It's been almost a year since Caroline moved from Belgium to India with her fiancé Eric, and the experience has been a major adventure. Read on for Caroline's thoughts on living in Pune, her adjustment to the cost of living, and her appreciation of the friendships they've made there.	Caroline

-Where were you born?
Antwerp, Belgium

-In which country and city are you living now?
Pune, India

-Are you living alone or with your family?
With my fiancé, Eric

-How long have you been living in India?
Since November 2006

-What is your age?
26 years old

-When did you come up with the idea of living in India?
Eric always wanted to go abroad for his work! They have the opportunity in his company to go abroad for 18 months. Most of them apply to go to the US, but Eric always likes it different! His choices were China, Hong Kong and India! He started taking Chinese courses, but unfortunately they were looking for another profile in China! And then India came up, that they wanted to try it, once, having a foreigner in their company.

In the beginning I was more for the US story, but after arriving here and immediately noticing that India is a major adventure, I’m happy we landed here!

-Was it hard to get a visa or a working permit?
We had to have all kinds of documents from Eric’s work to receive an employment visa for him. In the contract they had to stipulate that I was going to be financially dependent of him, and by mistake I received a visa for one year (we are not yet married). Now we had to extend the Visa, and I received a Visa for six months, which will end 1.5 months before his assignments ends… We will have to go to Nepal or another neighbouring country to get another Tourist Visa for the last month!

-Was it difficult for you to get medical insurance before you went there or when you first arrived?
Eric’s company arranged everything for the medical insurances. We are having an overseas insurance. In Belgium we are still paying our medical insurance; when we are in town, we are having our check-ups and we don’t lose our rights.

-How do you make your living in India? Do you have any type of income generated?
I am not working in India. First of all, it is very difficult to find a job as a foreigner and I do not have the right visa to be able to work here. I always thought that, if we would go abroad, I’d like to work in a hotel or at the airport, using the different languages I speak… But very soon I noticed that, first of all A LOT of people are already working (too many people for too few work) and secondly the local language is a very important tool which I do not possess! The income we are having is being provided by Eric, which gives us the space to have a nice daily life. From his Belgian company we received an allocation that depended on the difficulty of the country we were going to live in!

-Do you speak the local language and do you think it's important to speak the local language?
I do not speak the local language. The language is too different from our language, and it is not that they are speaking ONE single language here in India… Per region there are different languages, so I was wondering if it would be that useful to learn the language. I once had a maid who only spoke Marathi, and my neighbour only speaks Hindi and both of them could not understand each other… It would be easy to know the language, of course! The locals are speaking English, but the people I see every day (driver, maid,…) have a small knowledge of English, so it’s not very easy to communicate with them, BUT you always get the help from people around you and in the end, they (the maid, the driver) are able to speak better in English.

Concerning the customs, it is really appreciated by the locals if you celebrate with them their festivals. They always invite us to go celebrating and you can see they really enjoy having us around and sharing all the information about all those festivals with us!

-Do you miss home and family sometimes?
Honestly, no, we don’t miss our family and friends too much! This is also thanks to the communications skills we have with home (skype, msn, email…). I think it would be much harder if those things were not existing! Of course, when we came back to Belgium for a holiday, it was a bit hard to go away again, because it’s for several months, but arriving in India, it always feels like home!

This is also due to the fact that the friends we made here feel like family! They know the best what we are living here, what is difficult and we are always there to help each other! For example for Easter, we all celebrated it together, with our new ‘family’. Older expats always say (after having travelled all over the world) that living in Pune means that you have the highest heights and the lowest peaks emotionally, and I think it’s really true!

-Do you have other plans for the future?
For the near future we are going to take this chance to continue travelling in India, so that India has no secrets for us anymore! Next year in May we will maybe take the opportunity to go to Malaysia before leaving this life and going back home. In the further future, I think there might be a chance we will do an experience like that again, because we really like this one!

-What about housing, have you bought, or are you renting a home? How much do you pay for it?
We wanted to live in the middle of the Indians because that would be the best way to get to know them, to get to know their customs and habits! We are lucky that we found an affordable apartment not too far from the city, because the rent of apartments is very, very expensive in Pune! It can go up to 3000 Euro a month! We pay ten times less. Ok, it is of course smaller, but we have two bedrooms and two bathrooms, which are more than sufficient for two persons!

-What is the cost of living in India?
The cost of living is on the other hand very low in India if you stick to the local products. Of course we are from Europe and once in a while we want some European things, but that has a price, a high price! My neighbour once taught me a recipe and what I had to buy for it cost me 2 Euro (I had 10 ingredients) and she only used a pinch of everything, so compared to them we are having an expensive life, but comparing to home it is very cheap! The hotels on the other hand are very expensive, since this city is booming a lot and there is a lot of business, so the prices are very high!

Travelling in India by train and bus is very, very cheap. You just have to find out the best way to travel without losing too much time. Flying, on the other hand is much more expensive, but of course much faster!

-What do you think about the Indians?
Since we live in an Indian society, and Eric is working in a company were he is the only foreigner, we have lots of contacts with them. They are very nice and always there to help you out! Sometimes there are some language difficulties, but it’s no problem to call for their help! Still, a lot of Indians do not speak English, which surprised me. When there is something to celebrate, the locals will always come to us and ask to celebrate with them! They really want to share everything with us!

-What are the positive and negative aspects of living in India?
The positive aspect is that you live an experience that is totally opposite of what you are used to in your home country (Belgium). Every day something fascinating arrives, something totally crazy in your eyes, but very normal in theirs!

The negative aspect is the lack of sense of time the Indians have… If you have to meet at 7PM, don’t make it before 8PM!

-Do you have any tips for our readers about living in India?
The best tip is just to come over and see it with your own eyes! You will see that everyone is very helpful, that after a while everything will look familiar and you will be living a great experience!

-Do you have any favorite Web sites or blogs about India?
Of course, you have to check out our own Blog: http://punericaro.blogspot.com. On a daily basis we update the blog with our experiences, our adventures, our laughs and our tears