The vacation is over...

Time of death: 13:00, 3 September, Monday.

Alternative title for this post: Second Impressions.
Last week, Bangalore was "quirky" and "fascinating" and "lively." This week it's starting off as dirty, frustrating, and most definitely a third world country. The tone of our, "oh my God, look at that!" comments have taken a drastic turn from awe and wonder to horror and disgust. We moved from our oasis in the madness (the Taj Hotel) to our new home. Maybe it was the jet lag, maybe it was our foolish, giddy excitement, maybe we just didn't look that hard, but when we arrived at our apartment yesterday afternoon, with all our bags, ready to make it our home, it suddenly didn't seem quite like we remembered. Of the three apartment complexes we looked at, we both remember thinking that the one we're in was definitely the newest and nicest. And sadly, I think that is still true. We keep reminding ourselves that. So, I'll start with the good. There are nice, new air conditioning units in each room.

What else? What else can I say is a good...Oh, I know! As George pointed out this morning, there are no rodents. Two point in the the "This is Still Fun!!" column.

Now for the "Oh My God, What Have We Signed on For/This is Why 90% of the People We Told We Were Moving to India Thought We Were Nuts" column.

While there are no rodents, there are tiny spiders crawling on the counter. I tried to poison them yesterday with Lysol (don't tell Gandhi). But they proved too tough. Then there is the grime. Everything is dirty, including the couch and chairs in the living room area. The griminess does not come through in photos. I'd also like to take a minute here to explain that I am far from a germ-a-phobe and I don't think anyone would argue when I say I am not a neat freak. But even I wanted to sit on a towel on the couch. The floors have not been moped so presumably the bathrooms have not been cleaned. We lysol-ed one of the floors last night but I still wore my flip flops in the shower. Oh and hot water? HA HA HA - you spoiled Westerners. There is hot water for about 2 minutes. The refrigerator is new but notice what goes on behind it. There is a broken screen door and a pile of stuff I am to scared to investigate (which you can't see in this picture).

There are two bedrooms and two bathrooms (which could get moved to the "Still Fun" column but right now are just more areas of filth.) We slept on top of the covers last night and used the towels I bought at the store yesterday as blankets (the yellow and blue things on the bed). You can't really tell from this picture but by mattress, they really mean thin layer of brick.


Needless to say, we did not get the best sleep. This morning George woke up with, "I feel like we woke up in Iraq at a refugee camp." Indeed. So as of right now, we are agreed we can't really live like this. The landlord is supposed to be here in an hour to take care of the spiders. They are calling house keeping to scrub the place. There are other little things the landlord needs to fix - like windows that don't close all the way, lights that don't work, etc. (More pics linked) But if it still feels dirty/spidery, we're going to ask to move. The thing is, we're not sure if this is just India. As I said, this was the newest and nicest place we saw. And the grounds are seemingly kept well. So is there sense of "clean" just different? Is it too much to ask not to wear flip flops in the shower? I'll let you know...

Alternative title for this post: Official Meltdown #1
All of the above, coupled with my first solo trip with the driver to try to do some shopping equaled a meltdown for me yesterday evening. George, being the greatest husband ever, has been very concerned with my well-being and safety and was anxious to hear how the shopping went. So when he called and said, "how did it go?" I immediately thought of the stares from every man, woman and child, trying to maneuver in a small unfamiliar grocery store, with small unfamiliar items, trying to figure out what was a necessity, and getting the driver to understand me, the tears just came. One of our necessities was - buy something for dinner - and all I could choke out was, "I bought c-c-c-cornflakes for dinner." Sniffle. "But no milk!" (Tip: Don't look in the refrigerated section, it's on the shelves.) Lots more sniffles. In the end, we didn't have any silverware anyway so dinner was some English biscuits (more like cookies than crackers) and a Cadbury chocolate bar.

Now that I've weathered O.M. #1, I've decided to try to find the humor in all this until it's time for O.M. #2.

With that in mind, please enjoy the pictures of the artwork on the walls. We're going to look for a small statue of the God, Ganesh. As the remover of obstacles, we think a shrine to him might be just what we need.