beloved, crazy India (and stupid mistakes!)

So we moved, on from Kochi up north to Kannur. We ended up staying in a government guest house with government officials all staying there (the previous person to stay in our room was the chief of state of Kerala...interesting).

Our room was TOTALLY GORGEOUS. Oh my goodness it was lovely. ten foot ceilings, a huge bathroom, a sunny balcony with a sweeping panoramic view of the ocean-all for about $6.00 a night. The windows were about 6 feet tall and opened to allow the sea breeze to come into our room!
The night that we stayed there the power went out and (first stupid mistake of the evening:) we didn't notice when they power came back on everywhere except in our room. So we went for supper, came back, lit candles and complained that the fan was not working. As per the heat, we fell asleep (second stupid mistake of the evening:) in our birthday suits to deal with the terrible heat. (Third stupid mistake of the evening:) We left the windows WIDE OPEN to allow the sea breeze to come in. (Fourth stupid mistake of the evening:) Somewhere along the line Marcie wondered if the mosquito's would be a problem and passed it off with some vague memory of being in Vancouver at the age of 7 or 8 and remembering her Uncle say there were no mosquito's because they didn't like salt water. And so the buffet was open. free blood. on us.

OF COURSE, not 20 minutes later we woke up slapping ourselves silly. (Literally). We were covered in bites! Carmen has two massive welts on either of his hip bones he calls his "feasting stations" odd place for the two biggest bites but I'm not going to question the logic of mosquito's.

The next night we learned that you can turn the power back on yourself, we just didn't know where to find the switch.

That was our clumsiest day for sure: the morning before involved: marcie just about dying 3 of carmen's five shirts pink, carmen breaking our clothesline and carmen and marcie collectively staining carmen's last pair of shorts. Carmen now walks around with a HUGE red streak down the side of his grey shorts. it looks like he murdered a chicken or something but what are we going to do?

The next night we were ready to check out but the manager was M.I.A. We were in a rush because we had a train to catch. Finally he came and we thought we were going to miss the train. When we got to the station it was just arriving and we hopped on quick, settled in for a 8 hour ride and away we went. (side note: The ticket officer told us that our name, Esau, in the local language means Christ...pretty interesting!)

The thing about Indian train stations is that there are no English signs as to what town you are stopping at. So we were constantly asking people. Our stop was at 345 am. and so we kept waking everyone up when we asked what station we were at. Finally the train stopped, Carmen hopped off the bunk to check and came running back to Marcie, saying "come on, come on, come on..." Marcie began to put on her shoes and Carmen grabbed his bags and bolted down the hallway. Marcie heared a bunch of men shouting and grabbed her bags and plodded down the hallway. The men were shouting "come come come come"!!!!! and when the door opened the train was already moving and beginning to pick up speed. Marcie saw Carmen already off the train and threw herself off the train! Just to recap: WE JUMPED OFF A MOVING TRAIN!

We got to the station that had more cows than people in the dark of the early morning. we got in an auto rickshaw for over an hour on a road that was full of massive potholes. We finally arrived to where we are now:

a gorgeous beach, a bamboo hut, a restaurant that overlooks the ocean. We spent the whole day splashing in the Arabian sea! There is hardly anyone here and there are other tourists so marcie can wear a bathing suit and not get stared at! there are crabs and ships and huge rocks and geckos and the sun is HOT and we are SO HAPPY.

There is MAJOR DRAMA going on with this pack of dogs: we've been watching it and trying not to get caught in crossfires! Carmen has this amazing understanding of animals so he diagnosed all their problems: There are 5 males and one female and they are all fighting over her. They keep showing their teeth and hurling themselves at each other. It is so funny to watch it all unfold... and to know that we are basically invisible to them.

So, there you have the ups and downs of a day in the life of India.

As of yesterday Carmen and I have been married one month! woo hoo! we are SO happy together on this amazing adventure! One time these schoolgirls asked us "where is your house?" and we said "we have no house!" they kept on asking us over and over and it really began to hit us--we really, really don't have a home right now. Our home is each other, and that's what we keep saying....wow!

XOXOX
Marcie & Carmen