Indus International Sports Day... Will the Patnodes bring home the gold??

You know it's going to be a long, hot day when they hand out visors on your way into the stadium!! These visors are the sports day equivalent of the cone shaped hats that we hand out to guests at kids' birthday parties... you know, the ones with the thin elastic band that is held on barely by a staple on each side... the thin elastic band that suddenly becomes a deadly weapon when you try to squeeze in around your adult sized head. Come on, admit it... you have squeezed that hat on your head at least ONCE!! Anyway... the visor, like the party hats... only really look good on a 3 year old.

The kids were all enamoured by the trophy table!

Taylor and Andrew took home some serious hardware!!! 4 gold medals and a silver... and Andrew won one of the coveted cups for top 2nd grade boy athlete!

After the races, we strolled around the beautiful 40 acre Indus campus for a bit. The resident Indus geese and their 3 new goslings, loved my Mom!! Although mama goose chomped on her ankles right after I snapped this picture.
Taylor was so proud to show off the smartboard in her class.
Tomorrow we head back to Indus for the 2nd grade end of unit presentation... "From farm to table". At the end of every unit, the kids prepare a summary performance. Each student has a speaking part, which is presented to other students, teachers and parents. What a great way to get the kids comfortable speaking in from to a large group. No surprise that Taylor is a natural. Andrew has really come a long, long way. I will post a video tomorrow!!

Carol's 1st Guest Post

Who would believe that my first trip out of the US would be to India? I think that I knew everything there was to know about life here, from this blog! The plane trip itself was phenomenal, amazing, luxurious really! And I was banned to the lower level economy section of the plane. I can't imagine what life was like for Pat, who was upstairs even more pampered!

When I entered in arrivals at Bangalore airport, I felt right at home. (ok---I was also traveling with Pat --I might be sounding like a seasoned international traveler at this point, but I'll admit I would not have done this on my own!!!) Now, on to the best part of my arrival..... Cyn at the door and the grand kids waking up and seeing me sitting in the living room sipping tea! Oh, the excitement -- like Christmas morning!!! They have grown sooooo much and they all have picked up some of the most adorable expressions in their speech!! I could go on and on about the wonderful things I have seen in the two weeks I've been here. There are "challenges" - like the first time the power went out and I was on the (marble!) stairs with Lauren in front on me. Hearing the little voice announce "don't move, Grandma, it will be ok", was comical and a little scary! For all of my "shopping buddies" - oh how I wish you were here!! The shops are amazing and I want to buy everything (thank goodness for my voice of reason Paddy - one of Cyn's neighbors). She keeps reminding me that I'll be here a long time and there are so many more places to see. I have found that India's cuisine agrees with me (with the least amount of spice, of course!), that tea in the afternoon is a wonderful treat, the people are warm and friendly and the traffic in the city is not as frightening as I thought it would be (as long as the driver is NOT me!!)

I'm sure I'll have much more to tell over the next few weeks and while I'm sure my blog will not be as frequent as Cyn's, I'll try to keep in touch!

Trip to the mall and Bedtime Stories

Yesterday (Friday), Mom and I took Lauren to Indiranagar... a 'suburb' of Bangalore, with terrific shopping and restaurants. We met a friend for lunch at the 100 Foot Road Boutique. I love this place, because it is an awesome restaurant and a great boutique. Lauren discovered she LOVES hummus (much to our despair as she hogged it all!!). She also was very popular with the staff. Our waiter gave her this pink flower and the sales girl started snapping her photo with her cell phone... so I decided to take hers too. I think it made her day!Today (Saturday), we headed out to Forum Mall. We all piled into the truck for the long journey into the city. Last Saturday the drive took us 90 minutes, so today we prepared. The DS games , the Ipods and don't look now, but Andrew is actually reading Around the World in 80 Days!!Miraculously... we made it to Forum Mall in about 40 minutes. This is one of my favorite Bangalore Malls. It is super clean (and even has nice bathrooms!)... We decided to see a movie... Bedtime Stories was playing at 12:15... by the way, the theaters here are nicer than any in the US. Tickets cost under 4 bucks each and they serve you food, from a menu during the show!!! It is actually an affordable family outing. We grabbed some cookies at the Cookie Man before the show...

Mom got her first taste of McDonald's in India on our way out!

First Carrots!

Sorry, it has been a few days since I have posted. I am just recovering from my first illness in India! What started as a cold last week got progressively worse... yesterday I actually had to go to (gasp!!!) the DOCTOR! It was quite a nice visit... At the clinic here, you see whichever doctor happens to be free, regardless of their specialty. Last time Lauren went with her foot infection, she saw an obstetrician! I got the lucky draw of the young, cute cardiologist. He spent what seems like 10 minutes, taking my blood pressure. He did not, however, even look in my aching ear. He asked me heaps of questions... many of them seemingly unrelated to my symptoms. I walked out of his office with a brown lunch bag full of medicines... all for under $5!!!!

I braced myself for the medicine. Having dispensed it many times to Taylor and Lauren here... I knew it was not the pink, fluffy, bubble gum flavored stuff we get in the US. Again, with the theme of bowling without bumpers and riding without training wheels... medicine here tastes like the motor oil it should! I was mildly encouraged by the splash of writing on one of the bottles that read, "NEW, tingle taste"! OK, FYI... "tingle" motor oil is just as gut wrenching as "non-tingle" motor oil! In any case... I am feeling much, much better after just one day of the brown bag pills and liquids.

Back to the carrots post...

We have the best fuits and veggies growing all over our yard (worthy of their own post, which I will get to soon!). Lauren loves to go out every day and pick, cut and eat whatever is ready. She has been eagerly awaiting the harvest of our first carrots - which take quite a while to grow. Lauren was so excited when Sheela told her she thought the carrots were finally ready!!

Maybe the best carrot Lauren ever ate!!

Also, in the garden, so many beautiful flowers.... whenever a yellow rose blooms, it goes straight to my Mom (they are her favorite, after all!)

Brace yourself. My Mom has asked to do her OWN blog entry! She will write it this afternoon. Stay tuned!!!!

Rest and Relaxation - and Lauren's new bike

Today I had a few friends over for lunch. Sheela had the house all in order and all the cooking done by noon...

My Mom is loving Sheela. Here is Mom relaxing while Sheela cooks!

Lauren outgrew her old bicycle. She is in love with her new India Princess bike. It has a HUGE front basket, a back storage pod and even a bell!!

Oh, yeah... and hand brakes!! Who puts hand brakes only on a bike meant for 3 year olds?? Welcome to India. Also, along the vein of no bumpers in the bowling alley, the training wheels are about 3 inches off the ground AND the roads here slope about 20 degrees away from the center line. Thankfully, Challu runs around after her all day, saving her from one disastrous crash after another.

Slumdog Millionaire

Months ago I started reading all the hype surrounding a little movie from India called Slumdog Millionaire. It opened long ago in theaters across America and has been getting rave reviews, multiple Golden Globes and 8 Oscar nominations!!! Strangely, it just opened here in India last week. We went to see it on Saturday night and really loved it.

As you can imagine, it has created quite a stir here in India. BUT, not in a good way. For the most part, people here are embarrassed by the film. They think it depicts India in a negative way. I saw one article where it was referred to as "white man's imagined India". I think that the middle and upper class here in India feels that they have finally come so far toward feeling less like the third world country that westerners think of them as and that this film somehow takes away from that. Rubbish, I say. Go see the movie and judge for yourself.

Bowling and Basketball

This weekend was a birthday party marathon. We left for party #1 at 9:45am. It was an 11am party at Amoeba Bowl in the city. Traffic was bad and we were the first guests to arrive at 11:15am (we even beat the birthday girl!). Can you imagine driving for 90 minutes to reach a birthday party that is just 15 miles away?? The bowling alley is very modern and nice. One small difference to note is that the balls come in size small, medium, or large. No weights on them at all. One MAJOR difference... NO BUMPERS!!! Can you imagine a bunch of children - most of them Indian and never have bowled before - without bumpers?? This is pretty much the theme in India. Sink or swim . Watch your step or you will fall through the hole in the sidewalk. During school competitions, there are winners and there are losers... and you know whether you have won or lost. None of this "we don't really keep score" business. 4 full frames of bowling until the first pin toppled! It was pretty agonizing to watch, but I must say, as the games progressed, there were fewer and fewer gutter balls.

After the bowling, they served food in the "Amoeba Lounge". A grilled cheese sandwich, chicken "drummetes", a vegetable spring roll and french fries. We have come a long way in India, I thought, as I sat eating a plate of food served to me in a bowling alley!!

After lunch, it was up the stairs to the game center. Pat went straight for the speed basketball hoop... were he was thrilled to shatter the standing point total record. Taylor hauled away the hundreds of winning tickets (did I mention that absolutely nobody plays basketball in India??)

After the cake we rushed out into the waiting car... to get back home in time for party #2 - which we did with 15 minutes to spare!

Sunday was a bit more relaxed. Andrew loved having Grandma to help him with his homework...