Salsa – The Night I danced with Strangers

Last Saturday we decided take in the sights and sample Philadelphia’s famous nightlife.

Our original choice, recommended by one of the Husband’s friends, opens quite late – well into the night by US standards. The next place we picked up at was oddly located right off the highway. Circling the block, we found a huge parking space behind. It turned out that that parking lot belonged to a casino and that illegally parked cars would be towed. Since there didn’t seem to be any mechanism to determine if you went to the casino or not I was all for parking, but the Husband felt otherwise.

The third place turned out to be a delightful surprise. Unknowingly we landed up at a salsa dancing club. We were just in time for the free lessons they offered prior to opening up the dance floor.

Everyone on the floor could dance to some degree, but there were some who were quite an act, both together and individually.

A few drinks down, armed with our newly acquired dancing skills we hit the dance floor for a fun night. I am a terrible dancer, and mostly keep away from the floor, so it was quite an experience for me. Not only did I dance with the Husband, I also dance with absolute strangers.

I don’t think I danced very well, but I know it’s going to make my mother thrilled  that I just danced!!

The last guy I danced with, turned out to be from Goa. He said he worked in the restaurant next door. He and his friends then directed us to another restaurant further down the road for some late night/really early morning grub.

That place turned out to be a hookah bar!

Ishqzaade

Sitaaron mein; Taaranon mein;
Jo milte thay, faasanon mein
Ishaqzaade, Ishaqzaade;
Kahaan hai ab jahaanon mein?!

How They ruined Superman Forever

We saw the latest Superman movie last night.

They’ve RUINED it 😦

They’ve ruined it for all the old timers and I don’t see any reasons for the noobs to fall in love.

The new Superman looks good and all, but where are those steel blue eyes? And while we are on the matter of colour, what have they done to his suit? It’s a nice superhero suit, but it’s NOT SUPERMAN!! The blue is so dark, that it could almost pass off for black. The dark dirty yellow can barely be seen. They’ve even done away with his signature RED OVER-UNDERPANTS!! The butt of all Superman jokes!!

Honestly, who calls Superman, that alien (even if he is one). And in the fight scene, Zod catches his cape and spins him around mid-air. The perils of wearing a cape!! Maybe, they should have done away with that too. The worst was probably that army captain going ” He’s hot!” at the end. He’s HOT alright, but that not what Superman does to you. You’re not supposed to squeal “HOTTIE” at him, you’re supped to sigh, “My Hero” to yourself.

The movie was just 2+  hours of everything blowing up – LOUDLY. Glass and concrete flying in my face all the while, in 3-D,  in the middle of the night was just too much for me to take.

At the end, I actually wanted to demand a refund. And to be allowed to throw my 3-D glasses at the screen.

Let’s Drink to That

Coming from India, there are certain things I take for granted. For example: self locking locks or Godrej locks as they are commonly known back home. I now have remind myself to lock the door behind me every time I enter the house.

More than everything else, I am used to being offered water as soon as I’m seated in a restaurant – WITHOUT having to ask for it. I’m used to waiters hovering around my table and refilling my water automatically.  Here, in the USA water is a drink you have to ask for. When they ask you, “Would you care for something to drink?” It’s perfectly normal to say, “Yes. I’ll have a glass of water.”

The other day, I gave in to  the Husband’s whims and we went to an Indian place for lunch. The food was average as expected, but in a true desi style our glasses were filled with water as soon as we were seated. Not only that, they were also promptly refilled without have to ask.

I was so thrilled, that I felt almost obliged to tip even though it was a buffet!!

P.S- Buffets are tip-able because, although the wait staff doesn’t wait on you, they do work hard keeping your table clean of the empty plates after multiple trips to the buffet line. In addition to this, they often help to keep the buffet line stocked and clean.

Ocean City

Ocean City

Ocean City is one of the many little seaside towns that dot the east coast of the USA, and probably no different from any of them.

It’s got the ocean,  lovely beaches and a vibrant boardwalk. What sets it apart is that it’s got the sea (or ocean) on both sides. It’s like a sand bar jutting out into the ocean. To be more specific, and basically correct, it’s on a spit.

Crab House

On the boardwalk there are several places that sell crabs. Not just dead and cooked – live hermit crabs. The novelty/souvenir stores on the boardwalk, sell crabs in crazy painted shells. I would totally condemn this, like those poor coloured chicks they sell back home in India, had I not found out that hermit crabs live in second hand shells. They use shells abandoned by other creatures.  Not only do the shops sell crabs, they also sell cages for them; and wood and other other cage decorations. If you’re wondering what to feed the crabs, they sell crab food.

We, well I poked around a little in one of the stores and found that they sell not just crabs, but also African frogs in little aquariums and dead dog sharks in jars.

You can call me CRAZY, but clearly I’m not the ONLY ONE!!

Resisting all temptation to buy the  crabs, or little frogs we left with a pair of super cute turtles made by gluing shells together.

Rules! Rules!! Rules!!!

Come Fly With Me

Baltimore Aquarium

As it was World Oceans Day this weekend, we decided to make a trip to the National Aquarium  in Baltimore.

One of the good things about Delaware is that a lot of places are quite easily accessible. Baltimore is about an hour’s drive from where we are.

The National Aquarium  turned out to be a 5 story building with some very interesting exhibits.In a very thoughtful gesture, in place of escalators, the aquarium has inclined moving walkways for most parts. I wonder why this was not uniformly implemented throughout the building.

Inside we were given a little scavenger hunt to do.

1. Look for the stripped burr fish – Found it,but in a different tank from the clue
2. Find the elusive electric eel – Found it hiding in front of a rock right next to the glass
3. Take a close look at the puffins sharp beak – Also noted how fast the swim!
4. Feel the water in the air in the rain forest exhibit – This was by far the best exhibit, as it had an open section, with birds flying
5.  over head and a sloth moving among the trees
6. Can you find atleast 3 poison dart frogs? – Found them all
7. Find a sand tiger shark – Did you know they have 3,000 teeth? Impressive huh?
8. Take a look at our jellies – A TV programme, and some reading material at the exhibit told me that the jellies are taking over our oceans.
9. Check out our dolphins – We saw the dolphins being filmed as a part of an experiment. I know it’s mean, but we were disappointed that they wouldn’t be jumping through hoops for us.
10. Spot the Archerfish -Spotted, even though we didn’t see them spitballing flies out of action.

The exhibit that seemed to have caught everyone’s fancy though, was the octopus. Did you know, a hungry adult octopus may eat young octopi?

White Clay Creek State Park

Keeping with the adage that we must make the most of what we have, we went to one of Delaware’s 18 state parks last weekend – White Clay Creek State Park.

After struggling to read the map a few times, we wandered off and stumbled on to a trail. White Clay Creek State Park offers several trails for hiking, biking and, if the map is to be believed, horse riding. The trail we took was an easy trail which led us past, or perhaps through a golf course. The weather was perfect for walking – not too hot or wet or freezing.

A little off  trail was a little pond, meant for “catch and release” fishing. Although better than killing for sport, imagine the trauma this activity would cause to the poor fish!!

We walked along the green lawns; passed shady berry trees; took in the fragrance of flowers; admired a beautiful sunset and made our way back home.

Sweet Rains

Jiyara Dhak Dhuk hoy

You know the smell of the first rains on dry earth. That smell that everyone loves. I just found out, there is a word for it. Wiktionary calls it Petrichor.

Old Friend-New City

It’s always nice to meet old friends in new cities. We were in NYC, again. This time to drop off the in-laws at the airport. Anthea was visiting her husband in Jersey city. We were meeting after 10 years or more.

Anthea and me are friends from school. We went to the same school for 12 years, but we were never really friends, hell we never even really interacted till we got to 9th grade or standard 9. That’s when she became Asst. Prefect for the Red house, and I became Asst. Prefect for Blue. The houses actually had some very fancy names  – Flowerettes and Marriottes.  Needless to say, we competed fiercess, leaving no stone unturned to outdo each other’s crazy ideas. We’ve fought over ridiculous things like, who gets to do pom-poms and who has to make do with hoops and sticks.

We both talked of becoming lawyers. She became one. She’s the kind of soul who is always driven to champion the cause of the meek and the down trodden, or who ever it is she feels injustice is being down to. Once Anthea’s on the war path , nothing can stop her. She once even poked our Principal, to get us on to a rally we wanted to attend only because the Principal said we couldn’t.  By poked, I mean physically poked her in the tummy.

We studied in a convent school. The nunnery, where the sisters lived was strictly out of bounds for students. The only time I’ve actually entered it was when Anthea decided she could not wait for a particular sister to come down and see us, and marched 6 of us off to see her in her room instead. Using the elevator, which was also strictly out of bounds for students.

It’s been more than 10 years, but nothing seems to have changed. She’s still the same mad person you don’t want to get on the wrong side off.