A few commenters on my What We Do All Day post asked about the nausea induced by Indian food cooking. I assure you, this is quite regular and not due to pregnancy.  In fact, I am getting used to it – about half the time, the food smells good now!  But, this is just one of the reasons why living in India is like being pregnant.  If you’ve ever been pregnant, you’ll probably relate to some of these.

1. I crave Taco Bell. What were your pregnancy cravings? My best friend and I both craved Taco Bell. We’d sit our toddlers down with soft tacos and munch our value menu cravings away. The reason Taco Bell sounds so delicious here? It’s the best Mexican food available. Seriously. I’m a California girl and I sure miss my Mexican food.

2. Everything is exhausting. I wrote some about this in What We Do All Day. It takes twice as long to accomplish anything here and it’s twice as frustrating. Remember those pregnant days where getting off the couch just requires too much energy?

3. I wear sandals all the time. I love my flip flops. Fat, pregnant feet love comfy sandals, and so do Indians. The weather has been fairly nice year-round, and I wear flip flops almost every day.

4. The grocery store makes me nauseous. When pregnant with #2, there were many times when the highlight of my day was making it through Wal-mart without throwing up. I feel the same way here, especially if the grocery store has a meat and seafood department.  They smell horrid.

5. The smell of food cooking makes me nauseous. When we first moved here I would gag every time I opened the balcony door to throw something away, or do laundry. Now it’s only about 50% of the time. The smell of Indian food cooking isn’t always pleasant.  Remember when getting a nutritious dinner on the table was too much to ask?

6. When in doubt, it probably makes me nauseous. If there was such a thing as smell-o-vision, you’d smell what I mean. Trash, people, street food, sewage and who knows what else all combine to make India a very fragrant country.

If you’re new to my Frugal Foreigner posts, read all about what we’re doing in India here! You can read all previous posts in the series here

Related posts:

Frugal Foreigner: 10 Ways Living in India is like the 1930s Frugal Foreigner: Intro to India Frugal Foreigner: Could You Live on $2 Per Day? Frugal Foreigner Eats Fast Food: Maharaja Mac and More Frugal Foreigner: What We Do All Day Frugal Foreigner: Buy Soap, Get Free Jewelry Frugal Foreigner: Is This Meal Frugal? Frugal Foreigner Cost Comparison: Gas