April 15, 2016
Today we had temps of
106 but according to the weather station it felt like 110. Yikes, I thought it
felt like living on the sun. Late in the
day we met with three people from the university and the broker. Negotiations
went on for about 15-20 minutes and when it was all over we were pretty much
where we started. Welcome to our world. What was established was we would sign
papers tomorrow, Saturday and move in on Monday. Not knowing this was how it
would go, I carried 90,000 rupees in my purse, most of the bills were in 500
rupee denominations and I felt like a drug lord with a suitcase full of money.
Turned out we didn’t need to hand over the money until the signing of the lease
agreement so I brought it back to the hotel.
We went out for dinner, then caught an auto rickshaw to an
expo of hand loomed textiles. Unfortunately we never found the place. There was
a huge venue for expos and we were let off at the wrong end. We walked around
the outside fence until we found an opening and talked to some security guards
who spoke no English and discovered it was too far away to walk with the
evening radiant heat from the sidewalks.
April 16, 2016
We slept in and took ourselves out for an American breakfast
where we tried to go last weekend but couldn’t find the place. We enjoyed two
cups each of espresso drinks, eggs and toast. It was a real treat even it we
had to wait until 11:00 when they opened. I have yet to find a place that
serves espresso that opens before 11:00. We came back and called the broker to
see when we would meet to sign the papers. He put me off and said he was
waiting for some details from the owners. We waited until 3:45 and called again
for an update knowing the person at CEPT would be leaving his office around
4:00. There will be no signing until Wednesday. The owners, who live in Surat , are in Mumbai for
the weekend. They will get the papers Monday, sign them and hopefully we will
get them Wednesday. So we will move at the end of the week or during the
weekend. Ron handled it well and I did not. I was convinced that we would move
in on Saturday. Now I think we will be lucky to get in next Saturday. Ah India .
April 17, 2016
Today we slept in again, went to the same place again for an
American breakfast. Ron had a banana cinnamon waffle and I had fried eggs and
toast with another Americano. Afterwards we headed to the mall to see the only
English speaking film in this town of 7 million: Disney’s Jungle Book in 3 D. In Portland
it would cost $15. Here it was $2.50! Yahoo! We enjoyed it even though it
wasn’t our usual movie fare. It was a great distraction and we needed to get
out of the hotel. The theater was full even though it was also playing in Hindi
on another screen. I saw one other family who were Caucasian. Afterwards we
walked through the mall. At one point I ducked into the restroom and when I
came out Ron was surrounded by a group of five young Indian men who were
chatting him up. People are so incredibly warm here. We always get smiles and a
pleasant hello. We did a little more shopping for our house: kitchen items and
a coffee grinder. I have not seen a coffee maker but I brought two coffee cones
and filters so I am not worried.
We came back to the hotel and rested a bit then went out for
cold lemonade and fries. We decided to walk back to the hotel using a back
street and were swarmed by 10 kids who were eager to talk to us. All of them
spoke English and were totally delightful. We passed by a ‘dairy’ right in the
middle of the city with 10-12 cows in a small confined area, maybe four US
standard lots.
There was some kind of protests today in the state of Gujarat and apparently some in Ahmedabad. As a result
wireless internet was cut for 36 hours and will resume at midnight Monday
night. It’s rather funny because the hotel finally got internet service today!
LOL. The service was cut to prevent using social media and texting that might
add fuel to the fire, so to speak.
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