India pictures and experiences

Here are a few of our trip favorites, from Christmas to touring!  There were so many pictures to pick from, but I think these are an overall good representation of our time here.

First, here are Aberly and her nanny Eunice having "Christmas morning" before we left for India.  Eunice headed to Tanzania to visit her family for the holidays.

Once in India, we headed out to tour the streets around Nancy's place to see the local sites.  The streets are busy and crowded, but full of amazing things and people to see.

 

Christmas morning came a few days later and we had lots of fun seeing what Santa brought for Aberly and all of us.  By far, Aberly had the most gifts!  She was thrilled by all of her toys, including a special Word Girl homemade costume from Nana Elaine.  We were grateful to Kevin, Connor, and Chrystal for bringing over gifts that we had shipped to them for us (it was hard to find things in Oman that Colin wanted!) and foods for a traditional Christmas dinner.

After Christmas, we spent the remaining days touring the area. 

 

Ideal Beach resort visit

 A local woman working

 St. Thomas Cathedral (Doubting Thomas of the 12 disciples).  It was a beautiful church, and he is buried here.  One of three churches in the world built where a disciple is buried.  Thomas brought Christianity to India and spent his life there before being martyred.

 Indian people were always wanting to have their picture (or their children's picture) taken with Aberly.  She was a good sport!

 Local village with a museum and artisans who sell their crafts.  The village is dedicated to teaching and preserving traditional Indian arts/crafts.

 There happened to be a wedding there that day.  Here is the beautiful bride.

 Aberly getting mehendi (commonly known as henna)

 

We also stopped at a crocodile preserve.  It was amazing!  There were so many different types of crocodiles and alligators.

 

One of the most amazing places we went was Mamallapuram.  It's an ancient site by the ocean were there are many stone carvings and stone temples.

 

The Indian paparazzi attacks again!  

 

Final lunch at Kiplings, a local restaurant owned by one of Nancy's coworkers and her husband.

Christmas plans and a travel lesson

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind as we've prepared for Christmas.  Besides making cookies, going to school Christmas parties, wrapping gifts, and decorating the tree, we've also been getting our visas and tickets to India! 

This year, we are headed to Chennai, which is on the south east side of India.  Colin's mom started teaching there this year at the American International School of Chennai (having a great time, by the way) and we are joining her there, along with Colin's two brothers and his one brother's long time girlfriend, for one week.  We'll be there from the 23rd-30th, and have plans for a "as traditional as we can get" Christmas, along with sightseeing and relaxation!  I know Nancy has been excited and very busy getting ready for arrival and all the details it entails hosting six guests. 

So now the travel lesson....
As Americans, most of us take for granted how easy traveling is for us (usually).  Most countries Americans tend to visit let us right in at the airport.  Get your special stamp in your passport, maybe for a small fee, but there's nothing else to it.  But in a lot of other countries, India being one of them, you just can't do that.  You just don't get to saunter off the plane with no visa and get in.  They will send you back home on the next plane.  You have to apply for your visa ahead of time, at your local embassy (or in the US, mail it), and wait for it to be approved.  Here, it costs almost $70 per person to get the visa for India.  Over $200 to get out of the airport! 

But as I've discovered through my new job in the athletics office, and sending students to different countries for sporting competitions, that's how it is for many countries.  And, for many nationalities, you most always have to do that.  In this region, if you are Pakistani, India, Bangladeshi, etc... you will always have to get a visa ahead of time and you may have to have the other country do it for you.  Even in Oman, there is a select "list" of countries that can get their visa upon arrival at the airport, the rest, you have to apply ahead of time.  Going to different countries cost different amounts.  As an American, you will pay way more to go to Bangladesh than someone from Jordan, but it's free if you are going to the United Arab Emirates as an American, where as a Canadian pays.   All depends on country-to-country relation.

So, the next time you fly someone internationally and get to go right through, be thankful!  And if you are adventurous enough to visit somewhere else, be ready to prepare ahead of time!  :-)

Okay, back to Christmas.  So yes, we have been preparing and are excited to head to India in 3 days.  Our bags are part-way packed, we are doing our best to distract Aberly from the excitement of going on the plane to GeeGee's house, and we are trying to consume most of the foods in our refrigerator that will go otherwise go bad in a week. 

We hope your travel and Christmas plans are going well too, and we wish you all the best!  Here are a few fun new pictures of our December activities:

 Goofing around with our stockings and giving the biggest smile possible!

 Making a reindeer hat at our school's family Christmas party.

 Smiles from mommy and Aberly during the party dinner.

 Amber, Aberly, and Isla at the party.

 He's here!  Aberly ran up and gave him a big hug.

 Aberly was so excited to have her name called for her gift.  She would practically stand up each time anyone's name was called.  Finally it was her turn!

Cute Christmas elf!

 Opening the birthday/Christmas box from Nana and Papa.  Ooo, full of treats!

 Nana and Papa sent lots of new Playmobil sets for Aberly's dollhouse.

And a special Christmas book that Nana and Papa recorded their voices and read to Aberly.  Aberly says "thank you" to them via Skype.

How to Make Christmas Cookies- by Aberly

Making Christmas sugar cookies is pretty fun.  This year, my Mommy let me help and I want to show you how easy it is, and give you some tips too!

1.  Roll the dough.  I recommend that you have your mommy make it the night before cause then you won't have to bug her all day long waiting for the dough to cool in the fridge.  It'll just be ready for you!

2.  Start using the cookie cutters to make your shapes.  See, easy-peasy!

3.  Once they are all ready, time to show them off and admire your work before they go in the oven.  Make sure to be proud, but humble too.  You don't want to make everyone think you believe you are a master in the kitchen, even if you are.

4.  Once the cookies have cooked and cooled (have mom do this while you go off and play, again, so you don't have to bug her and don't have to hear "be patient" repeatedly), come back for decorating!  Frosting is pretty much the best thing ever.  Dig in and don't be shy!  Don't even worry about how good it looks.  This is about taste and frosting makes the sugar cookie! 

5.  Take a bite before they can stop you and don't even ask.  Otherwise, you know you'll be having to force down you "five bites" of dinner "if you want a treat".

Next week, I'll tell you how to help you dad make hot sauce!  P.S.  Just help, don't dig in unless you want to run around the house with your mouth on fire (no, don't worry, I didn't make that mistake).  Remember, I'm a master in the kitchen!

Can I send the Prices a Christmas card? Yes you can!

If you want to send us a Christmas card, we would love it!  It makes our season more merry and bright to receive mail from home.  We got our first one today and it made my morning!  International stamps cost about a dollar.  You can mail us at:

Price Family
c/o TAISM
PO Box 584
Azaiba, Postal Code 130
Sultanate of Oman

End of November

The end of November has been a crazy one for the Prices.  Well, it was turning into one when I last posted.

November 29th-December 1st was the official SAISA Boys Soccer Tournament and it was being held at our school this year.  If I haven't mentioned it before, while our school teams play local teams during their sports season, their official "districts or state" per se, is held against teams from this league that includes schools from Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.  Yes, going to "districts" means flying to another country.  10 schools all together in the league.  So, each school hosts 1 - 2 tournaments per year (except the Pakistani ones cause it's hard to get visas to go there) and a flood of international teams gather. 

Being the new athletic secretary, I was inundated with work as we planned and prepared the tournament.  Visas, flights, housing for all athletes and coaches, bussing, food, etc...  Our school is amazing and we had a lot of help.  Operations took care of all the set up and take down once they had their instructions, the Business Office handled the money, our PRO helped with the visas once I got all the scans from the schools, and a slew of volunteers housed all the kids (once I placed them all).  I would equate planning this tournament to like planning a wedding.  Lots of work.  Big and general at first, and then you enter the last few weeks and BOOM, you get busy busy busy.  So, pretty much, from the 15th, when I last posted and just found out we were having a girl, till yesterday, my life has been swamped with work.

I made it through in one piece, one exhausted piece!  We all did.  Colin did a stellar job being a single parent all weekend, and we did all this while hosting two coaches who were so fun from Islamabad (married couple our age).  The tournament went better than I ever expected and we received raving reviews from all the attending schools, my administrators, fellow colleagues, and spectators.  If this was my one major test to prove my aptitude for this job, I did it.  Thankfully!

In the midst of all of the tournament and work craziness....

-  Nancy came here for a between birthday visit for Colin and Aberly (12th and 21st) and we enjoyed days at home and a trip out to Nizwa.  I felt bad for her because Aberly was getting sick (turned into croup which was no fun for us!) and wasn't up for my snuggling or playing with her GeeGee.  But, we still had a good time and made some plans ahead for Christmas since we'll be going to India to see her, as well as Kevin, Chrystal, and Conner. 

-  Birthdays....  Colin turned 31 with a low-key birthday event and dinner out with a few good friends, and Aberly turned 3 and had a Curious George party with her friends.  I somehow managed to plan and pull that off one evening after school about a week before the tournament.  It wasn't the party I imagined a few months ago, but Aberly and her friends still had a great time.

 

-  Thanksgiving!  Another wonderful year at the Wrights with lots of our friends.  The weather was perfect and the food brought us back home.  Everyone brought a dish to share and it was fabulous.
  Liz posted a bunch of pictures on her blog so you can see the event there at wrightfromthedesert.blogspot.com .  She got a nice family photo of us that appears near the end.  Here are a few of mine too.

-  Aberly learned to play Go Fish and Memory and loves playing them each day with us.  She is quite good!  She also has become addicted to the PBS show "Word Girl".

So whew, that is the end of November, and December is already here and flying by.  We hope to get our tree up this weekend and make some decorations to go around the house.  The weather has given us a treat of three days of rain (not all day, just at moments) and cooler weather.  We sat outside last night with our neighbors and all put on a sweatshirt as we agreed that it felt like a Fall day back home.  It was heartwarming.

All our love!