$4.5 Million Dollar Diamond

Today was a very normal day for Grandpa and I. We held a $4.5 million dollar diamond today, like it was nothing.

I am only meeting 6 family members while I am in India.  I wish we had the time and the ability to meet more. They are truly the salt of the earth.

Tonight I am bringing a taste of my cooking to India.  I am cooking for the family, which is as it might seem to be, a hard task.  You see,  my family here are all Hindu and only eat Vegetarian. I am a red blooded American and I so love eating meat.  I don’t really cook much vegetables at all, much less “vegetarian”. On top of that, they do not use the milk of a cow.  They will use the milk of a water buffalo. We will see how dinner turns out.

Sugar Cane Juice

We have been drinking sugar cane juice since we arrived in Surat.  This is only a problem as we have gotten a taste of the good life and we don’t have sugar cane juice shops in Texas and California. This could prove to be difficult when we return to the sugar cane free lifestyle.

Tomorrow we leave for Mumbai on a train. I am not sure how I feel about that. On one hand I want to see Mumbai and continue my trip of visiting India.  Sadly, on the other hand I have home cooked Indian meals and amazing family that I am not ready to leave.

Train to Mumbai

I was unable to finish this yesterday due to timing so I am picking this up on the train to Mumbai.

Cooking and Sharing Tunes

Last night we were picked up by Uncle who took us to the market to meet up with my aunt.  Here we purchased the ingredients for dinner. I made a super simple pasta dish that I make back home. Grandpa and Uncle went to meet up with someone, so auntie and I went back to the house and cooked. This gave us an hour of time to get to know each other. I asked if she listened to music while cooking and she said she did but only when Uncle is gone. He doesn’t like that she is a stone cold rocker! *puts up the rock fist* Granted I didn’t find this out until she was listening to my iPod and started listening to 30 Seconds to Mars. This is also the woman who is training for base camp on Everest. Hardcore.

What I Miss from Home

So I am missing a few more things today, such as Dr Pepper and Fajitas. Cheese is used so differently here that am really missing that too. They say home is where the heart is, but I agree with the saying that home is where your devices connect to wifi automatically. Hotel wifi is spotty at best and trying to upload the photos is proving to be harder and harder the farther south we go.

It is curious how many people have been so intrigued by the fact that I work with firearms for a living. I figured most people would be like Americans who are afraid of firearms but is it quite the contrary. People seem to like them here a lot. Even the young ladies I have been talking with.

I guess an Indian wife might not be that bad, if I can find the right one.

Love and Marriage

Love and marriage has been a topic for the past few days between grandpa and I. We have been discussing a young lady who I fancy. It is hard for him to believe, based on the nature of the situation, that I have developed real feelings towards her. I trust him and take his counsel on a number of matters. On this, I think we have come to an impasse.

We talk about finding someone for me and that has been a running joke for the whole trip. I will say this, I leave it in Gods hands as to who I end up with. The Good Lord above has given me many people who I deeply care about, regardless of what we call them after the smoke has cleared.  I look forward to seeing what God has in store me.

Song of the day:

In the Ghetto – Elvis Presley

This has to do with a web series I have been watching for about 8 months now. I hadn’t heard the song until they started accidently singing it, not knowing it was a real song.

The ghetto back home and the poor there have nothing compared to the poor here in India. This place, although very poor isn’t a welfare country. People work for a living and don’t expect the government to handle their laziness. While they might not be pulling themselves out of poverty, they are at least working in one form or another.

Wait have you been reading this whole article just to find out about the diamonds? Sorry. I got side tracked.

So we met up with…..to be continued tomorrow……