Hello everyone!! What happened to January?! I could have sworn I’d blogged last month but I guess that wasn’t so. Sorry ’bout that. Will try to compensate for that in February! When I think back on January and what consumed my mind, a good chunk of it was fretting about...
As I’m sure you can tell from the pictures and blog posts I’ve shared thus far, Bhutan as a whole was pretty darn special. However, there are three experiences we had that stood out from the rest. Oddly enough, they all involve monasteries. Today I’ll share a little...
Happy Holidays all. I hope things are grand in your world. We just wrapped up a one week trip to Bhutan, also known as the Kingdom of Happiness. Since most people haven’t been to the Kingdom, I thought I’d give a short primer filled with a mix of fun facts and an overview of...
Hi – This is Nia. This is my second blog post. We got to go to Bhutan last week and see this really cool Dzong (or fortress) in Punakha. I’m going to tell you about it in this post. And just in case you were wondering, I took all these pictures! Let’s get touring! This...
We were delighted to welcome our first visitors to India last week — my parents! Since all of us are working full-time, we had to jam a month’s worth of fun into a 10-day-trip. Thankfully my parents have the energy of 20-somethings – it was me sneaking in daily naps! :)...
What do you think of when I say the words “Hare Krishnas”? Most likely, you think of orange-clad devotees singing and proselytizing in airports in the 1970’s. And yes, you’d be right. That is part of their history. But it’s just one part and honestly, I think...
October has been such a stellar month. We’ve had three four-day-workweeks in a row. And here’s the best part – Nia had school on two of the three days we had off of work! You know what that means . . . date day for Mom and Dad! We literally put her on the bus at 7:30 and...
October has started out in spectacular fashion. The nine-day-festival of Navratri just came to an end on Monday. During this festival Mumbaikers honor the divine feminine by worshiping a different Hindu Goddess each day. There is a “color of the day” that everyone wears and...
If you have been reading for awhile, you know that I like to keep it real. Mostly because keeping up a perfect facade is EXHAUSTING and I thankfully learned that lesson early in life (hello, depression at 25!). I’ve found that by sharing all the facets of me – both the good...
Oye. How did another month pass without me blogging?! This full-time working thing is getting in the way of me keeping you updated! I’d apologize, but it’s really work’s fault, not mine. :) Speaking of work, when we last spoke I was managing the Motorpool section (15...
It’s my favorite time of year in Mumbai – Festival Season! For the next three months it’s non-stop festivals. This week is Janmashtami (Lord Krishna’s Birthday) & Dahi Handi (human pyramid day), September has Ganesh Chaturthi (the Ganesh idol immersion in the...
We just wrapped up our fourth and final week of our 2019 R&R trip in a place that was about as opposite as you could get from Minnesota and Florida–Innsbruck, Austria! We found a lovely apartment with mountain views via AirBnB and reveled in the cool weather and stunning vistas...
Like many children, I have strong memories (and emotions) tied to Disney World. My first visit to Disney World in Orlando, Florida took place in the Fall of 1991. I was 11 years old and not only was there the excitement of experiencing Disney for the first time, but it was my first...
Twas the night before Disney and wouldn’t you know it, a frickin’ tornado hit the cabin, took down 10 trees and forced my parents to have to back out of the trip. There were lots of tears but the Novaks had to press on because nothing was refundable and as you probably know...
Greetings all – The Novaks are a little over halfway into our month-long R&R trip. We kicked things off by parting ways in Mumbai with Nick heading to South Africa for two weeks of diving and Nia and I heading to Minnesota for two weeks of Miller family fun time. We are...
Wasn’t expecting to write again this soon but jetlag has kicked in full force and I am wide awake as of 3 AM today. Speaking of early mornings, I wanted to introduce you to a new 2019 practice of mine that’s rocking my world. Before I tell you all about it, let me give you a...
After 35 days away, I am finally reunited with my family and back in my own bed again! And boy oh boy does it feel good. As you might imagine, being away was quite novel at first… no demands from anyone, loads of free time, reunions with old friends and all the U.S. restaurants and...
I feel someone tapping me and catch sight of the clock – it’s 5:58. “Mom, wake up!” Was it Christmas? Oh heck no. Even better. It was self-led conference day. What are self-led conferences, you ask? Good question and one I had asked myself several weeks earlier...
As I mentioned yesterday, I’m a wee bit behind on my blogging due to my computer dying. But I didn’t want you to miss all the excitement from April and May, so I’m just going back and filling in the gaps now. The events in this post took place a month ago, on Friday, May...
I’m sure you’re wondering why I haven’t been writing these last few months. Well, it was a combination of things – lots of end-of-year activities, still finding work/life balance and my computer biting the dust. And now I’m going to attempt to make up for...
So unfortunately the surgery thing didn’t go as planned this morning. We got to the hospital at 7 AM and they were VERY disorganized (seemed to be just opening but I can’t imagine how that can be given they’re a 24 hour hospital). Wanted us to go to the ER to check in...
Three months ago I noticed that I had this strange little scratch on my chest. What was odd was that I didn’t remember scratching myself. So I slathered it with ointment each night, waiting for it to go away. No such luck – it just sat there, remaining unchanged day after day...
Hello again. Hopefully you aren’t sick of Egypt yet, as I still have one more post to do. Here are the first three in the series, in the event you missed them: Nia’s Blog Post (As in, Nia wrote it and took the pictures) My Blog Post about Nia in Egypt Extraordinary Egypt Part...
It was truly an incredible trip folks. Egypt really does live up to the hype. Nick did a great job crafting our eight day/seven night trip. We worked with a tour company called Cleopatra Tours out of Cairo and were quite happy with their guides and overall service throughout the trip...
As you learned from Nia’s post yesterday, we just returned from a seven-day-trip to Egypt. And I definitely agree with Nia, it was a pretty fantastic trip. It’s just impossible to do anything but marvel at these magnificent, GINORMOUS structures that were built thousands of...
Cairo Hi — This is Nia and I’m writing my first blog post ever. It was my idea to do a post and I’m really excited about it! This blog post is about my trip to Egypt last week. I thought Egypt was quite cool. I liked that they had lots of monuments like the Sphinx and...
We recently learned about the Cat Cafe Studio in Mumbai (near Versova Beach) and decided to check it out one Sunday. The premise of the cafe was simple — come sip coffee and munch on some food while 25 kitties roam around you in an enclosed space. The studio part comes into play in...
I’ve never been one to take many risks when there was the potential for injury. I was so injury averse, in fact, that I earned myself the nickname “Safe Sarah” from my family during my teens/early 20’s. I was totally cool with this though. I was proud of being the...
I’m glad so many of you enjoyed my recent post about how I had decorated our apartment. I thought for today’s post I’d go into more detail about my design vision, the unique items I found or had made and how I pulled it all together. You might want to refer to my last...
Hey Everyone – I’m short on time tonight, so no narrative along with this post. I will, however, come back later in the week and show you some more close-ups and explain what I was going for with my decorating choices here. So you have that to look forward to. I still have...
Hello everyone – Greetings from frigid Mumbai (overnight lows of 70 F). It’s no Minnesota snowstorm but we’re staying warm with extra layers. The Indians just can’t get over how cold it is. I am enjoying the reprieve (although I will admit to bringing along a...
I have to say, I’m a bit embarrassed to be posting this so long after our tour ended in Lilongwe but better late than never, right??? If you’re interested in seeing the recap of our second year in Lilongwe, this is your post. Just click the image below.
I’ve mentioned in previous posts how much we love Nia’s school in Mumbai. They just go the extra mile in everything, which never fails to impress me. Take STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Art Math) Maker Saturdays, for example, which they do one Saturday a month. The...
Parenting is hard. Like really hard. Just when I think we’ve gotten through one issue, the next comes on full force. I find that aspect of parenting really exhausting. However, it has helped to have a teacher Mom, a Doctor sister, a teacher sister and a child psychologist sister...
So I’ve been hard at work decorating for the last month. I’ve had furniture and mirrors hand-carved, slipcovers made, custom pillows & runners made, tons of painting done and 16 pieces of art framed. So yeah, real busy. Overall I’m really happy with how it turned out...
Hello Readers! This is the 5th and final installment of my Gujarat Wedding series. Today’s post will be on the various ceremonies that we got to witness as guests. I’m gonna be honest, I might get a lot of this wrong. It wasn’t super clear what was going on during each...
Nothing excited me (or freaked me out) more than the clothes. I was given this basic information in advance: – There will be five events over three days. – People change clothes for every event. – Jewelry is a must. The bigger, the better. You can never wear too much...
On the day we arrived they were doing Mehndi for the ladies. Mehndi is what we would call a henna tattoo in the States and is very common before an Indian wedding (for both the bride and the women attending). It’s an ancient form of body art in which designs are created on a...
The food experience in Gujarat definitely merits its own post. For starters, it was all vegetarian, all the time. What was surprising was how many different distinct dishes they could make out of vegetables, especially given that the only bean they used was chickpeas. There was also no...
I’m so excited to share this all with you. We just finished up what will undoubtedly be one of the coolest cultural experiences of our lifetimes — a 5 day wedding in a rural village in Gujarat!! How did we get this opportunity, you ask? Why only because of a friendship we made...
Happy 2019, my dear readers! If your December was anything like mine, then it is only a hazy blur in the memory. And the weirdest part is I can’t even think of what we did that kept us so busy. Such is the holiday season, I guess. Speaking of the holiday season, would you believe...
One of my favorite holiday traditions is scouring Itunes for the best new holiday albums and adding my top finds to our carefully curated holiday playlist. I thought my readers should benefit from my research so here are a few of my top picks this year. Unfortunately I don’t know...
Nia turned seven in October, and ever since she’s been struggling to define herself as a big or little kid. On one hand, she desperately wants to be seen as a big kid doing cool, big kid things. But with that comes greater independence (read: less pampering) and some missed...
Last Saturday we had the pleasure of attending the American School of Bombay’s Incredible India annual celebration. I continue to be in awe of the level of quality at which ASB does everything. You would have thought we were at a paid festival, not some school event on the soccer...
Nia was off last week for Diwali Break so she accompanied me to Lilongwe. Oddly enough, I didn’t spend much time with my daughter, as she had a totally different social calendar than I did. Because of that, I thought I’d devote a post solely to her trip adventures. She would...
Muli Bwanji Readers (that’s Hello in the Malawian language Chichewa for those of you who didn’t know). Why am I speaking Chichewa to you when I’m posted in India, you might ask? Great question! Well, Malawi just happens to be on my mind after 10 rejuvenating days spent...
Oooh, I am embarrassed by how behind I am on posting this. Totally meant to get it up before going to Malawi (and then while I was in Malawi) but the time never materialized. But better late than never, right? So….October. Overall was a tough India month for me, but we did have a...
There is rarely a dull moment when taking Nia out in public here. She attracts loads of attention as a fair-skinned, blonde child (a rarity here, I’ll admit). It’s almost guaranteed that if she starts showcasing her big personality in one way or another that a small crowd will...
Hello friends – Can you believe I’ve been in India six weeks already? I continue to be shocked by how fast the time is moving and how each week seems to hold some fascinating new learning opportunity. This week’s adventure: Taking a two-hour-course on learning how to buy...
Twas a week of firsts, dear readers! The highs continue to be very high and the lows, while less frequent, still feel very low at these early stages. I will prevail though, so don’t you worry, my dear readers (thanks to all of you who have sent encouraging messages). I write about...