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)