Saturday Clay played his first game of Cricket. Then complained about being sore the rest of the week:) This was the practice match for the inter-company game this coming Saturday. He said that he kept trying to apply baseball principles to the game of Cricket. The more seasoned Cricketiers thought this was quite funny. Instead of blocking the ball from the wickets, he was swinging at the ball. His co-workers told him that he has been here for 4 months and this was the first time they had seen him look like an American. I thought that was funny.

Saturday Ash and I went to the salon for a manicure and pedicure and decided to be daring. We tried eyebrow threading, which is India's version of waxing. I didn't mind it much, but I don't know that Ash will do it again. I envisioned these women pulling out individual eyebrow hairs by tying pieces of thread around each one. It isn't like that at all. They take big chunks out at a time, just like waxing, but it’s more of a cutting sensation.

Saturday night we went on a scavenger hunt organized by TEA, the expatriate organization in Hyderabad. It was quite fun. Our driver really got into it too. One of the items on the list was a license plate with the number 4 in it, he was calling all of his buddies and family members trying to track one down for us. Finally he got a hold of another driver friend whose employer was also in the scavenger hunt and they took their license plate off and gave it to us. I doubt that our "competitors" knew what was happening. Either way, we lost...by a long shot. Third place was 142 points and we had 81:) Oh well, it was lots of fun and we met some new people at the dinner afterwards.

Sunday Clay and I went to our first Hindi class. We learned "Suar" which seems to be the vowels of the Hindi alphabet. We have been meaning to take some classes and just realized that we have been here for 4 months and neglected to take advantage of our surroundings. We’ll be attending class twice per week for an hour each lesson. So watch out Hindi speakers, we'll be practicing a lot.

Sunday afternoon we ventured out without our driver. It went quite well, ah...the freedom. Clay is maneuvering around in this city quite well. We found a great little German/Swiss bakery here called the Ofen. Mom-you will really like this one when you get back, great French breads.

Monday there was a solar eclipse and we were given several pieces of advice from a co-worker that I thought you all might find interesting. Due to the eclipse:
-We shouldn’t eat after 1:00pm because we won’t be able to digest the food well.
-Claire shouldn’t be outside between 4:20-6:20pm because the sun rays will be bad for her.
One other eclipse related item…Clay was supposed to have a new employee start on Monday, but he called that day and explained that due to the eclipse his dad told him not to start until Wednesday. It’s not auspicious to start a new job on a day with a solar eclipse.

Thursday and Friday were early cricket practice mornings for Clay, he’s gearing up for the big game tomorrow. Wish him luck.

Saturday night we are going to a Diwali festival with some of Clay’s employees. I’m not sure what to expect, but hopefully we’ll have some good stories for you next week.

Claire’s New Words:
Baff=Bath
Fan
Kirt=Skirt

Phir Melingay! (That’s “See you later” to our non-Hindi speaking friends and family. I actually learned this one from Claire watching Tele Tubbies in Hindi, not in our Hindi class:)


Sincerely,Julianna Ehlers