I'd Love to Stay and Chat, But...

Just when I start to feel like I know Chennai, I have to pack up and leave. It's the last week of the program, and I'm finally able to direct drivers to my destinations--without stopping to ask pedestrians for help. This is huge. I was stopped at Amethyst (a beautiful store and cafe in an old colonial building that has become my hangout of choice) by an American woman who wanted to know where I'd bought my kurta (Fab India, if you must know), and I ended up giving her a whole list of restaurants and shops. Because I'm nice like that. And because she assumed I was one of the ex-pats (who, by the way, I am sort of obsessed with; all of their conversations are "Is Klaus coming to the ball?" and "Oh, I don't know. I think he's in Toyko. We lived next door to him in Amsterdam." which makes my New York-Kansas City axis seem suddenly pedestrian).

On the ex-pat tip, Caroline invited us to dinner last week at the home of her friends with whom she is staying, The State Department Couple, who've lived all over and have an amazing apartment with ice! And also fresh vegetables! And we could consume both of these rarities because they have some fancy water filtering system that I guess the Hotel California hasn't gotten yet! Any day now, I'm sure. The slight bummer part of the evening came when Rebecca wondered aloud if it got really expensive to ship all their belongings around the world and Caroline informed us that it was just one of the many many things that The State Department pays for. I guess it's okay for me to indirectly pay for someone else to have ice in an ice-free country. Provided I can come over and consume that ice.