I was thankful to have slept soundly through the night last night with no hallucinations (well, OK, when I woke up this morning there was a split second where I hallucinated that there was giant spider on my bed > but I got past that pretty quickly).
During my first week in India I would try a little bit of everything at breakfast, but I've determined that I was just eating too much! The malaria medication seems to have decreased my appetite and when I'd override it and just eat what I considered a normal amount, I'd feel stuffed (and therefore tired) all day. So I've adjusted my regime so that for breakfast I only eat fruit, and maybe a little muesli in the morning (along with my "South Indian Coffee" which I think is just normal filtered coffee with milk, but it tastes much better than the weak stuff you get if you order just "coffee"), then for lunch a few days a week I'd just have fruit and a "Lara bar" (a sort of power bar made with just dates and nuts > I brought a pile of them from the US) for lunch, and then a "normal" dinner at the hotel. This has been working well the last few days. On days when I'm a bit hungrier, I'll eat lunch with co-workers. We either go to the restaurant upstairs or we send the office boy out to pick up food for us from the street vendor. Yes, I said "office boy" and yes, I also said that I'm eating from a street vendor (I have antibiotics with me in case that doesn't work out too well for my digestive system and I end up with the runs....). The responsibilities of the "office boy" (I know, it sounds terrible and doesn't feel right/great to me either, but it's completely normal here.... ) include: opening the office in the morning, making sure all guests sign in and out, making sure that whoever needs/wants it (like me!) always has bottled water, bringing us coffee in the morning and afternoon, cleaning the kitchen after everyone has lunch, being last to leave and locking up, and then any other tasks anyone asks of him, such as: washing and cutting up fruit brought for lunch, or going out to pick up whatever anyone wants for lunch.
Today my co-worker and I had "paratha" for lunch. It's similar to Naan, for those of you that know that delicous flat-bread you get at a typical Indian restaurant. The only difference I've been able to figure out between the two is that Naan is made with white flour and Paratha with whole-wheat flour. You can have them plain, or get them stuffed. For lunch we got two Paratha's > one stuffed with cauliflower and one stuffed with potato, and then split them. You can use them to dip into other "saucy" dishes with beans or cheese (paneer), but that's when I find I get over-the-top stuffed. So today we just put a little butter on them, ripped them up and ate them. Delicious!
I have not been comfortable eating raw vegetables here (and I'm a HUGE salad/raw vegetable eater at home, so that's been a big adjustment), so I try to get cooked veggies in my system wherever/whenever I can. It hasn't been hard because they seem to be available all day long. It's not unusual for me at breakfast, along with my fruit and cereal (or whatever else I might eat if I'm splurging) to decide to also throw in a side of roasted pumpkin or sauteed zucchini. Seems weird, I know, but I don't care as long as I'm getting some veggies in my system!
I'll attach a picture of my lunch. I'll also try to attach at least one of the videos that didn't upload the other day.
Talk to you all again soon.
Sheri
Here's a video of the auto rickshaw ride last week to the Kingdom of Dreams. I can't stop being fascinated by riding on the roads here...
During my first week in India I would try a little bit of everything at breakfast, but I've determined that I was just eating too much! The malaria medication seems to have decreased my appetite and when I'd override it and just eat what I considered a normal amount, I'd feel stuffed (and therefore tired) all day. So I've adjusted my regime so that for breakfast I only eat fruit, and maybe a little muesli in the morning (along with my "South Indian Coffee" which I think is just normal filtered coffee with milk, but it tastes much better than the weak stuff you get if you order just "coffee"), then for lunch a few days a week I'd just have fruit and a "Lara bar" (a sort of power bar made with just dates and nuts > I brought a pile of them from the US) for lunch, and then a "normal" dinner at the hotel. This has been working well the last few days. On days when I'm a bit hungrier, I'll eat lunch with co-workers. We either go to the restaurant upstairs or we send the office boy out to pick up food for us from the street vendor. Yes, I said "office boy" and yes, I also said that I'm eating from a street vendor (I have antibiotics with me in case that doesn't work out too well for my digestive system and I end up with the runs....). The responsibilities of the "office boy" (I know, it sounds terrible and doesn't feel right/great to me either, but it's completely normal here.... ) include: opening the office in the morning, making sure all guests sign in and out, making sure that whoever needs/wants it (like me!) always has bottled water, bringing us coffee in the morning and afternoon, cleaning the kitchen after everyone has lunch, being last to leave and locking up, and then any other tasks anyone asks of him, such as: washing and cutting up fruit brought for lunch, or going out to pick up whatever anyone wants for lunch.
Today my co-worker and I had "paratha" for lunch. It's similar to Naan, for those of you that know that delicous flat-bread you get at a typical Indian restaurant. The only difference I've been able to figure out between the two is that Naan is made with white flour and Paratha with whole-wheat flour. You can have them plain, or get them stuffed. For lunch we got two Paratha's > one stuffed with cauliflower and one stuffed with potato, and then split them. You can use them to dip into other "saucy" dishes with beans or cheese (paneer), but that's when I find I get over-the-top stuffed. So today we just put a little butter on them, ripped them up and ate them. Delicious!
I have not been comfortable eating raw vegetables here (and I'm a HUGE salad/raw vegetable eater at home, so that's been a big adjustment), so I try to get cooked veggies in my system wherever/whenever I can. It hasn't been hard because they seem to be available all day long. It's not unusual for me at breakfast, along with my fruit and cereal (or whatever else I might eat if I'm splurging) to decide to also throw in a side of roasted pumpkin or sauteed zucchini. Seems weird, I know, but I don't care as long as I'm getting some veggies in my system!
I'll attach a picture of my lunch. I'll also try to attach at least one of the videos that didn't upload the other day.
Talk to you all again soon.
Sheri
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