Same bat time, different bat channel...

Alright, I think I have it together finally. I have set up another blog for the ongoing adventures of the Jones family. I have to say, though, that my hopes are not high for this one as I have seen a shocking lack of goat-carrying birds and man-killing monkeys since I have been back in the US. I just don't know what I will be able to write that will compare, but if you would like to know what insanity we are up to please check out our new blog here at blogtheimpaler.blogspot.com.

See ya' there!

Six months in India...

Well, as you may or may not know, Nathan and I are back in the US. Nathan received several great job offers while we were there and when he got the chance to work with his former boss (who he loves) again, he jumped at it. So we are back in Arizona now and loving life.

I have to say, though, that there are some things that I really miss about India. We met such amazing people there - people who love their country and are working hard to make their lives as reflective of that love as possible. It makes me sad that I didn't get to say a proper goodbye to them.

So now, we are trying to figure out life here again. I am in the process of designing a new blog, but it is really hard! I would appreciate any ideas that you all might have... Once I have it set up I will let you know.

In the meantime, thanks so much for reading our blog and replying. I can't tell you how much it helped when things were rough to know that there were people all over the globe supporting us and sending their love. We really are so blessed.

In closing, I want to go Alanis Morrisette and say "Thank you, India". We learned so much from you and will always have a special place in our heart for the good memories and friends that we made there.

Namaste.

We'll Always Have Paris

We are back in beautiful, green England, fresh from lovely trip to France. I will write more later as we are off to see "Transformers" in a few minutes, but I thought I would at least share this shot to let you know how wonderful it was.

Je t'aime, France.

Living in Seine

In about five hours Nathan and I are heading off to the airport to fly to Paris via Helskini on Finn Air. I am a bit concerned about the flight as it appears that they have yet to employ the personal entertainment systems that just about every international carrier has now. This wouldn't be an issue except that I have a really hard time sleeping on planes. However, I have spent a ridiculous amount of time watching the second season of Boston Legal recently as the Jordans insisted we give it a shot (We traded them Arrested Development - there are no losers here). I have really been enjoying it, so much that I didn't go to sleep until 3am the other morning. Perhaps that coupled with some sleep aid will make this work. Either way, tomorrow I am going to be walking along the Seine, riding up the Eiffel Tower, and getting copious amounts of Nutella on my face from the crepes I will be inhaling. Laissez les bons temps rouler! (Can you tell that's my favorite French phrase?)

Holy Hannah

The other night Muktar asked Nathan to tell him when we are going home as he and his family want to come and work for us. Does anyone know the number for the Witness Protection Program?

Googalaga, Chimichanga, Espinaca, Willy Wonka

This weekend, the Joneses and Jordans conducted an unscientific experiment to determine if the common Indian person really understands what we say. We have found that no one ever tells you that they don't but nothing is ever quite done the way you ask so it makes you wonder. Therefore, we decided to take a word that we are fairly certain does not appear in either the English or Hindi lexicon and see what we could get by just talking gibberish. The first word chosen was "googalaga". This is a made up word that the Jordan boys use and sounds very much like a lot of Hindi we hear on the street. So, when asking directions to the Spice PVR movie theater Michelle said to a man walking by "Googalaga Spice PVR?" to which he pointed out the direction to go. Elated with our success, but feeling that the results might be tainted by the close proximity to actual Hindi, we decided to change it up a little bit. We chose the word "chimichanga". Upon leaving the parking lot and passing the man that we had to pay, Michael leaned out the window and asked, "Googalaga chimichanga?" to which the parking attendant said, "Yes" and waved us through. We thought we had hit a snag at the toll booth where the attendant first looked at us a bit warily but he then smiled and let us through, much to our relief. Feeling a bit puffed up with ourselves, we told the guard of our gated community, "Googalaga chimichanga espinaca". For having a few politicians on our street, the security is suprisingly not very secure. Later than night as we sat around analyzing our findings, we added Willy Wonka at the end and have instituted a contest to see who can get the craziest thing by using our new phrase. Oh, it's on!

On our way home from the movie, we saw a man on a motorcycle get hit by a bus. He got up and was dusting himself off in a very dazed fashion when the bus backed up a few feet and then drove around him. The guy got back on his bike and took off. I swear, if you showed up thirty seconds after it had happened you would never have known that there had just been an accident. Crazy.

This weekend we had a big reminder of how nice it is to be in a big congregation where there are multiple people who can handle spur of the moment assignments. On Saturday, Nathan taught Institute as I was finishing up preparations for Enrichment Night. We had six people show up so I probably prepared too much, but oh well. Then Sunday we spoke on marriage in Sacrament Meeting. It went really well and we were pleased to be done with our church assignments for the day. We spoke too soon though as our Branch Presidency forgot that it was the fifth Sunday and that they were in charge. On top of that, there was a huge issue that came up that required their attention, so as we walked into the room Nathan was handed the Gospel Principles manual and asked to teach an hour long lesson on the organization of Christ's church. Despite the initial "Holy Crap!" moment, he did a great job. The issue was, though, that he had also been asked to speak at the baptism afterwards. He asked me if I could handle that as it was starting to feel like the Nathan Jones Show and of course I obliged. So I played the piano and then, like any returned missionary who has used the old discussions, I mentally pulled out the second and flipped to 2 Nephi and taught about why Christ needed to be baptised and how if He needed to, how much more we need to. Just like the good ole' days. So the consensus that Nathan and I have come to is that our vacation is just in the nick of time as who knows what we might end up doing next week if we were here!

Oh, and our Sunday School teacher said sh*t in her lesson.

How is shopping in India like Georg and Yortuk Festrunk, the two Czech brothers, from classic Saturday Night Live sketches?

Is it because you are constantly surrounded by swinging American foxes? Is it because everyone is wearing such tight jeans? Or perhaps because people throw in random phrases where they don't belong because they don't grasp the English language (Don't mention it!)? No, it is because it is WILD AND CRAZY!!!

The personification of grocery shopping in India

Last night we were at the store picking up some loose ends - bread and milk kind of thing- when I about lost it. I think Nathan was kind of hoping I would but - in the words of Kit Ramsey - I kept it together.

I guess Steve Martin is the thread that holds this story together.

We got everything that we needed and went to get in line. Now, the registers are lined up near the exit door. I think there are ten with five of them facing the other five and about a five foot aisle in the middle. We, of course, went and lined up where you would assume you were supposed to and waited for a register to come open. The people behind us didn't see things the way that we did and (literally) shoved us aside to stand at one of the registers. Now, this may seem like the smart thing to do, but when everyone comes to the store with four generations of their family, you can imagine the chaos this causes when people are trying to get through this mass to leave the store. It is insane. So we are trying to figure the system out when Nathan gets shoved by an employee. Everyone does that - even the children, and you can imagine how much Captain McLaughlin's daughter likes that. No '"Excuse me", no "I'm sorry", just shove. The back of my hand was just begging me to let it smack someone!

So we finally get behind this one guy who has made the fatal error of picking up a jar full of mini candy bars. Rather than price checking the jar, Einstein the checkout boy and his buddy Galileo decided that the best course of action was to empty the jar out on the counter and count how many bars there were. It was a good thing it wasn't one of those mondo bags of Tootsie Roll Midgees that my mom always buys or there would have been an international incident. Nathan just looks at me and says "I think we have your blog topic for tomorrow".

This was not even the last thing. We FINALLY get to the counter and are trying to get our stuff through as quickly as possible when the checker gets to our produce. Now I am aware that multiple people might touch the produce I buy before I do, but I have never had a checker pull my apple out of the bag and manhandle it looking for the sticker. I'm not quite sure why, but that really bothered me. Arrrrrgh! I hate to say it, but I think Nathan and I are both really looking forward to this break. One week and counting!