Jodhpur...the Blue City!

We had a 3-day weekend so we booked an 1.5 hour flight to check out the blue city....and it was blue! Not the whole place, but parts of the main town had many of the buildings painted blue. They tend to repaint every year during Diwali, as that is there time to start a fresh new year. They also believe blue brings peace to your home, and keeps the mosquitos away (not sure about that one...I still got bit!). We took a great walking tour the first day and explored the narrow streets and residential area. He also took us down to the market area - so crazy! People everywhere.

Their rickshaws were much bigger than those in Delhi. 

We still haven't tried street food, but it smelled delicious!

These guys make notebooks for bookkeepers. 

He makes gold necklaces that women were to weddings and big events. 

We spent half of a day checking out the Mehrangarh Fort. Also built in the 15th century, it's one of the largest forts in India. 

This guy was hanging out outside of the fort. 

The fort from the town. 

The signs at the fort :) 

Our hotel was about a 10 minute rickshaw ride from town, which was nice. It allowed us to get away from the craziness and enjoy some peace and quiet!

I snapped a few pictures of the airport on our way out. 

Women have a separate line and go into a private room to get body scanned. 

Dammit. 

Neemrana Fort

We went on our first weekend getaway for our staff retreat to a beautiful hotel called Neemrana Fort (click to read more about the history). It's a 15th century fort turned hotel. They have restored and built on, so each room has its own history and time period. It was so cool, and stunning!

We pretty much just hung out in the pool. There was a kid pool and an adult pool. Those with kids would take turns coming to the adult pool for the party! 

We took a walk to a 17th century step well. Unbelievable!

We met some friends along the way....

And these women can carry impressive amounts of weight on their heads!

The school goes here every year so maybe we'll be back again! 

Adjusting to Delhi life

It's been almost three weeks since arriving New Delhi. In some ways it feels like we've been here for months, and in others I feel like I haven't seen anything. School has been crazy  and has taken up most of my time. The unfortunate thing so far that's happened is Alex came down with swine flu. Yuck. He has spent almost a week on the couch or in bed with a fever, body aches, headache, and total exhaustion. We have a doctor on campus so he went in and got a blood test. Some others in our group also got it. We're not sure how but it's very contagious so Alex isn't allowed to come on campus or go to our welcome back party. Sad day. He's feeling much better now so no need to worry! I guess we'll have to be a little more careful health-wise. 

I take an uber every day to and from school. I originally thought it could be a good time to catch up on social media, texts, phone calls, whatever. Not so much. If I even look at my phone for a second, I get car sick. I'm not scared of the driving here, but it's definitely crazy. I know they have some order to their chaos, but I don't know what it is, nor could I drive in it. Our friend has taken the plunge and went for it. She did a great job!

There are cows....lots and lots of cows....everywhere....

We did do a little tour of some sites in the area, including the India Gate. It's only about 3.5 miles away, which some people run to on the weekends. Maybe I'll do it with them sometime, if I'm ever feeling motivated to get up at 5:30am on a Saturday....

We had a little festival at school and I got my first henna! 

We also got this little statue of Ganesha, Lord of success and the destroyer of evil and obstacles. He's sitting next to our Buddha that Ty got us when he went to China. 

We've been so worried about the pollution leading up to our move. Turns out, Seattle's not doing any better...

The first teacher party was last weekend. This is a fun group! 

The embassy is across the street from school and we're members of a part of the whole campus. There's a pool, a restaurant, small bowling alley, baseball field, salon/spa, gym, and a couple small shops. We found some imported beer there too!

I'll end it with this one, because I think it's awesome. There are also taxis that have stickers that say, "This taxi respects women." 

And a soft landing it was

It's been a while....so long that we have moved out of Panama and are now in New Delhi. We just arrived yesterday morning, early. After 19 hours in the air, we found ourselves with the easiest airport pickup ever. This school is organized, to say the least. We met our first friend on our second flight from Seoul to Delhi. We were able to find each other due to our matching shirts the school sent us. Immigration and customs were quick, and when we walked out, we had a big crew to greet us - the HR director, the director of the school, the MS assistant principal, and all the drivers. They cheered as we walked out of the door :). We were also given lays, and an authentic Indian handbag, filled with rupees!

We got to our apartment at about 3:30am Monday, which is 3:00pm Sunday on the west coast. The stairs leading up to our place were decorated with Rangoli, which is colored rice. I didn't know that and tried to pick it up...oops.

And we have our name on the door!

The place is furnished, the fridge is stocked with many homemade foods. It was refreshing to come in and have everything there for us. Nice job school!

We walked around the neighborhood and not more than two doors down we found this....

Our neighbor invited us in for lemonade and we chatted for a bit. An hour or so later, he brought us some mangoes!

We are excited for this new adventure!