Snakes, Christmas and Delhi

We made it back to Ohio this week, but we still have some fun pictures and stories to share from India before the trip feels complete. On one of my days off, Michelle and I visited the Pune Snake Park and saw lots of exotic snakes, a white tiger, and some gharials. The most popular attraction was the cobra pit where the cobras constantly provoked fights with each other for the sunny spots in the pit. They would arch their heads up high, flared their hoods, hiss and then try and strike one another - what a show! That same day we also visited a restored palace where Gandhi was held as a prisoner during the years he was fighting for an independent India. The palace and gardens were very peaceful and calm, in stark contrast from everything else in busy Pune. Click on the picture of Michelle enforcing the rules to see pictures of all the snakes and click on Gandhi to see more of the palace.

On Chrismas day we celebrated with a nearly-typical American dinner complete with pumpkin pie and sugar cookies. The next day we flew up to India's capital, New Delhi, where we toured tombs, forts, temples, and survived a long drive to Agra where we saw one of the seven wonders of the world: the Taj Mahal. It really is a magnificent sight to see, but keep your nose as far away as possible - 40,000 visitors, mostly young indian boy scouts, all with their shoes off makes quite an aroma.

The most exciting week yet...

Michelle: This week Ryan and I found out that we will be going to Omaha, NE for Ryan's residency. Ryan was so excited he walked around the house singing the Air Force song all night. We are really excited. Then if that were not enough, Saturday was Ryan's birthday and we were treated to a camel ride ($6.25). To top that off Ryan got a chocolate cake with a giant singing lotus blossom candle/fireworks display that he had to blow out without singeing his eyebrows off.

On Thursday I had a nervous moment in the market. Mom and I are looking for a sari to go around the base of the Christmas tree and we had asked one of the store owners if he had any. He said no and then he said "Follow me, madame." He took us through a row of motorbikes, a deserted restaurant and then up a skinny wooden staircase. I thought to myself, "This is how people disappear." (By the way, I wouldn't recommend doing this in Colombia.) Luckily the owner just wanted to show us the sari shop on the second floor. This was my first sari shop experience. You have to take your shoes off outside and then you sit on mattresses while the vendor pulls sari after sari off his shelf. Sometimes he listens to the specifications you give him, sometimes he takes a little creative license. Luckily he didn't have what we are looking for so we will get to explore more sari shops this week.

Ryan: I have two exciting video clips to share that I hope will make India come alive for you. In the first clip, I take you inside a moving rickshaw as I take my morning ride to the hospital. These little golf-cart-sized vehicles are the taxies of India, and they’re small enough to squeeze between all the cars, bicycles, motorcycles, and trucks swarming the streets. In the second video you’ll see Michelle & I riding on a camel down the streets of Pune. I felt just like Lawrence of Arabia! For novice camel riders, the most important advice is to hold on tight when the camel either stands up from its kneeling position or kneels to let you off. The camel straightens its back legs first when standing up, putting its back at a steep angle. If you’re not holding on when this happens, you’ll definitely tumble head-first onto the ground in front of the camel – a very embarrassing and painful way to start journey across the Sahara.

Week two in India

This week I was busted. Before we came to India, Ryan had me look over all the parasites that a person could possibly get. His take home message was that I was not to eat street food, which, if I am being totally honest, I have been known to do in the past. Last night I went for a walk with Dad and we came across a man grilling corn on the cob. Dad couldn't resist it so he got some with lemon and some sort of chili powder. I was being really strong and not eating any, but then my curiousity and hunger got the best of me and I tried a bite. Just then we saw Ryan and the driver pulled over 15 feet in front of us. I quickly gave the corn back to Dad but it was too late. What are the chances that Ryan would be driving by in my moment of weakness? The good news is that I am still okay, I think that grilled corn is pretty benign.

Ryan has had an exciting week at the hospital. He lucked out and saw leprosy and a viper bite (actually just the results of said viper bite) all in one day. Really could life get better than that?He also got to go see a sad government hospital and meet the with students working over there. Lunch has proved to be equally exciting for him. None of the Indian menus have any descriptions of what the food actually is so Ryan armed himself with a list of food words that he carries around in his medical notebook. Usually everything is almost like he expects, but one day he ordered a kashmere rice and it turned out to be a tropical fruit salad type of rice. He said that it didn't go so well with his curried vegetables.

<== Michelle & a stone crocodillian; Ryan sees his sizzling brownie. Click to see more.

Namaste (Hello) from India

Hello from the other side of the Earth! A week into our visit to Pune, we’re still healthy and having fun. We had only a few snags on our arrival: a delayed flight left us in Newark, NJ, for Thanksgiving, and one of our suitcases took an extra day to make it to India.

Pune is on India’s western coast, about a 4 hour drive on a winding mountain highway from India’s largest city, Mumbai (i.e. Bombay). The monsoon season is over now and the cool season has begun, meaning the sun is always up and the temperature in the 70’s. Pune used to be a quiet town for vacationers and retirees from Mumbai, but a boom in manufacturing and the tech industry over the last decade has made the population swell to 4 million. John Deere built a plant here recently, and Michelle’s dad is here to work on a transmission for a new India-specific tractor. The Johnsons have been in Pune since February and in addition to giving us a room and meals, have been excellent tour guides and culture advisors.

If you ask me, I think all of Pune’s 4 million citizens like to drive on the street at once. I’m fascinated by the traffic here, and I’ll try and post a video clip soon so you can see what it’s like. My first fascination is with the sheer variety of things all sharing the road: bicycles, cars, countless motorcycles, innumerable rickshaws, stray horses, wandering cows, oxen pulling carts, men pushing carts, camels, and even herds of goats. My second fascination is how they all share the narrow roads with so little injury day after day. I think their key to success is liberal use of the horn and 100% defensive driving. Lucky for us, the Johnson’s Indian driver, Feroz, knows the unwritten rules of the road here and gets us safely where we need to go.

Michelle has adjusted to the new time zone and established a good schedule of a mandatory morning hour for dissertation writing, a full day of shopping with her mom, and an evening of teasing Hannah. I’d better let her tell you her favorite parts about her market trips herself: “Hmmm, well Ryan, one of my favorite parts of the markets has been the clothing shops. I really appreciate their love of all things bright and shiny. All of my favorite colors are still in style here and frequently worn together- hot orange, lime green, bright magenta. I also like the food market, and lucky for me we get to go once a week. I have taken it upon myself to reintroduce everyone to the vegetables in season here. So far the asparagus got one star and the parsnips got two. Next week I think that we are going to try kohlrabi and eggplant. The ratings can’t really go down so we might as well keep trying new things. Dad is convinced that we need to try some of the seafood from the market, but I am not so sure that is the best idea. Something about the vultures frequenting that area of the market makes me nervous. Back to you Ryan.”

I get to spend my day seeing patients with Dr. R.S. Wadia, a neurologist at Ruby Hall Clinic just down the road. Ruby Hall is the best hospital in Pune with excellent facilities and a reputation that attracts the wealthy in town. It also has a large general ward for the underserved. The result is that I get to learn from excellent physicians and see the diseases affecting all levels of society. Dr. Wadia is a kind soft-spoken man who takes every opportunity to explain and educate me on the patients we see. He’s taught me more about stroke, seizure, and movement disorders this first week than I learned in my month of neurology at OSU, all on account of his passion for teaching. With him I’ve also seen some rarer diseases: Dangue encephalitis – a tropical viral disease of the brain, SSPE – a rare late-effect of measles that makes your body jerk every 10 seconds, and Tuberculosis of the spine.

Click on the photos to see more, and you can read more stories from this week on the Johnson’s blog: http://lucindajohnson.blogspot.com/. The only place with all the details though is Hannah’s journal and that is strictly confidential. We miss you all, though we don’t miss the cold weather and snow. Please enjoy the Christmas music on the radio and in the stores there for us, and we’ll be in touch.

Don't mess with Texas

This week I went to Texas to visit Emily and her family. I have to admit that being the mom helper can be an exhausting job. It was imperative that I take a nap every day just to keep up. Zach is doing great getting potty trained and is a good little talker. In fact, Zach would be a great asset to any first date because he never runs out of things to talk about. He has a great collection of cars and trains that he is happy to share with others. Quinn has been working on resisting daylight saving time. Poor little guy, it's him versus the rest of the world, but he's giving it a solid fight.

While I was in Texas we got to go to the trunk-or-treat with the ward. Zach and Quinn were both very nice to share their candy with us. Really, we were obligated to protect their teeth from cavities.

We also went to the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory. It was fun to see all the ice cream getting squeezed into the containers, but the best part was the free scoop of ice cream at the end. This trip has inspired Ryan to review alchol flavors with me so that I don't make any more mistakes. I tried a birthday cake flavor with amaretto cream cheese frosting. I couldn't remember if amaretto was a nut or a liquor, so I decided on the first and took a bite. Clearly I was wrong. It reminds me of an incident with a rum ball... Live and learn.

Fall Leaves & A Mystery!

Last weekend Michelle & I did a little hiking among the hills and trees of Zaleski State Forest, an hour and a half south east of Columbus. The fall colors were near their peak, and the sun came out a few times to give us some really dazzling sights. The trail we took went over old Ohio roads abandoned in the 1870's, through deserted mining towns and railway stops, and past an Indian ceramonial mound. Mostly we read about those things in our guide map and saw only trees and beautiful leaves. See more photos in the album to the left if you'd like.

Now for the mystery . . . About 2 weeks ago, I came home after a day at the hospital and was met with the view you see in the photo to the right. If you had been in my shoes, what would you guess Michelle was doing? Please vote for your favorite answer in the poll to the right. After you vote, check the comments for the true story.

Philadelphia

Michelle traveled to Philadelphia last weekend for a national nutrition conference and expo where she presented a poster on her latest research and was enriched as she attended presentations from leaders in her field - or at least that's what she claims she did! I submit the photos below as evidence to the contrary. You be the judge. -- Ryan
Michelle with Ben Franklin and Charlie Tuna.

Michelle with Rocky Balboa. Michelle presenting her poster.

In my defense, I just took those pictures for Ryan's benefit. I spent most of my time taste-testing an assortment of state-of-the-art ultrafortified food (high fiber, high protein, gluten free, high omega-3, low taste, tough on the bowels). It was not an easy job. -- Michelle

Put On Your Dancin' Shoes

In anticipation of our upcoming visit to India, Ryan and I think that we all (this includes Hannah, Craig, Mom and Dad) should prepare a special musical performance. Before we can start rehearsals, we need your help choosing the best number. Click on the videos below to view our favorites and then cast your vote over on the right. We admit that Mom and Dad have an unfair advantage with the songs we're considering, since they saw these moves when they were brand new, but with a little practice we'll catch right up. We especially encourage Hannah and Craig to view the videos and choose wisely - since their future stage careers may hang in the balance. And now, in no particular order, we present Gladys Knight & The Pips, the Carpenters, The Temptations, and the Jackson Five . . . (You may have to click on the videos twice to open them, and you'll have to click on the little sound button on each video player and increase the volume to hear the sweet music.)

Down by the Bay

Time's a flyin' and we're packing in all the fun we can before leaving sunny California. This week we visited UC Davis, the Oakland Temple, the Jelly Belly Factory, and downtown San Francisco. Highlights: free samples (both jelly beans & chocolate!) at the factory, walking on the Golden Gate Bridge, the roses and botanical gardens at Golden Gate Park, and fresh sourdough bread. We took lots of pictures - including lots of skyscrapers for Hannah. Click on any picture below to see the whole album. Enjoy!

Travis Air Force Base

It has been exciting for me to be on base. I am learning all about how the military works. In fact, this experience may teach me responsibility. It turns out that I need my ID to get anywhere. I have been turned away from the grocery store already. I might learn yet to carry my identification (this coming from the woman who almost got thrown into a Colombian slammer for not having her passport on her person and who was also denied a bathroom break in Washington DC because she had no ID).

Views Around Travis AFB

These next pictures we would like to dedicate to Douglas Rene Johnson who made me go to many a distant airplane museum as a teenager. It is a lot more fun to look at planes now. :) Especially the old fighters.

Travis Air Museum

Yosemite National Park

Yesterday we left bright and early (not so bright because it was 5 am) for Yosemite National Park. Our first hike was a 2 mile round trip to Tuolumne Sequia Grove. The trees kept getting bigger and bigger the farther down we went. At one point we measured a tree with a 4 Hackett and 1/2 Ryan diameter. (This is a validated measurement methodology we developed in Smoky Mountain National Park). Little did we know that was a little brother to the Big Berthas we saw. We weren't allowed to measure the biggest ones though because standing on the roots close to the base hurts the plants - at least that's what the sign said. I am willing to bet that hundreds of deer, bears, bobcats et cetera have wondered on the roots in the past 3000 years. Maybe even dinosaurs.

Tuolumne Grove - Giant Sequoias

Our next hike was up to Yosemite Upper Falls. When we got to the trail head Ryan said "There is no where to go but up the cliffs." I thought that couldn't be possible because then it would be a rock climbing route. But it was pretty close, we had 60 switchbacks within the first mile to Columbia Rock. This was a very picturesque hike but very challenging at 7.2 miles with a 2,700 feet elevation gain. My favorite part was climbing all over the boulders at the top, just like it has been since we went goat backpacking as kids. Ryan's favorite part was enjoying the views from the top sitting on said rocks. Just so you know, Yosemite Falls does not exist in August, but there's a really nice river bed. I figure that most people people go up and wonder what is under all the water, but we know.

Yosemite

Sunny California

This weekend Ryan spent a whirlwind 36 hours at home and then left for Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California. All week he has been adjusting to the different climate and culture out there. Luckily, he can listen to some pop Latin music on the radio to remind him of me. Hopefully he will be able to put some pictures up shortly to give you a feel for this base.

I have been coping with Ryan's away rotations by making various types of jam. This week I made strawberry-rhubarb and blackberry-raspberry-strawberry. It has been very therapeutic and keeps me busy at nights. During the day I alternate between statistical analyses, paper writing, dissertation writing and swimming. I prefer the last option.