A Short Introduction

I guess I should explain why I decided to create this blog.

My husband works for a global company in the industrial gases industry. In a nutshell, he sells large industrial gases plants to customers in the steel industry. Because steel has grown so much in Asia, and particularly in India, my husband has traveled to India about 20 times in the last 2 years on business. Frankly, the travel gets old! I miss my husband, and my husband misses his family, including our 2 year old son. So, when an opportunity arose in April for us to relocate our family there, we jumped on it. Since then, we've been scrambling to get our affairs in order since the post begins in early July.

While there seems to be large expat communities in cities like Mumbai and Bangalore, that's not at all the case in Kolkata. In fact, the American consulate there reports about 10 or 20 expat families, and they are only now opening an international school which begins this August. (It'll be Kindergarten through second grade with two teachers and 10 students. That's not a bad student-teacher ratio!) I figure with such a small number of "peers" in that environment, it might make for interesting fodder for a blog. I'm sure there will be lots of stories to tell.

We are slated to go on our apartment-hunting trip in late May and should be back in early June. In my opinion, since we couldn't bear to leave our young son behind, the flight over should be an adventure in itself. Fortunately, we plan to spend an extra day in London both on the flight over and on the return to make things easier on the little guy. Otherwise, the flights are grueling!

The stress of getting ready is taking its toll on me. I've been resorting to "retail therapy" to cope with the stress. Besides, at least according to my husband, buying the entire National Library of India, I've also been clothes shopping. With that, I've been running into lots of headaches as it seems that most Western clothes are either too casual or too low-cut for what you see on the streets of Calcutta. I've been searching high and low at trendy, yet more sophisticated, clothing retailers, and have only found a handful of outfits that are appropriate for the style and climate. Even these push the boundaries of acceptable. I may have to buy local. (As if I'll have the time.)

For now, I need to take my Ambien and go to bed. It's getting late! More rambling later. Happy (early) Mother's Day!