I had my first American visitor! I met "D" on the expat-blog website. She has a very interesting story. She came to India as a tourist and impulsively married an Indian boy back in December 2010. Now she is here in Gujarat staying with him and his family for 2 months, trying to learn to cook and speak hindi (her blog: http://youareanindianwife.blogspot.com/).
I had so much fun playing the role as local in Ahmedabad rather than my usual role as newbie foreigner.
I picked D at the train station (side note: I'm starting to speak like an indian. They "pick" someone instead of "pick up" someone from somewhere. I will henseforth denote all my new indian phrases with an underline). My proudest indian moment came next. In a great crowd of auto drivers and arriving travelers, I drove a hard bargain and negotiated a very fair price from a driver for the trip to my flat. Of course, I knew how much the trip should cost by meter because I had just made the trip from my flat to the station. It was my first successful bargain. Having never bargained for anything in my life, I suck at this. Plus, the indians here know white people have no idea what anything should cost here, and try to charge even more. I will try and develop this skill.
Since D has spent much time in India (5 weeks in Dec, and has been here this trip for a month), she didn't have much interest in Indian tourism - temples/mosques/Gandhi Ashram/step wells. She is now staying in Ankleshwar, a "village" of 60,000 people, where there isn't much to do. Therefore, she was excited to go to the Ahmedabad malls where there was a great bookstore and western stores. The mall also had a "scary house", which was the funniest haunted house that I have ever visited. We ate sandwiches (my favorite food when I am sick of indian), dinner from my favorite non-veg joint - Chawla, and even lunch at McDonalds. I hate McD's, haven't eaten there in US in over 10 years, but had to see what it is like here. I had the salsa paneer wrap (80% of the items are different than the US menu items).
Another funny food story. We got ice cream. When we paid, they gave change to the nearest 5 rupees, as it is common that small change is not available. Technically, we were owed an additional 2 rupees. That is only 4 cents, so I wasn't worried, but D asked for it. I suggested that we get a small tasting spoon of another flavor to account for the money owed. The ice cream shop workers agreed and we all had a good laugh about it.
I had so much fun talking to D about her experience here, and everything that is different and funny here. We both love it here. I think she should move here, but in Ankleshwar it would be hard for her. I will try to convince her and her husband to move to Ahmedabad.
It was also so nice to walk around and know that everyone was staring at her in addition to me. It took some of the self-conciousness away to have someone else "different" with me. I hope more Americans will visit me soon (hint hint!).
I will be visiting D in Ankleshwar in 2 weeks, should be fun.
I had so much fun playing the role as local in Ahmedabad rather than my usual role as newbie foreigner.
I picked D at the train station (side note: I'm starting to speak like an indian. They "pick" someone instead of "pick up" someone from somewhere. I will henseforth denote all my new indian phrases with an underline). My proudest indian moment came next. In a great crowd of auto drivers and arriving travelers, I drove a hard bargain and negotiated a very fair price from a driver for the trip to my flat. Of course, I knew how much the trip should cost by meter because I had just made the trip from my flat to the station. It was my first successful bargain. Having never bargained for anything in my life, I suck at this. Plus, the indians here know white people have no idea what anything should cost here, and try to charge even more. I will try and develop this skill.
Since D has spent much time in India (5 weeks in Dec, and has been here this trip for a month), she didn't have much interest in Indian tourism - temples/mosques/Gandhi Ashram/step wells. She is now staying in Ankleshwar, a "village" of 60,000 people, where there isn't much to do. Therefore, she was excited to go to the Ahmedabad malls where there was a great bookstore and western stores. The mall also had a "scary house", which was the funniest haunted house that I have ever visited. We ate sandwiches (my favorite food when I am sick of indian), dinner from my favorite non-veg joint - Chawla, and even lunch at McDonalds. I hate McD's, haven't eaten there in US in over 10 years, but had to see what it is like here. I had the salsa paneer wrap (80% of the items are different than the US menu items).
Another funny food story. We got ice cream. When we paid, they gave change to the nearest 5 rupees, as it is common that small change is not available. Technically, we were owed an additional 2 rupees. That is only 4 cents, so I wasn't worried, but D asked for it. I suggested that we get a small tasting spoon of another flavor to account for the money owed. The ice cream shop workers agreed and we all had a good laugh about it.
I had so much fun talking to D about her experience here, and everything that is different and funny here. We both love it here. I think she should move here, but in Ankleshwar it would be hard for her. I will try to convince her and her husband to move to Ahmedabad.
It was also so nice to walk around and know that everyone was staring at her in addition to me. It took some of the self-conciousness away to have someone else "different" with me. I hope more Americans will visit me soon (hint hint!).
I will be visiting D in Ankleshwar in 2 weeks, should be fun.
Us after the Scary House
McD's delivers here, how strange!
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