Roller Skates and Mini-Trains

Last weekend we had a three day weekend because it was Republic Day in India. We decided to stay in town so we could go to a friend's surprise 1/2 birthday party, but we also wanted to take advantage of being here in India and having a long weekend, so we decided to rent a van and go up to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

We had a few people come with us, which was a lot of fun. We packed a lunch of cheese and crackers, and Frisbee and blanket, not knowing what to expect, other than that there were some caves and a "safari" we could go on. We left around 9:15 and were at the park around 10am which was a lot faster then we expected, because others had warned us it would take a little while, even though it is "in town".

A side note about roller skates. As we were driving away from our apartment, down the road that runs along the water, half of the road was blocked off and their was a huge crowd. We soon realized they were having some kind of kids rollerskating race down the road that morning. This was a very serious event too. The kids, ranging in age from 5 or 6 on up, had professional suits, all the helmets and pads needed and offical race numbers. What a strange and fun thing to stumble upon! We were a little sad that we didn't know it was happening and we weren't able to stop and watch.

So back to the park, when we arrived we went first to the caves. We have already seen the caves on Elephanta Island, but these were a bit different. First off, there was a LOT more of them. I think someone mentioned it kind of felt like we were in a Star Wars movie on some dessert planet. Each of the caves felt like a home with different rooms and columned entrances, even little front porches. Some had Buddhist carvings and some were just plain. We kept walking up and up and there were more and more. We also got a fun view over the park, which is quite large, and a little bit of the city in the background.

When we were done with the caves, we all got back in the van and decided to head over to the safari. Now the safari is really a 10 minute bus ride into a caged area where they keep some lions and tigers and leopards. When we arrived there was a HUGE line of people waiting. We parked the car and decided to each lunch and rotate having people wait in line, since we had all heard about the safari and were all excited to go, if only for the cheesiness of it. After a few minutes, the first group of people who were waiting in line came back. It was noon at that point, and apparently the people who run the safari take a break from 12:30 to 2pm. So we figured we wouldn't get on a bus before 12:30 and didn't want to wait until 2.

We were a bit disappointed, but our driver suggested that we take the mini-train ride instead, which goes around the edge of the area where they keep the animals. So after finishing our lunch, we wandered over to the mini-train and got in line. This line was considerably shorter and so we had high hopes. We did end up waiting for an hour or so before getting on the train. Although the line was shorter, it was still really busy and of course it was a mini train. As we were waiting we got to see another group get on and realized we were in for an adventure!

Because it was a busy day at the park (because of the three day weekend) the mini-train ended up being a lot like what a real train is like during rush hour. First off, as people were waiting, some crossed over the tracks and waited over there in hopes of getting a better seat on the train. Once the train started pulling in, as in it had not stopped yet, people started jumping on and pushing their way to the seats. When we watched, it seemed like there was a bigger rush in the back, so we decided to wait closer to where the front of the train would be. That turned out to be a big mistake, because people were even pushier and jumped on earlier then they had the previous train. So about half of us pushed our way on, and forced our butts in seats, pretty much forcing others out. The other half of our group, one of whom is 6 months pregnant, decided that looked like a bad idea, and ended up jumping on near the back of the train, which was apparently much less crowded.

So off we went on our little train ride. About a minute in, there was a cage with two lepords sleeping, which only some of us saw, and then a few deer. The rest of the ride, was driving around the park, looking and the dead, dry plants and garbage EVERYWHERE in the national park. Pretty disappointing. I think we all agreed though that the adventure of getting on the train was pretty much the most exciting part and worth the 15 rupees each that we paid.

After the train ride, we went to the memorial for Sanjay Gandhi, which was a very nice little garden, but I think we all realized, we didn't know who Sanjay was. Later that night I looked it up, and here is what I found. We also went to the Jain temple and by that time we were ready to head home.

We had a great time, and it was nice to get out and do some walking around, although it's still not the same as getting away from the smog and away from the litter. We will be sure to take visitors here as it's a nice introduction to some of the caves in India and fun to walk around.

Also, be sure to check out the pictures and video's from the day.

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K&E

Limited Time Offer!!! - DON'T MISS THIS CHANCE!

That's right, act fast or you will miss out on this once in a lifetime opportunity! Now available to the public for the first time ever!

THE LOST VACATION TAPES OF 2008

That's right! We have opened the Roberts family vault and released this new collection of never before seen photos and videos.

Call now and you can see such great moments as

"Forbidden City - The Musical"
"Mumbai Moonlight"
"The Great Wall Adventure"
"Hong Kong's Long Gone"
"Night in a Bird's Nest"
"The Matheran Python"
"Riding the Slow Boat in China"
and "Cribs - Emperor's Edition"

And if you act in the next 20 minutes we will throw in exclusive footage of China Che and The Boise Blizzard.

For our platinum members we also provide a sneak peak at these NEVER BEFORE SEEN IMAGES of Diwali Decor and Oktoberfest, not to mention the classic Caroling Capers and Kiara Christmas!

Don't let this once in a lifetime offer pass you by!!!!

(***Offer only valid in states beginning with the letter J and in remote sections of Guam. Must be 87 or older to participate. Other restrictions may apply. Contact your state or local representative for details.***)

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K&E

Back to the Grind

We are back in India after a wonderful holiday in the states. We enjoyed lots of snow, lots of food, and lots of friend and family time which all made for a great Christmas vacation. Our flight back was incredibly smooth and we made it back to Mumbai with no problems. We are now back in school and back to daily life. We are excited for a new year as we are jumping into some new things. First, we are starting a bible study with a group of friends from school which we are really excited about. Second, we may potentially be starting some Hindi classes with folks from school. Third, Elizabeth has been accepted to Syracuse University to do her online masters program to become a librarian. Finally, there is a good chance we will be heading to Cairo for spring break for a conference and some vacation. More to come on that as details get flushed out.

All in all, life is pretty good. We are back to the busy, noisy, crazy life in Mumbai and looking forward to a busy and adventurous new year!

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K&E

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