Diwali Pictures!

Each doorway was decorated, filled with well-wishers and smiling faces...and everyone greeted everyone with "Happy Diwali!"

Last weekend was Diwali in India, which is basically the Hindu equivalent of Christmas. It was really fun to experience it first hand...it's actually been really fun to just experience INDIA first hand. Randomly in American T.V. shows we're watching here, or books I've been reading, there'll be references to Indian customs that I would have NEVER picked up on before...and now, I do!

Diwali (a.k.a. "festival of lights") is a five-day festival celebrated predominantly by Hindus, but also by Buddhists and Sikhs (though their legends are different). Each day, the people pray to a different god, requesting favors that relate to that god's "specialty". On one of the days everyone prays to Lakshmi - goddess of prosperity - and everyone is supposed to buy something metal...gold, silver, washing machine, silverware. Here's a picture of the metals store. It was mass chaos!


This is an example of how people would decorate the inside of their house. I didn't take this picture...found it on the internet, but think it's quite representative!


Chris and I walked into town on Saturday morning of the festival. These are some of my favorite pictures. :)




This last one has nothing to do with Diwali, but has great lighting and I just liked it. :)

Beautiful Sunset

Irrational Fears and Victorious Outcomes...

I have an irrational fear of speaking in front of people. It's not debilitating or anything, just extremely uncomfortable. I liken it to Chris' 'fear' of flying...he feels really uncomfortable and nervous until the moment we take off, and then he's fine. Same with me...I fret and worry until I start talking, and then run with it! Yesterday I had just such one experience...

I was asked to speak at the weekly elementary assembly. Now, you might think "what's to fear...they're all little!" I kept trying to tell myself that, but then I'd just keep going back to how QUICKLY these little souls get BORED! You can feel a collective restlessness come over the room as soon as a speaker has overworn their attention spans...first the ECP/KG, then first, and finally 5th. By the time the 5th graders lose it, the little kiddies are all but bouncing up and down in their seats and running down the aisles!

Needless to say, I was feeling the pressure.

I decided to do a "magic show" sandwiched with a two-part story. The story was about a time that I was less than honest about my contribution to a "rule-breaking session" with my brother. Then came the magic show, which...

was AWESOME!

Here's how it went (imagine each performed with my DRAMATIC FLAIR!)

Act 1: Thumb and pointer finger magically create intertwined rings behind my head (courtesy of my Uncle Doug...WITH accompanying vocals)

APPLAUSE!!!
(encouraged by my 5th grade assistant with a sign that said "applause")

Act 2: One finger "jumps" off my right hand onto my left hand (much less cool than it sounds...also with accompanying vocals!)

APPLAUSE!!!

Act 3: The "Disappearing Man". Our friend Steve Luukkonen stands on the "stage"...on the count of three rolled off while three elementary boys jumped in front of where he was (really, they just jumped). The effect was truly mysterious...and maybe not in the good way?!

APPLAUSE!!!

Act 4: "Voice Detection" - I used my AMAZING magical powers to detect which voice was the manly 5th grade teacher...WITHOUT LOOKING! (mind you, the only other option I gave myself was a 5-year-old ECP girl, but it shouldn't diminish your impression of me!)

APPLAUSE!!!

Act 5: I made my scarf disappear! The fact that it only disappeared (through the air) into the first row of 2nd graders didn't phase the audience in the least. :)

WILD APPLAUSE!!!

It transformed into a lesson about how the things we do wrong and then try to hide are actually quite obvious to God, even if not to the people around us. I then encouraged the students to choose to "fess up" when they're tempted to blame someone else...and then come tell me about it. I already had three "fessers" yesterday!

Ultimately, I just feel really thankful that I wasn't assigned to middle school. I feel like the "magic show" would have been less of a "hit"... :)

Mr. Georgia Tech!

SO, my brother is one of three finalists in the Mr. Georgia Tech contest...and he's got a talent on YouTube! Check it out...

Definitely didn't know he was such a country star :) I LOVE YOU BROTHER!!!

Family Visits and Hindu Experiences

These are some of my favorite pictures from Rachel and Yvonne's visit, and most of them are from this last weekend's trip to Rishikesh. Rishikesh is about two hours away, and is one of the top spiritual locations for the Hindu religion...as well as the yoga capital of the world. I've been particularly interested about the role that the Ganges River plays in the Hindu religion, so have been reading a book specifically on the "Ganga". It was really interesting to experience such a major place in the religion.

The city itself is basically a "hippie" town, filled with "soul-searching foreigners" and Hindus that have devoted their lives to worship.

It is said to be more worthwhile to spend a day near the Ganges river than to live an entire life devoted to worshipping the gods of the religion...so I would imagine that a lot of people would want to live by the river! Here's some of the story...

In short (and I'm SEVERELY abbreviating the story because it's really long!), the Ganges River is the earthly form of the goddess Ganga (so it's considered to actually be holy). One of the most interesting tales I read about the goddess-form of the river is depicted in the picture below.

One day, Ganga laughed at the expense of another god, and as a result was cursed to live forever on earth. However, her earthly form (the river) was SO extreme and powerful that if she had descended to earth directly, she would have "plowed" right through the earth and flooded everything. :) SO, the god in the picture above offered to use his dreadlocks to slow the flow of Ganga, and just moved one of his dreadlocks aside to allow the river to flow as it does today. The spot of origin is a glacier called Gangotri (a trek that we'll eventually make). From Gangotri the river splits into eight forks, which all converge at Hardwar (only about 2 hours away...another weekend trip!). And, Rishikesh is down the river from Hardwar and an important location in the Hindu religion.
We were only in Rishikesh for one full day, but I really feel like we got a good introduction to the city. We took a yoga class in the morning, and got to observe a Hindu festival that happens twice daily. Every morning at sunrise and every evening at sunset a "festival of lights" is put on to worship the river. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what it all means, but here are some pictures. It was really interesting...but I'm still wading through my spiritual/emotional reactions to the whole experience.


Rachel, Yvonne and I decided to wear our saris into town....and WHAT an experience! Apparently, people in Rishikesh are VERY used to foreigners, and are NOT used to foreigners wearing saris. So, what we were expecting to be a "fitting in" experience was actually a "STANDING WAY OUT" experience. We got SO many looks, LOTS of stares and pointing and comments, and even got asked for quite a few pictures! Here's gaggle of women...

Us in our saris. :)

Another really neat experience we had was visiting a local Hindu temple...with a Hindu guide! A guy from our hotel offered to take us to the temple, and was kind enough to entertain my many ignorant questions. Apparently, there are over 33,000,000 gods...did you know that?! Each god represents different aspects of life, and Hindus present their requests to the god that best represents their problem. Then, they ring a bell which sends the spiritual energy out into the universe. Here are some of the physical representations that they pray to...



And lastly, we all got henna tattoos (a.k.a. mindi) done! Unfortunately, we got TOTALLY ripped off (which I found out once I got back to school and compared prices) but it was a fun experience...and Rachel's #1 to do, so I guess it was worth it. It took forever, but now we've got some sweet tattoos for a week or so. Fun fun!

Rachel and Yvonne's visit was SO wonderful, and I feel so thankful to have gotten to be with family. It made me realize how much I miss everyone at home. It's interesting to see how we kind of "partition" ourselves to keep emotionally intact. It's almost like I stop thinking about home, so that I can really be here and not be too sad...and then when I talk to people from home I enter that "self". Having them here was pretty emotional because I couldn't partition anymore, and it made me really face the consequences of our choice to be here. There are good and bad consequences to all our choices, but as this is a fairly HUGE choice that affects everyone close to us, it's good to really think it thorugh a bit. More to come about that later, I'm still trying to process!

One of the favorite activities, WITHOUT A DOUBT, was shopping in Mussoorie. These girls went CRAZY, and brought home so much stuff! Luckily, they had each packed a suitcase full of things for us from home (it was like Christmas when they came!), so they had lots of room to fill up...and they did! My personal favorite was taking them to the fabric store. I always love the experience, but to hear Rachel and Yvonne's exclamations at the fabric colors and designs was priceless! I'll end the blog with some pictures of their "salwar suit" purchases. Can't wait to have an Indian clothing party back home!

We love and miss our family, and said good-bye to Rach and Yvonne with sadness...but we feel SO blessed to have such great relationships in life! Our Living God is so good to us... :)

InterHouse Sports Day...

This last Friday we had the InterHouse Sports Day, which was basically an "our school only" track meet...and it was great fun! It was a BEAUTIFUL day...one of the nicest we've had since we've been here. Chris manned the high jump, and I was in charge of registration in the afternoon. I didn't feel quite as connected to the races as I did for the last cross-country day (because the elementary school wasn't involved in this day), but it was still SO much fun!

The Eagle team mascot. :)

Loving life. :)

Our INDIA Family!

SO much has happened, and I’m feeling helplessly backlogged on my blogging. It feels frustrating to not be able to share everything I want to share with the people I love the most. But, I guess that’s one of the negatives of this WONDERFULLY positive experience. I’ve decided to just post a bunch, and get as caught up as I can. :)

I’ve wanted to share our “India Family” with everyone for a while now. I was AMAZED at how quickly we formed family-like relationships the people here. The majority of our closest friends are people that we came here with because they were the very first people we met here…and none of us knew anyone! It’s kind of like showing up on a freshman floor your first year of college. No one knows anyone, so you suddenly get to know everyone!

And so, here's our India family!

Jenny is one of my wonderful music friends, and is an ex-college-rugby player! Watch out ya’all, you do not want to mess around with this girl. Things you should know about Jenny: she doesn’t do kid song actions, she’s a SWEET cook, brushes her teeth 5 times a day (to keep food from getting into her clarinet!) and is becoming quite the instrument “fixer”. She also coined the term “they’re in the hole”…when you’re so tired you can’t stop laughing. Oh, and she’s our neighbor!

Greg is the “foodie” of the group. I haven’t had a conversation with Greg yet that hasn’t ended up talking about one of his culinary creations. Greg is also a fellow “Amazing Race” lover, and is actually sitting with us right now watching the show! Greg teaches RE classes, so is the expert on the various (and confusing) religions that surround us. Greg has traveled quite a bit, and taught in Mexico before coming here.

Dave is married to Beth (I don’t have a picture of her…sad!), and together they are the LIFE of the middle school. They both teach major subjects, and seem to run every club, lead every hike, love every kid. Dave is a BIG guy, is goofy, and a blast to be around. He’s also quite brilliant, and amazingly good at explaining terms in Catch Phrase. Beth teaches science, is SO extremely hospitable, and a great example of Christ’s love. A really great couple.

Christina is the art teacher…has a SWEET personal style…is from Canada (we don’t hold that against her), and is pregnant! It’s been really fun getting to know her and her sweet spirit. She’s married to Casey, and their first baby is due at the end of November. WOW! She’s currently painting/decorating the “baby room”…so much fun!

Casey is ALSO from Canada, and like any good Canadian is a HOCKEY guy! He came to the U.S. on a hockey scholarship, and is apparently pretty awesome. He’s a soon-to-be daddy, is a guy that Chris really loves to hang with, and is my co-leader for our big week-long activity week. Pretty hard core, and definitely knows what he’s doing in life!

Brady is another student teacher that came over in the same program as Matt. Brady is king of pop music, and knows every lyric to every song ever made. One of my first memories with Brady was singing “Love Story” on one of our first hikes…WORD of WORD. Always hilarious, always making his sarcastic funny comments, always fun.

Aman is of Indian descent, but was born in Singapore and grew up in Hong Kong. He recently went to school in the U.S. and worked at M.I.T. before he took a job here as a dorm parent. Soon after we got here though, he took over the college counselor position. He has the biggest vocabulary in the school, is very well spoken, and is always good for a big hug!

Karan…oh Karan! Karan is an alumni of Woodstock, and came here this year as a volunteer. He is now on staff (wahoo!), and basically works in PR for the school. He’s done a ton of the work on the website, and writes all sorts of things to send out to alumni and prospective students. Karan is a hoot, and seems to know everyone. He’s had someone visit him almost every weekend, and is definitely a “maintainer” of relationships. AND, he shared his umbrella with me during my first monsoon experience!

Stephen is also “native Indian”, and has a passion for inner-city students. He taught in Chicago for the last couple of years, and volunteered in an Indian public school for 6-ish weeks before starting his job here. He’s got “techniques” of keeping his kids in line…and they all love him. He also has SUCH a passion for math. While the rest of us get excited about a day off for school sports, he feels upset because his kids are missing out on learning math! He’s a blast, is extremely kind, and has definitely found his life calling.

Nan is the “know-all” girl around school…she student taught last year, so helped us all figure things out when we got here! She also knew tons of people that were still working here, and helped introduce us all. Nan is a WONDERFUL cook, has a sweet personality, and used to be a canoe guide at a camp in the boundary waters (with Laura). Oh, Nanners…

Laura is a great friend from Minnesota. We got really close during the first week of “staff only” time, and now struggle to find time to see each since we’re on totally different schedules! Laura has a master degree in divinity, and is an extremely skilled speaker…she just spoke at chapel the other night, and it was wonderful! She’s always up for “bare your soul” talks and “belly laugh moments”, and is never without a smile.

Kate is one of my new music friends, and is ALSO from Minnesota. Kate is always on top of things, and has often saved me from making a fool of myself in the music department. She teachers piano lessons and elementary choir, so we definitely tag team on some things! She’s an amazing piano player, and a great friend!

Steve-o (a.k.a. Smilin’ Steve) is a personality unto his own. He’s run 5 marathons, is always up for the hiking adventure, and has bi-polar energy swings…he’s either RIDICULOUSLY energetic, or dead on his feet. He’s kind of the brother we all miss from home, and is the one we ALL banter sarcastically back and forth with. He’s unfortunately decided to grow out all his hair…us girls on campus are still trying to talk him out of it. :)

Megan is Jenny’s roommate, and the other band director…the brass side of this instrumental duo. Megan is the “man” in this roomie relationship, killing spiders and mice without a blink or a scream. Megan’s quite amazing at the French horn, and LOVES her students so much. She’s also “been in the hole” with us multiple times, and has a VERY infectious laugh!

Matt is a student teacher this semester from Minnesota, and an adventure-seeker. He’s a triathalon-er, seriously hardcore in life, and another goofy guy. He’s Dave’s student teacher, and they’ve put on multiple comedy skits for middle school assembly. Matt’s one of my “hiking buddies”, is SO easy to talk to, and we’ll miss him SO MUCH when he has to go home!

Dave is also a friend of Chris’ aunt and uncle, is married to Cookie, and (as you can tell by his picture!) matches Cookie's energy step-by-step. Dave seems like he knows something about everything, and has been our hike leader on many a trek. Dave’s always up for an adventure, is a math teacher here, and one of our great friends.

Cookie is a friend of Chris’ aunt and uncle from Kansas, and we actually got to meet her and Dave back in Iowa! Cookie is EXCEEDINGLY energetic, is a hard-core biker back home, and got asked to step in as HR interim director soon after she got here…she has many talents. :)

And, that's our India family! We love you all dearly...