Getting Ready to Leave

So we have about a month left to spend in India, and we have a lot to do in that month. A friend is visiting, we both have lots of projects to start and finish, and then we have to pack up. And at the moment we're just really ready to go back.

Thanksgiving made me happy, although the food wasn't going to win any gourmet awards. The turkey was a little tough, and the pumpkin pie had been made inadvertently Indian by the over-enthusiastic application of cloves. (As Don said, "I don't think I would have been able to eat this before we came to India.") We even had wine, which is always exciting. The restaurant doesn't technically have a liquor license, so the wine appeared on the receipt as "energy drink." I'll say!

We were seating outside in this tent put up for overflow. It was kind of an odd crowd. A loud Canadian lady next to us with a German companion. On the other side, a table of Italians who objected to a plate of bread because it was really garlic bread. (Is that what they ordered? Who knows? I preferred the least likely scenario, which is that somehow the waiter knew they were Italian and brought them garlic bread for that reason alone.) The Italians happened to be just eating in the Tent of Turkey, but they were actually having steaks and beer and garlic-free bread. And then there was a long table of midwestern Target employees who were in town for a year. They all helped up the American quotient a bit, but by the time we'd gotten there they were almost ready for the sleepy, get up, go home, and eat some more stage.