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! --->

Genuine Smiles

Being new to the blogging world, I am often nervous about putting my writing out there. I wrote this after my second or third week at ASB, but had not actually gotten around to posting it. However, we were having an interesting discussion about the “invisibility” of people at book club the other day, which I thought led nicely into what had been written. So here goes.
I love smiles. I love to smile and I love to see others smile. When I am out and about, I like to smile at people, mostly to see their reaction. I think just smiling at people can have an unknown effect on others. I am finding here in India that a genuine smile from me can generate more genuine smiles from those around me.

I think this is especially true for all the people here in the service sector, and that is a LOT of people! Because there are so many people in this country and especially in the city, there is someone to do everything that needs to get done. For example, there are several people in our school who stand at different points of the stairwell, and throughout the day clean it and just keep an eye out on the stairs. That’s it. Watch and clean the stairs. Now mind you there are several people at different points. Not just one person for all the stairs. That’s a lot of people with very specific jobs.

Anyway, one of my favorite things to do here is to smile at people; especially those who are often ‘ignored’ or who we may not talk to because of language barriers. Whenever I am walking the halls of the school there is someone fixing things, sweeping, etc. I think I surprise them with my smile; the fact that I am looking directly at them and smiling, genuinely smiling at them puts a huge grin on their face and they just light up. I love to see that light in people! I avoid giving half grins that say “we are both here and should acknowledge one another”. Instead it’s more of an “I really want to say hi and, not just walk by” kind of smile. There is a big difference in those two things.

I would encourage everyone to smile at strangers or those co-workers we pass everyday with just a nod. It will have an amazing effect on you for sure and you never know how a smile can change someone else’s day.

क्या कहाना
K&E

What an exciting week!

So much has happened in the past week or so and we haven't put any of it up here yet! First, and most importantly, WE GOT OUR SHIPMENT!! Hooray!! And even better, nothing was damaged. It came on Tuesday and a good portion of it was unpacked that night but we still have lots of boxes to empty. Most of it is things that we need shelves for so we are waiting to find some book shelves before we can put a lot of our stuff away. It is really nice to have things from home. It makes our big, white, empty, apartment feel more like our own personal space. With all of our new furniture and our shipment and some of the things we've bought, its starting to come together very nicely. Our next big project is to buy some book shelves and paint once monsoons are officially over (which is very soon).

So thats one exciting piece of news. Second, its time for another festival here in party town. Its the Ganesh Chaturthi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesh_Chaturthi). In the middle of writing this sentence I actually had to stop and go outside to witness the celebrations. I just took some pictures and video so I'll explain breifly and put up some more later. Ganesh is the number one god to be worshiped in Hinduism and what happens in this festival is families buy a Ganesh idol (some small and some really huge) and decorate it all up and bring it home with them. They treat it like they have the god in their homes so they throw parties and take it around town with them and do all kinds of celebrations with their idol. Then, after a week or so they decide its time to say goodbye and to send the idol off properly they parade it through the streets with fireworks, drumlines, and loads of fanfare then take it to a beach, walk it out into the water, and submerge it. If you could imagine millions of people doing this throughout the city with their own idols, you can see how crowded and crazy it gets. The guy who lives in the big mansion of an apartment next to us just started his procession tonight so that is why I had to pause and go see. More details later.

The next exciting thing is that we just went to Elephanta Island today which was the first time we have been downtown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephanta_Island). We took a school van early this morning down to the Gateway of India and hopped aboard a little ferry out to the island. We hiked around for a few hours, tooks some good pictures, saw some caves, saw some monkeys, got a workout, and got some sunshine. Tiring but fun. There are apparently lots of these Buddhist/Hindu caves all over India and from the looks of it many of the other ones seem much more exquisite than Elephanta so we will have to find some more on our travels. It was a fun day and felt good to get out of Bandra and away from the city a little bit.

The other fun news, which really isn't that great..but I think its cool, is that I taught a full day of school from my couch on Thursday. We use a program called DyKnow which is basically an interactive power point program so I can send pages to students' computers and they can take notes on them and edit them how they wish. It also has chat features and monitoring features so I can see all of their screens and know what everyone is doing. Its got lots of other really cool features but anyway thats what I use in class mostly every day. So on Thursday I wasn't feeling well so I stayed home from school and actually taught all my classes through DyKnow while I was on my couch in my pijamas. I thought that was pretty cool. They had a sub in the room at school and we talked on the phone and got everyone hooked in to the program then I just used the chat to communicate. Technology can be pretty amazing sometimes.

Thats all for now. Stay tuned for Elephanta Island pictures and more about all our Ganesh Immersion stuff from tonight. Peace.


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K&E