Labor Day Weekend (in the States!)

This weekend was a relaxing one. I'm feeling better now, and have accepted more the fact that I'm going to live at Woodstock for the next two years. This is my life. It's strange, being so used to selection and ease -- the stocked shelves of Costco and driving to Trader Joe's if I need chicken. Here at Sister's Bazaar, they might have one can of Ragu and a couple packages of cookies to choose from. I still haven't been to the Muslim mosque where they sell "good" meat. The amount of people here is like that too. Rather than meeting everyone in the world, I'm slowly getting to know the people who are here, much better.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were spent sticking around, rather than running off to the next exciting city. Getting to know the students and the other teachers. Advisor Night was Friday, where we took our advisees out for dinner. I have a group of eight 9th graders, who I will be mentoring for the next two years. They are so cool! They go through similar issues of homesickness, and we talk about that sometimes. My apartment was too far to walk to, and so my friends Emily and Jared hosted us all. Pizza!!!

(Represent! India, Canada, Korea, Vietnam, and Nepal!)

(My scaredy boys. "This is the only night when Mussoorie will have zombies," one said.)
(One boy has run off, and the other two are running, after being frightened by the first camera flash.)

We watched "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" and I think the opinion was bodaciously triumphant. Karen joined us too. Afterwards, my injured student had to get a taxi, and him and the girls piled into a car that arrived. (The boyz already got to ride up.) Five minutes later, after strategizing the seating arrangement, the real taxi showed up. We asked Emily, "Who's that then?" She replied, "Oh that's my neighbor." Oops! THANK YOU, Emily & Jared!!!

On Saturday, Lorenz (the leader), Chris, Steve, and I brought 13 girls and 2 boys on a hike down to Rajpur, a small town near Dehra Dun. A lot of the new rich of India are building houses there because of the nice climate and seclusion. A large Tibetan population also lives in Rajpur. This was my chance to bond with my students, who are super awesome, warm, and intelligent. They asked me curious questions, and vice versa. I heard so many thank you's, hello's, and be careful's!

(Say paneer! All except one are my students!)

(super cool and nice students!!!)

(View of the valley)

After a full meal at Lhasa, a Tibetan restaurant, we made an impromptu visit to a Bhuddhist monestary a few paces down the road. Behind the curtain entrance were rows and rows of yellow/red clad male monks chanting, with an older monk leading the incantations. These young men were totally distracted by us tourists and kept staring, only to go back to their chanting whenever we looked back. I felt bad because we were sort of intruding and I was wearing my baseball cap and everything, so I left a guilty donation. (There were plenty of other tourists who were ushered in after us though.)

(Three monks hanging out)

That night, the Mt. Hermonians (as Casey calls us) headed to a house party hosted by French teacher Shikha. A quarter of the staff and their family were probably there. It was fun! We attempted some Indian dancing, to goofy results.

On Sunday, I actually enjoyed just being by myself, for the most part. I woke up late, wasted time, ate lunch, and then worked all day. I ran into Chris, Jackie, and Sarah in the lunch room, and that night, ate dinner at the Prakash's again. My new friends are all commiserating about the 6-Week Blues too. Maija and Neeraj had just purchased a new mini-oven and lasagna pan that day and were so excited, only to have the pan crack in the oven. Curses to the lack of selection in cooking tools around here! We ate the lasagna anyway. No shards of glass found. Then, we attempted to eat the Chocopie cookies that I bought, only to discover some of them were moldy. Curses to old food products and the monsoon over here! Well, the cookies were individually wrapped, and we figured the inflated packages (from the elevation) were the ones that we could still open and eat. They were still properly sealed and not letting any germs in. But hey, isn't penicillin a type of mold anyway?

CLICK HERE ("September 2007" photo set) to see more pictures of Advisor Night and the actual hike.