Chocolate chip cookies...or not.

So today we attempted to make chocolate chip cookies. I've been craving them like crazy this week for some reason. Apparently I ate way too many on a weekly basis at home. We almost always have freshly baked cookies made and available for consumption at our house, and so these store bought things here just aren't quite hittin' the spot.
The idea to make them sounded great! I just didn't really think through it all the way. Meaning that it never occurred to me that the fact that we can't seem to find brown sugar or baking soda here might be a problem.
Yesterday Bina and I walked to the market to get the groceries that we needed for the day. Neither Mel or I could remember if we had seen brown sugar anywhere or not, and I was pretty sure we weren't going to find baking soda anywhere, but I decided to try. So the guy at the 1st shop that I asked about brown sugar looked at me really weird and then came back with brown rice...when I said no thanks he just laughed. At the shop I asked for baking soda, first he came back with baking powder. When I tried to tell him that we already had that and I needed Baking SODA not powder he came back with a loaf of bread and a coke...oh well. So needless to say we had to improvise our ingredients a little bit. We had no idea if it would work, but we decided to give it a whirl.
So instead of brown sugar we just put double white sugar, instead of baking soda we used powder, and instead of chocolate chips we used broken up chocolate bar. Aside from our lack of ingredients, guessing amounts, (due to our lack of measuring cups and such) and a part time working toaster oven, I'd say we did pretty good! They really weren't too bad at all. Just REALLY buttery. Trial and error on guessing the amounts I guess :)
The 2nd batch turned out way better then the first though. The first round we stuck them in our little toaster oven and then the power proceeded to go out right away. So we just left them in there thinking it most likely wouldn't turn on for a while. Well, we forgot about them and when the pastor of the Moravian church walked in with his wife they noticed the toaster oven smoking. Oops. The 2nd go round worked great though, and we now have some not half bad, homemade, chocolate chip cookies in India.

11 day's in.

Well, it's been about a week and half and things are starting to get settled around here. We definitely still have a ways to go, but we've made a lot of progress. Our afternoons and evenings are still pretty much played by ear, but things get a little bit easier everyday.
Rajpur is great! I already love it. Things move at a slower pace here. It's probably considered "quiet" compared to most parts of India. It's full of character and color and the people all seem so nice. It's still going to take some getting used to, it's just so different then the US, but I think I'm just going to love it even more than I already do as time goes on, and we start making lots of friends.

We have made quite a few ventures into Dehradun this past week. That's always an adventure! You never really know what's going to happen, you just know things most likely are not going to go as planned. They very rarely do in India :) We've had fun exploring the many different things to do and see there though. Dehradun is where we have done most of our shopping for things for the house. You can get just about everything you need there. You might have to look all afternoon, and go to a whole bunch of different random stores to find it, but eventually you usually do. It's not a huge city, but things are a lot busier and crazier then where we live. It's just big enough to be glad we live in Rajpur.

Yesterday we skipped church and made a trip up the mountain to Mussoorie. Our plan wasn't exactly to purposely skip church, but we had the days mixed up, and somehow we all thought yesterday was Saturday. Oops. Oh well, Jesus said that the church wasn't made up of buildings anyways, and we had it in the car, so I think we're ok.
The drive was quite something! It was gorgeous, however a little bit scary at times. When I say we drove "up the mountain" I really mean-up the mountain. Up the mountain, on a very narrow road, with a huge drop off on one side. The kind of drop off that if you were to actually "drop off" you would be assumed dead. So you've got a big mountain, narrow road, LOTS of traffic that includes huge buses, little scooters, motorcycles, and a wide variety of cars, and a bunch of people that take great pleasure in passing one another. It makes for an interesting 45 minutes! Dave did a great job though, and we made it.
Mussoorie was nuts!! There were people EVERYWHERE. It was almost impossible to even drive down the street. India seems so completely crazy and chaotic, but at the same time, there's kind of a flow to everything. Sort of like organized chaos in a way. Not so much in Mussoorie. It just seemed pretty insane. Mel and Dave said that it was way different then when they went up there when they were here in February. Isaac told us that it gets so crazy this time of year because it's summer and all if the kids are out of school, plus it's a huge tourist destination in the summertime. Not nearly as many people venture up there in the winter time, like when Mel and Dave were there because it gets so cold.
We found a little amusement park type place and spent the afternoon there. The boys loved it! It certainly wasn't six flags or anything, but there were quite a few little rides that Micah and Levi had a blast on. We ate a yummy lunch there too. It made me laugh that we were stopped by multiple people during the day and asked to take a picture with them. Apparently you're pretty special if you get a pic with a white person :) In my opinion it's a little bit strange to want a picture with someone you don't even know and probably will never see again in your life...I mean what are going to do with that?? But I guess if it makes them happy we'll just keep smiling :)
All in all we had a really fun afternoon, and it was cool to see what Mussoorie is like.
It was hard not being able to be with my Daddy on Father's day, but I was certainly reminded of how thankful I am for him. I have one of the best Dads in the world and I am so blessed that he is so involved in my life. He's definitely one of a kind, and a huge example to his kids of what a servant leader truly is. He models it daily. I love you Pops!

Today we had a pretty big storm. Everyone here says that it was very abnormally strong. The entire skylight flew off of our roof. K, so picture this. I was at home alone with the boys when the storm started. The windows were mostly all open, and it started POURING. I'm trying to frantically close all of the doors and windows, while the boys were playing upstairs with Serjin. The skylight gets ripped off the roof upstairs (where the boy's were) we all heard it, so I'm running to them and they're frantically running down to me. We're all slipping all over the place. The entire left side of the house had water coming in for a few minutes before I got windows closed, and water on marble floors makes for a pretty slippery situation. The wind was so strong that it was whipping doors open and shut creating very LOUD banging noises that were scaring the boys. Eventually I got them all on the couch and told them not to move. I bolted all the doors and finished shutting windows. Soon after Mel and Dave came home and we made lunch in a powerless kitchen. It certainly made for an exciting morning! The entire town is without power though, and it will be interesting to see how long it takes to get it back. From the looks of all of the huge uprooted trees thrown against the power lines it might be a while. The fact of no power kind of stinks because this week is supposed to be the hottest of the year yet. Supposedly it's going to be like 110-115...that will be a bummer with no fans working. Oh well, guess it's just all part of the adventure!

This afternoon Mel, Micah, and I went to the market for groceries and then Bina came over to cook. She and I become better friends everyday! I love hanging out in the kitchen with her. She's so sweet and it's been fun learning how to make new things. I still have no idea what all of the different spices are that she uses, and how you know which one tasted good with which one, but she makes us delicious food and it's fun learning how she does it. Before you know it Mel and I will both be experts in Indian cuisine! (I wish)

We made it!!

Well, we're here! Many planes, cars, and hours later, we're finally in Rajpur, India. The flights all went well and we made our connections without any problems. The boy's both did great! We got to Delhi Thursday night and spent the night at a hotel, before driving the 7 1/2 ish more hours to Rajpur, the next morning. Delhi was interesting. I didn't really like it very much. It was so dirty, dry, crowded, and not all that friendly. The difference between the Dehradun/Rajpur area and Delhi is pretty unbelievable. As we drove all morning and afternoon on Friday, it just kept getting prettier and prettier. Rajpur is an awesome little city. I love it! It's not busy at all compared to most places in India, the people are so nice and great, and it's beautiful. There's actually grass and green trees here! Crazy, compared to Delhi. The view is amazing. We are completely surrounded by mountains. It's pretty cool!

When we got to our house on Friday afternoon, there were a lot's of men here working on everything. Trying finish it up and make it livable. Sespa(the pastor)and his wife Susan were here heading it all up. They are both super sweet, and it was great to meet them. We're living in a house that's on the church grounds-like literally across the front yard. It's beautiful! It's a lot bigger then any of us were expecting. We have 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, a huge kitchen, a little area upstairs, 2 little living room areas, and a dining room. It's great! We have a lot of work to do, but it's definitely a nice house, and is going to work out perfectly. They already had beds for us in every room, which was a huge blessing, and so we started sleeping here right away. After we got here we pretty much just unpacked a little bit, took cold showers :) and went to sleep. I think it's safe to say that we were all exhausted!

On Saturday morning we went over to the Hishi's house for breakfast. They are such a sweet and welcoming family!! It was so good to meet them, and I'm excited to get to know them better. That morning we ended up going and getting passport pictures taken for some documents that Isaac filled out in order to get us registered with the government here. That turned into kind of a big ordeal, since the first two shops we went to were closed. After a while we finally found somewhere to take them, and got that all figured out. Everything moves at a slower pace here, and the plan changes ALL the time. Just something we'll have to get used to I guess. It is something I think we, as Americans could learn from though. Rather then always worrying about getting stuff done, and being so uptight, they put family and relationships first. Everything is very community oriented, which I love. The important things still get done, just not necessarily in the same time frame we're used to. Anyways, after pictures, Mel and Dave went with Isaac and some other guy's to start shopping for things we need for the house, and the boys and I went back to the Hishi's house with Tenzin for lunch and naps. Tenzin was super sweet to us and eventually brought us back home and waited with us till Mel and Dave were done. They returned a couple hours later, and we now have a fridge, stove, toaster oven, air conditioner, and most of what we need to create a working kitchen! It's going to take a while for sure, but it's fun to see things slowly coming together.

We've already met our neighbors, who are really sweet! There is a family that lives in a tent type thing on the same land as our house. The couple has a few kids, and I think they're Dad lives with them as well. One of their boys is only a year older then Micah, so he has an instant playmate which is awesome! They can't understand each other at all, but are already having lot's of fun together. The Mom, Bina, is going to help us with cooking, grocery shopping, and things of that nature. I'm kind of sad that the cook won't be my age like we thought, but Bina is incredibly sweet and it's going to be cool getting to know her better.

Last night we had an adventure and made a trip into Dehradun for dinner and ice cream. That was lot's of fun, and like I said, quite an adventure :)

Today was church. Dave, Mel, and Micah went, I stayed home with Levi who was still sleeping. After that though, we all went and had tea and Samosa's with everyone from church. It was good to meet people. I met a girl my age who was super sweet and spoke a little bit of English. It made me excited to start getting to know more people, and building relationships around town.

This afternoon Dave took me on a little "tour" and showed me a an awesome running loop, that I'm super excited about. I can't wait to take it tomorrow and start getting to know the town better. As soon as he and I got back earlier I was going to walk it, but it started raining. Apparently Monsoon season officially started today, because boy did it rain!!! Talk about a torrential DOWNPOUR! I have never seen it rain so hard in my life. It was pretty crazy! It cooled things down a lot though, which was great. Not exactly sure what this evening will look like, but hopefully it involves sleep. I'm ready for this jetlag to wear off all the way.

Well, that's what these past few day's have looked like on this side of the world. Sorry this is so long :) I promise that's probably not normal.
Love you all!!

"Lasts" and "Firsts"

These past few weeks have been filled with several "lasts" for at least a year. Last cell group, last day with Caleb, last Warehouse 6:44, last family vacation, last visit with Miss Joan, last drive-in movie with friends, last office cleaning "extravaganza" with Eboni, last reading lesson with KK,etc. In a way it makes me really sad, but I have been trying to savor and enjoy these lasts, as I look forward to all kinds of "firsts" in India. Even though I don't know what those "firsts" will be yet, I know they will become so meaningful that I will mourn their "lasts" as well someday.

Today was my last Japanese Encephalitis vaccination - YAY! There's a "last" I was happy to be done with! The rest of the day is going to be filled with the project of finishing packing. Hopefully once I'm done with that, these last 4 days can be relaxing and fun as I spend time with my FAMILY (emphasis by my mom). And friends. (not so much - maybe just a little, signed,MOM). I also intend to keep on having "lasts" - like last Chik-fil-A, last Shakes, last Taco Bell (do you see a theme?). Oh - and maybe a few lasts with my family.


P.S
The above is what happens when you ask your mom to update your blog together. A first AND a last :)