A great weekend…

Brent and I enjoyed a really great weekend together.  On Saturday, we slept in a little and then got up and had dosa for breakfast.  After getting dressed, we went up to Kundalahalli gate and met Gargi at the tailor to get me measured for my saree.  Gargi took me shopping for the material several weeks ago, but I needed to get the top stitched before I could wear it (the rest of the saree is just fabric that you wrap around you).  The tailor is actually going to be able to stitch the whole thing in a way where all I’ll have to do is zip it up.  Most Indians wouldn’t do this, but for this rookie who doesn’t know how to wear a saree, it’ll be perfect!  I pick it up on Thursday morning and am planning to wear it to our office Christmas party on Thursday night.

Getting measured

Afterwards, we headed down to

MG Road

and stopped in front of Garuda mall for a picnic.  We’d packed peanut butter sandwiches, bananas, and water.  Once lunch was finished, we walked towards Amin’s shop for a visit.  On the way we passed two different homeless people asking for money/food.  One was a man who had lost a leg and the other was a woman who had a child with her.  There are homeless people all over the city, and we usually carry around little packs of cookies to hand out to them instead of money.  Sometimes they take them, but sometimes they hand them back and ask for money instead (which we don’t give).  The people on Saturday were really grateful for the cookies, and we got the idea to find an actual meal for them.  So we walked a little further up the road and found a food stand and ordered some egg rollers and orange juice.  When we brought the hot meal back to them, they smiled really big and were so thankful.  I loved being able to do that and show them love and that they’re valuable enough for someone to stop and give them something. 

Picnic-ing fools

We made one brief stop at a pet store to purchase a bag of milk bones for the little dog who lives outside our apartment.  We’ve “adopted” her and named her Prancer.  She’s so cute and just wags her little tail every time she sees us.  We finally made it to Amin’s shop and sat and visited for a while.  He told us all about Kashmir, his hometown, and we showed him pictures of our visit to Thailand.  While we were there, a couple came in looking for some Christmas presents for their families.  They were about our age, and the man was from Australia and the woman was from Colombia.  They were both living here, and it was really fun to get to know them.  They stayed in the shop for probably an hour or two, and we had a great visit and exchanged contact information.  The good news is that they bought a ton of stuff from Amin, which made our day (and his)!  We said goodbye to Amin for the day and headed to Matteo for some coffee and a quick snack.  We played a hand of Spades while we were there, but the waiter said that they didn’t allow cards.  We found out later from our friends that cards are looked at badly here since they’re so often associated with gambling.  Oops!

Being silly and displaying the bones we bought for Prancer

Our buddy, Amin (with his favorite cashews that we always bring when we visit)

Then we walked down the The Rex and saw Puss in Boots in 3D.  It was such a cute movie, and the Indians at the theater were very lively.  It’s definitely more of a “local” place (they have other theaters where Americans would go), but we wanted to experience this one.  Everyone laughed throughout and clapped at the end.  We went to Mainland China for dinner and then grabbed two chocolate pies to go (they’re individual sized) from Matteo and caught the bus back home.  Back at the apartment, we gave Prancer some of the bones we’d bought (she was so happy and took them so nicely from our hands), made coffee and ate our dessert and then played a few more hands of cards before going to sleep.

On Sunday, I taught church for the first time!  We’re studying Daniel, and I had chapter 3.  It was really fun, and everyone said they enjoyed the lesson.  Afterwards we went to lunch with friends and talked about ways that we want to minister to those in need here.  This particular couple really has a heart for that kind of ministry, so we’ve been helping them brainstorm ways to lead our church in that area.  We’ll be in Delhi this weekend, but we made plans for the following weekend to go with them to hand out blankets and food to homeless people.  I’m looking forward to that.  And we also all committed to learning how to say “God loves you” in the local language so that we could communicate at least a little with the people we interact with.

When I went grocery shopping that afternoon I found some Christmas decorations and purchased just a few things to make the apartment look a little more festive.  I also bought stockings for Brent and myself, and we’ve challenged each other to find gifts for 500 rupees or less (~$10) that we’ll put in each other’s stockings to open on Christmas morning.  I have no idea what I’m going to get him!

Our stockings hanging proudly alongside our Royal Challengers Bangalore flag (from the cricket game we went to a couple months ago)

We finished the night with dinner at a Korean restaurant and then ice cream at Naturals with James, Rubina, Nani, and Tilu.  We all enjoyed the food and company.  I said goodbye to Rubina tonight, as she'll be travelling until I leave. :(

 

All in all, it was a great weekend.  And to top it off, I came to work yesterday and had a card waiting for me from my sister!  That made my day!!  We’re looking forward to Brent’s dad visiting us this week.  He comes in late Wednesday night and will be here for about 7 days.  It’ll be so nice to see family and get to show him around the city.  We're also going to make a weekend trip up to Delhi and Agra to see the Taj Mahal (you just can't come all the way to India and not see that, right?).  Dad Louie will come to our Christmas party with us, so we'll have to get him some good Indian attire.  I can’t believe that I’m down to about 4 weeks here.  It’s flying!