Snow-rrific

It's been a snowy 2010.

Growing up in the desert, snow is still a novelty to me. Anytime the flakes start falling I whip out the camera to take pictures before the snow melts. It's like I forget that the snow will most likely stick around for a while.

The first of these photos was from the great blizzard a couple weeks ago:

Yes, I'm wearing pajama pants in the middle of the street.


This is my friend Tess' block
Fearless Rachel takes her life into her hands as she stands in the middle of the snowy street.



I took this photo this morning. They were big sloppy, wet flakes.

Taken from my office window.
Brrrr...

So the snow is nice when you are all warm and bundled up inside, but when you have to walk outside in it, it's an entirely different story. Walking home from work today was like an obstacle course. I imagined I was on the Amazing Race or something. First of all, I have to walk with my head down to keep the icy snow from blinding me. I also have tunnel vision because when I wear the hood on my coat I resemble Kenny from South Park (as noted in exhibit A- aka: picture #1) So with my sight obstructed I am trying to avoid not slipping on the icy pathways. Then there are these treacherous puddles that look so harmless and unassuming. But once you step into 5 inches of the icy water, you know the rest of the walk is going to be pretty uncomfortable. Lucky for me, I'm an expert at spotting such puddles and have been avoiding them at all costs. By the time I made it home I was pretty sure I deserved a gold medal.

On that note, I need to get back to watching the Olympics. Go Team USA!

Stay warm and dry my dear ones!

India

Hello my dear blog readers!
I've missed you.

I should tell you that my old laptop died so I've been without a PC for awhile. But I finally got a replacement this weekend. And in good time to tell/show you all about my trip to India!

A little background on the trip:

My company was going to send my work BFF Manny, to India to meet with some clients, etc. They were going to pay for everything. He invited me along- because I make an excellent traveling companion- and I would just have to pay for my flight and I could stay in this fancy hotel room.
Here is a guided tour:



Fancy. Is it not?

Okay, most of my pictures are not in chronological order so I will try my best to explain what is going on.

The flight. I've never flown so far, so long IN MY LIFE!
It was 14 hours to Dubai then another 3 hours to Bangalore.
We flew out of JFK at about 11PM. I stayed up the first few hours, waited for them to feed us, then I took a Tylenol PM and crashed.
I woke up to the beautiful scene below.


We were flying right over Baghdad. It was sunset.

So we were warned over and over again to NOT DRINK THE WATER! We didn't even brush our teeth with the tap water. We used bottled water. It made it feel like camping.
The first order of business when we arrived was stock up on the bottled water. Here's me with my big bottle:

Below is a temple at the Mysore Palace. This structure is typical for the temples in India. They are all very intricate and interesting on the outside.


This photo was taken at the Lalbagh Gardens. I just loved how all of the trees looked.
I took this one during my safari! Unfortunately my camera battery died so I didn't get any photos of the Lions, or Tigers, or Bears (oh my!)
I'm not even sure what this thing is. It's not a dangerous meat eater. That much I do know.
Back at the botanical gardens. Trying to get creative...

Okay, I used to think I liked Monkeys. It couldn't be further from the truth. We had driven up this big mountain and I wanted to take a picture from the top of the view below. But there were all of these monkeys blocking me. I was so concerned that they were full of diseases that I didn't want to get to close. I was pretty sure they were on the verge of attack. Look at this one's eyes! PURE EVIL MONKEY!


This was the view behind me and the monkeys.
We took a bus tour one day which took us to these gardens that had this big water/light show. It wasn't the Bellagio, but it was still pretty nice.Our new friend Atalanta. He works at one of the banks we deal with. Him and his friend showed us around and took us shopping one day. They bought me the cutest stuffed Panda Bear!

Most days I was left to myself. One day I took a tour bus and we stopped at this Sultan Palace. My new friends from Calcutta took this photo of me. I bought that skirt and another one earlier in the week. So comfortable!Another temple. I don't know why it's sideways....



Yes, there were plenty of cows walking down the roads.
PS- I had to walk down this same street barefoot! I was just really glad I had a tetanus shot before I left!

Yes, this is a mall! Yay! Where I purchased my skirts.
The view from the hotel room
Lunch at a restaurant at the mall. The appetizers on my plate were the spiciest things I've ever had.
This is India to me: