Hot Blog Posts of 2008!

As has become my tradition at the end of the year, it is time for some shameless self-promotion! So here is my list of my favorite blog posts of 2008:

1. I’m an adult and can do as I want! (Not really) - yay for a home leave this February so I can pick up some of these babies!

2. Worry Wart - ahhh... sweet childhood memories

3. Why post? - this is still a good reminder for me when I ask myself why I bother.

4. My life in India? - it's funny to see how this is playing out and how my goals have changed. I'm still working on most of these things (or still plan to!), but I've added a few as well: studying for the GRE, learning Hindi, and relearning Spanish.

5. And my favorite posts on actually being in India: The Sum of all Impressions, Culture Shock, episode 1, and Fear and Safety.

Book Review: 1984

I have just finished the second book off my Summer Reading List and want to share some of my thoughts from reading it.  As with my book review of To Kill a Mockingbird, please note that I have not done any research on this book (although I know it’s been written about by many people) so the observations below are probably very old hat by now.  So pardon my naivety. Also, spoilers.  

I just finished reading the next book on my Summer Reading List: 1984 by George Orwell; I must admit to being slightly disturbed by the end, but I'm sure that's the point.  The book is separated into three distinct chapters, or acts.  In the first act, nothing happened, and everything happened.  I could have stopped there and been familiar with the whole book.  The second act made me happy.  It made me feel like there could be a good ending:  that love would conquer all, that the Brotherhood would overtake the Party and Big Brother.  But then came the third act.  I read all of the third act this morning because I couldn't put the book down.  It was enthralling, but not in a good way.  Everything that act one had said would happen, happened, only with excruciating detail.

Winston Smith is a member of the Outer Party, and therefore above the "Proles", but does not have so much power as the members of the Inner Party.  He knows his every movement is watched, every facial tick examined, and every syllable he utters is overheard.  This isn't because he is special.  It's just how it is.  And he begins to hate it.  He is intelligent enough to know that the Party is re-inventing the past.  It is telling everyone what to think and the people who question the Party are "vaporized". 

The book, especially the first and third acts, is very thought-provoking.  It questions the nature of reality and what makes the past true.  We study history, and for the most part, we believe what we are told.  We are sure that some scientist out there somewhere can provide the evidence we need to know for sure, and that is enough.  We read about current events, and again, believe that the events are actually happening.  But in 1984, the past and the present cannot be taken at the word of a newspaper or book.  "Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." 

The majority of the book is concerned with how the Party achieves the unconsciousness of the masses.  But Winston wonders over and over again why.  Why does the Party do what it does to ensure that it is never wrong by altering the past?  And why does the Party keep the State constantly at war?  He does finally get the answer: power.  The Inner Party members are only concerned with power.  Not even the luxury that power brings, just power in itself.  By being Inner Party members, they have achieved a sort of immortality.  If the Party is all-knowing, never wrong, and will last forever, and they are members of it, then they themselves are immortal.  The Party's aims are to destroy all literature, art, science, even to abolish everyone's belief in God.  In doing so, they are taking away all ways that people try to become immortal, or leave some kind of legacy behind.  Even procreation will be turned into a once-per -year duty, and the resulting children will be taken away immediately.  There is no way to leave a bit of legacy behind, unless through the Party.  And even this is only reserved for Party members.  

In the beginning Winston still has hope.  At one point he says of the Party, "They could not alter your feelings; for that matter, you could not alter them yourself, even if you wanted to."  But he finds in the end that he was wrong.  There is no hope.

Book Review: Agatha Raisin Mysteries

I have just finished reading my ninth book in the past month. This is not a great accomplishment as they were all frivolous little mysteries in the same series. It is the Agatha Raisin series by M. C. Beaton. (She also writes the Hamish MacBeth series, of which I have posted about before.) My enjoyment of the series is mostly due to the characters, who are very real, flawed, funny, and just plain empathizable -- not sure if that's a word (if it's not, I'm coining it now--that's my way of cheating the system).  Enhancing my enjoyment all the more was reading those nine books in order, thereby following the characters' progress in that time. The ones I read were: Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came Agatha Raisin and the Case of the Curious Curate Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House The Deadly Dance: An Agatha Raisin Mystery The Perfect Paragon: An Agatha Raisin Mystery

The last two were my favorites of them all, which makes me want to move right on to the next one, Love, Lies, and Liquor!  I won't though.  I must continue my Summer Reading List!

On the plus side (the downside being that I've taken such a long break from my aforementioned Summer Reading List), those nine books helped me increase the number of books I've read this year, as opposed to last year, by nine exactly!  See?  If it hadn't been for reading them, I would have felt like I didn't increase productivity at all this year.  And isn't it all about increasing productivity?

The Bathroom Discovery

Ryan and I have rented a beautiful apartment in Banjara Hills, which is a very nice part of Hyderabad. Once we saw this place, nothing else would do (as you will remember from The Sum of All Impressions). I love it because it's bright and cheery during the day, and cozy at night. The place is probably a too much room for us, and currently we are just living in the main room (living room/dining room) and the master bedroom. Even that space is more than we are used to! All in all, there are three bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms, a kitchen, two balconies, one large main room (as previously mentioned) and a den. There is also a small room off the kitchen. It's a utility room and that's where we put our washer/dryer. One day, Ryan and I were exploring our apartment (that's right, exploring it!) and we got to the utility room. It's like a balcony because it's technically outside, but it's mostly walled in so you don't really feel outside. Then, for the first time we noticed yet another door off the utility room. Curious, we thought we should check it out, however, opening doors that lead to dark rooms is not something I am usually prone to do! So Ryan slowly turned the lever and pushed open the door. And this is what we found:

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It's our servant's bathroom!  We had no idea we even had one, but there it was!  Don't worry though.  I know I told any visitors that they could stay in our servants' quarters, but we won't make you use it (unless you want to...)!

Book Review: To Kill a Mockingbird

I have just finished the first book off my Summer Reading List* and want to share some of my thoughts from reading it.  Please note that I have not done any research on this book (although I know it's been written about by many people) so the observations below are probably very old hat by now.  So pardon my naivety. Also, spoilers. "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird," says Atticus to his son, Jem, upon giving him and his sister, Scout, air-rifles.  Miss Maudie, Scout and Jem's kind neighbor, agrees, "Your father's right...  Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy.  They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us.  That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."  Hence the title of the famous 1960 novel by Harper Lee.

The story unfolds with Scout remembering when Jem's arm was broken when he was 13 and she only nine.  That climactic moment does not happen until the end of the story, however.  First we hear about Dill, Scout and Jem's childhood friend; Boo Radley, the neighborhood hermit who Dill, Scout and Jem obsess over for several summers; and Tom Robinson, the black man accused of raping a white girl and the man whom Atticus is charged with defending.

Scout is very young during the Robinson case, but she takes it all in even if she doesn't always understand.  The thing about Scout is that she's been taught since she was very young that in order to fully understand, you have to put yourself in someone else's shoes.  Atticus is very good about this, and it's clear that it's something he is trying to pass on to his two children.  "Jem," he says after a particularly nasty incident, "See if you can stand in Bob Ewell's shoes a minute.  I destroyed his last shred of credibility at that trial, if he had any to begin with.  The man had to have some kind of comeback, his kind always does.  So if spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella Ewell [the girl who claimed to have been raped] one extra beating, that's something I'll gladly take.  He had to take it out on somebody and I'd rather it be  me than that houseful of children out there.  You understand?"

There are other adult role models for Jem and Scout who also exemplify the art of perspective. Calpurnia, when she takes the children to her own church and they hear her speaking differently than she does at home, is able to explain the situation from her fellow church-goers point-of-view. "It's not necessary to tell all you know.  It's not ladylike - in the second place, folks don't like to have somebody around knowin' more than they do.  It aggravates 'em.  You're not gonna change any of them by talkin' right, they've got to want to learn themselves, and when they don't want to learn there's nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language."

Since the book is written from Scout's perspective, we, as the reader, often understand things that she does not.  But we can see her thought process and throughout the book she begins to learn from her father's wise words.  For example, as she is listening to the testimonies of Mayella Ewell and Tom Robinson, she says, "it came to me that Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world... Tom Robinson was probably the only person who was ever decent to her."  In trying to see the case from Mayella's perspective, she begins to understand the reasoning behind Mayella's actions.  As I said earlier, however, she is still very young at this point, but she is learning.

At the very end, she has the opportunity to stand almost literally in someone else's shoes by seeing her town from Boo Radley's porch, and in doing so she watches the events from the years gone by from his perspective.  And understanding finally dawns.  "Atticus was right.  One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them.  Just standing on the Radley porch was enough."  She walks away from that porch knowing in that moment, she had learned one of the most important lessons of growing up.  "[T]here wasn't much else left for us to learn, except possibly algebra."

Algebra may be hard, but seeing life from a perspective besides your own is a skill that may take a lifetime or more.  In fact, many people never do and are never able to fully understand.  The fullest understanding of anything - life, love, grief - only comes when you are able to see it through another's eyes, or as Atticus says, walk in their shoes.

*Actually, I finished it a while ago and kept forgetting to put up this post!

Let it snow!

Oh the weather outside is frightful, (frightfully hot)But the fire is so delightful, (on the screen*) And since we've no place to go, (cuz of security threats) Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! It doesn't show signs of stopping, (the heat is neverending) And I've bought some corn for popping, (that we do have!) The lights are turned way down low, (cuz of power outages) Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! When we finally kiss goodnight, (but not in public!) How I'll hate going out in the storm! (it's sunny here) But if you'll really hold me tight, (but not in public!) All the way home I'll be warm. (no kidding) The fire is slowly dying, (on the screen) And, my dear, we're still good-bying, (we're alone for Christmas!) But as long as you love me so, (I know you all do) Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

*I have a picture of the yule log on my computer screen to give the illusion of a fireplace!  It doesn't really work.

Snoopy

I've heard more than one Indian refer to Hugo as "Snoopy" as they slowly back away from him in fear.  I suppose that since so many dogs in the city are wild, people are just not used to interacting with friendly pets.  And Hugo is overly friendly.  He even decided to bark when I wouldn't let him play with the water-delivery men.  Their faces were horrified as they asked, "What was that?!"  I answered, "A dog?"  Did they really not recognize a bark? Recently he's taken to climbing on the back of the furniture, and this seems to especially startle people who are visiting our house.  Below are some of the terrifying images that you might face when you first walk through our front door.

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Watch out!  He's coming for you!

Safety and Security

On the topic of safety, several of my online accounts have been hacked into within the past two days.  So needless to say, I'm not feeling very safe or secure.

Fear and Safety

For those of you out there who have wondered, Ryan and I live in Hyderabad, which is about 8 hours away from Mumbai, where the attacks were.  For all our friends in the Northeast, it's about the same distance from Bridgeport, CT to Buffalo, NY.  I'll admit to looking that up after we heard about the attacks.  I wanted to know what kind of distance separated me from all this horror.  I was not comforted; I wanted it to be a lot farther. I guess the thing that gets to me is that these gunmen were seeking out Americans and Britons.  And believe me, from living here, I know how much we stick out!  All these events have got me thinking about racism and persecution. As a white person, growing up in suburban Connecticut, I don't think I've ever been on the receiving end of it.  On the one hand, it's probably good for us, to know how it feels to be afraid because of the color of your skin.  But on the other hand, no one should ever have to feel this way.

I have been trying to tell myself that we are safer here in Hyderabad than the people were in Mumbai.  I say, "Mumbai was the business capital of India, and therefore more of a target.  It is a peninsula and easily accessible via water."  And while those things may be true, it doesn't really assure anything.  And I've been imagining what those people were going through, when they were asked at gun point, where they were from.

I call myself a Christian, and yet I still have so much fear in my life.  I've always been like that, and kidded about it often on this blog, but this fear is so much more real than ever before.  I guess it comes down to a matter of trust.  I'm supposed to believe in God, and in His will for my life.  But it is so hard for me to surrender my own control and trust in His.  Every time I read the Psalms, I'm always amazed at David's trust in God.  He was being pursued, his very life was being hunted.  And yet at the end of so many of his psalms, he says "but I will trust in your unfailing love".  It's like he was saying, "Despite all the men chasing after me, wanting me dead, I will still trust in God, because His love for me does not fail."  I wish I could trust like that.  It's definitely something I need to work on, not just so that I can have some sort of peace in the rest of our time here in India, but for the rest of my life, however long that may be.

All this to say that my thoughts and prayers are with those affected by the tragedy in Mumbai, as well as with this nation, that it may someday be at peace.

Getting to Know You

Since I've been sick for the past couple weeks (nothing serious), here is a bit of a cop out post for you. I feel like everyone who has ever has a blog puts one of these things up eventually... so now it's my turn. 1. What is your current occumpation? I'm unemployed!  Or no, I should say, my current occupation is this blog! =)  And I'm working on a novel.  Does that count?

2. What color are your socks right now? I'm barefoot.  I don't think I've put socks on since moving to India.

3. What are you listening to right now? I have all my music on shuffle.  That's over 3,000 songs.  I'm not going to start listing...

4. What was the last thing that you ate? Maccaroni and cheese

5. Can you drive a stick shift? No

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? I guess Ryan... he's the only one who ever calls me.  If you count Skype, then we spoke to Ryan's parents last night.

7. Do you like the person who sent this to you? I love her so much!

8. How old are you today? 26

9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? oh gag... I hate to admit this, but I guess baseball.  I love my Mets! (how did I let this happen...)

10. What is your favorite drink? diet coke

11. Have you ever dyed your hair? No! Of course not!  I'm a natural bruenette/blond/red-head!

12. Favorite food? CHOCOLATE, of course!

13. What is the last movie you watched? Enchanted.  It's the only movie I have out here with me right now.  That's ok, though, because I love it!

14. Favorite day of the year? My birthday because I love being spoiled!

15. How do you vent anger? I send angry emails to any friend who's willing to listen!

16. What was your favorite toy as a child? One of my favorite dolls: Jessica, Elizabeth, or Kelly =)

17. What is your favorite season? Autumn, of course!

18. Cherries or Blueberries? That's a dumb question.

19. Do you want your friends to email you back? Eh, they can if they want!  That's the great thing about blogging.  I can put up here whatever I want and you can choose whether or not to read it!

20. Who is the most likely to respond? No one (but if you want to, feel free to put it in the comments)

21. Who is the least likely to respond? Everyone

22. Living arrangements? I'm in a beautiful flat in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad.  I live here with Ryan and our doggie, Hugo.

23. When was the last time you cried? A couple days ago when we found another "R" and it made me realize how much I want to go home!!

24. What is on the floor of your closet? my shoes

25. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to? I'm not sending it to anyone.  If you feel you are my oldest friend, you may leave your name in the comments.  Although, I bet no one will read this, so I doubt I'll have any comments!

26. What did you do last night? Went to a nice dinner with another couple.

27. What are you most afraid of? Too many to list... OK, not really, I have a list.

28. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? YUMMMM BEEF!!

29. Favorite dog breed? Yorkies!

30. Favorite day of the week? Friday night/Saturday

31. How many states have you lived in? two

32. Diamonds or pearls? diamonds (I'm living in the wrong city, apparently)

33. What is your favorite flower? A rose

Celebrity Before & After

Ryan and I have started a new (and perhaps nerdy) tradition of playing a couple rounds of Jeopardy together before we fall asleep at night.  However, last night, our internet was down, so we were left with the options to 1) just talk, or 2) come up with our own Jeopardy questions and ask them to each other.  We chose the latter.  At first, we started with some inane categories, but soon it morphed into "Celebrity Before & After".  This, if I do say so myself, led to some very clever answers!  Yes, as the night wore on, they lost a bit of their cleverness, as you will see.  So now feel free to play along with the Jeopardy answers to our own Celebrity Before & After (answers in the comments--if you need them!). 1. This overweight comedian signed the Constitution.

2. Cruel Intentions abound when guest-starring on The New Adventures of Old Christine.

3. This true-life princess doesn't want to go on 50 First Dates!

4. This singer of Candle in the Wind wants us to Imagine.

5. This funny face went on to star in Ocean's Eleven.

6. Even pretty women can't escape a sting!

7. Will's companion can be seen on tour with Keith Richards.

8. This wise guy watched as Rome burned to the ground.

9. This star of Adaptation later produced this set of self-help videos from prison.

10. Allegedly involved in the murder of his wife, he is now quite the gossip.

11. This Memento star sang badly in Mamma Mia!

and finally...

12. This human excrement indecently exposed himself to children.

On the bright side, continued

I said I would try to keep this post up, so that is what I'm doing. Today was such a gorgeous day, Ryan and I finally decided to clean up our balcony and just leave the doors open.

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Tonight, there are hundreds of fireworks going off in every direction (including some that seem to be coming from our own apartment complex) in celebration of the Diwali festival.  It's fun just to be sitting in our living room and be able to watch them!  OK, there's a part of me that wants to duck my head in the sand to make all the loud noises STOP!  But I'm trying to ignore that side of me, and just enjoy.

Book Review: Murder in Mesopotamia

I just finished Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie.  Yes, devotees of this blog will know that I should be working on my Summer Reading List and continuing researching my novel instead, but once in a while I need something trivial!  (By the way, definitely one of her most satisfying mysteries.  And by that I mean, the villain was suitably surprising and wacko!) Anyway, as it was a Poirot novel, who is known for using his "little grey cells" and being quite the judge of character, there is quite a lot of philosophy in the book.  I found the following quote particularly interesting:

"As a matter of fact it wouldn't be safe to tell any man the truth about his wife!  Funnily enough, I'd trust most women with the truth about their husbands.  Women can accept the fact that the man is a rotter, a swindler, a drug-taker, a confirmed liar, and a general swine without batting an eyelash and wishout its impairing their affection for the brute in the least.  Women are wonderful realists."

See?  Agatha Christie seems to know what she's talking about.

How to Steal a Car in India

1. Call your driver's company and ask for a car for the day.  (This will help you if you need to claim innocence later.)2. When the company says the car will be there in 5-10 minutes, go down to the garage and wait.  The car will not be there for a good 30 minutes, so you have time to scope out the car to steal. 3. Once you have your mark, wave to the driver and just get in. 4. Go out to lunch, run your usual errands, then return to the scene of the "crime". 5. If you run into trouble (for example: you see your neighbor shaking her fist at your car and yelling at the driver) simply point out that you had ordered a car for the day and had mistaken it for this one.  She will not be angry at you. 6. Simply smile, apologize, and go about your merry way.

True story.

Full Moons Make Me Think of You

As tonight is a full moon, I thought it would be appropriate to post this poem, written some years ago, to a dear friend (you know who you are.  OK, you don't read this blog, but if you did, you'd know who you are.) Full moons make me think of you And all those midnight things you do It may sound silly but it’s true Full moons make me think of you

When full moons shine so very bright And you go prowling in the night Could it be that you just might…? When full moons shine so very bright

Full moons peak through windowpanes You sneak out as sleep I feign Don’t come back ‘til that moon wanes! Full moons peak through windowpanes.

Full moons cause the wind to howl And set you off on your night’s prowl Could it be that was a growl? Full moons cause the wind to howl.

Full moons set so high toward east Could my roommate be a beast? I don’t want to be her feast. Full moons set so high toward east.

Oh, full moon, don’t you see? My roommate may come after me! See how dead that I would be? If my roommate did eat me!

Related post: Help! My roommate's a werewolf!

Good news!

We have hired a tutor to teach us Hindi!  He will come to our apartment twice a week for an entire year, and says by the end, we will speak and understand well.  All for $100.  Total.

Culture Shock, episode 2

I knew in moving so far away from home, friends, and family, that there would be a lot of things and people that I would miss.  I miss beautiful lawns and trees; I miss my family; I miss jumping into a car and driving myself around.  But there is one thing I never thought I would miss as much as I do now.  One place that I rarely went to and groaned inwardly every time my dad would want to take me there:  Home Depot.  Yes, Home Depot, the one stop shop for everything "home".  Oh, how I dream of Home Depot!  And today, I learned that Ryan dreams of it, too. We were discussing our list of items that we feel we still need in order to get settled: power adapter power converter(s) shower head(s) some plants grass seed or sod some lamps light bulbs a drill & other small tools

And Ryan blurts out, "If only there was a Home Depot around here; we could get everything we still need in one place!"

"The funny thing is," he continued, "we probably only went to Home Depot once or twice in all the time we we have been married."

"But that's the beauty of Home Depot," I responded gleefully.  "You only have to go once or twice and you can get everything you need!"

Today we were out in the hopes of crossing one or two items off the list.  We've learned if we can cross off one thing we set out to do in a day, it's a productive day.  This, however, was not a productive day.  Many of the stores were closed (it is a holiday, after all) so we came home with our hands empty (and in a stolen car, but that's a story for another day!).

So now, as I sit here without plants or lights (OK, we have some lights), I am yearning for the days of driving with my dad, and him always seeming to veer somehow towards Home Depot.

On the bright side...

If my recent posts have given the impression that our move has been a negative experience, please let me assure you that it is not true!  Yes, I am still homesick and adjusting to life here, but more than anything, in my posts, I want to just point out the differences (and sometimes similarities) between life here and the life that I'm used to.  However, I think I will take this opportunity to start pointing out the things I like about living here so far.

1. the food! This has to be Numero Uno on the list because the food here is amazing. And not just the Indian food. Because we are living in a city, there is a lot of variety.

2. deliveries! Going along with number one, we have found that many restaurants here deliver. This is exciting for me because, since Ryan works nights, I'm on my own for dinner. Being able to order from some of our favorite restaurants is something I can look forward to in the evenings.

3. people do seem to want to be helpful... It's funny because even if they don't know the answer, they won't say so!

4. our apartment. It really is a lovely place, and I can't wait until we get the rest of our furniture to decorate it!

5. the spa prices! Back home, I never went to spas because of the ridiculously high prices! But here, an hour massage is $30-$40, and that's at a really, really nice place. I figure I could do that on a monthly basis!

6. the church we've been attending. It is amazing to me that we can be on the other side of the world, and still find a church that believes what we believe, sings the songs that we are familiar with, and has a service format almost exactly like our church back home! Plus, seeing people from so many different countries together and worshiping God is an amazing experience in and of itself.

I think it would be a good idea for me to continue updating this list, so I'll let you know when I add to it as the months go on.