Our Temporary Home - First 2 Weeks in India

We are here in India so that Thomas could take over running an English language school. The owner of the school and his family planned on going back to the US for 3 months. We arrived here 2 weeks before they left so that Thomas could be oriented to his new job, and so that we could learn how to get around here. The plan was for us to live in their apartment while they are in the US. They also have 2 children, although older than ours, so the space and furnishings are perfect for us. Before they left, however, we stayed at the apartment of a friend - a single American gal. She was so gracious to give up her space for 2 weeks for us!! Here are some pictures of our time in that temporary home.

It is a small apartment, and there is no table. We ate most of our dinners with the family, but we ate breakfast and lunch at home. So, we used a washable mat over a small "coffee table" which is really just a large basket. We had our kids sit on a cloth (to protect the couch), and lean WAY over their plates. It was actually pretty funny to watch, but they did really well with it, and we saved a lot of messes! Here is Nathaniel showing how it's done.

They do have hot water, showers, and good water pressure here, which is really nice. The one main difference with the showers is that most of the pipes are on the outside of the wall!

This is anothe view of the bathroom. In the left corner of the room is the washing machine. Instead of a dryer, though, the clothes are hung up to dry on drying racks. The shower is to the right, and up in the corner above the toilet is the hot water heater. You just turn on the water heater 5-10 minutes before you want to take your shower, then turn it off before you start - because you are never too sure about the wiring!

This next picture is of what I called the play room while we were there. It was set up for the kids to sleep in, but most of the time we were there they slept in the master bedroom with us (because it had an air conditioner, and they were up and down a lot with jet lag). After a while I got tired of digging into the suitcases trying to find things, so I laid the kids' clothes out on one of the beds so we could find things more easily. The other bed has clean laundry on it - the drying racks were here. We kept the kids' toys in this room, too.

Next is the kitchen. The contraption up on the wall is the water purifier. It has one wire that drains dirty water into the sink. Tap water here is not safe for us to drink. We use the filtered water for drinking, cooking and brushing teeth.

And the stove! A two burner gas stove, with the gas tank sitting right there! You have to turn the gas on on the tank, then light the stove with a match or lighter. We didn't have an oven in that apartment, or a toaster, so we toasted bread in a frying pan over the stove.

This is the small living room. The TV and VCR didn't work, so the kids watched movies on our computers. This also doubled as our dining room.
Master bedroom (and door into second bathroom). You can see the one air conditioner above the bathroom door. It was already hot here, and this apartment stays pretty hot, so we used the air conditoner to keep the one room cool so we could get comfortable while falling asleep.
Silly girl - I realize this picture is sideways, but I thought it captured a cute expression. The kids were happy and transitioned well.
And this is Nathaniel reading up on what to do in India! :) Actually, what he told us was that he was pretending to be Thomas! I must say we have cute kiddos!
It took almost the whole 2 weeks to get over jet lag. The kids are still having some trouble getting to sleep, but I don't think that is jet lag anymore, I think it is the changes in location and adjusting to a new place and a new way of doing things. Some nights are better than others. Once asleep, though, they sleep great through the night.