Breaking News! Dial-up has arrived chez Madam and Mr. Alex


After a long month of questions and broken promises we finally have a dial-up connection at home! Many of you have been hearing our woes regarding this issue. Before coming to India, we assumed that we would have a broadband wireless connection and would be skypeing effortlessly with all of you. Alas not, and we have been clawing, scraping, and almost begging just to get dial-up. This morning as we tried for the 3rd time in 4 days, we heard a dial tone followed by that melodic faxy screech beckoning us to such wonders as nytimes.com and perezhilton.com. Almost screaming with joy, we rejoiced in Britney’s new haircut and were concerned about the delays in the Iraq debate in the senate (I guess some things still take a long time back home too) Anyway, we are online now and still have aspirations to achieve broadband status sometime in March.

View from the hills

Much of our blog has been concerned with the quest for daily needs and the progress of our work, however, we have managed to relax and enjoy the soft side of Vellore. Last weekend we ventured from our home on a hike to a nearby hill top. From the street these hills resemble mountains as their treeless slopes belie any discernable scale but at the same time appear docile with a blend of grass and rock. We followed our instincts and took a road through a small village, through a paddy field and began ascending the hill. We quickly found a trail spotted with cow pies and followed it up until it abruptly stopped. We trudged on hoping to find the trail again but it seemed that the trail resembled more a sporadic goat path than an established route. Regardless, we ascended with some trepidation, slight heat exhaustion, and some doubt that Mr. Alex may not be able to sniff out the goats tracks. Fortunately, after a tough ascent up a large rocky slope, we arrived in a more gentle field with a discernable path and a few curious oxen. After a quick visit with our bovine friends, we reached the summit and took a nice siesta under a tree. The view was quite striking and revealed how little development was occurring on the other side of this mountain. Vellore is quite literally bound by these hills and the opposing side was a simple assemblage of villages and fields. Fortunately, the descent was more manageable and we made it home in 45 minutes. Famished, we tapped into our cheese supply from Bangalore and cooked up some grilled cheeses.


Rustic Posh: Vellore’s leisure life

Amidst the power outages, dung-filled streets, and hairy eggs, there is a peaceful oasis called “Swimming Pool”. A 5 minute walk from our home, this pool is more Tahiti than Vellore, and it offers the quiet which you can’t find anywhere else in this ‘honk your horn’ paradise. Constructed 13 years ago by a local woman, the complex has a large (very clean) pool, surrounded by outbuildings with changing rooms, a small snack bar serving pizza and ice cream, and a work-out room with 1 Guns and Roses CD. Whenever you hear “Paradise City” you know some westerner is in there sweating it out and tapping into his inner self. Surely, they have no one to impress with their well formed biceps. Here, men seduce with their thick black mustaches. Jeeyung and I go there almost every day after work and swim laps. It’s also a good place to meet all of the international doctors here for research or clinical work, a mix of Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Germans, and Americans. I don’t know what we would do without this place. As the temperature is creeping up into the mid 90’s it’s good to know we have somewhere to go. Once it gets into the mid 110’s we might look into some snorkel gear to stay under water full time. * By the way, for those of you who are not familiar, you can leave comments regarding any entry. Just click on the comments link at the end of that blog entry.





How much should I overpay for this watermelon?




Dance by young boy. Choreography by Mr. Alex.






Local Metal Worker. Note, sledgehammers and barefeet are a scary combination.



Our future country house. The hill in the background was our hike.





That's our place in the red circle.







Poolside reading A Year in Provence.

Our oasis and our mountain.