Aal izz well!

On Sunday we, like many Americans, spent the day at the mall. The experience is not all that different, except for: the language barrier, the spicy everything at the food court, and the fact that people try to simultaneously enter and exit the elevators. Oh, and of course there's also the matter of people staring as if you have an extra set of arms. I realized the other day that they aren't really staring at me, quite the contrary, I seem to pass for a light skinned indian (especially with my mustache!). Kate and our blonde-haired friend Molly, on the other hand, are practically movie stars. While driving by on motorcycles, indian men will actually turn all the way around as they pass us.

The day culminated with a three hour spectacular Bollywood movie. Indians tend to bring their entire family along to the movies, fail to turn off their cell phones, and generally act much more rambunctiously than Americans. One would think that the subtleties of "3 Idiots" would be entirely lost on us since it was entirely in Hindi. One would be right but we still followed the basic plot, loved the music, and, most of all, the impromptu dance scenes. The song from the movie, Aal izz Well, is played nonstop on the radio, people have it set as their ring tones, and we have caught quite a few people (and ourselves) humming it. The movie proved a great vehicle for conversation with our co-workers on the following day - our first day of work!

After carefully selecting our first-day outfits, we embarked on the ten second commute down the hall to work. We didn't get much work done and spent most of the day chatting with our colleagues. The highlight of the day was going to see our new apartment in the city. The flat is sunny and spacious and located in the Indira Nagar area of Lucknow (pictures to come). We'll be within walking distance to a few street markets and parks and getting to work should only require a few short rickshaw rides. We're both excited to move out of the NGO and into our own place.

Here are some photos we posted and there are more to come: Mumbai and Orientation

Namaste,

Dan