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...

Real Life Here

I feel like I've gained a good understanding this week of what our lives are going to look like here: CRAZY. Because this is a boarding school, we become everything to these kids. Teacher, coach, mentor, friend, parent, aunt, sister, grandma...literally everything. And because there are a limited number of staff members with no real source of community to draw on for the "extras", people get recruited to do just about anything. For example...

- We have a friend who was hired as a dorm parent. However, today he interviewed (and I think got!) a job as the school counselor. And, he teaches drama class.

- Another friend came as dorm parent, and was soon asked to teach a class on Religion. Never taken an education class in her life!

- A man came to school with us this year as a volunteer, and three days after he arrived was asked to step in as "Head of High School" (which is the principal.) Hmm...

- I'm currently an elementary/middle school music teacher, varsity cross country coach, Model United Nations advisor, and Friendship Club coordinator. Can we say COMPLETELY unrelated?!

I guess I'm going to struggle with balance (ooh, big surprise for those of you who know me!). Interestingly enough, though, I'm not necessarily jumping into these commitments...most of the time commitments we'll have are things required of us. Hopefully we'll settle into a good schedule pretty soon, but right now I feel torn all the time.

When do I carve out time to spend with just Chris? How do I cultivate the new relationships I'm making here? When in the WORLD do I find time to communicate and invest in my relationships at home?!

And then there's the fact that we're living in India, and all I want to do is EXPERIENCE EVERYTHING! I want to go hiking every weekend...I want to learn photography so I can take sweet pictures...I want to travel like crazy...I want to experience God fully in this crazy diverse religious environment...I want to delve into the relationships here and make the most of our time. So many things, and so little time!

My consoling thought is, "If I ever actually achieved balance, I'd be really bored!" It's like the ever-elusive "To-Do List"...what would happen if we actually got it all done?!

*I'm looking for some bible verses that will stretch and challenge my faith...suggestions? What's spoken to your hearts lately?

**I might get to go to Bangkok for an external MUN Conference! Pretty sweet...

She's FAMOUS!

SO, I am the PROUD friend of Mrs. Katie Suddarth...who's now FAMOUS! She's got a whole article written about her music therapy brilliance...check it out here. :)

The Happy Hikers Club...new members welcome!

It's official...the Happy Hikers Club of Woodstock School has been formed. Now, I want to clarify...this is a NON-exclusive club, and we're always looking for more happy hikers to join...but there seem to be a few members that are extra happy to hike, and always up for a Saturday trek. This last Saturday, we went to Tatur!

To preface this post, you should know...this was apparently a pretty hefty hike for the 3rd week in. (there are some in the group that are marathoners/triathaloners...you don't count). I was talking with someone that's been here for a while, and I had to convince them that, "Yes, we did actually go all the way to Tatur". She thought I was confused, or that we'd only made it to a town we thought was Tatur, that we couldn't really have gotten all the way there. Sweet, huh?!

This last Saturday's Happy Hikers included: Cookie, Dave, Steve, Matt, and myself. Good group, lots of singing and joking and load of tripping/falling to be had by all.

Here's the beginning of the trail. Little did we know, this is the "long way to go."
Steve got the nickname "Shorty" on this trip, because he nearly killed himself finding every shortcut on the ENTIRE hike.
Dave, in one of his "ponderous" moments. He tends to have a lot of those on our hikes.

One of the many different scenes we saw on the hike. This felt like we could have been in Minnesota or Colorado...the air was SO clean and fresh!

The first village we came to. Cute, huh?!

Just hanging out on the hillside.

Just a cool old dude walking along.

This dog's leash is a vine...pretty creative, huh?!

We tend to see and be attracted to schools on our hikes, and this one was no exception.

This way to school!

The cute kiddies...we had the teacher's permission to take pictures this time.

Shoes lines up.

Another scene from our hike: we call this Dr. Seuss' playground.

We stopped at a temple to eat a snack, and saw some moving "bushes". Turns out to be people carrying bushes...who knew!

We shared our path nicely.

A beautiful view of Tatur.

This was my favorite part. We got into the "suburbs" of Tatur right when school was being let out, so we ended up walking into town with all the school kids. It started out with a few kids giggling when we'd say hi, and ended up being a PARADE (seriously, it was ridiculous!) of students of ALL AGES bringing us into town. Apparently, they don't see white people very often. :) Dave tended to be an attraction, probably because of his goofy grin and height. I have a fun video, I'll try to post it when I have more time. :)

See? They like Dave!

Cookie, Dave and I opted to take a jeep back up the mountain, since it had taken much longer than we expected to get down, and since it would be nearly ENTIRELY up-mountain to go back up! Luckily for us, this was the smarter decision. Steve and Matt ended up having quite a trek home...complete with monsoon downpours, huge leeches, charging bulls, lots of wrong turns and locals taking pity on them. They finally drug themselves into town around 10:15 PM that night...I was in the shower by 3:30. :) (read Steve's rendition...it's quite entertaining! 7-parts to it, make sure you've got time to spare!)

The rest of the weekend was great...hung with hubby, went into town, had some quality time with Laura and went to a birthday party for Adityah. It was a GREAT weekend, and I'm ready to start our first OFFICIAL FULL week of school!

The First Week...

of school is almost over, and WOW. I still feel like I don't have any idea what a typical day will be like...it seems like the motto here is "pile more "stuff" on people until they break down, and then we've got it just right!" I've had a tendency to do that my entire life, though, so I guess I'll fit right in!

This week has been interesting. Chris is in full swing and already knocking out projects left and right...you can see his handiwork on the Woodstock Website already! I had piano auditions Monday and Tuesday, and then have had classes the rest of the week. We don't start lessons until next week so my schedule has been extremely open, but I've DEFINITELY needed the time to get ready for classes.

#1: I have SO much respect for elementary teachers now. I've got 3 elementary general music classes...1, 2, and 3 GM (all together), 4 GM, and 5 GM. Yesterday I had 1, 2, and 3 GM, and then 4 GM...cried after the first one, LOVED the second one. I feel like a new teacher all over again!

#2: I had just gotten high-schoolers figured out. They don't like when you do something, you either say "Tough, it's good for you", or "Tell me your thoughts, maybe I'm being unfair." Little kids: no idea. What're their crazy little brains thinking? What keeps them entertained? How do they learn? How do I maintain order while still letting kids be kids? How in the WORLD did I get myself into this mess!?

I've had some great talks with other music staff though, and am feeling very supported and encouraged. And, I'm slowly figuring out what an elementary general music class period looks like. I do feel like I somehow skipped over that whole class in college though...hmmm.

On a brighter note, we now have some REALLY FUN Indian clothes! I'll take some pictures soon, but this last weekend I got three pre-made salwar/kameez suits (baggy clown pants and a long shirt...from fabIndia!), and fabric to make three more suits (currently at the tailor's getting made). Chris got 2 pre-made kurtas (also from fabIndia), two pairs of pants (pajama pants) made, and a formal kurta/pajama set made.

AND THEN, the tailor made a SWEET delivery to our house tonight! He brought two pairs of pants for Chris (we had him copy Chris' favorite pants...he did a GREAT job), 6 big brown curtains for the kitchen, some table runners, a kurta for me, and my two sari's I've ordered! I tried figuring out how to wear them from the internet. We'll just say I may need some help in this department. :) But the best part...all this was made for around $20 (US dollars). We had to buy the fabric separately, but still...unbelievable!

Sorry no pictures, but I'm finding it hard to remember to take pictures of "normal" life, now that we're settling into a routine. I'll work on it. :)

Oh, and it's POURING out right now. I love rain!

Saturday = A GREAT Day!

WELL...Saturday was WONDERFUL! I'm only going to blog about our hike and the leprosy colony, because otherwise this blog would get ridiculously long. But, we did have a great time shopping in Dehradun, and got some GREAT things for the house! Tomorrow the painters are coming to start painting, so I thought I'd post pictures once they're done and the new things are settled. But, here's the rest of the day!

So, 5:20 AM. I'm UP! Ready to go...get breakfast packed, water packed, dressed, sunscreen on...at the school by 5:55 AM...and by 6:25, still no hiking buddies. I thought, "Did they decide to not go? Did they change the meeting place? Do they hate me?!"" ( I never actually thought that, but I definitely didn't know what was going on!). I hike home, check my e-mail, and discover that last night they decided to change the departure time to 7:00 instead. (to Steve's credit, he did try to call...so I guess I'm not mad. :) ) SO, I had an unnecessarily early morning and had to "re-gear myself up", but eventually we were off for a great hike!

We had a WONDERFUL view as we started the morning!

Don't be deceived...it's not the real white house. :)

We passed a local school where kids were studying, and they got really excited when they saw us! These pictures are through holes in a wall...they were ADORABLE! We had to leave when the teacher came out, though...oops!

It was a GREAT hike down...not too difficult, and lots of beautiful sites. It was pretty foggy most of the time, but we still saw a lot of neat things!

Random burial site...kind of creepy!

There had been a rock slide here...it was a little interesting crossing, but nothing too bad. :)

Smilin' Steve.

Towards the end of the hike, we saw these two guys just sitting on a hill.
Thought it was a cool pic. :)

Notice where the hands are pointed? Kind of hard to see...but in two different directions!
Which way to go?

The trail we took used to be the only road up to Mussoorie, and during British occupation it was a toll road. This is the sign that read the different rates for merchandise going up the hill.

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THE LEPROSY COLONY!
The leprosy colony was really amazing. We got to see them turning the cotton/wool into the string to weave, and then got to spend a lot of time shopping. I think the pictures speak for themselves.

These kids lived at the colony...and were SO cute!

The fabrics were really amazing...we ended up getting 4 rugs, a purse, and 4 placemats

Wrapping up our package...

YAY!



After the leprosy colony we went into Dehradun to eat lunch and go shopping. Where did we eat? McDonalds! Our first McDonalds in India. They don't serve any beef, and the chicken nuggets were "sold out"...so Chris and I got a chicken sandwich. The other guys got "Maharaja Macs"...and were less than impressed. :)

And then, the shopping began! More to come about that later. In all, it was quite the day!