Pictures from India

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Please check out Rufus's exploits on Nolan's friends and family blog!

Two to four footed friends

A guest update from Nolan:

We're down to just two more weeks in Mussoorie. School is going great and we can both now converse in Hindi. I'm not entirely sure yet if I feel comfortable saying, "I can SPEAK Hindi." But I'm just a few weeks (or maybe months) away from being able to speak three languages. Elizabeth is pretty good at Spanish, and her Urdu is pretty good as well, so she might even be approaching the ability to speak 4 languages, and read and write 3 different scripts.

Liz's sister, Megan, will be here in two weeks to visit Mussoorie for a couple of days before we all head out together on some other adventures. Our last 5 days in India will be mostly filled with a trip to Amritsar, a city very near the border with Pakistan. We plan on seeing the Golden Temple, which is a Sikh place of worship, and also hope to check out the daily border closing, which is supposed to be pretty festive. After Amritsar, we'll head back to Delhi and visit with Rufus's new friend, Sitla. Sitla is a 4-year-old Indian girl that was adopted by a British family. Her mother works in Delhi for the British government agency that controls all British foreign aid. They came out to Mussoorie for a week and stayed right next door to Doma's, so the kids played together almost every day and even had a sleepover. Not surprisingly, Rufus snuck in a kiss. Sitla promptly set borders, "You can kiss me on my cheek and on my nose, but not on my lips."

We've made many other friends during our stay in India. We often hang out with Lisa and Lisa. Lisa 1 is from upstate New York and Lisa 2 is from Paris. They are both here studying at the language school. Back on July 4th, they invited us to a small celebration where we ate mutton burgers and met the other Americans, Europeans, and one Sri Lankan that are studying Hindi here in Mussoorie. These contacts eventually led us to several other Americans, a couple of which are also learning Hindi to boost their chances of getting into the federal government.

All of our teachers are also very friendly, and last night we visited the home of one my teachers. They made us a delicious medley of Indian food, including a spinach cottage-cheese ball thing, lentil soup, spicy pickled chillies, spiced rice, and a potato soup kind of thing. They have two children aged 11 and 12 that speak excellent English because they attend an international school where English is the language of instruction. We all took turns entertaining each other, and Liz and I showed off some of our salsa skills. I also taught the kids how to play Scrabble and we finally left when our hosts were falling asleep in front of us. It was probably the most fun Rufus has had since being in India. He does really well with children that are a bit older than him.

We also met some random friends one night at Rokeby Manor, the fancy British-era hotel cottage at the top of the hill. Liz and I went on a date to just get some really good food (Rokeby is super clean and serves a lot of American staples like mashed potatoes, chips and salsa, etc). We sat down on the deck near a family of decent size, maybe 7-8 people. Suddenly the family swelled to about 20 people and they insisted that we join them. They were a very wealthy, modern family. For example, the grandmother was born in Goa, a former Portugese colony in western India, where she a grew up on a wealthy estate speaking Portugese, and later went to Harvard for medical school. She is now an eye surgeon in Delhi. Several of the kids had been educated in the States or in England and they all clearly had a lot of money. They were celebrating two birthdays in the family and did it in great fashion. They insisted we eat all of the food that they had ordered, including several pieces of delicious chocolate cake. Later, they invited us back to their rooms, where they served us wine, champagne, fancy cheese and crackers. This was my first real experience with Indians in an informal setting, so I wasn't prepared for the onslaught of food and drinks. As soon as they saw my glass was empty, they filled it up with something new, often without asking. One time they even pushed two glasses into my hand, and I felt like a fancy frat boy. They also gave me a plate with snacks, and soon as it was empty, they put more on it. If I ever looked at the Dad and happened to have some food or drink that had not been consumed, he would slightly cock his head to the side and give a quick flip of his wrist, which meant, "Drink up, eat up, and get more." Fortunately for Liz, she had experienced this Indian custom before, so she knew to keep her plate half full, her glass half full, and don't look at anyone for too long. I'll know for next time.

In addition to friends, we have a few pets. Given that there is door that goes to the outside, and that between the bottom of this door and the floor, there is about a 1-2 inch gap, it is not surprising that we have a pet mouse, who likes to eat the crumbs from our daily room-service breakfast. He's not a pain at all, except that we often wake up in the morning, step out of bed and feel something a bit squishy. That's right, mouse poop. And Liz is convinced that she stepped on the actual mouse once. But the mouse really isn't a big deal. Last week, Rufus was playing with some cars on the floor, when he suddenly jumped up with a squeal, and yelled in a very scary voice, "It's a bug! With pinchers!! It's a pincher bug!!" I just laughed, because I thought he was being dramatic about some kind of spider. I slowly walked over to check out the scene, and sure enough, there was a black scorpion in our room. We're in the mountains, where it is cold for most of the year, and we still had a scorpion in our room. I'm not sure what to expect when I'm in Jaipur, a desert city, in the fall.

Well, I may write one more email while I'm here if I find the chance. Otherwise, I will see most of you soon, or I will call you when I'm back in the States because I'll have my cell phone again. I love and miss you all. Take care.

nolan

Rufus in Musoorie

Today we adventured out of our new home for the summer, Doma's Inn on a walk. Rufus insisted that he wear the monkey backpack so Mom looked like an overprotective freak. Rufus had the below comments to make:

"We are in India. Their are guardians outside of our house. There are cool bathrooms here. My room is not ready yet. Today I saw a beetle. It was my twin, blue like my eyes. Blue is my favorite color. Shanti Auntie Chachi is my babysitter. I forget what I had for breakfast. There are some goats and some cows. There is tigers. Tigers. Tigers! ROOOOAAAAAR."

Pictured above are four shots by Rufus. He did them himself as well as chose the subject matter. His medium of choice is a fisher price digital camera. Hipsters get jealous. Subjects are Sunil the Inn Manager, a blue beetle, crazy Nols, a leaf on our climb up the mountain road and the obvious.

Rufus B, Superstar

Rufus has always been a bit of a ham, he gets it from his mother... no his father... no both. At last his hamminess realized proper audience in Haridwar. Amidst pilgrims using public toilets (the parking lot itself) and hawkers pressuring us to buy tickets of devotion for the evening river pooja (a prayer on the Ganges river) Rufus was "discovered".

Young men who we first saw leaping off bridges into the churning current of the Ganges river in their underwear swarmed towards Rufus. Everyone wanted a "snap" or photo on their cellphone with the foreign boy. They wanted to see if his hair and skin felt different from theirs. They thought the mere sight of him was hilarious. Mom of course was very nervous he would be kidnapped or harmed by the horde of strangers but Rufus was delighted. Despite often refusing to smile when Mom or Nolan takes a picture he grinned broadly in the shots with his new friends. Eventually the police broke up the crowd to allow us to return to the plastic sheet on the riverbank the family was sharing with a generous Gujurati family.

After the ceremony, the purchase of a strange rotating fan and a quick foot dip in the holy river by Rufus and Nolan we scurried back to the car to mosey on over to Rishikesh.

From the man himself:

"We went to the ceremony. I don't know what else we did there. The guys were so underweary and they had underwear and water on. We dipped our feet in the holy river. I made one friend I don't know her name it was a little girl. We played with her bracelet. I was tired and she wasn't listening to me. I peed in an on the ground toilet. I did not like it cause there were some flies in it. I saw a cow eating food off the ground, all kind of different color cows. We see them next to houses and stores and there were two in the middle of the street And one on the side of the street it's so cool!"

Delhi Belly Bonanza 6-23-11

We arrived in Delhi two days ago and then promptly fell asleep for 15 hours. The stillness was ultimately broken by Rufus vomiting into Mom's hand (later reprised onto Nolan's leg). Luckily some bubble gum pepto bismal and an enormous brunch did the trick of setting his system back in order. Those on the circuit refer to this phenomenon as "Delhi Belly".

Today's adventures included a romp to the National Railway museum in 100 degree heat. This required ice cream for both mother and son and Nolan's first dealings with the videshi or foreigner "discount" so often presented to tourists. Both Rufus and Nolan bravely fought and subdued a very dangerous and handsome tiger (see pictures below) while Mom thoroughly enjoyed the letter that inspired toilets to be added to India's trains under the English. The letter demonstrated a certain Mr. Sen's frustration that he was forced, after evacuating his bowels at a rest stop, to chase the train only to have his lungi fly awry and expose his parts to the the shocked ladies and gentlemen aboard.

After getting our fill of engines and caramels (having inexact change Nolan was presented with these in lieu of rupees by a cashier) we left the slightly disappointing museum for a sticky ride over to India Gate, the Red Fort and the tombs of India's first family (Nehru, Indira, Sanjay, Rajiv) and best known agent of change Gandhi. This required, obviously, more ice cream.

For those missing Rufus most it should be known that he is loving his TRAFFIC JAM game, in excellent health and spirits and a proud photographer. His photos will be updated once Mom figures out how to delete the one he took of her in the shower when he burst in on her yesterday morning. Perhaps he has a future in tabloid journalism.

(Check back soon for photos of the tigers, the trains and the Rufus)

Baby Lily! Rufus returns to the UK for one day 6-22-11

After our flight from DC to London we paused for a day to adventure in London. Rufus was happy to show Nolan the ropes as it was his first visit. Highlights included Big Ben, the Globe, the Thames and her many bridges (Millenium, London, Tower), St. Paul's Cathedral in which the queen herself was paying respect on the building's 300th anniversary of being open to the public and the enormous and confusing Victoria Station. As for favorite moments, everyone's had to be seeing beautiful, charming, windy baby Lily and her wonderful Mommy Stephanie. Together we all enjoyed a pub lunch and sunshine on one of London's nicer June days. Maxime, Lily's proud Pop was sorely missed due to work commitments but we felt him there in spirit, especially as we were in iphone contact a few times!

Mom's favorite hot spot was surely the Tate Modern where she held concert with her beloved Stills, Twombly, Newman, Matisse and Rothko's. That woman (me) sure has a thing for color. Rufus probably best enjoyed simply riding the public transport and Nolan was pretty jazzed about, what else, the "Full English Breakfast" he ordered for lunch.

Pictures coming soon!

Camping at La Push 2

September 1-3, 2010

Nolan challenged Rufus and I to a 3 day backpacking trip to the Hoh rain forrest and Quileute beach on Washington's famed Olympic Peninsula. Legend (okay, tween pop culture) suggests that the people to whom the beach belongs are protectors of humanity, guided and strengthened with the spirit of the wolf. This guidance is what makes them ridiculously well physiqued heart throbs to the throngs of Twilight fans. The tribe who lives here isn't much troubled by this notoriety though the local economy over in Forks seems to revolve around it.