Ok, crudeness aside, who knew the rumblings of the gas crisis in India that started a couple of days ago would actually come to fruition?
I know I sure as heck didn’t anticipate it. Talks have stalled and now most the cities throughout India are 80-100% completely out of gas – even restaurants who have gas piped directly to them are effected…so the crowd that loves to go out on weekends to eat can’t – they can’t drive to their destination and they certainly won’t have food when they get there. Our driver warned us of the gas crisis a couple of days ago and we filled up the tank on the car…but last night was absolute mayhem for Colin in trying to get home. A fifteen minute drive became 2 hours because it seems the police/traffic wardens were on strike, so it was absolute chaos. Traffic was gridlocked and oh, Colin saw an elephant standing next to the car while waiting in traffic. No picture was taken, though…but he texted me, all excited and happy about what he had seen.
Of course, I thought the gas crisis wouldn’t directly affect me – I’m here in the apartment, happy as a clam and completely warm. WRONG! It does hit me – directly. The power went out a couple of hours ago and usually about a minute to two the generator kicks in, ensuring me that I can get on about my day of watching TV and making sure my laptop stays charged. Heaven forbid I listen to my iPod through the earphones! I don’t turn on the main PC because the monitor is a massive drain on the UPS charger. So anyway, electricity goes out and I waited for the generator to kick on…and I waited…and waited. Ten minutes later, I realized, “Craptastic…the generators probably run on diesel fuel. Faaaaaaaaaaabulous.” Not. I was right, they do run on diesel fuel. Eventually the electricity came back on. I think they’re trying to conserve the gas on the generators. I’m fine with that.
But wow…I joked with my friends about ‘damn this third world connection’ phrase, but little does anyone know how close to the truth it is.
Quirks and oddities aside, I do like it here a lot.
-Carinae-
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It was inevitable that I would fall prey to Delhi poop – when? Who knows, but it happened a lot sooner than I expected, that’s for sure. Once in my entire life have I ever felt this shitty (no pun intended), this surpasses the times I’ve had bronchitis or strep. At least with those it was just coughing and chills. This is by far much, much worse. It’s hot cold sweats, stomach cramps and the fear that anything I consume will come shooting out of my ass as soon as it passes my lips. Not pretty. TMI? Meh. If you’ve ever had food poisoning before, you know that what I say isn’t too far off from the truth. 😀 Normally my stomach rarely gets upset at anything, but here…good lord.
Oh yea…I won’t be eating fruits here – it all tastes like dirt. Colin took me to a wonderful Chinese buffet for lunch and as a dessert I had some watermelon. I’m sure Karen will relate with me on this – when our old friend Dolly would eat fruits she’d sprinkle sugar on top of it. We would look at her and shake our heads, wondering what was wrong with her – the fruits were naturally sweet, why add sugar? Well, now I know. It’s to take that nasty ass taste of dirt/earth off. I almost just spit it out because that was just … I feel like I should’ve just gone out by the roadside and eaten some dirt, it was that awful.
I am unusually cranky and pissy this morning. I think it’s due to the dogs that bark non-stop at night. It’s not like it’s intermittent, it’s constant, like the air being hazy and smoke filled. I am venturing out on my own little by little each day, taking my time in getting accustomed to the whole way of life.
People can say whatever they want about women’s rights in America, but I really don’t want to hear any woman bitch until they come here. No man looks me directly in the eye and if they do I have to avert mine lest they think I’m hitting on them…a lovely thing that was told to me by a native here. If any of you had ever read or seen Jewel in the Crown, it was told then, but to think that decades later it still holds true? Absolutely insane. Colin has told me about a new programmer he’s hired – she is massively talented and can go far, but she’s newly married…and her in-laws as well as her husband want her home, being the dutiful wife…so he will probably lose a talented coder because of tradition. Really, women of Europe and America, seriously shut up till you’ve lived in another country where it’s a male dominated society.
Part of the reason I am hesitant and reluctant to step out on my own is the fact that I am an American woman who knows nothing of the language here. I’m curious and I want to see, don’t get me wrong. I want to experience it all, but I’m also cautious as well. I’m absolutely useless when they speak English to me – it is so heavily accented that I’m sure they think I’m the one who has problems understanding English. I know I’ll adapt, it’s all a matter of training my ear to the accent. A bit like Scotland…I’m so used to hearing a Scottish accent from living there and the fact Colin has that same accent. I’m worried that once I am attuned to the way English is spoken here, I’ll be going back home and still stare at my family like, “what the hell are you all saying?”
I think I’ve mostly kicked the jet lag. It also helps to get here super late at night like I did and sleep like it’s a normal schedule. I still do get tired at about 10pm/11pm as opposed to back in AZ where I’d be staying up until 5am. I’m up at 7 or 8 am here and I have breakfast with Colin before sending him off for work. Then I lock myself in the computer room in an effort to stay warm because it’s cold in the apartment…and from experience I’ve learned that the coldest rooms will inevitably be the warmest when the heat hits…so this apartment will be like an oven. Urgh. To keep warm, I am working on a blanket. What’s great about that is that while working on the blanket it sits across my lap, keeping me nice and toasty! 🙂
Oh, to stop the Delhi poops I have taken some of the travel meds I received – Ciproflaxacin (Cipro). It works wonders – I think I’m doing all right now. I am not too sure where I got the loosie pewps from, though. I’m in a fairly controlled environment, but I think I got it from some water that wasn’t as “pure” as it claimed to be.
Lucky me…haha.
-Carinae-
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