Happy Diwali!

It is the biggest holiday of the year for Indians--Diwali, or the Festival of Lights. This festival is like Chanukkah (also the Festival of Lights), Christmas (the big, relatively secularized national holiday where families get together and eat a lot of sweets), New Year's Eve (tomorrow actually is the New Year in the Hindu calendar), the 4th of July (Diwali is usually celebrated with Fireworks, but the city of Topeka won't allow fireworks outside of the 4th of July), and everyone's anniversary (most businesses, new relationships, etc. are begun on a special day in the Diwali season, considered an auspicious day to buy gold and start new things--my engagement ring was purchased on this day)--all rolled into one big multi-day celebration. We are fortunate enough to be able to be in Kansas with the Indian half of our family this year, so we can join in the festivities!

We arrived on Saturday, just in time to change into our Indian finery and go to a Diwali show. The show was basically a talent show by the Indian community here, with singing, dancing, and skits. My mother-in-law sang a beautiful song--I was quite impressed with her skill and composure! There were also a number of traditional dances performed by small children who were learning to dance, which was incredibly cute. Afterwards, as at every other Indian event that I have attended, we had a big meal.

The next night we began the cycle of visiting families for Diwali. We actually have a dinner scheduled every night this week. I am always keenly aware of my status as the mzungu wife at these events, being the only non-Indian, non-Gujarati-speaking, non-chili-eating, etc., etc., person in the room. Everyone is more than kind to me, however, and I am sure that it will become easier with time. I am definitely getting an appreciation of how it feels to be a minority, however, and what my husband went through when he first came to America. Which is unquestionably good for me.

And with that, I must go join in the fun! Happy Diwali!

Off to see the wizard

We're going home! Hooray!

As we haven't seen either set of parents in a year, we figured it was time to head home for a longer visit (before I start work and am never heard from again). So we're off to Kansas tomorrow, and then to Oklahoma on Nov. 5. Our original plan was to head to Oklahoma on the 4th, but my father kindly informed us that we were not welcome in his home while the election results were coming in. I thought he was kidding. My mother informs me that he wasn't.

So ... speaking of election results ... if any of you who don't have an elephant shrine set up in your living room would like some company on November 4, please let us know!

In other news, we are basically unpacked from the move now, which is quite a relief. The boxes are gone, we have hung pictures, and our canned goods are nicely placed in their kitchen drawer (you read that right). We even had our very first houseguest, Pat, over for dinner yesterday. (Having learned our lesson from our first dinner party in South Bend, when I forgot to include the chicken in the "chicken pasta," Ankur cooked the salmon and I stuck to the salad and couscous.) I think this means we are officially DC residents now, even if we are not DC domiciliaries.

Parking

As some of you know, as we were finishing up our time in South Bend, we sold one of our cars. We were very lucky--we sold it for a good price, just before the credit market and the stock market collapsed. And we were able to use that money for a trip to Europe, which was amazing.

Now, in addition to being thankful that we were able to sell the car for a good price when we did, we are also very thankful that we do not have a second car in DC. Not only is a second car completely unnecessary in the city (particularly when one member of the family absolutely refuses to drive in this mess)--it is also exceedingly inconvenient.

I must go on record saying: Parking in this city is ridiculous. First, there isn't any. Second, if you are lucky enough to find a spot on the street within a mile of your apartment into which you can squeeze your car, you must have DC tags in order to park there for more than two hours. So if you don't yet have DC tags, like us, you must move your car to another block every two hours, all day, between the hours of 7:30am and 8:30pm. Third, in order to obtain DC tags, you must a) have your car inspected, b) obtain DC insurance, c) pay a hefty fee, and d) get a DC driver's license--which involves taking both a written and a driving skills exam (and, in my case, learning how to parallel park). All of which is a major hassle in the city, particularly when you have to move your car every two hours in the process.

Our solution: rent an off-street parking space.

Easier said than done, apparently. The 10 or so spots behind our building are already rented, and the parking garages in the area are either absurdly expensive or out of spaces. So we went on craigslist, a very convenient internet market for city dwellers. There we found parking spaces for sale--for a mere $40,000. Yes, that's right, people here actually take out a mortgage to purchase a parking space. We're not taking about a garage, or a covered parking space--we're talking about $40K for a little five-foot by 7 foot sliver of asphalt in an alleyway.

Fortunately, with the help of http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/prk/, we found someone living in a rowhouse about half a mile from our apartment who was renting the space behind his home. For a mere $200. Per month. And that was cheap for the area. So yes, for the near future, we are paying $200/month to park half a mile from home. To a nice midwestern girl like me, this is just unfathomable. But, such is the city.

For all of you at home, take a moment to enjoy your free, bountiful parking and think of us! =)

DC

Well, we're here.

It has been a busy and draining week. We completed our absentee ballots in Indiana, said goodbye to most of the wonderful people we were privileged to meet in South Bend, shed quite a few tears (well, I did), started and finished packing our first marital home into boxes, and then were on our way. We just missed meeting Baby Schacht, but we are hoping that they come visit us soon!

The movers initially gave us a five day window in which they would get our stuff to DC, which made planning somewhat difficult. But we were lucky--when they finished loading, they told us that our furniture was last on the truck and therefore first off. So rather than linger in South Bend as we had planned, we left right away on Wednesday. That evening, we stopped at a random hotel in some random town in Ohio at 8:45 so that we could watch the presidential debate. We figured that if we were going to get up at 3am in Venice to watch the debate, we had no excuse not to watch it when we were in the States. It actually was a lovely evening, reminiscent of my college experience--sitting in a hotel room watching politics and eating pizza from the box.

Thursday we drove to Charlottesville to see Rachel and Blake. It was a surprisingly beautiful drive--the leaves were changing, and the mountains of West Virginia and Virginia were quite striking. I had no idea that West Virginia was such a pretty place! We stayed in the O'Brien's lovely "hotel" and ate at our two favorite places in C'ville--the Indian restaurant and Sticks. It was wonderful to see them (happy first anniversary, by the way!). That is one of the things that I am most excited about with our move--we're only two and a half hours away from my childhood best friend. And, of course, Sticks.

Friday we got the keys to our new apartment. As it was empty and we had nothing to do after we blew up the air mattress, we walked around our new neighborhood, trying to get our bearings. Our neighborhood is quite convenient--we are a block away from a (vastly overpriced) Safeway, a Subway (the restaurant, not the metro), a hardware store, an Italian restaurant, a Mexican restaurant, a homemade ice cream shop, a gay bar, another gay bar, and more. We are also about seven blocks (or a 10 minute walk) from the metro. That is the plus of city living.

We spent Saturday waiting for our furniture and discovering the negatives of city living. I woke up Saturday morning and looked out the window, only to see a guy going through the dumpster below. It was the saddest thing I've ever seen. It really got to me.

Not to dwell on that, Saturday our things arrived. It was an adventure getting them here. The moving truck would not fit anywhere near our apartment, so the movers first had to transfer everything from their moving truck to a U-haul truck and then bring it in. The U-haul, however, almost didn't make it. It fit into the alley behind our apartment building with about 2 inches to spare. Then they discovered that they had to turn the truck around inside the alley, because the other end of the alley was not passable and they needed to be facing the other direction. After about an hour of inching forward and back, blocking all traffic, and getting stuck between two inclines so that the wheels were spinning on the pavement and the transmission was going out, they finally got the truck turned around with only minor damage--I think by sheer force of will. They then proceeded to carry our furniture (which had already been carried down two flights of stairs in South Bend) inside--one even moving the couch single-handedly.

When the movers left, we immediately got busy unpacking. It is amazing how much stuff we accumulated over the year in South Bend. Nothing fits in our new apartment--we actually have our canned food in a kitchen drawer, and all of our condiments are in the fridge, whether they need to be refrigerated or not. Currently the office is entirely piled with stuff we don't have a home for. I can't complain--we are very fortunate to have a place to live, and stuff to put in it. But we really need to downsize some more.

We met our next-door neighbor, who also was moving in when we were moving in--although his move was just from across dupont circle. A fellow lawyer, as I think most people in this building are. He seems nice enough.

On Sunday, my friend Lincoln came down from Baltimore to visit, which was incredibly nice of him. We took a long walk up to Woodley Park for some excellent diner food and got to catch up. I'm very mad at him for leaving DC and moving to Baltimore just as we got here =) but it will be good to be relatively close by.

It's been an exciting week. It's also been a hard week, though. This city is kind of overwhelming for someone who hasn't done city living before. Despite the five million residents of the DC metro area, it still feels pretty isolated and lonely when there are no familiar faces and nobody looks you in the eye--much less smiles. It's also a very difficult job market right now, particularly with the finance industry in chaos. (If you know of anyone in finance--or anything else interesting--hiring in DC, please let us know!) There has been quite a bit of soul searching done this week (really this entire year) in that regard. So at the moment, we often find ourselves feeling rather lonely and directionless in DC.

But, we are in our nation's capitol, two weeks away from a transformative election, and we have a roof over our heads and at least one job awaiting us. And, of course, we have each other. So we are incredibly lucky. We just need to keep reminding ourselves of that sometimes!

I hope you are all well. Come visit us in DC!

Pictures

Europe 2008

Click on the above link to view our pictures from our trip.

Sorry for the delay. It has been a hectic time, saying goodbye to people in South Bend, planning the details of the rest of our trip, and packing. But all is well. Boomer Sooner!

Home Sweet Home

Howdy! After a very long trip yesterday, we are HOME! It was a great trip, but we are pretty thrilled to be back.

Just because we're back, though, doesn't mean we won't be continuing this blog. After a month of paying by the minute for internet access, we have unlimited use of the internet. So we will be able to post a few more things that we were thinking about during our trip. Look for posts on:

-The European view of the American elections
-Things we missed about America
-Things we can learn from the Europeans
-And, of course, a link to all of our pictures once I get them uploaded and captioned.

We also have quite a bit more activity lined up before getting back to work, including moving, a trip to Kansas, Diwali, a trip to Oklahoma, a wedding, and Thanksgiving.

So we're looking forward to catching up with all of you soon! In the meantime, keep checking back!

Ready to come home...

... to experience the financial debacle and get Obama elected!

We have had a trip of a lifetime. From London to the Swiss Alps to Tuscany and Umbria, and back again to London. It's been absolutely amazingly incredible to see the families, visit the sites, experience the cultures, satiate our appetites, and learn about the world that we often ignore. To all of you whom we met during our trip for the first time (Richie & Co!), our families, and our friends, *thank you!* To our frequent readers and--especially-- to those of you who wrote back, *grazie mille!*

We are currently at London's Heathrow airport (terminal 3 for any stalkers out there) getting ready to take off, and very eager to return home.

We'll see y'all soon!

London, continued

The past few days we have had a wonderful time visiting family and seeing London. Before we left Sophie and Shirin's, we got to see darling little Keira in her school uniform--so cute. She is such a sweet and fun and sociable little girl!

We then went back to Milap's home. Girishada graciously showed us around "Little India" in London. We first went to the Shri Swaminarayan temple in central London. It is definitely on the list of the most amazing buildings that I have ever seen. The temple was entirely hand-carved in marble and wood, with incredibly ornate designs. The building was pristine, and the people were reverent. We also got to see an aarti ceremony, which was a new and very interesting experience for me. After visiting the temple, we went to Ealing Road, the Indian district of London. I got to try new Indian foods: dosa, pani puri, mumra, idlee, and behr. I particularly liked the dosa. We also got to see all the beautiful shops with clothes, jewelry, housewares, statues, and, of course, lots and lots of food. The highlight of Ankur's day was getting to eat pan (a bunch of spices and sweets and sundry items wrapped in a leaf that you chew) and madaf (coconut milk drunk with a straw straight out of the coconut). I enjoyed getting to experience these things that he had talked about for years, although I can't say that I enjoyed eating the pan!

We spent the rest of our time in London visiting family and family friends. I must say, when I married Ankur, my family size grew by about ten times! It is a lively, vibrant, and very welcoming family, so I am quite lucky.

That's it for now--we'll see you soon!

Hello from London

We are having a lovely (brilliant!) time in London. Before we arrived, cousin Milap kindly made a million arrangements for us. On Friday he took the day off work to come pick us up from the airport, get us settled in, and then take us on a lovely walk around the London countryside and to a proper English pub. We had a wonderful dinner at their home, and then we met up with another cousin at a bar and experienced a bit of the British drinking culture. We were extremely exhausted from the time change and our 3 AM wakeup for the debates, though, so we mostly observed.

Yesterday Milap showed us around central London. We saw Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben (we thought of you, Ben), 10 Downing Street, the changing of the cavalry guard, Trafalgar Square, and a bunch of other sights. We also went up in the London Eye, which was amazing! We then met the other cousins for lunch at wagamamas, per Jessica's suggestion, which we thoroughly enjoyed. So it was a great mix of experiencing London and getting to hang out with the family.

Last night we went to Seema and Aarif's, who kindly cooked us a lovely dinner, and we got to play with the kids. It was amazing how rambunctious two three year olds and a six month old were! It was a lot of fun, but it definitely made us appreciate how difficult parenthood is. It was also great to sit around after dinner and talk about the state of the world with some really great people. Then we went to stay at Sophie and Shirin's lovely home.

Today we mostly took it easy. Ankur and Shirin went to a football game (soccer, for all of you at home), and the girls stayed in. We went grocery shopping, and I picked up some British-only foods (Weetabix with chocolate, Malteesers, and "proper" baked beans) for Ankur. He talks all the time about these things that we just can't get in America, so hopefully he will be pleased. And I have found myself talking a bit like a Brit--I love their accent and quaint way of putting things. Ankur finds it hilarious as well.

This evening we had a wonderful dinner at Sophie and Shirin's. It was a lively group, with Rameshada (always full of energy and smiles), Sophie's mother- and father-in-law (her mom made the best prawns ever), Sophie and Shirin, Seema and Aarif, us, and the kids. Keira was so excited to be having a party, and she was so proud to help set the table. They even took out the fancy and beautiful dishes for the occasion! I got to hold Carys (the baby) for quite a bit, which was wonderful--I didn't even mind when she threw up all over my lap. =)

That's all for now--hope all is well!

Venice

Hi! We're currently at Marco Polo Airport in Venice trying to use up our last few Euros. Unbelievably and sadly, most of the shops here are the likes of Versace and Prada, so our few Euros are rather useless. But not at the internet point!

Venice was a mess. A zoo, even. People everywhere. Every corner, every alley, every square was filled with hundreds of people. So, we did not like it as much as we did last time, but we did meet a very interesting artist who amazed us with his knowledge of the US political scene and implored for an Obama vote. As we have remarked previously, we have been surprised at how knowledgeable the general public is about the US.

On a different note, we got up last night at 3:00 AM local time to watch the Biden-Palin debate. It was great to finally feel connected to American politics, and to prepare ourselves for reentry into the life awaiting us back home.

We did not get a chance to tell you about our Lucca escapades. Our last full day in Lucca we began by renting a tandem bike, or a "bicycle built for two." We rode it around the ramparts, a remarkably large and smooth road built on top of an ancient wall built to keep out the Pisans. We who had not ridden a bicycle in many many years, if ever, were quite sore afterwards. But it was a lovely and romantic experience.

We then spent about three hours speaking with our new friends Vicky and Chris, two ex-Brits who packed up and moved to Lucca five years ago. Their house had tripled in value in the UK, and they both had lost their jobs, so they decided that this was a good time to make a life change. So two insurance industry workers (one with a law degree) are now running a gelateria in Lucca, Italy. Perhaps we ought to take a similar cue, given our own situation!

After our gelato, we returned to the Puccini festival and saw another concert of opera music. Our friend Francesco was there again, and he informed us that this time Mattia, the remarkable 23 year old we saw the day before, was singing this time with his "love," another remarkably talented young singer named (we think) Emily Buscemi. It was unbelievable, again, and we absolutely loved it. I think there will be more opera in our future.

And that brings the Italy portion of our trip to a close. We have had a fantastic time here, and hope to return one day. We are, however, looking forward to many things about returning home--friends and family, of course, and food too!

Ciao!