Day out

I went out for a walk today. It was a three-hour walk to a shopping mall across the street and then to couple of stores about 5 blocks away from the hotel. It wasn’t a long distance but just crossing the streets took me for-ev-er!

The traffic is so crazy here, and there’s so much beeping from every car in the road that it’s really distracting and I get easily spooked because I feel as if I’m standing in the wrong place or something and all the beeping is against me. Booh booh!

Haha! Ok. Enough of Princess Sufferer. My walk today was pretty fun. I love going out and experiencing India first hand. Although I must admit that if I would have been born and raised in the USA I would be going through a major cultural shock, but having the experience of living in a third world country for 18 years have prepared me for what I’ve seen around here.

The shopping mall I went today is this one:

And then I walked down road 10, which looks like this:

After 15 minutes walk I got to a building with six or seven posh stores including Anokhi which is pretty nice store that I found out about thanks to my friend Bijal. Anokhi has shirts and pants and skirts and they also sell bedclothes and tablecloths, all of them with very nice and original printings – everything really, really nice.

I couldn't leave the store without getting me a little something, so I got me this red purse and a cosmetics baggy that I luuuv.

After I came back to the hotel I was exhausted – the heat really takes all my strength away, and just crossing the streets requires a lot of concentration, so I watched a Woody Allen movie through our SlingBox which is this handy device that is connected to our Tivo which itself is connected to our friend’s Victor’s DirectTV in San Antonio, Texas.

Can you believe it? We’re watching live TV directly from the US so we don’t miss any of our TV shows – yay! :)

About Hyderabad

I’m sitting on the eight floor of the Taj Krishna Hotel in Hyderabad, and what I see is this:

India welcomed us with warm and semi dry weather, noisy streets, blue skies, and mouth watering biryani.

We have been here for a week and already have some important things settled. We have decided on a car, a Toyota Sienna, and a house about 25 minutes away from downtown.

The house we got is small for Indian standards, and huge for our standards. We have 4 bedrooms, 2 TV rooms, a dinning room, a nice big kitchen, 5 bathrooms, maid’s quarters, a small patio, two balconies, and a huge terrace on the third floor. It’s the largest house I’ve ever lived in, and I wonder what I am going to do to make it look like ours, our home, even for the 12+ months we’ll be here.

Besides taking care of our transportation and living arrangements we also spent a few days having a well deserved vacation since our last days in Buffalo were pretty busy and stressful.

Most of what we’ve done can be summarized in sleeping long hours, waking up just in time for breakfast (which is over at 11 am), frolicking at our room or at the pool, daring to cross the streets to go to the shopping mall, and watching Indian music videos.

Right now I’m using my spare time to find a job, to read light novels, and to take photos with my new Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi --- yes, after years of thinking about it, I finally got it!!! :)

Here’s a photo of my new baby:

And here’s a photo shot with my new baby:

Me is happy :)

Happy New Year 2008

January 1, 2008. Wow. This decade has gone by so fast. So many things have happened. So much joy. So much sadness. Overall I am happy, though. I feel just fine, and I hope you do too.

For us, this year brings adventures. Adventures in Asia, since we’re moving to India in three weeks. OMG, just three weeks. In three weeks I’ll be away, far from my brother, from my mom and dad, from my friends, my job, the things that have become so familiar.

It’s ironic that after wishing to leave Buffalo for so long, now that we have the chance to leave I feel I’ll miss it so much … and then again, I know I won’t miss this place at all.

I’ll miss my brother, who will stay here for school. He’s my best friend, my partner in crime, my counselor, and I’ll terribly miss having him around, but I know this is for our own good, to go and live in a new place, to open new doors for both of us, for the three of us.

I’ll be gone for a year but I won’t be totally gone. I’ll be just a phone call, an e-mail away. I just hope everything is all right while I’m away. I hope things run smoothly. I hope my loved ones are happy, healthy, successful. I hope everything turns out all right.

May all this come true.

Happy New Year.