And it begins...

Welcome to Windia '08! Will and Lindsay in India...for two months. Shout out to Josh Kaplan for his contribution to the blog title ;-) So, we've been here a day and a half, and it would be an understatement to say I'm a tad overwhelmed. There have been some challenges, but lots of good fortune as well and we are starting to settle in. Yesterday, we moved into our apartment in Santa Cruz (West) which is an area of Mumbai near Juhu Beach, and it's definitely livable. There are fans on the ceiling, a working refrigerator, decent bathroom and stove burners, and a clothing washer! Mr. Patel who works in the building met us to give us keys and a tour of town. Really sweet man though can't understand 85% of what he is saying. A very nice woman named Joan lives upstairs and has already helped us when we shut down the electricity yesterday trying to plug in American outlets...Across the street is St. Theresa's Convent School for Girls which for some reason makes me feel comforted, and a reliable little store that sells food, toiletries, etc. including Skippy Peanut Butter! The streets are frightening -- as there are very few traffic lights, basically you just have to dart across when there is a "window" between cars and rickshaws (if a motorcycle and a golf cart had a baby and named it Taxi). It sort of makes me want to sit in the apartment and never leave, but we are getting the hang of it somehow and trying to cross with others (esp women and children) who have a better grasp of the art of it all. As for food...last night, we decided to go eat our first Indian meal and face the digestive reality of the next 2 months. Though I have to say when we had asked Mr. Patel and Joan where to eat Indian food in the area, they both kept suggesting we go to the Chinese restaurant down the street...not sure whether that has any meaning. We hit the streets in search of a restaurant and walked for 30 mins without finding one! Finally we hopped into a rickshaw (which costs $1-2) and headed to Bandra West where Will is going to be working. More of an upscale part of a town. We found a lovely vegetarian restaurant and enjoyed our meal of vegetables in cashew sauce and spicy biryani rice. This morning (when we woke up way too early due to jet leg) we went for a long walk and discovered a fantastic park not unlike Thompson Square Park in the East Village. What was amazing where the tons of people doing "laps" around the park! The women were still dressed in their traditional day outfits but wearing sneakers instead of sandals (EVERYONE wears sandalim here). We did a lap of our own and then sat down on a bench to take it all in. To our right was one older man meditating, another doing breath retention and to our left was a man doing sun salutations! It was pretty cool. Final points -- yes it's hot and most people (men and women) wear pants so we've been doing the same. People glance in our direction but no one seems particularly taken with the Americans and we are happy for that. There are tired/hungry dogs everywhere in the street. For the dog lovers out there, it would probably break your heart, but we are just trying to avoid getting bitten. We also saw a big fat bull in the middle of the sidewalk today sitting at the bus stop!

Here are a couple of pictures of our apartment and the view from our bedroom window.

Okay, that's it for now...thinking of you all!