Hyderabad Zoo

Day 13

Today we visited the zoo! Vennela loves animals, her favorite is definitely the tiger, and she does a mean tiger impression:

It is one of the largest zoos in India, and the exhibits were really amazing. I think this is maybe the first time I ever saw a hippo out of the water? I feel like every time I've gone to the zoo the hippo is just chilling underwater and maybe you see their ears or their back if you're lucky, so this was pretty fun.

We were one of the biggest attractions to everyone else in the zoo though, as we are most places we go... There are definitely not many white people here at all, and white people with an Indian child strapped to their back are even rarer. It was good to experience being the minority though, and a reminder that Vennela will experience that a lot more in the US throughout her life than we ever do. Though lots of people stare, the vast majority of people we've talked to have been very kind and positive about adoption, which is a relief. 

We headed home in the early afternoon so V could nap off the zoo, and then headed to our number one hangout place, the mall. Geoff and I love to travel, and we're pretty savvy, involved travelers- we stay at local places, eat at local places, talk to people. Had you asked me beforehand if we would spend much time at the mall I would have scoffed. Y'all, we were so, so tired on this trip. Adopting is not for the faint of heart, and is at times, brutal. International travel under the best circumstances is tiring, adoption is exhausting. So when every. single. thing. is difficult (getting groceries, doing laundry, cooking with the one working pot on the one working burner only to have your kid not eat it), well, suddenly the convenience of the mall is a whole lot more appealing. Everybody gets the food they want, there are no dishes, and the mall was just ten minutes from our flat via Uber. So yes, we went to the mall every other day. At least. No shame.