As of Wednesday we have officially been here 1 month. It really doesn't seem like that long. We have been so busy and have accomplished so much but still feel like we have tons left to do. We just finished what felt like the longest week of school in the history of the universe. We had our curriculum night (open house) which went until 9pm on Tuesday. We then left directly from school on Friday to have dinner with the board of directors down town. It all went very well though. Just a lot of long nights and busy days all in one week. School is going very well though. The students are amazing and the staff and administration is wonderful. I have already learned a great deal and we haven't even barely started.
Our apartment is starting to feel a little more like home now that we have furniture. We went shopping again today and bought some small things including some plants. We heard a great idea from someone else who had a dog here. They bought sod and put it on their balcony so the dog could go to the bathroom instead of walking all the way downstairs to go outside on the dirty nasty pavement and dirt/garbage piles. So amongst our plant purchases today we got some sod. Hopefully it will work somehow...it's and ongoing project, we'll keep you updated. One sidenote I have to make...plants are obscenely inexpensive here. We bought a large indoor palm, 5 potted shrubs, and 8 square feet of sod (including all the pots and delivery to our door) and it was 35$. We are definitely getting more plants and flowers.
Our shipment cleared custom's so we are hopefully going to have it delivered this week if everything works out. Maybe even Monday or Tuesday. I can't wait to have our stuff. Then it will really start to feel more like our home. Especially our bed and all our kitchen stuff. Don't get me wrong, sleeping on a matress that's harder than our marble floors is great, but....I wouldn't mind having our sleep number bed. Mmmmm......ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz..........
The big reason for this post, however, is because I have added over 100 new pictures to Picassa and put up some videos of our Krishna Janmashtami experiences on YouTube. I also took some street shots of Linking Road as we were walking around so you can get a sense of what the streets and little shopping centers are like. (I think I mentioned this before but I am putting all new pictures in the "New Photos" album on Picassa. Whenever I add new photos I will put the old ones into the "India" album so if you miss an update you can see all the previous photos there.) Enjoy! We are going to try to go to our first church tomorrow morning and its currently midnight so I suppose I should stop so I can actually get up on time. Night!
क्या कहाना
K&E
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
My New Favorite Holiday
WOW. So how do I put the experience we just had into words...crazy, claustrophobic, amazing, overwhelming, fantastic, loud, friendly, athletic, crowded and jubilous would start to describe it I guess. We just experienced what I think might be my new favorite holiday, Krishna Janmashtami. Before I go on, I linked the title of this post to some info on the holiday so you might want to read that first so you have some clue about what I'm talking about. Essentially, it's Krishna's birthday party (one of the Hindu gods) and to celebrate thousands of people go out to the streets to cheer and dance while reenacting one of the more famous stories of Krishna. He and his mischevious friends would find clever ways to steal sweets and goodies from their neighbors homes, including standing on each other's shoulders to reach things stored out of reach. Thus people celebrate by hanging baskets full of curd around the city and making human pyramids to reach them and smash them like a pinata. They actually form official teams and drive around town competing. Certain people and businesses sponser many of the baskets and give out prize money for smashing them so it is quite the competition.
Thats not the crazy part though. So we went out to lunch with a group of folks from school then walked around looking for baskets hoping we would see some pyramids. Everything was pretty calm around our suburb area until we found a street that had a few baskets on it. Not more than two seconds later a bus full of at least 50 or more screaming and cheering young men drove by to attempt a near-by basket smash. If you could imagine a truck load of crazy sports fans cheering and screaming it was a lot like that. They of course loved to have their pictures taken and loved talking to us and getting everyone they could involved in their festivities. So they unload under one of the baskets and the police officers stop traffic so the crowds can gather around and watch them build their human pyramid. They get 5 or 6 layers built but still can't reach, so the crowd agrees to lower the basket (6 levels is apparently the standard height - some baskets will be lowered if they are unreachable and others just make them build a taller pyramid). The best part is that while they are building the pyramid everyone is cheering wildy and the crowd starts throwing water on them to make it more difficult (as if it weren't already). Once they finally break the pot everyone goes crazy and music is blasted from the nearest store and dancing and insanity ensues. The top man on the pyramid gets lifted on the shoulders of the crowd and gets a wad of money to show off and split with his team. Some groups even get trophies for various pots around town and they display them proudly to everyone they see.
After seeing 2 or 3 pots broken (and many more attempts at breaking) we were still pretty much bystanders. We had joined in on some of the dancing and celebrating in the mob but nothing too crazy (a couple of our more veteran teachers got a little more involved and got lifted in the crowd). So we continued walking through town over to Hill Road where there was apparently some bigger festivities happening. When we showed up, there were actually a couple of stages and what looked to be a more formal gathering. They had EXTREMELY loud music blaring in the streets and people were crowded for blocks and blocks in front of these stages waiting to see if a team could reach the baskets that were obviously much much higher than the other 6 person high ones from before. A few groups tried but with no success. Nobody we saw could get above 6 levels. From what it looked like, this specific spot actually had a big cash prize attached to it hence the raised height and all the hype. Apparently there are a few groups that go up to 12 or more levels which probably happened after we left.
So this is where it gets a little crazy. Yes its loud and crowded and a little nuts already but nothing weirder than any other concert or sports activity that we've seen in the US. But all of a sudden a dance party breaks out and we somehow end up in the middle of it and people are getting lifted by the crowd and everyone is cheering and paying attention to us. Ok, that's fine, dancing is fun. When the music stops though, we are still very much the center of attention. People are taking pictures of us, asking to be in pictures with us, shaking our hands and greeting us enthusiastically. They start to crowd in around us and as we start to walk we notice that we actually are creating a hysteric mob of paparazzi-style followers. The more people that crowd in towards us, the more everyone else in the surrounding area wants to see what's going on and who the famous people in the middle of the mob are. The police actually tell us to go away because we are blocking the entire road with our fan group. We try to move away and only make it about 20 feet before we are completely surrounded by people wanting to meet us and take pictures with us. Luckily one of the store owners/stage managers pulls us into a little fenced area behind the stage where we could get away from all the groping and fanfare. They offer us drinks and chairs and we end up sitting in this little fenced in area drinking tea with hundreds of people falling over the fence to take pictures and see who we were. It was hilarious and at the same time a little terrifying. Everyone was so nice though. It's not bad to be stuck in a mob of friendly people who just want to say hello, welcome you to India, and take a picture (and maybe squeeze your butt a little).
So there we sat in our little cage, drinking chai and watching the crowd 5 feet away from us. And of course since were right next to the stage now, they pushed a mic in front of us and asked us to address the crowd. Luckily, our drama teacher Russell stood up to the challenge and started getting the crowd singing and clapping along to our new theme song developed earlier at lunch - "There ain't no party like a Krishna party cause a Krishna party don't stop" (thanks Coolio). After a few more pictures we snuck out the side of the stage and caught a rickshaw home. Ahhh...good times. And of course we took hundreds of pictures and we brought the video camera with us as well so that will be posted soon. We've got school tomorrow and our parent open-house on Tuesday so hopefully I can edit our video footage and get that up in the next couple days. For now there are new photos in our Picassa web album so check it out. Happy birthday Krishna. Can't wait til next year!
क्या कहाना
K&E
Thats not the crazy part though. So we went out to lunch with a group of folks from school then walked around looking for baskets hoping we would see some pyramids. Everything was pretty calm around our suburb area until we found a street that had a few baskets on it. Not more than two seconds later a bus full of at least 50 or more screaming and cheering young men drove by to attempt a near-by basket smash. If you could imagine a truck load of crazy sports fans cheering and screaming it was a lot like that. They of course loved to have their pictures taken and loved talking to us and getting everyone they could involved in their festivities. So they unload under one of the baskets and the police officers stop traffic so the crowds can gather around and watch them build their human pyramid. They get 5 or 6 layers built but still can't reach, so the crowd agrees to lower the basket (6 levels is apparently the standard height - some baskets will be lowered if they are unreachable and others just make them build a taller pyramid). The best part is that while they are building the pyramid everyone is cheering wildy and the crowd starts throwing water on them to make it more difficult (as if it weren't already). Once they finally break the pot everyone goes crazy and music is blasted from the nearest store and dancing and insanity ensues. The top man on the pyramid gets lifted on the shoulders of the crowd and gets a wad of money to show off and split with his team. Some groups even get trophies for various pots around town and they display them proudly to everyone they see.
After seeing 2 or 3 pots broken (and many more attempts at breaking) we were still pretty much bystanders. We had joined in on some of the dancing and celebrating in the mob but nothing too crazy (a couple of our more veteran teachers got a little more involved and got lifted in the crowd). So we continued walking through town over to Hill Road where there was apparently some bigger festivities happening. When we showed up, there were actually a couple of stages and what looked to be a more formal gathering. They had EXTREMELY loud music blaring in the streets and people were crowded for blocks and blocks in front of these stages waiting to see if a team could reach the baskets that were obviously much much higher than the other 6 person high ones from before. A few groups tried but with no success. Nobody we saw could get above 6 levels. From what it looked like, this specific spot actually had a big cash prize attached to it hence the raised height and all the hype. Apparently there are a few groups that go up to 12 or more levels which probably happened after we left.
So this is where it gets a little crazy. Yes its loud and crowded and a little nuts already but nothing weirder than any other concert or sports activity that we've seen in the US. But all of a sudden a dance party breaks out and we somehow end up in the middle of it and people are getting lifted by the crowd and everyone is cheering and paying attention to us. Ok, that's fine, dancing is fun. When the music stops though, we are still very much the center of attention. People are taking pictures of us, asking to be in pictures with us, shaking our hands and greeting us enthusiastically. They start to crowd in around us and as we start to walk we notice that we actually are creating a hysteric mob of paparazzi-style followers. The more people that crowd in towards us, the more everyone else in the surrounding area wants to see what's going on and who the famous people in the middle of the mob are. The police actually tell us to go away because we are blocking the entire road with our fan group. We try to move away and only make it about 20 feet before we are completely surrounded by people wanting to meet us and take pictures with us. Luckily one of the store owners/stage managers pulls us into a little fenced area behind the stage where we could get away from all the groping and fanfare. They offer us drinks and chairs and we end up sitting in this little fenced in area drinking tea with hundreds of people falling over the fence to take pictures and see who we were. It was hilarious and at the same time a little terrifying. Everyone was so nice though. It's not bad to be stuck in a mob of friendly people who just want to say hello, welcome you to India, and take a picture (and maybe squeeze your butt a little).
So there we sat in our little cage, drinking chai and watching the crowd 5 feet away from us. And of course since were right next to the stage now, they pushed a mic in front of us and asked us to address the crowd. Luckily, our drama teacher Russell stood up to the challenge and started getting the crowd singing and clapping along to our new theme song developed earlier at lunch - "There ain't no party like a Krishna party cause a Krishna party don't stop" (thanks Coolio). After a few more pictures we snuck out the side of the stage and caught a rickshaw home. Ahhh...good times. And of course we took hundreds of pictures and we brought the video camera with us as well so that will be posted soon. We've got school tomorrow and our parent open-house on Tuesday so hopefully I can edit our video footage and get that up in the next couple days. For now there are new photos in our Picassa web album so check it out. Happy birthday Krishna. Can't wait til next year!
क्या कहाना
K&E
Monday, August 18, 2008
Congratulations to Matt & Mia!!
I just wanted to send out another congratulations to Matt & Mia! We love you guys and we are there with you in spirit. Here is a great picture my Mom took at the wedding.
क्या कहाना
K&E
K&E
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Getting Antsy
The first 2 days of school are finished and we survived! It all went really well. The kids are really fun and everything went smoothly considering the craziness and business of the week before. I'm excited to have all the ice breakers and introductions done and jump into the curriculum tomorrow. It looks like my classes are going to be pretty good, the students are great from what I've seen so far. They are still middle schoolers though and kids are kids no matter where you are. Class sizes are between 16 and 20 which is really full for our school. They try to cap it at 18, but coming from classes of 33, this is nothing. The classroom is really small though so it feels pretty full when there are 20 kids in there. Should be fun, I am excited for next week.
So now that we are getting past the initial settling and preparation phase we are starting to hit that point where we want to be completely settled and have all our stuff. Our shipment was supposed to be here on July 27th which changed to August 15th which is now changed to "sometime soon" so who knows. We are tired of waiting though. We love our apartment and it is nice to have such a large space, but with such a large space it feels realllllly empty and sterile. We have been picking up a few things here and there to at least get some color but we are ready to fill it with stuff and be settled. We bought a few pieces of furniture and our tv which was an important first step. We have a few rugs and some curtains which helps as well. We tried to buy couches and chairs last weekend but they called and said that our pieces were damaged and weren't going to be delievered. We are going back to the store today to figure out if we want our money back or if we should get something else. We are ready to get rid of the "complimentary" furniture that came with the apartment and get something that's ours to make it feel like a home. (Plus we think the couch has some mold in it and its starting to smell). So hopefully today will be a productive trip.
We have all our other major necessities up and running. Well, running according to Indian standards. The cable is working but its satellite so it cuts out here and there when its raining. It's really great service though. Lots of channels and great customer service (when we can work out the language barrier). Funny side note - we registered over the phone so our contact information for the cable company is not Miss Elizabeth Roberts at Khautau Estate Golf Links Road (as it should be) but is as follows: Miss Alijabed Roberta living at khautau,eastest ,oll sik road. Good try.
Our internet guy came too and it worked for a couple days and now its not so we need to figure that out. Our cell phones are working great though. It will be interesting to see how billing works since we really have no idea how much we pay or when we pay for these things. More info to come I suppose.
Well we are off to the mall to figure out our furniture situation (again) so wish us luck!
Congratulations to Matt and Mia. HAPPY WEDDING!! We are sad that we couldn't be there but we have been thinking about you and telling everyone about it. I'm sure it was wonderful! Can't wait to hear all about it! Lots of love!
क्या कहाना
K&E
So now that we are getting past the initial settling and preparation phase we are starting to hit that point where we want to be completely settled and have all our stuff. Our shipment was supposed to be here on July 27th which changed to August 15th which is now changed to "sometime soon" so who knows. We are tired of waiting though. We love our apartment and it is nice to have such a large space, but with such a large space it feels realllllly empty and sterile. We have been picking up a few things here and there to at least get some color but we are ready to fill it with stuff and be settled. We bought a few pieces of furniture and our tv which was an important first step. We have a few rugs and some curtains which helps as well. We tried to buy couches and chairs last weekend but they called and said that our pieces were damaged and weren't going to be delievered. We are going back to the store today to figure out if we want our money back or if we should get something else. We are ready to get rid of the "complimentary" furniture that came with the apartment and get something that's ours to make it feel like a home. (Plus we think the couch has some mold in it and its starting to smell). So hopefully today will be a productive trip.
We have all our other major necessities up and running. Well, running according to Indian standards. The cable is working but its satellite so it cuts out here and there when its raining. It's really great service though. Lots of channels and great customer service (when we can work out the language barrier). Funny side note - we registered over the phone so our contact information for the cable company is not Miss Elizabeth Roberts at Khautau Estate Golf Links Road (as it should be) but is as follows: Miss Alijabed Roberta living at khautau,eastest ,oll sik road. Good try.
Our internet guy came too and it worked for a couple days and now its not so we need to figure that out. Our cell phones are working great though. It will be interesting to see how billing works since we really have no idea how much we pay or when we pay for these things. More info to come I suppose.
Well we are off to the mall to figure out our furniture situation (again) so wish us luck!
Congratulations to Matt and Mia. HAPPY WEDDING!! We are sad that we couldn't be there but we have been thinking about you and telling everyone about it. I'm sure it was wonderful! Can't wait to hear all about it! Lots of love!
क्या कहाना
K&E
Monday, August 11, 2008
Getting Ready for School
It's been a busy week of meetings and getting ready for the first day of school. We start on Wednesday and I've been busy setting up my classroom and figuring out which of the hundreds of resources I want to use in my classroom and where to put my giant box of supplies. We've also been having meeting after meeting to get ready for kids to arrive. I think I'm ready, but we'll find out on Wednesday I suppose. Elizabeth has been working with Madeline and is getting a better sense of her role and how the school works. The staff has been great and we feel really welcomed, supported, and ready to go. There's still a lot of work to do the next few days though, so I'm actually off to bed to get ready for new student orientation tomorrow. We'll post more of our new stories in the next couple days. For now, I updated the photos with some more street shots from our walks around town. I reorganized the Picassa folders to have an "India" folder and a "New Photos" folder. I'll put all the new stuff in the "New" folder and move older pictures to the India folder. I'll let you know when new pics are added. Thats all for now. Look forward to having the school full of kids. Let the chaos begin!
क्या कहाना
K&E
क्या कहाना
K&E
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Another Point of View
Well, so far I have been letting Kevin do all the updates, but I thought I would add a few of my own thoughts. I think things have been going well. Not to say that I haven't had a little culture shock, but each day things seem to get better. Maria, our housekeeper is really great! The more we talk the more I am excited to have her working for us. She has had lots of experience and great references which are all proving to be a great thing because we can rely on her for things we are not sure about. One great example is the phone calls Kevin mentioned before when someone calls and speaks only Hindi. She is there for us when the phone rings or someone comes to the door, so that has been great. And of course she is taking great care of Suri, including half hour walks each day which I am sure Suri is loving. And she is really picking up Suri's personality. She told us the first day that she could tell Suri only wanted the nicest grass to do her business. Very astute.
Last night we ventured out again to do a little more shopping. So far we are just walking around, so that we can get ourselves oriented, but one day we will start taking rickshaws I am sure. Especially when it is sunny and warm. We walked down to Chroma, one of the bigger electronic stores to get some extension cords and sign up for Cable TV. On the way back, we made several stops, including buying a few clothes, and some new toothbrushes. The more we walk and shop the more I feel like we are starting to understand how things work.
One thing on our walk that kind of caught me off guard was the chicken shop. We were walking down the street with all the little shops and restaurants, and one just had live chickens in cages. I assume you just walk in and say I want a chicken and they butcher it and wrap it up for you to take home. On the one had that is very fresh chicken. On the other hand, I am totally a city girl who is not use to seeing where my food comes from in that sense. Just one of the many charms of being in a new place.
So far being at the school and my new job has been great! It has so much community and I love that about this place. Slowly but surely I am figuring out what my role is here and what I need to be doing. Its such a different atmosphere when there is someone to do everything, unlike SYC were I was the person who did 'everything'. I am really looking forward to the school year starting so I can see what it is like working in a school setting.
Speaking of work, I better go find out what my next task is...
क्या कहाना
K&E
Last night we ventured out again to do a little more shopping. So far we are just walking around, so that we can get ourselves oriented, but one day we will start taking rickshaws I am sure. Especially when it is sunny and warm. We walked down to Chroma, one of the bigger electronic stores to get some extension cords and sign up for Cable TV. On the way back, we made several stops, including buying a few clothes, and some new toothbrushes. The more we walk and shop the more I feel like we are starting to understand how things work.
One thing on our walk that kind of caught me off guard was the chicken shop. We were walking down the street with all the little shops and restaurants, and one just had live chickens in cages. I assume you just walk in and say I want a chicken and they butcher it and wrap it up for you to take home. On the one had that is very fresh chicken. On the other hand, I am totally a city girl who is not use to seeing where my food comes from in that sense. Just one of the many charms of being in a new place.
So far being at the school and my new job has been great! It has so much community and I love that about this place. Slowly but surely I am figuring out what my role is here and what I need to be doing. Its such a different atmosphere when there is someone to do everything, unlike SYC were I was the person who did 'everything'. I am really looking forward to the school year starting so I can see what it is like working in a school setting.
Speaking of work, I better go find out what my next task is...
क्या कहाना
K&E
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Another Big Step
After a relaxing weekend we nearly have all our major amenities taken care of. Our housekeeper Maria had her first day yesterday and she is wonderful. She took Suri on a walk (which Suri is sooo excited about), cleaned up the apartment, and went to the market to get a lot of the essentials we were still missing. She works 6 hours a day for us doing all our laundry, shopping, cooking, and cleaning. She cooked us our first dinner tonight and it was soooo good. I am still very excited that we get to eat really good Indian food every day. I'll probably be sick of it (or maybe just sick) a month from now, but for the time I am still excited.
Our apartment is coming together slowly but surely. Actually, all things considered its coming together really quickly. We are still very much in transition but every day something else gets checked off our list. The school is amazing at getting things done and taking care of us so we are always feeling like we're moving forward which is SO helpful in such a chaotic time. Our cell phones are 90% functional at this point. All the bugs have been worked out and now its a matter of just adding on any extras that we want (like internet access, sync ability, voice mail, etc.). One teacher literally had a bug in her phone - I dont know if she got the ant out of her screen yet.
We have heard a rumor that the internet guy is coming some time soon and we need to find time to run to an electronics store and sign up for cable for our new TV. We are also going to try and do some more furniture shopping this week and get some larger pieces and rugs.
Remember I mentioned before how everything can be delivered? So we bought our TV and 3 pieces of furniture among other things at this megastore up north called HyperCity. They sent a guy to mount our TV on our wall and (this is so exciting) 2 guys to come put together our furniture. We bought some dresser/stands/shelf type items which all come in boxes with a bag of pieces and some instructions to do it yourself. We opened it up and the directions are just like IKEA only way more vague and no labeling of any pieces. So we are used to putting stuff like that together ourselves since we have tons of IKEA stuff in our house but apparently they send people out to do it for you. YAY! We only realized this today at school after we spend over an hour putting together half of a piece last night. So we were pretty excited to come home today and not have to finish that.
The store kept calling to set up appointments, confirm times, or ask directions and they were pretty much the most worthless conversations ever. Everytime they called they would speak Hindi and I would speak English then we would hang up. Our calls went something like this:
Me: "Hello?"
Them: : "Hello?"
Me: "Yes?"
Them: hindi hindi hindi "Hypercity" hindi hindi hindi
Me: "What?"
Them: hindi hindi hindi hindi
Me: "Hypercity?"
Them: "Hello?"
Me: "Hello?"
Them: hindi hindi hindi "Hypercity" hindi hindi hindi
Me: "What?"
Them: "Hello?"
Me: "Hello?"
Them: *Click*
Repeat
Luckily we are surrounded by people that know hindi so the school took care of it and set up appointments for us and Maria did a great job of handling the phone calls and giving them directions (those conversations sounded alot like the other ones only worse because I would actually try to explain where we live). As I write this actually they are still working putting all our stuff together. They've been here for about an hour and I think they are getting close to finishing.
All the returning teachers are all here now and we start our all-staff activities tomorrow morning. So far we've been getting the basics about the school and alot of tech support to help out with the millions of resources they have available for us. We are really excited to jump in and get started. The new staff is a great bunch of people and we are already really connected and will make great friends I'm sure. The same is true for the returning staff. We met a number of people at the conference in Memphis so it is nice to see familiar faces and pick up where we left off.
I'm trying to take pictures but its hard to try to settle and become a local while doing very touristy obnoxious things like walking down the street with a camera. They will come though. I will put some more of our recent ones on tomorrow. By the way if anyone is on gmail, we are occasionally on google chat and facebook in the evenings (morning your time). Our parents have all our phone information as well if anyone would like to get in touch. We would love to hear from you!
क्या कहाना
K&E
Our apartment is coming together slowly but surely. Actually, all things considered its coming together really quickly. We are still very much in transition but every day something else gets checked off our list. The school is amazing at getting things done and taking care of us so we are always feeling like we're moving forward which is SO helpful in such a chaotic time. Our cell phones are 90% functional at this point. All the bugs have been worked out and now its a matter of just adding on any extras that we want (like internet access, sync ability, voice mail, etc.). One teacher literally had a bug in her phone - I dont know if she got the ant out of her screen yet.
We have heard a rumor that the internet guy is coming some time soon and we need to find time to run to an electronics store and sign up for cable for our new TV. We are also going to try and do some more furniture shopping this week and get some larger pieces and rugs.
Remember I mentioned before how everything can be delivered? So we bought our TV and 3 pieces of furniture among other things at this megastore up north called HyperCity. They sent a guy to mount our TV on our wall and (this is so exciting) 2 guys to come put together our furniture. We bought some dresser/stands/shelf type items which all come in boxes with a bag of pieces and some instructions to do it yourself. We opened it up and the directions are just like IKEA only way more vague and no labeling of any pieces. So we are used to putting stuff like that together ourselves since we have tons of IKEA stuff in our house but apparently they send people out to do it for you. YAY! We only realized this today at school after we spend over an hour putting together half of a piece last night. So we were pretty excited to come home today and not have to finish that.
The store kept calling to set up appointments, confirm times, or ask directions and they were pretty much the most worthless conversations ever. Everytime they called they would speak Hindi and I would speak English then we would hang up. Our calls went something like this:
Me: "Hello?"
Them: : "Hello?"
Me: "Yes?"
Them: hindi hindi hindi "Hypercity" hindi hindi hindi
Me: "What?"
Them: hindi hindi hindi hindi
Me: "Hypercity?"
Them: "Hello?"
Me: "Hello?"
Them: hindi hindi hindi "Hypercity" hindi hindi hindi
Me: "What?"
Them: "Hello?"
Me: "Hello?"
Them: *Click*
Repeat
Luckily we are surrounded by people that know hindi so the school took care of it and set up appointments for us and Maria did a great job of handling the phone calls and giving them directions (those conversations sounded alot like the other ones only worse because I would actually try to explain where we live). As I write this actually they are still working putting all our stuff together. They've been here for about an hour and I think they are getting close to finishing.
All the returning teachers are all here now and we start our all-staff activities tomorrow morning. So far we've been getting the basics about the school and alot of tech support to help out with the millions of resources they have available for us. We are really excited to jump in and get started. The new staff is a great bunch of people and we are already really connected and will make great friends I'm sure. The same is true for the returning staff. We met a number of people at the conference in Memphis so it is nice to see familiar faces and pick up where we left off.
I'm trying to take pictures but its hard to try to settle and become a local while doing very touristy obnoxious things like walking down the street with a camera. They will come though. I will put some more of our recent ones on tomorrow. By the way if anyone is on gmail, we are occasionally on google chat and facebook in the evenings (morning your time). Our parents have all our phone information as well if anyone would like to get in touch. We would love to hear from you!
क्या कहाना
K&E
Saturday, August 2, 2008
One Step Closer
It's amazing that we have only been here for 4 days and we already feel so comfortable with the city. A big reason for this is all the work the school is doing to get us settled. It's pretty incredible how many people they have working for us and how many places they have influence over in the city. We are pretty much like rockstars around town. We get stared at walking down the street, doors opened for us, people standing to greet us as we walk by, and royal treatment everywhere we go. Most of this is from what the school has set up for us but we have discovered that ASB holds a lot of power and flashing the name around town can really get things done. It's a strage feeling to know that everywhere you go people are willing to bend over backwards to accomodate anything you need without question. This is very much a culture of status and it is at times uncomfortable to be on top. Of course it is wonderful to be waited on and treated so kindly but it comes with a sense of guilt at times. For example we just learned that the rent for our apartment is around $12,000 a month. Yes, thats dollars. EVERY MONTH. We pay our housekeeper $200 a month (and she has to take public transit 1 1/2 hours to get here each day). Thats hard to reconcile.
It is what it is though and thats they way their system works. On some levels it makes a lot of sense however. Everyone has a job. It might be cleaning someone's apartment or cleaning someone's ears but there is a job for everything. That's the thing that amazes me most so far. Anything that you do during the day, there is someone here who could do it for you. I could have someone give me a wake up call, drive me somewhere to get a shave, have my ears cleaned, get a massage, a hair cut, and a shoe shine. I could get a ride to a tailor who would let me pick out a piece of fabric I like and sew me a new shirt out of it while I went out to lunch and have it delivered to my apartment the next morning (or I could have my housekeeper buy all my things for me). I could get my driver to take me to any store I wanted and I could walk in, point out the things I want and have it delivered to my house immediately. Or I could just call in my order if I didn't feel like going out. Oh and this entire outing would cost maybe $100. It's pretty crazy.
It's amazing that EVERYTHING can be delivered. Today for example we went to a couple market places and bought some groceries and supplies for the apartment and two boys brought it by our place an hour later (a bunch of groceries, some garbage pails, and an ironing board). We also drove an hour or so to a bigger mall uptown and bought a tv and some furniture pieces and other apartment things and they are going to send an installation guy and a carpenter to deliver all our stuff, set it up, drill holes in the wall and mount our tv. (more on that later). We actually live right next to a couple gelato places and a brownie stand (yeah, it's a little store that just sells brownies) that we can call up and have someone bring a brownie to my doorstep. Or, I can call one of the butcher/bakery stores and have them pull a loaf of french bread from the freezer, bake it, and deliver it to me hot and fresh. Pretty incredible. But like I said, it makes sense. Why take my own things home when someone else can be employed as a delivery person? It feels strage but we just have to remember that we are actually helping provide jobs and stimulate the economy by letting people serve us. Just another bizarre truth about this country.
So about the TV, the school gave us a "settling in" stipend so we just went on a big shopping spree and got a number of things for the apartment. We got a 32'' LG flat screen tv, a new DVD player, 3 really nice furniture pieces, new speakers, storage racks for the showers, and a whole bunch of cleaning supplies all for about $1500. We really scored big today and we can't wait to start getting things a little more decorated in the apartment. I think we might go to the fancier downtown area tomorrow and look for some artsy stuff. Once we have a good idea of our decorating options we can start to paint and rearrange and all that fun moving-in stuff. I can't wait. We are definitely going to be settled and ready to go by the time school starts on the 13th. If we feel this in touch with everything in the first 4 days I can't wait to see what life will be like once we get really comfortable and figure out our routines. For such an overwhelming place its amazing how quickly we have been connected.
So as you can probably tell, things are going great. Our housekeeper starts on Monday. She will come over M-F for 6 hours to clean, do laundry, feed and walk the dog, do a lot of our shopping, and cook dinner. She comes highly recommended from a number of people and has a great record and skill set so we are really lucky we were able to get her.
Work is going well, the school is wonderful. The staff is amazing and the school is just beyond words. The kinds of things that are going on at ASB are inspirational to say the least. What an amazing school and an amazing group of people. We are both really excited to get the school year started and jump in to all the great things they have going on. We start back on Monday morning really diving into the education side of the training. So far its been a lot of personal business and social orientation to the city but we are starting with the good stuff next week. School starts on the 13th and I can't wait. I've got support and resources coming out of my ears. The hardest thing is going to be figuring out which of the myriad tools I want to use. We are both loving our new laptops that the school gave us. Now that we have cell phones and internet the next step is finding the best way to contact everyone. We are still waiting for some of the features to start on our phones (like international calling) but it sounds like it's pretty cheap and easy. Once we get all our phone, cable, and internet stuff 100% up and running we will start messing around with Skype and other things. For now, this will do. Hope all is well in the rest of the world. G'nite!
क्या कहाना
K&E
It is what it is though and thats they way their system works. On some levels it makes a lot of sense however. Everyone has a job. It might be cleaning someone's apartment or cleaning someone's ears but there is a job for everything. That's the thing that amazes me most so far. Anything that you do during the day, there is someone here who could do it for you. I could have someone give me a wake up call, drive me somewhere to get a shave, have my ears cleaned, get a massage, a hair cut, and a shoe shine. I could get a ride to a tailor who would let me pick out a piece of fabric I like and sew me a new shirt out of it while I went out to lunch and have it delivered to my apartment the next morning (or I could have my housekeeper buy all my things for me). I could get my driver to take me to any store I wanted and I could walk in, point out the things I want and have it delivered to my house immediately. Or I could just call in my order if I didn't feel like going out. Oh and this entire outing would cost maybe $100. It's pretty crazy.
It's amazing that EVERYTHING can be delivered. Today for example we went to a couple market places and bought some groceries and supplies for the apartment and two boys brought it by our place an hour later (a bunch of groceries, some garbage pails, and an ironing board). We also drove an hour or so to a bigger mall uptown and bought a tv and some furniture pieces and other apartment things and they are going to send an installation guy and a carpenter to deliver all our stuff, set it up, drill holes in the wall and mount our tv. (more on that later). We actually live right next to a couple gelato places and a brownie stand (yeah, it's a little store that just sells brownies) that we can call up and have someone bring a brownie to my doorstep. Or, I can call one of the butcher/bakery stores and have them pull a loaf of french bread from the freezer, bake it, and deliver it to me hot and fresh. Pretty incredible. But like I said, it makes sense. Why take my own things home when someone else can be employed as a delivery person? It feels strage but we just have to remember that we are actually helping provide jobs and stimulate the economy by letting people serve us. Just another bizarre truth about this country.
So about the TV, the school gave us a "settling in" stipend so we just went on a big shopping spree and got a number of things for the apartment. We got a 32'' LG flat screen tv, a new DVD player, 3 really nice furniture pieces, new speakers, storage racks for the showers, and a whole bunch of cleaning supplies all for about $1500. We really scored big today and we can't wait to start getting things a little more decorated in the apartment. I think we might go to the fancier downtown area tomorrow and look for some artsy stuff. Once we have a good idea of our decorating options we can start to paint and rearrange and all that fun moving-in stuff. I can't wait. We are definitely going to be settled and ready to go by the time school starts on the 13th. If we feel this in touch with everything in the first 4 days I can't wait to see what life will be like once we get really comfortable and figure out our routines. For such an overwhelming place its amazing how quickly we have been connected.
So as you can probably tell, things are going great. Our housekeeper starts on Monday. She will come over M-F for 6 hours to clean, do laundry, feed and walk the dog, do a lot of our shopping, and cook dinner. She comes highly recommended from a number of people and has a great record and skill set so we are really lucky we were able to get her.
Work is going well, the school is wonderful. The staff is amazing and the school is just beyond words. The kinds of things that are going on at ASB are inspirational to say the least. What an amazing school and an amazing group of people. We are both really excited to get the school year started and jump in to all the great things they have going on. We start back on Monday morning really diving into the education side of the training. So far its been a lot of personal business and social orientation to the city but we are starting with the good stuff next week. School starts on the 13th and I can't wait. I've got support and resources coming out of my ears. The hardest thing is going to be figuring out which of the myriad tools I want to use. We are both loving our new laptops that the school gave us. Now that we have cell phones and internet the next step is finding the best way to contact everyone. We are still waiting for some of the features to start on our phones (like international calling) but it sounds like it's pretty cheap and easy. Once we get all our phone, cable, and internet stuff 100% up and running we will start messing around with Skype and other things. For now, this will do. Hope all is well in the rest of the world. G'nite!
क्या कहाना
K&E
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