I’m going to bullet-point this entry. Lots of small tidbits. But first, a sunset.

• MEAT! I gave into my craving. I haven’t had meat in almost two months. So I ordered a “boneless butter chicken” and “garlic naan” delivered to my door for $10 from the fancy place. So worth it!
• At least it is in English… My housing society is having some sort of election for various teams that take care of maintenance, repairs, improvements, etc. to the complex. I’ve gotten several sheets slid under my door where candidates have advertised their qualities or given information about the goals of the teams. The longest one, however, was a smear campaign, calling the way one of the leaders runs the organization a “dictatorship” and saying another member blocked the stairwells and let his dog poo wherever he wanted. I’ve gotten about eight sheets total now, the latest saying “paper is important!” It’s entertaining if nothing else.
• Can-opener blues For the first time since I’ve been here, I found myself in need of a can opener. Those Del Monte brand pineapple slices in a can only sometimes come with a pull-tab lid, apparently. So I asked my neighbor for one. She did not have one! Not a staple for India households I guess. Luckily, I was able to purchase one at Needs. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to work it (it involved much sharper edges) but I was eventually successful and enjoyed a slice of pineapple.

Indian can opener
• No more wake-up calls I put a note on my doorbell to please not ring it before 9am. And it worked! The “doods” stopped bugging me on Sunday morning. So did the garbage people but I’ve made a point of leaving my trash out Saturday night since the people on Sunday morning really seem to want it. (Either that, or I just haven’t been home to hear the weekday people make the request.)
• Pipe burst? My maid pointed out that it looks like I have some pretty bad water damage in the wall next to the window. Embarrassingly, I can’t remember what the wall looked like before. I definitely remember it looking damaged already, but it has been behind a curtain since. But if my maid has to be the one to point it out, it’s probably bad! I told the owner and called maintenance. Maintenance hasn’t come yet, though. Not sure they understood my request since they randomly switched to Hindi in the middle of the conversation.

Hmmm…
• New state! India will soon have a 29th state, Telangana, which will share the capital Hyderabad (another tech-heavy city) with Andhra Pradesh. Times of India headline today: “India may have 50 states if all demands for new states are met.”
• Very long… I bought a pen at Needs for journaling. It amused me. Actors here sell really mundane household items like light bulbs and batteries. But it was mostly the slogan that made me giggle.

• My Kindle works! It finally happened, I ran out of fiction. I had brought a pile of fiction and non-fiction books with me to India to read, but I guess I’m cruising through the former faster than expected. Then I remembered that I have my Kindle! And it works in India! Yay! Several new books are now mine.
• One annoying ringtone down… I finally worked up the nerve to ask the guy with the Hotel California ringtone in the next row to maybe change it up a bit since I don’t really need the Eagles stuck in my head every afternoon. I was super friendly about it, I thought. (He joked that he’d come up with a new classic hit every week.) I haven’t heard his ring since.
• Team Bonding We did some fun team activities last Friday afternoon. My favorite game was “goat herder” where they split us up into two teams and each elected a captain. Everyone else was blindfolded. And the captains, with prearranged verbal signals (quickly determined in the five minutes before) for turning and directions, had to guide all their “goats” into a line.
• Walnut bummer Although I have hardly seen any bugs lately, the few bugs I have seen were in my walnuts. Sad, ’cause I love having walnuts in my cereal or oatmeal. There was even a little moth in there. No idea how it got in an *air-tight* container, but anyway, decided not to buy them anymore. They are shockingly expensive anyway ($10 for a bag 1/3 of the size as the ones back home in the baking aisle).
• Not confidence inspiring Not for the first time, I’ve seen massive amounts of smoke coming out of various places in the apartment complex (as if someone blasted all the dust out of all the basements ever). It smells nasty and would make me nervous except no one else seems to mind it. But I decided to take the stairs anyway. I wonder if they are smoking out bugs? Or…?
• Summer vacation I’m doing it! I’m actually doing it! Friday, I’m going to subject myself to a dearth of oxygen voluntarily for two weeks and head up to the Himalayas! I’ve already bought my diamox.

Epic Road Trip!