End of the Year Goodbyes - Samsara

The students are gone! The teachers are leaving! I never imagined my first year at Woodstock would go by so quickly. Soon, my parents and cousin will be here for more adventures!

In the meantime, here is a recap of the last few weeks. Karen, Kyle, and I hiked up to Witch's Hill using up the last few hours of sunlight before the clouds rolled in.

(We passed through Dhobi Ghat, the laundry village.)

(Are these your clothes?)
(That's a good way to drain roof water.)

(Long live the dorks!)

(At the top of the hill, talking to the imaginery witch on my imaginery cell phone.)
(A deodar tree)

The excitement never dies. With finals and grading done with, my ayah called the school hysterical, saying that there was a big snake in my house! My fellow math teacher Mr. Crider and head of security Mr. Chelvam came to the rescue and drove me and 4 employees armed with sticks to my apartment.

(Many alumni would probably recognize Mr. Crider)

(Quick, get it!)

(Sorry, animal activists. It was a baby snake.)

(The charred remains of the snake are inside the paper.)

(My ayah and Joseph watching the excitement.)

Mr. Chelvam said it was the first time in 20 years that he had a case of a snake in an apartment! It was really thin and about 1.5 feet long. For dramatic effect, the snake hunters put the snake inside tons of paper, poured kerosene on it, and lit it on fire. After they made sure it was bbq'd, they poured more kerosene on it. Mr. Chelvam said it was a female cobra, but opinions vary. Two other opinions say it was harmless.

This past weekend, I chaperoned some students down to Delhi to deliver them to the airport. We had the novelty of riding the Nizamudin, which is the sleeper train where you can lie down on blue latex covered shelf cots. Even though we departed at 8:45am, many of the kids slept the entire six hours!

(Tall people, be ware!)

The teachers came back from chaperoning to join in the Staff Banquet festivities. We were listening to goodbye speeches when all of a sudden, the thunder started and water just dropped from the sky. What a symbolic farewell!

(Bon voyage, Jackie and Shikha!)

(Adieu, Ben!)

Afterwards, some of us headed to the Hatches for a last night of watching something on their big projector system. Instead of watching "West Wing" episodes as we usually do, we watched the movie "An American President" which was sort of a predecessor of the series.


Today, Jackie, Radha, Shikha, and I had a last bonding session. It was really good.

(Auf wiedersehen, Radha!)

Here are some parting shots which are kind of symbolic of the circle of beginning and end, like how a black belt turns white with age and then you start over again. We began the year with nature pictures, and we'll end with them too.