San Diego-Day 1.5

Here is a picture of me attempting to mount a bike after oh....about 17 years. We rode the ferry over to Coronado after the Maritime Museum. Since we didn't have a car, Husband decided we should rent bikes. I was a little hesitant considering what happened during the "Brown Bike" incident of 1991. Here is that story:

I had just graduated from high school when my parent's friends asked me to watch their dog and house for 2 weeks. They were going to pay me a lot of money so I agreed. My friends were thrilled that I had my own place for those 2 weeks. There were many nights of debauchery and a raiding of the liquor cabinet. On this particular night after a few drinks, BFF got the great idea that we should go bike riding. There were 2 bikes in the garage. How perfect! She got right on and cruised down the street. I was having major problems just staying on the bike. It was confusing because I just could not ride the damn thing. I decided I was the one person in the world who actually forgot how to ride a bike.

I could pedal a few feet then I would fall. This went on and on. Finally I gave up and started to walk the bike back home. At this point BFF pulled up behind me and discovered the bike had a flat tire. I was trying to ride a bike with a flat tire which explains why I kept falling off. We laughed hysterically for hours. In fact, the mere mention of "Brown Bike" to this day sends us into hysterics. I'm certain this is something that you had to be there for. I don't think anyone finds it that funny besides us.

Anyway, back to Coronado. We rode the bikes all around for about 2 hours. I was very nervous at first and could not seem to get control of the bike. I didn't fall, but it was unstable. After a short time, I was cruising along like a pro and having a blast. There are good bike trails in Coronado and many places to rent all kinds of bikes. I highly recommend this. Go for a bike ride and work up an appetite then eat at one of the many restaurants by the ferry terminal.

San Diego-Day 1

Recognize this? It was featured in the movie "Master and Commander," which I did not see. Nevertheless, it was still fun to go aboard. According to Husband it looked much bigger in the movie. He could not believe how small it was.

This was probably my favorite at the Maritime Museum, a real Russian submarine. Besides this one, the only submarine I'd ever been in was at Disney. haha! I have a real respect for anyone who can survive aboard one of these for a long period of time. It was highly claustrophobic. I can't imagine not having sunlight or even fresh air.

This one is called "Star of India" and as you can imagine, we took many photos posing with the name. I don't really know why it has that name. It certainly wasn't any kind of star. It made several attempts to sail from England to India and never actually made it. I guess the name sounds majestic.

Overall, we spent about 4 hours touring the ships. We also went on a quick harbor cruise aboard a pilot boat. If you ever find yourself in this area and you like boats, I recommend this place. The admission price was very reasonable, too!

2 Years!!!

Time sure does fly!

Tonight we are going out to celebrate.

Tomorrow I will tell you about San Diego!

On The Road Again

Husband and I are heading to San Diego for the weekend. We've never been there before. Hopefully it will be a fun time. We're going to the zoo one day. I've been wanting to go there for a long time and I hope it lives up to my expectations. If you have any advice for what else we should see there, let me know.

Sweetness!

I give the sweet tea an A.
I think it could have been just a little bit sweeter. But let me say this. The first sip had me sold. I could feel the sugar coursing through my veins. It was like I had an IV of sugar. I was on a sugar high for a good hour. It was a very good hour. I got all kinds of things done. I will be good and limit myself to no more than one per week and that is pushing it. Otherwise I'll be well on my way to diabetes.

Sweet!

Today is the day I am going to Micky D's to try the sweet tea. I'm very excited about this. If you did not grow up in the south or have never been to any of the southern states, you can't possibly understand. Last time I was in FL I saw the signs advertising the tea but I never had a chance to try it. Now it has made its way out here to a non-southern state and I could not be happier.
Let's face it. I am totally lacking all my guilty pleasures out here. No Chick-fil-A. No Dunkin. No Moe's (welcome to Moe's!!!). I'm sure there are more. For now I'll savor each sip of tea and pretend it doesn't have as much sugar and calories as it does.

Caught Left Handed

India is a right handed world. The left hand is considered unclean. I think we've been over that one before. The hardest thing for me, a left handed person, is to remember that. I have trained myself to use utensils with my right hand. I constantly remind myself that I don't even have a left hand when food is involved.
I might have also mentioned that Husband's former home is not a place many white people go. I can count on my right hand the number of white people I've seen in my 3 visits. Needless to say, while I try my best to blend in, people are always looking at me. I pretend not to notice.
Sometimes it is hard not to.
Such was the case as we stood on the corner of a busy street in the 114 degree heat eating ice cream cones. While trying to avoid a heat stroke, it slipped my mind that I'm not a true right handed person.
I realized during the last bite that I'd been standing there holding the cone...in my LEFT hand.

I Heard It In India

Here are a few whacked out things I heard from people over there:

-You can't cut your hair or nails on a Monday. Any other day is good, but never on Mondays.

-After having "work" done, you must immediately take a shower/bath. In this case "work" means anything done to your body by someone else, such as a manicure or pedicure. Nevermind that you have soaked your hands and feet in water during the process.

-If too many people tell a baby it is cute, it will suddenly develop a fever.

-After a woman gives birth she must keep her head and ears covered for one month. This is so that sounds such as a dog barking or other noises don't get inside her head. These noises can come back to haunt her later in life.

-Drinking water cannot make you sick. It is all in your mind.

I'm sure there were more but those are the only ones I can remember right now. The hardest part of hearing these things was to keep my mouth shut. I have to choose my battles there and sometimes it is best not to argue with stupidity.

Save The Girl

Every morning in India I would look forward to reading the English newspaper. Being in a place where even hearing spoken English is rare, it was my little escape.
One day there was almost a full page ad for a new campaign called "Save The Girl Child" and I believe it was started by either the president or prime minister. It was listing all the reasons that people should be happy and support their "girl child." It also stated that sex determining ultrasounds are illegal and gave phone numbers to report people who violate this. Even in this day giving birth to a girl is a big disappointment for most people. It is sad.
For several days I followed a story about a "mixup" in a hospital. Two couples gave birth on the same day. One had a girl and the other a boy. "Somehow" the identification tags on the babies were switched. Both couples were soon claiming that the baby boy was theirs. Not only claiming, but insisting they did not have a girl. A DNA test had to be performed on the boy and he was given to his rightful parents. The others were sent home with their girl and their utter disappointment.
In another story a woman was sleeping in a hospital with her newborn boy. She woke up in the middle of the night as someone was removing the baby from her arms. The baby and the woman kidnapper disappeared into the night. The baby was gone. Just gone.
Things are so different here, at home.
My neighbor rang our doorbell last evening. She was standing there with one of her little boys. She had forgotten to buy butter at the grocery store and wanted to know if we had any she could have. While I retrieved the butter, Husband talked to her about her kids. I used to think she was running a day care at her house. Then I noticed all the boys looked alike. All 5 of them are hers and they are all under the age of five, including 1 year old twins. She informed Husband that she had just given birth to a long awaited girl. Finally she got her girl after so many boys. I was imagining her utter disappointment when in trying to get her girl last time, she ended up with the twin boys.
I couldn't help think about the millions and millions of people in India who would gladly have given her a girl a long time ago.

The Joys Of Flying

I use that term loosely. Very loosely.
Everyone knows that flying across the world is not a joyous experience unless you are at minimum, in business class. Husband is still working on being a millionaire so until that happens we go the cheap way. The first two times we spoiled ourselves by flying with an airline that offers premium economy. It was pleasant. We had our own section of the plane and our seats were roomy and reclined nicely and even had a good foot rest.
This time we went with a different airline because the former jacked up their fare by $600 before I could purchase the tickets. There are many options to get to India. I then found this airline and they even fly directly from their hub to our final destination in India. We decided to try it out. The downside was that we're on the west coast and they only fly from the east coast. How bad could it be?
Pretty bad. First of all, the seating configuration was 3-3-3. I tried to outwit fellow passengers by booking us an aisle and window seat. My thinking was that no one in their right mind would want to travel 14 hours wedged in the middle of 2 strangers. How great it would be to have that empty middle seat so we could stretch out. Yeah right. It backfired not once, but twice. I ended up giving up my window seat to the stranger and I was the one wedged in the middle seat. It was fantastic spending more than half a day like a sardine. Did I mention the seats were very small and very hard?
Definitely the best part of the journey was the flight from the hub to India and reverse. This airline is flying A320 planes to and fro and the flights are barely full. By barely I mean 19 people. I was shocked. I've never been on such a big, empty plane. Seriously, each of us could have had an entire row to ourselves.
The worst part of the journey was the flight from DC to the hub due to a flight attendant or "air hostess" who thought she was God. She yelled at several Indian people for no good reason. She denied Husband a second glass of wine and then lectured him about it claiming he was only allowed one. Funny. On the way back he was allowed unlimited drinks. Clearly she had a strong dislike of Indians because she was sickeningly sweet to the white guy sitting behind us. She lectured me about NOT requesting special meals for a good 5 minutes. I had contacted customer service before we left and requested Hindu non-veg meals and I was assured the meal would be chicken. I just didn't want us to be stuck with standard meals involving beef because we would not have eaten it. This Teodora went on and on about how there is no need to order special meals on that airline. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. My meal was fish by the way. And I don't eat fish. Teodora had to rub it in by telling me that the standard meals were ALWAYS chicken. I tried to explain the apparent disconnect in the customer service. She would have none of it. I would really like to file a complaint about her bad attitude, but since I don't plan on ever flying that airline again, it isn't worth my time.
The lesson learned here was this. If you live on the west coast, no matter what, you should fly the Pacific route. It was a complete waste of time to fly 5 hours to DC then have a 3 hour layover. In that amount of time we could have been more than halfway to Taiwan or Seoul or Hong Kong. The only thing we were able to avoid was the Mumbai airport. Husband wanted to avoid it and I say the Mumbai airport isn't all that bad.

Welcome Back, Me

I'm finally home and out of the heat. The average temperature in India was 43C or about 112F. When we landed here at our final destination the pilot announced it was 10C or 51F. Granted, it was 3:30am, but WTF? I've been freezing for about 3 days.
The problem with that kind of heat is that you can't leave the house during the day. The heat coming off the ground and pavement is unbearable. At times the water coming out of the cold water faucet is boiling hot. Then there is "load shedding," which is the creative term used by the government for "no power." They rotate electricity around the different states. Some places have it bad and only get a few hours of electricity per day. I don't know how people survive. I guess we were lucky. Monday thru Thursday there is no electricity from 9:00am-noon. This didn't bother me. With the inverter we are still able to use fans and the temperature isn't smoking hot during those hours. The absolute worst is Friday-Sunday when it's out from 3-6:00pm, also known as the hottest part of the day. It is also especially fun when your inverter goes out and you don't even have fans. Luckily that only happened once.
Needless to say, I'm happy to be home.