Independence - Ordering Pizza

I did it.  I successfully ordered delivery on my own.  No big event at home but I was quite proud of myself for successfully ordering and getting delivered a pizza and chocolate lava cake from Dominos.  The first challenge was figuring out the area code to use when calling since I was just referring to a coupon from pizza Ankur had ordered for me before.  This only took me about 20 minutes before I thought to try online - duh, that's what I'd do in the US.  And they even have online ordering, but I'm not quite ready for that. 

Then I called and got passed around to four people before it was confirmed that they do indeed deliver to my neighborhood.  English was definitely the challenge.  I know I talk fast, so I was making sure to speak slowly, but I still got passed around.  I checked it out online when I was looking for the phone number, but wasn't positive.  I live in the Judge's Colony (Bhargathi Enclave) in Dalanwala.  Dalanwala was listed, but there was another neighborhood that was specifically listed by colony so I confused myself. 

Finally I was able to order my pizza and chocolate lava cake.  Dominos has chocolate lava cake here? Crazy!  It was alright, not very hot by the time I finished eating my pizza, but still satisfied my chocolate fix.

Oh yeah, the delivery.  So I live in a colony and not all the homes have numbers posted on the outside, and by this I mean mine does not.  So, I'm sitting in my living room, watching West Brom play Wolves (English Premier League), and listening for a slow going motorcycle.  Unfortunately, I heard him a little too late and since mirrors aren't used while driving here he couldn't see me waving at his back.  I ended up standing outside for almost another ten minutes waiting and hoping that he was going to loop back around and trying to figure out how I was going to get my pizza if he didn't get here soon. 

In the end, I was successful.  And pizza has never tasted so good.  It was almost as good as The Coop or Cosetta's back home (LA or MN respectively) and that's saying a lot.  It may have something to do with my primarily eating Indian food or toast in the five weeks I've been here, but I think it mostly had to do with finally feeling like I'm living here.  Sitting in my living room, watching soccer on the tv, and eating delivery.  Now this weekend, hopefully figuring out how to get to Rajpur Road.  May need some help with that as it sounds like I can't just take one Vikram.

In My Apartment

A week later than I had hoped for, I am officially in my apartment.  The apartment is painted brown on some walls, a very very light pink maybe peach on others, there is a couch and two bean bags in the living room, a bed in the bedroom, western toilet and shower head in the bathroom, desk and chair in the second room downstairs, and that's it.   During the day I went shopping for dishes, sheets, pillows, towels - just a few of the necessities figuring I'll give it a week then identify exactly what else I need. Everything was brought back to the apartment, then I returned to the hotel for a bit to finish packing, took a nap, had some dinner, and waited for the bed to actually deliver.  Once it was delivered, Varun (a colleague) picked me and brought me over to the apartment, this was about 9:30pm.  Upon arrival I found out, the water had stopped working, the refrigerator wasn't here, the water purifier (not that it would do me any good right now) wasn't here, and the stove wasn't connected.

So maybe I pushed it a little, but I really needed to be out of the hotel and moved in.  It's time to really begin this adventure, living in India.  I'm living in what is called the Judge's Enclave, just down the street from my office. It only takes two minutes to drive, so hopefully only ten minutes to walk.  It'll be nice to be able to walk to and from work, a little exercise each day.  It's also a lot quieter than the hotel because I'm in a residential neighborhood instead of on a major street.

Of course, today it's raining so it makes it a little more difficult to get out and explore, plus I kind of need to be here when Varun comes back to hopefully get everything fixed.  But soon enough, I will be cooking and really living in India.  I've already made requests of a few of my colleagues to teach me how to use public transportation and teach me how to cook.  Mostly I can't wait to learn to cook.  Cooking Indian has always seemed a bit intimidating because the seasoning seems so different from anything else and there seems to be so much seasoning in every dish.  Hopefully everyone will have enough patience with me while I try to record it all.

I will post pictures once I get a little more settled.

Mouth and Stomach Disagreements ... Ugh

Everything I have eaten here in the last two weeks has been delicious - curries, masala, some spicy, some not so spicy.  I haven't learned the names of everything I've eaten, but I recognize the foods - red beans, chicken, potato, peas, corn, rice, green beans, noodles. Even the yogurt was good, different and I have fully formed my official opinion on it but I don't dislike it for sure.  It is definitely good with the spicy food, but I'm not sure how I feel about it alone.

However, all the delicious food caught up to me yesterday.  Although the thousands of taste buds on my tongue, my stomach decided it had enough of all the delicious food.  Some of this was to be expected and I had already faced some of it, but nothing too bad and nothing that a little Immodium couldn't handle.  Yesterday was spent in bed curled in a ball, yelling at my stomach and frequenting the bathroom more times than I can count.  And to me the worst part is that it happened yesterday, the day of the office party.  I was so looking forward to going to the party, having a few beers, and enjoying a more social time with my colleagues.  But alas, it was not to be.

Thankfully, it seemed to be a twenty-four hour bug.  Today at least I'm feeling much better.  I had some maggi, which is the ramen noodle, curry flavor with some onion and chives, and a little bit spicy.  I had some mango juice with it, definitely needed because even though I only asked for a little spicy, I needed something to drink with the maggi.  Then a beer on the way back to the hotel.

Hopefully, this will be the only real bad day.  I don't expect this the only time my mouth and stomach will disagree as I plan on tasting pretty much everything put in front of me, but I don't want to miss another party.  At least it was only twenty-four hours.  Now on to more wonderful food.