Almost moving

The container has arrived to Delhi!!! It needs to be released and clear customs. We might move to Delhi this week.

We are awaiting for our apartment in Gurgaon (South of Delhi). It needs new paint and new appliances, AC... It could be done in less than a week but as I am learning, things happen here, we just don't know when... I just hope it is before our stuff clears customs.

The hotel looks finished from the outside but everything needs to be done inside. The biggest mall in India will be connected. YEAHHHH no traffic to go shopping!!!!

Also, golf, nursery, school will be in the area. The apartment is within walking distance.

Angeline smiles all the time. She has kind of a schedule: wakes up around 7, nap 9-10, nap again 2-4, goes to bed between 8-30 and 10. Wakes up once or twice at night, sometimes more.

She eats every 2/3 hours. At night she can go up to 5.5. Not bad.

I try to make her take her naps when Emilie is awake so I can be with her and vice versa. She usually takes her morning nap when we are by the pool because she needs to be protected with a mosquito net (she is too young for lotion) and I can not take her out of the stroller. Then when Emilie takes her nap she gets my time.

Emilie talks aaaall the time. But not in public... People can not believe she can talk non-stop at home. Of course she talks louder when her dad and I are trying to have a conversation. She wants to be part of it... She now, talks with an Italian accent. She is so funny. Just hanging out with Matthia for a couple of days and she talks like him: maaamamaaamamaaaama!!!!

She also started calling me mammy ( I don't know where she learned it from). She learns the words of songs very easily and as almost any child, dances, dances, dances. She now has green eyes and they have not changed for the last couple of months.( They were bluish for over a year). She is starting to use the potty but it is not consistent. (well I am not consistent). I think we will start more seriously when we are settled.

She can not leave the room without saying goodbye to her sister and always gives her a goodnight kiss.

Well, now is my turn.... GOODNIGHT everyone!!!

Our friends, the birds

The gardens in the hotel are beautiful. You feel completely alienated from the outside. The "kidney" shaped pool is shadowed by the tropical trees. If you just look up you could be in a jungle or in an episode of "Lost". If you close your eyes... you just hear "croaaaaa, croaaaa, croaaa":Our friends, the crows.
They are prettier than the ones we know, with bluish and grey tones but much bigger and scarier. I am afraid if Emilie has a cookie in her hand they would attack to get it. They did jump... on the stroller, but Emilie was not there...

So we are having breakfast the other day and I can see the window through the mirror. All of sudden we hear "boom"!!! A bird hits the window and flies away.
And "boom" again. Another one makes the same mistake. It turn out there is a rat (probably dropped by mistake by one of the "bird gang") just outside the window and they are taking turns to try to get it. I close the drapes so Emilie who is asking about her little birdies, does not see the meal about to take place. Fifteen minutes later the rat is gone. Bon appetit my friends!!!

Getting adjusted.

Charles loves his new job. He will get to open a new hotel in Gurgaon, south of New Delhi where we will move at the end of November. He is reviewing the plans and data of the new building. It will have as well private residences were we will be staying in the future. Until then we will live in an apartment.
Our things left Bahrain on the 11th of this month. it will take 20 days to get to Bombay, then will travel by road to Delhi.

I met Frances on line. She has been helping me a lot with customs, doctors, and health concerns. She is part of the "Delhi Network", a women association that help each other. They meet once a month and have "baby groups'.

I miss Bahrain. I miss Canada. I don't really miss Korea but I do miss my friends there. So many things happened in so little time. I even miss (sometimes) being pregnant!!!
Angeline is two and a half months old already. Emilie is such a good sister. And she has grown and learned so much.

Our stay in Canada was shor but great. I had an amazing doctor, Dr. Asswad, and the employees of the hotel were great.They became friends and our family. The owner Mr. Hindi was very welcoming and cared very much about us. Angeline got her Canadian citizenship. She is the only one in the family with a Canadian passport. It was a great "vacation" the one we had in Montreal... We had the best weather and avoided the monsoon season in India.

Right now the weather here is beautiful. About 34 degrees, sunny, everyday of the week. We should expect cooler weather in New Delhi. But again, as in Bahrain, they don't heat up pools in India so the water is cold and Emilie gets sick every time she goes in. So, I think we are going to pass on swimming for a while.

We take things for granted and we don't realize how easy we have it until we don't. I am sure things will be harder in another country so I am trying to be grateful for what I can find in India. For example, diapers. We thought they were bad or just Ok. in Bahrain, well let me tell you...Here they are horrible!!!! You can find pampers made in Saudi but they were out in the store we visited so we buy Huggies made here...All plastic. Then they sell packs of 10. Why 10? Because people can not afford them and buying diapers it is a luxury. They use cloth diapers and potty train very early. So, no complains, we got diapers, plastic or not, we can find them.

Emilie got addicted to "Old MacDonald" by Baby Einstein and it is over now, so I got to go.

How we got here

So we are in India!!!
We arrived on the 30th around 4:30 in the morning. The airport is old and smells like mildew. The ceiling is about to fall down. Young girls with undernourished babies outside ask for money.
I am glad Charles prepared me so it was not as shocking as I though it would be.

We arrived at the beautiful hotel. They were waiting for us. The warm welcome brings most needed relief. Everyone says hello with both hands together as if it was a praying sign. I think it means you and I meet. The hotel is beautiful. We have two rooms connecting. Emilie sleeps in the adjoining one.
We try to go to the pool every morning. Emilie has a new friend from Italy: Mathias. His dad, Max is the Italian chef here. His mom, Sonia arrived just 3 months ago. She can give me tips on shopping and what to do and not to do...

For those that don't know, we moved from Korea to Bahrain last year, at the end of August. Then 8 months later to Montreal, Canada where Angeline Monique was born on August 21st. October 3rd we moved back to Bahrain where we spend a nice "vacation", packed our belongings and moved to India on October 30th.
It has been a stressful year but it seems (if everything goes well) that we will be in India for at least 3 years.

Bombay (or Mumbai as it's called now) is wild. We had the chance to go to the city when we went to immigration last Friday. It was a 1.5 hours trip from the hotel. We packed plenty of books, DVD player, picnic basket and there we went. We saw misery like we have never seen. But people seem happy. The city is shared by poorness and richness, one next to the other, coexisting as if it was meant to be.
Mothers working on the field, carrying bricks while their babies play on the floor or simply lay there because they still can not sit on their own.

The traffic is crazy. Taxis everywhere. Motorcycles with three wheels, carrying sometimes 4 people on the back, suitcases and dogs. We called them the bees, because the go right to left, left to right , using the horn non-stop. The horn... The horn...Trucks and buses have the sign: "please use horn". They want you to warn them when you come. You are supposed to use it, As I read in a book (Culture Shock),to let people know you are there...Motorcycles carrying 4 people, husband, child on the back or front, mother and other child on her lap are a common sight. And of course, the cows, the wild dogs, the chickens are part of the landscape . It just like in the movies. On the side of the highway, sometimes under a bridge sometimes without cover, are people cooking, sleeping, simple living. I saw a mother counting the lettuce leaves and her skinny children waiting for her to cook the meal. The sight of babies and children playing around garbage is very common and devastating.

The city itself is beautiful in its own way. Old buildings that used to be rich and clean during the British colonization are now the home of the poor. You can still imagine how great they used to be.

Charles filled up pages and pages of forms and we finally got our resident "passports" that we need to carry at all times. We need to let them know if we move away from our resident house and of course if we leave the country.

We saw the gate of India and the Taj Mahal Hotel from the car while eating our grilled ham and cheese sandwich. The port is beautiful.
Then one more hour and twenty minutes to go back. Emilie and Angeline were great. Angeline slept both ways and ate in immigration, Emilie slept a little bit both ways and did not stop in the office but she was nice.

It is an amazing city that I would love to discover but it is not easy with the kids, mostly with Angeline still breastfeeding. There is no place really for walking with a stroller and I don't think it is healthy for them anyway.

People are so nice. They want to know you and ask you many questions. They love children.
There is an arcade on the bottom floor with many shops. Every afternoon, I take the kids so Emilie can walk around. She is invited to enter all the shops. She goes, acting as a little shy child, looking down as if she does not want to go but she does anyway and then she is picked up by all the men that work there. I freaked out a little at the beginning, if you think about all the pedophiles in the world but that's the way it is here, they love kids and treat them as prince/sses until they are six years old or so.