1st post since January!

Wow, it's been a long time. As many writers know, one can only really write when so motivated. I haven't been up until now. This semester, my schedule is as follows:

9th grade RE (world religions)

10th grade RE (philosophy)

11th grade RE (Intro to Christianity)

10th grade world history

11/12th grade Indian history

So much stuff! It's been fun teaching about such a huge variety of things. Once every 8 school days, I teach all five classes. One day I taught about topics like early Indian nationalism, circumcision, atonement, Aristotle, and Evita (the person, not the musical). Such a variety! But, next year should be easier. Assuming it doesn't change, the plan for next year is that I'll be teaching all of grade 9 RE, all of US history, my Intro to Christianity class 1st semester and philosophy second semester. Only 3 classes to prep for instead of 5. Sooo nice...

As one may imagine, this semester has been long and tiring, but eventful. I got to go to Italy for MUN, marking my first visit to Europe. I enjoyed it (although I will say that taking care of 10 high schoolers takes quite a bit of the magic out of Italy), but I don't think I'll go back. It's marked off my list and I'd rather go visit other places.

I'm also getting ready to say goodbye to some people who I care about- some of my coworkers and students. Last year, I didn't really care about the seniors; part of this was because I didn't get to know them, part of this was because getting to know people during the second semester of their senior year is not the best time to do so. Being so isolated on a hillside like this, we become family. The students are an odd mix of younger siblings and sons/daughters, while coworkers become brothers, sisters, aunties, uncles, and parental figures.

But, why start writing again now? One main reason: I am inspired. The source of this inspiration? I like to think I have this in common with the great Urdu poet of the court of the Mughals, Mirza Ghalib...

We both love mangoes. No joke, I ate one of the first mangoes of the season and I wanted to blog. I wish I could follow the mango around the world, it is so delicious. The way the skin gives way to the knife, the slight trickle of juice that runs down the outside to my hand, the sound of the flesh tearing away as the pit gives way... I love it all.

Go and find a good mango and eat it. If you can't find a good mango, pity yourself for you are missing out on one of the most enjoyable things God has created on this earth.

I'll try to be more regular in blogging, or I will for as long as my fruit supply keeps up.

Been a while...

I'm at the point where it's embarrassing to come back. Like skipping church for three weeks, it's more of a hassle to come back. Yeah, I haven't written for a while. The past few weeks have been busy. Some highlights:

• School ended, 1.5 month break started. Excellent.
• Christmas happened. Showing off my amazing coordination skills (is that the right word?) a bunch of us got together for a nice Christmas Eve dinner and an almost-midnight almost mass. It was Anglican and it started at 11:30, but close enough.
• Christmas Day potluck. I love potlucks, because I can experiment then nervously ask everyone what they thought. I'd be crushed if anyone didn't like my food, and I always suspect people are lying to me. I semi-succeeded at making peppermint marshmallows, failed at vanilla marshmallows and made my onion soup which is hard to mess up.
• My house fell apart. A fuse needed to be flipped, then I found my fusebox behind a locked door outside my house. After that, my gas ran out (the reason for the failed vanilla marshmallows) leaving me with no ability to heat anything. Yikes.
• Vacation! I headed to Lucknow then Varanasi where I met up with a bunch of people I know from MN. So nice to see faces of people I've known for over a year. Lucknow was decent (the Residency was impressive) and Varanasi was the same attractive pit it was when I was there last time. A timeless city, if that's a good thing. Plenty of fun and feces for all...
• 28 hour train ride to Hyderabad wasn't actually that bad. I was surprised.
• Hyderabad was mixed. Hussain Sagar, a big lake in the middle of the city was great. Perfect weather and a walk by there after a nice meal was a great mix. Golconda Fort and a few tours of former palaces were nice too. Rickshaw drivers seemed especially out to get me though.
• A taste of the West- Subway, KFC, and an IMAX theatre playing Avatar in 3D for Rs. 200 (around $4)

So, I just got into Chennai today. I'm staying with my friends from MN, Taylor and Ann for the next few days. I'm then off to Madurai, Cape Comorin, Trivadunum, Varkala, Kumily, Munnar, and finally Cochin. From there, I'm flying to Delhi (need my passport renewed) and then back to Mussoorie for a ton of work for the next semester (a trip to Italy and a new Indian history class await!). I'll be sure to write another update of my vacation later.

Ciao.

I had a pretty hefty post written when the Internet broke.  Much like an ant must think the world is ending when it rains, when I can't access the internet in the middle of a blog post, the entire information superhighway must be under construction.  

In the interest of laziness, I will summarize what I wrote:

The MUN conference we attended was not the best I've ever been to.  It was the second, but I can tell these things.  A few of the doozies:

• Syria signed on to a Middle East peace agreement written by the USA and Israel.
  
• Non-nuclear countries will help nuclear ones get rid of their nukes.
  
• The UN is invading Somalia.
  

After the conference fifteen students, my co-worker and I traveled around Chennai and Pondicherry for a few days.  Activity week was going on last week, when many students go on insane hikes or live in a local village for a week.  I got to do the following:

• Go to the beach and swim for the first time in a long time.
• Eat French food
• Eat beef almost every day at Sparky's
• Visit the second largest courthouse in the world and sit in on a court case
• Visit one of the first British forts built in India

All in all a good week.  Upon landing in Delhi, we heard via a parent that our school was in the newspaper!  Apparently, the FBI caught a guy who said that a terrorist group may be planning some kind of attacks on high-profile schools in North India.  So, in addition to a general high alert, we have 40 armed police roaming around campus.  You can read about it here.  Another interesting note, the principal addressed the school about this issue.  He mentioned that these men are "rough" and girls should avoid inappropriate dress.  Really?  We have rapists guarding us?  I guess nobody wants to mess with a rapist...

Happy Chanukah!

Yesterday was Diwali, which is a Hindu holiday celebrating the homecoming of Lord Ram after rescuing his wife Sita from the arms of the king of Lanka.  With the help of his faithful monkey-servant Hanuman, good triumphed over evil.

I read they're making a movie with Keanu Reeves.

The past few days have had me pondering a lot.  I'm a Christian who works at a Christian school where a majority of students are not Christian in a predominantly Hindu part of a predominantly Hindu country with a Sikh prime minister.  There are Muslims, Buddhists, and Zoroastrians in there too...

So, I'm trying to think of analogies to what I've seen the past few days.  The school had a fireworks display last night in honor of Diwali (the tradition is to set out diyas or lamps for Ram to find his way home- as if he'd get so lost to come by Mussorie).  I love fireworks, but isn't this kind of like a Jewish school having a Christmas pageant?  I mean, cool in the way of diversity and all, but kind of a contradiction.  But, considering how many Hindu kids are at the school and we don't allow them to go to the temple (the decision based I think on the fact they will buy fireworks and/or get limbs blown off in the bazaar), maybe it's only right that we do some fireworks.  I mean, if a bunch of Christians were a minority at a boarding school and they weren't allowed to go to church on Easter, it'd be only fair to have a celebration at school.

So, I guess the question I've been pondering is more about what is appropriate for Christians to do regarding devotion ceremonies to Hindu gods.  Or, regarding a long-standing fun cultural event.  WHICH ONE IS IT?!?  Some Christian staff participate in the explosive festivities without a second thought.  They'll also happily do yoga (another post, another post) along the Ganga and feel "spiritual."  Other Christian staff grumble that the school does anything for a Hindu holiday.  

I... observe.

A dinner of onions

I have to admit, I get bored just writing about what happens in my life.  It just reminds me too much of Doogie Howser or some 12 year old girl confiding in her secret journal with a too-easily-broken lock.  The past few weeks have had sports day, quarter break, and the student talent show.  Each of those things have fun stories to go with it.  I won a medal for the staff relay, I bought some kind of bronze star globe with Farsi script, and heard a pretty decent cover of a Blur song.  If you're really interested, ask me.

But what I really like about the past few weeks is how settled I have felt living and working here.  Most of the things on my mind are not really blogworthy.  I am now accepting that I cannot get any white or yellow onions.  I will be dealing with students giggling as I mention the Abrahamic covenant (look it up if you don't know what I'm talking about).  I'm okay with that.  Seniors will think they are God's gift to the earth and make up privileges as they see fit.  Yup.

Does anybody besides me really care about the color of onions?  No, probably not.  So I won't write too much about it.  However, if anyone cares, I do make a mean French-style onion soup (no crouton or broiled Provolone).  Add a few globules of yak cheese and that's a dinner, buddy!

A dinner of onions.  Besides pretentious book club books, what else should I write about?

Woodstock has a new dance floor. And gym.

Yesterday, we had our gym dedication.  The old gym was knocked down 11 years ago and the new gym went through permit hell (purgatory maybe?) before being built.  Eleven years of basketball up at dorms and gym teachers screaming at teams outside of classrooms in session.

But no more!  Woodstock now has a gym FAR better than any I've ever seen in a school.  In addition to the standard brown wood on the floor and blue pads on the wall, we have the following:

A gymnastics room

A climbing wall

A squash court

A proper weight room (the treadmills have tvs on them)

REALLY nice scoreboards

Basically, it's an awesome gym.  If I were a PE teacher, I would feel like I could never live up to the standards of the gym.  Let's hope they don't build an RE complex.

In addition to the speeches given by some of the donors and family members of the guy the gym is named after, we had a special dinner and dance.  After filling up on chicken burgers, dosa and hot cocoa, we went up to the gym to enjoy a REAL DJ (not a grade 12 student with an ipod and a tick in his/her thumb, changing the song every 25 seconds).  They also had brought in a guy to do some laser thing.  We were told he did lasers for both Michael Jackson and Elton John.  How can I get to be a big laser guy?

The dance was fun.  I like to limit my dancing to a few times a year, or else it gets old.  It was a great time, watching groups of grade six students flailing wildly, younger staff getting down, awkward sophomore boys jumping and cheering for each other, and older staff couples dancing with each other.  A few of the junior boys took to creating coreography with each other, a few shy middle school students ran off to avoid embarrassment, and a few teachers sought out embarrassment by showing off moves to the students.

I am proud to say that I outlasted most other staff and quite a few students.  By the time the music ended, I was exhausted.  The day began at 7 am with Friday morning Bible study, I taught five classes in the day, ushered my advisory to the gym, sat through speeches, stuffed myself with free food, and danced for three hours.  I got home at 10:50.  Despite all the busyness, it was a great time.  I hope we can open some new building like this every semester.

Hodgepodge

I know, it's been a bit.  The past few weeks have been full and exhausting, which is not necessarily a bad combination.  Last weekend was the RE retreat, which needs a better name.  It's the high school voluntary Christian retreat, which I helped lead a bit.  The theme was "no fear" and we looked at faith, hope and love as the opposites of fear.  I teamed up with another adult to talk about faith.  My main part was to reason out with the kids what we have faith in and why.  The second part was looking at the Christmas story and the crucifixion to see when Mary's faith was tested.  That weekend, we also went on a short short hike to Flag Hill, a hill closeby where lots of local Buddhists hang their prayer flags. 

Maybe the most interesting part of the weekend was what happened after lights out.  The RE retreat has a bit of notoriety for being a weekend with less supervision for couples.  I've heard stories... As everyone was settling down, I noticed a few guys and girls desperately trying to talk and whisper with each other before bed.  When I stopped this, they got clever.  A few girls came over to the guys' side to "get water," one guy gave me a hug and mouthed things over my shoulder as I tried to push him away, and finally, things were yelled in Korean for another student to pass the message on.  Unable to see any other resolution, I grabbed a blanket and posted myself on the floor outside of the guys' room until about 2AM.  They felt guilty, as they should have, but I don't THINK anything happened.  I told the guys that I can stay up later and wake up earlier than they can.  Probably not the truth, but intimidation is important on Christian retreats...

Another thing I've been working on is the student talent show.  I did this last year, so I'm trying to impart my meager wisdom on the students in charge.  My main role is auditions, being the moral monitor and making sure we don't have a bloated show.  It's going alright- we had a few good acts, and no horrible acts so far.

Hopefully my life can slow down a bit over the next couple weeks.  I'm almost caught up on grading, auditions are almost over, and I don't think I have any big events coming up.  I might even get a whole weekend to relax!  I don't think I've had one so far this year.

Ciao.