Since Adam first went to India last May (2013) he has been trying to convince me to come out with him on one of his trips. However, being the researcher that I am, I googled something like “women in India” and was completely SHOCKED and dismayed by all that I read. Literally the first two full google pages were stories of women being man handled, molested, raped, groped, abused, taken advantage of, etc., and some of them even with their husbands nearby. That pretty much made up my mind for me and I was convinced I would never step foot in India as long as I lived.
However, as Adam came back from India filled with stories and pictures of beautiful people and places – he painted a very different picture from what the online world had said, and I started to wonder if maybe I had judged too soon.
Then in August of that same year (2013) Adam went on another business trip and his love for the people and country soared even more. He literally was falling in love with India. And so part of me started to as well.
Then in November (I think) Adam had two co-workers from India here in Utah for a week. We ended up having them up for dinner one night, then taking them to Temple square another night, and then over the weekend we took them to the Egbert Schofield cabin with us and then to see the Wedge and go hiking the next day. And once again I got to hear about a very different India, and I literally just came to LOVE Rajesh and Gaurav as if they were apart of our family. I could see why Adam loved the people so much. The kids and I were smitten with them by the end of the weekend and actually started calling them Uncle Rajesh and Uncle Gaurav. We had come to love them so much!
Adam had actually asked me earlier that year too (before all his trips and meeting our Indian friends) – what I would think about MOVING to India (his boss had asked if we would consider it). My first response was of course “HECK NO!” after reading what I had online. But by November, my heart really started to soften and I asked Adam if his boss would still like us to move there. Adam ended up talking to his boss about the idea again, and was thrilled we’d consider it. In December we decided to make it a matter of prayer and together Adam and I fasted and prayed about whether we should go.
I felt really peaceful that either decision was good (to stay home or to move to India) and that what mattered most to God was HOW we lived our lives – not where. However, as Adam and I took the decision to move to India to the temple one night Adam had a very powerful feeling of peace that we should indeed go. It isn’t often Adam feels really strongly about something, and I felt like I needed to support him in that feeling. And so we let his boss know that we would go! And we were both SUPER excited!!! We had the kids pray about it too, and before long they were really excited as well (at first Harry and Dawson cried) but then after feeling good about the decision as well they got excited too!
Adam’s boss was really thrilled too and began the process to put together some sort of expat package for us. The plan was for us to move to India for at least a year – maybe two – where Adam would be hiring and training another 170 people and expanding the business even further, but as Adam’s boss tried to get paperwork through it was discovered that there were several Adobe policies that were going to be very difficult to work around and little by little our excitement began to dwindle as month by month went by without any progress. It was looking like our little adventure was not going to happen and our excitement turned to disappointment.
Then one day, as we were busy going about our Saturday chores, I had a thought come to mind. Adam’s brother Cam had actually been asked to go to London for an extended period – and although going to London appealed to Cam – he didn’t want to be away from his family for that long. So he had worked it out with his boss that he would go if the company paid for his family to go over with him! His boss/company had agreed, and so Cam and his wife and 3 kids had gotten to go over to London and had a great time!
So I began to wonder if maybe Adam’s boss would go for the same thing. This way Ad’s boss wouldn’t have any expat policies to work around but could still have Adam in India for an extended amount of time. Adam ended up LOVING the idea, and that afternoon wrote his boss an email with the idea and proposed costs. And whala! A new plan began to take shape! Adam’s boss had the budget to do something like that – and after talking to a few of the managers in India about the idea and getting their input (which was all positive), he approved us to start getting ready! Yay!
The new plan? For us to go to India for 3 months now instead of 1 year – which honestly we were all thrilled about! And this meant that I wouldn’t need to worry about putting the kids in a new school, or figure out what to do with our house and cars for that long. It would be more like a 3 month vacation and wouldn’t disrupt our lives hardly at all. We were all SO excited!
One of the awesome parts though is that Adam’s boss wanted to make SURE I was okay moving our family over to India for three months and so he suggested Adam take me to India with him to see it for myself and to look for housing. And so I got an all expense paid trip to India WITH Adam. Wowsee Wow Wow! I really was feeling really pampered and taken care of, and I totally heart Ad’s boss! 🙂 It was a real gift to be able to go.
Adam had another trip to India planned in February – but because he needed to work while he was there we made the decision to fly me out a week later so that he could get everything done that he needed to and so he wouldn’t feel bad about spending some time touring the country with me a little. It worked out really well too in the way that it gave me some time to get over my jet lag before taking off for our big adventure – and while he was working the 2nd week I got to really know his team and got to do some good house hunting (or apartment hunting in our case). It was really fun.
I ended up flying out of Utah on February 24th which was a Monday. I had been REALLY nervous about leaving the kids for two weeks (a week had been the longest I’d been away from them) but I was lucky to have wonderful people set up to help while I was gone. My back door neighbor friend Jessica Quarenberg Mortensen watched Dawson and Adalynn for me during the days (while Harry and Brans were at school) and then in the evenings Jess would take the kids up to Mum and Smurfs house in Woodland Hills to sleep. Then my sister took the kids one weekend and my Mom took them the other. We were so blessed to have such great people helping us out! Thanks so much guys!
My flight to India was pretty uneventful. I flew from Utah to Atlanta (which went by really really fast) after making a friend on the plane and talking the whole time. Then I flew to Paris France from Atlanta. Adam had suggested I try to sleep for most of the flight to Paris so after they served us dinner I took an ambien and crashed as long as I could. I think I got about 6 hours of sleep that leg. Then I tried to sleep again during my flight to Bangalore. I ended up sleeping a few more hours, but then was wide awake after that. THAT flight ended up feeling like it lasted an ETERNITY. The last few hours felt longer than the 22 hours of flight time I’d already covered combined. I think I was just excited to finally get to see Adam and SO ready to be off a plane that the time just passed really slowly. I ended up reading a bunch, watching 2 or 3 movies, and chatting with neighbors (a Spanish/Swiss girl from Switzerland, and an Indian Mom and her little boy) but it still seemed like only 5 minutes had passed each time I looked at my watch. I just couldn’t wait to arrive!
My flight came in around 12:30 am – but then going through customs and getting my luggage seemed to once again take forever. I think it was around 1:30 am India time before I finally spotted my happy husband waving from me outside the airport! He had brought me a rose, and his boss was there to welcome me to India as well! He had a flight leaving just an hour after mine so we only got a moment to chat but it was great to see him! It was so awesome to finally be in India and I kept wanting to pinch myself because I just felt like I was in a dream!
It took us about 45 minutes to get to our hotel via Adam’s hired driver Ramesh but then we were held up a minute for the very customary bomb check under our car (which I ended up learning hotels do because it helps FOREIGNERS feel better – not because bombings are common) before we were finally able to check into our hotel. It felt so nice to be able to fall asleep in Adam’s arms and be together again! But so surreal to actually BE in India! I just couldn’t believe it! But I fell asleep easily (after taking an ambien) and slept well.
We woke up about 7 the next morning and after a nice breakfast in the hotel restaurant we headed out. Our normal breakfast usually consisted of Dosa (a tortilla like thing filled with potatoes, Indian spices and lentils that you dipped in different sauces or a vegetable flavored donut, or that white looking round sponge looking thing below (I forget its name) that you also dip in different sauces (called gravy’s in India). I really enjoyed most of the food while in India (although some of it is REALLY spicy) but also enjoyed eating things that were familiar to me as well.
A look at our typical breakfast. Check out the 5 different gravys to dip our food in. 🙂
This picture was also taken at breakfast and yet Adam is having Indian noodles, rice, peas, a potato gravy, some type of bacon and vegetables. Very different than our normal breakfast dishes – but delicious none the less. I think breakfast was Adam’s favorite meal of the day!
Here you see some french toast with maple syrup alongside some naan bread (wheat) with gravy with a side of fruit. You also got amazing amazing fruit juices each morning which were to die for. We loved the mango juice and pineapple juice the best. Yum!
Adam wanted to take me on a short sight seeing trip before heading to work and had Ramesh -our driver – just drive around the city for awhile. I had to laugh when within about 15 minutes of driving we pulled over due to a flat tire! ha! He changed it in a jiffy though (like 5 minutes flat) and we were off to do more discovering. Adam had him go by some of Bangalores beautiful parks, some of their government buildings, and even their farmers market (which was SOOOO pretty). I wish my pictures would have turned out but because we were driving many were blurry – so I didn’t include them. Below are a few of the ones that did come out though.
Traffic in India is CRAZY. There are basically no rules and no lanes and everyone just crams as close as they can on the road to get to where they are going faster. Honking your horn is also widely used to tell people where you are and not to hit them so you are constantly hearing honking horns – like every few seconds. Cars are packed so tight that at a stop sign you literally can reach out the window and touch the car, rickshaw, or motorcycle next to you and if there is any room at all – motorcyclists will fill in any space available. It isn’t uncommon to be sitting at a light and have 10-15 motorcyclists all come squeeze in between cars. People are also crammed as tightly as sardines everywhere you look as well. Buses are filled to capacity, motorcycles will have up to 5 people on them at once (no kidding! We saw a family with 3 kids on one motorcycle several times). Trucks will be fully loaded with people either sitting or standing or both in the back. People are literally everywhere. Its the craziest thing! But something that Is so India and which I think just adds to the culture of India. I loved everything about it!
At night drivers changed from using their horns to alert people where they are to using their lights and they flash people often. One of my best friends was the eye cover sleep thing they give you on the plane to block out lights – because the flashing lights all the time quickly began hurting my eyes which I was afraid would lead to headaches, so those things saved me many a time. Plus it was always nice to try to get in a nap every chance I could with the jet lag! 😉
India is so culturally diverse though. One moment you can be looking at a family bathing and doing laundry in the street next to their shack, and the next be walking through a palace with the most ornate and beautiful landscaping and architecture. This picture was taken next to the Adobe building where Adam works which is a beautiful modern looking building.
I got a kick out of this sign at our hotel. No honking. In America we don’t need signs like this but because Indian drivers honk their horns for everything – this sign was needed to keep the hotel environment from being too chaotic for travelers. 🙂 ha ha.
A picture of Adam coming out of our hotel to put our bags in our rented car for the day as we leave for the office.
The area in front of the hotel. I loved that I left snowing cold conditions for this!
It was worth the 25 hour flight seeing the sun and green again! 🙂
Little known fact, crocodiles are very popular in many areas of India. My pictures will prove this fact later. 🙂
Stay tuned! But the below one isn’t real. It is just part of the decorating at the hotel. 🙂
We stayed at the Le Meridien – a French hotel in Bangalore. It was very nice!
One of Bangalores many government buildings!
One of my favorite things about India was seeing so many beautiful COLORS. Almost any fancy place will have these decorative pools of water filled with fresh flowers, and almost all the ladies where beautiful sari’s or dresses. And don’t even get me started on the vegetation! The trees are amazing, the flowers are amazing, and color is just everywhere! It was so nice to see after a winter of grey and brown. 🙂 Made me so happy!
The below picture though was taken at an expat ladies meeting that is held every Thursday in Bangalore for women wanting to meet other women who are in their same boat. Its basically where foreigners can meet other ladies and form connections. They have a free tea/coffee morning for mingling and getting involved in the community. I decided to attend one so that I could get some help finding good areas and housing in the area. I ended up meeting a delightful woman named Jane (from England) and was able to help watch her son for a few minutes while she got signed up for a few things. It was fun to make a new friend! Below is picture of Jane’s little boy Indi! 🙂
A blurry shot of the OWC meeting I attended (Oversees Womens club). They had a great turn out!
The Tea Party (my first real one) was held in the Leela Palace. It was one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. I just couldn’t get enough of the architecture. I ended up taking Adam back there later (he had to go to work) just so he could see it. More pictures to come. So pretty though.
One of the things that I find so unusual are the COWS. They are literally everywhere and roam the cities and countryside freely eating garbage off the side of the road. Cows are sacred in India and not to be eaten (McDonalds doesn’t even have hamburgers in India) so they just wander everywhere. You can be in the most busy part of the city and still see cows walking up and down the side walks and streets. Its really quite different than what we are used to, but I think the kids will love it when we move here!
One thing that is very fun about India is that they are always having festivals. There happened to be one during the week I was there and usually Indian people will get dressed up and go and visit one of their temples where they take off their shoes and go and pray to that particular God that the festival is about. The temples are all decorated really bright and beautifully (see below) and everything is made with FRESH FLOWERS. Yes look closely. Those bright yellow, blue, and red designs? Flowers. Amazing! I loved getting to see one of these festivals in action. They also have beautiful Indian music playing as well that you can hear as you drive by.
And thats it for sight seeing in Bangalore. Loads more pictures to come though with our other adventures! 🙂
