Week One Down, 103 weeks to go

I can't believed that we have been in India for a week already. It's been a big adjusting period for me due to both jet lag and monsoon season. If you have never experiences Monsoon season, like me, then it can be quite frustrating. Why you might ask? Well it's simple, you might leave your house and it can be sunny and 2 minutes later the rain comes. And it is not the drizzle rain that we might get in the states before a huge storm, no, it just starts pouring down and in the next 2 minutes it can stop and start again.

This is one of the reasons I haven't gone out and explore, but also, here there are no street signs nor sidewalks, so I am a little apprehensive about going out and about. I think that once we get a driver, I would feel comfortable going out in the neighborhood by myself. 

Rest assure that we haven't spent all our time inside, we have been invited to going away parties, dinners, brunch and sight seeing and we have done all of those. 

If you did not know, there are a lot of things to do and places to eat around here. So this is what we did the last week:

Monday:  We went to the Consulate where we met a lot of James' co-workers and some of my future co-workers. That night we went to a going away party for an officer that was leaving post that week. Here we met more FSO's and their spouses and everyone was very welcoming and great and gave us some suggestions on places to visits, shop, etc!

Tuesday: We were suppose to meet friends down south at Chowpatty Beach and Marine Drive but James wasn't feeling well so we had to turn around and we actually spend the afternoon at home and getting some grocery shopping done.

Wednesday: I stayed home and cooked us a delicious dinner.

Thursday: Our UAB or Unaccompanied Baggaged arrived so I stayed home an unpacked and once James got home we went a farewell dinner nearby at Pizza Metro Pizza, which is an thematic italian pizza place in which their pizza is really good.

Friday: We got cable and our phones installed and then we met some of our friends at Sancho's, another thematic restaurant, this time Mexican, which we know we are going back to because the food was delicious and the atmosphere was great, not to mention that they played salsa and merengue the entire time we were there!

Saturday: We actually made it down south to Chowpatty Beach and we went to the High End Mall called the Phoenix Hotel and Mall for some shopping. After that, our driver for day took us around South Mumbai where we saw the Gateway to India, Taj Majal Hotel, the Train Station, a Mosque in the middle of the bay and some other beautiful monumets. We wanted to walk to all the different places, but, once again, the monsoon took over our plans. After that we went shopping at the "Walmart" of India called Reliance. Now, this store was great, because it has all the basic things you need plus food! It felt as if we were home, except, we are in India... 

Sunday: This was James' and I's 1st year anniversary and we spent most of the day apart. Yes, apart... I was invited by some of James's co-workers to go and explore some of Mumbai's cool stores and then go to Brunch. This was great, because we went around some cool home stores with someone who has been here for a while. We all wanted to buy everything but decided against it until we get our Household Effects later on in the month so we have an idea of what we really need.

After some shopping we visited SmokeHouse Deli for some brunch American/English style. It is an amazing little restaurant near our house with both Indian and Continental Cuisine. I ordered the Banana Bacon Pancakes with a side of bacon and it was delish, while another one of us ordered Eggs Florentine, another ordered Rissotto and Fish and the other ordered a lamb burger. All of these looked fantastic and we all left satisfied and full. 

Later on that night James and I set off to dinner at the fantastic and luxurious Taj Hotel Lands End which is located about 10 minute drive from our house. We dined at Vista, which is a lounge on the 2nd floor of the hotel which overlooks the water. The food was really good but the company was better. 

As we closed on the 1st full week in Mumbai, I can honestly say that this place is growing on me and I like it! I can't wait to see what other things this city and country have to offer.  

Nats

Mumbai Day 1

James and I arrive in India 2 days ago at 12:20 am local time after traveling from NYC with a stop in Heathrow. Once we arrive the journey began. We had a person waiting for us as soon as we got out of the plane and they told us where to go. We arrived in the new British Airways terminal which was a beautiful building that had amazing local art diplayed all around. After walking almost a mile, we arrived at the border and handed out passports, which did not take long. Once we were cleared, a British Airways worker meet us and helped us with our luggage. That took a little longer that expected and we had our social sponsor waiting for us outside the terminal. Immediately following getting our bags we thought that we were done, we were mistaken, now we had to go an clear customs and check what was in our carry on bags. We are glad that did not take that long and we were able to meet our social sponsor after that.

He had a car waiting for us at the airport and once we got all of our stuff in we were gone. The trip from the airport to our new home only took about 20 minutes. Once we arrive at the apartment it was about 1:30 am. Kevin showed us our apartment and explained what worked and how some things worked, what he failed to show us and explained to us was that our balcony sliding door laches behing you once you close it... So if you're thinking what I'm thinking... you are correct, James and I got stuck on our balcony for almost an hour. At the beginning we tried opening it, trying to get it out of the rail, ect and nothing worked. I got the idea of yelling out to see if anyone could help us. Thank God, Allah or whomever for 24 hour security that was able to hear us and they were able to call someone to get a key to our place to let us out. All I kept thinking is that, I can't believe this is happening to us on the FIRST DAY... and I did not want to take it as a sign of what our lives here would be like. I panicked, of course, I panicked, you do not want to be stuck in a balcony in a foreign country on your first night or ever...

Once they helped us we were too awake and shocked that none of us could go to bed. Instead, we started unpacking, took a shower and at 5 am actually went to bed. We woke up about 11ish and we looked to see what was around us that we could go to. Our sponsor lend us his driver for the day, but we did not take advantage of it right away. We walked down to the ocean front to get some Costa coffee. Now is where the fun starts.

You know how in the states we have sidewalks, well here they have them too, BUT, shocker... No one walks on them... People here walk against traffic on the road and when I say road, I mean 2 cars can barely drive on them.

As we walked down I was taking in the scenery and realizing in what a different world we are in. People here walk a lot, there are not as many people (at least in our neighborhood) as I thought we were going to encounter, that there are certain places where the smell is greater than other places, and that sometimes, if you have to go, you have to go... Yes, you guess it, I experienced my first person (it was a kid actually) pooping on the street!

We made it to Costa and the coffee and muffins were both delicious. We walked back to our apartment and we decided to take the advantages of having a driver for the day. The driver met us in the lobby and took us to Choice Market... Now this market will be our friend. This market has a lot of the comfort food items that one might need and if you call them... they deliver it. We bought some stuff there and we asked the driver to take us to see if we could get new Sim cards for our phones to use them here in India, but it turns out that you need an Indian reference, so we have to apply for one through the Consulate.

Once we made it back to our apartment again our sponsor called us because he heard the story of what happend to us and he wanted to check up on us. He invited us over to his apartment later on in the afternoon, so I went and took a nap.

Around 6:30 we went down to Kevin's apartment where we met Justin and Michael. We had some beverages and Michael invited all of us to dinner because he was going with James' fellow 176ers to dinner. So we set of on a night adventure. We took a rickshaw to dinner to fnd out the place was closed, so we walked to another place in which we founf iut it was an Indian restaurant. Once there I explained to Kevin that it was my FIRST, yes my first time eating Indian food, so he was kind and ordered for me. As it turns out it wasn't bad nor spicy (at least what I ate). James and I only ate a small amount of food because we feared that we would get sick. The best part about it was the cost of the food, we paid 200 ruppees each, which means that James and I had dinner for $6.00.

After dinner we ended up at a local bar for a little bit and we left since we were tired after one beer.

Needless to say, James and I are happy to be here, and yes, this will be a big adjustment since there are a lit of things that we need to get used to (smells, poverty, standards of living, etc) but I am certain that we will learn to love this place.

Mumbai is a great place and it has very kind and manificent people and I can't wait to explore it more. For now, James and I are taking it easy and just exploring it in smalls amounts of time to not over stimulate our senses and experience.

As you can see we accomplished a lot in one day. We can't wait to see what day 2 and the rest of the days are going to bring.


Nats

Au revoir USA

I can't believe that James and I are moving to India today. We have been talking about it for the last 3 months and here it is.

The last month have gone by rapidly since we have been doing our goodbye tour. At this point Both James and I are ready to go and start our new adventure, but before we do that here is a recap of our last month.

June 23-25- I finished working, sold my car, and my parents came to visit.
June 26-27- pack out happened and moved into The Mayflower hotel in Downtown DC.
June 27-July 2- vacation with my parents, seeing friends and doing last minute shopping.
July 2- July 6- James and I did our own version of a staycation in DC, where we visited places we have been before and got to spend time with some friends.
July 6-11- James went to crash and bang school and I stated at my friend Rebecca's house so I could hang out with some friends before I left. Rebecca and the girls threw me a farewell dinner, I went to dinner with Virginie one last time and I just relaxed.
July 12-15- we visited our family and some friends in Orlando. Also, we visited Islands of Adventure to encounter Hogwart's for the first timeline spent a day a the pool to watch the World Cup finals and visited my old stomping ground, Hollywood Studios, one last time.
July 15-21- now we made our way to Puerto Rico in which I had to say good bye to my family. During our stay we visited my brother and sister in law in Manati, Old San Juan, La Playuela in my hometown, spent some time with old friends in town and above all spent time at my childhood home with my parents relaxing and meditating about our journey ahead.
July 21-23- we made it to the Big Apple with big plans and conquered none because of our mental exhaustion. One thing we did accomplish was hanging out with our friends Chris and Joanna, who always show us the best places in NYC.

As I think back on this last month a lot of things have happened, all good of course, but some sad:

I quit my job, got a job at the Consulate, sold my car, sold our house, said goodbye to our awesome friends and family, got to go and enjoy Disney one last time and became a Harry Potter fan.Also, I got to enjoy spending precious time with our families.

I am ready to embark on this journey with my honey and see what this life bring us. Are you ready to embark it with us? I hope you are.

Next time I post James and I will be in India already , so stay tuned because the traveling feet are about to embark on a journey of a lifetime.

Nats

Our first Packout Experience

I can't believe that packout happened a week ago. I had no idea on what to expect, so my expectations were pretty low.

Day 1:
Our day started at 9 am when the movers came and knock on our door. It turned out to be 3 really nice Hispanic men, 2 Mexican brothers and 1 Peruvian guy. Immediatly they told me that the 1st day they were going to pack our UAB (Unaccompanied Baggage) and our HHE (Household Effects). I led them to the basement to show them where most of our HHE and UAB items were. While my dad supervised the movers packing the basement,  my mom packed and empytied our kitchen and my sister and I packed the suitecases that James and I will be traveling with us for the next month or so. By noon the Germany vs USA game started so I took a little break from packing to watch the game.

The movers continued packing until about 1pm when I asked them if they were hungry. They nod a big yes and my mom made all of us hotdogs. After lunch, everyone continued packing. The guys started bringing most of the boxes from the basement and we really thought they were done.

Boy, were we wrong!

The movers continued packing our stuff, seriously, where did all these things come from? I guess you really don't know how much stuff you really have until you pack your house!

By 5pm I was over it and we still had a long night ahead and the next day too. Needless to say the packers didn't leave until 9pm and they still had another job to go to!

Day 2:
On day2 things were a little different. The movers did not show up until 11am, and intead of 3 6 people showed up. Since they were moving our storage stuff, we knew that it would take less time. As soon as they got to our house, they all took a different floor and started packing. It took a while to packe James's office dur to the fact that we both had about 1,000 books to put into storage. Also, the basement took longer because that is where we had most of our  storage things were located. It took a long time to pack due to the fact that the movers have to wrapped everything, if you have articled in a box they take it out of your box an put it into their own boxes.

By 7pm, the movers were almost done and we were pretty happy about it nd so were the movers! Why, you ask? Well, we were excited that they were done and they were happy because they left our house with things that we did not need or want. They got towels, pillows, cleaning supplies and food! They were grateful to us for giving them so many things and I was humbled to be able to help them.

Overall it was a great experience and now we know how to deal with packout in the future.

Here are a couple of hints:

Dont put anything into boxes, because they have to take it out of the box and put it in their own boxes.
Try to have a designated areas in your house for HHE, UAB and storage so it is easier for the movers and you.
Don't leave the packing for the last minute.
Be organized and now what you want to take with you so you don't end up with things you don't need or things you need in storage.
Tip your movers and at least offer them water and food. They are here to help you in this process.


Now that pack out is over, its time to enjoy our last month in the states. Be on the lookout for our DC, Orlando, Puerto Rico and NYC adventures.

Nats

 

Foreign Service Life: Before Packout

James and I will be going through packout this week. What is packout you might ask? Packout is when The State Deparment comes and helps you pack your household goods 3 different ways: Storage, which is for all things that we will not need for the next 2 years. HHE or House Hold Effects, which is all of the things that we will need for the next 2 years in post but that we won't need right away. HHE comes by boat to post . The last piece of the puzzle is the UAB or Unaccompanied Baggage, which include things that you will need as soon as you arrive at post, like clothing, some comfort foods, linens, towels, kitchen stuff, etc.

James and I have been dealing with this for the last few month and little by little we have gone room by room and have separated all of it into those 3 piles. It wasn't until the last few weeks that we really started to put things together to be a little bit organized.

Last week, the moving company came to survey all the things that we have and what goes where and such. It was a relieve when the guy told me that we were WAY under the 17,000 pound limit for all three.

Today, I woke up at 5:30 and just went down to the basement to get things really ready to be packed. Then, I went to the kitchen and started to empty it out. It is crazy, how many things James and I own and how many are going to given away, or go to storage. We are giving away around 10 boxes of clothes and household items. I'm pretty sure that we will collect plenty of things along the way and at some point we will reach the 17,000 pound mark.

Among the things that we are taking with us includes: comfort foods, bug spray, favorite condiments, chritsmas stuff, school supplies, books, pictures, bikes and toilettries.

As I mentioned before they will come to move us on Thursday and once I know how it works I will post more information and pictures, as well as, all the fun things we will get to do with my family who also comes to visit tomorrow...

I am hanguing in there. Packout it's almost here, which means that we will be in Mumbai in about 31 days! It is really happening.

Keep your feet traveling and your hearts happy,
Nats