Last Friday Clay adopted a scooter. I guess the Goa experience really rubbed off on him. For those of you who knew us 6 years ago, don’t worry, the first thing he did was buy a helmet. All is well and he is enjoying his early morning scooter ride to work, and early evening ride home each day.

Last weekend was pretty normal, lots of swimming and eatingJ The weather continues to be quite hot, as a matter of fact, my arms are sticking to my desk right now. Ugh. Highs this week (note that we didn’t have air conditioning in the office on Monday and Tuesday):

Monday-104

Tuesday-106

Wednesday-104

Thursday-105

Friday-105

Clay is leaving for Goa today and mom leaves for Trivandrum tomorrow. I think Claire and I are going to take a long trip to “snow world” this weekend and do some swimming at the apartment, it’s too hot for anything else. Claire and I were also invited to a prayer group at one of Clay’s co-workers house Saturday night, so we’ll try to make that unless we are fried from the sun during the day.

Saturday night our upstairs neighbors are having a going away party, they are leaving in a couple of weeks. Claire inherited some new toys from them. A silver robot dog that barks, wags his tail and walks around, a puzzle, a new kids folding chair (Claire quickly dubbed it “Claire’s chair” as if one of the 3 adults in the house might try to sit one butt cheek in it), and a connect four game (this one’s a big hit, put the checkers in, dump them out, put them in, dump them out, and so on).

Clay updated the photo website this week, so check out the recent pictures: www.clubphoto.com search by claytman@excite.com. (I couldn’t resist, I had to attach one to the email, this is Claire dolled up in one of her Indian outfits on our way to a wedding.)

I’ll write more next week. Miss you all.

Sincerely,
Julianna Ehlers

Ok, I am 10 days into my new obsession… traveling by scooter in India is the only way to go. I feel very liberated, not having to wait for the driver (God bless him, he is a great kid), not having to worry about the car being available to Joyce and Jules and the baby.

Our first ride, as you have already read last week, was in Goa. That is a very leisurely activity, with no traffic to talk about. Hyderabad is a bit more hectic, but you just have to drive with one thing in mind "Everyone on the road is crazy, they are all trying to kill you, be defensive be defensive, blow the horn, be defensive, blow the horn". I will continue to explore and stay within my limits, and the limits of my faith in other drivers.

For anyone that cares about the particulars of ‘new’ chariot: It is a 13 year old Honda Kinetic. It has been the loyal servant of one of my coworkers, Jagdish, since it was new. It has a 80cc 2 stroke motor that will carry my 110 kgs to about 50 kilometers per hours (for you back home that means “big Clay can go about 35 miles per hour”. Which is plenty of speed for all but the quietest stretches of Hyderabad's roads. It has an electric start, turn signals, and a horn that even turns heads in Hyderabad.

I did a search or two of the other blogs here on blogspot, just looking for people with good motorcycle and scooter experiences. I came across one of the nicest pages I have ever seen on any subject at http://vespalx150.blogspot.com/ . His name is Steve Williams and he is an excellent writer that is really enjoying the freedom and flexibility that his daily scooter commute provides him. He takes really nice photos of his ‘little Vespa’ in the beautiful PA countryside around his home.

I am not going to model my weekly journals on Mr. Williams, I cannot even begin to write or take photos in his league. But I recommend that everyone go and check out is writings, or at least thumb through the archives and see some of his photos.

We made it to and from Goa this last weekend. We had a great time and met up with another Nebraskan, Brady (or “Lady” as Claire calls her) Beecham, who is studying public health in Trivandrum which is in the state of Kerala. We all had a lovely stay, here’s a recap:

We headed out Friday afternoon, the flight was on time, Claire took a catnap on the plane (which is not like her at all), no troubles. We headed straight to our beach hut hotel called Furtados. The staff immediately remembered us from our first trip there last November with Ashley, so we had a warm welcome. Claire even remembered “Uncle Pio,” the manager of the hotel. (Uncle & Auntie are respectful terms kids use in India to address strangers, Claire has picked up this adorable habit.)

Friday afternoon we headed for the beach. Claire is a bit skeptical of the water, I think the waves are a bit intimidating. She didn’t want to get in at all on Friday, but by Monday she was ok with a quick dip and some jumping in the waves.

Saturday mom and Brady headed into town for some shopping and the Ehlers hung out on the beach, built some sand castles and hunted seashells. We had great meals each day, our favorites were the “prawns spring rolls” and the “calamari masala fry,” amazingly yummy and cheap.

Sunday we went into town for the Easter church service, it was nice, but very hot. There wasn’t any a/c in the church, but evidently it was cooler inside than outside, because a stray dog slept through the service in the aisle. Sunday afternoon Clay and I rented a scooter and explored Benalum and Colva (the villages just south and north of where we stayed) and we had a nice lunch in Colva. When we got back Claire went for a ride with us on the scooter, then mom, and Brady took it for a spin on her own. Brady headed out Sunday night on her 20 hour train ride back to Trivandrum. Unfortunately Sunday morning Claire woke up with bug bites all over, we aren’t sure if they were spider or ant bites, but boy did they itch. Her right eye was almost swollen shut, so it wasn’t the best of experiences. She’s much better now.

Monday was very low key, time on the beach, some reading, Claire’s nap, then back to the airport. On the bus ride from the plane to the airport in Hyderabad Claire told the stranger next to her, “Uncle, hold on tight” referring to the strap to hold onto while riding in a bus. That got a lot of chuckles, as well as the “Get up, go that way” command she gave to everyone on the plane after the plane landed and came to a complete stop in Hyderabad (this was of course, before the fasten seatbelt sign was turned off).

We met some German social worker students at our hotel in Goa that have been doing their practicums in Bangalore. Basically they have been playing with children on the streets, it sounded really interesting...but anyway, they left Bangalore last weekend because there was a riot after a famous actor, Raj Kumar, died (he died of a heart attack, I think at the age of 77). Apparently more than 10,000 people showed up at his funeral and they wouldn't let them see his body, so crowd started rioting. They attacked police officers, lit cars and busses on fire. Apparently the whole city shut down. So a lot of people fled town for the weekend until things calmed down.

Mom is heading to Trivandrum next weekend to visit Brady and Clay is heading back to Goa with a friend (this will be his first sleeper bus experience in India, it’s a 10 hour bus ride from Goa to Hyderabad). Claire and mom will be chillin’ in Hyderabad.

Conversations with Claire:
Mom: “Claire, how are you?”
Claire: “I’m good…no…I’m great!”
(This is also interchangeable with “I’m pine (fine)…no…I’m great!”)

Interesting trivia:
Number of auto rickshaws in Hyderabad- 500,000
Number of buses in Hyderabad- 19,000


Sincerely,Julianna Ehlers

Hi everyone! I hope all is going well back home and happy Easter weekend to all of you. We miss you all terribly. Eat some chocolate bunnies, Cadbury eggs, and those bright pink squishy marshmallow things for us. We did dye Easter eggs last weekend thanks to a package from Grandma Clyde (thanks grandma!). It was a lot of fun, but Claire didn’t quite get the need to be gentle with the eggs, so most of them ended up smashed. We’ll try again next year.

Saturday we were out and about, but it was really tiring, it’s just too hot right now to be roaming around the city during the day. So we spent Saturday and Sunday afternoon swimming in the pool. Claire’s really enjoying swimming (or “fwimming” as she says it) these days. She and grandma Joyce have been going “fwimming” every day this week. She even got down on her naked belly this morning on the bathroom and “swam” across the wet tiles.

Last weekend Claire noticed someone wearing water wings and she said, “Ohhhh….arm pillows!” Makes sense, they do look like arm pillows, but I never really thought of it that way. Thanks to Aunt Kari for purchasing Claire her first set of “arm pillows” we are going to try them out this weekend!

Next subject-

OK, so we can’t quite get this timing thing right. So the first wedding we went to here we were right on time, which ended up being 2 hours early. The second wedding, we showed up 30 minutes late and we missed the whole thing because 2 hours later we had to go back to work and they hadn’t started. BUT…Wednesday we thought we’d show up fashionably late to a wedding that started at 7:15, we arrived at 8:30. The whole thing was already over!!! We missed it all! I would say that after 10 months we still don’t have the system down, everyone else seems to know but us.

Last night we had Claire’s birthday party. She was more interested in eating the cake and ice cream than opening her presents, which seems to be a bit backwards, but oh well. The big hits this year were a stuffed animal mama/baby lamb combo from Grandma Joyce, Thomas the Train videos from Primo Mark/Prima Ana Paola, and some Disney stamps from mom and dad. She also got a bucket of sand toys for our trip to Goa this weekend, after she opened this present, she said “beach” and headed for the door. I think she’s as ready as we are.

We are opening a 3^rd Kenexa office in Hyderabad this weekend (the pooja is today), and my team is one of the lucky teams who gets to move. The new office happens to be in the same building as the 2^nd office which is where Clay sits. Funny thing about this is that there are 2 sets of elevators. They don’t stop at the same floors, so if you want to go to floor 6 you use the elevators on the right, if you want to go to floor 2, you use the elevators on the left. Clay is on the 6^th floor, I’m on the 2^nd. So if I want to go see him, I can get back on the elevator, go down 3 floors to the lobby, get on the other set of elevators and go up to the 6^th floor or I can walk up 5 flights of stairs, get on the elevator and go up one floor. I guess I might as well walk up the 6 flights and not deal with the elevator. Who needs a Stairmaster when you have a fine opportunity like this!

Miss you all, see you in 2 months.

Sincerely,
Julianna Ehlers

Weather update-it was up over 100 degrees every day this week. The forecast for next week is a high of 105 each day and a low of 82. July and August in Nebraska are going to be cake for us this year.

The sickness continued this week. I started getting sick on Saturday, Claire on Sunday, we are just coming out of it today. So far Clay hasn’t been affected. So it’s been kind of a downer week. It’s better that it happened this week, because starting next week we have a hectic schedule, Monday is our wedding anniversary (7 years!), Wednesday is Claire’s 2nd birthday, we are going to a wedding reception on Tuesday, a wedding Wednesday morning, and another reception Wednesday night, then Friday we head for Goa.

Next week must be a very auspicious time for weddings. We’ve received 3 wedding invitations for weddings taking place next Tuesday through Friday (the one on Friday is at 3:52am in a town that is a 7 hour train ride away, don’t think we’ll be making that one)! Wow!

Claire has “spring break” next week. Which is a good thing, because she’s really stressed out at school right nowJ

She’s still chatting away. Here’s a recap of a conversation I had with her last night:
Mom: “Claire, what do you want for your birthday?”
Claire: “Umm….Presents!”
Mom: “What kind of presents?”
Claire: “Umm….Purple ones!”
Mom: “How many do you want?”
Claire: “Two!” (She said this without any hesitation, but while holding up all 5 of her fingers on her right hand)

PS-Clay mentioned this week that they have a new air freshener in the Ameerpit office that reminds him of wd40. I think he is starting to day dream about his lawnmower.

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,
Julianna Ehlers