There have been a few inquiries about food, and how we like the food over here. I have to admit, we haven't tried a lot of the local flare, partly because I don't think the kids will like it, but also because I'm trying really hard to not have anyone get sick. We are not familiar with too many restaurants, and even though the street food is popular and hoppin', I cannot come to make myself eat food with flies all around it. For those reasons, we've been pretty conservative on our food choices. Honestly, my expectations as a mother have completely dropped. Pretty much whatever my kids will eat, they can have...here is an example. Tonight for dinner we had Chinese take-out, the same Chinese food we had for lunch the other day with Ryan. Today for lunch we ate toast.  Last night for dinner we had Ramen Noodles (brought from home), lunch was at 'The Chocolate Bar'. Tuesday for dinner is the real kicker...Oreo's and popcorn. Yep, you read that right...no typos. So, being in India has made me a stellar mom when it comes to food choices and what I allow everyone to eat.  Other than that, I will say we eat a good breakfast. Omelets, crepes, I bought oatmeal today to have hot cereal (which normally I would never eat in the 85 degree morning weather, but I will just crank down the a/c so it colder in the apartment). Don't judge me because I let my kids eat Oreo's for dinner...I put my foot down when they asked to eat them for breakfast!

The closest thing I have personally tried here (Ryan wouldn't try it) was a 'samosa'. Be proud of me...I am willing to try things. I'd love to go out for a traditional Indian dinner, just to taste things. But, alas, the kids are with us and I won't leave them (however, I can totally lock them INSIDE the apartment with no way for them to get out....but then that's when the apartment would catch on fire and they'd die, all because I wanted to try some local food, probably should just stay home and eat the Chinese noodles). Ok, back to the samosa.  I had to google it to see what was inside a samosa. It includes potatoes, peas, cashews, a bunch of spices and it's all deep fried in this yummy phyllo -dough like pastry. Now, my mentality in the states is that everything that is deep fried is good...right? French fries, egg rolls, etc, etc, so I'm thinking this will be awesome because it's deep fried. Hmmmm, not so much. I'm sure it's great to the locals...they are everywhere (not the locals, the samosas)! But, I just couldn't get behind the flavors of the spices. My journey is not over. I'm sure somewhere out there in this city of over 1 million people there is a samosa that I will like...and when I find it, I will probably eat too many. I'll keep you posted...for now, here is what they look like:

samosa

All I could muster to eat of the samosa

Oh, and another update...here is the before and after pictures of what the boys ate from our bakery visit last night:

Before trying them

After trying them. Ryan took this box to the office for them to enjoy. Yum, yum!

We went back to Christina Public School today, Conor and Davis learned more words in Telegu...beach=sea and surfing=surfing. I think it's funny some words don't translate, so you'll hear someone speaking their native tongue and then you'll randomly hear words you recognize.  I did have some what of an epiphany today. Here is my deranged American mentality....if someone speaks English, they understand everything that I say. Umm, no, not true. We brought a bunch of snacks with us on our trip and amongst those were several bags of goldfish crackers...which we, as a family, have deemed as "fishies" or "fishy crackers".  I had a bag in my backpack today and asked the teacher if it would be ok if I share some crackers with the children. Everyone wants to try food from another country, right? I could tell by her head bob (I'll explain that one next) that she wasn't sure if she wanted to say yes or not. So, again, I explained "crackers, fishy crackers". Still, nothing. I walk over to the backpack to pull out my crackers and a  sigh of relief came over her. She says to me, "I thought you meant crackers...boom...crackers." (fire crackers). So, once again, I need to not ASS-U-ME things. :)

Ok, so there is this head bob thing that the locals do. Evidently it is a Southern Indian thing, because not one person did it in Delhi or Agra. The best way I can describe it is if you're in a conversation with someone and you are agreeing (or disagreeing) you shake your head "yes" or "no". Here they do it, but it's halfway between yes and no.  (I know you're bobbing your head, but stop!) It could mean yes, no, maybe, I don't believe you, you're lame, you're amazing, or just about anything else you want it to mean. (Maybe I should adopt this so when I go back home I can do it for Ryan, then my answers are neither yes or no!) Everyone does it! Every person I have met in Vizag does this. At first it was distracting, now I realize it's just a thing they do, but I'm still trying to decipher how to translate it. Wish me luck!

Today was our first rainy day...it just kind of drizzled on and off all day, but it didn't seem to stop anybody from their normal activity.  Note to self: don't hang clothes up to dry on a humid, rainy day and then start more laundry. Now the clothes that are drying are still wet (or maybe more wet) and the clothes that are in the washer are wet, with no place to hang them. Oops, I guess I learned my lesson there!

Drying laundry...in the rain!

Here's another one for today. We were told there is a foreign imports store not too far from our house. I was told I might be able to find tortillas there (Mmmmm, tortillas). So I go to this store today looking to find everything I need to make chocolate chip cookies, and came away with nothing for the ingredients needed for cookies, but found some balsamic vinegar, pasta, yeast and a few other things I was excited to see. One of the items we saw were Cheetos. My kids LOVE Cheetos and this is the first place I've seen them, so of course I picked up a couple of bags.  When we got home I opened the bag, popped one in my mouth and thought, "What the crap? This tastes like a Cheetos...for a second." Then I had all my kids come in so they could all try some Cheetos! HAHAHAHA I didn't look at the ingredients before I bought them, but come to find out there are all sorts of spices...on the Cheetos! (Those will be heading to Ryan's office tomorrow!)

This is what the bag looks like...normal enough, right?

These are the ingredients in the "Cheetos"...blah!

That's all for today, I'm sure I'll have some fun stories tomorrow as we are headed out for day 2 of surfing lessons!