A tale of three beds

There is so, so much to post about my trip to India that I feel overwhelmed. I have over 3,200 pictures. I’m not really sure where to start so I figured I’d start with the basics and go from there.

One thing about this trip was it was it was very authentic. We lived with and exactly like an Indian family. We ate the food (more on that later), drank the water, wore the clothes and slept on the beds floor just like they did.

The family we stayed with was amazing. They were some of the nicest friendliest people I’ve ever met. They welcomed us with open arms and by the time we left I felt like part of the family. The kids even called me Auntie which never failed to make me smile. One thing that was fairly tough for me though was the sleeping arrangements. See, they were in the process of moving into a brand new home and hadn’t gotten all any furniture yet. We sat on either lawn chairs or the floor and the first day we were there we slept like this:

Yup, that is a marble floor. Yes, those blankets are very, very thin. Thankfully we brought those little blow up neck pillows. That and our jackets made for decent pillows.

The next day our bed was upgraded.

Pillows! Woot!

But still the marble. Now, the whole family, kids, parents and grandma all slept like this. I honestly don’t know how they did night after night because it hurt. Moving hurt, lying still hurt. Just ouch. But we dealt with it, it’s not like we wanted them to think we thought we were better than them somehow because we couldn’t sleep like they did. But did I mention that it hurt? After awhile I found the cushiest parts of my body and figured out how to position them under me so it was more tolerable. Or there were times I’d curl myself onto the pillow and try to make that work out. Rolling off of it hurt more than just lying still though so it wasn’t really a permanent solution.

So this was our sleeping arrangement for three nights. Then, wonder of wonders we got a bed.

Or should I say a bed frame. It was glorious. I never realized how much more comfortable wood was than marble. Trust me, after three nights on marble, wood felt like a cloud.

We thought that was the end of it. It was definitely bearable and the bruises that had formed along our sides started to fade. Then, after two days on the frame they brought in an honest to goodness mattress.

You can see from the ridiculous look on my face how insanely happy I was to lie on it. I think my exact words were “Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh”

more pictures and stories to come…