One week in England and...

Things are very different...

The food is different - yay fresh fruits and vegetables! Cheese! Bread! Coffee! Meat! Chocolate! Cake! I've been making the most of it and have suffered more than one stomache ache as a result. Hasn't stopped me yet though...

The climate is different - and not to my liking! Having grown used to 40 - degree heat, I'm unimpressed by typical English summer, which is even worse than usual. Living in sweaters is not my idea of summer at the best of times.

The people are different - ahhhh, family! It is really really nice to see everyone again. The cousins are bigger and more grownup looking (but as heart-meltingly cute as ever), but everyone pretty much is the same as I remember - just the way I always want it to be. I arrived right into the thick of things, with everyone at 102 for the Great Family Picnic the next day.

Despite the dismal weather, it was one of the best yet. A few days later we had a non-wedding Wedding (aka very low-key), which was absolutely lovely.

Has being here been much of a shock? Not really. I'm still away from home, so perhaps there's still time to go crashing back to earth.


I miss India though. A lot. I know I will return, as soon as I possibly can. I desperately want to see everyone again, and there's so much more of the country to discover. I can see why so many people go to India again and again.



(Now that I have access to high-speed internet, photos to accompany previous posts are to come.)

Imagine sitting on the back of an ancient bus with no suspension, driving over endless speedbumps at high speed

That's what it feels like to ride on a galloping camel!!!

These photos are for you, Dad!

Dear Dad,

Thinking of you!

Day 2 of 3 in Udaipur. Love it here so much - just what was needed after the hassles of Agra and Jaipur. It's much more relaxed here, and the people are much nicer here as well. It's a lot cooler, which helps a lot. No lake unfortunately, but it's very green. Not knowing what it looks like with a lake, I have to admit I don't feel like I'm missing much, but I expect it is very different.

We arrived early yesterday morning, and in the afternoon, managed to do a last minute cooking course. We learnt how to make Malai kofta (balls of very mild cheese and potato, deep fried and then in a gravy), samosas, and tamarind chutney. Amazing, especially the samosas. We had so many left over that we took them with us and had them for breakfast this morning (still good, if not better!) We also saw the city palace, which is incredible. I don't think I'd mind being some medieval maharani if it meant I could have lived there. They rent out the palace for functions (including royal weddings), so that may be something to keep in mind for the future. You know, after I've made my fortune and met a handsome prince.

Today we wandered around the town for a bit, and then went to see the Maharana's collection of classic and vintage cars (just for you, Dad!) Very impressive. The entry fee came with a free postcard and juicebox (freebies are always a bonus), and we had a great guide who spent ages with us. Then we've mostly been wandering around, and enjoying being here in Udaipur.

A Quick Note from Jaipur!

Because I always never have enough time on the internet! Common theme, I know.

so, Jaipur.

The Pink City, though (and I know it was never meant to be literal), really it's more brown (doesn't quite have the same ring to it though). Different from all other Indian cities I've visited by being set on a grid, with wide streets and plenty of room for traffic of all sorts (bicycles, rickshaws, cars, people, cows, goats). Much cleaner, too. Full of people who have seen many a tourist before, and lack the friendliness that we've gotten used to in Darjeeling.

I have to admit I haven't been in the best frame of mind for it, as I'm still recovering from slight food illness and a cold that started in Varanasi.

Tonight we leave for Udaipur. Who knows what that will be like?

Taj Mahaaaaaaaaallllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!

There's a song by Sam Roberts where he sings about the Taj Mahal (I think - maybe I'm just making this up), and that song was stuck in my head the whole time this morning.

I am such a tourist (but at least I didn't do the "holding the Taj in the palm of my hand" shot).

The Taj Mahal is so perfect that it's almost hard to fully appreciate its beauty. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood, or was affected by the weather (it would be typical that it would rain - and in the most Vancouver-like grey drizzle as well), but I found I was getting more distracted by other tourists than I was appreciating the reason why I was there. I didn't get much of the romance out of it - all I could see were masses of people around me taking lots of photos ("Oh, look at me in front of the Taj! Now here I am holding it! Now with my partner! Now by myself...").
That said, it is still breathtakingly beautiful, and its beauty isn't weather-dependent, so the rain didn't really matter (and made it much more pleasant to walk around). We went right when it opened, at 6am, which was perfect as it was much quieter than when we left. Our hotel has a really good view from the rooftop restaurant, and so we'd already seen it in a glorious sunset as well.
Someone needs to work on her composition skils

We arrived in Agra early yesterday morning. It was hotter than Varanasi, and there are a lot more pushy rickshaw drivers (can you tell that I'm not a huge fan of Agra?). In the afternoon, I went to Fatepur Sikri, which is about an hour out of Agra. It was built by Emperor Akbar, and was to be his new capital, until water shortages meant that it was deserted not long after it was built. It is so beautiful, and I'm really glad I went. This is apparently the largest gate in Asia. And I need to get used to being such a tourist (the nice thing about it being so far away is that you can't see my embarrassed smile)
Inside Fatepur, which is a massive courtyard with a mosque, cemetary, and a tunnel that supposedly goes all the way to the Taj Mahal.
Inside a tomb. People make leave cloth and flowers inside (on the right), and tie a string around the windows to make a wish.
I just tried to add more photos of Sikri but they didn't work. Sikri was even more beautiful. Right bfore I left a big wind storm suddenly whipped up, which was quite dramatic.

Anyway, now that the rain has started, it's much cooler, and much more pleasant. Tomorrow we leave bright and early (on a 6:30am train) to Jaipur. Can't wait!
ps - a full update of food adventures (including details of the best veggie burger I've ever had - trust the Indians to be able to take something tasty and make it even tastier!) to come! Both feeling a bit dodgy stomache-wise, so not really into food at the moment (a rare occurence).

The past few days in visual form (Varanasi, July 6th)

One of the benefits of travelling is regular access to internet (with connections that are considerably faster than in the hills), but it seems that power cuts are common throughout India, and it cut out right before I managed to post this. This is from Varanasi, and then I'll hopefully manage one for the past couple of days right after! That is, if the light doesn't go off suddenly here in Agra!

We're still in Varanasi now, having a really good time just taking it slowly (it's hard to do anything otherwise in this heat). It's so hot that I've stopped noticing the heat and am just always dripping with sweat. Putting on sunscreen always seems pointless, as it barely rubs in before I'm sweating it all off. We walk around with umbrellas all the time (something I picked up in Ghayabari), which gives the guys hanging around something to talk to us about ("Hey madam, nice umbrella! "), but it keeps the sun off.
Faster internet connection means a chance to upload pictures! Already I've taken absolutely masses, so here are just a few...



Wednesday afternoon, madly scrambling to catch the bus down from Ghayabari to the train station. Yesterday was the first day that I started to get into the excitement of travelling, instead of just moping about how much I missed Ghayabari.

Kolkata - Howrah train station. Love the yellow cabs so much!!!
Evening puja ceremony on the banks of the Ganges
We did a cooking course yesterday - we made a veg thali - rice, dal, roti, and veg curry (subji). It was really good fun, especially the meal afterwards.
Boat trip on the Ganges (Ganga). I need to learn how to take self-portraits without cutting people's heads off. We did two boat trips that day - the first one in the morning, and then again in the evening to watch puja from a different angle. Both were really nice, but very different. In the morning it was really relaxed, and we watched everyone go about getting ready to start their day (washing clothes, splashing about in the water, playing games, washing themselves). In the evening we went on a bigger boat with a bunch of other people, including these two Indians from Delhi who were hilarious (urban Indians seem very different from rural Indians), and watched the various puja ceremonies along the ghats.

Quick update!

Long gap due to no internet access for awhile. We're in Varanasi now, so travelling adventures have begun! So far everything's going smoothly, lets hope it continues this way.

Unsurprisingly, the week after going to Nepal flew by. I don’t think I could have been more aware of how temporary my time was (sleeping under a giant poster of all the previous volunteers kind of puts you in your place), and yet I was still a bit surprised about having to go already. It felt very bittersweet to write goodbye notes to everyone instead of writing lesson plans! We spent the last couple of days visiting everyone to say one last goodbye. It was really sad. Already I miss these people so much. Leaving everyone on Wednesday was really hard, and we've been feeling a little bit low the past couple of days. I know I will go back there, hopefully soon.

On Wednesday we took the train to Kolkata, spent a day there, and then took another train to Varanasi. It would have been possible to go straight to Varanasi, but in our usual way we left it too late to book train tickets! Oops! It looked like we would have to fly there, but managed to find train tickets in the end. It was actually really nice to go back to Kolkata, and visit it on our terms. When I left in February, I had a bit of a negative impression of it, but now I really like it. Lots of good street food around as well!

Varanasi is very different from what we're used to. It's much more "Indian" than our area was - it's HOT, on the banks of the Ganges, and full of people and cows and goats. So far we're really liking it. We walked along the river early in the morning, and it was really peaceful watching everyone go about their business, washing clothes or themselves, playing in the water, doing puja, or just sitting and drinking tea. We're planning to stay here a few more days, and then on to Agra on Tuesday

About Elephants

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

-disclaimer: I have not slept at all since 6am yesterday morning, so please excuse any incoherencies, and the fact that this is so short, and more of a boasting post than anything else - I feel fine but I don't think my brain is working as usual, but as usual I have no time!-

I know I'm going to be gushing a bit but they are so cute!!!!!!!!!!

After getting the visa process started on Monday (fingers crossed it'll all be ready tomorrow!), we had 3 days to spare in Kathmandu. In the usual way, we decided at the last minute Monday afternoon to spend those 3 days in Chetwan Wildlife Park, where we could go on an elephant ride. That we even managed to find anywhere open was lucky, as there was a strike happening on Monday (still don't know why, despite making several inquiries). Anyway, it was amazing!!!! Yesterday, we played in a river with the elephants, got to see the breeding centre (they had 2 twins and a baby elephant that was only 6 months old! So tiny! And we were able to hug a baby elephant!!!!!!!) That afternoon we went on an elephant ride (on the same elephant we met that morning in the river - her name was Punam Kali, and she was so lovely and calm), which was actually not the most comfortable 2 hours of my life, but an unforgettable experience. We also saw rhinos that afternoon, which was absolutely amazing, and when I have more time to describe it fully, I will but for now I will just boast!

Another week goes by…

Meaning we have less time here! I knew that this would happen: I would get lulled into thinking that I’ll be here for ages and then suddenly there’s only a few weeks left before we have to go. I’m still shocked by it. Time is now going far too quickly. I don’t want to leave here. I must come back, as soon as possible.
This is a long post, to make up for last week’s being really uninspired.
This week was the last week of teaching. Classes went really well – I think everyone knows that it’s the end of term, and they were all on their best behavior, which only encourages my memories of them to be even more rose-tinted. I’m going to miss them all so much!!!!!!!!!
This week we’ve been mostly concerned with teaching, spending time with the boarders, helping out with cooking (Saru left, so now Mrs Thapa has to do all the cooking as well as all the other things she does), and typing up exams (there are roughly about 75 exams to type up – a big job). It hasn’t been all work though – on Monday we went to the wedding of the sister of one of the Blue Diamond Teachers. The most exciting thing about this was that we were able to wear our saris again!!!! Second best part was the food – absolutely amazing. I ate so much (I love how here it’s encouraged to pile your plate high with food and then go back for seconds – or thirds) that I felt ever so slightly ill the next day, but don’t regret a bite. If I don’t have an Indian wedding, I’m definitely having it catered Indian-style. It was a traditional Nepali wedding, but we were there purely for the food (as usual).

The rest of the week passed by in a blur of photo-taking (I made all of my classes decorate pretty nametags for themselves, and took pictures of them all, the plan being that I will never forget their names) and games (there was no way I was actually going to do anything but fun lessons in my last week!). I'm going to miss them all so much. I know I'm repeating myself, but it's true. They are so, so sweet!
And for those who are interested, a quick description of the food at the wedding:
The tamarind chutney they had was the best I’ve ever tasted (tamarind chutney being one of my new favourite foods), with chunks of ginger and peanuts (no seeds even) – I definitely need to learn how to make it. There was also veg biryani (had multiple helpings of that), a chicken and veg curry, mutton curry, deep fried fish, paneer curry, dal (soooooooo good!), tamarind chutney, celroti (we’ve seen that a lot at weddings), cucumber, deep fried bread with sesame seeds on top (incredible), and gulab jamun (Indian sweet – tasted kind of like a doughnut hole that had been soaked in sugar water so it was all gooey and delicious inside). I think I might be forgetting a dish. But it was all absolutely amazing. Just the memory of the food lasted me throughout the week.
Last weekend we stayed at a monastery near Pedong (where the dance festival was), where one of the other volunteers is teaching. It was really special, and I’m so glad we went. The monastery is tiny (there are only about 30 monks), and near a collection of houses that are too small to even be considered a village. It was really quiet (no trucks!) and peaceful, especially at night. The area is absolutely stunning – they’re surrounded by mountains, so the view is outstanding, and the land is really lush (all the plants are this brilliant shade of green). And it was wonderful to be able to spend time with the monks, who are so special. Because the monastery is so small, and the monks are all quite young (the oldest ones are early twenties, the youngest ones about eight or nine), it has a family feel to it.
The monks are all so sweet. They’re really happy and lighthearted, and so generous. When we first got there they were a bit shy, but several games of Junior Uno (not as much fun as regular Uno, I have to say) later, they all opened up and were cracking jokes all the time from then on. I don’t think I ever saw them not smiling or making jokes. We went for a walk in the evening, and it was just like a walk with the boarders – jokes, races, singing songs, making fun of each other – except that it was all 15 – 20 yr old men, as opposed to 12 year olds. They were all so, so nice. I feel so lucky that we were able to meet them.
This weekend we are in Nepal!!! Our journey worked quite smoothly - the 16hr bus ride was a bit of a bore, but had incredible views while we were in daylight (some of Nepal is really flat and hot, and then when we woke up this morning, we were in the mountains, and they completely magical). I'm liking Kathmandu so far. It's HOT here though - good practice for when we go off to do our "proper travelling". As much as I wasn't all that keen on going to Nepal (hassle, time that could be spent enjoying my last few moments in Ghayabari), I'm enjoying it now that we're here. I think it will be a good way of easing into the whole rhythm of travelling as well.

What we've seen so far of Kathmandu (not much), is that it's very touristy (I'm still finding that a bit of a novelty, and so quite enjoy it - I always play "guess the nationality" when I see biggish groups of tourists walking about), very dusty (lots of people walking around with those medical-looking facemasks - a little reminder of Vancouver), and full of little stupas (gompas/temples) everywhere. They all blend into the background, so you don't notice them at first.

Indian Embassy was closed this morning, so fingers crossed everything will work out smoothly tomorrow. I have a bad feeling that we'll have to be here for about a week (HOPEFULLY not longer - am desperate to get back to the school), but we've got a few ideas of what we'd like to do here in that time, so it should hopefully be a good one.

Pictures to come...later!

Quick, boring update

Really quick one this week. We're in Darjeeling right now, and are going to go stay in a monastery in Pedong (near Kalimpong) for a night tomorrow.
This week hasn't been all that eventful. I'm so (SO) glad that there's only one week of teaching left! I feel a bit bad about that, but my inspiration suddenly died this week, and I'm finding it really difficult to come up with anything that remotely resembles creative ideas. The students have exams starting on the 15th, and we've started to help with typing them all up. It sounds like we won't have so much to do once exams do start, which is why the current plan re:visa problem is to head off to Nepal next weekend. I'm not really looking forward to it, but hopefully it will all work out smoothly.
It seems my inspiration for blog posts has gone the way of my lesson planning, so I'm going to finish now!

Long gap!

Something Anila (runs the teashop) always says when we haven't been for a few days!

It's big though, to make up for it.

So, what have I done in the 2 weeks since the last time I posted?

Lots and not much, in the usual way.
Last week (ie, 2 weeks ago), passed by in a mad blur of song and dance. We taught a (Western) song, and learnt a (Nepali) dance to perform for the opening of a children’s park in Tindharia. It was frantic, it was stressful, but we managed to pull it off, and it was really fun (in the end).

Teaching the song was quite fun. The students learnt “We are the World”, which the teachers chose but which we ended up teaching (I’m sure I remember the other teachers asking us to *help* teach the song, not teach it on our own! It was fine, and we didn’t mind at all, but their idea of “help” is clearly different from ours). Because they had so little time to learn it (less than a week), we ended up teaching it to them instead of our afternoon classes (all of our loud, noisy classes with the younger ones are in the afternoon, so this was a welcome change!). And since the general order of things is to be as last minute as possible with just about everything, everyone was quite used to the pressure, and they learnt the song really quickly.
Learning the dance was a wee bit more stressful. I am not a natural Nepali dancer (actually, I’m not much of a dancer, period. I’ve got to say, I’m quite disappointed by the fact that my years of synchro experience have not crossed over into a natural aptitude for dance). And our dance teacher is a natural dancer of all styles, and couldn’t quite understand why I didn’t remember every step she did (after only demonstrating once – grumble grumble). Nepali dance is easy, if you’re Nepali and can understand the lyrics (and have been doing Nepali dance since you were tiny, like most of the people seem to have done here). However, I am not Nepali (and my understanding of Nepali is shockingly bad), so I did find it quite difficult. On Saturday I was frustrated (I’d actually really wanted to learn a Nepali dance, but not in so little time), on Sunday I needed a drink more than I ever have before (would I ever learn it?), on Monday I had a tiny glimmer of hope that I might actually manage to do something vaguely resembling a dance on Friday, but on Tuesday I sunk back into depression (practice did not go well, and we only had a few days left). Somehow, however, I managed a breakthrough, and by Thursday felt ok. We certainly weren’t going to be perfect, but at least I could go through the dance without blanking out and staring desperately at our teacher (who never looked impressed). We did a dress rehearsal on Thursday for the school, and it went well.

Our dance teacher wasn’t nearly as horrible as I’ve made her out to be. She actually is so sweet, it’s just that her style of teaching is very different from anything I’m used to, and she wasn’t into baby steps when it came to learning the dance. She also knew very little English (so she actually taught us more Nepali than anyone else has done), which meant that everything she said was really blunt and exaggerated (“That’s WRONG!” accompanied by semi-disgusted laughter)
The programme itself was a typical opening ceremony – lots of speeches (made even more tedious by being in Nepali, so we had no hope of understanding them),and dances by other schools. The big event was that BBC World was filming it – the announcers made the poor camerapeople (man and woman) come up to the stage to be acknowledged – they were clearly more comfortable to be on the other side of the camera! The students sang really well though. It dragged on for a bit, and we were to be the special event at the end, which made it feel even worse (it was really hot, and the speakers were really loud = splitting headache to accompany the boredom). Our performance went really well though. The students all cheered really loudly. The event was pretty much over after we danced, and we had masses of people coming up to take our picture. It was all really fun in a slightly embarrassing way (I was dressed as a Nepali man, complete with facial hair).
We went to a student from Regal Academy’s house to have tea straight after (still in full Nepali dress). It was quite funny – he did NOT recognize us, and looked completely terrified to see these strange people sitting in his living room. Apparently after we left, he told his parents: “those are not my ma’ams”! So funny,
We then headed straight off to Darjeeling (after quickly changing out of the costumes, and washing off the mustache). It was just us two, hanging out, eating lots and doing some shopping, and it was the perfect way to end the week. That evening we went to a posh hotel called the Windamere for a pink gin. It was pricey, but so worth it, and we ended up meeting a guy there who goes to UBC! Love the random connections. He was really nice and we ended up meeting up with him the next afternoon.
On Saturday we went to the Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Centre in the morning. It was really interesting, and lovely and quiet. We poked our heads in a few of the workshops, and it was really nice to watch everything being made. The carpet workshop stood out - it must take so much patience to make them, as hours of work goes into them. The gift shop was a disappointment - bit of a missed opportunity there - after spending time watching people make gloves and carpets and shoes, we really wanted to buy something to support them, but everything was hidden away in piles behind glass, and staff weren't exactly jumping to show things either. Funny moment in the shop though - we walked in and there was this large family of Bengali tourists, who immediately all wanted to take our picture (and kept thrusting forth small children to pose with us). Apparently I was "Barbie". Not sure how to take that!

Sunday was also a slow day, but we were incredibly lucky as Mrs Thapa happened to have come up to Darjeeling so we hitched a ride back with her in the school van (well timed, as we'd run out of cash!).

This week has had its events as well. On Monday a cyclone hit Kolkata, and the storm made its way up to us on Tuesday. This meant no school (howling winds and pouring rain all day) on Tuesday, but also no water and no electricity for 4 days. The past 3 evenings we ate by kerosene lamp. It was really nice actually, and slightly disappointing when the power did go back on! New house shirts arrived for the students this week as well, and Mr Thapa (so generous), gave us a shirt each. I'm now a member of Orchid house, and am very proud of my green and white shirt. They look really smart, and the students all look really good in them.

This weekend we're at the school. Didn't really feel like going anywhere, and travel would have been difficult anyway. Our area was fine after the storm, but there've been lots of landslides, and I think over 60 people have died due to the storms in West Bengal (with some still missing).

The big thing for us now is: only 4 weeks left!!!!!! Can't believe it! And only 2 weeks of teaching (actually, I'm quite pleased by that) - they have exams in the last 2 weeks of June, which we'll be around to help.

You're lucky that the UBC Courses website is so slow to load

And that I'm a compulsive multi-tasker.

Very basic, barebones update of the weekend:

• Friday: found out that there is to be a programme in Tindharay in which Blue Diamond is going to perform an English song and dance on the 24th. Guess who's been asked to teach the children the song? Thankfully, the other teachers came up with the song they'd like to be taught, and then chose the children to sing it. Also managed to download it successfully - Michael Jackson et all's "We are the World". Started learning a Nepali dance, which is also to be performed at the programme. Because of the height difference, we're performing a love duet, and guess who gets to be the boy? I feel like I'm back in gr 6, learning dance in a class where there are almost twice as many girls as boys.
• Saturday: Start teaching the song to the children. Goes well, until we find the programme's been moved to Friday. Oh, and did I mention that BBC World is apparently filming this? Stress!!! Especially when that means we have less than a week to learn a 5 and a half minute Nepali dance routine. And I've found out that learning Nepali dance is not one of my strong points (far from it!!!). It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the disgusted looks the dance teacher gave me every time I asked her for any sort of clarification or repetition of steps... having looked forward to learning the dance, it was a bit of a let-down.
• Sunday (today): woke up in a foul mood and experienced major panic stations and stress in the morning as I attempted to learn my steps from a recording I made on my camera when the camera battery ran out. Had a really really nice day though - went down to Jogmaya tea estate, where Mr Thapa grew up and where a lot of the students are from. Visited one of the teachers and some of Mr Thapa's relatives, as well as took a personal tour around the factory to watch the tea being made (took lots of photos, so hopefully will be able to post something related to that at some point). Practiced Nepali dance for about 5 hours in the afternoon, and now think that I just may be able to pull this off without standing blankly onstage or anything like that. Phew! Had a really nice evening after that.
• Tomorrow: help! Haven't planned for lessons! And it's late here so ending now, without the photos I'd hoped to post...
• 6 weeks left! Oh no!

I hate computers and how they crash

Or rather, I hate how patchy voltage makes them crash. Had a wonderfully long post half-written (making myself hungry writing about food), but think I may've lost it, which is annoying. I'm trying to upload photos instead, and since pictures can be worth a thousand words, hopefully this will be a suitable replacement. Having spent close to an hour on my lost post, I don't really want to spend more time on it, and I need to do fun (and mildly stressful) things like choose courses for next year and figure out what to do about my visa. It worked though! Woohoo!
Pankaj's birthday party

I really want to go to more Indian weddings

This pretty much sums up life at Regal Academy

Another Quick Blog Post

Just trying to make the most of internet at the school while the connection appears to be working, but in the usual spirit of things, I’m completely pressed for time! I don’t know how it seems to be getting worse, but it is. My list of things I need to do on the internet grows longer and longer, and things get checked off it less and less frequently. But enough complaining from me, and more news instead.
Last weekend I left the internet café more frustrated than usual (slow internet connection can sometimes make my blood boil), but Mr Thapa is full of surprises and has an uncanny way of making the day turn around. After having a quick cup of tea and samosa in Kurseong, we headed back (“we have to be back for lunch”, he said) to the school. On the way, however, we made a quick stop at a tea estate that’s about halfway between Kurseong and Ghayabari. The quick stop for Mr Thapa to drop off a few letters turned into a 2 hour visit with some of his friends. They were so incredibly sweet. Being in the middle of a tea estate, we had a cup of some of the best tea I’ve ever tasted (I may have said I’ve had incredible tea before, but this really was the best), and they kept serving us more and more snacks. They then took us all out for a walk through the estate, which is absolutely gorgeous, with amazing views. It had rained in Kurseong, so the air was really clear, and we could see for miles (absolutely kicking ourselves for not bringing a camera). We walked for about an hour, through the village, the tea, a bit of jungly bits, and past a few waterfalls. It was so beautiful. It seems to happen a lot here, that we’ll spend a bit of time in an area that we may have passed through many times before (many times have we passed that bit of road on the way to/from Kurseong, but had we ever given it a second glance?), and find that there’s a whole world that we had never seen before.
Anyway, we missed lunch obviously, coming back just in time for another cup of tea (I never say no to tea, so I was happy), before going back to visit Shanta Bawan (the Mother Theresa home), which is always wonderful. The second nun in charge is Nepali, and she is actually one of the nicest people ever. There are some people who just leave you with a warm and fuzzy feeling, and she’s one them.
This week has gone quite well. It’s been very much a “just plugging along” sort of week, but that’s ok. I appreciate how normal it feels, really. Today we had a poetry recitation competition. In the usual way around here, even though it’s scheduled in the diary, the students were only told about it on Tuesday, so only had 3-4 days in which to prepare for it. I’m surprised anyone managed to memorize anything, but they all did really well, especially given that they were reciting a poem in their second language!
Tomorrow we’re going to visit the family home of the family who run the café up the road, which should be quite fun. It was another very last minute invitation, but I’m getting used to how everything around here is last-minute!
I feel like this is really badly written, but I can’t really be bothered to make it better I’m afraid!

Don’t mind me - I’m here just for the food!

Being around just for the food has summed up my experience of Indian weddings. I am not complaining at all – the food is always incredible, and I’ll always have been fed extremely well! In the 2 months I’ve been here, I’ve been able to attend 2 weddings (the second one this being this weekend). Both of them have been completely spontaneous invitations, and through somewhat tenuous connections. And it’s always been about the food. I’ll show up, completely unannounced, be fed enormous quantities of delicious food, have a cursory meeting with the bride, and then make a quick exit. It feels incredibly rude, but appears to be normal here.
This weekend, we went to Kalimpong to meet up with everyone else. As usual, we went up to Darjeeling Friday evening, and then took the first jeep to Kalimpong in the morning, so arrived there at about 10. When we got there, we found that some of the other volunteers were going to a wedding that afternoon, and we were invited as well. Once again, we showed up to a wedding completely unannounced, inappropriately dressed (Alex - our connection to the entire event - looked absolutely incredible in her sari), in time for the meal and nothing else (and without a gift as well). But the wedding was large, and there was tonnes (and tonnes and tonnes) of food, which everyone was happy to share with a few random foreigners. I always feel really bad in these sorts of situations, like I’m taking advantage of others’ hospitality, but then I suppose Indian weddings have a reputation for being large for a reason.
Anyway, as well as enjoying delicious food, I also loved checking out what people were wearing. There were some incredible salwars and saris – I’ve decided I want an Indian wedding just so that everyone shows up dressed in saris. The men mostly wore western clothes, but a few were in traditional Lepcha dress. It had a really nice family feel to it, despite being such a big affair.
The whole weekend was lovely. It’s really good to be able to get out and see the others – as much as I love being here in Ghayabari, it’s important for sanity’s sake to be able to leave. The only negative experience was our journey back, which took us about 8 hours (instead of 4), thanks to our jeep breaking down and having to wait over an hour for another one to come pick us up. The next leg of the journey I spent in mild agony in the back of the jeep (our usual spot), but only half on the seat thanks to them squeezing 3 people in a spot for 2 (the other 2 being rather large men), so that I was rammed right up against a pole (which of course jabbed into my ribs every time we hit a rock or pothole).
- That's all I have time for I'm afraid. In Kurseong trying to figure out courses for next year (panic stations!), and am under a definite time limit (last bus goes in an hour and a half and I have a LOT of other things to do here). Gah!

Last week's post

As much as I love being here, I am very much aware of when I will leave. It’s weird. I do feel "at home" here, but then I know that I am only temporary. Ultimately, I have another home that I will return to, and everyone will continue here as they do now. I didn’t realize that I would think about home so much. I think about it all the time. If I’m not comparing the way things are here to what they are like at home (school system, transportation, health and safety, people), then I’m thinking about what things will be like when I go back to Vancouver. When I think about home in relation to here, it’s just about always in a positive way (there are so many things – foods, stories, pictures – that I can’t wait to share with everyone), but it can almost be distracting, because it’s always in the back of my mind.
Anyway, this was week 10 (counting down – there are 9 weeks left). I’m not counting down in an "Oh, thank goodness, almost over kind of way" – it’s the complete opposite ("Help! Only x# of weeks left and there’s so much that I want to do!)! But then I think everyone finds that.
Last weekend we stayed here at the school, which felt really nice. As much as I love traveling around the area, it’s a lot more relaxing just hanging out here. On Sunday we had our picnic! It was a really nice day. Rosalie & I spent ages making sandwiches (peanut butter and banana, honey, cucumber – without the crusts of course! –, and jam), insisting on doing it all by ourselves (meaning that we had an enormous audience). We’d bought 5 loaves of bread, and had calculated to make about 50 sandwiches. We also had carrot sticks, bags of chips, biscuits, sweets, pop, and 2 cakes. It was a feast, but then we were also feeding about 25 people, and if you could see the amount of rice that they can all put away, you’d understand why we were afraid we didn’t have enough! Anyway, it was all a great success. We walked down to the train loop, which is about 3km down the road, and made all the boarders carry something (the boys got really into that & kept trying to get us to give them more things to carry). Then R & I served them all (some of them were really suspicious of the peanut butter and banana sandwiches and refused to try them), and managed to completely stuff them all out (so much so that none of them were hungry at dinner)! Then they all played cricket for a bit, and we walked back to the school in time for tea.
This week’s event (we’ve managed to get away with having an interruption to regular classes every week so far!) was Earth Day, on April 22nd. One of the teachers had prepared a program, so we were to teach classes I to V a song (actually, they’d wanted us to teach more than one song, I think, and/or a poem or two, and up to class VI but we don’t even have any classes with them). In true Blue Diamond/Indian fashion, they told us about the program less than a week before it was to take place, meaning that we had to scramble to a) find a song that we could sing/teach that was about the earth and b) teach it to them all in time. We settled on All Things Bright and Beautiful (for lack of any other ideas, given that we couldn’t use the internet here*) – not a favourite of either of ours, but at least it is somewhat to do with the earth. Also in true Blue Diamond fashion was how increasingly elaborate the production became as it drew closer to the event. On the actual day, it began with an assembly, then a break because the guests of honour hadn’t arrived (and it was ridiculously hot), then a rally (which was so funny – we walked up and down the main road, the students had placards, and they all shouted slogans like "Save the trees Save the earth!", "Save the water save the life!", and something like "No deforestation Yes aforestation!"), followed by speeches made by the guests of honour (scientists from the gov’t environment department), that were painfully long in the heat. We were also supposed to give a speech (which they only told us about on Monday), but fortunately got cut in the efforts to keep the program as short as possible. Then we finished with the song, gave out a few prizes, and everyone did their best to get out of the heat of the grounds as quickly as possible. The whole program was originally meant to be about an hour, then an hour and a half, but took the entire morning.
The only other noteworthy thing I can think of about this week is how many horrible, creeping, crawling monster-bugs that are making appearances in our room! I guess it will be good for me (I’m already less squeamish about cockroaches, and am now able to suppress my screams when I see them), but they’re not exactly pleasant. However, one of the advantages of sleeping across from the boys is having a ready supply of spider-catchers when needed!

Quick post

Because I'm an idiot and forgot my memory stick, which had an enormous blog post on it. Will try to get it up asap, but don't know when that will be (of course)! We're in Darjeeling now, going to head off to Kalimpong tomorrow morning. Elephant riding is a no go - even if we did book, we wouldn't be guaranteed an elephant ride (???). Hopefully we'll manage at some other point.

Bit surreal here, in Glenary's, which is a major tourist-magnet cafe (/internet cafe). It's strange hearing so much English (a bit distracting, really). Anyway, I had my first smooth ride up to Darjeeling today, and befriended the sweetest old lady in the share jeep, who shook my hand when she left!

Time is ticking though...can't believe it's almost the end of April! There's an election going on next Thursday (no school - woohoo!), but it doesn't sound like it'll be particularly intense. Things are pretty calm in Ghayabari, but we're planning to stay close to home for then anyway.

Love to all

What am I Doing Here?

What am I doing here?
This is a question that I, fortunately, don’t need to ask myself, but perhaps you are interested in the answer. This being a quiet weekend for us (staying at the school, which, after 2 consecutive traveling weekends, actually feels quite nice), I have a little bit more time to go into details about my everyday life. I’m also pre-writing this post at the school, which means I can make this really long (distraction for all of you studying for exams, perhaps?)
So.
Just about every morning I wake up at about 6am or earlier (aka whenever the boarders do – the walls are paper thin). Because I’m lazy, I usually put a pillow over my head and try to go back to sleep. They get up that early to do an hour and a half of studying before school. We have breakfast before they do, and then get ready (one of us has to leave early to go to Tindharay every morning). I go to Tindharay every Tuesday and Wednesday. It’s a nice break from Blue Diamond – we basically just follow along with whatever the teacher tells us to do, and there’s a helper there to keep everyone in line. We sing lots (and LOTS) of songs with them, and then have to wait ages for a bus to get back (but then it’s only a half-day, so we’re usually back in the early afternoon).
At Blue Diamond, school starts with assembly at 9:30 (quite entertaining to watch, & only takes about 10 minutes – they all stand in straight lines in the school grounds and sing the national anthem, and then one of the teachers will usually say something, or they’ll all inspect everyone’s uniforms), and then classes go until 3, with only a 10 minute tea break and half an hour for lunch.
I’m teaching subjects like English (Poetry, Handwriting, Spoken), Games, Entertainment, Dance (funny joke), and Song & Drama. With most of the younger ones, I basically do lots of colouring and worksheets. We sometimes read stories (with mixed success), and the younger ones do some singing as well. The older ones are doing English Poetry, which is a bit of a challenge since most teenagers aren’t really into poetry anyway, let alone in a foreign language. But I’m determined to at least have them not hate poetry, even if they don’t like/get it.
This past week we’ve started up a few after-school activities. Rosalie’s doing a recorder group, and I’m doing an art club, and then we’ll both be doing a ballet class together. The thought of doing something after school had stressed me a bit before coming here, as I really did not have any idea of what I could do, but it’s funny how it all works out in the end. You basically just do whatever you can, even if you don’t think you have a particular talent in what you’re doing. For the art club, we’re going to focus on different artists and try to draw in their style (my inspiration came from realizing that the only thing everyone draws here is their house – this is an attempt to get them to move beyond that, or at least start drawing their house in a different style!). And then the ballet is because Rosalie has many years of ballet under her belt, but hasn’t done it for awhile, and I have only a few months experience but at least it’s somewhat fresh in my mind.
So Monday to Thursday we’re doing our after school activities until about 4pm. Then we either play with the boarders (everyone’s suddenly REALLY into UNO), or try to quickly escape up to the local café, for an extra cup of tea. It’s run by the parents of one of the girls in KG, and it’s actually one of my favourite places here. There’s nothing special about it inside, but the tea is incredible, and being able to get out of the school for 20 minutes is sometimes necessary for the sake of my sanity. I always leave there feeling really happy.
After tea at the school, we usually (weather permitting – it’s the start of the rainy season) go for an evening walk with the boarders. Lately it’s just been walks up to the shops for them to buy snacks, but sometimes we’ll go around the tea estates.
Then the boarders have more studying, from 6-8pm, and we’re left to ourselves to lesson plan (aka think about how hungry we are –we’re right by the kitchen, and the combination of mild boredom, hunger, and delicious smells is torture!). We usually eat around 8pm, and then usually go to bed fairly early. It may not be particularly exciting, but I do enjoy our daily routine.
I have a feeling that this is slightly old news, but I don’t really remember what else I have up on the blog – I haven’t really been checking! Sorry Sorry
Anyway, a couple other random notes:
Tomorrow (weather permitting) we’re going to have a picnic with everyone (inspired by our picnic in Mirik, which was really nice). We’re buying the supplies today, and then making sandwiches and everything tomorrow. I’m quite excited for it! It’s really good having things like this to plan – I’m such a planner, and it gives us something to look forward to.
Did I mention that I got to sleep in NEPAL last weekend? I’m still surprised by it! Last weekend was really fun, I have to say. The hour between making the decision to go on the 3 day trek and actually getting started, I was in a slight internal panic (predicting nothing but disaster) but it all worked perfectly. The fact that it was so spontaneous made the trip that much more special.

I'm alive!!

Just haven't had internet access for over two weeks, that's all. The nice thing about it is that every time I don't update, it means that I'm too busy doing something other than sitting in front of a computer. The past two weeks have been quite busy, as you can imagine.
Last weekend we went to Kalimpong, and met up with everyone else in the group to celebrate someone's birthday. It was good fun, and the area around Kalimpong is stunning. I thought Ghayabari was beautiful, but it pales in comparison. Because it's that much higher up in the Himilayas, Kalimpong and the surrounding areas are much cooler and greener. The tea estates are much more lush and green, and there are more trees everywhere as well. The drive into Kalimpong actually was a bit of a highlight. The town is near a big river called Teesta River, and so you have to drive down these steep switchback roads into the valley and then back up again to get to Kalimpong. Not only is the view incredible, but along the way we passed through tea estates that were so lush you could smell the tea as you drove past. We definitely want to go back.
About an hour away from Kalimpong is a small town called Pedong, where several other volunteers are teaching at a school and a monastery. There was a dance festival going on at the monastery that weekend, so not long after arriving into Kalimpong, we headed off to Pedong to watch. Again, the scenery in the area is incredible - so green and lush. I really enjoyed looking though the monastery, and the dancing was very interesting. It was to go on for 3 days, but we only watched about an hour's worth, before the monks gave us lunch. The dancing was so different from anything I'd seen before. Apparently the monks had been practicing for months for it as well. They had the most incredibly ornate costumes, and did lots of twirling around to the slow beat of drums, cymbals and horns. We never did quite find out exactly what the festival was in celebration for, which was a bit of a shame.
This past week went well at the school. It was short because of Easter holidays, which made it even better! We're starting up a few extra-curricular things this upcoming week, which makes things a bit more exciting as well. We've managed to have a 5 day weekend because of Easter, which was a welcome surprise. Mr Thapa's explanation was that because there are so many Hindu and Buddhist holidays throughout the year, it's only fair to celebrate a few Christian holidays as well - I'm certainly not complaining about that!
This weekend has actually been so much fun. Our plan was to head up to Sikkim for the weekend with a few other people from the group, but when we arrived in Darjeeling on Thursday evening, plans had changed and no-one wanted to go. Instead, we went to Mirik for a day. Mirik is lovely. It's a little town on the edge of a(n artificial, but still very pretty) lake, overlooked by a monastery. It was very quiet, and non-Western touristy (lots of Bengali tourists about). We stayed at a lovely little hotel run by the most adorable old man (with Coke-bottle glasses) and his wife, who had a little boy who ran around offering us tea and making sure our hot water and lights were working. They were all so sweet. There isn't all that much to do in Mirik, but we had a really nice relaxing day, having a picnic lunch by the lake, and then checking out the monastery after. I do hope we'll have a chance to look at a few more, because they're absolutely stunning. We got to watch the monks just as they were finishing up prayers as well, and then went for a quick walk with some of them afterwards.
The next day we weren't exactly sure what to do, so we headed back to Darjeeling, with the vague plan of just seeing where we could go when we got there. At the jeep stand, almost completely on a whim, we decided to go to Manaybanjang (totally not spelt correctly, I still can't even say it properly!). Once we got there, at about 2:30 in the afternoon, we found that just about our only way out was to go on a 3 day trek to Rimbik. So, completely out of the blue, we decided to do it! We hired a guide and a porter (felt really bad about the porter, but having not exactly expected to go on a trek, I didn't pack lightly, and the porter was really cheap, especially split between 3) The first day we walked 11km, and so had to rush to reach our destination, a village called Tomling, before it became dark. It was all uphill, some of it basically steps up a mountain. Our guide was really nice - didn't actually find out his full name, but he was from Nagaland and went to school in Kurseong. It took us about 3 hours, which was an accomplishment to say the least! The best bit of the night, however, was finding that we would be spending the night in Nepal! We literally walked past border markings on our way up, and had to go through a couple of checkposts as well, but it was still a surprise to find a "Welcome to Nepal" sign when we arrived!! Tomling is basically a few houses and trekking lodges - tiny tiny. The place we stayed in was lovely (though anywhere indoors was a welcome sight by the time we were finished), and the food was incredible. Even though it was absolutely FREEZING outside, we were cozy under multiple blankets and a hot water bottle!
The next day we were up at 5:30 to look at the view, which wasn't entirely clear, but still incredible. I also managed to almost fall off a small cliff, which certainly woke me up with a bump (my left thigh is still really sore!). Me not watching where I'm going and tripping was a common theme throughout the weekend. After a delicious (and enormous) breakfast, we headed off for our 19km trek up to Sandakphu, which is 3636m above sea level. It took us just about all day, and again we were exhausted by the end, but it was such an accomplishment and really enjoyable. That night it was even colder, with an icy cold wind, but we spent most of the evening huddled by a stove, drinking tongba (warm beer made from millet - not my favourite!).
We were up at dawn again yesterday, this time for a 21km race down to Rimbik in time to catch the last taxi to Darjeeling at noon. It was really steep (painful on the knees and on the feet), but we made it with about 45mins to spare, just in time for a slightly harrowing 4 hours back to Darjeeling (switchback roads + steep descents + minimal suspension + high speeds = a journey that felt more like something out of an amusement park than a regular jeep drive). I think we all slept really well last night - I know I did! And having a hot shower in the end (after 3 days of nothing!) was the best reward I could have asked for.
Today we're finishing up in Darjeeling before heading back to Ghayabari this afternoon. After such a long break from the school, I have to admit that I'm feeling somewhat reluctant to go back, and would be quite happy to continue travelling around a bit more! But I know that once I get back there I'll get into it.
I'd better finish up now, as I have a few more things to do in Darjeeling, and I'm always on a deadline. Hoping to have a bit of time next weekend, but who knows? I'll try to get pictures done there as well. Hope everyone had a happy Easter!

Quick update

Not feeling inspired today, so here is a boring list of events of this week. Sorry!

• On Monday one of the volunteers from last year came for a week & a half visit. She's lovely, and it's been really nice having her around. She's helped us see a side of the Thapas that we hadn't before.
• Last weekend Rosalie & I did some shopping at the tailor, and so are now proud owners of gorgeous cotton salwars and some hilarious tailored shirts that didn't quite turn out as expected. The shirts were so cheap that it doesn't matter, and they look quite funny. I also had a pair of pants made up, but clearly they only make western pants for men, as they've made me a pair of men's trousers! Again, it's not a big investment so it's not the end of the world, and made for a good laugh! My salwar is amazing though, and I'm in love with it.
• On Friday I had one of my best field trips ever! Classes VII - X got to go down to Siliguri for a science-related field trip. We got to come along as well (I guess to "supervise", but the older ones are complete angels), and it was so much fun. We took a bus down (the children sang songs the whole way down - anything by Akon seemed to be the most popular choice). We went to 2 museums. One of them was full of taxidermied animals - lovely! - and animals preserved in formaldehyde. The best (aka worst) exhibits were the baby elephant and leopard fetuses in jars. You could see spots on the leopard. It was all a bit macabre to say the least. I preferred the other museum, which was all about plants, and (which seems to be unusual for Indian museums) had a decent amount of information (as apposed to just rooms full of labelled displays). We then went to a park for lunch, and the children played on the swings and see-saws (so cute!), and then to "Science City", which was kind of like the Indian version of Science World, but much less flashy. We did get to see a 3D movie, which was really fun. The children were so cute - after a particularly good scene, they started clapping. We then finished with a trip to a little amusement park. Again, it felt a bit funny at first as we seemed to be the only ones there, but it was good fun. Bumper cars, and a particularly rickety ferris wheel/rollercoaster were highlights. The whole day was so much fun though, and it was really nice seeing a bit of Siliguri, which looked a bit more "Indian" (hot, busy, and cows everywhere). We didn't leave until after dark, (and after the driver had his dinner), but rather than sleeping on the way back, the teachers got the children singing songs again, which they did the whole way. So cute.
• Yesterday we went to Shanta Bawan, which is a convent nearby. The nuns there take in and look after orphans, and find them homes. The babies were adorable, and seeing them was really bittersweet. It's heartbreaking to see all these lovely little babies who don't have homes, but they were really well looked after by the nuns and the women who work there. They also apparently have more prospective parents than they do have children, which is also nice to know. The nuns themselves were absolutely lovely as well, and so welcoming.
• Next week we may be going to Darjeeling (fingers crossed) for the day, and are doing a little talent show at the school on Tuesday. We came up to Kurseong today to buy prizes

Ok now I really don't have time, so will have to stop! Miss everyone masses and masses

Unexpected Experiences

Random events, unexpected encounters... these are the things that have and will make this experience unforgettable. So far, there have been many. Being recorded on camera for a local news program on the one of the top 3 in Indian Idol within our first week, an unexpected meeting with a German couple, wearing saris for Eva Taylor (one of the Lattitude agents), another unexpected meeting with the owner of a gorgeous house nearby, who invited us in for a quick visit that turned into an incredible second breakfast... and this is only the first month! No matter how frustrated I can get sometimes (failed lessons, miscommunications, and the long process of getting settled in), there have already been incredible experiences that will make this unforgettable.

Kumal and Gauru on one of our evening walks

Birthday party!!!

A Holi visit to Kurseong with the girls.

Saris!!!!!! With Eva Taylor. I wish I could wear mine allllllll the time.

Darjeeling!

Is better to visit for the weekend, as opposed to the day trip that we were forced to do a couple of weeks ago. All of us from the Lattitude group are meeting up for a special Lattitude dinner this evening. We (Rosalie & I) arrived yesterday, along with everyone else, and it has been really nice to catch up and compare (horror) stories. Things are going well at Blue Diamond, but we were both VERY ready for a break!!!!

This is (as usual) just a quick post because (as usual), I'm somewhat pressed for time. I tried to upload photos today, but couldn't get it to work, so I might try again next time I'm in Kurseong.
Anyway, we're really enjoying our time in Darjeeling. Last night we had hot showers, and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Pure bliss. Our room is absolutely massive as well, so having lots of space is really nice. And we're really enjoying the chance to have a change from the routine in terms of food. We eat potatoes at every meal, and rice at least 2 meals a day. While the food is tasty, it's a bit repetitive, and so the chance to have things like meusli for breakfast is an incredible treat. It's also been nice to do a little bit of pleasure shopping for the first time in ages. Whenever we go into Kurseong we're usually just buying supplies for our classes.

Today we went to the zoo, which was actually really nice. There are trees everywhere, and the animals looked quite healthy and happy.

Things are quite busy at the school as we're gearing up for a big celebration when Eva Taylor (one of the Lattitude staff) comes to visit. We've taught the children a few songs, and then we'll be wearing saris (which we bought yesterday), which I'm really excited for. I don't really like the salwars I bought in Kolkata, but I LOVE my sari. It's gorgeous. I'll definitely try to get pictures up of that.

Last week was a bit interrupted as there was a strike on Monday (which was awesome as it meant no school!!! We're as bad as the children), and then Tuesday they had no school because it was Holi. Our Holi was rather tame, which I have to admit I was slightly disappointed by, as I'd really been looking forward to it. We played around in the morning with the boarders, and then in the afternoon we went to Kurseong and met Sauru's (who is the girl who cooks all of our delicious food) family, which was lovely. She was excited as it was the first time she'd seen her mother in 3 weeks, and I think she also wanted to show us off a bit to everyone in her village (this thing of us being mini-celebrities in our village is something that I'm still not exactly comfortable with). Then it's been teaching/prepping for Eva's visit until we came here.

Running out of time again, so I'll have to stop. Hope everyone's doing well. I'm still dealing with a cough that's gone on for 2 weeks now. The other day Mr & Mrs Thapa came into our room and fed us spoonfuls of local raw honey to try to soothe our throats. It was so delicious we've decided we need to try to stay sick for as long as possible!

Two Weeks!

Still settling in a bit, but things are continuing to go well. I can’t decide whether two weeks feels like a long time or if it has gone by really quickly. No pictures again, I’m afraid, as I forgot to bring the appropriate equipment. Sorry! Instead I’ll try to describe to you what everything looks like through text.

- quick sidenote before I get started! Two things have just happened in the internet caff that have been really disorienting:
1: Somebody’s cellphone went off and they have the exact same tone as my phone does at home and for a moment I thought it was mine
2: Today they’re blasting more contemporary pop songs, including Love in This Club(!?!?!?!?) – I don’t think I can quite describe the feeling I had sitting here on the top of a mountain in India listening to that song! It actually made me feel a bit homesick (first time too)

Anyway, my life in Ghayabari so far:

Teaching:
Thanks so much for words of support. I had a few good classes this week, so I am feeling a bit better about it. Those classes are always going to be difficult, because you’re battling communication problems as well as wildness (so even if they wanted to co-operate they can’t understand what you’re saying). I don’t know that I’ll ever particularly enjoy teaching the little ones, but I know I can cope, and after this week I know that it is possible to do SOMETHING with them. And then I think the more we do, the more likely they’ll come on to my side a bit.

We’re teaching at 2 schools. On Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays I teach at Blue Diamond, and then Tuesdays and Wednesdays I’m in another village called Tindharia, where I teach at a Nursery called Regal Academy (all the schools have really posh names). Rosalie teaches at Tindharia on the days that I’m at Blue Diamon & Blue Diamond when I’m in Tindharia. Every other Saturday we teach in the mornings, so we’ll still be able to go off and do weekend trips.

Funny story about teaching: quite often the boarders are the worst of the lot!!! I was quite miffed in my first Class 2 class, when it was Rahul (one of the boarders) who was the ringleader in climbing up the walls! One of the boarding girls in Class 1 (which is #1 of my Terror Classes full of Terror Children) is one of the worst ones for whacking other children. Typical. I so thought that in seeing them all the time they’d automatically be more cooperative with me, but this is not the case!!


Sights:
Perilously steep cliffs and mountain ridges, covered by trees and tea plantations. Even though they’re in the dry season (it’s funny to think that their winter is their dry season, coming from Vancouver), everything is very green.

Houses are tiny, usually made of tin and/or brick, and painted bright colours. Almost everyone keeps potted flowers outside their houses, it’s lovely (geraniums, daisies, pansies, and several more that I don’t recognize).

Vast majority of people are of Nepali descent. There are flags, posters, slogans, and signs everywhere, calling for Ghorkaland. Some people paint “Ghorkaland” over “West Bengal” on signs with their addresses. I’m hoping Mr Thapa will tell me more about that, as I really feel that I know nothing about it.

There is litter everywhere. People drop their garbage on the ground without the slightest thought. It’s automatic for them. This has probably been the biggest culture shock thing for me so far. It’s really weird for me, because the idea of picking up after yourself is something that has been instilled in me right from when I was tiny. It’s such a shame, because the scenery here is incredible, and yet continuing to be spoilt by piles of litter everywhere. Even the tiny ones at Regal Academy drop all their food on the ground, & it’s not seen as something bad. It’s a bit depressing, because I really don’t know that there’s anything that you could do to change it, when it’s literally everyone who litters. And there certainly aren’t garbage/recycling facilities up here, so what can one do?
Sounds:

In the mornings: children (they wake up before 6am to study for an hour & a half before school! Try getting any Vancouver children to do that), chickens (they roam around the yard, everyone keeps them it seems), and quite often this really nice, relaxed Indian pop music that someone nearby plays.

AAnnnnnd I need to stop. Sorry about the quick conclusion. Will continue, hopefully next week.

Another quickie!

Another quick post, I’m afraid – sorry!!! I’m still very much in the process of settling in (though in some ways it feels as if we’ve been here for ages), and subject to other people’s schedules. Today we were supposed to spend the day in Kerseuong (still don’t know how to spell or say it properly), but on the way, Mr Thapa (who’d kindly offered us a ride), invited us to go with him to the marriage ceremony of his friend. So now we have less time in K-song ( it’s pronounced “Kershoung” – I think), but we also figured that it’s not every day we get to see Nepali wedding ceremonies.
So we’ve been here for just over a week now. As I’d mentioned earlier, in many ways it feels as if we’ve been here for ages. I think it is because “home” is so far away. Vancouver seems completely foreign here, everything is just so different. But on the other hand, we’re not at all settled yet, and still getting used to the schedules and rhythms of everyday life here.
So far, everything is going really well. The Thapas are so incredibly generous. They have so little, but they give so much. I know that this is not a new idea, but it has been a bit of an eye-opener for me. I’m not sure that I have seen such a genuine willingness to share everything as I have here. Right from the very beginning, they have done all that they can to welcome us into their home, and are so lovely. We live underneath the school, in close quarters. The boy boarders have a room, and sleep in cramped bunks, as do the girls in another room (which is also sort of a transit area so they have even less privacy). Mr & Mrs Thapa have a small room in the back and then there are 2 teachers and one cook who also live here, although I haven’t figured out where. There are 3 boys and 5 girl boarders. They all share one bathroom. Then we have our own room, which is probably the largest, and our own bathroom. The Thapas run 2 other schools as well, and we alternate teaching between Blue Diamond and one they’ve just opened up this year, called Regal Academy (all of the schools in the area have really posh names). It’s a nursery, so it’s actually quite a bit easier, and it’s in a nearby town, which means that one of us gets a really hair-raising van ride there (13 people in a van meant for 7, whipping round the mountain edges), and then takes the bus back.
We’ve completed our first few days of teaching now. The children are… something else. With all the classes with children under the age of 12, I have not really taught a thing. I haven’t yet been able to find a way to control them. It’s been complete chaos with the younger ones. The little ones are totally wild. They yell, scream, fight, whack each other, and in some cases, literally climb up the walls. It’s kind of ridiculous. The really little ones are lovely; we just sing songs with them. But the ones between the ages of 5 and 11 are complete terrors. They push and push and push against you, because they know that you won’t hit them. The funny thing is that the older ones are completely different. They are a dream to teach, because they know and appreciate why they are in school. It’s the opposite to Western schools.
I’m afraid I’m going to wrap up now – I’m actually finding this quite frustrating not being able have a good internet session. I still need to do some research for the week (it’s quite difficult thinking of activities that don’t require much explanation), and we need to buy a few things in Kershong. I’m not even going to try to spell it properly now. There are so many things that I want to talk about, but I suppose there will be time if I’m here for 4 months. Pictures will come soonish (ie in a week or 2). I’m desperate to talk more actually, and apologies to the fam for not replying but thank you so much for the emails. Emma: check style.com if you haven’t already. I'll try to think of more sites

What are you doing right now?

I am sitting in an internet cafe in a town surrounded by mountains, listening to "Leaving on a Jet Plane" (the original), and songs of a similar vintage. What are you doing right now?

Sorry for the lack of posts recently - being on a bit of a tour, free time was limited, and everything seems to take longer (not sure if this is a feature of being part of a big group, being in India, or both). I'm hoping to get into a bit of a routine, and catch up on everything already.

But !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm here! I'm still a bit overwhelmed, and don't know where to begin. I think that we may be going soon, as we have a few errands to do in Keursong (not where I'm actually living, but the closest larger town), so here are the basics:

I'm alive (and, touch wood, still healthy)

It is even more beautiful than the pictures

The children are gorgeous

The family is lovely

The food is delicious

I am really, REALLY nervous, but am excited to actually get started

I begin teaching tomorrow.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

off so soon...

Ok this photo has nothing to do with anything, I just thought it was funny!

I'm leaving 102 tomorrow, and it hardly feels as if I've been here at all. Being used to staying here for several weeks at a time, a few days feels incredibly short. However, in that time I've managed to check off all the things on my list of Things I Must Do When in England.

These include:

Lunch at the Harrow (no photographic evidence of my enormous ham-and-lentil soup I'm afraid, as I was clueless and forgot my camera!)

Coffee and biscuit at Marks & Spencers (with the remains of a dusted cocoa star)

Spending time with family of all ages

Admiring adorably British cottages

And one picture especially for my sister!

Next stop is London. Looking forward to seeing Ayla for the first time in 2 years, and for seeing London on foot rather than by bus! Am getting lots of advice from everyone I meet, which is increasing my nerves/excitement. There's still a little part of me that doesn't actually believe what I'm about to do...

P.S.: This is What 5 1/2 Months Looks Like

...when it's carried on my back!

Note to Self:

It would help if you made sure that you had important information, like say, the phone number of your destination, before setting off. It would also help if you were fully awake before booking your transportation out of the airport and onto your next destination, so as to avoid time-wasting coaches.

Live and learn?

Anyway, I did arrive at 102 safe and sound, albeit considerably later than expected and adding a few grey hairs to my mother and grandmother's heads! And (trying to look on the bright side), the time-consuming journey to Victoria Station in London, and also time-consuming journey from London to Petersfield meant that I was able to have a mini tour of the city (sort of).
Now I am ensconsed in my second home, listening to the birds outside. One of my favourite things about England is being able to wake up to the sounds of woodpigeons cooing in the morning (quite possibly the world's most pleasant alarm clock). I have many traditions when staying in England and at 102. Along with the morning pigeons, there's the walk around the Heath, wandering through town, eating freshly-baked bread, going to the Harrow. These are activities that I know I will do every single time I come here, and that repetition and familiarity make them all the more enjoyable.