Boy, was I wrong.
Our apartment hadn't been lived in for three years, so the second we moved in and started trying to use the various appliances, they started to break one at a time. First, it was the washing machine. The night we moved, my roommate, Laura, and I wanted to do a batch of laundry. We couldn't figure out how water was supposed to get into the machine, so we filled buckets and poured them into the machine. This tactic didn't seem too difficult, so we just figured it was something we would have to adjust to from the U.S. But then, when the machine was done washing, it drained all the water out the bottom of the machine, onto the floor. We called our landlord and he came to the apartment to examine the issue, and we realized the washing machine was missing all the tubes that poured water into the machine, and drained it into a hole (rather than all across our floor.)
In the following days, our fan, stove, shower, and air conditioner broke, just to name a few. We are incredibly lucky, however, that our landlord and his family are truly some of the most kind and generous people I have ever met. Laura and I felt a bit guilty calling them every time something broke (which was almost a daily basis) but they have never once seemed exasperated with us, and they always rush over right away to fix the issue (even though they live almost an hour away from our apartment.) Last Saturday, both the landlord and his wife showed up at 9:30 AM with a cohort of repairmen (around ten people) to fix all the various issues. The two of them sat on the couch for nine hours (they didn't leave until 6:00 PM), watching and assisting the repairmen to make sure everything was in order.
I love our apartment. It is a bit old-fashioned, with rainbow striped couches and paisley curtains that look like they are from the 1980s. But it has a lot of character, and the best part is the rooftop terrace which we have all to ourselves; it is an amazing view of the rooftops and parks in our neighborhood (and McDonald's golden arches, which are only a few blocks away.)
After everything was set up and fixed in our apartment, I assumed my life would settle down a bit.
Still wrong.
For example, grocery shopping is a whole different ball game here. I realized a few days after moving in that my room was overrun with ants. Obviously my first thought was to buy ant bait, so I went to one of the general stores in our neighborhood (which had loads of cleaning supplies, and looked like it would have ant bait.) General stores in India are not like in the U.S. You cannot peruse for the items you want; the items are behind a counter and you tell the person at the counter what you want. So I asked the lady at the counter if she had something to kill ants. She looks confused, so I start making hand motions to portray a bug and saying "ant" over and over. At this point, she looks like she has an epiphany (and I become very excited that I accomplished my task so easily) and she points at the carton of eggs beside me emphatically. I understand her confusion, as egg in Hindi is "anda" and could sound very similar to "ant." So I call my friend and ask for the Hindi word for "ant", which he says is "chittee." Feeling confident, I go back to the woman and tell her that I need something to kill "chittee." She looks at me in confusion, and once again points at the carton of eggs, even more determined that the eggs are what I want to buy. It is one week later and I still haven't found ant bait.
This is just one anecdote that represents every day for me in India. Despite my ability to speak an intermediate level of Hindi, seemingly simple tasks turn out to be incredibly frustrating. But being here forces me to take a deep breath, and enjoy the little things in life. When a rickshaw driver gives me a fair price right off the bat rather than charging me the 'foreigner' price, I feel like I won the lottery. I love sitting on my terrace and watching the neighborhood boys play cricket in the park below. I love getting delicious samosas from the vendor on my street, who insists on giving me exact change, even if it only amounts to $0.02. After a stressful day, my roommate and I had Pizza Hut delivered to our apartment, and I loved every minute of it. And even the "ant"/"egg" story ended up making me and all my friends laugh for about ten minutes. Throughout my life, I have always tried to appreciate the tiny moments that make me laugh or smile, and here it is essential to maintain my sanity.
Laura and I have made "one step forward, four steps back" the slogan of our past two weeks (since leaving the Oberoi.) Every time we get something accomplished, four other things pop up that require our attention and effort. It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the little things to which we have to attend, so we have started to give ourselves one goal every day. Today, my goal was to get WiFi installed. It took over two hours and two engineers, but I now have WiFi. And the best part is, I have never felt so accomplished upon fulfilling such a seemingly simple task.