We have a home!

[Truth in advertising: Today, I agreed to take an apartment on April 1st.]

The apartment/rooms are attached to an elegant, much-larger home.  The owners, who live primarily in Kolkata, use the main house as their get-away place and keep the loveliest grounds and gardens.  We will live in the back, attached to, but private, from the main house.  We will have our own bathroom, kitchen and two (yes, you got that right) bedrooms. 

I have scheduled a man to come to install an inverter (battery backup for the fan when the power goes down).  It will not power fans in both rooms, so C and I will probably go on sharing.  Perhaps we can use the other as a work room?  We might need at least a little more furniture if we do that.

The place is furnished.  This means that it has ceiling fans, light fixtures and a portable gas burner (without gas). Plus it has beds.  We have to provide, or do without, everything else.  Since we're heading to Kolkata tomorrow, I plan to do some shopping there. The owners gave me some idea of which things we are unlikely to find here.  Not only that, they gave me the specific shops where they get certain items when they are in Santiniketan, plus a few spots to avoid, even suggestions for cleaning supplies (and what they are called).  Of course, I can shop where I like, but I am grateful for any guidance I can get.

Kolkata, tomorrow. We plan to use those train tickets that I so cleverly purchased the other day.

My current major quandary is how to deal with the people where we are staying now.  The caretaker family is so nice, attentive, respectful, thoughtful, etc.  But we're leaving anyway.  And I have to tell them.  They got the battery fixed, so the fan stays on when power goes out. But that's not really worth 3-4 times what we'll be paying.  Yes, they feed us.  But I think I can handle that, too.

How to be gracious and clear without a common language, or much of anything else. I realy don't know.  And this is a very, very small community.  (So small that when I tripped last week, about 1/4 mile from here, the caretaker showed up on a motorcycle minutes later to check on me.  This was both charming and terribly embarrassing since I'd already continued on my way, with a few scrapes and a lot of dirt, feeling extremely foolish.)  I sent a query to my University adviser about it. I hope he will take pitty on me and join the conversation.  Any advice?

If I get a decent connection some time next week - which is unlikely - I'll send pics of the new home.

If anyone is thinking of visiting, we will have a place to put you up!