Where's your Dynamo?

Our little stowaway out of his kennel on the first flight over. Shhh don't tell Lufthansa!

It has been a couple busy days here in Chennai.  Savannah and I have been out and about checking out schools and apartments.  She decided on Gateway American, and I think it's an excellent choice.  She will have the opportunity to advance her studies and graduate from here during our 2 years.  If I haven't said it before, I am very proud of this girl. We will turn in application information later today and hopefully have her starting early next week.  We have also been searching for our home for the next two years.  There are lots of options, but Savannah likes the fanciest ones best, of course.  We have to take into consideration factors like commute to and from work for me, school for her, security, maintenance availability, expat neighbors, noise level, and more I can't even think of right now.  I am pretty confident we will firm something up by the middle of next week, but having little Dynamo with us has been a challenge because there aren't a wholeeeeeeeee lotta pet lovers here in India.  Cross your fingers for us, because this hotel room is getting smaller every day... 2 double beds, a mom, a teenager and a dog.  Did I mention the teenager doesn't like to be quiet?  Anyone who has hung around my kiddo for any length of time knows she is a talker.  And when she's not talking, she is singing. Or humming. Or smacking her lips.  Or cracking her knuckles. The list goes on.  Can you tell we need our own space? LOL
So, speaking of our little challenge, Dynamo, funny stories about this guy.  I was stressed out before we left the US because we had to get permits to bring him here and the pet transporter I was working with flaked out on us.  Fortunately I was able to make connections with another to walk me through the process and obtain an official USDA approval form and get what we needed in place so we could get a No Objections Certificate over here to allow him into India.  We decided to carry him in cabin with us on the Lufthansa flights over and might have fudged a bit on his height in order to do so...  but it all worked out.  He sat in his little soft-sided carrying kennel like a champ for both flights.  He did not whimper, whine, or bark once.  He even spent about half of each flight in Savannah's lap, under a blanket, without anyone being the wiser.  When we were leaving the plane in Chennai a lady behind us was so surprised we had him, as she hadn't heard him the entire flight, unlike the toddler in the row next to us. hehe  Before we got here, my colleagues in the ML office indicated it was a bit of a headache to find a hotel that allowed him to join us, but they did, and we are being well taken care of at the Aloft. As a matter of fact, the hotel has treated us very well, and I think part of it might be due to the celebrity we have brought along.  EVERY time we leave the room or come back into the building, they always ask "Where's your Dynamo?" - no bother about Savannah and me and how we are, but just want to know where our Dynamo is.  It's very cute and they all like to pet him and talk to him when we take him out for walks.  At first the staff was stand offish and a bit leery, especially the men.  Now they ALL love him and Savannah might even be a little jealous of the attention he gets. 
Well it is a little after 8 AM here and although I have been up for over 4 hours (better than yesterday when I woke up at 0230!) I suppose I should get out of bed and get the day started.   We learned how to say HELLO in the local language, Tamil, yesterday, and plan to learn one word or phrase a day together.  So I will hop in the shower and go tell everyone Vanakkam when I take their favorite guest, Dynamo, out for his walk.
Love to you all!