Don't worry, I'm still here. No, I haven't been involved in some freak sari accident (although that does sound interesting); it's more like my blog absence is due to busyness and a lack of internet access from my laptop. There's one laptop in the house that has internet access, but I always feel weird spending what I would consider a lot of time on the communal computer as I'm afraid of hogging it, so I've only been using that computer to write brief emails to my parents to assure them that I'm alive and well.
I gave up on waiting for getting some internet access to my laptop so I could upload pictures and spend as much time as I needed on my entries without worrying about hogging the family laptop so here's what I wrote on Word so I could paste it on my blog to post when I had the chance. The next 3 entries are posted in reverse chronological order, going down from oldest to most recent:
Monday, June 9, 2008
Estoy aqui' en Begnaluru
6.7.08
Only a couple days have passed yet there's so much I want to post. The more I wait to post more on New Zealand, the more it feels like it'll be awkward or too late to post pictures or write about it. I don't know when I'll be able to have internet access from my laptop, so I think uploading scenic pictures of New Zealand will have to wait. Perhaps I'll just have to have the longest blog entry in history in August when I post an obscenely humongous number of pictures of my entire 11-week trip. I know I've said this was 10 weeks, but I've actually counted the number of weeks in my planner and it's 11. Anyway though, the pictures will have to wait but hopefully these entries made it to my blog in a decent amount of time if I've been able to get my hands on a USB flash drive or something.
Being in Bangalore already makes me miss New Zealand a bit, especially since Bangalore is quite noisy and the traffic is chaotic to say the least. It's not that I don't like that, but I guess it makes me think of how green and peaceful it was in New Zealand and how a lot of times we'd be the only car on the road.
I think it was a bad idea to wait until I come back to take my driving test because I think I've become a little more accustomed to the traffic being on the left side of the road and everyone here changes lanes without signaling and sometimes there could be 4 cars crammed side-by-side on a 3-lane road. Everyone whizzes past one another really closely, and despite the insanity, I have yet to see an accident or injured pedestrian.
So far the hardest part of adjusting to my stay in India has been the food. Oh, and I think the sporadic water supply will eventually get to me as it's somewhat inconvenient when I try to wash up in the morning but I have barely a dribble of water coming from the faucet. But, back to the food: it's not that it's bad food; I'm just still adjusting to eating a lot of unfamiliar things for nearly every meal and I'm still getting accustomed to the flurry of unfamiliar spices and flavors. I was so afraid that I'd absolutely hate everything, but actually in New Zealand, there were quite a few Indian dishes that I enjoyed so that was a good transition. My diet has been primarily vegetarian which is something I've always wanted to try and don't mind so that's been kind of cool. For the times that I do go a little hungry, I have a stash of dried cranberries and apricots from New Zealand (NZ's biosecurity would not have permitted me to bring those into the country from the US but fortunately, India does not have any sort of biosecurity) as well as some crackers and Oreos from an Indian grocery store.
Only a couple days have passed yet there's so much I want to post. The more I wait to post more on New Zealand, the more it feels like it'll be awkward or too late to post pictures or write about it. I don't know when I'll be able to have internet access from my laptop, so I think uploading scenic pictures of New Zealand will have to wait. Perhaps I'll just have to have the longest blog entry in history in August when I post an obscenely humongous number of pictures of my entire 11-week trip. I know I've said this was 10 weeks, but I've actually counted the number of weeks in my planner and it's 11. Anyway though, the pictures will have to wait but hopefully these entries made it to my blog in a decent amount of time if I've been able to get my hands on a USB flash drive or something.
Being in Bangalore already makes me miss New Zealand a bit, especially since Bangalore is quite noisy and the traffic is chaotic to say the least. It's not that I don't like that, but I guess it makes me think of how green and peaceful it was in New Zealand and how a lot of times we'd be the only car on the road.
I think it was a bad idea to wait until I come back to take my driving test because I think I've become a little more accustomed to the traffic being on the left side of the road and everyone here changes lanes without signaling and sometimes there could be 4 cars crammed side-by-side on a 3-lane road. Everyone whizzes past one another really closely, and despite the insanity, I have yet to see an accident or injured pedestrian.
So far the hardest part of adjusting to my stay in India has been the food. Oh, and I think the sporadic water supply will eventually get to me as it's somewhat inconvenient when I try to wash up in the morning but I have barely a dribble of water coming from the faucet. But, back to the food: it's not that it's bad food; I'm just still adjusting to eating a lot of unfamiliar things for nearly every meal and I'm still getting accustomed to the flurry of unfamiliar spices and flavors. I was so afraid that I'd absolutely hate everything, but actually in New Zealand, there were quite a few Indian dishes that I enjoyed so that was a good transition. My diet has been primarily vegetarian which is something I've always wanted to try and don't mind so that's been kind of cool. For the times that I do go a little hungry, I have a stash of dried cranberries and apricots from New Zealand (NZ's biosecurity would not have permitted me to bring those into the country from the US but fortunately, India does not have any sort of biosecurity) as well as some crackers and Oreos from an Indian grocery store.
Monsters under my bed, on the floor, on the window, on the walls, in the house.
When I think about how much I enjoy being in nature I often wonder why I don't live closer to it since I love seeing trees, flowers and escaping the sights and sounds of the city. But, tonight's huge spider and resident lizards reminded me of my limits and why exactly, I probably can't ever be completely one with nature.
I used to find it ridiculous when in songs someone would say that they "couldn't make it through the night" but now I find myself tempted to curl up into the fetal position and saying just that. I'm in the Indian countryside staying a couple days in a farmhouse and now that it's night, I'm terrified. I'm not wearing my glasses because I don't want to see any creepy crawlies of any sort and I'm afraid to peek under my bed because I really could find something staring back at me. Even though my laptop needs to be charged (and I keep forgetting that my charger is the one thing that won't fit into my adaptor), I have some music on and I'm charging my ipod so I can fall asleep to some music. It's calming to hear the crickets chirping outside, but whenever I hear a slight stirring or brushing sound, my imagination goes wild. Earlier I heard a small sound and it made my heart jump so I had to put on the music. Oh yeah, and the power is a bit erratic out here so I do have a night light with me as well. Not that I'd want to see what's in the dark. I have a room to myself, but am I really alone?!
6.8.08
I've sort of jumped around here but now is not the time to be playing catch-up! Even just getting from the Auckland airport to the Bangalore one is another story in itself, so I'll get back to you on that when it's daylight and I'm not shivering in my boots. I hope tomorrow when I'm not showering out of a pail I won't have a lizard/spider/cockroach/check other to keep me company...
I used to find it ridiculous when in songs someone would say that they "couldn't make it through the night" but now I find myself tempted to curl up into the fetal position and saying just that. I'm in the Indian countryside staying a couple days in a farmhouse and now that it's night, I'm terrified. I'm not wearing my glasses because I don't want to see any creepy crawlies of any sort and I'm afraid to peek under my bed because I really could find something staring back at me. Even though my laptop needs to be charged (and I keep forgetting that my charger is the one thing that won't fit into my adaptor), I have some music on and I'm charging my ipod so I can fall asleep to some music. It's calming to hear the crickets chirping outside, but whenever I hear a slight stirring or brushing sound, my imagination goes wild. Earlier I heard a small sound and it made my heart jump so I had to put on the music. Oh yeah, and the power is a bit erratic out here so I do have a night light with me as well. Not that I'd want to see what's in the dark. I have a room to myself, but am I really alone?!
6.8.08
I've sort of jumped around here but now is not the time to be playing catch-up! Even just getting from the Auckland airport to the Bangalore one is another story in itself, so I'll get back to you on that when it's daylight and I'm not shivering in my boots. I hope tomorrow when I'm not showering out of a pail I won't have a lizard/spider/cockroach/check other to keep me company...
A very long post about 2 3 very different things
6.9.08
Okay, so I did make it through the night. I was so exhausted last night that once I fell asleep, I slept through the whole night, although that's happened every night I've been here since so much has been going on. Initially, it was hard to take those 3 steps across the room to shut off the light, but after I sprang back to my bed in complete darkness and untangled myself from the mosquito nets that I leapt into, the night silence was a bit calming. My ears were listening for any sounds of scurrying, but I actually just heard the trees in the wind, some crickets and a few motorcycles passing through on the road nearby.
Despite my city-girl paranoia, I do enjoy being out here in the countryside. This morning I was staring out of my bed, enclosed in mosquito net trying to savor my disbelief of waking up in a farmhouse in India. I still find this all surreal sometimes, and I try to enjoy it since these are the moments I've writing about in my journals, dreaming of when I'd get to wake up halfway around the world, in another room, in another house with the sun shining through the window. Ten, five, even two years ago, I had no idea I'd get to be here. I remember being in the third grade or so, being fascinated with India from the pictures and footage I'd seen of the Taj Mahal, old buildings and colorful markets but being a little discouraged when people would tell me that I wouldn't like India because it was a dirty place. I know I definitely would not have liked or been able to handle being in India had I gone any time before this, but I'm glad I'm here now.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
I guess I've also allowed myself to be a bit negligent with this blog just because there's been so much to tell and I don't know where to begin. As promised though, I'll tell you that the flight from Auckland to Bangalore was a bit hectic. I don't know why Swathi and I seem to have bad luck with all of our flights already, but when we showed up to the Auckland airport we found out that our flight from Hong Kong to Bangalore was cancelled because the part of the airport in Bangalore that was supposed to receive that flight was still under construction and our supposed flight wouldn't be starting up until July. We were supposed to have been notified of the changes [ahembadtravelagentahem] so we could have our airfare rebooked earlier so we ended up running from the end of the security and customs checkpoint to the gate because it took so long for everything to be rebooked. At least we didn't have to pay for any of these changes; we were originally booked for a Mumbai flight automatically when the changes happened but there were no flights from Mumbai to Bangalore so we had to stop in Delhi instead (which prolonged our travel time by half a day and is farther than Mumbai) and then fly to Bangalore.
With flights I tend to only think of the origin and the destination and I think I've kind of forgotten about the places I pass in between point A to point B. On the Auckland-Hong Kong flight I didn't realize that we'd be flying over West Papua on the way over so it was quite exciting when I saw it on the map on my seat monitor. I already had a 2-seat row to myself (it wasn't a full flight) so it was cool to have the window to myself and see the view below. It sort of felt like something out of a movie since it was sort of surreal to be able to look out the window and see West Papua below. Instead of grids of buildings and houses, all I could see was trees and a long, winding river. The Kombai and Mek live in West Papua (you know, from my favorite shows, Living With the Kombai and Living With the Mek?), so it was really amazing to fly over the country over what might have been relatively untouched land and wonder if there were people living amongst those trees.
Despite the inconveniences, it was an opportunity for me to at least get a glimpse of Delhi (from the airport, that is) that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. Things were a bit hectic since the security and check-in procedures are a bit different and one of Swathi's suitcases didn't arrive since it had to be put on a later flight (probably because our rebooking forced us to check-in about an hour before our flight departed back in Auckland). I bought a cheese sandwich for 60 rupees from a guy who didn't seem to enjoy his job very much (or perhaps his bad mood was on account of it being 5 am) before we went to the gate and it was kind of bland, so I didn't finish it. Swathi had some sort of veggie puff so when we got to the gate we were quite disappointed to find that there was a McDonald's there. I normally don't care much for McDonald's and I probably eat it only a handful of times a year, but the French fries and the McChicken sandwich seemed particularly enticing after that crust-less Swiss cheese and mayo sandwich. I felt bad that I didn't finish my sandwich so I ended up not getting my McD's fix. Swathi and I just sort of stared at the menu debating back and forth if we should give in and get an order of fries until we had to board our shuttle.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
I normally don't read the newspaper back in California, unless you count Sudoku and Dear Abby, but here I've been much more interested in the current events. I've always wanted to just watch the local TV and read local newspapers in another country because I'm interested in how other people live their day-to-day lives, so I'm curious to see what they read and see from their couches. I even just like to see the different commercials and products in other countries so sure enough, I've been getting my fill here.
I'd heard there were marriage classifieds in Indian newspapers, but when I saw a classifieds section lying on the coffee table, I was doubtful I'd actually see it. Of course, I had to check it out for myself and there actually was a marriage section in the back, which was quite interesting to read. They're probably like those dating classifieds back in the US where people might put their salary if they earn a lot, height and age, although I'm can't remember if any of the listings gave any mention of personality traits. People put their professional qualifications and if they were in the US, they mentioned that too. There were different sub-sections for people based on caste and religion, like Brahmin or Christian. A lot of people had their graduate degree, and some of the ads were put by the parents to find someone for their son/daughter.
It's been interesting to just read the local stories and also the entertainment section, so I can satisfy my growing fascination with Bollywood. I've been able to recognize a few faces here and there in the paper or on TV now, but I haven't really learned any new names yet. Just like in the US, there's gossip over who's with who and the like but one of the reasons why Bollywood fascinates me is that it's a much more accepted practice for an actor to not do any vocal work for the songs in the films to the point that it's expected that the cast members did not do their own singing for a film. Perhaps it just seems like it's a more accepted practice because Bollywood films typically have songs while Hollywood films rarely have the characters breaking into song and the Bollywood soundtracks get more promotion with music videos while few films do that here in the US these days. What surprised me though, was seeing an awards ceremony on TV where the performers were actors who were lip-synching to songs. There's plenty of lip-synching that goes on in the US, but not only were these actors on stage lip-synching to songs that they didn't sing, but everyone is aware of it! That sort of thing just wouldn't fly in the US, so it was just really surprising to see it on TV...
*Keep in mind that I am no Bollywood expert; these are my own humble observations drawn from the little Bollywood exposure that I have gotten thus far.
Okay, so I did make it through the night. I was so exhausted last night that once I fell asleep, I slept through the whole night, although that's happened every night I've been here since so much has been going on. Initially, it was hard to take those 3 steps across the room to shut off the light, but after I sprang back to my bed in complete darkness and untangled myself from the mosquito nets that I leapt into, the night silence was a bit calming. My ears were listening for any sounds of scurrying, but I actually just heard the trees in the wind, some crickets and a few motorcycles passing through on the road nearby.
Despite my city-girl paranoia, I do enjoy being out here in the countryside. This morning I was staring out of my bed, enclosed in mosquito net trying to savor my disbelief of waking up in a farmhouse in India. I still find this all surreal sometimes, and I try to enjoy it since these are the moments I've writing about in my journals, dreaming of when I'd get to wake up halfway around the world, in another room, in another house with the sun shining through the window. Ten, five, even two years ago, I had no idea I'd get to be here. I remember being in the third grade or so, being fascinated with India from the pictures and footage I'd seen of the Taj Mahal, old buildings and colorful markets but being a little discouraged when people would tell me that I wouldn't like India because it was a dirty place. I know I definitely would not have liked or been able to handle being in India had I gone any time before this, but I'm glad I'm here now.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
I guess I've also allowed myself to be a bit negligent with this blog just because there's been so much to tell and I don't know where to begin. As promised though, I'll tell you that the flight from Auckland to Bangalore was a bit hectic. I don't know why Swathi and I seem to have bad luck with all of our flights already, but when we showed up to the Auckland airport we found out that our flight from Hong Kong to Bangalore was cancelled because the part of the airport in Bangalore that was supposed to receive that flight was still under construction and our supposed flight wouldn't be starting up until July. We were supposed to have been notified of the changes [ahembadtravelagentahem] so we could have our airfare rebooked earlier so we ended up running from the end of the security and customs checkpoint to the gate because it took so long for everything to be rebooked. At least we didn't have to pay for any of these changes; we were originally booked for a Mumbai flight automatically when the changes happened but there were no flights from Mumbai to Bangalore so we had to stop in Delhi instead (which prolonged our travel time by half a day and is farther than Mumbai) and then fly to Bangalore.
With flights I tend to only think of the origin and the destination and I think I've kind of forgotten about the places I pass in between point A to point B. On the Auckland-Hong Kong flight I didn't realize that we'd be flying over West Papua on the way over so it was quite exciting when I saw it on the map on my seat monitor. I already had a 2-seat row to myself (it wasn't a full flight) so it was cool to have the window to myself and see the view below. It sort of felt like something out of a movie since it was sort of surreal to be able to look out the window and see West Papua below. Instead of grids of buildings and houses, all I could see was trees and a long, winding river. The Kombai and Mek live in West Papua (you know, from my favorite shows, Living With the Kombai and Living With the Mek?), so it was really amazing to fly over the country over what might have been relatively untouched land and wonder if there were people living amongst those trees.
Despite the inconveniences, it was an opportunity for me to at least get a glimpse of Delhi (from the airport, that is) that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. Things were a bit hectic since the security and check-in procedures are a bit different and one of Swathi's suitcases didn't arrive since it had to be put on a later flight (probably because our rebooking forced us to check-in about an hour before our flight departed back in Auckland). I bought a cheese sandwich for 60 rupees from a guy who didn't seem to enjoy his job very much (or perhaps his bad mood was on account of it being 5 am) before we went to the gate and it was kind of bland, so I didn't finish it. Swathi had some sort of veggie puff so when we got to the gate we were quite disappointed to find that there was a McDonald's there. I normally don't care much for McDonald's and I probably eat it only a handful of times a year, but the French fries and the McChicken sandwich seemed particularly enticing after that crust-less Swiss cheese and mayo sandwich. I felt bad that I didn't finish my sandwich so I ended up not getting my McD's fix. Swathi and I just sort of stared at the menu debating back and forth if we should give in and get an order of fries until we had to board our shuttle.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
I normally don't read the newspaper back in California, unless you count Sudoku and Dear Abby, but here I've been much more interested in the current events. I've always wanted to just watch the local TV and read local newspapers in another country because I'm interested in how other people live their day-to-day lives, so I'm curious to see what they read and see from their couches. I even just like to see the different commercials and products in other countries so sure enough, I've been getting my fill here.
I'd heard there were marriage classifieds in Indian newspapers, but when I saw a classifieds section lying on the coffee table, I was doubtful I'd actually see it. Of course, I had to check it out for myself and there actually was a marriage section in the back, which was quite interesting to read. They're probably like those dating classifieds back in the US where people might put their salary if they earn a lot, height and age, although I'm can't remember if any of the listings gave any mention of personality traits. People put their professional qualifications and if they were in the US, they mentioned that too. There were different sub-sections for people based on caste and religion, like Brahmin or Christian. A lot of people had their graduate degree, and some of the ads were put by the parents to find someone for their son/daughter.
It's been interesting to just read the local stories and also the entertainment section, so I can satisfy my growing fascination with Bollywood. I've been able to recognize a few faces here and there in the paper or on TV now, but I haven't really learned any new names yet. Just like in the US, there's gossip over who's with who and the like but one of the reasons why Bollywood fascinates me is that it's a much more accepted practice for an actor to not do any vocal work for the songs in the films to the point that it's expected that the cast members did not do their own singing for a film. Perhaps it just seems like it's a more accepted practice because Bollywood films typically have songs while Hollywood films rarely have the characters breaking into song and the Bollywood soundtracks get more promotion with music videos while few films do that here in the US these days. What surprised me though, was seeing an awards ceremony on TV where the performers were actors who were lip-synching to songs. There's plenty of lip-synching that goes on in the US, but not only were these actors on stage lip-synching to songs that they didn't sing, but everyone is aware of it! That sort of thing just wouldn't fly in the US, so it was just really surprising to see it on TV...
*Keep in mind that I am no Bollywood expert; these are my own humble observations drawn from the little Bollywood exposure that I have gotten thus far.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
So, how do you say good-bye the Kiwi way, anyway?
I'll be driven out to Auckland to the airport in 30 minutes or so. I got up early this morning because I thought I still had a lot of packing to do, but I didn't so now I'm just enjoying my last bit of toast. As mentioned earlier, we're stopping off in Auckland to pick up those penguin waffle makers before going to the airport. We're picking them up from the queenb warehouse but the site didn't have the product's weight and measurements (and I only realized that too late to ask the woman I'd been in correspondence with) so I don't know how big/small they'll be and if they will/won't fit in my suitcase. So, I'm a bit nervous about that. Well, that and if all of the waffle makers get crushed to bits in my suitcase despite my best attempts to surround them with soft items for protection. Worst comes to worst, I'll have to leave them with my NZ hosts to ship to the US and pay them back for the shipping costs but I hope it won't have to come to that because it's really expensive to ship. Since I didn't have the dimensions of the boxes, it was hard to get an accurate estimate (plus, I had to put in the estimated measurements in mm) but my shot-in-the-dark estimates were a bit pricey since it would be for each item and that was just the economy shipping (10-25 days). We shall see, folks.
Last night we went out to dinner at a friend of my hosts' and on the way back I tried as hard as I could to savor a look at the night sky. It was pitch black outside and with the view of the sky being so open and unobstructed, it was perfect to see all those stars. There were big ones, small ones, twinkling ones (and I'm not sure I've ever seen a twinkling star!) and some sort of streak in the sky. Okay, maybe it was a strange cloud; I'm no astronomy expert, but who knows when I'll get to see so many stars and a sky like that?!
I'm a little less sick now (I mentioned I had a cold a couple days ago, right?) since I now only have the remains of a lingering cough but I'm not excited about flying like that. The recycled plane air full of germs, the dryness of the air that could make me cough like crazy, being in such close proximity to a whole bunch of people- ugh! Plus, I hope my fellow passengers won't be annoyed by my incessant coughing.
Later I'll try to post pictures of New Zealand. It seems to be a fitting way to conclude the New Zealand segment of my trip. My hosts kept asking me if I'd consider coming back to New Zealand and I definitely would. I'll get back to that thought later, though- I think we need to leave soon and I still need to finish my toast...
Last night we went out to dinner at a friend of my hosts' and on the way back I tried as hard as I could to savor a look at the night sky. It was pitch black outside and with the view of the sky being so open and unobstructed, it was perfect to see all those stars. There were big ones, small ones, twinkling ones (and I'm not sure I've ever seen a twinkling star!) and some sort of streak in the sky. Okay, maybe it was a strange cloud; I'm no astronomy expert, but who knows when I'll get to see so many stars and a sky like that?!
I'm a little less sick now (I mentioned I had a cold a couple days ago, right?) since I now only have the remains of a lingering cough but I'm not excited about flying like that. The recycled plane air full of germs, the dryness of the air that could make me cough like crazy, being in such close proximity to a whole bunch of people- ugh! Plus, I hope my fellow passengers won't be annoyed by my incessant coughing.
Later I'll try to post pictures of New Zealand. It seems to be a fitting way to conclude the New Zealand segment of my trip. My hosts kept asking me if I'd consider coming back to New Zealand and I definitely would. I'll get back to that thought later, though- I think we need to leave soon and I still need to finish my toast...
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
(second to) last day in Aotearoa
Theoretically today should be spent packing but so far no packing has really been done yet. I have though, gone to a Pak n' Save and while paying for my Kleenex and dried fruit (I like to snack a lot so I want to stock up on a few for India), I excitedly realized that I have 3 different kinds of currency in my wallet. Well, actually 4, since I always keep a Canadian $5 bill in my wallet, but it's been there for about a year so to me it doesn't really count. Anyway, it's small things like that that I've always dreamt of experiencing overseas. Looking back on past journal entries, I'd write about how badly I wanted to go overseas and do this and that. A couple days ago I tried to savor walking down Queen Street in downtown Auckland because it was exciting and surreal that I was finally there. Auckland didn't dazzle me as much as San Francisco does, but knowing that I'd written in my journals just months ago about going to other places made me excited to be there.
It's near the end of fall over here but today I'm wearing shorts in the house because all my pants are filthy and in the laundry right now. My brown pants are all sandy from the sand dunes, my jeans are dirty and slight muddy from hiking and all that other stuff and my the hem of my pajama pants are kind of dirty because they drag on the ground. Hopefully my jeans will be done before we go out to dinner; it's getting a bit cool now...
Swathi's already started packing so I feel like I should get started, too. I haven't bought as much as I thought I would so at least I shouldn't have to worry too much about space as I usually do. A lot of the new items are flat, so that's no problem. I will though, have to make room for 3 penguin waffle irons. Oh yeah, I should've mentioned that I did indeed secure 4 Woodles penguin waffle irons today. I've been in contact with someone from a New Zealand shopping site so I'll be able to pick up 4 on my way to the airport in Auckland. I don't know how big the packaging is and I hope I can pack them securely enough so they won't be damaged in transit. I might try to ship them home from India when I get there.
It's near the end of fall over here but today I'm wearing shorts in the house because all my pants are filthy and in the laundry right now. My brown pants are all sandy from the sand dunes, my jeans are dirty and slight muddy from hiking and all that other stuff and my the hem of my pajama pants are kind of dirty because they drag on the ground. Hopefully my jeans will be done before we go out to dinner; it's getting a bit cool now...
Swathi's already started packing so I feel like I should get started, too. I haven't bought as much as I thought I would so at least I shouldn't have to worry too much about space as I usually do. A lot of the new items are flat, so that's no problem. I will though, have to make room for 3 penguin waffle irons. Oh yeah, I should've mentioned that I did indeed secure 4 Woodles penguin waffle irons today. I've been in contact with someone from a New Zealand shopping site so I'll be able to pick up 4 on my way to the airport in Auckland. I don't know how big the packaging is and I hope I can pack them securely enough so they won't be damaged in transit. I might try to ship them home from India when I get there.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Dead Animal Tally and other, less morbid things
The other day must have been a record for the number of dead animals Swathi and I saw. We went to 90-Mile Beach and I guess with the high and low-tide a lot of animals get swept onto the beach and stranded so they die there. The variety was kind of interesting, so here's a run-down of all the wildlife we saw that day:
-Various possums on the road: Numerous. We've seen a lot of possums pasted on the road but today we actually saw a bird picking at one.
-Fish: Numerous. It was interesting; when we first got onto the beach you could see fish skeletons embedded in the sand like they'd decayed and been there for a while. They were in various stages of decay but some were there much longer than the others. There was a whole bunch of fish only on the first stretch of the beach and then you didn't see any at all.
-Puffer fish: At least 5. I've never seen a live puffer fish in nature, so it was quite another thing to get to a stretch of beach where you could see numerous dead puffer fish. Our hosts were even generous enough to drive right up to one so we could get a better look.
-Seal(?): 1. This may be the biggest dead animal I've ever seen in real life. We saw a large, white and black mass on the beach and I knew it couldn't be a large piece of driftwood this time. I think it was a seal, but from its decay, it's really hard to say since I'm no expert. Whatever it was, the nature-challenged part of me wondered why it couldn't use its flippers to scurry back to sea.
-Seagull(?): 1. I put a question mark because I can't be sure. There were lots of clumps of seaweed on the beach and one of them had a white, feathery mass tangled in it so perhaps it's safe to assume it's a seagull.
Pictures would definitely illustrate this post better, but I didn't take any because I thought that would be kind of strange and morbid. Although, I do kind of regret not taking a picture of the puffer fish. I think if I got down to the ground I could've gotten an interesting picture of its peeled back lips and empty eyes.
Anyway, I've still been having a good time here in New Zealand. The land is so open and sometimes everywhere you look, you're surrounded by green pastures. I don't know if it's the openness, but the clouds here seem to be lower to the ground. It's almost magical! Also, with nothing to obscure the sky (where we are most buildings are 1 story and some areas have just a house here and there) and the lack of lights at night (no lights on the freeways, most businesses close at 6-ish), you can see so many stars at night it's crazy! The last couple nights when we've had to drive home in the evenings I keep looking up at the sky in disbelief at how many stars I can see. I definitely can't get that back home because all the lights drown out most of the stars. With all this nature around, sometimes it feels like you're away from the rest of the world and it's quite nice.
As an update on how I've been doing in completing my shopping list from a previous post, today I'll be continuing my quest for those penguin waffle makers. Since I don't listen to the Flight of the Conchords' latest album a lot, I decided not to get their previous two when I was in Auckland yesterday. I haven't seen any Olympics stuff and I checked out a few appliance stores/departments but to no avail. I just got back from a store that sells Sunbeam appliances but they stopped selling the waffle makers a while ago. So close, yet so far!
-Various possums on the road: Numerous. We've seen a lot of possums pasted on the road but today we actually saw a bird picking at one.
-Fish: Numerous. It was interesting; when we first got onto the beach you could see fish skeletons embedded in the sand like they'd decayed and been there for a while. They were in various stages of decay but some were there much longer than the others. There was a whole bunch of fish only on the first stretch of the beach and then you didn't see any at all.
-Puffer fish: At least 5. I've never seen a live puffer fish in nature, so it was quite another thing to get to a stretch of beach where you could see numerous dead puffer fish. Our hosts were even generous enough to drive right up to one so we could get a better look.
-Seal(?): 1. This may be the biggest dead animal I've ever seen in real life. We saw a large, white and black mass on the beach and I knew it couldn't be a large piece of driftwood this time. I think it was a seal, but from its decay, it's really hard to say since I'm no expert. Whatever it was, the nature-challenged part of me wondered why it couldn't use its flippers to scurry back to sea.
-Seagull(?): 1. I put a question mark because I can't be sure. There were lots of clumps of seaweed on the beach and one of them had a white, feathery mass tangled in it so perhaps it's safe to assume it's a seagull.
Pictures would definitely illustrate this post better, but I didn't take any because I thought that would be kind of strange and morbid. Although, I do kind of regret not taking a picture of the puffer fish. I think if I got down to the ground I could've gotten an interesting picture of its peeled back lips and empty eyes.
Anyway, I've still been having a good time here in New Zealand. The land is so open and sometimes everywhere you look, you're surrounded by green pastures. I don't know if it's the openness, but the clouds here seem to be lower to the ground. It's almost magical! Also, with nothing to obscure the sky (where we are most buildings are 1 story and some areas have just a house here and there) and the lack of lights at night (no lights on the freeways, most businesses close at 6-ish), you can see so many stars at night it's crazy! The last couple nights when we've had to drive home in the evenings I keep looking up at the sky in disbelief at how many stars I can see. I definitely can't get that back home because all the lights drown out most of the stars. With all this nature around, sometimes it feels like you're away from the rest of the world and it's quite nice.
As an update on how I've been doing in completing my shopping list from a previous post, today I'll be continuing my quest for those penguin waffle makers. Since I don't listen to the Flight of the Conchords' latest album a lot, I decided not to get their previous two when I was in Auckland yesterday. I haven't seen any Olympics stuff and I checked out a few appliance stores/departments but to no avail. I just got back from a store that sells Sunbeam appliances but they stopped selling the waffle makers a while ago. So close, yet so far!
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