Just a post to let you know that I haven't forgotten that I have a blog to maintain! Last couple of weeks have been filled with the mundane. An expense report, several "policy clarifications", paperwork for the employment visa, medical exams, the "official" announcement etc... Out of all this, where we ended up with a "plan" (quoted since nothing is final until it actually happens). The plan is that I will plan to go at the beginning of November and Mel and the kids will join in December, before Christmas. Next up, figuring out how to pack up a house and move it to India.

For your viewing pleasure...

Two postings in one day... must be the jetlag! Here are some photo's for your viewing pleasure.

First the house.

Here is a picture from the top of the "Mango House", so named for the abundance of mango and other trees on the property. Good pic, you can kind of see the driveway and the front gate.I chose this as the first one to show, because it most explains why we chose this particular house. We looked at some larger houses (like the massive beach house), and some houses with some cooler features (like the "nightclub" house with a 3 story chandelier and a sitting room/bar 3 stories up witha 270 degree view, overlooking the sea), but this particular one is a little more secluded, and just "tropical". See how (even from the roof) when you look out, it just looks peaceful and it is so quiet... Most of Chennai is hot, dirty and noisy. This is still hot (can't do anything about that), but feels like a real sanctuary for our family. Anyway, here are some more.

Good picture of the pool area.

Here is the front entrance of the house (that's also the front of an India spec Ford Fiesta):

View into the kitchen from the dining room.

Family room.

etc... etc... you get the idea.

Here are a couple more India pics.

Obligatory India "cow on the side of the road" picture. Yes, you really do see them quite often. Also goats, dogs, and various other little friends.

This is pretty much what it looks like everywhere in Chennai on the side of the road, just little shack-like shops selling everything from tires to food to clothes.

Proof that you can get western goods in Chennai... See that little box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese? About $3.50! Hopefully we'll learn to like the local food, otherwise, I'll be broke in India.

Subway -- "Eat Fresh". :-) We did eat at this one (and some other Subways), pretty good! We also saw KFC, Baskin Robbins, Pizza Hut.

That's all for now. Time for bed.

Were Baaack

Looked at my last post and haven't updated since Wednesay, we'll, time flies when you are travelling the globe... So here's the update for those of you who didn't see us at Noah's game on Saturday evening or at church this morning.

We settled on a house... we had called it the Mango house. We re-looked at many houses on Thursday, but couldn't get into that one again until Friday. Nice place, the Ocean Breeze was bigger and right on the ocean, but in the end it just wasn't quite right. The house we chose is still close to the Ocean (Bay of Bengal), but is sort of tucked into it's own little tropical paradise. :-) I will post some photo's soon of the house as well as some generic India photo's.

Travel time back to the US was about 24 hours. We left at about 2am (local time -- or 4:30 at home) and landed in the US at 4:30 in the afternoon, just in time to go straight to Noah's game.

Still feeling pretty jet lagged. Try to get some photo's up yet tonight.

Castles and Kebobs

So... how to describe yesterday and today? Well, we probably looked at 15 houses and 7 or 8 apartments. Also we had dinner with some soon to be friends (colleague of mine in my new job) and had another dinner at the "Kebob Factory"... Well, I tell you that I reccomend the meal at the house, over the kebob factory. There were things there that even I couldn't force myself to eat at the Kebob Factory, seriously, it was really, really different.

To keep all the houses straight, we had to give them all unique names -- lizard house, jolly dog house, new house, the nightclub, well, you get the idea. In the end we settled on a short list of 6 and a short-short list of 3. The 3 houses are pretty amazing. Ocean Breeze, Mango, and New house. We have kicked off negotiation on the Ocean Breeze (our first choice) since is a little out of our price range.

Also today we visited the school where the kids will be attending. OH MY goodness. What a fantastic place. It was seriously like something out of a movie. The kids are going to love that place. I immediately wished I could spend my days there! It is really going to be great for the kids, I am sure of it. So a good but exhausting 2 days.