Back To School.....kind of

Well we are back in Mumbai and have already had a pretty interesting couple of weeks. First of all our flight from Syracuse to Newark was delayed so we missed our initial flight back here. Luckily, we were able to get on a flight the next day so we ended up spending a night in lovely Newark. We were supposed to take the non-stop from Newark to Mumbai but instead got a different flight through London.

We left for the airport the next night and found out that our flight was again delayed for a couple hours which wasn't a big deal except for the fact that we had to make a connection in London which now went from 2 hours to 20 minutes. So we FINALLY leave Newark and arrive in London where we had 20 minutes to run across the airport, take a 10 minute bus over to the other terminal, go through security, and get on the flight. We arrived at the gate as the doors were closing to hear that we could still get on the flight but there was no way that our luggage was going to make the connection.

That was good enough for us since we had already wasted a day and a half of travel time. So we get to Mumbai and as expected our bags are not there. Surprisingly, the staff at the airport were very efficient and helpful and we filled out some forms and the bags were delivered the next day. And all of our stuff was still in them too! We were pleasantly surprised and lucky that it went so smoothly.

It's definitely a very different feeling being back for the second year. It was nice to be able to go run errands on our first day back and know where everything is and how to get around. The apartment was all clean and ready to go. The pug was happy and healthy and it's been a smooth transition back into things.

We had our first days of training and are all ready to get back into things. The first day of school was supposed to be yesterday but unfortunately public swine flu mass hysteria outweighed the logical decisions of the government and forced all schools to close for a week. I've been pissed off about swine flu "pandemic" ever since it began so I won't waste more time complaining about how horribly it's been handled and how illogical and over-reactive people are. What's done is done and we are now closed for a week. So instead of class, we will be creating online lessons and sending them out to students next week to work on independently at home. So this week is basically just time sitting around at school planning how we are going to present this in a way that is simple and meaningful. So far so good, the school has done a great job preparing for this so it looks like everything will go smoothly on Monday when "class" begins.

It's good to be back and we are excited for the year which makes it frustrating to have this delay. Even so, it gives everyone a little more time to get settled which could turn out to be a good thing. The festivals are starting up again and Ganesh immersion will be happening in the next couple weeks so we will try and get some good coverage of that. We are planning to go over to someone's house and actually see the whole thing from a local's point of view. Should be interesting.

But for now we sit in Limbo waiting for things to get started. More news to come as the year starts to pick up. Thanks for a great summer! We are so glad we got to see so many people! Take care and enjoy your year!


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K&E