we are bad bloggers: quarter break in delhi

We began this blog with good intentions -- and a goal to publish once every week or so. Clearly, the whirlwind of teaching has thwarted our efforts... We'll get caught up soon, though. First stop: quarter break in Delhi.

If you've seen our pictures on facebook, you're already aware that we split our time between historical treasures and modern conveniences. We did it all, it seemed, though we really did next to nothing if you consider what Delhi has to offer. 

A lot of people around Woodstock think of Delhi nothing special, just another nearby city. But we found the visit overwhelming and exciting. The streets, the noise, the smells, the architecture, the chaos. It was a blast, but definitely didn't feel like a "vacation" -- traveling was confusing and somewhat stressful, though worth every bit of trouble. Some highlights follow.

1) The Red Fort

Wandering around this huge complex (with the help of an audio tour) was quite the experience. The architecture was beautiful, though many Indian visitors seemed more interested in snapping photos of our group of white people... another common theme of our travels around Delhi. 

2) Jama Masjid

Just a few kilometers away from the Red Fort is the Jama Masjid, India's biggest mosque, and it was certainly impressive! The photo above doesn't do it justice. We enjoyed wandering through the marble structures and around the huge courtyard. 

But my favorite part of our explorations involved climbing up into the turret, from which we could see all of Old Delhi. On the way up I snapped a photo of the streets nearby, momentarily freezing the chaos.

3) Taj Mahal

We took a day trip to Agra to see the Taj. Though it was many hours of driving, it was worth it. Facebook includes most of the many, many pictures we and our friend Ritika took at the site. This is a classic shot that again fails to capture the building's grace.

4) Qutb Minar

One of the historical sites closest to our B&B is Qutb Minar, the oldest and tallest minaret in India. Though all the other sites were amazing, I think this was my favorite. It was less crowded than the others, and the ruins were just plain interesting. You could wander around peacefully and soak it all in. Unfortunately, our camera battery died after only a few pictures... 

5) Malls!

We don't have any pictures of the malls, as they were pretty much just like American malls. Our mall tours were bland, but it was relaxing to wander around somewhere that felt like home. And of course we gained access to some western brands that we've been missing:

6) India's Broadway: Kingdom of Dreams... "a spectacle so grand it can fit only in your dreams"

Gypsy prince! Seductive gypsy woman! Evil king! Underwater sequences! Real snow! LED backdrops! Actors flying through the air! Vigorous dancing and pounding music!

We didn't understand Hindi, but I'm pretty sure all four of us understood the plot of this show. And it would have been just as much fun even if we hadn't. The theater's tagline is right -- this show was almost completely spectacle. And it was one of the most entertaining things we've ever witnessed. Thumbs up, India!

***

This post leaves out much of our journey.... Karim's amazing curries, death-defying street crossings, Delhi's superb subway system, our lovely B&B, autorickshaws, Dilli haat, etc. But we've been rambling for far too long. See you soon, with an update about activity week!

love, mel and chris

time is not on our side

Much to say and no time to say it -- that's how life goes in India. Therefore, even after nearly a month, we can only offer one paltry entry that summarizes everything. Poorly. Enjoy! ;)

Dalai Lama Fun Time

Though His Holiness the Dalai Lama visited in mid-September, my preparation began much earlier. Woodstock students and staff were encouraged to wear formal national dress for the event, and this time I wanted to go Tibetan. 

With the guidance of some friends, the Wunkers, a few of us travelled down to Clement Town, a Tibetan section of Dehradun. We stopped at a Tibetan temple there, which was beautiful on the outside but seemed closed to visitors that day. 

From afar, with Darcey in the foreground.

Up close and personal.

Some sage advice.

After the temple, we made our way to a tailor, and picked out the fabric for our "chubas," traditional Tibetan outfits. Then, after a quick stop at KFC (yup!), we were back home. About a week later, our outfits were delivered to WS. The end result of the trip: a beautiful and comfortable outfit I can wear on special occasions and for teaching!

All dressed up.

Then, it was the big day. We got all gussied up and headed to the gym. The DL was a rather hilarious figure; he regularly cracked himself up with his own jokes. And his laughter was infectious, spreading through the gym like a wave each time. Though he was rather hard to understand at times, he delivered a heartfelt speech about ethics, arguing that divisions like nationality and race should disappear against the larger human connection we feel with each other. I was particularly interested in his focus on secular ethics, this idea that all humans -- no matter what religion they practice -- are driven to feel compassion. 

We get to experience some pretty cool stuff over here.

Yup, I was pretty far away. But there he is!

Born to Run

Running was a huge part of life at WS during September, mostly because of the "inter-house" competition WS holds between Eagles, Condors, and (the best!) Merlins. Chris and I are both part of the mighty Merlins group, which has lost the competition many years in a row. But not now!

The first installment of the competition happens on the annual "Inter-house XC Day." Classes are shortened, and the whole school treks up to the chakkar, a road on top of the mountain. Running is compulsory for students through grade 10, optional for 11/12. There's some sort of complex points system, and I ran two races (that's dedication!) so I could earn double points for our team.

The stands are full!

Grade 7/8 girls taking off, with staff pulling up the rear.

The day was a mess of whining and sweating, but also full of cheering. It was great fun to shout for my students or fellow Merlins. It reminded me of how much I love to root on people as they challenge themselves. And...... MERLINS ENDED UP WINNING. WHAAAAAT?!?!?!

Our next big running day was just last weekend. The top finishers of the Inter-house runs are pulled onto the XC "team" and run against other schools. We had some great finishes by men, but the women really swept the competition. Below is a snapshot from the medal ceremony -- our Grade 11/12 girls took all three spots! (The one in third is my student, Sarah!)

Amid all these races, I've been trying to keep up my running. I was doing well until last week -- busy, busy, busy! But I'm trying to stick to it because the first annual Mussoorie half-marathon is coming up in early November. Not sure how that will go, but it will certainly have interesting scenery, whether mountains or our lovely bazaar.

Well, I think I've written too much at this point, but I'll do another instalment soon. We head to Delhi on Friday, and we'll have much to share...

love, mel

after a hiatus

So... it's been a while... Sorry 'bout that. Chris and I have been busy, busy bees since Independence Day, but let me take a quick break from work to fill you in on the happenings. I'll try to stick to bullet points for this one.

--Advisor Night (8/17): Us, 10 tenth-graders, one haunted house, one Pixar flick, and lots of delivery food. That pretty much sums it up. Once a semester, advisors entertain advisees in an "out-of-boarding" situation. (Read: no sad dorm food for one night.) Our students -- or at least one loud boy -- were set on going to the local "haunted house," a ramshackle abandoned structure about 2 miles from campus. So we started our night with a hike, told ghost stories at the house, and then returned to campus for a movie and Domino's/Kelsang's delivery. Our advisees are usually shy, so it was fun to see them in a more relaxed and vibrant mode. They're a good bunch!

Priam, Pranit, and their "ghost" friend.

Exploring the house.

Of course, everyone needed pictures. Shivi said the dead trees really added to the haunted vibe.

A little picture of its disrepair.

Telling ghost stories. Something about monkeys attacking a woman? Guards being murdered? It was hard to tell what was real and what was a legend...

--Staff Hike to Rajpur (8/25). Chris was sick for this one, which was sad. But, bad wife that I am, I ditched him to walk down the mountain into Doon Valley, several thousand feet below. It was a rainy, slippery hike, but a lovely chance to catch up with other staff members and the misty mountainside. Once down in Rajpur, we visited an alum's shop, where I bought some cool coasters made of recycled newspaper. Then we visited a guitar studio and talked to a representative of JOYN India. JOYN (check out their website) helps Rajpur residents sell their hand-crafted wares to stores in the U.S., connecting the craftswomen to markets they might not have access to otherwise. It's just another small, innovative company -- something of a trend in India, a nation whose residents must innovate frequently to work against widespread infrastructure (and other) issues. It was a fabulous day, but I was sleeping by 9:30p.m... exhausted from the walk. The next day my calves and glutes were tender, tender, tender -- but it was worth it.

Staff!

I can only imagine how beautiful the view would be on a clear day. Even with clouds, it was stunning.

Lots of this cactus-type plant along the walk... Seems a bit out of place.

Our area has seen many landslides lately. 

My view out the window during lunch, until the clouds rolled in.

Part of the JOYN shop.

--Service-Learning Day (8/31). Flash forward through many teaching days, and we had today off from school! WS wanted kids to get out of the classroom and give back to local communities, so everyone was out and about. Chris and I led a group of 12 tenth-graders to Hill Bird School, a small Christian school down the hill from us. Our task: paint one of the cafeteria spaces and plaster part of the doorway. Anyone who knows Chris and I will realize immediately that this is a disaster waiting to happen. We are not the handy type... We had some challenges -- unstable electricity, not enough paint, no running water near us -- but by the end of our time at Hill Bird, we had accomplished our task to the best of our abilities. The highlight of the day actually came at lunch break, when we wandered over to the Hill Bird students and introduced ourselves. Many seemed terrified of us, but eventually we cajoled them into playing some weird form of tag. After a few minutes, some of the older kids were brave enough to shake hands and introduce us. They were charming! We lucked out with our group of tenth-graders too. They were a lot of fun and willing to get messy for the cause. On top of this, they were able to experience their own privilege; the sparse Hill Bird dorm stood in stark contrast to WS's cushy environment. We hope this realization sticks with them.

The beginning of the transformation...

And that's it for now... Thanks for tuning in.
love, mel

celebratin' in style

Last Wednesday 15 August was Indian Independence Day (65 years!!), a national holiday and big celebration for the whole school. We found out that it was also Korea's Independence Day, so the program gave a shout out to our Korean population too!

Everyone in the school wears national dress on Independence Day, which means the gym was filled with multicolored costumes from all over the world. One of my American students even wore traditional "American" garb, a cowboy-ish shirt and slacks.

Jackie asked about clothing, so here's a bit of info. Remember, though, that I'm still a novice at this stuff. Many, many, many female students and staff wore saris (which I've also seen spelled sarees). These are those beautiful outfits made of a midriff-showing shirt called a choli and a large piece of fabric that's draped into a dress...ish. It's hard to describe, so I'll repost a picture of some students, looking adorable:

Shivi and Raya

Shivi, Minhee, Parishma, Amy, and Natasha -- our colorful Grade 10 advisees!

Saris are just gorgeous, and even our tiny local bazaar offers every kind of fabric and color you could dream up. I wasn't brave enough to start with a sari -- I'm not into showing off my midriff! -- but the more I see them the more I want to try one. Our next big event for dressing up is when the Dalai Lama (YES, I did write that!) comes to visit in September. However, I might try to find a Tibetan outfit for that day. Anyway, I will eventually take the plunge and buy a sari...

Me and a few other staff members decided to go the more conservative route and wear a salwar kameez. This is perhaps the most comfortable outfit I've ever left the house in, though people who've bumped into me on late-night grocery shopping trips might disagree. However, this is certainly the nicest-looking comfy outfit I've worn:

Julia, me, Chris, and Ritika

As you can see, Julia and I went to the same tailor for our outfits -- Inam's! Basically, a salwar kameez is made up of a long shirt and loose pants. And I mean loose. I probably had about 20 extra inches of room in those pants, which really helped when we gorged ourselves at the Independence Day feast... :) 

Chris is wearing one traditional Indian piece -- the vest. I love these things. There's something so sharp about the collar, and I want Chris to get a bunch more this year. Other traditional men outfits include long shirts (kurtas), but I didn't get any good pictures of those -- sorry!

If you check out my facebook page, you can see more pictures of Independence Day fashion. I should probably say something about the actual celebration itself. The day started with a full-school assembly. We got to listen to traditional Indian music, sing the national anthem in Hindi (difficult!), and hear a great speech by one of Woodstock's alums and board members. She graduated in the class of 1950 and went on to be a successful lawyer in Delhi. It was a privilege to hear her reflect on what Independence means. By the by, if you don't know much about Indian history, I'd highly recommend the book Freedom at Midnight, which discusses Independence and Partition. It's a fabulous read about an intense history. 

After all the speeches, we took pictures for forever and then bumbled along to a real feast. Woodstock brought in food vendors from town who served us crazy amounts of food. We had the rest of the day off, so we talked and played games with friends. It was a wonderful holiday.

Well, I meant to discuss Advisor Night in this post, but I think I've reached my word limit for the day. I'll get to that in the next one. Have a wonderful week!! love, mel

a tour of the kitchen

I keep meaning to send some photos of our house, but it's hard because it doesn't feel like "home" yet. Lots of the items around the house are borrowed from the Woodstock hospitality office, and so we're slowly replacing them with things we find at the bazaar or in Dehra Dun. But perhaps we can give you all some idea of life in India by doing a room-by-room tour over several posts. Come on in to the kitchen!...

 As you can see, our space is small -- very narrow. When Chris and I are in there together, we're constantly jostling for space.

(Mom & Dad, you'll be happy to notice that there's a fire extinguisher above the fridge!)

 One of our most important kitchen friends is the Pureguard water filter. When we first got to WS, ours was broken -- a huge pain. Without it, we live on bottled water only, an expensive and environmentally unsound option.











WS also hooked us up with this sweet gas bottle stove. Cooking Thanksgiving dinner with only two burners would be a crazy challenge, but it's worked well so far... though we admittedly struggled to light it on the first several tries.

One of the most expensive things we bought our first week out is this tiny oven. (I put a bottle of oil next to it for scale.) We couldn't decide what would be better -- a microwave or an oven -- but I like to bake, so we sprang for this. I'm going to test out a high-altitude apple pie recipe later this week, my first real go at baking here. Fingers crossed, or our advisees will hate us. :)

Another grand India purchase: the electric kettle. Why did I not have this in the states?? Stupid girl. Of course, the awesomeness of an electric kettle might not make up for the fact that our coffee standards have dropped to a horrible new low. We have a french press, but it's such a pain to clean / dry that we often rely on instant coffee. Bleck! One thing I really miss from IC: Java Coolers, man. I could go for one of those. Anyway, I'm rambling. Needless to say, the electric kettle has been good to us thus far...

Just so you know we're not starving, here's a peek at our food pantry... Notice that we have lots of junk food -- nutella, pringles, and bags of cookies, fresh from the "Bread guy" who visits us twice a week with way too much food. I thought I might lose weight in India, but this evidence begs to differ. The only other thing worth mentioning is that we need to store all open packages in tupperware or plastic bags. It's monsoon, here, so anything left unsealed molds within a few days. The three tupperware on the right are full of spices and dal ingredients requested by our ayah (maid/cook), Shanti -- more on her in another post. 

And finally, I guess I'll mention washing dishes. India is certainly teaching us many lessons, one of which is patience. Things we took for granted in the U.S. take much longer here. The simple act of doing dishes is a full process -- below you can see Chris being an awesome husband and cleaning a load!

So that's our humble kitchen! I'm still learning how to cook successfully here. I've tried pancakes and stir fry -- classics at home -- but the results have been rather "meh." Not sure whether it's the ingredients or altitude or cooking  implements, but I'll figure it out sometime soon I'm sure. I like cooking too much to give up. :)

A final image: pizza from a local restaurant. Our first Indian pizza, and it wasn't bad! Certainly not Carbone's, Pagliai's, or Pepe's, but solidly better than Papa John's and some other typical U.S. delivery places. Oh, and we got to stare at the mountains while we ate... That improves things as well. 

Sorry this post is so long -- hope you all have a fantastic week!

ah, the weekend!

So. Chris and I can both officially say we are full-time teachers. Officially. We've made it through the first (half) week, and are savoring the free hours until our second (full) week. Here's what I learned, three days in. And no, these lessons are not brilliant or original. Some I even knew before I started teaching, but it's great to see them reaffirmed.

1. This is a great place to begin a teaching career. Why? A really high percentage (i.e. most) of our students are fabulous. My AP students tore apart a rhetorical text about two days in, twisting and turning through the strange rhetorical moves the author makes. (If you want to see what they worked on, check this out. It's worth the 3 minutes.) The Grade 9 students are likewise eager to please. One of my experienced members of Yearbook spent 40 minutes after class catching me up to speed on how the class normally operates. Who's teaching who here?

It's also a great place to work because of our daily schedule: Assembly (8:30-8:50am), two class periods, tea break (10:35-10:50am), two class periods, lunch (12:30-2:10pm!), two class periods. The schedule's cushy enough as it is, but I also have 1-2 prep periods throughout the day. Listen up, American schools: this schedule helps teachers stay sane!

2. Teaching rocks. I'm always nervous before a class, but no other career can keep me as energized and enthused as teaching. There's something about that magic of discussion, and the aha! moments, and the ability to teach something you're passionate about... Even on bad days, at least it's interesting. :)

3. Teachers work all the time. Another obvious lesson, but now that I'm in the thick of it I see just how much teaching takes over your life. Even when I'm not actively planning or teaching, I'm usually thinking about it -- whether about how I should phrase a definition of irony, or what my student said that charmed or upset me, or how I can make that next class better.

Despite constant work, we found time to play this weekend. On Friday, we shared a delicious meal with new staff at a returning staff family's house -- loads of fun despite getting soaked on the hike up. (It's monsoon!) Chris and I spent most of Saturday with another new staff member, Julia, at the buzz, shopping, shopping, shopping, and eating some delicious Southern Indian food called dosas. Sunday was sunny and beautiful, which sent me out for a run with friends and a walk with Chris. I like this life.

Because I've blabbed too long, here are some pictures!
love, mel

looking intense on the eyebrow path

a reminder of the danger of mountain life: landslides

a view from the chukker

as usual, tons and tons of monkeys

Random Highlights and such

Melanie's been running the show here, but I thought I'd get off my lazy bum and tell you what I think of this India place. So, here's a hodgepodge from the depths of my mind:

-- We have like 40 light switches in our apartment. About ten of those turn on lights. The rest are for decoration.

-- Indian traffic is just crazy as those YouTube videos make it out to be. It's a miracle we don't get into accident literally every time we get into a cab or bus. Especially on the corkscrew road that leads up the mountain to the school. And the roads are soooo narrow. No idea how two buses manage to pass each other on them.

-- Life without TV, cell phones, and cars is interesting. I've been reading a good amount. Also playing video games. It seems like most people here have cell phones and TV. Perhaps we will break down and buy those some day. Right now we're just working so much that we don't have time for TV.

-- We've made it down to the bazaar (kind of like the downtown area) a few times. Most of the shops here are very small, but there are so many of them. The first time we went down we got roped in by this dude Inam, a tailor, who soft sold us into buying clothes. We had chai with him and it was easily the best tea I've ever had. And Melanie got a gorgeous salwar kameez.

-- This was the first week of school, and for Mel and I, our first weeks as full-time teachers. It was fun--the students are nice, hard-working, and smart. I assigned some quite difficult political philosophy the first night of class along with some questions, and I got a lot of good responses.

That's all I got for now!

Chris