Giant Chicken

Everyone has their own Giant Chicken, metaphorically speaking.

Joan Crawford was Bette Davis' Giant Chicken (or was that the other way around?).

Maggie Simpson vs. Gerald Samson...

...Jennifer Aniston vs. Angelina Jolie...

...Seinfeld vs. Newman..

...Batman vs. The Joker...

...and Sarah Palin vs. intelligence...

...and for me, it is a dog in Kailash Colony.  Yes folks, the dog again.  You see, whilst on a pleasant stroll back from Dunkin' Donuts in M Block this morning, the same f**king dog tried to attack me...again.  Quite literally chasing me down the street.  It chose me, not John (who didn't want to take a tuk-tuk back home despite my warning of impending diarrhea): me--the animal lover.  I am now terrified of these Indian dogs so much, that I really don't want to walk the streets.  It's not Delhi-belly I'm afraid of, not malaria, not pickpockets, not somehow ending up in Indian jail from some elaborate unfortunate misunderstanding; it's this stupid, mangy, mongrel dog with a limp.  Let's hope this day gets better!

Namaste.

Hair Of The Dog That Bit You (or The Incident I Can Never Tell My Doctor) & Saket

The Incident

What up, bitch?

Mid-morning: John and I decided to walk to M Block to get the computer cables, a coffee (still no French press or "coffee plunger"), and a few other small things.  To preface, I'm an animal lover.  Animals love me, and my heart aches when I see the bajillions of dogs roaming Delhi and Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" plays on a continuous loop in my brain.  

I'm in a bad mood and I'm gonna take it out on you!

But halfway to M Block, as we're passing by the driveways of posh houses, a f**king dog bites my ankle! Thankfully no broken skin and it wasn't one of the feral mongrels your used to seeing (at least I don't think it was - I hope not); nonetheless, it clamped down hard and it hurt.  We had to stop and check to make sure. If there was even a scrape on my skin, I would go immediately to the hospital.  But I had long jeans and socks on and what probably really saved me from harm is that I (unfashionably) cuff my jeans.  Because kiddos, as you get older, you shrink; and while waist sizes go up and down, eventually the inseam slowly gets shorter as well.

The "Apple" store at M Block (called iStore) had every adapter but the HDMI, so we went to the other M Block in Greater Kailash II: This Time It's Personal!  No dice there either, but we had a very nice lunch at a restaurant called "Not Just Paranthas".  I can't recall the names of what we got, but the tomato/coriander soup is all kinds of awesome!  We took a tuk-tuk back home and called Rahul for a taxi to take us to Saket malls (Select Citywalk/Svelte, DLF Place, and Metropolitan).  His driver arrived literally within minutes and off we went.  

Saket

On the way John made dinner plans to meet some other SCI clients, so we had a lot of time to kill at the malls before dinner.  We found the HDMI adapter at the "Apple" store there (this one is called Imagine) at Select Citywalk and walked each mall at least twice.  No coffee press (and at this point I don't even want coffee, it's all about the hunt).  We got an email regarding our surrogate: that she and baby are doing fine and not actively experiencing any signs of labor.  Come on baby, be born!!!  We had a great dinner and great conversation with our new friends and had a really enjoyable evening together.

We realized we made the right decision not to stay at Svelte.  If you're staying in India, then by all means experience India.  We may be in the "posh" part of Delhi, but it's more real than the western malls.  M Block truly has all the baby items Mom & Me and Mothercare has and, in a lot of instances, much cheaper.  Also, we're learning about the land and culture that our baby comes from, so that is a plus.  There are downsides of course, and if either of us were traveling alone, we would probably be at Svelte. In Saket, a lot of the luxuries are readily available.  But if you're adventurous enough to embark on this journey, I cannot help but recommend staying within Delhi and being a bit more adventurous.  Saket was like the malls back home: loud, expensive, and artificial.

That's it for tonight!  Let's hope for a 1/31/13 baby.

Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future

Since arriving in Delhi, I've lost all track of time.  It not only seems like we've been here for a few days, but also weeks.  Hours, days, minutes - kind of all blur together.  I go to bed relatively early, and wake up at 3 or 4am, not fully rested but not tired enough to sleep.  I was worried I was getting Delhi-belly last night because I began retching around dinner time. Thankfully, it passed.  I blame Lays' delicious masala potato chips.

Today I think we're going to look for a copier/printer for paperwork and documents, and a Mini-DP/HDMI cable adapter so we can watch movies on something other than a laptop.  I'm thinking the adapter may be an impossibility, since finding a french press is like finding a needle in a haystack.

We made an appointment to tour the SCI facilities tomorrow, barring the arrival of our lazy sea-monkey ;)

Where's the baby?

We went to Agra on Sunday to see the Taj Mahal, and both of us agree that, while worth it, we would't bring a newborn baby all the way out here.  First off, it takes more than three hours just to get there (and if you're used to Delhi driving, that's a looong trip).  If you're from the UK and have to spend months here, it may be worth considering once the baby is older, if only for an awesome photo with your baby (or babies) in front of the monument.  Second, it's very busy, there are a lot of animals, and a lot of walking.  It was definitely worth it and our driver, Satish, did an excellent job.  Also, know how to haggle when getting souvenirs - you can get taken for a ride by some pretty charming salesmen!  And watch your pockets as they can get picked (we didn't, but we were sternly warned).

Here's another tip for travelers: while it's not hot in Delhi in January, it's still easy to get dehydrated, forget to eat, not sleep, etc.  Eat or snack often, drink bottled water whenever possible, and get as much sleep as you can.  By the end of the night I had to force myself to eat and drink.  Not a case of Delhi-belly, but over-stressing your body can make you feel absolutely awful.

Oh yeah, and where is this baby of ours?  It's very nice visiting with new friends and meeting their little ones, but also (for me anyway) very frustrating.  It's like every day here is the night before christmas, and you're waiting to open your presents--but for some reason christmas eve never ends!

Delhi has a way of playing with your mind.  We've been here 4 full days already, and it feels like much longer.  We've been to M-block only twice and feel like we've done it enough.  I can't seem to find real coffee here.  I've been looking for ground coffee and a french press and have come to the realization that I'm going to have to use instant Nescafe.  Dunkin' Donuts, Coffee Bean, and Gloria Jeans have the real thing, but they don't sell it like in the US.

When our friends threw us the baby shower, we all put in our guesses of the baby's gender, weight, and birthdate.  I also asked other friends and family to put their 2-cents in.  Two people have been wrong so far, but today is mine and John's day (and Patty's) - we picked the same day.  Here is the complete (and updated) list:

1. 1/18 - B - 8lb. 8oz. - Jeff K.
2. 1/26 - G - 6lb. 8oz. - Jill M.
3. 1/29 - G - 6lb. 6oz. - Patty C.
4. 1/29 - G - 6lb. 10oz. - Morgan
5. 1/29 - B - 5lb. 9oz. - John
6. 1/31 - B - 7lb. 6oz - Kelly H.
7. 2/01 - G - 7lb. 4oz. - Steph K.
8. 2/01 - G - 6lb. 0oz. - Tony D.
9. 2/02 - B - 7lb. 9oz. - Michelle O.
10. 2/02 - G - 7lb. 11oz. - Tracey F.
11. 2/02 - G - 6lb. 8oz. - Auntie Dana
12. 2/02 - G - 6lb 11oz. - "Gangy"
13. 2/02 - G - 7lb. 2oz. - "Pop-pop"
14. 2/05 - G - 6lb. 4oz. - Uncle Greg
15. 2/06 - G - 6lb. 12oz. - Aunt Cathy
16. 2/07 - G - 6lb. 2oz. - Kelli T.
17. 2/07 - B - 7lb. 2oz. - Aunt Stacy
18. 2/07 - G - 7lb. 8oz. - Brooke M.
19. 2/07 - B - 7lb. 5oz. - Jolene H.
20. 2/08 - G - 7lb. 3oz. - Allison Z.
21. 2/09 - G - 6lb. 8oz. - Cousin Jessica
22. 2/11 - B - 6lb. 12oz. - Grandma Lori
23. 2/12 - G - 8lb. 5oz. - Jill S.
24. 2/15 - B/G - 9lb. twins - Bob S. (Oh, Bob!) 

Let's cross our fingers that today is the day...
...and it wasn't.

There, And Back Again (Part I): The Daddies' Tale

Goodbye Boston!

Chapter One:  Boston, Massachusetts (late Wednesday evening)
So here we are.  Boarding time.  Or should I say bored-ing time?  Well wait, this would be boarding time, however the flight is delayed.  So we are in the AirFrance Lounge (quiet, complimentary food & drinks, lovely) and it's boring.  The magazines and newspapers are in French and "je comprends un peu le français"; which translates to knowing words and still not being able to put together anything coherent.  I picked up "Le Monde" and realized it was also a political article and not only lost interest, but lost interest in French.  Merde!

I slept about 40 minutes on the way to Switzerland, Xanax had no effect whatsoever.  I was so tired and uncomfortable; it was like 80*F inside the plane!  I rolled up my jeans into shorts.  Swiss Air doesn't have those little air vents like most planes that I've been on have.

Chapter Two: Zurich, Switzerland (mid-morning, Thursday)
Welcome to the land of chocolate!  Toblerones are aplenty!  We didn't leave the airport and unfortunately, it was so cold and cloudy/foggy it looked exactly like rural New England.  Nothing to see here except chocolate, and white crosses on red backgrounds on everything to can buy.  They're very proud here.

John noticed as we flew over Afghanistan that we were being escorted by some kind of jet - that was pretty unsettling, but at least this flight had the temperature right.

Chapter Three: New Delhi, India (after midnight, Friday)
Everybody warned me of the smell when you get off the plane.  I was preparing for the absolute worst: the smell of sewage and dirt.  I was actually pleasantly surprised that it smells like Los Angeles on it's worst smoggy day, sitting behind the exhaust pipe of a big truck.  Being a Southern California native, I really didn't mind this.  The really bad part was that you can literally see the smog inside the airport.  Our driver was very easy to spot and drove us to the apartment.  I was worried about the driving here, but once you've been to New York and Boston, it seemed the same.  But, we also arrived in the middle of the night, so I think we hit Delhi at it's quietest & slowest.

Chapter Four: Greater Kailash Apartment (Friday morning)
This is not your everyday spotless/sterile hotel.  It is a big apartment that is reasonably clean; not hotel clean, but clean enough and comfortable.  All the amenities of home.  For the most part it is quiet.  I woke up around 7:45 (Delhi time) and can hear traffic, shouting, dogs barking, pigeons, and some kind of portly, green bird that looks like a cross between a pigeon and a parrot.  We have not ventured out as of yet, so my opinions of everything may change.  I haven't seen the city in daylight other than off the balcony.  It's about 45*F (9*C) out and all I brought was a light sweatshirt: looks like someone's going to do some shopping!