First Weekend in Chennai

Weekend has been pretty good. Friday night I was invited an American co-worker's house for an American dinner of pork and mashed potatoes.Yum! There were a few other people there whose spouses are also out of town- it was nice to meet new people. It was a really nice time: good food, lots of laughs, I learned a little about World Cup soccer teams, and the couple's daughters are really sweet.

Saturday a local co-worker and his wife took me shopping and out to lunch with them. I've worked with the man (long distance, of course) for a year or so but hadn't met his wife before. They kindly took me to a clothing store and helped me pick out appropriate work clothes. I got three pant/shirt/shawl outfits for 1200 rupees = $23!!!

Then we picked up his cousin and we stopped for lunch. A typical huge South Indian lunch with lots of little dishes to eat with rice. I know I'm gaining weight already but the food is too good to resist! Then back to the hotel around 3:30PM. I sat down to read my work email and get caught up. My head has been so into this move that I had to catch up on about three weeks' worth of things I've done and/or ignored. I finally quit at about midnight. No dinner since I was so full from lunch- nibbled on a few cookies.

Today I got a new driver (the first one was a temp until this one was available) and we went back to the American couple's home. They are loaning us mattresses to throw on the floor until our bed arrives. Those fit OK into the back of the Endeavor and we dropped them at my house. the staff was there to let us in so I walked around again imagining where all our stuff will go.

Each time we've visited the house one bathroom floor has been wet and we were told it was because they had emptied mop water and hadn't pushed it into the drain. Today they were repairing a leak in that same bathroom. Hmm..

Also checked out the fire escape situation on teh second floor. The windows all have metal coverings for security but the don't come off. The two guest rooms open directly onto the second floor patio and the caretaker told me they have a rope for climbing down from there. Master bedroom, however, has the stairwell between it and the patio door. I asked them to make sure the window onto the patio has the metal screen adjusted so we can remove it in case of emergency. Will need to be sure to follow up on that when we move in.

Oh, and they turned on the 3 fountains that spill into the pool. It was really lovely and the sound of the flowing water was nice.

Stopped at the office to sync up all the email I wrote last night (ooh are there going to be some mad people when they come in on Monday). I'm about ready to go but it's only 5:00 PM and I need to keep myself awake until at least 11:00. And I would prefer not to eat dinner in the hotel again.

Oh, here's my new daily schedule:

• Up at 8:30, breakfast
• Leave for work at 10:00 AM, arrive around 10:30
• Lunch around 2:00 or 3:00
• Leave work around 8:00 PM
• Dinner around 9:00 PM
• Bed at 11:00 or midnight

I'm going to have to do this to make my work schedule fit my American teams', and it's a pretty typical day for the locals. The nice thing is that Miss L is awake when I get up (and when everyone else is asleep) so she and I seem to have found our good check0in time with each other. I suppose check-in time with the rest of you will be your mornings.

One more thing. Friday I ate lunch at work and walked outside to my office building. I passed a coffee shop and went in to check it out. Chocolate cake for about $1.75 and these 2 packaged, Chips-Ahoy style chocolate cookies for $.25! Yay!