Monkeys: Check, Elephant: Check

Our first weekend in Delhi was spent nearly comatose or wishing we were comatose. Actually, most of last week is a blur...I remember the kids waking up at 2 am almost every night swearing it was time for breakfast.

We spent this past weekend, our first real weekend in Delhi, getting to know our new home. We drove the kids by monkey corner (a spot where countless spider monkeys loiter about waiting on a bus that will never come -- or it might), and we visited Lodhi Gardens (think Central Park with wild parakeets, kingfishers, and fewer muggers). We shopped at Dili Haat, a great local market where Eli and Olivia had henna done. Eli's, when it was said and done, looked nearly like a henna Shmoo (Wiki it, folks). Best of all, to my estimation, I rented an elephant for the kids. A real-life, ornately-decorated, rampage-averse elephant for two hours of elephant-riding-goodness.

Olivia is settling in at school, and is meeting all sorts of kids -- kids from Australia, Japan, Korea, Israel, and America, too. Eli is presently chillin' at home, but we intend to enroll him at a Montessori school or something similar, if only so he can socialize with punk kids his own age. Alise has actually taken up competitive polo, which suprised us because she's only three months old. It works out though, as we strap her into the saddle and lash the giant mallet to her little arm and WATCH OUT!! She might already be considered the most talented in her age bracket.

Julie, while working part-time, has a little extra time on her hands, relative to what she had in D.C., and has already knitted three shawls, painted four self-portraits, and has begun an auto-biography. (Note: Alise really isn't playing polo, yet. Julie hasn't knitted three shawls or painted four self-portraits or begun an auto-biography, but she bought a lovely silk-bound journal this afternoon.)

For my part, I'm working and running and trying like hellfire to balance my complexion. I have combination-skin, so it can be difficult, what with all the pollution in Delhi and such. Don't you know?!

Delhi...OUT!