Bikram treadmill and galub jamun…

Last night Brent took me next door to a restaurant called Adaa to get galub jamun.  It’s an Indian dessert that I can best describe as fried donut holes soaked in a sugary syrup.  They’re to die for.  Throw in some vanilla ice cream, and I’m half way to heaven.  An Indian friend of ours had made them for us in the states before, but they were even better here.  Before I got to Bangalore, Brent and some of his friends had a galub jamun eating contest.  They went in rounds of 10.  Brent made it to round 3 before stopping.  And he wasn’t event the winner.  Someone else made it 4 rounds!

Adaa

Galub Jamun perfection

This morning I experienced what I’ll call Bikram treadmill.  They have Bikram yoga, where you practice in a sauna at insane temperatures for the supposed health benefits.  Well today the gym decided that it didn’t want to run the A/C or fans, so it was HOT HOT HOT.  I was pouring sweat after the first mile.  Throw in a few men who don’t wear deodorant, and it was an experience to say the least. 

I was telling my sister about the cows yesterday, and she had trouble believing that they really are all over.  So I snapped a picture on my walk into work this morning.  These cows are actually in grass, but they’re usually just walking along the road.

I listened to some worship music on Pandora today while I worked.  One of my favorite songs came on.  I don’t know the name of it, but one of the verses says “in the morning, give me Jesus”.  It made me think about how grateful I am for our morning devotional time here.  At home I normally do my Bible study at night after dinner and dishes and right I fall into the bed.  At times it feels like I’m flying through it since there’s so much else going on.  But here we get to spend about an hour in the morning just leisurely reading, praying, and journaling.  It’s been so wonderful, and I like how the Word is on my heart before I ever set foot out the door.  I was in a bad mood this morning (not really sure why), but I felt peace and watched my attitude improve as I read and prayed.  I’ve been reading through John and the Psalms, and today I read the verse where Jesus says that He gives us the Holy Spirit to remind us of His words.  This is comforting to me that as I talk to people, the words will come – not from me, but from the Spirit inside of me.   

We had Subway again for lunch, so I think I’ll just start going by “Jared”.  Each day they have a special sandwich that’s on sale, and Monday/Wednesday/Friday are the healthier options.  So we usually go for those when they’re available.  It’s fun, because they have some Indian specialties in addition to the normal menu.  Today I had a chicken tikka sub.  Pretty good! 

I decided to go downstairs and get coffee and a fruit cup around 4:30 PM today.  As I was walking to the elevator, our friend Taha was just getting off and coming into the office.  Not wanting me to have to walk alone (he wasn’t concerned for safety, just that I wouldn’t have a friend to walk with), he told me wait right there.  He ran into the office and threw his bag down and then walked with me all the way to coffee (two buildings over) and even carried my fruit back for me!  Once again, the sense of community in India amazes me.

Tonight we went to dinner at Golkonda Chimney with our friends Ankita and Nandan.  It was a really nice restaurant pretty close to where we stay.  They have a great open air seating area upstairs, but we didn’t want to get bitten up with the mosquitoes so we stayed inside.  In India when you go out with friends, you pretty much always eat family style.  Everyone just orders some stuff and passes it around (but the info I got earlier about everyone eating with the same fork is thankfully false).  We ordered gobi manchurian (fried cauliflower gravy dish), chicken malai kabab (spicy chicken, really good), dal fry (pureed spiced lentils), kaju masala (a gravy cashew dish…my favorite tonight!), and a gravy lamb dish.  The first two are starters, and the last three are all main dishes eaten with your hands using naan (delish!) and roti (a warm flatbread, similar to naan but thinner and wheat based).  After dinner they bring you a bowl of warm water with lemon to rinse your hands.  It was a wonderful meal and a great time with friends. 

Golkonda Chimney

The group at dinner (Ankita and Nandan work with us)

As a reference for how inexpensive the food is, Brent and I each got 6-inch subs today for $3.60 total (150 rupees), my coffee and fruit cup cost $1.41 (59 rupees), and dinner for 4 was about $30 (~1400 rupees).  Unbelievable!  And Brent said that Bangalore is actually really expensive compared to other parts of India.  I’m hoping to join the team on an upcoming supplier visit to Pune in October, and then we’ll visit Delhi in December so that will give me a good comparison.

Speaking of rupees, one of the funniest things that Brent has taught me is that Indians don’t always have correct change when you give them large bills.  So instead of change, they’ll sometimes give you coupons or even chocolates.  No kidding!  Can you imagine someone in America handing you a mini Hershey bar instead of your change?  And if you get on the bus and only have large bills that they can’t (or don’t want to) break, they’ll ask you to get off.  So now I know to make sure I have plenty of smaller bills ready to go!  I’m becoming a pro at the bus, by the way.  By the end of the week, I think I’ll have the ride to work down.  Then I just need to work on the other areas that we visit on the weekend.

 A few random pictures:

Gotta love boxed milk!

Our shoe collection by the front door (we always take them off when we get home to keep the floors clean)

They had "Friends" on TV!

A bit hard to see, but this was a Ganesh parade going on as we left work.  There are huge idols like this all over that they push around.  There are drums and fire works.  It's actually really neat if it just weren't for the idol worship that it symbolizes!