Weekly SD Blog RoundUp Call for Entries

Meow, the cat's out of the bag now. I'm a State Department blogger, for those readers who know I'm overseas but don't know why. I try to play it cool, focusing on being overseas rather than why we are overseas. But many other SD bloggers have been kind enough to link to me and comment so now it's my turn to repay the favor. I'm hosting the State Department Blog RoundUp this week.

I like the "optional talking point" idea from last week. Here it is: International Bathrooms. Not necessarily in our housing, since housing has been discussed quite a bit lately (although you're certainly free to discuss it some more). I'm thinking more along the lines of the best and worst at the airports and hotels we tend to pass through regularly, funny misunderstandings, etc., and not necessarily limited to your post. Vacation destination bathrooms count too.

For example:

In Poland the bathroom doors are marked with circles and triangles. I used the men's room once and walked into a second men's room before I realized this.

The bathroom stalls in Brussels airport are narrow. At 32 weeks pregnant with my carry-on bag in tow I could not turn around!

The Tribe hotel in Nairobi has an open floor plan, which means the bathtub is in the room and the toilet and shower are behind a glass partition. The Raddisson in Delhi also has glass wall on one side of the bathroom. You have to be really comfortable with your roomie to stay there.

At a particularly nice restaurant in Burundi, I was not startled by the unisex bathroom stall. What startled me was that the men's urinal was installed directly outside that door, with nothing partitioning it from view. I had to walk past a man using it to enter that bathroom. He didn't seem to mind.

Don't get me started on some of the less-than-ideal conditions we faced in Tanzania. My first experience with a hole-in-the-ground bathroom was at a gas station/convenient store outside Moshi. It wasn't until several rest stops later that I realized what the raised blocks on either side of the hole were for.

As noted before, the theme is optional. If you have anything else to share this week, leave me a comment or send me an email. Please let me know by midnight Thursday, U.S. eastern time.

The next few weeks are open for hosting. If you're interested, check out the calendar.

We arrive and the celebrating commences

It was really nice of Hyderabad to have these all-night-long fireworks displays in honor of our arrival. Oh, no, that's not really all for us. We arrived during the Diwali festivial, which is apparently celebrated with quiet family dinners followed by several hours of fireworks from every rooftop in the city. It's actually kind of pretty and would be fun if I weren't so tired from traveling. The Muffin is the only one sleeping through the night, miraculously. (The Diwali decorations are like tacky Christmas decorations so I want to go to one of the bazaars and buy some since I doubt our Christmas decorations will arrive in time.)

We arrived in Delhi late Thursday night and spent all day Friday sleeping in our hotel before our flight to Hyderabad. Because of the holiday, few people were traveling on Friday and most of the H'bad flights were cancelled, ours included. Luckily they kept one going, with all of about ten people on it, which we were able to get on. We really didn't want to spend another night and day in Delhi. We'd been on the road since Monday and we were anxious to start getting settled in a home.

Fireworks and jetlag kept me up on Friday, but Muffin slept through all the madness. Last night I slept a little better. We know how this works. Every day will get a little easier. Thank goodness Muffin has dealt with the stress of traveling by sleeping. It certainly makes the transition easier for Mike and me.

We are temporarily in a furnished apartment until our permanent house is ready. It's hard, wanting to get settled in and unpacked, but knowing we'll be packing up and moving yet again in three weeks or so. The apartment is nice, though, and they bring us breakfast every morning, our choice of Western (omelette and toast) or South Asian (rice pancakes with sweet jelly or savory sauces) and fresh fruit.

Mike starts work tomorrow and I start working with a new housekeeper. I need to figure out how to describe the gluten-free diet to her, she speaking little English and me speaking none of any of the local languages. I'm tired just thinking about it.