- Yes, my knee is looking (and feeling) better. Thank you for your concern.
- You know that saying about “People often mistake kindness for flirtation because it's so rare these days”? There's truth in it. I may need to stop being so nice.
- Prices for goods (and services) easily reach into the multiple 100s in India; you will find yourself tempted to haggle the prices down. Keep in perspective just how much 100 rupees actually amounts to, though: about $1.65. If someone quotes you 600 rupees and your reaction is “My god, that's so expensive!” keep in mind that it's actually only about 10 bucks. If you manage to talk them down 50 rupees congratulations, you've saved almost a whole dollar. Sometimes it's less stressful for you (and better for the local economy) to just accept that the original price is still pretty damn low and cough it up.
- Restaurants advertise when they have ice cubes available, because this is a fairly rare commodity here.
- Restaurants also advertise when they take care to wash their veggies in something better than tap water (I believe most of them specify potassium permanganate.. I'm not a chemist, though, so I may have gotten that wrong) because
- You do not want to consume the water unless it's been boiled first, and for this reason
- “hot water” is the beverage you order here. It's the free, default beverage you get, like you can always get ice water in the States.
- Unless the restaurant you are ordering from has one of the above disclaimers, you probably do not want to order any sort of raw veggie. Sadly, this means salad is very hard to come by, and it's almost impossible to maintain a raw diet (if you're going for that sort of thing).
- Standards of cleanliness, professionalism, and time management are very different in India than they are in the US.
- If you do decide to scrub the walls in your new Indian place of residence, be forewarned that a fair amount of that dirt may be load bearing. Don't be surprised if you get just as much paint off the walls in the process... not that I know from experience or anything.
- Incense is your friend. So is hand sanitizer. This is coming from someone who uses neither at home in the US.
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