Speaking French in India

By Audrey and Evan Sayer

We flew to Chennai on Indigo Air. We drove two hours to get to our hotel in Pondicherry. Pondicherry is a state south of Chennai. It is very tropical like Kerala. The hotel was called, "Hotel du Parc." When we got there we noticed it was cleaner than Delhi.  Some people still speak French there (but with an Indian accent). When we got our hotel we watched T.V. and went bed. In the morning we ate breakfast. Evan felt sick, so Mom gave him something called, "Pepto-Bismal." She also let me play on the hotel computer until I felt better. I played a game called "Moshi Monsters" on the Internet.

That day we went down along the beach to walk on the rocks by the Bay of Bengal. We took the "Heritage Walk" (Boring French Colonial walk thingie). We went in some shops and saw lots of old buildings. We went to a Ganesha Temple. He is the god of prosperity and the remover of obstacles. At the Temple there was a very big elephant. Her name was Lakshmi. When you put a coin in Lakshmi's trunk, she gives you a blessing and a pat on the head.  We also saw a colourful Catholic church, but we did not go in. The gates were locked.

We ate lunch at a Pizzeria. The pizza was made in a wood burning oven. Then we continued on our walk and went to more shops. We even bought some gifts for friends - and for ourselves! 

Evan chose an elephant key chain and Audrey chose a purple and green cow passport holder.  After that we went to the hotel to rest, we finally ate dinner at a place called, "Madame Shanti." On our way back to our hotel we met three people who were staying at our hotel.  We told them to go to "Madame Shant's" or the pizzeria.  Then we made it to our hotel in the dark and went to bed.

In the morning we packed up and went to the front desk to get a cab (taxi) to our next destination... a place called Mahabalipuram, in the state of Tamil Nadu.

Audrey's 10th Birthday!

by House Boy

Today Audrey turns ten years old! Dad says he can't believe it. Her celebration started early this morning with a special breakfast of pancakes and fresh fruit. Audrey opened a gift from her Grandma (new purple Crocs!) and a gift from Evan... an action figure of bad girl, "Aurra Sing" from Star Wars.

She chose a special outfit today for school and she received a call from Mom (who is working in Chennai this week). Mom sang "Happy Birthday" to Audrey over the speaker-phone and got all the details of the day so far.

In the evening after swim-coaching, Audrey and Dad made a special dinner - homemade pizza and tossed salad. There was Vanilla birthday cake from our favorite bakery in New Delhi, "Red Moon."

And, of course, more gifts... It was a great day!