A Day in the Life

Now that we are back from vacation, things have seemed a little ho-hum around here, so I thought I would chronicle a day in my regular life here in Pune. I decided to take pictures of everything I did here today.

Since I am not working over here, and every other adult I know here is, I usually plan my day around the maid coming, or going to the gym. I hung out at home and did nothing this morning, which is pretty normal, so no pictures there.

When Andy came home at lunch he picked me up and we went out to eat at one of our favorite spots, Kalyani veg. We both usually get dosas there (rice crepes, filled with potatoes or other stuff), since they are awesome. See pic:





After that, I walked over to the gym while Andy went to work. The gym is right by Andy's office, and it only takes a few minutes to get there. I don't like to go right after lunch, but I also dont like to get up and go first thing in the morning, so today it was after lunch. I wanted to take a picture of the gym, but photography is not allowed. I found this picture online, from when they opened up, see pic: I feel like they did themselves a disservice, since this makes the gym look like its for old people, when its actually huge, brand new, and has tons of very high-tech equipment. Its a very fancy and attractive gym. They even have a DJ booth in the middle of the floor, and the staff uses it to pump up the jams. I get a little necklace each day with my personalized set of the day's exercises. I plug the necklace into each machine, and it tells me on the electronic display how long, or how far, I need to work out, and then what machine is next. Its pretty cool. And the place is in this totally new fancy building with no other tenants, and the shower is the nicest one I have access to, so I always shower there.

Afterwards, I started walking over across the next neighborhood to go get my haircut. It started raining, so I popped under a tree on the sidewalk to wait it out, and there were a ton of other people on bikes doing the same thing, see pic:





I starting walking down the road again after the rain let up, and saw this elephant, see pic:







Then got my haircut, and Andy came and got his cut too. Our friend recommended this person, as she speaks great English (communication is key in haircuts) and used to work in Bollywood as a high-profile stylist. There were a bunch of dudes who are all-purpose assistants at the salon we went to, they do everything from sweeping up to holding the hair dryer towards your head while the stylist does the brushing and styling. They all wear jeans and matching white polo shirst with the salon logo. Here is one guy washing Andy's hair, see pic:




After that Andy and I went to Central Mall, a newer, and pricer mall in the area. It was pretty unexceptional inside, but I took of the parking, which is very representative of parking lots here, see pic:





After a short shopping trip we went to meet our friends at 8:00 for dinner at Shisha Cafe, a fun place we go fairly often, with Persian food and Indian. I got Cranberry Rice with Chicken, and Andy got Dal Mahkani, see pic:





Right before our food came out, I ducked out for a quick sec with a friend and went over to the dairy store in the same complex of shops and got some feta cheese and blue cheese, which are not available in a regular grocery store. This complex is in an area called ABC Farms, that has a lot of nice restaurants, and is still something of a dairy farm. The cheese shop is tiny but has a huge variety of amazingly fresh cheese. I needed 2 pictures to show the sign, and the inside of the shop. See pics:

After that, we went back, had a nice quiet dinner with Stephanie, Mo, Akinori, and Andy, see pic: You can also see our new haircuts in the picture.

Then we came home, I IM'd with a few people (Jill, Andrea, and Timothy) and I am posting this, and then I am going to bed.