Bangalore Palace and Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace

Since we didn't go to the Aero Show, we decided to do some exploring downtown.  Our first stop was Bangalore Palace.

 

To the bathroom 

Ew. 

After lunch we headed to the Summer Palace.  Much smaller, but still cool.  The entire thing used to be painted in intricate detailed patterns, but after years of not being taken care of, most of it was eventually painted over.

 

 

   

Next to the palace was an awesome-looking Hindu temple.  It was closed, but we can't wait to go back someday to get a better look.

Just so you know, we didn't go to the Aero Show

The Bangalore Air Show is a pretty big deal.  It happens every two years and it's trying to become the biggest in Asia.  Our driver recommended it to us, and we decided it would be a fun activity.  The kids were excited, too, because they could see the pilots practicing their air tricks while they were at school.  (In fact, there was even a crash!) 

But we are also procrastinators.  I casually looked at tickets online, saw they were available, and kinda forgot about them.  The week of the show, however, I tried to buy tickets only to realize they were only being sold to Indian citizens.  Foreigners had to go to the Aero Show's official website and get tickets through there.  But, again, we had procrastinated to the point that they were no longer selling them online.  I tried calling--no response.  I wrote an email--no response.  Our driver suggested we just go early and try to buy tickets at the gate.  But the prospect of driving 1 1/2 hours each way on the off-chance that we could get in?  We decided not to chance it.  Instead we went to some of the touristy stuff downtown (future blog post coming!).  By lunchtime Brandon was sent a link from a coworker about a fire at the Aero Show.  Although no one was seriously hurt, we are so glad we didn't go!  It sounds like we could have been stuck for hours.  And what a horrible situation.

When we told our driver about what happened, he said it was a huge blessing from our God that we weren't there.  True that.

The Celebration Next Door

Next to our hotel is a big empty lot that they're clearing out to build something (all night long, btw).  But next to that is a road that leads to St. Teresa's.  We came home from dinner at a friend's house yesterday and there was a celebration going on!  Music, lights, fireworks all ending in a parade (procession?) down the street.  What were they celebrating?  I have no idea.

First Day of School (again!)

We were running a bit late (my bad), so we didn't get a proper first day of school picture.  But I nabbed one in the hallway as we went to the elevator...

...another in the car to send Aunt Jen when she texted to wish them good luck (you're seriously the best, Jen!)...

...a picture of BG when she fell asleep on the way (getting up this early is no joke!)...

...and then a picture when they went with the school counselor to go to their classrooms.

There was a slight hiccup that afternoon when the bus driver tried to drop them off at the wrong place (I saw the bus drive pass me and called to figure out what was going on. I may have yelled a bit), but it's all sorted now.

Really, I'm very proud of these two kids of mine, handling a move in the middle of a school year (again) to a country that's unlike anything we've ever seen, all while living in a hotel.  They are taking it like champs!

Cubbon Park

A 4-hour layover in Oman, another short flight later, and we arrived in Bangalore. The two-hour drive to our hotel was eye-opening.  I didn't take any pictures because I wanted to be able to take it all in.  Live chickens, trash everywhere, people living on the side of the road in tarps, crazy traffic, horrible roads, the occasional cow.  We definitely weren't in Moscow anymore.

Our first real day in Bangalore was spent at the kids' new school, getting the tour and everything finalized.  Which meant we needed to get them some uniforms!  The store was downtown (we live in the suburb called Whitefield), which was a good excuse to spend the afternoon in Bangalore.

We went to Cubbon Park (now known as Sri Chamarjendra Park) and checked out some of the beautiful buildings around it.  It was a fun excursion and made us realize just how undeveloped our area of Whitefield really is.

Final Russian Adventures

The apartment was packed up in half the time they allotted, we moved into a hotel while the kids finished up their last week of school and we got the apartment ready to hand over.  Our last week in Russia was a little crazy.  And, of course, there was a huge snow storm in our final days in town--one last present from Moscow!

The kids said some last good-byes to friends and classmates.

We had our final Sunday at church.  The Primary sang a song during sacrament meeting (a few kids were missing), and then the final speaker made us all cry when he expressed how much the ward would miss us.  We're going to miss it, too!

Rita came to say good-bye!

We walked to the Zoological Museum, which we had never visited before.  It was very reminiscent of the Harvard's Museum of Natural History or BYU's Bean Museum (before it's renovation): smelling of moth balls and formaldehyde because the animals are all over a hundred years old.

  

Our hotel was also just down the street from Red Square, so we took advantage of our location and spent our final evenings communing with the country we love.

How we will miss it here!

And then it was time to go!  Our wonderful driver, Alexander, helped us with all of our baggage, (Brandon and I got choked up hugging him good-bye), and then it was time for our red-eye to Bangalore.