RECIPE FOR SWIMMING

(Our Gymkhana cards arrived at the swimming pool yesterday)

It happened. We ran into two people we know around town within days of each other. Our friend Kurt was picking up tri-pods for a viral media workshop and our landlord, Hazel, and I found ourselves opposite each other at a pastry shop-- they were out of the amazing cashew cookies we like, she for a "chocolate" cake. Then to top it all off, our membership cards were finally waiting for us at the pool, located down our street, in the sports complex, Panjim Gymkhana.

These past few weeks, I've been enjoying being in the groove-- researching recipes, cooking, going for morning walks and swims, exploring more of town, working on holiday projects and blogging. Today I went to the tailor to confirm a dress order and I strolled to the one coffee shop in Panjim, taking the back streets. There is something so affirming and thrilling to be in a foreign country and actually know where your going and the most efficient way of getting there. I couldn't help but feel a bounce in my step as the taxi guys hollered "taxi? taxi madam?" and I just pointed to my big stride and replied, "No thank you, I'm walking!"

Our gymkhana cards are the icing on the cake though -- it was a multi-leveled ordeal to become members, with our American lens of efficiency and logic, nothing for us comes easy here in India -- and the membership came with no less than:

2 separate doctor visits

medical notes/stamps/signatures

passport photos

copies of student ids

insistence that our Universities in the US exist

repeated conversations with managers on the same topic -- our membership

acquiring of proper attire -- 60s style-speedo (it has a pocket!) for D and purple swim cap for me

persistence

waiting in lines

a couple hundred rupees (about 3 dollars for a month of swims for the both of us)

A little different than a tour of 24 hour-fitness and running my credit card . . . The pool is AMAZING -- sparkling, diving boards, teenage boys who chat with us, a break from the heat and a chance to be a mermaid.