My mouth is on fire!

We are in India! Before this trip if you had asked me if I liked spicy food I would have answered in the affirmative. Now? NOW? I just don't know. I don't think I'm cut out to eat spicy food like they have here. It hurts. I sweat. It's not pretty. Jefferson loves it, though.

We spent our first week in Chennai getting to know the Metro (great new rail system like the 'L' in Chicago) and the area our hostel was in, and then we headed off to Pondicherry (Pondy), to see how we liked that town. By "headed off" I mean we took a five hour bus ride with no pit stops for lady travelers - which sounds horrible, but actually wasn't so bad - perhaps only because I didn't have to pee during the trip. Pro tip - dehydrate yourself!

Pondy used to be a French colony so there were lots of crepes and pan au chocolates to be had - and that is a major plus. The big downside was that the first place we stayed resulted in me getting so many bug bites on one arm that I look like I have a disease. I covered up better the second night but left my face exposed (silly me) so I got a few more bites on my face and even my eyelids. Yuck.

I believe even Gandhi hated mosquitos and that makes me feel better. Fear not, we moved out of that place and into a new, virtually mosquito free place that was lovely. It was right on the ocean, super quiet because it's associated with an ashram, and clean. The front desk staff wasn't very friendly, but I almost didn't want to leave because the place was nice and relaxing (and no more bug bites).

View from our room/balcony

We also got to continue our tradition of eating Mexican food in each country that we visit! In Pondy we went to Margaritas and I'll have you know, it wasn't all that bad. It wasn't good, mind you - but not bad. A lot like getting Mexican food in London... they used mozzarella cheese for everything. They also must have seen "chili powder" on a few recipes and thought they could just use their own version of chili powder but I am here to tell you that makes for one painfully spicy dish and my mouth was on fire again.

But we did want to leave and go back to Chennai, for we are city folk. I don't think most people like visiting Chennai very much because it is not touristy at all, but we're not really here for touristy stuff so we like it just fine. We're spending the majority of our time sitting at cafes, watching online courses, sometimes doing yoga, talking over an app we're creating and overall just relaxing. I'm also becoming a pro at crossing busy streets here.

I haven't taken many pictures but one really beautiful thing I've taken lots of photos of are the different patterns created on the sidewalks all around Pondy and Chennai for the Pongal holiday/festival. They are beautiful and colorful and I keep making Jefferson stop so I can take more pictures. Here are a few...

Goodbye, Greenwich!

The O’Hansens have left London. I repeat, the O’Hansens have left London. Why? Because Jefferson’s two year contract is up and after two years – that really flew by – we are ready to try something new. London just wasn’t for us, but there are so many great memories we’ll have from our time here.

We’ll miss the Wild’s the most – I mean, I practically lived there half the time the first year when Jefferson traveled every other week – and we actually did live with them the last two weeks we were in London. We did so much with the Wild’s over the last two years and had so much fun! It was especially fantastic to watch this little kiddo grow up from a tubby munchkin to an adorable toddler.  

 

 

 

 

Alfred and new baby Charles!

 

 

He rambles on and on these days and most of it makes sense, but the part I like the best is the last month he started to say our names. They come out as more, “Kay-nan” and, “Jesh-shen”, but I’ll take it.

We spent the last few weeks in London giving away most of our stuff, storing the rest (thanks, friends!), moving out of our apartment and then moving in with the Wild’s for the last two weeks. We had Christmas and New Years together at Chez Wild and we decided to really go for it by making Christmas a Dickens theme. That meant funny hats and a goose for dinner…which was surprisingly delicious!

 

 

For New Years, little baby Charlie felt the need to celebrate his first NYE by being in the hospital with bronchitis and Sarah Wild was there with him. The rest of us were home and had a mellow but great NYE celebration of lost of food and hanging out.  FYI Charlie and Sarah Wild came home all safe and sound before we left the country!

Who are those other folks in the picture, you might be asking yourself. Why that’s Matt and Jesy from the FriendShip! Our good friend Cat, who we know from Chicago but lives in London now, introduced us to a plethora of Americans and we six power couples call our chat group the FriendShip (as in, ‘All Aboard the FriendShip’).  We’ve done cheese festivals together, tons of dinners, a wedding, bought a Danny Devito cardboard cutout, Thanksgiving, you name it. Adam and I even posed in the same way for our high school senior pictures. Twas a FriendShip that was meant to be. We’ll definitely all keep in touch with these guys – and how could we not? Look at us!

 

I’ll also miss my volleyball team – who I got to play with for a season and a half. They were so much fun and really took us in as part of the team family. Jefferson was dubbed the number one fan and given a t-shirt that said so since he was at every single game and almost every single practice. 

GO DIVAS!

So basically what we’ll miss the most from London are the people that we’ve met. I’ll also miss the hummus at Waitrose and my wine fridge filled with prosecco, but not as much as the people.

With Jefferson’s new-found freedom we’re writing to you from Chennai, India and we’ll be here for one month doing a whole lot of not much. Actually, we do have some plans, but more on that later. For now, Happy New Year, everyone and we’ll talk to you soon!