I cannot wait to see the snow-capped Himalayas when the clouds lift. We saw a few more layers of the foothills last Saturday on our walk, but we are still awaiting our first real look at those awe-inspiring peaks.
This bit of loveliness is right outside the Senior School. Everything is really green here. Many, many shades of green! There have been some lovely little flowers, here and there. They don't get much sun during monsoon although, until last night, it hadn't rained since the deluge on Independence Day. All the veteran staff keep telling us we are "cheating" by getting 2 weeks of a break from the rains. We do expect at least a couple of more weeks of rain, but the ferns that grow on the trees during monsoon season are supposed to be the indicator. When they turn brown, monsoon is coming to an end. Right now they are droopy, but not turning brown, so only time will tell.
I cannot wait to see the snow-capped Himalayas when the clouds lift. We saw a few more layers of the foothills last Saturday on our walk, but we are still awaiting our first real look at those awe-inspiring peaks.
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I feel a little guilty that I haven't posted in a while. Cool things have been happening. My geography class has been loads of fun and the kids are really into studying population and migration, which makes me very happy. I've been doing a Current Event in our school assemblies once a week. They have prompted some really interesting discussions and I'm getting lots of positive feedback about them. Tim and I took a really cool walk last Saturday in a new place at the top of the mountain. We've been to some social occasions with other staff. Cassidy's classes are going well and she is spending time at the dorms when she's not busy. Life here seems remarkably normal. We are in our fifth week of school. (I know! We started so early!) We are busy learning and teaching and doing all the things that come along with being teachers.
We have been assigned our Activity Week duties. Tim is going to Bihar, not-very-affectionately called the armpit of India. That's not nice. Bihar is up near the border with Nepal and is a very poor region, with little infrastructure and a real problem with human trafficking. They are going to work in one of the hospitals there to do some filming and photography in order to help the NGO that runs the hospital to promote their work to donors. Cassidy got the plum trip! She is going on a 5 day rafting expedition on the Ganga near Rishikesh. It's a really special trip and I am a little sad I am not going. I am going to a village to work with the 9th graders. I have no clue what we will be doing, but I do know I will essentially be living like a villager for the week...except I am totally taking both bottled water and a water treatment system! We will, apparently, get to go to the river and bathe once that week, so yay?!?! Anyway, the week after that is our mid-term break. We will have earned it, I think. After pondering what short 4-5 day trip we could take we have decided to go to Amritsar. We are going to stay someplace really nice, visit the Golden Temple, the border guard (with Pakistan!) ceremony, and go to the site where the British Army massacred many Indians during India's fight for independence. We will take the train there and back, so it will be a nice adventure for us. Then we will be back at Woodstock to finish off the first semester and exams. Then we are going to Thailand and Cambodia for winter break. We have 6 weeks to avoid the very cold campus of Woodstock. We have been advised to go someplace warm and enjoy it for as long as we can. So we are going to do that. We have to make our plans now since, especially on the islands in Thailand, it will be high season. Next winter, I want to stay in India and really explore for 6 weeks...or go to Goa and live in a beach hut for 6 weeks. We'll see. I will try to post again this weekend. I have some photos to post This is quickly becoming a weekend blog. We are so busy during the week that I find myself thinking I should blog, but then getting caught up in other things, mostly news and reading that I leave the writing for the weekend. The posts from this week should more than make up for it because it was a very, very big day today. Here at Woodstock, Indian Independence Day is a holiday and a community-wide celebration of India's independence from the British. We also celebrated Korean Independence Day today as well, and our Korean students really made an impression on me with their performances and the food they so graciously served at lunch. The day began in the gym with a brief speech from Dr. Long, a brief bi-lingual prayer by our Chaplain (very impressive), and a flag-raising ceremony. The honor of raising the flag goes to the Woodstocck student(s) who have been here the longest, and this year there were 2 boys who had been here since they were in what in the US we would call pre-K. After this, the cultural events began. First up, and Independence Day instrumental. This traditional Korean Fan Dance was so beautiful! All of the performances were impressive, especially when you consider that we have only been in school two and a half weeks. Please note the gorgeous Korean traditional clothes they are wearing! More about clothing later. I really want to learn Indian dancing, and they do offer a class for staff here. I do think I will wait until next year, but maybe next semester I will feel brave enough to try it. In any case, the next video is a performance by the staff who have been learning and training with an instructor. I don't know that I will be brave enough to perform in front of the whole school, so hats off to these brave women! After the ceremony, the younger students got to head down to eat lunch first, and it was a terrific opportunity to gawk at the amazing clothing that all the women were wearing! It was like a fashion show with everything from stunning, glittery saris to more local indigenous tribal costumes that I just wanted to know more about. All the students were doing what students do best, taking selfies and getting group photos made. it was very much a celebration and I have never been a part of something quite like this event before. I can certainly understand why everyone talks about this day with such eagerness and joy. The students really love it that the western staff dress up in Indian clothing. Some of the younger ones (especially the ones who are new to the school) have never seen Westerners wearing Indian formal wear. I'm definitely making plans to get a sari and to get some more kurtas (long tops). They are incredibly comfortable and very stylish! Here we are in our finery. After all this, the whole Woodstock family headed down to lunch, which was inside and outside. Food stalls were set up around the quad, where tents had been erected to help shield us from any potential rain. There were also multiple opportunities to eat Indian and Korean food inside the cafeteria. It was really amazing, even though it did rain so hard that it collapsed part of the tenting, so we crowded together where we could stay dry. Well, there were the few students who were dared to walk underneath the "waterfall" that appeared where the rain accumulated and fell from the collapsed part of the tent. The food was delicious! The Korean students were serving the Korean food. There was Chinese food and Momos - my favorite Tibetan steamed dumplings with spicy sauce. There were Dosas from South India. Dosas are like Indian potato burritos with spicy sauces. Okay, not really, but if you have never had these yummy things, find yourself a South Indian restaurant right now. Drive your big American car there, order a few to share with friends and enjoy. I love them! There were Indian deserts, tea, lassi drinks, and I don't even know what else. At some point, I got that feeling. You know the one. After Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner when you have eaten far too much and realize the only way to fix it is a nap? That feeling. Unfortunately, it was pouring outside and our walk was going to be really, really wet. So, we waited, chatting with other staff who were also delaying their walks home and waiting for the rain to let up. Eventually, there was a lull and we stopped all our conversations and got out while we could. It was a wonderful day. We have just finished our first full week of classes here. It will definitely take me some time to get used to the "cascading" schedule, but I didn't forget to be anywhere this week, so that's good. I also picked up my first Indian head cold and finished the week feeling miserable. Tim is experimenting with our pressure cooker right now. This could be the death of us all, but it is another first. Neither of us have ever used one of these contraptions before, but the school gave us one in our "Welcome Packet". Tomorrow, I am going to make my first soup in India. It will be substandard. I already know this because I haven't made any chicken broth, and all we can get here is bouillon. <Insert heavy sigh here.>
We must start expanding our repertoire of meals. The "house specialty" has become a pan-seared grilled cheese with a fried egg on top. It's really the only way the cheese is edible. And I am using the term "cheese" very, very loosely. India is great at paneer, but the cheese is kind of awful. In any case, I have been ordering vegetables from the grocer, and have stuck to some easy things like green beans and potatoes. Tim bought me some okra this week, I think he was inspired by Corey's facebook post lamenting the lack of okra in Lubbock. The okra looks good, but I'm not sure what to do with it without cornmeal and Crisco. That means it will end up in the soup. Usually, I start soup with mirepoix, the beautiful mix of chopped onion, celery and carrot that is the basis of everything good (everything great once you add garlic to the mix). As I was meditating on that, I realized that I have not seen any celery at all in anything since we got to India. We can get bell peppers, though, so I'm sure I'll survive. I also started an 8 week course in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction this week. It was supposed to be for students, but only 1 student signed up and a half-dozen staff did. Of course, the student dropped, but the school decided that since the staff were interested, they would still offer it. The program is an online version of the course that runs out of the University of Massachusetts. It is really interesting and I am hoping to be able to continue to explore it further, even after the course is over. I am so happy to be working at a school that believes in this kind of support for teachers and staff! I gave my first quiz to my AP Psychology classes this week. Apparently the word on the campus is that the students like me, and that my class is hard. Why does that sound familiar? I am enjoying that class immensely, and I could teach Geography for the rest of my life and be happy about that. I also have lots of time for planning and grading because I am only teaching about 80 students, which is about half of what my teaching load was in the US. Of course, this is a boarding school, so we have other duties. Tim and I are sharing an advisory group. We have 9 tenth graders with whom we meet at least once a week, but see every day of the school week. We have Assembly after morning tea on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The advisor groups sit together (and we take attendance). We also meet with our advisor group on Thursdays and then 10th grade has "homeroom" on Tuesdays after morning tea. The kids are generally terrific and we have really enjoyed our time with them and we are looking forward to the rest of the year. It seems that most advisors stay with the same kids and same grade throughout their high school years, and that seems lovely to me, to have an ongoing relationship with these kids throughout their high school year as part of the design. We are planning our first Winter Break trip. Some of the veteran teachers here told me after you've been here a while, you start to plan them a couple of years in advance. At first we were thinking about spending about half the break here in Mussoorie, and then travelling through Rajastan for 3 weeks or so. More than one teacher has told us that most everyone takes part of that time to go out of India, so we are revising the plan. We may still do Rajastan, as it offers some amazing sites and we have been told that Jaipur, Jodpur and Udaipur are breathtaking and we could make our requisite visit to the Taj Mahal. We have about 6 weeks that we can travel, though, so we are now thinking more about Thailand and other options outside of India in addition to that. Travelling within the country is very inexpensive, a good thing since we are living on an "Indian salary", so that makes India even more appealing. Other places we are considering are Goa (the beach!) and Pondicherry. More on these plans as they develop! We love and miss our friends and family. To all my teacher friends, stay strong and sober during the "professional development" week! I dropped my Starbucks' travel mug today and it broke. I can still use it, but will have to be careful because the lid no longer locks. This mug has been my trusty companion for at least 4 years. I am sad. So sad. I didn't bring a back-up and I really need my coffee after hiking up to the school every day. when I realized it broke, I sent up a wail to all the gods in heaven. Then, I realized there were a few students in the cafeteria, and that I am an addict. Tim and Cassidy surely felt some sympathy, but mostly they were trying to hide the fact that they were laughing at me.
I am working on a MacGuyver-type solution that will likely involve Saran Wrap, or whatever Indian equivalent I can find. I purchased a coffee grinder and will buy and bring back a stainless steel french press the next I am in a "coffee culture". There is a cadre of staff here who are addicted to coffee and cooperatively purchase a "better" grade of coffee from a connection in Delhi. Somehow, I will survive this setback. We set out for the bazaar today, usually we walk the kilometer plus and then head down into Landour Bazaar which is, as indicated, downhill from Tehri Road. Today we were supremely fortunate and we hitched a ride with another staff member from Woodstock. We made the rounds of our regular grocers and paid our monthly bill. We have definitely settled on a favorite grocer. His tiny shop is full of foodstuffs, cleaners, snacks and various sundries like cleaners, soaps, toothpaste and the like. It's a bit chaotic because all these things are stacked up everywhere and there is no place in the store where two adult humans can pass each other in the narrow "walkways". Usually I just stand at the counter and tell them what I want. They write it down and then it all gets delivered to us later that day. Tim likes to burrow into the back shelves and see what he can find. The name of the grocery is Harkishan, and it is run by a father and son who are both usually there. The last time we were there, the electricity was off, and they said, "Oh, yes. It will probably be off most of the day." Everyone is very casual here about it. Of course, if all your customers' records are on pen and paper, I suppose it's not critical to running your business. I took a selfie today of a corner of the store. It does not nearly capture the delicious, crowded jumble! After a few stops for some other needed items, we stopped at a sweets shop where Cassidy chose some Indian treats that had been recommended by people from Woodstock. It seemed like everyone from Woodstock was in the bazaar today. The high school students get some freedom to go off campus and they typically go to the bazaar to shop and hang out, get some tea, coffee or treats. We saw many students and fellow teachers and it was a bit surreal to see so many familiar faces in a place that seemed much less familiar today with the busy-ness, increased traffic, and noise of people going about their business. Close to the end of our errands, we stopped by the tailor to get Cassidy fitted for her salwar chemise. This is the "suit" she will wear on Indian Independence Day. We had picked out the fabric last weekend and I had washed it, just in case it would shrink. I was excited to experience this with her. We are all encouraged to wear Indian dress on that day and the school has a special flag raising ceremony and special program. The tailor had mine ready and it is beautiful. It fits well, except that my head barely fits through the neck hole. I'm going to see if he can adjust it because I'm worried I will tear it eventually. We will have lots of photos on August 15, so you'll be able to see us in our Indian finery then. I did capture a bit of the main road today, though it wasn't the busiest section of road we saw today. |
AuthorTrish grew up in Texas, but has never owned a pair of cowboy boots. She enjoys a wide variety food, hobbies, locations and people. She also silently judges your grammar. Archives
October 2015
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