HEY YEVERYBODY! its mark, i'm finally posting. asenath has been kind enough to shoulder the burthen thus far, but i'm a 21st century dude, so i'm willing to step in and do my part. so, you're all probably aware that things are going great for us. our place is fantastic and gives us a level of privacy to which we as westerners are accustomed. we have our systems mostly worked out (transportation and food), and it seems the whole thing is a process of reducing the distance we have to travel (and therefore the time it takes) to get the basics under control. our trip is 1/4 over now, which is a bit hard to believe. on the other hand, it feels like aeons since we've seen everybody or had a taco.
Yessir! MMMhmm! Don't She Look Pretty? the ladies who work at the ayurveda hospital where asenath is getting her back massaged have scarcely been able to restrain themselves from dolling her up south asian style! the blouse was made special for asenath's new sari, but this sari itself is a loner. so, she came home looking like this yesterday. hubba hubba. the camera was low on batteries, but we got some good snaps.
I think asenath looks like a bollywood star in the one on the right.^^^
what a pretty lady! so, i think that its probably about time to treat everyone to a little more of a fashion show. you've all already had the pleasure of seeing my lungi. i won't stretch the parameters of common decency (for a change) by parading those famous mcclish legs all across the blogosphere. fortunately for all of us, my lovely friend and wife asenath looks much better in her indian clothes.
oh, here's a picture of how big the sari is! barely fit in the room! unfolded that is.
these are a couple of churidars that asenath got in bombay at the fashionable 'fabindia'. those are jasmine flowers in her hair and a bindi between her eyebrows. the jasmine flowers were audacious! they filled up the whole room with their scent everywhere asenath went. the ladies also lent her some proper gold jewelry to complete her outfits. doesn't she look great?
i will also throw in a couple of pictures of one of our new favorite malayalis. this is abdul-rashid, who came around the other day selling plants. he had them in a shallow box lashed to the back of his bike. 
he speaks malayalam, tamil, hindi, bengali, and a few more i can't recall. also, his english is much better than my malayalam. his 'friend name', as i was told, is Noushad. i saw him biking about announcing his flowers and i thought i'd get asenath a little gift. but, when i saw his goods, i figured i better wake her up: we might need to invest a bit here. so asenath has just gotten out of bed in this picture (it was two sundays ago).
here's asenath picking some out. i think we bought all of the one in the picture here. noushad returned a few days laters with nice pots for all of our new housemates, and asenath potted them all up nice and proper and now they are decorating our lives on the stairs up to our place. great additions: jasmine, one called 'christmas tree' which doesn't look like a christmas tree, and, of course, a yellow rose for the texans living here. they are great! it really helps the place seem like home. all said our place is coming together real nice and despite the fact that we have no furniture is very homey. we even have a badminton court in our front room. good stuff. i'll leave you with a picture that asenath took of me and noushad rappin' under the carport. right as we were completing the purchase some of that torrential kerala rain just started dumping. its a good picture, one of those that kind of brings out some of the more dynamic aspects of the scene. and, despite what it may look like, we were not conducting any illegal transactions.
that i know of.
as i said my malayalam is not so good.
love from india!
he speaks malayalam, tamil, hindi, bengali, and a few more i can't recall. also, his english is much better than my malayalam. his 'friend name', as i was told, is Noushad. i saw him biking about announcing his flowers and i thought i'd get asenath a little gift. but, when i saw his goods, i figured i better wake her up: we might need to invest a bit here. so asenath has just gotten out of bed in this picture (it was two sundays ago).
here's asenath picking some out. i think we bought all of the one in the picture here. noushad returned a few days laters with nice pots for all of our new housemates, and asenath potted them all up nice and proper and now they are decorating our lives on the stairs up to our place. great additions: jasmine, one called 'christmas tree' which doesn't look like a christmas tree, and, of course, a yellow rose for the texans living here. they are great! it really helps the place seem like home. all said our place is coming together real nice and despite the fact that we have no furniture is very homey. we even have a badminton court in our front room. good stuff. i'll leave you with a picture that asenath took of me and noushad rappin' under the carport. right as we were completing the purchase some of that torrential kerala rain just started dumping. its a good picture, one of those that kind of brings out some of the more dynamic aspects of the scene. and, despite what it may look like, we were not conducting any illegal transactions.
that i know of.
as i said my malayalam is not so good.
love from india!
