So between the daily power outages, the terrible reception of cable and the fact that all kid's shows (incl Disney and Nickelodeon) are all dubbed into either Hindi or Telugu, Mikey manages to use my iPad or laptop to watch videos on you tube or iTunes all the time. By the time I get it back, the battery is dead! I have to check my Facebook on my iPhone, which by the way I had to buy here in India and apple has managed to keep prices pretty much the same here as in the US (not cheap!) Rob wasn't happy when I dropped my iPhone 3G (luckily not my 4S, because they can't jailbreak it yet) into the toilet! Another "lucky" coincidence was that I dropped it in a toilet at an upscale restaurant, because I tell you, some of these toilets are pretty disgusting!
No wonder all the guys take a leak at the side of the road! You cannot drive for more than 2 minutes without seeing someone peeing at the side of the road. My favorite spot is when they do it right under a sign that says 'keep your city clean' So odd! I have even seen two (adult!) guys take a dump in the fields behind our house! I kid you not! Mind you that we live on the 9th floor and they probably had no idea that anyone was watching. I don't know if you've ever seen the scene in the movie 'outsourced' where they describe the use of the left hand for wiping the behind, so you are only supposed to use your right hand to eat. Especially since most people don't use forks or other silverware. I've seen now in person that they really use their left hand!! I now also understand why everyone wears sandals. It must be because of the wet toilets (I still haven't figured out how the women in the sarees do it, but one of these days I will. It's not really a topic you can discuss with just anyone :)
A few weeks ago, Rob dropped Mikey off at school and mikey had to go nr 2, but he was complaining that the toilet was too high, so the teacher said: it's okay, he can go on the floor, the maid will clean it up!!! I really hope that is NOT what they are teaching him!
Hyderabad is considered pretty conservative, most women wear traditional clothing (like sarees and kurtis) They look so beautiful in amazing colors! You also don't see much PDA especially between man and women. Sometimes between men, but it seems totally socially accepted here that man hold hands :)
I still love the cows roaming around the streets and traffic just goes around them. The dogs, kids, goats, and even pigs seem very street smart, you seldom see them jump into the street. There is an endless sound of blowing horns, people won't drive here in a vehicle that has no horn. I love how Steve describes traffic here: it's like a school of fish. If something gets in the way everybody moves around it pretty smoothly. I haven't seen much road rage yet. I think it's because it's so unclear what the rules of the road are that you can't really yell at someone else for doing something 'wrong'.
Last night after dinner we tried to find our way back to the hotel to bring Steve and Arlo back. Rob started driving and after a while we figured out we weren't getting anywhere familiar. So Steve pulled out the GPS. He's showing Arlo were we are and where we have to go on the map. 'Oh says Arlo, that looks good, the only problem is I see no roads on the map!' Everyone is laughing but little did we know that he turned out pretty right!!! We ended up taking a lot of left turns. We ended up in an abandoned train station, being chased by wild dogs, trying to find a way out to the other side of the tracks (not even knowing if that was the right side of the tracks. Rob decided to take a left onto this dirt road where we are driving in the middle of nowhere it seems with the tracks on one side and a huge pipeline on the other side, with more scary dogs barking at us. We end up in this tiny (Muslim) town and somehow Rob finds a tunnel that goes under the tracks! Then we end up in another (again seemingly Muslim) area of town where the roads are extremely narrow, almost everything's closed (it's already 11pm) and I'm thinking we will never find our way home! Steve seemed very optimistic the entire time navigating us on a street less GPS map and somehow we ended up back into civilization! It was quite an experience (one I don't really want to repeat). I have to say though that I did not feel scared or threatened at any moment, except for maybe the dogs. We all agreed that if this had happened in downtown Miami, we most likely would not have made it out in one piece!! I love Hyderabad :)
This week was Holi, the festival of colors. People put paint on each other and spray each other with colored water. It looks like a lot of FUN, but Mikey didn't care much for it. Here are some pictures of Mikey and his class mates. Also there are some pictures of our water court where people decided to wash off. The water ended up being so red :)
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