spicetart

Bangalore or Bust

So a short trip to India has been calendared - it looks like we will go in the middle of July (the coolest time, right?) for about a week.  And we decided to take Ivy.  After much deliberation (on how much easier it would be to leave her at home and how much happier everyone - her, Chris, ME, the passengers of Lufthansa Flight 401 - would be), I decided I just couldn't leave her for an entire week.  Mommy separation anxiety kicked in.

I'm also nervous about her touching everything in the country, especially since she is too young to get certain vaccines.  She's at an age where everything on the ground must be picked up and inspect, sometimes with her mouth.  And then there's the mosquitoes.  Do I sound like a nervous Mom or what?

Our main goal will be to see if we can even live there, or will I be like, "Oh Hell No", the second we deplane (great word, deplane).  We also want to visit the places people like us live, us being expatriates with families and sensitive stomachs.  There are supposedly whole suburban paradises set up just for us types.  I mean, who would want to go to a country and actually LIVE there, amongst the people?  Well, me for one, but everyone assures me that I will want to be in one of these suburban compounds, especially with little kids.  The adventurer in me resists but knows it's probably true.

And then there will be the daunting task of trying to interview doctors and visiting hospitals so that we can make a decision about having the baby in Bangalore.  Though I know more babies are probably born in India daily than in any other place in the world, I am very set in my ways about what KIND of birth I want to have, and from what I have heard, the childbirth practices at the 'modern' hospitals are very different from the US (especially the Bay Area)...like 60% Cesarean Section rate (YIKES), automatic shaving and enema upon entering the hospital in labor (YIKES YIKES) and sometimes having to share labor rooms with other women.  I have done a lot of research and have found a couple of highly recommended places to visit, we'll just have to see how it goes, and how comfortable I am after the trip.

At least it won't be boring, and what is life without adventure?

Podcast Neglect

I have 173 podcasts, ready and waiting.  I have listened to almost all of This American Life and Tim Goodman's TV Talk Machine, and I never miss a Strong Bad, but the rest?  Nope.  That means that Fresh Air, KCRW's The Treatment and Morning Becomes Eclectic just sit and wait, like wallflowers at the prom, longing to dance. 

Podcasts are a lot like sports eqiuipment - you get them with good intentions, but just can't seem to find the time.

Did you say India?

So in the past few months, Chris's company has been talking about sending him to India to work for a year. I think he wants Ivy and me (and the fetus) to go too.

So this thought has been brewing and stewing and causing alternating fits of anxiety and excitement, and India? Really? Like tigers and samosas and the Taj Mahal India?

Bangalore, to be precise, southern India, where it is supposed to be cooler. I think this is one of those cases where cooler means not the scorching-pit-of-hell hot, but more the town next door to the scorching-pit-of-hell. And there really aren't tigers there in Bangalore, though I hear that there are plenty of cows and stray dogs roaming the streets. Sounds almost like Montana!! Except for the, you know, pollution and open, running sewers, and horrible sad poverty. But really, there is excitement too, at the possibility of an adventure. I try not to let my romantic notions get the best of me, it is after all a big bustling city full-o-high techiness.

So should we do it? I'll post my list of pros and cons next. Once I figure them out.