How we do.

Welcome home! Our foyer...

It's been two months since we came to India. We're in our new home, which is coming together piece by piece, and are just now starting to see a little bit of a return to a daily rhythm. We're acquainted with our neighborhood shops, the dogs that hang out outside our apartment complex, and also with some of our neighbors, something I was unsure would happen while living in such a large apartment community. It's beginning to feel like home!

In chats with friends and family, I often get lots of questions about the practical details of living here, so by request, I'm sharing a few words about how we do things 'round here. I just want to mention that this is not meant as a generalization. Some folks may do things similarly, but some folks might not. Pune is a city with a lot of options:

• Home Delivery - We have milk, salad greens/herbs/veggies, and cheese delivered on a regular basis. We got them originally because they were recommend, but they are the highest quality items I have found here so far. Also, store stock can be unreliable so it cuts down on time spent looking for something.  We pay cash-on-delivery for our orders. My partner's work shirts also get picked up, washed, pressed, and delivered in two days. 
• Filtered water - we don't drink water straight out of the tap here. On our sink there is a special tap attached to our faucet labeled "PURE" which comes from the filter outside our kitchen. The water is treated, hit with UV light, and comes out in a tiny stream. Some folks opt for water delivery, which is also an option.

Our drinking water tap and the water filter

• No driving - though my partner is working on getting his motorcycle license for weekend trips with his buddies, we do not have any plans to drive in the near future. His company prohibits him driving himself to and from the office anyway, so we have a driver who works for us 6 days a week, with Sundays and holidays off. In addition to driving, he helps me out with translating, runs an occasional errand when necessary, loads and unloads heavy parcels, and is really good at recommending which street food stalls I can safely eat from (this is CLUTCH). While we don't have the independence to just hop in the car and drive ourselves anymore, it's good to have someone we can trust doing it for us.

Buddies! :-)

• Housekeeper - We have one. She helps me during the day while my partner is at work. The dust here piles up quick and thick, and this house is much bigger than the one in NJ, so it's great to have an assist in keeping it spotless. It's also nice to know she's there when I'm not, because deliveries come at erratic times and without warning. She is able to cook for us when we ask, or if I prefer, she preps ingredients for later use.  She's also happy to work with me on my Hindi, teach me to cook some Indian dishes, and is nice to Stella. It's been a good fit so far.
• Food Shopping - Milk/salad/veggies/cheese get delivered. We are about to start ordering meat/chicken/fish delivery. Most of our fruits and some veggies come from roadside markets, and if I see something on a cart or at a sidewalk vendor that looks good, I make sure I get it right then and there since the selection can vary based on where I'm going, what time it is, etc. There are a few good grocery stores here too which are similar to the ones in the states, but the selection is much smaller. Meat is kept in a separate area which sometimes smells a little too heady for my taste, and since smell is a big influence for me I've opted for paneer as an alternate protein source more than once. 
• Eating on the road - yeah, I do it...all the time! It started with masala chai, then sweet lime soda, sugar cane juice, a samosa, some pakoras, coconut water, and most recently, vada pav (I don't know how it's really supposed to sound but I say "wadd-a-pow"). I haven't gotten sick yet, and I'm giving all the credit to our driver, who has gently talked me off the food-stall-suicide-ledge a few times ("...but it looks so good, what could go wrong?!"), most famously at a pani puri stall ("not good food, mam"). Stay tuned for the food poisoning post I'm bound to write sometime soon (but hopefully much later or not at all).