Pics of the week

All of the five-star hotels in Delhi are known for their fancy buffets. This week a family friend of the landlords' took us out to the dinner buffet at the Eros Hotel. They had Indian food, American, Japanese, Italian, Greek...

Dessert bar

Salad bar

This made me laugh sooo hard....so Friday was my roommate Sue's last day at work. She's leaving soon to move back to the U.S. I ordered this cake and asked them to write "Good luck, Sue" but a little got lost in translation...

Even hotter!

Couldn't resist the temptation to one-up my last post. Check out this HEAT!

In other news, I had my first experience receiving medical care here. It was just a sore throat, so probably the least threatening thing I could possibly go in for, but all went well. It's interesting the way that insurance plans work here--from what I understand, they almost all only cover hospitalizations, so any outpatient visits and prescriptions are all paid out-of-pocket. By US standards, those things are very cheap. My office visit was $18 and my prescriptions were about $1.50. I went to one of the nice private hospitals, but one of the big problems with health care here is that "doctors" will open clinics without actually having any qualifications. I think the problem is worse in rural areas than in big cities like Delhi. But, still, it's best to go to a hospital or follow a recommendation from a friend, because not every sign that says "doctor" means there is someone who has actually gone to medical school! This unregulated private sector is definitely one of the big challenges with the health system in India that needs to be addressed.

The Forecast

I am feeling quite pleased with myself for staying alive in this weather. I will blame my lack of blog posting on the heat sapping all my energy. See below for this week's forecast. The one redeeming feature is that it is not at all humid right now. That will come later in the summer and then it will be even more awesome. 

The woman who lives in the apartment below us moved out this weekend. She has lived there for almost 20 years and as you can see from the picture, she has a lot of stuff! We had a going away party for her on Friday night at the landlords' and they got out a bunch of old photos that we had fun looking through. Uncle brought out a list of all his previous tenants and was reading through all the names and reminiscing about each of them. It really made me realize how lucky I am to have a family here. I have been whining about the length of my commute to work for months and been planning to move once Sue leaves at the end of July, but now I think I've decided to stay. It's been a difficult month for me--been feeling really homesick, and sad that a lot of my friends here are moving away this summer--and I don't want to change my home, too. I'm a part of a family here and the prospect of moving out has made me finally realize what a wonderful part of my experience this home is.