I'd like to report we are on top of things and we're cruising down Easy Street. But this is a more apt depiction of how stable we feel about our assignment at this point.
Yes, some parts of the office job are getting better for both of us but 2 weeks into it, we still have to work out daily glitches. I won't bore you with all the headaches, but this is one of the problems:
We will get something configured on one phone and then somehow it must cancel it out on another. One day I have One Drive and Outlook, the next I have zero access and we have to get the OTP from a sim card in Bangkok to reinstate it. Or if I take a photo on one phone, I have to go through a three-way process to get it to my American phone because Google Photos doesn't recognize all the other accounts. WhatsApp contacts don't transfer from phone to phone. It's all terribly confusing to me. Too many phones, too many apps, too many files, too many passwords, firewalls, and pincodes. Calgon take me away!
Apparently, the Lord heard my desperate plea because in the midst of this mayhem of our minds, President Bushi planned a Zone outing on P-day Monday for all the Bengalore missionaries, us included, to get away from the stress of our cares while we see a bit of India. Excellent concept, let's all exhale together! At the wee hours of 5am (6 IST) we boarded our minibus, bound for Mysore...
For the next 19 hours, we "did a Mysore" (remember that phrase from the prince who ordered 22 Rolls Royces at once?) Yeah, well that was the mindset. If one is good, 22 is better. We crammed alot of stuff into our time together. For example, we started eating the provided snacks immediately; breakfast was Peanut Butter and Nutella sandwiches on white bread, (PB&N, the Breakfast of Champions!) followed by chips, (6 varieties) Snickers, 5StarBar (like a Twix) Apple Fizz, well you get the idea. It was CarbFest. No restraint was shown, we were in vacation mentality after all, so we did eat. And eat. And eat.
Our first stop was a summer palace for a prince with a very long name.
And this portrait mural of every Indian ruler in the Mysore region. Similar to senior homes w/ multiple grandchildren
With Macdonalds, McSwains and Dunlaps present in our ranks, we were all interested to see our Scottish heritage in action:
And apparently Colonel Dunlop made the history book with his final attack:
Have fun storming the Castle!
We stopped to see a large Catholic cathedral and a place where silk was spun and woven. Interesting, but non-essential in hindsight. Mainly because we disappointed the merchants by not purchasing anything silky. Sorry, we're just looking.
We stopped for the essential biryani lunch at this point, at an outdoor pavilion restaurant.
The food was exquisite!
Sister Polluparti (affectionately called Sister Pullaparti by us) joked to the president that we now needed ice cream so he stopped and bought us all ice cream bars. Like we needed it, but he was in total Father Christmas mode. Fully indulged, off we bussed to a second palace even more ornate and amazing than the first.
Solid gold thingy you ride on top of the elephant
So after the second palace, we were thoroughly touristed out and thought our sightseeing time was done. Time to head back? Not so fast. We still needed to go to the famous gardens right next to a huge dam built entirely of rock. (I'm sorry I don't know any names of these places, where is Hellooo, Mem when we need him?) It was quite dusky by now and we had just climbed to the top of a hill when a switch was flipped to reveal a lightscape wonderland. There was an audible gasp, just like Temple Square at Christmas time. We were not expecting it!
As it was, we met two families who we chatted with and both wanted to take their photos with us. They both exuded such goodness, how could we refuse?
Mom, Dad, 5 children and Grandma. I'm so glad I had a pass-along card in my fanny pack to give them. They struck me as such a golden family. The daughter in black print dress was the family spokesman.
Dad and His 3 Sons
Ok, so that whole stop was really worth the extra time. Forgive us for murmuring! But surely, it was time to head home now. We boarded the bus completely ready to stop taking any more group photos and began envisioning the beloved reunion with our mattress. Imagine our surprise when we stopped again around 8ish to eat another meal. Honestly, every time we reboarded the bus there was more snacking so I don't think any of us were particularly malnourished but we stopped nonetheless to eat Hakka noodles at a roadside restaurant. By the time we ended that meal, it was pushing 9:00 and we still had the long ride back. You'd think traffic would be thinner later when everyone is home and getting ready for bed but that's never been the case. It is notoriously congested even late at night. In general, I'd say the late nighttime hours are when the roads are the very busiest. Shops rarely open before 10am. So the missionary schedule of "early to bed, early to rise doesn't quite jibe with India's "late to bed, late to rise" reality. The American elders say the hardest adjustment has been that Indians eat their last meal around 9:30pm and then you're to be in bed by 10:30. When we pulled into our enclave at five minutes to midnight, we were never so glad to finally be home. Knowing we had to be up and going the next day took a little joy out of that last leg of the journey.
Our takeaway from the Mysore experience: indulgence in eating round the clock is fun in the moment but there's always a price to pay. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Group photos can be taken to the extreme but just keep smiling anyway. Prudence and moderation are virtues.
But don't think for a moment we aren't grateful to have been included in this excursion. Now that we are back to our normal work routine, diet, and sleep schedule, we see where we can show personal restraint, even when enticed to indulgence. Good thing too, because we just learned that in lieu of senior retreats, (who would we retreat with?) the President, with his generous nature has invited us to 3 more of these outings with each Zone during the month of November. We'll get to "do a Mysore" all month!
"And it pleaseth God that he hath given all things unto man; for unto this end were they made to be used, with judgment, not to excess.."
D&C 59:20
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