Lupus hasn't killed me yet!

I'm pretty open about my Lupus, it is hard to hide even on good days.  I walk weird when I get out of chair, I don't own glasses because my hands have trouble holding on to them so I only use plastic cups, I struggle with word recall sometimes, and use 2 eating utensils when my hands are shaky.  But for the most part, I am extremely fortunate and am having a great spell of remission.

A few weeks ago someone asked me when I was diagnosed and when I said about 11 years ago, she looked shocked and said "I'm surprised you are alive, I thought patients like you died within 5 years"  it was my turned to be shocked!  What a weird thing to say to someone!! Well I'm not dead yet!  My life span is likely to be shorter than someone without Lupus, but my doctors say I have a great chance at living a long time.  My heart and kidneys (two of the biggest causes of death of Lupus patients) are ok right now.  I have tumor like growths on my thyroid that make it uncomfortable to swallow sometimes, but I'm told they are harmless :)

I'm graduating from Grad school in May and turning 40 in July and my present to myself is.......
hiking the Inca trail to Machu Picchu!!!  I am so excited!!!  About 4 years ago I went on a running cruise to Alaska - we ran a marathon over the week (in stages - 10 miles in Juneau, 7 in Sitka, etc)  This event is like that - a marathon over the week.  It is a great chance to meet other people who are active and like exercise vacations.  I am still in touch with about 7 people from the Alaska trip.

I am a little concerned about how to train for hills and altitude in Mumbai.  I live 6 blocks from the Arabian see so I am AT sea level and there are 2 small hills where I live :)   I am buying hiking boots over Christmas and will be climbing stairs in my hiking boots!

This is another new adventure to add to my ever increasing list!

If you want to see what I am doing - here is the link 

Walking in the street

In the US we are taught to stay out of traffic - to never walk in the street.  Here the traffic is much more chaotic than at home, but it is often necessary to walk in the street among moving traffic.  Here are some decisions I have to make while walking.

Do I step over the people sleeping on the sidewalk or walk in the street?
There is a cow laying on the sidewalk so I have to walk in the street.
There is poop - horse, goat, cow, dog, monkey, or people poo so I have to walk in the street.
The roosters look really rowdy so I need to walk in the street.
There an angry man throwing coconuts at a man so it would be safer to walk in the street.
There is a motorcycle driving on the sidewalk so I should walk in the street.
Someone is shooting firecrackers out their window and sparks are falling down so it is safer to walk in        the street.
Some guy is peeing on the sidewalk so it would be better to walk on the street.
Someone is burning a tire on the sidewalk so it is safer to walk in the street.

A lot of these obstacles are present on the sidewalks AND street, but it is often a better choice to walk in the street.  So much different than home! 

Visa frustration

So there are a lot of great parts to living the expat life - I have a great job.  I get to travel a lot.  All of the great things balance out the fact I miss friends and family - that I miss birthday parties and memorial day picnics etc.

Then there are the days that all expats dread and they think about why they do it.  Different things can cause this, but it is usually frustration from the way your host country deals with certain things. 

I get my Indian visa renewed every April, but my passport is expiring this March so they renewed it only until January instead of April. You can only renew it 14 days before the due date, but I am going to be gone for Christmas break.  The school had to get special permission for me to get it early.  On Thursday, they said today (saturday) was the only day I could do it.  My friend Evelyn was spending the night on Friday - we were making Christmas cookies and on Saturday other friends were coming over to have a cookie exchange.  We also had plans to go to south Mumbai to go to an NGO fair.  The plan was to skip the NGO fair and be back from FRRO before people got to my house at 4. 

FRRO is weird.  You have to fill out this huge application online, then you bring a copy of it with you .  They take it and re input everything in to the computer.  augh!  they make you purchase a folder to put the papers in.  They have rooms full of folders instead of having things online.  It seems very low tech and old school.  BUT THERE IS A FINGERPRINT SCANNER FOR WORKERS TO CHECK IN TO WORK.   bizarre. 

It started off ok - I got there at 9:20 and since it was Saturday morning, it wasn't very crowded. I went to the counter and they kept repeating "maths teacher"  Maybe they didn't believe I was a Maths teacher??  There was a problem with one of my tax forms.  I had to call someone from the school.  1.5 hours later that was straightened out and I got to go in the waiting room. 2.5 hours later I get to talk to a lady.  She calls me over to look at my papers, then calls her friend over and opens a snack!  they chat away while she does one thing with my paperwork every 5 minutes!  augh.  The papers say I am working for the school until July 2014.  I am staying at the school for 2014-2015, but that contract wasn't in my file.  They were only going to renew my Visa until July and I was going to have to go back or I could get the papers and come back this week.  I called the driver and he came to get me and had a school liason with him. We are not allowed to bring people in to FRRO so if something goes wrong we have to go outside to talk to them or call.   So I told him what went wrong and he gets on the phone with people and tells me to go in and ask for a specific person.  That takes a half hour and then they say I can only get renewed to July.  I call someone from school, he says to take the short Visa.  I go back to the lady at counter 13.  She says she can't help me now - come back at 4.  um 4 is when people are arriving at my house for the cookie exchange party!  I text everyone and tell them 5:30 and Evelyn said she'd be in my flat to get ready for people. 

Ganesh takes me to lunch which is near when Evelyn was going to the NGO fair without me so she met me for lunch.  I go back to counter 13 and start the process of going to the copier to get things copied one rupee at a time.  I pay my money and she informs me that Since I paid for a whole year, I won't have to pay in July, but they will only extend it to december like it should have been today!!  Oh my gosh!  I am going to have to go through this all again!!   I left about 5:15 and got home around 6:15 good thing Evelyn was there to welcome my guests!

Frustrating day in which I got no work done.  I am trying to keep it in perspective - it is something I have to do to stay here.  The school sends us with people so that is helpful.  And I love my job!  so I guess it is worth it.   :)