It's My Birthday and it Couldn't be any Better

Today is my 33rd birthday. Troy did well - yesterday when we got back from exploring Mumbai, one dozen red roses were waiting for me and a German Chocolate Cake. He brought 33 candles and I managed to blow them all out in one breath. I really wanted that wish to come true!


Thanks to jetlag, I was WIDE AWAKE by 5 am and had an hour to myself to journal and reflect. I haven't had time like that since 1 day in February, and it was food to my soul. We enjoyed another wonderful breakfast - to my own amazement and delight, I am enjoying Indian food for breakfast. To my dismay, we are all already starting to smell like the Indian food we eat as we sweat away in the Bombay heat. Speaking of food We've arrived just in time for favorite Indian fruit - lichis, yum! And true to its reputation, the restaurants in Bombay are great! I thought I would lose weight on this trip, now I'm afraid I'm going to gain weight.

All of us took another delightful swim in the pool on the roof of our hotel, overlooking the Arabian Sea.
The cityscape of Bombay against the Sea is beautiful. I am feeling in many ways that I have come home. I am enjoying using my Hindi,though the few Spanish words I accidentally throw in I am sure confuses the shopkeepers. It's fun to see the highly acclaimed Bombay/Bollywood. It is true that a lot more peole wear western clothes than I remember in Delhi. We have found everyone to be respectful and helpful, whether we're lost on our own walking city tour or trying to find a place for Jia to potty for the FIFTH time! I have heard South India is different from North India, but I have not spent much time in South India before. So far the differences we've seen (and it's been 5 years, so maybe North India is different too - we'll see when we get to Delhi): no cows in the street, no elephants lumbering down main thoroughfares, no bicycle rickshaws and only a handful of auto rickshaws. The people also seem gentler, somehow - can't quite put my finger on that one.

This afternoon we board a train to Pune. At least we think we will. We just got a message that a car is waiting at the train station to bring us here to our hotel. Somehow the message was translated backward, he's supposed to be at our hotel to take us to the train station. We have time to work it out, but this trip certainly is not like our China adoption, where we were handheld through every step. If you read this in the next few minutes, you could send up a prayer for this one, though I think we can work it out pretty easily. I love train rides in India, though I don't love the train stations. I love looking at the countryside of India stream past while I listen to music. Troy did a medical school internship in Pune, but I have never been there, so I look forward to it.