Coffee dreamin...

It just hit me that I only have eight weeks left here in India, and that makes me sad!  It was one of those things that started as a completely random thought, and within 30 seconds my mind had spun through about a million thoughts that ended in sadness about leaving!  Here's what just transpired...

I adore coffee.  It’s truly one of my favorite indulgences.  I’d been drinking a lot of coffee here, so I made the decision a few weeks back to cut out the caffeine.  I don’t need it (I drink the coffee for the enjoyment, not the jolt).  I drink primarily decaf back home, so it really isn’t a big loss for me at all.  The problem is that it’s VERY difficult to find decaf in India.  We’ve gotten some at the grocery store (thanks, Nestle!), so I can always have it at home.  But one of our favorite things to do (both here and in the US) is to sit at a coffee shop and read or talk.  But that’s hard when they don’t have decaf, which means no coffee!

So Brent had an idea.  He visits Pune about once a month for work.  While he’s there, he grabs all the little packets of decaf instant coffee that he can find from the hotel.  Then I can keep them with me in my purse and enjoy a delicious cup wherever I can find hot water (MUCH easier to find than decaf in India…although I get some REALLY weird looks when I ask for hot water...definitely throws them for a loop and puts them in a spin!).

I’m sitting here at work and wanted some coffee.  I was debating in my mind whether to use one of the precious few decaf packets I have.  I only have about 15 left.  I'm sure we’ll get a few more when we visit Thailand, but still…I have to conserve this limited resource.  

So that set me off on a mission to calculate how many I thought I’d need for the remainder of my time here to decide whether I wanted to use it today (logical, right?).  I figured that I won’t ever use them at home since I have my jar of decaf there.  That really only leaves the weekends.  And then it hit me.  I only have eight weekends left!  Even if I didn’t get another packet, my current stock should last me until I go home.

Wow!  I can’t imagine how much I’m going to miss this place, this experience, this season, this life.  It’s been HARD!  But it’s been PHENOMINAL!  I know I’ll look back at my time here with the fondest memories.  I can imagine I’ll be sitting at home one day with Brent and wish that we could just hop on the 335E bus, flash our pass, and make our way to MG Road to visit Amin or sit and sip coffee at Matteo (our favorite place).  I’ll wish I could feel the wind in my hair (and the dirt in my lungs) in the rickshaw and negotiate for a fair price (nearly impossible when you have white skin!).  I'll want to walk next door to Corner House (our favorite ice cream shop) for a double scoop of Choco-chip (for Brent) and Fig O' Honey and Rum Raisin (for me).  And I KNOW I’ll have nights when all that will satisfy is a huge spread of gobi manchurian, chicken malai kebab, chicken biryani, kaju masala, murgh makhani, garlic naan, and gulab jamun from Golkonda Chimney (our favorite restaurant).  I think I just might even miss that telling "rumbly in the tumbly" that immediately sets off a mental inventory of, "oh no, what did I eat today??".  Sigh.

I’m so excited to get back to my “normal” life in the States.  But this time in my life will hold a special place for me.  It’ll be a very bittersweet goodbye.

I think I’ll have that coffee now to cheer myself up!  I guess I have a few packets to spare.