These are the times that try men's souls...

Oh, Thomas Paine, you've never made more common sense than when you wrote that.  I had a day like that today.  Not unlucky, or bad, or anything like that.  Just trying.  When everything inside of you just is ready to break.  A messy mixture of exhaustion, being around people more than I'm used to, and things just being so far away from what I am comfortable with.  I came home from work at 10PM tonight, after a day of nonstop classes, a 2 hour break at school, and a 4-hour trip to a restaurant in town with the entire 10th grade class.  On the way back, I stumbled across some 9th graders playing a game for their class night (counting my blessings, I'm not camping with 14 year olds tonight).  As they were trying to hide, I heard one of them hiss, "Will you guys just shut the f*** up!?!"  Sigh.  Didn't need that.  In the door, shirt off, pants off, comfortable clothes on, and chug of Mountain Dew (if I were only a drinking man).  See my Bible on my kitchen table, grab it and say aloud, "Save me!"  

It's been a while since I've been at the end of my rope like this.  Not stressed, not upset, not angry.  Tried.

I'd say I've earned a weekend.

General Update

There's a lot going on right now round here. Today is the start of Losar, the Buddhist New Year, so a lot of the Tibetan and Bhutanese kids are dressed up and leaving later to go celebrate. But, this year because of the Chinese crackdown on Tibet this past year, it's a very somber celebration. It's still cool to see a bunch of kids wearing traditional clothes. We also had the counselor speak at assembly yesterday, talking about Ash Wednesday. He culminated by pouring ashes and garbage on his head in mourning of the violence around the world and the pollution of our campus and town. Pretty rockstar prophet stuff, there.

In other news, my classes are going fairly well. I've finally finished covering Hinduism, much to my relief. I won't have to hear constant corrections on my pronounciations and facts. The truth is, Hindus practice their religion in a ton of different ways, so trying to nail concrete things down is tough. If I only taught what was universal to all Hindus, I'd be done in 2 days. I have 6. At least Buddhism is a little more straightforward...

Biggest teaching surprise here (besides the three times a day I get to drink tea) is that i kind of like my ethics class. Apparently none of the kids actually signed up for it, but they seem to half-way enjoy it. I'm getting better at thinking like an ethicist, too. A student told me that he shouldn't do his assignment because they cut down trees to make paper, and I told him that facts don't equal values.

Otherwise, I'm adjusting fairly well here. I've started teaching volleyball to a bunch of middle schoolers once a week, and I've taken up helping organize the Spanish Club.

Hippie Points

Here's how my day went, taking into account Hippie Points, given for doing something hippieish.

Woke up after 6AM: -2 pts

Washed clothes: 0 pts

By hand: 3 pts

Saw a cow while washing clothes: 1 pt

Wanted to feed the cow a tomato: 2 pts

The tomato was rotten and I didn't give it to the cow: -2 pts

Hung some clothes outside to dry: 1 pt

Contemplated a man-purse to carry stuff to and from the bazaar: 1pt

Spent time outside: 2 pts

Because I was watching students: -2 pts

Bought groceries in a respectable store: -3 pts

Bought produce from a nice Sikh man I know named Siddarji: 3 pts

Didn't order any meat: 3 pts

Because I don't like how meat tastes here: -2 pts

Got my groceries delivered: -1 pt

Went into a touristy store: -1 pt

Went to a Tibetan flea market: 1 pt

Made my dinner from packaged ingredients: -1 pt

Didn't understand Hindi: -1 pt

So, I'm 2 points pro-hippie today, which is WAY too many points for me.  I guess it's the nature of living in India (4 points on the hippie life meter).  I'll just have to go pollute something or wear synthetic materials tomorrow.  For now, I'm off to a bonfire at the house of some Canadians. Crap, 4 more points!

MUN

Every Friday, the kids get to take a class in what's called "exploratory block."  They sign up for whichever class suits their tastes.  There's knitting, card games, pottery, classic movies, and so on.  I'm one of the supervisors for the Model United Nations, one of the more popular choices.  A lot of students choose MUN because it's prestigious, looks good on a college application, and they get the chance to travel (not at all like why I chose to advise).

So, today the chairs of the committee I'm advising (environmental protection, woo!), were showing the new kids the procedure for how to speak, interrupt, and so on.  In order to do this, they came up with a fake resolution, sponsored by the delegate from the Netherlands (one of my advisees).  

It went something along these lines:  'The food service provider at Woodstock will be scrapped.  It will be replaced with chefs from the Netherlands, who can imbue the food with a special "salt" from the Netherlands.  These chefs will be paid for by a large cut in the principal's pay.'

Is it time to start weeping for the future?

Rough Day

Bad days are so different here.

Today's schedule

11pm to 7am: Toss and turn, sleeping very little.

7:50am: Trudge to school.

8:15am: Arrive, sit down, and get up again to supervise first study hall. (I believe that study hall supervision is worse than what I imagine camping to be- I don't feel comfortable zoning out into my own work. I feel like I should be supervising the students, despite everyone telling me otherwise)

9:50am: Meet with my immediate supervisor, an amazing, salt-of-the-earth-type woman named Dot from Liverpool. Get told that the way I am structuring my ethics class will lead to disaster (Definitely something I needed to hear, but not something I wanted to hear)

11:00am to 3:30pm: Another study hall, a dismal lunch, and another, final study hall involving myself sneaking off to read a book on Hitchcock.

3:45: Tea time and the end of the school day (the teatime eclairs were a bright spot)

4:00: Prep time for tomorrow's class- summarize the entire book of Acts into one lesson and create a Powerpoint presentation on the cycle of birth and rebirth in Hinduism.

5:45: The walk home

6:00: Encounter the mean, brown-red variety of monkey blocking my path

6:10: Going the other way around, encounter another monkey of the mean, red-brown variety

6:15: Standoff ends when monkey gets grunting reinforcements and I go down to the road

6:25: Arrive home

I'll write about an awesome day soon, I swear. For now, ramen noodles, grilled cheese, and Coke are in my immediate future.

VD Day

Mmm, Valentine's Day.  At least it doesn't fall on a school day, because for the past few years, kids have fancied it an ACTUAL holiday and didn't want to do work.  There's a bit of tension here in India over VD Day, nowadays.  A few weeks ago, a mob of men "protecting Indian culture" dragged women out of pubs in Mangalore and beat them up.  Apparently beating women is part of Indian culture... There have been similar threats for today, that similar mobs will forcefully marry off any couple found canoodling.  In response, there's been a movement to send lacy pink panties to the headquarters of the group.  It's generally equally concerning and entertaining as an outsider.  But, it makes me see just how different America and India generally are.  In America, American culture dominates.  If there's another cultural influence, more often than not, we embrace it (or persecute it, then later embrace it).  Here, they kind of do have to worry about protecting their culture and traditon from the West (there are better ways to do it than basically being a Hindu Taliban, of course).  I think tonight I'll just keep my head down and get some free food at the high school dance.  Free entertainment, too.  Oh, so awkward.  Also, here's some VD humour for you:  http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/i_wish_id_spent_valentines_day?utm_source=b-section

I awoke this morning to some lightning and thunder. Lying in bed, afraid to expose any skin to the "outside the covers" air, I listened to the sound of the weather. I found it odd that there was no pitter-patter of rain. So, when I got up, I looked out and saw snow. My very first thundersnowstorm!

Vegging out

Gosh, that title is bad. It's like the title of an episode of a sitcom. Anyways, I've decided that I'm only going to cook vegetarian at home. I made arroz con pollo last night and I was feeling really anxious about the raw meat in my kitchen. That, and the chicken tasted like crap. So, send me your good vegetarian recipes: gregorymiller@woodstock.ac.in
On a separate matter, my first day went fine. I'm still getting a feel of the school and the kids, but I don't predict a ton of problems (famous last words?). I'm also now the middle school volleyball coach. Before you start laughing, remember that I got an A in volleyball, and that really, nobody plays volleyball in India. It's a success if I can get them to hit the ball three times AND have it go over the net.

School

It starts tomorrow. My classroom is devoid of decoration. I've worked all day on stuff, and I hope I'm ready, but are you ever really sure that syllabus and rules, handing out books, and an introduction activity will take up the whole time? Should I have my first unit vocabulary ready tomorrow? I don't know!

I've been the new guy learning the ropes for 3 years now. I can't wait to not be new at a school! One more year and I'm there!

3,2,1, contact.

If you'd like to contact me, at the moment there are a few ways:
Email: The school has bandwitdth issues, so they'd like me to use my school email: gregorymiller@woodstock.ac.in
Mail (This would be awesome):
Woodstock School
Mussoorie, Uttarakhand 248179 India
I plan on getting Skype as soon as my computer and my connection in the house start getting along. In the meantime, you should get Skype so we can talk. I'll let you know when it happens.

Coolies

Last night, I got my first delivery of groceries. A very proud moment, although I don't know what one package of stuff is. It's some kind of powder, the package is all in Hindi, and has a picture of some kind of paneer masala-type substance on it. Anyways, it was delivered by a coolie, which is basically a person who carries and moves things for a living. Now, where I am living is not very close to the school, and the school is a fair walk to the bazaar (for me anyway, an out-of-shape lowlander who runs out of breath from peeling an orange at this altitude). So, this guy carried a fairly hefty load on his back up a huge hill (again, to me a big hill) in the dark and I was told not to give him a tip. Just a glass of water. Lame. It's one of those things where I would love to lavish money on guys like this and spread the wealth around like the socialist I am, but I can't. It's just not the way things work. So, to quote Anthony Bourdain when he was in India, "Do you hate your job? Really? Wanna trade?"

First post!

I'm sitting here in a chilly middle school library at my new school. For those who don't know, I'm teaching at Woodstock School in Mussoorie, India. I've had insanely busy days so far, and I will be cutting out a lot of the details about those days (you'll just have to talk to me). But, I'm off to a good start, going through orientation. Yesterday, I bought a toaster, a ton(ne) of groceries, and saw my first giant spider (calling him Monstruo).
I've noticed that this place has a sort of small-town feel to it, or what I would imagine a small-town to be like, having never lived in one. When I pass people on my climb to or from school, I get a "good morning" or a "namaste." Everybody's dang friendly and supportive. Just like a small town, minus the drunk 11 year olds and the meth labs.
It is just about time for lunch (the food so far has been excellent), so I have to go. I'll write more later, te lo juro.
Greggie