Wed, Jun 11 - So, I'm feeling very much better now, thank you! Almost back to normal. As I've read the comments I figured I'd reply to them all at once in a posting, rather than individually.
- the thing over the toilet is the hot water heater for my bath room. Yep, I get really hot water really fast - much better than in my home in Oceanside, which takes about 3 minutes to get the hot water going to the shower!
- I am definitely staying in a very nice place. There are three "en suite" rooms here, with a shared family room, dining room and kitchen. We even have our own dishwasher and washing machine (no dryer though). True luxury. On top of that, our houseboy comes every day to bring us fresh towels, make the bed, clean the kitchen, and change the sheets 2-3 times per week. Unfortunately, he doesn't mop the floors! I always wear either "peds" or shoes. You should see my peds (footie socks) when I take them off after only wearing them for a couple of hours at home. Virtually black on the bottom. However, I have already done a load of whites and they came out clean.
-Yes, it's true, there are cows wandering all over the place. They are still considered holy animals in India. In fact, you can't eat beef anywhere here. Even McDonald's only sells chicken and veggie burgers. The cows tend to stay in "their" place, so we see the same ones every day as we drive to and from work.
-I've seen a man urinating by the side of the road at least once a day since I've been here, usually when I'm driving to and from work (we have a car and a driver - more on that later). Apparently some men think it's quite all right to just whip it out and pee against whatever wall/tree/edifice is handy at the time. Thankfully I haven't seen anything "graphic" yet!
-I can't even explain to you about the driving, even with a car and a driver. Ours is a really good one, too. Hardly honks his hown at all, which in Delhi is considered somewhat of a national sport. It's kind of like, "honk, honk - get out of my way," "honk, honk - just want to let you know I'm here," "honk, honk - go ahead in front of me." The lines in the road are the mearest of suggestions as to where people should be driving their cars, up to an including which direction they should be going. I heard that 80,000 people die each year in traffic accidents. However, when your population is over 1 Billion people that's hardly even statistically significant!! Harsh, but true, which is why no one changes their behavior. You can be sure I will never drive a car here!!
