Home For The Holidays

So for those of you that don't know or haven't heard yet, we are back in the states for Christmas this year. We decided back in November that we were getting a little stir crazy in India and a vacation around the country sounded more stressful and frustrating than relaxing. Plus with Elizabeth's Grandma's 80th birthday party and the entire Johnson clan coming to Boise, it seemed the perfect time to surprise everyone with a trip home for Christmas.

We told some of Kevin's family and friends that we were coming but did not tell Elizabeth's parents or any other family members traveling to Boise. We did tell our cousin Andrea so we could have a spy in the homeland to help us with the surprise. Since the whole family is coming they decided it will be the perfect time to take a whole family photo since has been many years since everyone has been together at the same time. Elizabeth's mom, in the absence of our presence, decided to order life-sized cardboard cutouts of us to put in the family photo. With our spy in Boise and some side talk with the photo company, we were able to convince her that she was getting the photo cutouts and were able to show up and surprise them.

We left our apartment in Mumbai at 8:00 am on Saturday morning to catch a flight through Shanghai into San Francisco. The international portion went very smoothly and we arrived in San Francisco 22 hours later ready to tackle the last domestic trip to Seattle. Unfortunately we flew in during the snowpocalypse of the Northwest where most of Washington and Oregon were experiencing the next ice age and EVERYTHING was shut down. Our original plans were to fly from San Francisco to Seattle, spend the night at Kevin's parents' house, then fly to Boise the next day. Unfortunately that definitely did NOT happen.

4:40 pm - We show up in San Francisco, we quickly find that our Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle was cancelled so we had to scramble to find another way to get to either Seattle or Boise. The Alaska representative tells us of a United Air flight straight from SF to Boise leaving at 5:30.

5:10 pm - We walk/jog through 2 terminals (about a half-mile) to the United desk way too late to get the 5:30 but find another flight to Boise at 6:40 and book that instead. Kevin realizes he left his water bottle by the courtesy phone at the Alaska desk and runs back to get it. (Running a mile after traveling for 24 hours = bad idea). We go through security exhausted and sweaty and get to the boarding gate to find that our plane was stuck in transit from Denver to Boise and would be at least 2 hours late.

6:25 pm - Our flight is expected to arrive in SF at 8:40 and leave at 9:11.

8:35 pm - Our flight is cancelled. We wander around aimlessly at the boarding gate trying to figure out whether we should rent a car, find another route, or stay in a hotel. We re-collect our baggage and go back out to the ticketing counters. We spend the next hour waiting and thinking of options and if/how to get another ticket or get our money back for the three tickets that we had not used.

9:20 pm - We decided to call an old friend from PLU who was living in SF to come pick us up and stay at her place for the night. We should mention here that Andrea Hanson is the most wonderful person in the universe and we are eternally indebted to her.

10:40 pm - We get picked up and finally get out of the mayhem of the airport. We drive back to Andrea's apartment and try to collect our thoughts and focus on a plan. We look up flights and find a United flight from SF to Reno and a Southwest flight from SF to Boise. We book these trips (after accidentally booking 2 other flights online in our hectic and exhausted state of mind) and finally go to sleep at 1:30. Total travel time - 31 hours.

6:00 am - We wake up and get ready to head back to the madness at the airport. We leave at 7 to take the BART but find that it is not running until 8:30 so Saint Andrea drives us into the airport to get our 10:50 flight to Reno. The check-in lines are long and full of many other tired and frustrated travellers trying to get anywhere close to Portland or Seattle. We make it through the long lines and successfully get on a 10:50 flight to Reno (on time even!!).

11:40 am - We arrive in Reno to an extremely small airport and more lines of frustrated travelers watching their flights to Oregon and Washington cancelled. We check in for our 6:30pm flight and spend the next 6 hours napping, checking email, and getting refunds for all our unused and mis-purchased tickets. We luckily got refunds for all parts of all the trips that we didn't use which was a huge relief since we had just spent nearly $1500 on new tickets the previous day.

6:30 pm - We board an on-time flight from Reno to Boise and finally make the final leg of our journey, arriving in Boise at 8:40 pm. Our cousins John and Andrea pick us up from the airport and we drive to Elizabeth's parents' house to surprise them and settle in. Phew. Total travel time - 52 hours

We are now relaxed and enjoying the snowy-but-not-so-horribly-snowy-as-Seattle weather and surprising all the family members as they arrive. We are having a big family dinner tonight with everyone and enjoying cookies, snow, and family. We are having a big birthday celebration on the 27th for Elizabeth's grandma and are flying back to Seattle on the 2nd to spend a week with family and friends in Washington before heading back to Mumbai. We are so happy to be home with everyone and even though our trip was stressful we still ended up arriving only 2 hours later than originally planned and only about $200 out of our pocket for new tickets. All things considered, we were pretty lucky.

We hope everyone has a wonderful vacation and we hope to see as many people as we can while we are home. Merry Christmas!!!

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K&E

Mailing Address

I hear there are people looking for our mailing address to send us Christmas cards so here you have it. It will take a bit longer then normal to get to us as you send it to Minnesota, and then they FedEx it to the school, but it works! Just a note, this is only for letters and they can be no more than 1 pound.

4707 Hwy. 61
Suite 261
White Bear Lake, MN 55110

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

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K&E

Back To Life As Usual

Photo Courtesy of New York Times

The attacks were declared over this weekend and the city is attempting to return to normal. We held a meeting at school on Sunday to discuss the reopening of the school today. We have increased security and a great number of people and organizations (including the US consulate and FBI) watching over us. We had an assembly this morning to discuss the revised schedule for the day and the updated information from this weekend and now school is back to normal. At least as normal as could be expected after such an event.

After reflecting on this weekend and responses to these attacks I have seen some things that are extremely concerning and others that give me great hope. We met with our students this morning to discuss some different ways to handle the aftermath of these events. I think these points should be taken to heart no matter what your age, bias, or involvement.

1. Truth and information at this point is subjective. Rely on facts that have been checked by multiple sources, not on rumor. Saying "I don't know" is a responsible and valid answer.

2. Be careful not to stereotype - this was not a crime of one country, one religion, or one ethnicity against another. This was a small group of people with a very skewed perspective of reality. Their reasoning may not make sense and does not represent the feelings of others who share their religion, skin color, or homeland.

Even before telling our students these things, our 6th graders were quick to understand that a small group of individuals do not necessarily represent an entire population. This coming from a room of 12 year olds comprised of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Indians, Americans, Europeans, Asians, all coming from different countries, different cultures, and many having lived in a number of regions all across the world.

This is what gives me hope. It never ceases to amaze me how much compassion and understanding there is at our school and what potential lies in the ability to introduce our youth to different cultures and beliefs. After 9/11 the first instinct for a number of Americans was to fight back, resulting in the verbal and physical abuse of anyone who even remotely looked Middle Eastern. Sadly, seven years later Americans associate Muslims with terror and most would be hard pressed to differentiate between an Indian, Iraqi, Jordanian, Afghani, Egyptian, or understand the meanings of the words Islam, Arab, Jihad, or Muslim. In this school, however, this was not even an issue. The first thoughts out of my students' mouths were of compassion and understanding saying, "Even if these terrorists were Muslim, I know that not all Muslims are like that. I know my Muslim friends are good people and they have nothing to do with this."

My Muslim friends.

How many Americans could use that phrase? Food for thought.

Back to the issue of truth and information, this is one area that was extremely disappointing this weekend. After having the TV on for nearly 3 days straight I am saddened by how utterly HORRIBLE the passing of information was in this situation. Yet another unfortunate example of how irresponsible and over the top modern cable news has become. It's hard to teach our students about responsibility, research, and integrity when the "professionals" can't live up to the standards they are supposed to support. Instead of reliable sources, fact checking, and journalistic responsibility, we saw fanaticism, flashy graphics, exaggeration, weak conjectures and biased opinions.

Even so, I come away with more hope that I do disappointment. It only reemphasizes my belief that everyone should educate themselves about current issues and not rely on political talking points or mainstream media to feed them tidbits of information. It also strengthens my faith in the power of travel and international perspective. Reach beyond borders and find relationships within different cultures, countries, religions, and ethnicities. It's impossible to understand the depth of an international issue without an international perspective.

That being said, we are not only lucky to be safe but also lucky to be here during this difficult time and be witness to a country coming together in an environment that is safe, supportive, and full of deep and meaningful conversation and reflection. We are also blessed to have such support at home and we thank all of you for your continued thoughts and prayers. Thank you.

I leave you with an interesting reflection by an Indian author living in New York.

What They Hate About Mumbai - New York Times

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K&E

48 Hours Later

We begin the third "day" of the terror strike on Mumbai and information is still difficult to find and media is full of speculation, uncertainty, and repetition. Operations are not yet over and people are still very much in danger. We have heard news that our school and the school next to us have had families who have suffered fatalities and we ask that you pray for all the children and adults who must now come to terms with the events of the past days. We have a strong community here that will pull together and provide a great deal of empathy and support yet there are hundreds of other families that may not be so lucky. All of us involved need your thoughts and prayers as details continue to come to light.

For the best up-to-date details of the past and current situation I recommend Wikipedia and Twitter as they are being updated by people feeding in first-hand accounts to the blogosphere. (An interesting statement of how technology affects our lives. Wikipedia is now more reliable and informative than the general tv media)

Again, we remain safe and with friends in our apartment. Despite the events we were able to get together for a Thanksgiving meal with a number of people and enjoy each other's company playing games and waiting for reliable updates. No news yet on what will happen with our school week starting Monday but whatever the case it will be difficult and somber I'm sure.

Wikipedia

Google Map of Attacks

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K&E

Updates...

We move into the second night of gunfire and explosions in Mumbai as terrorist have been contained at a number of sites including the Taj Hotel, Oberoi Hotel, Cama Hospital, and the Nariman House (an Israeli hostel adjacent to the restaurant targeted earlier). The most current updates state that hostages and terrorists still remain in each of these sites. A few times now they have declared that the sites have been emptied yet new explosions, fires, and gunfire continue in all four of these locations. Military personnel are clearing the hotels one floor at a time but with hundreds of rooms it is a daunting task to determine who still remains in the building.

There is not a great deal of information known about the purpose or origins of this attack but some speculations say it looks like an Al Qaeda satellite group and others say the group is more local and has political aspirations in mind due to the choice to hold US and UK citizens as hostages to gain political leverage to some end. At this point, however, the situation remains unsettled so this is not yet the time to be making speculation or focusing on placing the blame and planning retaliations. We first must get through night two of a city under siege.

Continued prayers are needed for the hostages that still remain at all four of these sites and the military personnel and civilians involved in the mayhem. I again leave you with a couple sites that I have found to be giving fairly reliable and up to date information.

Rediff News Blog

CNN

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K&E

Giving Thanks in the Shadows of Terror

Sunrise on the Taj Hotel, Thanksgiving Day 2008 - Photo from CNN.com

It is 12:30 pm and its now been nearly 15 hours since shootings and bombings began in downtown Mumbai. Terrorists attacked a number of populated areas including some hospitals, the Taj and Oberoi hotels, the CST train station, and Leopold's, a popular western restaurant downtown. At this time, most of the terrorists have been killed or captured, the Taj Hotel has been cleared of guests and the fire is dying down, and the military is surrounding the major metropolitan areas of the city and the attack sites. However, it is still not over yet as gunshots and explosions are still being reported in or near the Oberoi hotel and there are still a number of people being held up inside, some in the custody of terrorists and others holed up in their rooms.

The aftermath of these events will create social, political, and economic waves that may surely pass around the world. Some news reporters have been comparing this to 9/11 which for India at this moment I believe feels very similar. There is a sense of shock and disbelief followed by fear and rage that such cowardly acts would target innocent civilians and some of the most cherished landmarks and symbols of this city. This comes as a big blow to a country which continually struggles to balance the identity of being a developed world superpower and that of an overpopulated, underdeveloped nation trying to provide basic necessities to its people.

So how do we process events like these, especially as our focus shifts toward the holiday season? It is Thanksgiving day here and the city is a ghost town while Mumbaikers remain indoors waiting to hear that the strikes are over and it is again safe to resume their lives. With Thanksgiving plans being made here in Mumbai and at home in the US, how to we reconcile our own celebrations and indulgence with the events in India or elsewhere in the world? How depressingly ironic that Thanksgiving celebrates the coming together of two different cultures to set aside conflicting interests and agendas to enjoy a time of peace. So what are we thankful for? Safety....prosperity.....tranquility.....community?

My hope is that many of you will read this post on Thanksgiving morning and rethink the discusisons that will occur throughout the day as you gather with friends and family to celebrate the blessings you share. I hope that you take a moment to reflect on the way you felt the morning of 9/11, the Columbine shooting, or the Virginia Tech shooting and pause to make these events in Mumbai become more than just a dot on a map. Read the articles, look at the pictures and feel the connection.

There are issues out there today that are far bigger than ourselves and its not just in Mumbai. The flood victims of Bihar are still struggling to find clothes, food, and shelter as the winter weather closes in on them in northern India. These bombings and firefights are a weekly occurance in Iraq and througout the middle east. Africa continues to struggle with disease and genocide as the world stands idly by. So what can we do?

Think. Discuss. Pray. Volunteer. Donate. Make the issues real and take the time to get informed and look beyond the US border. For today, however, I just ask for prayers. Pray for the families affected by these tragedies. Pray that they receive support, that they have friends, family, and community to help them. Pray for the government officials who must decide how to approach the aftermath of this attack including the financial, political, and social aftershocks this will create. Pray for the city that it may continue to flourish and recover without fear or apprehension. Pray for our school and our international community that we remain out of harm's way. Give thanks for the thousands of people at these hotels and public sites that came away unharmed. Give thanks for the powers of technology to keep connected and informed in times like these. Give thanks for a school like ASB where hundreds of families of different religions, cultures, beliefs, and political affiliations can come together everyday in peaceful interaction that strengthens our global community.

We are lucky to have such a community of support from our friends and colleagues here in Mumbai as well as from our friends and families at home. We continue our attempts to enjoy the holiday season here and find ways to get involved and make a difference in the lives of those that are not so fortunate. We hope the same for you at home, that the holidays be an enjoyable time of celebration and an insightful time of reflection.

We wish you peace and safety and I leave you with the following video to spark some thought and discussion this holiday season. Blessings.

AdventConspiracy.org

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K&E

PRAYERS NEEDED!!!

It's 2:30am right now and a couple hours ago a number of terrorist strikes occured around Mumbai focusing on the Taj Hotel, Oberoi Hotel, and other sites. They opened gunfire with automatic weapons and set off explosions and have taken hostages at the Hotels. They are focusing on US and British citizens and I am very worried about how many of our school families may potentially be involved. More info to come but for now, please pray that it ends soon and that all involved can come out safely. We are safe at home and keeping an eye on things as well as being informed by school of what is going on. 

News Updates - Live Blogs

CNN.com

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K&E

China Part 2

Sorry for the long delay in writing about the rest of our trip. Obviously, Kevin is much better at keeping up at this then I am....

So the next morning we headed off to the airport. We successfully took the subway all the their. Did we mention we love subways! So quick, so convenient, so cheap.  We arrived in Beijing at two, and made our way through the airport.  An interesting thing I noted right off the plane, now that we were in mainland China, we were literally told were to stand in line for the tram. This is not like most place were people go where they wanted and pushed onto the car. Someone was standing, herding people into orderly lines. This was not true everywhere, but it really stood out as one of the first experiences we had as we got off the plane. 

Once we got our bags and got through customs, we tried to have a tourist desk help us get to our hotel via subway. We wanted to be able to get there ourselves taking mass transit instead of a taxi. They seemed a little confused and told us basically we would have to take a taxi eventually. Luckily, we were surprise as we walked out of the airport to see our friend Albert waiting for us. We had not expected to see him yet, since he wasn't allowed to drive that day. (Beijing just reinstated a law that limits what days people can drive according to their licence plate number.) Apparently he had taken the bus in and so we hopped into a taxi and went straight to the hotel. This turned out to be great thing in many ways. First, we now realize, we had not booked a typical tourist hotel. It was far from downtown and in fact pretty far from the subway and no one at the hotel spoke English.  We did really enjoy the hotel, it was nice and clean with friendly people, but we probably wouldn't recommend it for non-Chinese speaking tourist.  Second it was a time saver not taking the subway and bus and getting lost, so we were able to get to Beihai park that afternoon. We were a little worried we wouldn't make it since things close pretty early. I think the park stops admitting people at 4:30. 

Thanks to Albert getting us checked in quickly, we did make it to the park, where we walked around for an hour or two and took some nice pictures. Then Albert kindly took us out to dinner. We picked a nice Thai restaurant we were all happy with. Actually, it was rather funny how Albert unknown to us, bought us dinner. He got up to go to the bathroom, and came back a few minutes later. Then Kevin decided to go, and asked Albert if it was just around the corner. Albert said yes, and as Kevin walked away, he had a funny grin on his face. When Kevin returned and we were ready to pay and go, Albert told us he had already paid. We then realized he had never gone to the bathroom, but used that as an excuse to pay the bill. It was very kind of him, and we were able to pay him back by buying him dinner on our last evening in Beijing. 

The next day we had tons of plans. We were going to get up early, and take a taxi to the Forbidden City, walk through there, check out Tian'anman Square, then we were going to take a taxi out to the Summer Palace. The next day were planning on going to the Great Wall, and I assumed that would take all day and we would be tired. So we set out from our hotel early to get a taxi to the Forbidden City. It was rush hour and we had a hard time getting a taxi, so instead of standing around waiting, we decided to tray and walk to the Subway. Albert already told us it was far away, but we were feeling adventurous, and like I said, we love the subway. So off we went on a little adventure. I think it took us a hour and half to find it. On the way, we walked through a local market, bought some gloves there (it was a cold walking around!) which was a good $5 investment for us. We started getting a little frustrated and had to find a bathroom somewhere in there. Anyway, by the time we got to the subway, it was a little late to follow our original plan, so instead, we took the subway straight out to he Summer Palace and spent the rest of the day walking around there. We had a great time, walking at our own pace, enjoying the gardens and lake (something we don't get to see in Mumbai).  After 3 or 4 hours walking around in the park, we got back on the subway (after an interesting, non-registered taxi drive) and went to downtown to find something to eat. We ended up walking around Wangfujing which had lots of stores, some big brand names and other small shops. We went into a silk shop and walked around looking at all the different patterns and clothing items they had. They also had tailors ready to measure you for a new outfit. Finally we went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. man we were excited! As much as we liked China, we did not dig the food. The Outback was actually really good and tasted exactly like it would have in the US. After hours of walking around, we headed back to get a good nights rest before going to the Great Wall.

The next day, we again got up early and headed off to the bus station. We planned on following the directions in our tourist book, which explained how to get the bus from Beijing to another small city, where we could find a mini-bus or taxi up to the part of the wall we wanted to see. The trip up was suppose to take 2:30-3 hours. We hoped to arrive by 11, walk around for 2-3 hours, and then take the trip back, getting back around 4 or 5pm. So as soon as we arrived at the bus station, looking just like the tourist we were, someone approached us and asked if we were going to Mutianyu. In halting English and pictures drawn on paper and pen he had ready, he explained how hard, long and expensive it would be to do what we were planning, and that he would drive us straight there for a reasonable price. Kevin did a little bargaining, which made the driver laugh hysterically, we think because we were not quite as naive as he thought, and we struck a deal. I'm sure we payed a lot more than the bus would have been, but it was money WELL spent! The drive took us only 1 hour and was so much less stressful then the other way would have been. Our driver was very very nice. He helped us buy the right tickets and told us what to avoid (aka buying things from the vendors at the wall).  We took a tram up to a section of the wall, and then walked from there. We spent a leisurely 3 hours walking, taking pictures and generally enjoying ourselves. Then it was back to Beijing. We were back by 1pm, not nearly as tired as we thought, so we decided to go to the Forbidden City that we missed the day before. 

Again we walked around the city at our own pace. As we left, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset over walls of the Forbidden City, then headed out to dinner. Over dinner we were trying to decide what to do on our last day. We had plans to meet Albert at his school at 1pm, so we had all morning to do whatever we wanted. There were several other things in town we could have seen, but we would have had to take a taxi ride into town, toured around, gone back to the hotel to check out and then take another taxi to meet Albert. Spontaneously, because we were on vacation after all, we decided to sleep in! 

However, we did decide before going home for the evening, we would try and take the subway out to the Olympic stadiums. That took several transfers, and when we got to the change station to go to the stadium. It looked like it wasn't open. We were tired and very disappointed, but we finally looked around enough to find the one way down to the cars that would take us to the Stadiums. Part of the reason it was hard to find was because there was no one going there. When we got on the car, there was only three other people on it. It was a little strange, but fun to be in a whole subway car practically to ourselves. Plus it was so nice and new, being built for the Olympics. Once we got there we were very impressed. It defiantly felt "Olympic". There were quite a few more people there then on the subway. Enough that we didn't feel alone, but there was lots of space and opportunity to take pictures. One family laughed at me as they walked by because I was trying to pretend to swim in front of the water cube and kept loosing my balance. We also saw a pug there! Of course, our pug is so much cuter, but it was fun to see a Chinese pug in China. We got great shots of everything all light up at night. Finally we headed back to our hotel for a good, LONG night of sleep. 

We did sleep in quite a bit, had a late brunch, checked out and then hopped in a taxi to meet Albert.  I have to say our whole time in Beijing would have been very different if it were not for his help. When we first arrived he had printed out a google map of where our hotel was, in Chinese. This came in handy, as most taxi drivers don't speak or read English, so we could just show them the map and off they would go. The other thing he helped us with is finding maps.  On our first night when we went to the park and dinner, we stopped in a tourist shop and found little maps of the city. They had major places, the subway and a general outline of the city. I had the great idea of picking up one in English and one in Chinese. That way were able to find what we wanted in English, and locate on the Chinese map. We used this method several times trying to get to places like the Summer Palace and the bus station. Again, though, it was great to have Albert help point things out and gives us ideas of where to go and when to go. 

When we met up with Albert, he showed us around Tsinghua University and Tsinghau high school which is where Albert teaches. He also showed us around Peking University which is basically next door. It's a little like touring around Boston as these two universities are the equivalent Harvard and MIT. After a while, we stopped at a grocery store to buy snacks for the train ride and headed off to the train station. We thought it was a little strange to leave for the train station 3 hours early even though we only had to be there 20 minutes before the train left. It did take an hour and half or more to get there, but once we were there, we bought him dinner and then he helped us get on the train and off to Shanghai.

And that was our time in Beijing. I would write about our one day in Shanghai, but we did have a rather fun adventure, and I'm afraid if I write now, I won't do it justice, since I have already spent the last hour writing. For now I am done... to be continued again.

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K & E

China Trip Part 1

Back to our Vacation adventures. As mentioned in our post before, we had a wonderful vacation. It started with a relaxing Saturday to pack and get to the airport. We decided to take a rickshaw to the airport. Note: this is the first time we have left Bandra on our own. In the past we have always had someone with us who was taking us or knew what they were doing. So the first rick we saw we waved down. We asked if he could take us to the international airport and he say yes, for 200 rupees. Now the rickshaws here all work on meters, but being in my pre-vacation stress mode, we just agreed and got in. We proceeded to drive two blocks and stop, where the rickshaw driver said we needed to wait for 5 minute. Again, being stressed out, I tried arguing with him, saying we needed to go, but he just kept saying 5 minutes. So we sat, stuffed in a rickshaw with our bags, waiting. We soon realized we didn't mind so much as they began to replace the break line. Five minutes later we were off again, new break line and all. The drive to the airport was pretty quick and we got there right on time. As we arrived, I noticed the meter said we owed 100 rupees. In my head I was debating if I should go with what I agreed to, or see if we could just pay the 100. So as we got out I pointed to the meter and said 100? He said no 200. In all reality, 200 rupees is not that much, so I gave him the 200 and said happy Diwali. That gave him a huge smile and I think we both understood. Yes, he may have ripped us off, but no I didn't care. It was all in the spirit of the holiday.

Once there, we got through security, which can actually take a while because they check and recheck our tickets stamping them 2 or 3 times, as well waiting in line for security, walking through the metal detectors and then getting wanded as well. (The metal detectors don't do a whole lot here, everyone walks through, everyone beeps and everyone gets wanded). As I was waiting for Kevin (since there is a different security line for women which goes much faster as there are less women traveling) I noticed one of the female security guards had a Sari uniform. I think it was the first I had seen something like that, so it stuck out to me. Same color fabric, but more silky and made into a Sari, then she just pinned the patch on the top of her shoulder like the other guards with their uniforms. I kind of wish I had a picture, but that would have been awkward to take. Our flight to Hong Kong went alright, beside the fact that I think the plane was older then me, something broke, so we had to stay on the tarmac for two hours in Delhi while they fixed it and then they woke everyone up and insisted we eat dinner at 2:30 in the morning.

So, Sunday morning we made it to Hong Kong and our real vacation challenges began. A few weeks ago, we realized this is our first big international trip that either of us have taken that was not completely organized for us. In other words, we have always been chauffeured around, given places to stay and food to eat by someone local. The first thing we had to do was get to our hotel. After talking to a tourist desk, and checking out the subway, we ended up booking a ride on a hotel express shuttle, which took us straight to our hotel for just a few more dollars. Once we checked in to our very nice but small hotel and freshened up, we were off. The first day we spent walking around the Kowloon side of Hong Kong, shopping. Mostly we were looking for a new camera, which we did eventually buy along with a few other miscellaneous items. After stopping by our hotel, we headed out to eat dinner (a very expensive dinner :-( I think water cost us $8), then stopped by to leave a note for Chris and Caitlin. I only mention this, because when we asked to leave a note, they asked for the guests name. We said "Chris Roberts, who should be checking in later this evening". Well, they only had one Christopher Roberts and they said he had already checked in with a Thai women...??? What? Well, we left the note anyway which they did get later that night when they arrived. I guess Caitlin's dad checked in for them earlier and the hotel people assumed his wife was Thai. Strange yet funny. Then we headed down to the waterfront to watch the nightly light show. There were lots of people hanging out, taking pictures. There were a lot of vendors there who were offering to take pictures as well. We found a nice spot on the water and waited for the show. The audio was in Mandarin, but I don't think we missed much other then "the show is starting" or something to that affect as the rest of it was set to music. Basically, the buildings across the water all light up and have lazers on their roofs that they make a show of. It was a lot of fun and very pretty. It was a nice way to end our evening.

The next day we were able to meet up with Chris and Caitlin (who so nicely brought us a few things from the states,( including 72oz Costco sized bag of chocolate chips! Yum!!) and her dad and brother and we walked around Hong Kong some more. We rode the worlds longest covered escalator and had lunch, and then Kevin and I wondered around the Zoological and Botanical Garden, which was so nice! We miss open green spaces. You don't find that much in Mumbai. We also thought it was interesting as we walked around how much Halloween stuff was for sale and up in different stores and restaurants. That afternoon, we did some more shopping and then when up on the Peak Tram to see the city from up high. It was a little cloudy, so it was kind of disappointing, but fun to see the city from that view point. We also happened to be up there when the light show was happening, which you couldn't really see much of from this angle, so we were glad we caught it the night before. We had dinner with a view and headed back to get a good nights sleep before heading off to Beijing in the morning.

To Be Continued...
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K&E

Election Day in India

What an exciting day we had here. Tuesday evening in the States was Wednesday morning for us, so we woke up with great anticipation. In fact, I had a hard time sleeping on Tuesday night as I kept dreaming about the election, and wanted to get up in the middle of the night to check the TV. I'm glad I didn't drag myself out of bed however as there were very little results when I did turn in on at 6am. I think the count was Obama 4, McCain 16 at that point. As I was getting ready, a few polls closed and I was checking in often. I even got a call from one of our neighbors who was checking out how many others were watching the news. Once we got to school, things were pretty normal but with a bit of excitement in the air. Soon enough, we had CNN up in the cafeteria via a Slingbox from the States, and CNN.com streaming in the library. Crowds started to form, from Staff members to students. When CNN predicted that Obama won, the tears of joy started flowing from many. The schools leadership team were actually meeting at the time, so I was sent up to tell them Obama won and he was getting ready to give his victory speech. When he finally came on stage we were all crowded around, watching the historic moment. The rest of the day I think it was really hard for everyone to focus. Obama's victory was all anyone seemed to be talking about. We even got an email asking us to help keep the tone of the day somewhat neutral, as there are several students and/or their families here who support McCain. Overall a very exciting day and an interesting place to witness such a historic event. I do want to note that even though there was strong support for Obama from many people here, many of us agreed that McCain gave a great speech. I hope, whether we voted for McCain or Obama, that we can take his words to heart and work together in the future. Happy Election Everyone!

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K&E

Ni Hao!

We are back from our vacations feeling relaxed and unprepared for another week of school. Week Without Walls went extremely well. The kids were fantastic, there was only one monkey attack and everyone had a great time. We left for China on Saturday morning to fly into Hong Kong. We found our hotel and walked the markets in our area. The next day we met up with Chris and Caitlyn and spent the day with them walking around the city. We had a wonderful time and it was nice to see them and get to spend some time together. The next morning we flew up to Beijing where our friend Albert was nice enough to pick us up from the airport and help us get a taxi and check into our hotel. He then took us on a tour of Beihai Park and took us out to dinner. We are lucky to have such generous friends. We spent the next few days touring around the major attractions: Summer Palace, Forbidden City, Great Wall, Tian'anmen Square, Tsinghua and Peking Universities, and a visit to the olympic plaza to see the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. We then took an overnight trian to Shanghai where we spent the day having some great adventures and doing some more shopping and sight seeing. It was a fantastic week and everything went very smoothly considering we didn't speak Chinese and were relying on airport maps and guidebooks to get us around. We will write more details later this week but for now we wanted to let everyone know we are back in Mumbai (with a newly painted apartment...yay!) and all is well. Plus (and most importantly) our China pictures are up on Picassa so check them out. More stories to come!

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K&E

Snow Day in Mumbai!

What an interesting few days it has been. It started with a normal day on Tuesday. Things are quiet at home and school as all of the Middle and High School (including Kevin) are away on Week Without Walls. As we were riding to school on Tuesday, one of the teachers got a call from her TA asking if school was cancelled. That seemed like an odd question, because the school vans had picked us up, but the TA said her Daughter’s school was canceled because some person had been arrested. To me as a new comer from the States, this doesn’t seem like a big deal, but as the day moved on, we learned more about it and what it meant. There is a politician here who is rather controversial, and when he heard there was an arrest warrant for him, he dared the police to arrest him (which apparently he has done before), and said if he was arrested, “all of Maharashtra would burn”. (Maharashtra is the state we live in.) This all steamed from an event on Sunday when several of the members of his group or party attached students who are originally from outside of Maharashtra as they were going to take exams.

So for the most part, everything seemed ok at school on Tuesday. We got several emails from Paul, our Superintendent, updating us on what was going on outside and what the school was planning. They had decided to keep school in session and update us as the day continued. The reason it was such a big deal for us in particular, is that the politician was being brought to the local police station, which is a 5-10 minute walk from our school, and then to the court house which is also in our neighborhood. All I knew at this point was that he had been arrested and brought to these places near us, and that there was potential for rioting. What I was told was that crowds would form, and they often throw rocks into the road.

School was released at 3 like normal, and then Paul dismissed us at 3:30 to go home a bit early. (Our housekeeper had called about 2 to ask if she could go home. Her husband called to tell her there was fighting going on, and we all wanted her to get home safely.) So all the teachers got on the buses to go home. Our bus was packed full because we were all going home at the same time, where as normally, people leave at different times. So the bus was full, it was hot, and we were all waiting for the drivers who were just standing there looking at the school. So I stuck my head out and asked our driver if we could get going. He pantomimed a box and said he was coming…Finally all the drivers came to their buses with piece of paper that someone had printed out with SCHOOL BUS on them. I guess this was a safety measure. Once we got going, we got home in record time, even though we had to detour around through a longer route because there were very few cars on the road.

The rest of the evening was quiet. It was weird when I went out to take the dog for a walk, I remember thinking it was really quiet. I realized that it was because there were not very many cars on the road, and therefore, very few people honking. It was almost eerie. After a lonely evening without Kevin, I headed off to bed. Someone had mentioned the potential that we might not have school on Wednesday, so the next morning I turned on the TV when I woke up. Everything seemed to have settled down. The big news was that India had just launched their first mission to the moon. So I continued to get ready, and went down to catch the bus at 7. Two other teachers came down at the same time, but someone’s personal driver was standing there and told us there was no school today. That got us all confused, because none of us had heard anything, but not 30 seconds later, my cell phone beeped with a texted saying school was cancelled. Obviously the system of getting the info out was a little flawed, because as we talked to people, some got the message on their phones at 6:30, others didn’t get them till after 7 and some people didn’t get anything.

So we had an official “Snow Day” as many of us are calling it. I’ve been watching the news on and off today just to check in. There has definitely been some rioting, they lit a train car on fire and several of the trains were cancelled. I’m glad we told our housekeeper not to come in either, as I’m sure it would not have been safe. One of the nannies that came today said it took her 2 ½ hours to get here, when it normally only takes her 1. Anyway, we should all be going back to school tomorrow though since the politician was finally let out on bail (that was one of the reason for all the uproar, that they were holding him without bail). We will see what the rest of the week is like, especially since he is only out till Friday. That is all for now. Hopefully there will be nothing else to be update tomorrow.

Vacation Time Again

Well we've made it through the last couple weeks of teaching and testing and are ready for two weeks of fun. First, we leave on Monday for Week Without Walls where myself and a group of other teachers will be taking the entire 6th grade class up to Matheran (the place we visited a few weeks ago) which is a couple hours out of Mumbai 

at a hill station surrounded by great scenery and great opportunities to do some outdoor activities, science projects, and work on teambuilding and leadership activities. We will be up there from Monday to Thursday then return to school and work on some activities back in classes on Friday, ending with a short presentation for the parents that afternooon. Should be a fun adventure with 54 pre-teens. 

Second, we are all set for our trip to China. We have our plane tickets, train tickets, visas, and a basic idea of what we want to do. We still need to figure out the timings and public transit for how to get from place to place but we are feeling pretty ready to go. As soon as WWW ends on Friday, we will be packing up and leaving Saturday evening for the next week. We have that week off for the Indain festival of Diwali which is a major celebration all over the country (like a Chanukah or Christmas type event).  We even had an assembly at school this week to celebrate the story of Diwali and it included wonderful dance, costumes, music, and performance. Plus, the whole school was decorated with flowers and professional artists came in to do sand murals throughout campus. It was really beautiful and the school asked that everyone dress in traditional Indian attire that day so it was fun to see everyone in their sari's, kurta's, and salwar's. 

By the way, the school sent out this request to wear Indian attire about 4 days before the assembly so of course we went out shopping the night before and ran into 5 other teachers and 3 parents at the same store shopping for clothes at the last minute. It was really amusing. Even so, it was really fun and we ended up finding some really nice things and I'm glad we got the opportunity to buy some Indian outfits and have an excuse to wear them. Of course it would have been nice to have something tailored for us that could have been much prettier and personal but there was not enough time to get that done. Oh well. Some day we will pick out something really great and have it tailored. I'm sure we will need something else to wear down the road. 

Being that it is the season of celebrations with Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu holidays it was also an appropriate time to have some celebrations of our own. We had our second annual Oktoberfest on the Kiara roof top last weekend complete with bbq, beer, pretzels, the chicken dance, and of course Dave in his lederhosen and feathered cap. Good times. We also just held Cafe ASB on the roof last night which was a staff get-together/talent show. Also very good times. We are keeping busy working hard and playing hard. 

I've uploaded some pictures of our Diwali outfits and some from Oktoberfest which didn't turn out so great but oh well. I have also finally finished going through all our video from Goa so those have been uploaded on YouTube as well. There will be lots more to come after WWW and China so I hope this will satisfy the masses for a while. Be back in November. Enjoy!

New Photos!

Goa Video - Day Trip in Goa

Goa Video - Motorcycle Diaries

Goa Video  -Family Fun in Goa

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K&E

Come Look My Shop...

We are back from our weekend to Goa feeling fairly relaxed but still ready for our next vacation. For those that don't know, Goa is a state on the west coast of India which has for a long time been known for its beaches and hippies. It has at least 15 major beaches that all have their own character. There are parts of Goa where you can go clubbing and raving in a drug induced hallucinogenic party with thousands of other people all night long. There are also parts of Goa with private beaches where you can relax and do nothing all day long. It all depends on what you are looking for and which area you go to. There is a history of drug problems in the state which creates an interesting dynamic with the kinds of tourists that visit. There are families with kids, romantic couples, and party people from all over the globe looking for a good time. All that being said, it is a good place to relax and do whatever you want to do.

Some of the more popular beaches are in the northern part of the state, the biggest attractions being Baga and Calangute. These beaches are a bit larger and get REALLY crowded during the tourist season. They also have the most hotels, restaruants, shops, and activities which is the big reason for their popularity. The further north you travel the quieter the beaches become and as you move south the same is mostly true. The capital of Goa is in the south which is where the only airport is located so all transportation has to originate from there. Because there are so many options and such varying personalities to the beaches, everybody tends to get hooked on one or two favorite spots. From what it sounds like, most of the families and staff from our school tend to prefer the southern beaches closer to the airport but we decided to check out the north and see what it was like.

We ended up staying at the beach just north of Baga called Anjuna. It is not as crowded as Baga but not as private as some others so we figured it would be a good starting location to get a sense of what Goa had to offer. We ended up in an amazing little hotel called the Villa Anjuna which had a really nice pool/patio area and a little bar/restaurant where we could order food and hang out by the pool. It also had a nice sized beach that is normally stacked with restaurants and shops. The monsoon is still finishing down there, however, so tourist season has not fully begun yet. Many things were still being set up to greet the larger flux of tourists a month from now. Even so, there were enough restaurants to get a nice variety of delicious meals right on the beach.

Our first day, we took the 5:30 am flight (its either that or 4 pm which we could never make on a Friday after school) and hitched a ride with our friends from the airport to Anjuna. We were going to take an overnight train down instead but were on the waitlist for a month and never really got close enough to a confirmed ticket so we ended up flying. After an hour drive from the airport we showed up at our hotel, had some breakfast and were on the beach by 9am. We ended up at the same hotel as another family from ASB so we spent a good chunk of the weekend hanging out with them, playing cards, swimming, and eating at the various beach-side resturants. The food and company was great and it was all in all a very relaxing time.

As we were walking on the beach that first day we got our first experience of being harassed by vendors. A group of girls surrounded us and started their sales pitch:

"Hello, what's your name?...Where you from?...You come look my shop?...Your skin very white, be careful of sun...You come look my shop ok? You promise? Come look my shop..."

We had nothing else to do so we did go "look their shop" which was actually quite fun. They were all competing for our attention so we let them take us around to each of their "shops" to show us their merchandise. This pretty much turned into us walking by their homes and looking through their plastic bags full of jewelry and clothes. They really didn't have anything very interesting to buy (or much to choose from for that matter) but it was fun to see their homes and get a nice tour of the back roads off the beach.

After a couple more days of relaxation by the beach/pool we decided to be adventurous and check out the other beaches near by. All around the beach there are people offering taxi rides and motor scooters to rent so we chose to go the route of the moto adventure. (Note: neither of us have ever ridden or driven a motorcycle before so this was a bit out of our comfort zone....so exciting!) So we rented a moto and I got my first experience driving a bike through the back roads of Goa. We drove down to Baga (the more crowded beach) which was definitely an adventure in driving since there was actually traffic and roads and stuff (yikes!). We stayed down there for an hour or so then decided to head up north to check out one of the quiter beaches called Vagator. We really liked this beach and stayed for a few hours up there enjoying the sites, having some lunch, hanging out with friends and swimming in the ocean. We drove back to our hotel, had some dinner and left the following afternoon. We took lots of pictures and some videos too. The pictures are up on Picassa (click here) and the videos will be coming soon.

If you notice in our pictures, there are just as many shots of cows as there are beaches. If you thought that cows in the middle of the city was a stretch, you will be happy to know that cows go on vacation to Goa just like the rest of us. The beaches are littered with cows (and just plain litter too) along with dogs and all the wonderful presents that these animals leave behind. That being said, the beaches are nice and the scenery is lovely but if you're looking for aesthetics and a picture perfect beach then Goa is not the place for you. By Indian standards it is a very nice area but keeping in mind that when you hear "beach" it is still an Indian beach meaning that it is littered, often crowded, and full of dogs and cows. Oh well, take what you can get. Still a very nice vacation and I'm sure we will be back again some time.

We are now back at school for another 2 weeks before we take off for WWW and then our Diwali vacation to China. We have booked our flights and hotels so we are just waiting on a visa for Elizabeth and we will be on our way. Lots of adventures coming up...hopefully we will stay caught up with all our pictures and entries from WWW and China. Stay tuned!

PS. I may need to recant my previous post about the monsoon since it is currently raining. Boo.

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K&E

Monsoon's Over!

It's been a really long time since our last post but it will be worth it. We have lots of fun news and some really AMAZING pictures from this last weekend. First of all, monsoon season is officially over. Yay! We have had a few days in the last month that felt like the rain may be gone but I think its gone for good this time. We were joking at school the other day that it all just happens so suddenly. One day the rain just stops, the sun shines bright, birds start chirping, children are out playing and life is good. The funny thing is that it has been EXACTLY like that. I can pinpoint the moment last week that it shifted and it is hilarious how abrupt the change has been. One day its overcast and everyone is tired and groggy, the next day there are kids swimming in the pool, butterflies outside our window and and instant feeling of summer time all around us (or autumn-time I guess...whatever one would call a summer in October).

With all this great weather change happening, it turned out to the the perfect time for our weekend trip to Matheran. Some of you have heard about our school's Week Without Walls program (WWW) but I'll give you a quick overview. Every grade level from 6-12 takes a week in October and travels somewhere in India to spend time together doing service projects, learning about different communities, and/or working on team-building activities and leadership training. I am on the 6th grade team so I will be accompanying 54 kids and a dozen or so teachers and staff to Matheran in a couple weeks. Matheran is small city buried in the hillsides of India about 2 hours outside of Mumbai. It is extremely rural and includes a small hill station that requires a fun drive up a steep, winding road followed by a 30 minute walk to get into the town. It is really well preserved and is a beautiful getaway from the business of the city. So we are taking our 6th graders here to learn some things about rural communities in India, to work on team building, and do some great science and outdoor activities in the forest.

In preparation for this week, many of our 6th grade teachers went up to Matheran last weekend to check out the hotel and tour around. Most of the crew went back the same day but Elizabeth and I stayed the night up there with our friends Martin and Andrea and their 3 year old daughter Linnea. We stayed in a very nice hotel and enjoyed many miles of hiking through the woods and all the wonderful scenery (and monkeys) that Matheran has to offer. So back to the monsoon...this was the perfect time to visit because everything is still amazingly green and the sun is shining and the animals are out. A few weeks from now it sounds like everything will start dying and the views go from green to brown very quickly with the October/November heat. Our hotel room was still a bit damp from the monsoon but it was worth it for all the scenery. We took lots of really great pictures so please take a look...I'm really excited about how these ones turned out.

In other news, we are getting ready for our month of vacations in October. I think I literally only teach 9 days this month. We have a 4 day weekend this week to celebrate Ghandi followed by a couple days of testing in my math classes. I then have a week and a half of actual teaching then we go on WWW then have the next week off for Diwali. Part of the reason we haven't posted anything in a while is because we be have been spending all our free time on the internet planning our vacations. We will be going down to Goa this coming weekend and staying on the beach for 4 days. Then we spend a week at Matheran for WWW (which will not really be a vacation with 54 middle schoolers). Then we will be going to China for the last week of October. We have bought our tickets and are working out the details bit by bit. Should be an exciting month and I'm sure we will have many great stories and pictures to share. It's time to head to bed so that's all for now. Stay tuned for the up-and-coming sequel to this post including classic hits such as "The Great Train Fiasco" and "Matheran Monkey Madness". Stay on the edge of your seat!

(I also added a new link to Wikimapia with the location of our apartment so you can take a look at the satelite imagery of our area...very cool site if you haven't seen it yet)
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K&E

Random Reflections

There are several times a day when I think, ‘I should blog about this’ or ‘that would make a great blog’. What a strange concept since only a year or two ago, I didn’t know what a blog was and couldn’t image what I would ever write that others would want to know about. But being in a tech savvy place (ASB) has made me learn so many things in a short time, that it makes me excited to be a web 2.0 user. I’m now on Facebook, and Twitter ( I love this and think others should check it out), we have a blog and I use Netvibes every day to keep up to date on news and what my friends are doing through their blogs. But this is only one tiny part of our experience here. There are so many random things we do or see or think about everyday in India, so here are a few I have been thinking about/doing that I wanted to share. In no particular order:

First Impressions: It is interesting moving to a new place, with new people and learning more about the kind of persona that you put forth on meeting new people. This spurs from a comment Kevin made one day. He came home and said “I think people think we are a lot more conservative then we really are”. At first this made me laugh, but then I got to thinking about it because although we are not extreme left on the liberal scale, we are by no means conservative. Since moving here we have mentioned several times that we don’t drink, as well as talking about going to church here in Mumbai. I have since talked to the person who sparked the “conservative” comment from Kevin and I think it was less about us being non-drinking church goers, and more to do with a general respect for those around us, but still it made me think: what kind of assumptions do we make about people based on every day interactions or ideas? I hope that the more we get to know people, the more others are able to see and hear the true us, based on our words and actions, instead of assumptions. And the same goes for us. I hope we take more time to get to know people before assuming we know who they are and what they believe.

Funny Statements: I got a kick out hearing Kevin’s principal say “You should be sick more often”. If you read the post about Kevin teaching class from home, this is what I am referring to. The principals son is in Kevin’s class and thought it was really fun to have a class being taught from home, so the next day when Kevin returned, this is what he was told. Only at a laptop school would this be possible and only at a school like ASB would you hear something like that.

Shopping: Today (13th of Sept) we went to Chor Bazaar. We were excited to go and find bookshelves for our boxes of books that came in our shipment. Indeed it was fun walking through all the tiny shops (and I mean tiny) checking out the old furniture. We did end up buying one book shelf, which should arrived all cleaned up and ready to use on Monday. We saw another piece we liked, which was a large armoire/cabinet type piece with doors that had Chinese art inlaid in it. It looks a lot like the picture to the right, although the artwork is quite different. When we asked about it, there was just one young man there, who told us it cost 1 lak 5, 000 rupees, which is about $2,650. He also didn’t speak that much English, so when we tried to inquire about the age, type of wood and where it was from, we could not get any info. We really like it though, so we might do some research into what something like this should cost if it’s actually an antique. Unfortunately, we were in such a rush this morning to get out of the house we forgot both our camera, (so no pictures from the day) and our keys. Luckily, we have nice building mates, who let us hang out with them while we waited for the school to come open our door for us.

Travel: We have started to plan our travels for the two upcoming breaks. We have a 4 day weekend in the beginning of October as well as a full week off at the end of October. Kevin and I both realized, once we were here and starting to think about our travels, that neither of us have been on many international trips that weren’t completely organized for us. We did however book both a train trip down to Goa and a flight back for the 4 day weekend, so once we get that under our belt, I think we might be more confident in our trip planning. It is nice that we work with so many other people who have been traveling that can give us advice and at least send us in the right direction. I’m sure we will have lots of “adventure” stories from our travels so look forward to some interesting reads in the future.

Ganesh: Back to the Ganesh festival, we have learned more about it in the last week and wanted to share a little more about the experience Kevin starting sharing last week. As I am writing this, Kevin is working on the pictures we took last week as well as the video. So this might all be clear when you see the pictures. When we went to check things out last week, we were quite amazed at the party. Our neighbor, who lives in a giant house/mansion next door, happens to be the owner of one of the big malls in town. So, not only is his house quite the show of wealth, but his Ganesh procession was as well. We went out to see the fireworks and drum line that were playing and started following them down the street a bit. They had three very large flats for the parade. The first was the one with Ganesh and the family and friends riding along. Imagine a large parade float fully decked out with floral arrangements, lights, music and fireworks going off in front of the float every couple yards. Right behind this float was the giant generator truck that was providing power to it. Behind that truck was another float with the drummers doing their thing. Behind them was another float with a DJ and huge speakers, and behind that was another generator truck for the DJ system. Finally they had a truck carrying more people giving out gifts randomly. We never were in the right place to get one, so I’m not sure what they were, but they looked like boxes of candy. Now this all started at around 10pm, noise and all. They were walking at a snail’s pace, we walked along with them for about a half hour and they probably only made it 200 yards or so. We have no idea if they were going to keep that pace or not, but we were told they were walking it all the way to Chowpatty beach, with is around 8 miles away. During the day, not during festival time, it takes us 45 minutes to drive at a more normal pace, so we are guessing it took at least a couple of hours to get down there. They also had several policemen walking along to help control traffic and generally get them to where they wanted to be. We also received an email this week from the security guy at our school with a link to the town's traffic police. Click here to check it out. It’s interesting to look at the sight because they actually shut down streets just for the processions as well as restricting parking and have a detailed map of where to go if you are bring your idol to the beach for immersion. Here is the map:
We also learned more this week, that about the history of the festival. Ganesh Chaturthi did not actually become a large celebration until the early 1900’s. It became big as a sort of resistance to British rule. If the whole tradition of parading it down to the water and immersing it into the water sounds a little random, it kind of is. Check out the history portion of the Wikipedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesh_Chaturthi. Different people choose different times during the week to take their journey to the beach but the most common days were last Sunday and this Sunday (tomorrow). So we are looking forward to more of the same excitment and noise tomorrow, as it is apparently the biggest of the immersion days. We will see how early we can get to bed tomorrow.

Side Note: New Pictures and Video from Ganesh Chaturthi. Check it out! --->