Happy Birthday India!

Today was Indian Independence Day, and what a celebration! Since we've been here, I've been trying to learn about the history of India...here's a little lesson! India was occupied by Britain for over 2 centuries, which was a pretty dark time for the country. Caste systems were VERY prevalent, and there was tons of corruption within the leaders of the country. LOTS of violence and war...until Gandhi! Gandhi led a peaceful revolt within the country over a period of many years, and eventually won India it's freedom from Britain. (that's the gyst, anyway!). Today we celebrated India's freedom at Woodstock!

Not many rules...the only rule was that everyone had to wear "formal dress". For most of us that meant formal Indian dress, but some students chose to wear their own country's "costumes". (Today was also South Korea's Independence Day, and there are LOTS of South Koreans at Woodstock!)

And, here are all the pics! Hope you enjoy.

A little blurry, but you get the idea. All us girls felt BEAUTIFUL!

Chris and our neighbor Greg ended up having the same outfit. Indian thugs.

The campus decorated in strings of real flowers and greenery. It was beautiful!

Sand art outside the auditorium.

This is some famous actor, who graced Woodstock with his presence. :)

The Indian choir/instrumentalists performed some Indian pieces.

All the Korean kids did a performance to celebrate their Independence

Aloke Maiti is the Indian Music teacher at school.

The girls in our outfits!

They put on a high school dance to keep the high schoolers busy with the elementary and middle schoolers ate. It was a BLAST! We had so much fun, and our saris didn't even fall off!

Cute Indian couple :)

Our friend Adityah was hoisted...it was a GREAT dance.

The quad was totally decorated, and SO cool.

They use barrels filled with dried clay called Tandoors to bake bread type things.

Good food!

The monkeys were jealous of the fun we were having.

One of my cute kiddies.

More of the cuties.

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After the celebration we hung out, took a nap, cleaned the house, and then had a brunch/supper. We provided the pancake mix, eggs, potatoes, and other people brought onions, cheese, silverware...and we had a GREAT TIME! Best thing...I don't think I made any of the supper. Greg made the eggs, Chris made the pancakes, and Dave made the hashbrowns. Mmmm...