When Adam and I had been married for about a year, we moved down to the great state of Arizona for Adam to go to graduate school. Adam had been accepted into the #1 school in the nation for International business on scholarship so it was kind of a no brainer for us, and after fasting and praying to see if it was where our Father in Heaven would have us go, it was confirmed that Thunderbird was the right school for Adam to attend.
On Adam’s first day of school he was put into a “cohort” with about 20 other students who from then on became known as the “Bronco’s.” This group of people ended up becoming some of our closest friends while at Thunderbird and the team was made up of people from all over the world. Sen from China, Viviana from Columbia, Stanislas from France, Koji from Japan, and Amit from India, just to name a few. It was awesome to have so many people from around the world brought together in a single group and together they were all just AMAZING! So many bright and brilliant minds. We really had such a blast with the Broncos!
So you can imagine how EXCITED we were when moving to India because it meant that we were closer to one of our dearest friends Amit who we came to love so much. In fact if I had to choose favorites from among the Broncos, I would say Amit was one of them! He was just always so fun, happy, and generous with a big smile on his face and a warm hug to give. We all just adored him. So we made it a point to try to go and see him during our time in India and flight plans were made.
We arrived on the 20th of June in Mumbai and Amit bless his heart had driven both his cars to the airport to pick us up making it so we didn’t need to get a taxi. We loved seeing him at the airport and getting big hugs after almost 10 years of not seeing each other! How much we had missed him.
At the airport in Mumbai
Because there were so many of us we ended up splitting up in two cars and the boys and I drove with Amits driver while Adam and Ady went with Amit. I had to laugh when I tried making conversation with Amits driver because he was trying so hard to understand my English. I would ask something like. “So are you married?” and he’d say, “yes yes.” Then I would ask, “Do you have kids?” and he’d say, “yes, yes.” and I’d say, “How many kids do you have?” and he’d again say, “yes, yes.” And I finally realized that nothing I was saying was being understood and so the kids and I just looked at the windows and tried taking in all the new sights around us! ha ha.
When we got to Amit’s apartment complex, we finally got to meet Amit’s beautiful wife Smruti (pronounced Smootie) and darling little son Viyaan. Oh, how we fell in love with them instantly! Smruti is just about the nicest kindest person you will ever meet, and Viyaan was just adorable. He took awhile to get used to us, and was even shy around Adalynn for a little while, but eventually he warmed to us being there and had fun playing with Ady and the boys.
Amit and Smruti were so kind too and made room for us all to stay at their place during our stay so that we could spend the maximum amount of time together while we were there. We sure appreciated their kindness and hospitality. They both went way over and beyond the call of duty to make sure we were comfortable and taken care of and we were so grateful for all their extra efforts in our behalf. What amazing hosts they were!
Because we arrived at night we got a great view of the city lights from the balcony window!
Mumbai is such a GINORMOUS city compared to Bangalore and usually there were sky rise buildings as far as the eye could see.
Viyaan and Ady finally made friends and had fun zooming around in Viyaans sports car!
This was the view from our bedroom window in the morning. Although there are slums in Bangalore this was my first time seeing one this close up and from an aerial view. Mumbai seems to have WAY more poverty than Bangalore, but it is also a much bigger city with far more people. As we drove around the city while we traveled though we would see blue or black tarp homes weakly constructed in just about every place possible. I kept wondering how you could possibly make a difference to so many poor people, but remembered the star fish story. Even helping one person makes a difference to them. 🙂
You can tell where the slums are by how much blue or black you see.
The more blue tarps, the bigger the slum.
Because it was supposed to rain that morning Smurti suggested we all go to a place called Kidzania which is like a children’s museum on steroids! So we all got up fairly early to head out to make it there by 10 am. Amit and Smurti were so nice and went out and grabbed us all American bagels for breakfast too since the kids hadn’t responded so well to Indian food the night before. They sure did spoil us while we were there!
When we arrived at Kidzania each of the kids were given a “check” or sorts that they had to go to the bank and “cash out.” The bank tellers would either give them pretend cash, or a credit card that they could use during the day. The part I liked best though is that the whole program was based on a “earn & spend” type play – where the kids had to balance their “fun” with “work.” They could spend all their money doing fun things like cooking classes where they would learn how to make cupcakes, or to go rock climbing, or have their faces painted or do pottery, but they would soon run out of money, and if they wanted to do more than they would have to go do activities where they would “work” to earn more money. I loved how it taught the kids that there is balance between work and play and both are needed.
So even though the kids had money to begin with, they still enjoyed doing some “work jobs” to earn more. Here you can see Adalynn and Viyaan all dressed up in their “work clothes” to go and wash some windows. The best part? They really had to wash windows!
Then another activity was working as a doctor in an ER. The kids had to go in and get dressed up for that (our kids were too shy to leave their mothers sides) and then they would learn how to use some of the medical instruments and then after some training they would get to go and “pick someone up” in the ambulance who was hurt. Adalynn and Viyaan weren’t really into the instruction part of this activity but did patiently wait for their turn to ride in the ambulance. ha ha.
Later Adalynn and Viyaan also went to a grocery store to pretend to go shopping. I loved this one because you could either “spend money” or “make money” by being a shopper or a cashier. The little kids just liked to pretend to shop and it was so fun to watch them. Adalynn had her entire basket piled as high as it would go at one point and loved putting everything she could in her cart. Viyaan on the other hand took a few things and was done and ready to go. I think we might have a little girl shopper on our hands! Adalynn loved this activity and acted like she never wanted to leave!
While Smruti and I hung out with the little kids (who weren’t allowed to go in all the activities) Amit and Adam took the older boys to do some of their own activities. They got to go rock climbing, and learn how to be pilots, and they got to learn how to make chocolates and work at a cereal plant, and all sorts of things. Here the kids are getting ready to learn how to make chocolates!
Smurti and I then took the little kids to a fun play area where they could play in a ball pit, jump on air beds, or play in an imaginary kitchen.
They even had a little preschool room for toddlers where they could draw, learn numbers, read books etc.
Later we met up with the older boys again and had fun watching Branson go to the barber to GET a mustache and goatee put on. So funny! This one he had to spend money on.
A picture while we were waiting for Branson to come out looking like a new man!
LOVE the look he chose! ha ha!
Afterwards we waited in line for the kids to go and be firemen. We thought this activity would be an “earning” activity but it actually was a PAY one because it was firemans school. The kids still had a great time though and loved getting to dress up as fireman, take a ride in the fire truck, and then squirt water at a burning building!
Adalynn posing with some statues.
The only regret we had at Kidzania is that we didn’t get to stay longer. They only allow you to stay for half a day and oh boy did our time go fast. Time flies when your having fun right? And there was plenty of fun to be had. We finished off our time at kidzania with a pottery class for the boys and some card making for Ady.
Sure was a wonderful day spent with our wonderful friends! Thank you Amit and Smruti for the fun time at Kidzania! We sure had a great time and loved getting to spend that time with your sweet family!
