Pumpkin Carvin’

There was a pumpkin carving party at our apartment complex last night. I am so glad they thought of doing that because I have been so busy running around chasing passports, visas, tickets, packers and vaccines that I didn’t think to buy a pumpkin this year. But they did and it was free. We (well, me really) got to carve a pumpkin and take it home. I don’t think Max got or cared about the pumpkin carving part but he enjoyed chasing two other little girls that were there. So, it was fun but not as fun as it would have been if we could do it with Daddy and big sister. We miss them terribly and we can’t wait to see them…

 

Preparations

I am officially done with A-100 (my initial training). On Friday we had a formal swearing-in ceremony, which was very nice and dignified though a little bit sad because it was the last time my classmates and I were together before we scatter all over the world. We had a happy hour and chatted about our posts and the future. We promised to stay in touch. Many of my classmates have months of language and functional training, so they’ll be around FSI for a while but I am one of the first people to go, so I am not going to get to hang out with them much.

I still don’t have a departure date because my passport and visa are not ready but I am guessing it’ll be in the next two weeks.

So, with that in mind, I have started to prepare. I’ve made the mandatory pilgrimage trip to Costco, where I bought as much stuff as I could stuff in one cart. And yes, I did lug the cart the two blocks to my apartment. Don’t judge me, I am carless. Plus, I returned the cart when I was done. I had a long list of things to buy compiled ever so lovingly by Paul and Nia. I couldn’t find everything, so my mission is not yet complete but I did my best. I almost had a heart attack when I saw the total at the end of the transaction but kept telling myself that I am actually saving the family $$$ because I only bought things that are unavailable, poor quality or more expensive in India.

We’ve also started the “one-last-time” ritual of eating favorite foods. Today, we had Chipotle. Nothing special, you would say but there ain’t Chipotles in India, so we had to do it and we enjoyed it tremendously, especially Chutney. It was actually his first time eating Chipotle (not counting the many times he had it in utero). Here he is eating a burrito like it’s going out of style:

 

We also had Cold Stone Creamery ice cream. Too expensive, I know but so worth it if you have it once every two years. I had Berry, Berry, Berry Good, my favorite flavor and it was so yum, I almost forgot it’s got eleventeen gazillion calories, which will go directly to my, ahem, badonkadonk. Don’t you wish that stuff went elsewhere? Ah, a girl can dream…

Flag Day

(or the terrific, the painful and the downright unmentionable)

First, the spoiler – I got New Delhi and we are all thrilled. Chutney and I are going back to Delhi and will be together with Paul and Nia for at least a year and a half (that’s how long Paul has left of his tour in Delhi). We lucked out this time but after that who knows… We get to do this every couple of years for the rest of our careers and hope we end up together more often than not. Crazy, no?

I got a two-year consular position, so I will be working in the same section as Paul. I leave soon. My A-100 (initial training) is over on Oct. 19. Then I have a two-day security overseas class and five days for consultations and pack out. Hopefully, by then my new diplo passport and Indian visa will be ready, so we can be on our merry way. Why do I need new ones, you may wonder. Didn’t I just get a diplo passport and visa to go to India earlier this year? Why, yes, I did but in my existing diplo passport it says that I am the spouse of a diplomat and my visa is aligned with my husband’s tour. But now that I am a diplomat myself, I need my very own diplo passport and visa, so here’s hoping that the Indian Embassy will process my visa speedy quick. They have been known to take anywhere between 5 days and 5 weeks, so we’ll see.

But back to Flag Day. It  is always an exciting event but when you have constraints such as tandem and children issues, it can be an absolute emotional roller-coaster. I thought I was all cool and under control. I kept telling myself that even if I didn’t get Delhi, we’d be OK. We’d still make the best of it. I had even almost convinced myself because I was cruising along my classes and things were fine. Until the night before Flag Day, when I couldn’t sleep. I kept tossing and turning and thinking about what the future might look like.

Sleep wasn’t happening anyway, so I got up and updated my facebook status with something about it being Flag Day. Several wonderful friends responded with very supportive comments, which made my morning. I got ready and caught the shuttle to FSI. I was listening to some uplifting music on my way, when I found myself sobbing. Uncontrollably. And I didn’t know why. I was so frustrated with myself. I thought I was all strong and OK with whatever flag they handed me on Flag Day, so why was I crying and why couldn’t I stop?!!! I cried for a good 15 minutes but thank goodness nobody on the almost empty shuttle noticed or if they did, they pretended they didn’t. I guess that was my way of coming to terms with the possibility of not being posted in Delhi but by the time we got to FSI I was mostly OK.

I walked into the cafeteria and chatted with some of my classmates. We had a classified briefing until 2 p.m., so we had to surrender all of our electronics, which was just as well because otherwise, we’d be too tempted to text, call family and friends or facebook. The briefing was very interesting but we were all eager to get our assignments. The ceremony was held in a large conference room at FSI (the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington).

My Mom, Chutney, my brother-in-law, John, and a couple of friends came to see the ceremony. The dignitaries, my classmates and I sat towards the front of the room and the guests, towards the back. It was neat to see all of my classmates filing in with their families and friends. Everyone was chatting nervously in anticipation of the big news.  There were several Ambassadors present as well as our CDOs (Career Development Tzars Officers - the people who decide which one of us goes where) and the Orientation Staff. The flags were carried in with a lot of flair and the ceremony began. After a brief intro we were told that nobody got a low bid and you could hear a collective sigh of relief. And then they started with the assignments. Our class mentor, Ambassador Marcia Bernicat, who was like a mother to all of us during training was handing our flags. I had the bid list and was planning to keep track of where each of my classmates was going. After a couple names, it became obvious that I was not in a position to do that – I was way too nervous. So I just tried to guess the country corresponding to each flag as they came up on the screen. There were several India’s but none of them were Delhi. My heart sank each time I saw the Indian flag.

Then finally it came. New Delhi, Consular and my name. And lots and lots of applause. My classmates knew I wanted it badly. Many had told me they thought I should get it. They were so sweet. I jumped up and headed to get my flag. Just then I felt something pulling me back by the jacket. I thought,“Not funny - who in the world would be pulling my jacket?” I turned and oh, no! Somehow, as I was moving forward, one of my jacket buttons had gotten tangled in one of my classmates’ hair. She had a pained look on her face and I felt so awful and stupid. I apologized and we managed to get the button untangled in what felt like eternity. Finally, I got back upfront and received my flag. I wanted to hug everyone. I am pretty sure I hugged Ambassador Bernicat and at least one CDO. Then I ran back, hugged my Mom and Chutney and went back to my seat. The rest of the ceremony was pretty much a blur. A lot of my classmates were ecstatic with their assignments, some were surprised but I also saw a few tears. My heart goes out to those who didn’t get what they wanted.

And then it was over. Just that quick! I congratulated a few classmates and then went back to my guests. We snapped pictures:

We chatted for a bit. Chutney wanted me to hold him. I happily obliged but after a few moments I smelled something. The kid had had a massive blow-out. Right. There. I guess the pressure had gotten to him too! Yeah, it was on my hand and on my jacket sleeve. Now we both needed a costume change and a hosing down. Luckily, my mom had brought a second set of clothes for Chutney. I had to settle for a partial hosing down, at least temporarily.

The rest of the evening was wonderful. We had a small family gathering at one of Paul’s brothers’ place to celebrate. We ate Chinese and caught up on the family happenings. We discussed plans for the family to visit us in Delhi. We were back home by 10 p.m. and after a brief Skype conversation with Paul and Nia, who of course, were overjoyed with the news, I went to bed.

Jaipur (Part III)–Amer

Our second stop on our second day in Jaipur was Amer. Amer is actually just outside the city and was Maharaja Jai Singh II’s original settlement before he founded Jaipur. I was a little confused about the name because we kept seeing signs for Amer and Amber but apparently there are two spellings of the name. The pronunciation is Amer (no “b” sound), so I will stick to that.

Amer is a fort and palace complex built on a hill adjacent to a reservoir. It’s much bigger, more imposing and more beautiful that I imagined. Some of the scenes in my favorite Bollywood movie, Jodhaa Akbar, were filmed here as well, so I couldn’t wait to see it.

You can climb up the hill or you can take an elephant ride. We took an elephant ride, which was quite the adventure, because this was the route (actually, only part of it)

and this was the vehicle

The ride is a little bumpy and we were sitting in something like a seat, which was moving precariously. I was holding on to the side of the seat with one hand and clutching Max tightly with the other because he was trying to wiggle out. But then there were the hawkers, who were relentless, like this guy for example, who almost brought me to tears because he was so desperate to sell his stuff (miniature silk paintings) that he got up on top of a garbage can, pushing his wares  in my hands, insisting that I look at them and buy. His paintings were fine and quite inexpensive in fact but I was so worried that Max would fall that I had to push his stuff back many times before he finally gave up. Those elephants were tall. Probably twice my height. A fall may not kill the kid but would certainly injure him.

Stressful as it was though, the ride was really neat because the views were spectacular (these pictures are courtesy of my wonderful husband because I had my hands full.)

Our ride ended in a large square, where we dismounted our elephant and went on to the palace.

Jaipur (Part II)–Monkeys, Monkeys Everywhere…

On our second day in Jaipur, we got up early, had breakfast at our hotel (Royal Orchid Jaipur, which we recommend) and set out to for more sight seeing. We did a little driving tour of town with the guide pointing out a few sights that we didn’t have time to visit the previous day but the major things we wanted to see that day were just outside the city.

I had read somewhere about an interesting place where you could see monkeys in the wild but up close. The place is the Temple of the Sun God. I mentioned it to Her Cuteness and she said she really wanted to see it. It is about 2.5 km/1.5 miles East of Jaipur in an area called Galta. There’s an actual Hidu temple there, as well as two pools (one for women and another for men) fed by a spring. The local people believe that those pools have special powers and that you could wash away your sins, if you bathe in them. There were quite a few people bathing in the pools, so who knows. Nonetheless, it was a really neat place to visit.

More interesting than the temple itself, however, were the gazillion monkeys that were roaming around the area. Unfortunately, Max had just fallen asleep in the car, so he and Paul stayed behind while Nia and I spent some quality time with the monkeys:

But the absolute best and cutest part was watching the babies with their mommies:

So, if you/your kids like monkeys, I highly recommend a visit to the Temple of the Sun God (a.k.a. Monkey Temple) just outside Jaipur. I have to say that monkeys in India can be aggressive and we were a little bit nervous but these seemed nicer than others we have seen. I still wouldn’t pet them though - that would be pushing my luck but we could watch them from a few feet away, which was enough to give both us and them a certain level of comfort.

Incommunicado

It’s been a while since I have posted here but that’s because there’s been a lot going on in our lives.

Shortly after I accepted the offer to join the Foreign Service, I realized that I may not be coming back to India and we hadn’t seen anything outside of Delhi. So I got all panicky and with three weekends left until my departure back to the US, I got busy and organized three trips. The first one was to Jaipur and we all enjoyed it tremendously. (I started blogging about it and haven’t finished but am hoping to do so soon.) The second trip was to Agra to see the Taj Mahal among other things but it fell through because my husband got sick. I was majorly disappointed but such is life. My last weekend in India was Labor Day weekend, so we went on a 5-day trip to Shimla in the Himalayas. It was another awesome trip (and I am hoping to blog about it and post pictures) but Chutney picked up some virus on the trip and was under the weather for quite a while.

I had only a couple of days after Shimla to repack and get ready for the trip back to the US. As I have mentioned before, we decided to keep Nia in India with Daddy as she was already enrolled in the school there and take Chutney with me because he’s too young to be without Mommy. But since I was going to be in class all day, I had my mother join us in the US, so she could take care of Chutney during the day.

Everything worked well with my plans except Chutney was sick. He had really high fever and was not eating or drinking hardly anything. We visited the Health Unit at the embassy a couple of times before we left India. They ran a bunch of tests on him for the usual suspects in India – Dengue, Malaria, Japanese Encephalitis, and Influenza. All came back negative but he was still not well. There was nothing to do but get a bunch of medication for the flight and go. So we did. He was very good on the flight and I even thought he was getting better but as soon as we landed his fever came back, this time accompanied with diarrhea. Some people get Delhi Belly (when they go to India), we got DC Belly, which unfortunately is still with us. The fever is gone now and he started eating and drinking a few days ago and I thought that was the end of the DC Belly but I was wrong. So I finally took him to the doctor yesterday and now we are in the process of figuring out what’s causing our DC Belly, so hopefully, we’ll take care of it in the next couple of days.

In other, very important news, this past Monday, I officially became a US diplomat. For reals – as in sworn in and even given an officially official ID. How amazing is that?!!!  Way amazing considering I grew up on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain,  in a small town in Bulgaria and my parents were a book keeper and a driver. I was not the likeliest of candidates for the Foreign Service but as unbelievable as it may seem, I made it all the way through the long hiring process. It’s definitely one of those “Only in America” things because I don’t know of many other countries where anyone, even those without diplomatic pedigree, can apply for a diplomatic job, let alone an immigrant like me. So, I am absolutely thrilled to be an American and to have this incredible opportunity to represent the US overseas. I am quite literally living the American Dream and it’s fantastic though I do still take my ID out and look at it from time to time, just to make sure I’m not dreaming.

I had a chance to meet and talk to most of my classmates and am truly humbled to be one of them. They are all very bright and have done some amazing things prior to joining the Foreign Service. Getting to know them and hearing their stories has been awesome. I look forward to doing a lot more of that before we scatter all over the world.

Of course, last week’s events in Libya and Egypt also showed us once again how fragile our world is and how quickly things can spin out of control and harm diplomats, security personnel and regular folks. They reminded us that the work of diplomats is often dangerous and unpredictable. These last few days have been somber and difficult for many folks at the State Department. My heart goes out to those brave souls and sincerest condolences to their loved ones!

Last but definitely not least, a couple of days ago we got our bid list and I’m happy to report that there are a couple of New Delhi positions on it. Either one of those positions would be perfect. There are a lot of other cool positions in interesting places and normally I would be all over them, however, this time it’s different. Anything that’s not New Delhi means separation for us. I am fully aware that I have said multiple times during the hiring process that I would be worldwide available and I am. I will go anywhere the Service needs me but it won’t be easy. So yeah, bidding as a tandem has a different feel to it. A lot less excitement this time around, a lot more trepidation. But I feel I have good chances for one of the Delhi positions. I took Recruitment Language Program bonus points for Hindi (formerly known as Critical Needs Language points), which means I have to go to a Hindi Speaking post on my first or second tour. I also took ConGen last year, which means I am ready to go to a Consular position. Those things should work in my favor but it remains to be seen if they are enough for the Career Development Officers to give me one of the Delhi positions. So, keep your fingers crossed for me, folks. I really need all the help I can get.

That’s all I have time for right now. I am hoping to be back soon, so I can finish writing about our trip to Jaipur and document our trip to Shimla – with lots of pictures.

Jaipur (Part I)

About a week ago we took a two-day trip to Jaipur and it was magical. Being there felt like going back to the time of maharajas (kings) and maharanis (queens) and we loved every minute of it. We saw palaces, forts and temples; we rode an elephant, hung out with monkeys, one of us touched a cobra (while another screamed) and we saw a bunch of camels. It’s very hard to describe Jaipur for it’s crowded and dusty and polluted like any other large city in India but it’s also quaint and beautiful and has so much charm and character that I highly recommend it to anyone visiting India. We are already talking about going back because we liked it so much. We took 700+ pictures and sifting through them and picking out the best has been difficult. I needed to blog about it because I wanted to share our awesome experience but I know I can’t do it justice, for which I apologize. It’s just one of those places that you have to see for yourself.

Everything about the trip was terrific except getting there and back, which was a royal pain in the neck. Jaipur is the capital of the state of Rajasthan. It is about 250 km (160 miles) southwest of Delhi and it took us 7+ hours to get there and 5 1/2 to get back. Yes, you read that right. Of course, the spoiled Americans that we are, we couldn’t possibly imagine it taking us more than 3 hours to drive that distance but we had never been outside Delhi. Now that we have, we know better. Traffic was just horrendous. The fact that we spent almost two hours barely moving at all didn’t help either. And it’s not that the roads are really bad. They were actually better than I expected but they were totally inadequate to handle the crazy number of vehicles (mostly trucks) that were heading in our direction. It looked like this:

 

And yes, there were dudes riding on top of trucks – on the highway (not that we were going very fast at this point but still)!

As wells as trucks pimped out to the gills – inside and out:

 

And of course, camels:

So, anyway, after an excruciatingly long journey, we finally got to Jaipur at 2 p.m., checked in at the hotel, grabbed a quick lunch and met our guide. I should probably mention that this being our first trip outside Delhi, we decided against taking our car and hired a car and driver. Apparently, a guide was included in the deal. At first we thought we’d be fine without a guide because we had our trusty Lonely Planet book but I am so glad we had the guide because without him we wouldn’t have been able to see half the things we did. He knew his city and was friendly and efficient and very good at managing our time.

A few words about the city: Jaipur (city of victory) was built by Maharaja Jai Singh II, ruler of Amber (more about Amber in one of my next posts) and a true Renaissance man. In 1727 he decided to move his capital city from Amber fort to a new location, where present-day Jaipur is. He laid out the new city using rules prescribed in ancient Hindu texts. Jaipur is in fact the first planned city in India. It is also known as the Pink City because  of the characteristic pinkish-orange color used to paint the buildings in the old city. The color dates back to 1876 when the Maharaja Ram Singh II painted the city pink, the color of hospitality, to welcome the prince Wales, who was visiting.

Our first stop was Hava Mahal (the Air Palace). Built in 1799, this five-story-tall but only one-room-deep building was specially designed for the ladies of the royal zenana (harem), so they could observe everyday life and special processions in Jaipur in privacy through its 953 lattice-screen windows. There is a tunnel connecting the City Palace, where the ladies lived, and Hava Mahal and the ladies used it to move between the two buildings undisturbed. The palace gets its name from the cool breeze that flows through all those windows. I loved the windows themselves, which were made of multicolored glass and gave the place a whimsical feel.  I was unable to get a street view of the palace, which would show all five stories but there’s always next time.

Next, we went to Jantar Mantar (literally “instrument to make calculations,”) an astronomical observatory built between 1728 and 1734 by Maharaja Jai Singh II, the founder of Jaipur. He was fascinated by science, among other things, and built five similar observatories all over India. The one in Jaipur is the largest and best preserved. It has 18 different instruments measuring the movements of the sun, stars, and moon, calculating time and date, predicting the expected date of arrival, duration and intensity of the monsoons, and the signs of the zodiac.

Our last stop on day one was Chokri Sarhad (City Palace). It’s a large complex with a lot of beautifully-decorated buildings, some of which are museums. The family of the ex-raja also lives there in their own apartments (top right of the collage below). Our tour ended on a high note with Nia joining a snake charmer on the ground to pet his cobra, which almost gave me a heart attack because at one point the cobra lunged at Nia. I know that the snake charmers remove the fangs of the cobras before they go out in the world and do their thing but I still screamed bloody murder when I saw that snake going for my daughter. Wouldn’t you?

We saw a lot more cool stuff on our second day in Jaipur, so stay tuned to Part II.