airport, there AREN'T taxis just waiting to take the throngs of travelers home. It's deserted. Ugh. No cell phone. Double ugh. Thankfully I wasn't the only weary traveler, although I was definitely the weariest, in need of a cab. A nice lady went inside and used the phone at the rental car desk to call for some cabs. I guess she didn't have a cell phone either. Twenty minutes later the first taxi arrives. The 4 other people waiting took pity on me and let Cory and I take the first cab. In that moment I was extremely thankful for the kindness of Americans, and very pleased to have been treated so well at my new home airport. In Paris, that situation would have been even more unpleasant.
Safely home...but wait...there's more. It gets better. The next morning we needed to fill up Old Mother Hubbard's cupboards and head to the grocery store before my obstetrician appointment that afternoon. I strapped Cory's carseat into my car, got in, turned the key and...nothing. Dead battery. UGH. For kicks, I tried to start Bill's car. Dead too. UGH UGH. Now what? No cell phone, no landline, I don't know anyone, it's a weekday so most neighbors would be at work. Both cars were parked in the garage nose-in so we'd have to push one car out of the garage just to be able to reach the battery with jumper cables. I wasn't really up for that. Aye Yie yie. I considered taking Cory for a walk in the stroller around the neighborhood and carrying a set of jumper cables in hopes of making new friends, or walking to the main gate at the Lake (quite a hike by the way) to request help from the police. In the end, I decided to turn the computer on to see if I could find an unsecured wireless network to jump on, then at least I could email or IM someone who might have ideas, or if worse came to worst, contact Enterprise Rental Car because "they'll pick you up." Maybe it was my move to the South, but once again "the kindness of strangers" came through for me. I found an unsecured wireless network (those neighbors have since moved), was able to IM my in-laws, who were fabulous and called up the Lake Monticello Police who sent not one but 2 officers to my house with extra long jumper cables. We got both cars started up and Cory and I were able to make it to the grocery store and to the Dr as well.
All's well that ends well I suppose. But I do carry around lessons learned from that marathon trip.
1. Double and triple check cellphones and power cords before leaving.
2. When leaving for an extended period of time, back the cars into the garage so when/if you need to jump start them, you can reach the battery.
3. Avoid at all costs 6 hour layovers with toddlers.
Now that those lessons have been well learned and chiseled into my brain, when the girls want to help pack, I can calmly and without guilt, tell them: "Sorry girls, but I pack alone."
Now there are some people who may appreciate offers of help when it comes to packing. Not me. I have lived and learned. I will never forget how Cory "helped" me pack for a trip from Paris to Virginia. I was 4 months pregnant with Sammy & Cory was 17 months old. We were flying from Paris to London to Philadelphia to Charlottesville. This particular trip was a few weeks before my brother Pat's wedding. It was just Cory and I making this trip as Bill was still working in Paris and would fly in for the wedding later. I remember packing the backpack I used as a carry-on while on the floor of our Paris apartment bedroom and Cory peeking inside. Not wanting any "help" I tried to keep her away from my bag as I packed, repeatedly having to remove her not-so-idle hands.
I finished packing and the next morning we cabbed it to Charles de Gaulle airport and from there flew to London Heathrow. The flight to Philly was a surprisingly good one. We were lucky to be the the last row of the plane where there were only 2 seats instead of 3, so we had extra space and no one to bother. Win-win. Cory was also able to walk around the galley smiling at the flight crew and back and forth down the aisles at will. She was a good ambassador by saying 'Hi' to people with aisle seats and sneaked into first class to check out what they were doing behind that curtain. ;)
Once in Philadelphia after an already very long day, I couldn't find my cell phone in my backpack. I looked and looked and looked. I dug and dug and dug. Only after emptying out the entire bag did I discover that it was no longer there. Cory had succeeded in "helping" me pack.
Now, in a normal situation it wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but circumstances conspired against me. We were returning to our new house where we had just moved, didn't know anyone, didn't have a landline at the house, nor did we have internet service. I was also pregnant and had my first appointment at the new obstrician the next day. I spent part of our 6 hour layover reacquainting myself with the use of a payphone, calling my parents & in-laws to let them know we had arrived and were phoneless. We were severely jet-lagged, tired and cranky by the time our flight to Charlottesville left that evening. After retrieving my giant suitcase, carryon, stroller, carseat, and toddler, I dragged everything, including my "is she pregnant or just fat?" self out to the curb get a taxi to take us home. What I then discovered was that at 10:30pm on a weeknight at Charlottesville airport, there AREN'T taxis just waiting to take the throngs of travelers home. It's deserted. Ugh. No cell phone. Double ugh. Thankfully I wasn't the only weary traveler, although I was definitely the weariest, in need of a cab. A nice lady went inside and used the phone at the rental car desk to call for some cabs. I guess she didn't have a cell phone either. Twenty minutes later the first taxi arrives. The 4 other people waiting took pity on me and let Cory and I take the first cab. In that moment I was extremely thankful for the kindness of Americans, and very pleased to have been treated so well at my new home airport. In Paris, that situation would have been even more unpleasant.
Safely home...but wait...there's more. It gets better. The next morning we needed to fill up Old Mother Hubbard's cupboards and head to the grocery store before my obstetrician appointment that afternoon. I strapped Cory's carseat into my car, got in, turned the key and...nothing. Dead battery. UGH. For kicks, I tried to start Bill's car. Dead too. UGH UGH. Now what? No cell phone, no landline, I don't know anyone, it's a weekday so most neighbors would be at work. Both cars were parked in the garage nose-in so we'd have to push one car out of the garage just to be able to reach the battery with jumper cables. I wasn't really up for that. Aye Yie yie. I considered taking Cory for a walk in the stroller around the neighborhood and carrying a set of jumper cables in hopes of making new friends, or walking to the main gate at the Lake (quite a hike by the way) to request help from the police. In the end, I decided to turn the computer on to see if I could find an unsecured wireless network to jump on, then at least I could email or IM someone who might have ideas, or if worse came to worst, contact Enterprise Rental Car because "they'll pick you up." Maybe it was my move to the South, but once again "the kindness of strangers" came through for me. I found an unsecured wireless network (those neighbors have since moved), was able to IM my in-laws, who were fabulous and called up the Lake Monticello Police who sent not one but 2 officers to my house with extra long jumper cables. We got both cars started up and Cory and I were able to make it to the grocery store and to the Dr as well.
All's well that ends well I suppose. But I do carry around lessons learned from that marathon trip.
1. Double and triple check cellphones and power cords before leaving.
2. When leaving for an extended period of time, back the cars into the garage so when/if you need to jump start them, you can reach the battery.
3. Avoid at all costs 6 hour layovers with toddlers.
Now that those lessons have been well learned and chiseled into my brain, when the girls want to help pack, I can calmly and without guilt, tell them: "Sorry girls, but I pack alone."
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