Pre-Settling In Efforts

It seems my husband made some progress in the settling-in department while he was on his last business trip to India. Apparently, there's a colleague of his who will be moving, and therefore vacating his apartment, at the end of the month. From his description, it seems like it's a nice place, at least by India's standards. The electric needs upgraded, though, as light bulbs blow out with some regularity. Luckily, they'll have a month to do some work.

The apartment (flat) is on the fourth floor in the Alipur neighborhood, and is company-owned. There are four floors and four units, so it's one unit per floor. According to my husband's colleague, the higher up you go, the fewer mosquitoes. That's good to know! (One might also assume that there's also less pollution, smog, and road noise, but those specifics weren't mentioned.)

Alipur is in the trendy part of town. According to my husband, the streets are tree-lined and wider, and it's not far from the Tollygunge Club and lots of shopping. I can live with that!

We also made arrangements to be introduced to some other expats in the city. There aren't many, but it's a tight-knit community. There's also an international "baby club" for expat moms of preschool-aged children. It'll be good to get a head-start on social networks before we go. One of my biggest fears is of being lonely. I'm already starting to miss my MOMS Club and playgroup friends, and I haven't even left yet! Here, I'm a member of two different mom's groups, so it's safe to say that I like to keep socially active.

Another good thing that came from my husband's colleague is that we get to hire his cook and driver. At least the driver speaks "acceptable" English. I didn't ask about the cook. Unfortunately, their nanny, or ayah, was already hired elsewhere, so we'll have to look for our own.

We also found out about nursery schools. There's a place called Kangaroo Kids that seems pretty good, from what we've been told and from what I can tell on their website. It's locally-run, so we'll have to see when we get there what it's really like and what language they hold classes in. I'd hate for the little guy to be "behind" because he doesn't speak Hindi or Bengali!

That's enough rambling for now.