Expats Living in India - The Expat Arc: An Expat's Journey Over Culture Shock

by Danielle Barkhouse
(Texas, USA)

The Expat Arc is a collection of Danielle Barkhouse's jounrnal entries about her life as an expat in India. Daniellle describes her journey over the arc of culture shock, identity crisis and settling in. It includes nuggets of her humor, mistakes and a few 'light bulb moments' about living abroad.

Danielle's book

The Expat Arc: An Expat's Journey Over Culture Shock can be found on Amazon.

In here you can read a chapter from her book:

Creepy Crawlies

It was so nice to have dinner with our friend, JB Senior, from Illinois this evening. Wonderful to see a familiar face and fun to hear his first impressions of India, knowing we didn't get it wrong. I said, "Can you believe we live here?" He was speechless. And he brought a suitcase full of goodies. So nice. That's not the creepy crawly part of my day though...

I was awake very early making phone calls to my mom, aunt and friend. I laid in bed chatting on the phone for a long time with my mom. Then I called my aunt. As I was chatting with her, I rolled over, moved my head and came face to face with a gecko. Literally,it was 6" from my face. I wonder if my poor auntie has regained her hearing yet?

When we got home from dinner last night, George was on duty. George is our foremost English speaking security guard. He takes great delight in giving me detailed reports of everything that goes on since he's really the only one who can. As we drove up the driveway, I could see George practically running behind the car. I knew he wanted to report something. While we were at dinner, a huge snake slithered off the roof and landed at the feet of one of the younger security guards. George even reported in detail about
how the guard screamed, which made me laugh on the inside. Of course, he was dying to show me the snake because he had the honor of being the one to smash it's head with a stick. I say this
with a bit of sarcasm because he's Christian. A Hindu would likely hold some type of religious ceremony after the snake was killed.

George said it was a cobra, the driver, who looked annoyed by the whole thing, said it was a python. Granted, he was trying to identify it sans head. It was 5.5 to 6 feet long.

Can I just say how glad I am that I wasn't here for this whole scene? When we got back inside, I turned JB into The Crocod...oops, I mean Gecko Hunter. He was ready to give up easily and allow me to sleep with Connor. There was no way I was going to bed with a gecko in my bedroom and I persisted that he extricate it from our sleeping quarters.

Surprisingly enough, I slept well last night. Perhaps it’s because I know that I'll be sleeping in my very own bed tomorrow night.

Creepy Crawlies, Part II

It was definitely a cobra. The Hindu staff are upset today that the cobra wasn't burned. And
then when it's burned a religious ceremony must take place afterwards. None of that happened. The dead cobra was gone from the rubbish pile this morning and they think it's still alive, has slithered off and will come back for revenge.

The security guard noticed the shedded snake skin hanging from a tree yesterday afternoon. This was cause for concern and they were on the lookout for the cobra. Because our best English speaking
guard wasn't on day shift yesterday, we weren't told about the concern.

I was actually standing right underneath that very tree yesterday morning with our landlords, trying to decide where the clothes line
should go. I've now decided that if I need a clothesline, it's not going to be under the trees.
This morning, I was shown the snake skin hanging from the tree.

Connor wanted to see it before school. A ladder appeared and McGyver, my new name for Prabheesh, came with a big stick. He broke a smaller one off the tree and wrapped a piece of plastic package tape around it to create a hook. He hooked the tree branch and got the snake skin for Connor. We even have the part of the snake skin that covered its head. McGyver says, "Definitely a cobra
madame." Then added with a smile, "I know snakes."

My landlord was back today about the clothesline and laughed at me when I said I'd think about it. “Oh, it's just a snake,” he says. Somehow, referring to a venomous cobra as "just a snake" is like calling a destructive tsunami a "little wave."

We have requested the guards to watch Connor if he's in any of the grassy areas. I was told that this is their duty but they didn't want to
hover since we requested privacy. Good point. They also told me they would play with Connor which is not necessary. (I’ve since
learned that playing with him is the guise for watching him.)

I hate to sound like a big weenie but the truth is, when it comes to venomous snakes and docile geckos; I am a big weenie.