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...
Hello – Me again. Good news. Alice, our housekeeper/cook/nanny finally started on Monday and I’m feeling much more capable of managing the household now (mostly because I’m not anymore – ha ha). :) It’s so great having a person who knows where to buy the...
Ughhhh. Not gonna lie. This week sucked. People who were gonna show up didn’t show. Orders that were supposed to be delivered were incorrect. Salads that were supposed to go down easy came up as vomit. It just was not pretty folks. And I was a crabby pants. Because everything felt...
Awhile back I posted the initial photos we received of our Mumbai apartment. If you’ll remember, it was pretty dang barren and the lighting wasn’t great (although, don’t get me wrong, I was very appreciative to get any photos at all in advance). But, given that, I...
The Hindu deity Ganesh (the God of new beginnings and remover of obstacles) is the patron saint of Mumbai. Mumbaikers LOVE him. Today marks the beginning of the 10-day Ganesh Chaturthi festival which celebrates his birthday. The festival is centered in the Lalbaug area of town that used...
Nick & I went out for a city tour on Labor Day (Monday, September 3rd), which happened to be the day after Janmashtami (see my last post). Dahi Handi is celebrated in the Maharashtra State (where Mumbai is located) on the day after Janmashtami. The term means “earthen pot of...
My general approach to life overseas is to say yes to as many opportunities as I can, even if I have little information about what I’m getting into. As long as there are no safety concerns I’m willing to risk a little discomfort and embrace the unknown. Sometimes these gambles...
Seriously people. It just keeps getting better! Yesterday I joined a shopping tour that our Community Liaison Officer (CLO — my former job) put together. It consisted of three shopping stops + lunch. Our CLO is a rock star and this trip was beautifully laid out. We took off around...
We are almost one week in and I’m floored by how quickly the time is going. It’s been a shockingly busy first week and I attribute that to a few things: 1. Nia’s school was already in full swing. 2. The General Services Office at the Consulate is very well run and on top...
My daughter has no idea how lucky she is. Her new school, the American School of Bombay, is the creme de la creme. Every aspect of her education has been carefully crafted and shaped around the school’s unique value system and IB learning structure. It’s not a question of...
We’re about 60 hours in to our stay in Mumbai and man oh man am I feeling optimistic. Jet lag’s a b*tch, as usual (it’s currently 3 AM) but even that can’t bring me down. Malawi felt so foreign at first, but here I see all sorts of similarities with our past posts...
The Novaks are back in DC for the first time in two years. Although I’m not a big DC fan, it’s nice to come back to somewhere that’s familiar. For the first time ever we’re staying downtown, just blocks from the White House. The location is great and makes for easy...
We wanted Nia to have the quintessential American summer experience during home leave. In my mind that means, tons of family time (bonus points if done at the cabin), oodles of swimming and LOTS of summer camps. In typical Sarah fashion I overdid it a wee bit. So instead of a reasonable...
Hello Blog Readers – Forgive my absence. I had anticipated having more time to blog but somehow it all slipped away. But I’m here now to update you on all the fun that transpired during our month in MN! Now that Nia is older, I am loving that I can share all my favorite...
So a few days ago I told you about my beloved Weekend Walking group I started on Sundays. In that post I eluded to my other walking group, the Walkie Talkies. This post is devoted to them! The Walkie Talkies have been around a long time. The group walks rain or shine at 8 AM every Monday...
We’re down to our last days in Malawi and in between giving out goodbye hugs and packing I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting about the many things I’ve enjoyed about this tour. If you asked me to give you one word to describe our time in Malawi I’d definitely have...
Hello again! Aren’t you impressed that I’m posting for the second time in 24 hours?! We unexpectedly got pictures of our new place and I didn’t think it would be right to keep them to myself. So let’s take a little tour, shall we? First you come in the apartment...
Yo, yo, YO! Sarah here. I’ve been in major packout mode here but in my few moments of down time I like to fantasize about India. Sometimes these fantasies are amazing (like me spending a month at an ashram a la Eat, Pray, Love) and sometimes these fantasies are more like nightmares...
T minus three weeks and things are moving right along. I wrapped up work last Thursday and am now in full-on selling mode. We’re moving through the stuff at a nice pace though, which should leave me plenty of time to focus on “goodbye parties” next week. I intend to go...
Blog Readers – I know you think I forgot about you, but I swear, I didn’t. It’s just been so. dang. busy. You know how I know that the stress is getting the better of me?? I keep passing out between 8 and 8:30. Not good. So what have we been up to, you ask? Well, last...
I have less than four weeks of work left and in typical Sarah-fashion I jam-packed them with events. On the calendar for May is an adults-night out at a local restaurant, a three-day-trip to the lake (which 40 people signed up for!!), a toy/book drive for the refugee camp, the...
Back in August of 2016 when we moved into our current house it was the height of dry season. The grass was nearly dead and the bushes and plants were in need of major pruning. Having never had a yard before, it seemed like quite a daunting project to turn it around. Thankfully, I was only...
Ever since Nia was introduced to Bollywood dancing at the Holi Festival a month ago she’s been Bollywood obsessed. We now listen to Bollywood music in the car, watch one or two Bollywood music videos a night and practice our dance moves daily. Although I’m getting bollywooded...
One of the things I love most about Malawi is how wholesome and old-fashioned it is. I see so many examples of Nia engaging in the kind of dramatic play I did in my childhood… spending the entire day creating the perfect My Little Pony kingdom, building awesome lego structures and...
While Nick was off shooting these beautiful underwater pics in Lake Malawi, Nia and I were busy frolicking around town (more like village, really). The whole weekend was magnificent, but the event that really rocked our world was the Holi Festival at the Indian High Commissioner’s...
We recently got back from Cape Town, one of our favorite places on earth. This was our third time there, but this trip was markedly different because for 11 straight days we were kidless in wine country! Now before you gasp and say, “How could you leave your daughter for 11 days? I...
Here are the facts: Nia and I only have five more months left in Malawi. Nick has closer to six months. We have to sell a crap-ton of stuff because we’re moving from a house with a big yard to a teensy apartment/condo. Pack-out will be new and different. The majority of household...
Novakistan Readers – How are you? Has it really been a month since I last posted?! Whoops. That might need to be a New Year’s Resolution… Well, let’s just jump right in, as I have lots to fill you in on! Christmas seemed to arrive slower than usual this year...
We’re pretty new to this International School thing but I can already tell that one of my favorite days of the year is going to be International Day. We participated in our first one at the end of October and it was the coolest darn thing. The kids all come in dress representative...
I’ve been doing a lot of “adult-ing” lately, which it turns out, is ridiculously fun. So fun, in fact, that I recommend you drop everything right this minute and go try it yourself! What is “adult-ing”, you ask? Well… it’s doing the kind of things...
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a little swimmer on our hands! It wasn’t looking so good for awhile there. She had a lot of fear about getting into the water and stomped around for days insisting, “I’m NOT going!” By some miracle we got her in the water and although...
Hi everyone – Sorry for the break in posting. We’ve been busy showing my parents the best of Africa. Of course, no trip to Africa would be complete without a safari, so after a few days in Lilongwe, that’s exactly where we took them. We took them to South Luangwa...
I’ve noticed a fascinating new trend lately. My daughter is no longer interested in playing with children her own age, she has become obsessed with befriending “Big Girls”, especially ones who are about 10 years of age or so. This is not super surprising, because...
This past Friday was Reading Day at Nia’s school. Each year on this day, students dress up as their favorite book character and bring a corresponding book. Nia insisted on being “Shine” from the relatively new “Shimmer and Shine” series on Nickelodeon. For...
You should be impressed with me because on Saturday I helped build a house out of literally two things – mud and bricks. And in the eight hours we worked on it, the house went from looking like this…. to this! How cool is that?? This was old-school building, Africa-style. And...
I’m pretty sure my Dad breathed a sigh of relief as Jenna Miller, the 4th and final Miller gal to get married, walked down the aisle last Saturday. With all four of us officially handed off and the “no return” policy in place, I think he’ll finally be able to sit...