The first quarter of school is over and this is only my second blog of the year! I guess things have just been pretty busy and/or the internet doesn’t always work properly.
Since Independence Day, we have had House and Inter School Cross Country Meets, Student Talent Show, Quarter Break and Parent-Teacher Conferences.
The cross country meets were held up at the top of the hill on the Chakkar (figure eight road). For Inter House all of the students had to run for their own house, merlins, condors or eagles and then the fastest students went on to run for the Inter School Meet, where several other Mussoorie schools participated.
I’m sure there are other events that happened between CC meets and the talent show, but I can’t remember them specifically right now. I did lead a middle school hike one Saturday morning, early in the semester. It was funny, because I was the hike “leader” but I had never been to the hiking destination – Bear Hill. I knew where we needed to end up, but I was not sure how to get there. In the end, everything was fine, but the kids had an eventful hike, full of snakes, bees and a few leeches. The students get points depending on how far they hike and all of my students thought that they should get more hiking points for that morning…
The student talent show was just like any other high school talent show I’ve been too – although this year wasn’t too loud, thank goodness. There a few really good acts – singers and then the rest were at least entertaining… I am probably a bit overcritical. Last year the staff talent show took place in the fall and the student show was in the spring. But they swapped the two this year, now the staff have longer to prepare!
Last weekend was quarter break. We had been going straight from August until October without any days off school – so it was really nice to have last Thursday and Friday off from school. A lot of the students were taken out of boarding by their parents and some students went on trips with dorm parents. There were also students who just stayed in the dorm for the long weekend. I took a trip to Rishikesh with two of the other teachers, Kate and Stephen. Kate works in the music department, she teaches piano and voice lessons and went to college at St. Olaf. Stephen is one of the new math teachers. We stayed in Rishikesh from Thursday to Sunday and it was a pretty relaxing vacation – although very hot!!! We went rafting on the Ganges river, did some shopping, ate at new restaurants (I usually eat at the same place when I have gone to Rishikesh in the past), did some yoga, got massages and viewed a ceremony on the river. I’m glad that I had the chance to go rafting, because I will be chaperoning a weeklong rafting trip with grade 10 students for Activity Week in November. The rafting was fun, but we only went for 3 hours. For Activity Week, we will camp out along the river and raft for 4 days, kayak for one and hike for another day. I’m sure it will be fun, but tiring!
Once we all came back from quarter break, Woodstock had parent-teacher conferences on Monday morning. It was nice to see students with their parents, although I didn’t have too many parents to talk to. Then we had lunch and classes resumed in the afternoon.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
We're Back In Mussoorie AND Independence Day 09
Megan and I arrived back in Mussoorie on July 23rd. This was the day before our weeklong staff workshop began. We are now living in a different house than we had last year. We ultimately decided to move because if we had stayed in our old place, Suncliffe, we would have had another roommate assigned to us. So Megan and I moved to South Hill, where Emily and Jared Hatch lived last year. They even left their projector here, so now we can watch movies on a “big” screen!
Students began arriving on August 1st and 2nd and school began on a Wednesday, August 5th. It’s been great to see most of the old faces we got to know last year and there are also quite a few new students. The Intermediate Band grew this year and it’s up to 53 students – we have 14 flutes, yikes!!! This year I am also teaching Beginning Band. At the end of last year, Emily and I had all the students that were interested in joining band come and try out the different instruments. There were more than 40 students that wanted to join last spring, which was almost double what the Beginning Band had been last year. The only problem was that Woodstock did not have enough instruments/working instruments for all of those kids to join band. Megan and I decided to take a bunch of instruments (17) home to get fixed AND some students were able to purchase a personal instrument over the summer break. So this year we have 39 kids in Beginning Band and I believe I could accommodate all of the interested students.
Students began arriving on August 1st and 2nd and school began on a Wednesday, August 5th. It’s been great to see most of the old faces we got to know last year and there are also quite a few new students. The Intermediate Band grew this year and it’s up to 53 students – we have 14 flutes, yikes!!! This year I am also teaching Beginning Band. At the end of last year, Emily and I had all the students that were interested in joining band come and try out the different instruments. There were more than 40 students that wanted to join last spring, which was almost double what the Beginning Band had been last year. The only problem was that Woodstock did not have enough instruments/working instruments for all of those kids to join band. Megan and I decided to take a bunch of instruments (17) home to get fixed AND some students were able to purchase a personal instrument over the summer break. So this year we have 39 kids in Beginning Band and I believe I could accommodate all of the interested students.
On Friday of last week, I handed out instruments to all the kids – with the help of one of our new music teachers, Harvey. It was pretty chaotic, but the kids were excited.
There are a ton of new staff this year (and it’s pretty cool not to be new this year and know what’s going on!). They all seem pretty cool and there are a lot of younger staff to hang out with. We have new neighbors, who are living in our friend Jeanne’s apartment from last year. Chris and Nicole are the neighbors and Nicole works with me in the music department – she teaches elementary general music and middle school choir and piano lessons.
There are a ton of new staff this year (and it’s pretty cool not to be new this year and know what’s going on!). They all seem pretty cool and there are a lot of younger staff to hang out with. We have new neighbors, who are living in our friend Jeanne’s apartment from last year. Chris and Nicole are the neighbors and Nicole works with me in the music department – she teaches elementary general music and middle school choir and piano lessons.
Yesterday was India’s Independence Day. Every year, Woodstock holds a big ceremony – usually it is outside by the school flagpole, but yesterday it was raining, so it was held indoors in Parker Hall. The student who has been attending Woodstock the longest gets to raise the Indian flag, this year it was a senior named Aradhana who plays flute in Advanced Band and will be taking lessons with me this year. She has been at Woodstock for 14 years (her parents work here and she started in ECP at a very young age). After the Indian ceremony, all of the Korean student mounted the stage to perform their national anthem and a dance/game to celebrate their Independence Day (India and South Korea share the same date of independence). We have a LOT of Korean students, so it was nice to see them in their national dress – I have posted some pictures with some Korean girls in their dresses.
After the Korean performance, Woodstock sponsored a fine arts group that performed a karnatic dance to a Hindi poem set to music. It was a little difficult to understand the overall meaning of the performance, because I have not learned Hindi…
After the dance was the best part of the day – FOOD! The school had different Indian food stalls set up in the decorated quad area. There were kababs and naan, potato patties (I forget the name), channa and puree (spell?), chicken and paneer, masala dosas and gulab jammin and jilabies – again I have no idea how to spell these things… I had the kababs (tasty, but a bit spicy) and naan, masala dosa and gulab jamming. Although I was bit greedy with the gulab jammin and attempted to have more towards the end of the day, but I ended up spilling it all over my sari – I took it as a sign to stop eating and leave the festivities. During the meal, it was fun to go around and see all of the students and staff dressed in mostly Indian or Korean national dress. I took a lot of pictures and you can also see students dressed in Japanese Kimonos, Tibeten Chupas and other forms of national dress.
I have also included some pictures of my new sitar! And some pictures of the inside of our new house.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
End of the School Year
I know it has been a long time since I have done any blogging. Here is a quick update as to what has been going on in the past month or so.
My parents came to visit and it seems like they had a pretty good time, even if the traffic did scare them a bit. We went to Delhi and Agra over quarter break. Now I have seen the Taj Mahal twice in one year! I did enjoy staying in fancy hotels and eating nice food.
This last quarter really seems to be a blur. It has been filled with getting kids ready for recitals and concerts and attempting to find a way to purchase new band instruments in India (that part didn’t go very well).
Megan and I have had a few opportunities to take students out of boarding for dinner. One night we had some middle school Korean students over and they brought ingredients and made kim bab for us! It was VERY tasty. This coming week, two of our friends from college, Nick and Emily, are arriving to visit Woodstock. I think we are going to make sure we have more students over for dinner, so our friends can see how talented our students are (and not just at music).
Jazz Jam happened a couple weeks ago. This is where the quad area of the school is transformed into a kind of “jazz club” and the jazz band performs a few sets of music. Megan has been directing the jazz band this year, but I ended up getting to play bari sax for this event. I thought it turned out pretty well.
This week has been full of performances from most of the ensembles at Woodstock. The elementary tabla, elementary choir, beginning strings, beginning band and junior strings all had their end of the year concert on Wednesday. Last night was middle school choir, intermediate band and advanced orchestra and tonight will be high school choir, intermediate orchestra and advanced band. The seniors graduate in a couple weeks and some of them will be performing solos on the senior recital or at the baccalaureate and graduation ceremonies. We are also having an informal quad school concert for parents the day before the students have to leave school. There are still a lot of things happening before the end of the school year, but it is approaching quickly!
My parents came to visit and it seems like they had a pretty good time, even if the traffic did scare them a bit. We went to Delhi and Agra over quarter break. Now I have seen the Taj Mahal twice in one year! I did enjoy staying in fancy hotels and eating nice food.
This last quarter really seems to be a blur. It has been filled with getting kids ready for recitals and concerts and attempting to find a way to purchase new band instruments in India (that part didn’t go very well).
Megan and I have had a few opportunities to take students out of boarding for dinner. One night we had some middle school Korean students over and they brought ingredients and made kim bab for us! It was VERY tasty. This coming week, two of our friends from college, Nick and Emily, are arriving to visit Woodstock. I think we are going to make sure we have more students over for dinner, so our friends can see how talented our students are (and not just at music).
Jazz Jam happened a couple weeks ago. This is where the quad area of the school is transformed into a kind of “jazz club” and the jazz band performs a few sets of music. Megan has been directing the jazz band this year, but I ended up getting to play bari sax for this event. I thought it turned out pretty well.
This week has been full of performances from most of the ensembles at Woodstock. The elementary tabla, elementary choir, beginning strings, beginning band and junior strings all had their end of the year concert on Wednesday. Last night was middle school choir, intermediate band and advanced orchestra and tonight will be high school choir, intermediate orchestra and advanced band. The seniors graduate in a couple weeks and some of them will be performing solos on the senior recital or at the baccalaureate and graduation ceremonies. We are also having an informal quad school concert for parents the day before the students have to leave school. There are still a lot of things happening before the end of the school year, but it is approaching quickly!
Monday, April 6, 2009
The Rents Come to Mussoorie
Here’s a really quick blog:
Saturday was my birthday and I celebrated by going down to Dehradun to pick up my parents from the train station. We went out to eat at the Black Pepper restaurant and then drove back up the mountain to Mussoorie. I am pretty sure the drive freaked out both my mom and my dad – especially after we saw a car hit a scooter near the bazaar (I have not seen an accident here until now!)
For birthday dinner, we had food delivered from the Rice Bowl and I got to “open” some birthday presents, including American twix bars, cheetos and jello (all things I’d asked for!)
My mom and dad spent the first two nights at our place and tonight they are spending their first night at Hotel Shiva. They came to school today to watch my Intermediate Band rehearsal and then had tea with me while I ate lunch. I think tomorrow they are going to wander around the bazaar and then Wednesday they will come back to school and have a tour. After school on Thursday, we will leave for Delhi/Agra and come back to Mussoorie on Monday.
Saturday was my birthday and I celebrated by going down to Dehradun to pick up my parents from the train station. We went out to eat at the Black Pepper restaurant and then drove back up the mountain to Mussoorie. I am pretty sure the drive freaked out both my mom and my dad – especially after we saw a car hit a scooter near the bazaar (I have not seen an accident here until now!)
For birthday dinner, we had food delivered from the Rice Bowl and I got to “open” some birthday presents, including American twix bars, cheetos and jello (all things I’d asked for!)
My mom and dad spent the first two nights at our place and tonight they are spending their first night at Hotel Shiva. They came to school today to watch my Intermediate Band rehearsal and then had tea with me while I ate lunch. I think tomorrow they are going to wander around the bazaar and then Wednesday they will come back to school and have a tour. After school on Thursday, we will leave for Delhi/Agra and come back to Mussoorie on Monday.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
School's Back In Session
We’ve been back at school for about a month now. The semester is flying by! There hasn’t been anything too exciting happening. It did snow in the fist week or two of school. The kids thought this was great and the quad was a dangerous place with snowballs whizzing past your head. The snow only lasted until mid-afternoon and then it all melted.
I have decided to discontinue my Hindi lessons and begin learning some classical Indian music (that’s more up my alley anyways – I was never any good at learning languages – that’s what I have Megan and Jeanne for). Anyway, I’ve had two “lessons” on sitar with Aloke, our Indian music teacher. It’s pretty cool, but very difficult AND my leg gets tired from balancing the instrument. Right now I am just working on the basics – the major scale. Eventually I will attempt to learn a rag.
This weekend Megan and some other teachers and students went on a big hike. I stayed home and ended up chaperoning a high school CARE trip to Dehradun. It was actually pretty fun. Oh, and Jeanne and I had one of the senior girls cut our hair for us in the afternoon. It was like a show – a bunch of girls gathered around to “watch” first Jeanne and then me get our hair cut.
I have decided to discontinue my Hindi lessons and begin learning some classical Indian music (that’s more up my alley anyways – I was never any good at learning languages – that’s what I have Megan and Jeanne for). Anyway, I’ve had two “lessons” on sitar with Aloke, our Indian music teacher. It’s pretty cool, but very difficult AND my leg gets tired from balancing the instrument. Right now I am just working on the basics – the major scale. Eventually I will attempt to learn a rag.
This weekend Megan and some other teachers and students went on a big hike. I stayed home and ended up chaperoning a high school CARE trip to Dehradun. It was actually pretty fun. Oh, and Jeanne and I had one of the senior girls cut our hair for us in the afternoon. It was like a show – a bunch of girls gathered around to “watch” first Jeanne and then me get our hair cut.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
A Bit About Winter Vacation
I know that it has been a long time since I have posted a new blog... Megan and Jeanne and I got back from 28 days of traveling around India last week. We did so much that it seems like a big chore to try to write a blog about everything. So I will just write a little bit right now, with more to come...
Basically we traveled from Delhi to Lucknow to Varanasi to Calcutta by train and then flew down to Goa and then Kerala. Some of the highlights include our hilarious and awesome auto rickshaw driver, Pappu, from Varanasi, riding elephants in Lucknow and Kerala and spending the last true night of our vacation on the sweetest houseboat EVER.
Before Megan and I left Mussoorie in December, we met a woman who had recently been to Varanasi. She gave us the phone number and email address of a great auto rickshaw driver. So we emailed him and he was ready to spend the entire four days of our Varanasi stay with us. Pappu loves "making new friends". The first night he took us around he had to show us his photo album and journal of all his international friends. He took special care to make sure we read the entries written by Americans. Anyway, he took us around the whole city - to the silk factories, where we all bought pure silk saris, to the Ganga and various other places. On our last day in the holy city, we were invited to his home for chai. We met his wife and three sons and had moong dal and masala chai. It was a blast! Pappu made our trip to Varanasi!
We also had the chance to meet up with some students and their mother in Lucknow. The family drove us over three hours to see the jungle that borders Nepal. We didn't see any tigers, but we did see crocodiles, river dolphins and fit nine people on an elephant! It was my first elephant ride - but not my last!
We also rode an elephant, Maria, in Kerala. Although this time it was only Jeanne, Megan and me - much more comfy. We also had the chance to pose for a picture with Maria after our ride and apparently she had a cold or something, because Maria sneezed on me! It was more of a spray than anything else (like snot...) but still pretty disgusting. I definitely took a bucket bath that night!
But my elephant sneeze experience was made up by the sweet houseboat that we had! On our last official night (not counting the final night in Delhi) we had the opportunity to sleep in a houseboat! The state of Kerala is known for its natural beauty - including the backwaters that are made up of a huge freshwater lake and many little rivers and canals. Our houseboat picked us up from our hotel and spent the afternoon cruising around the rivers. We enjoyed fresh coconut milk as well as Kerala chicken curry and seafood (for Jeanne and Megan) that was prepared by our own cook on the boat.
I have a lot more to say about our travels around India, but that's all for now! I'll post some pictures soon too.
Basically we traveled from Delhi to Lucknow to Varanasi to Calcutta by train and then flew down to Goa and then Kerala. Some of the highlights include our hilarious and awesome auto rickshaw driver, Pappu, from Varanasi, riding elephants in Lucknow and Kerala and spending the last true night of our vacation on the sweetest houseboat EVER.
Before Megan and I left Mussoorie in December, we met a woman who had recently been to Varanasi. She gave us the phone number and email address of a great auto rickshaw driver. So we emailed him and he was ready to spend the entire four days of our Varanasi stay with us. Pappu loves "making new friends". The first night he took us around he had to show us his photo album and journal of all his international friends. He took special care to make sure we read the entries written by Americans. Anyway, he took us around the whole city - to the silk factories, where we all bought pure silk saris, to the Ganga and various other places. On our last day in the holy city, we were invited to his home for chai. We met his wife and three sons and had moong dal and masala chai. It was a blast! Pappu made our trip to Varanasi!
We also had the chance to meet up with some students and their mother in Lucknow. The family drove us over three hours to see the jungle that borders Nepal. We didn't see any tigers, but we did see crocodiles, river dolphins and fit nine people on an elephant! It was my first elephant ride - but not my last!
We also rode an elephant, Maria, in Kerala. Although this time it was only Jeanne, Megan and me - much more comfy. We also had the chance to pose for a picture with Maria after our ride and apparently she had a cold or something, because Maria sneezed on me! It was more of a spray than anything else (like snot...) but still pretty disgusting. I definitely took a bucket bath that night!
But my elephant sneeze experience was made up by the sweet houseboat that we had! On our last official night (not counting the final night in Delhi) we had the opportunity to sleep in a houseboat! The state of Kerala is known for its natural beauty - including the backwaters that are made up of a huge freshwater lake and many little rivers and canals. Our houseboat picked us up from our hotel and spent the afternoon cruising around the rivers. We enjoyed fresh coconut milk as well as Kerala chicken curry and seafood (for Jeanne and Megan) that was prepared by our own cook on the boat.
I have a lot more to say about our travels around India, but that's all for now! I'll post some pictures soon too.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Christmas in India
This was the first time I have ever spent Christmas anywhere else than in Minnesota. It was quite a bit different, especially without any snow!
On Tuesday night, some of our “neighbors”, Polly and Jim hosted a white elephant party. This is where everyone brings a gift/something than you don’t want anymore and then each person opens a present or steals an already opened one from someone else. Some of the interesting gifts included a very tacky, red and blue blinking Taj Mahal, a hand puppet of a rabbit in a top hat and some snowmen earrings. It was really fun and a everyone seemed to really get into it. One of the best parts of the night was when we realized that one of the most sought after gifts (a bag of broccoli and chocolate- not mixed together) was not meant for the exchange. One of the partygoers had actually brought that for a specific person and somehow it ended up in the white elephant pile!
On Christmas Eve, Megan and I went into the bazaar to pick up some last minute items for our lasagna. We spent our Christmas Eve night making/eating lasagna (without ricotta cheese though…) and talking to friends and family back home on skype. It was pretty low-key, but fun.
Christmas Day was a whole different ballgame. There were still quite a few families on the hillside for Christmas, so everyone took part in a traveling feast/progressive dinner. There were five stops on our mountain. We began with starters down (quite a ways down) at the Huswaite’s house around 1:00. From there we moved the farthest, almost to the top of the hill to Polly and Jim’s house for soup. After soup, we had the main course of ham, peas, corn and sweet potatoes at Judy and Dana Crider’s house. From there we mostly traversed across the hill to the Swanson’s for desert (this was by far my favorite stop!). There were a TON of deserts there, including chocolate cake, lemon meringue, cheesecake and brownies. After dessert we sang some Christmas carols that unfortunately included BOTH ‘Go Tell it on the Mountain’ AND ‘Little Drummer Boy’, but I got over it. After dessert, most of the people dropped off and went home, but there were a few of us brave souls that made it to Pete and Dot’s house for what was supposed to be tea and a movie, but ended up being snacks, wine and chatting. The wine was to celebrate two of the staff that got married the previous weekend.
Tomorrow, New Year’s Eve, Megan and I are headed off to Delhi to begin our winter vacation traveling. Our friend, Jeanne, is already in Delhi waiting for us. We will spend two nights in Delhi and then take the train to Lucknow. We’ll stay there for a few days and then continue on the train to Varanasi. We will spend a couple more days in Varanasi and then finish our long train journey be ending up in Calcutta. We have a couple friends from the music department who have offered to show us around Calcutta, including attending a classical Indian music festival on January 12th! We fly out of Calcutta on the 15th and head to northern Goa. We will hang out on the beach for a week there, before we head over to Kerala for the last bit of our trip. We will spend another week in Kerala AND stay in a house boat for one night! Then we come back to Delhi/Mussoorie on January 28th. I am currently charging both of my camera batteries, so I can take lots of pictures!
On Tuesday night, some of our “neighbors”, Polly and Jim hosted a white elephant party. This is where everyone brings a gift/something than you don’t want anymore and then each person opens a present or steals an already opened one from someone else. Some of the interesting gifts included a very tacky, red and blue blinking Taj Mahal, a hand puppet of a rabbit in a top hat and some snowmen earrings. It was really fun and a everyone seemed to really get into it. One of the best parts of the night was when we realized that one of the most sought after gifts (a bag of broccoli and chocolate- not mixed together) was not meant for the exchange. One of the partygoers had actually brought that for a specific person and somehow it ended up in the white elephant pile!
On Christmas Eve, Megan and I went into the bazaar to pick up some last minute items for our lasagna. We spent our Christmas Eve night making/eating lasagna (without ricotta cheese though…) and talking to friends and family back home on skype. It was pretty low-key, but fun.
Christmas Day was a whole different ballgame. There were still quite a few families on the hillside for Christmas, so everyone took part in a traveling feast/progressive dinner. There were five stops on our mountain. We began with starters down (quite a ways down) at the Huswaite’s house around 1:00. From there we moved the farthest, almost to the top of the hill to Polly and Jim’s house for soup. After soup, we had the main course of ham, peas, corn and sweet potatoes at Judy and Dana Crider’s house. From there we mostly traversed across the hill to the Swanson’s for desert (this was by far my favorite stop!). There were a TON of deserts there, including chocolate cake, lemon meringue, cheesecake and brownies. After dessert we sang some Christmas carols that unfortunately included BOTH ‘Go Tell it on the Mountain’ AND ‘Little Drummer Boy’, but I got over it. After dessert, most of the people dropped off and went home, but there were a few of us brave souls that made it to Pete and Dot’s house for what was supposed to be tea and a movie, but ended up being snacks, wine and chatting. The wine was to celebrate two of the staff that got married the previous weekend.
Tomorrow, New Year’s Eve, Megan and I are headed off to Delhi to begin our winter vacation traveling. Our friend, Jeanne, is already in Delhi waiting for us. We will spend two nights in Delhi and then take the train to Lucknow. We’ll stay there for a few days and then continue on the train to Varanasi. We will spend a couple more days in Varanasi and then finish our long train journey be ending up in Calcutta. We have a couple friends from the music department who have offered to show us around Calcutta, including attending a classical Indian music festival on January 12th! We fly out of Calcutta on the 15th and head to northern Goa. We will hang out on the beach for a week there, before we head over to Kerala for the last bit of our trip. We will spend another week in Kerala AND stay in a house boat for one night! Then we come back to Delhi/Mussoorie on January 28th. I am currently charging both of my camera batteries, so I can take lots of pictures!
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