september in delhi

So, I'm a bum. I get all my filing done and then I don't have any juice left to actually tell you anything new. This weekend I've resolved to get back a-typing and a-updating so that you can hear what we've been up to and check out a few new pictures.

First up, things are continuing to go really well for Seung Yi with Iaimon (her nanny), Laree (Iaimon's smart and adorable daughter) and Irene (Iaimon's helper!). Seung Yi loves having them all come over so much that she races to get to Iaimon when she arrives in the morning, Phet tells me. Ji and I hit the road at about 7:30 and we aren't there when the ladies come around 8:30, so I have to rely on his reports. It has started cooling off just a tad - ie it is still up to 35 during the day, but in the evening it goes down to maybe 29 or so - and as a result Iaimon's been able to take the girls to the community centre to play and they've also been venturing out onto the lawn to putz around. It sounds like their day goes as such: the girls play in the morning for awhile and sometimes go for a walk to the park. At lunch, Iaimon cooks up veggies and rice for the girl. Judging by the looks of Seung Yi's poop, she ingests a vast quantity of greens, carrots, and potatoes during the day. In the afternoon the girls take a nap and Iaimon tells me that if Laree doesn't go to sleep, Seung Yi refuses to go to sleep. When they wake up, it's into the bath they go. Iaimon had the excellent idea of putting the little blow up pool (our landlord bought us) into our big shower stall, and so the girls can play together comfortably without the danger of smashing themselves to bits on the hard marble floor. Plus, they get to have all kinds of water for splashing! Waaay better than a shower. Here you can see the girls enjoying a good scrub. Laree is a very smart little girl and already knows how to shampoo herself and to wash herself with her facecloth. Seung Yi, on the other hand, is lagging behind. She sometimes manages to splash some water on herself but that's about it.

The girls seem to pretty much get along like sisters. Now, Em and I are separated by a full 7 years so I never had the experience of having to share, like, stuff with her...but it seems to me that sisters who are close in age basically alternate between I-love-you-I-love-playing-with-you and I-hate-you-I-hate-playing-with-you-Mom-make-her-leave-the-universe. Here you can see Seung Yi putting on her fake crying face because Laree has dared to pick up on of the squeaky ducks she was playing with. Yes, all four ducks. Hers, hers, hers, damn it!

Oh well. At least Seung Yi will grow up being able to communicate with other kids and perhaps we won't glance in to her classroom when she's 3 and see her sitting in a corner, looking at a wall, and telling herself stories because she finds herself so much more interesting than everyone else. Not that I'm naming any names about who might've done that, Ji Hong.

Speaking of Ji Hong, he's doing great at school and just loves his class and his teacher. His teacher has a wonderful classroom filled with exciting stuff and displays that change all the time. They've got a check-in system where the kids turn over their pictures when they arrive - kind of like a punch-clock thingy; they've got 3 kinds of snails and a glass table they can put them on so that they can observe them from below; they've got all kinds of photos of all the activities they do - really cute one from last week where they had to draw a friend and their friend drew them, and then they wrote about things that were the same and different about themself and their friend. The classroom had an open house on Friday and I couldn't go cause I was teaching, but Phet went and was very intrigued to see Ji's family portrait. Apparently, according to Ji, his father is "stressed, goes to alot of meetings, and likes airport lounges." Ha! Ji is also having a great time getting involved with extra-curricular activities. We've gone whole hog, I think because last year was such a slow one for Ji. He goes to Jazz dancing classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, he's been taking swimming lessons on the weekend, and now he's started Little League T-Ball. Phet said that T-Ball was pretty funny; good fun but real apple pie americana get-the-drinks-cooler type of action. Ah well, football/soccer sign up is in October, so we'll get that going as well.

(One interesting thing about living here (and a nice thing as well) is that there's a limited circle of school community members, but its both a big enough circle that there a plenty of people to meet and a small enough circle that you always run into at least some of the same people. Also, since there aren't tons of things to distract you in Delhi (ie malls and theatres and extended families for many folks) you get into a pleasant sort of school-based network. I dunno, I think Phet finds it a little dull here at times - y'know, no masseuses and noodles makes it hard for him - but I find it very mellow and relaxing.)

Phet's good. Had some trouble with his dinner tonight. We went for south indian food at our favourite downtown spot and we were too early for thalis, which are only served after 7 pm, and when he ordered a big giant poori with chick peas he got three little wee pooris with chick peas and potatoes. Back went the wee pooris, and 15 minutes later out came the giant poori.

Had a fun time getting a desk refinished last week. At school they had a highest-annonymous-bid-wins auction of old furniture and I picked up a 6-foot long wooden table for Ji's room. It's perfect; about 2 feet high, so he fits it just right. Anyways, it was in ok shape, but needed sanding and varnishing because the top was all scratched up. Kind of thing that we could've powered through up in the countryside if Tara were around for a couple of hours. Anyways, here, being lazy and tool-free, we decided to get someone to fix it up for us. There are plenty of carpenters without steady jobs who just sit with their saws at the side of the road at an area about 10 minutes away from our place, so we could've got one of them to come, but I think in the end, Iaimon mentioned a guy who had done some work for other friends of ours, and we had him come last Saturday.

So, last Saturday, Ji and I are getting ready to go to his swimming lessons when the carpenter shows up and Phet goes out to talk to him. HALF AN HOUR LATER Phet comes back in and tells us he's finally sorted things out. What happened? Two gentlemen showed up. Phet's like, um, you're the carpenter, ok, but who are you? "I'm the contractor," replies the second fellow. Phet's eyes bug out. "We need a table sanded and varnished. We're not building a house." With John's help interpreting he discovers that the charge will be 500 rupees for labour, which is pretty steep given that I only paid 400 rupees for the table itself, and then they want another 1000 for supplies. Phet goes through the list and sends John off to buy an edited list of items, which we pay for directly instead of going through the "contractor". In the end we heard the actual worker got 150 rupees for his day of work on the desk and for also varnishing Ji's bamboo circle chair.

This weekend we had lots of fun. On Friday I had to supervise a dance and Ji put on his tux and came along and got funky with the ladies. On Saturday I had a first aid and CPR training that was actually excellent because the trainer was high-larious (though I was not keen on learning how to inject adrenaline for serious allergy disasters when we are on our school trip out in the boonies! Bleh! Needle! Yack! As I said later to Phet, during my melanoma experience, nothing hurt more (not the first surgery, the second surgery, my paining milky boobs after the surgery when SY couldn't nurse, and not the cancer itself) than have my vein splorged by the stupid nurse before I got my CT scan. Yechhhh.) Anyways. Then Ji went to T-Ball, and both the kids had their swimming lessons. Then we raced home for a quick nap, and then Ji and I went to a massive birthday party for one of his classmates. Man oh man! They had a professional photographer who snapped a picture of each kid, printed it from his desktop computer, and framed it before we went home; they had three guys in Power Ranger costumes; they had virgin mojitos and daiquiris for the kids; they had Indian roadside snack sellers set up by the caterers and a huge buffet line as well; all the kids got goodie bags and kites to take home; AND THERE WAS A COTTON CANDY MACHINE.

Whoo whee.

Today we were up early with SY and puttered around the house. In the afternoon we checked out a photography exhibit by a colleague of mine, went for lunch, did our grocery shopping, had naps, went swimming, and went out for dinner. And that's that.

Signing out with a photo I took at Lodi garden when we were there on Thursday night:

[Delhi-16-September-2007]