First official blog from India!

Ok, first blog entry from INDIA. It is currently Sunday, July 20, 2008 (although we don’t have internet access yet, so I am really writing this on word and then it might not really be posted until Monday or Tuesday…) Megan and I made it safely all the way from the Minneapolis airport to our new house/apartment at Woodstock school.
Wednesday my family and Andrew and I all left my house in Annandale around 3:30 (well really 3:45 or so) and got to the airport around 5 am. Our flight left at 7:00 and we arrived in NYC at 10 something and then Megan and I had to spend 9 hours at JFK to wait for our Air India flight, I would not recommend that… We boarded our next flight and left at 7:45 and the plane was pretty sweet. Thank goodness for individual tv screens in the back of each seat and a wide selections of movies, tv shows, music etc. We knew our plane needed to stop to refuel in London, but we did not know that everyone had to get off the plane and go through security again. I had been lucky so far that no one question my rather large carry-on and “purse” (aka, my clarinet). However, apparently to the Brits, my clarinet looks shady. I had to wait a long time for them to get to my questionable bag and then after they looked inside, decided it was fine. BUT, once we were boarding the plane it was decided that my other large carryon bag was too big and had to be checked, I was not happy. Anyway, we boarded and had another long flight to Delhi (about 8 hours, the first leg had been about 6.6). We arrived in Delhi at about 11:00 pm (this is Delhi time- which would be 12:30 pm MN time) on Thursday evening. It took a while to get our luggage and then we went through customs, which was surprisingly easy. Polly, Jim, Pete and Dot (from the school) were all waiting for use when we came through with all of our bags and soon we got a on a bus that took us to our hotel.
I forgot to mention that as Megan and I had been traveling we slowly found/met other teachers that were going to Woodstock for the first time. At the New York airport Beth and Dave introduced themselves to us. They from Chicago and Beth is going to be teaching elementary art and Dave is doing middle school social studies. Then in London we met Andrew, who will be teaching high school English and is also from Chicago. Immediately after we exited the plane in Delhi and we waiting to go through security we met Alison who is going to be a dorm staff member for the elementary school dorm and Stephanie who will be working in the high school girls dorm. We met the rest of the new faculty after receiving our luggage and going through customs. There is a family from St. Paul who has three young children, Lily – 8, Ella – 5 and Mohali – 3, Scott will be teaching ESL and Angie will be teaching 9th grade science. We also met James who is from Illinois as well and will be teaching high school chemistry. There were a few more teachers new to Woodstock, but we met them later at our hotel.
While en route Andrew had told us that he had checked out the hotel we would be staying at on trip advisor and all of the reviews were not good… After hearing this I was a little worried, but once we got to the hotel it really wasn’t bad. The first night we sat up with some of the new teachers and had lime soda and some food which I don’t remember the name… The next day was a free day. Some people went shopping in Delhi, but Megan and I opted to sleep in and stay in the hotel (mostly because is was ridiculously hot and soooooo humid – way more humid than MN outside!!! At 6:30 we all met for dinner at the hotel restaurant and then we basically went to bed.
The next morning, Friday, we woke up at 5:00 am so we could leave our hotel by 5:30 to catch the train in Delhi. Driving in India is insane, by the way. I knew that it would be, but still…. We made it to the train station at around 6:30 and the place was just packed with people. I am so glad that our train car was air conditioned! We spent 8 hours on the train and then got off in Dehra dun. We ate lunch as a group in Dehra dun and then divided up to board the small bus or taxis to ride up the winding mountain road to Mussoorie. I rode the bus and sat and talked to Pete and Dot (hr people from the school ) and Sawml, who was coming to work with IT for the next sixth months. Sawhl had actually attended Woodstock for 6 years as a student before moving to London with his family. So he knew exactly where we were going and everything. I was going to try to take some pictures, but I guess nothing really shows up during the rainy season, because it is so foggy/misty all of the time.
We arrived at school and went straight to the Quad building. Here I found my buddy, Emily Hatch and her husband Jared. Megan was already there with them (she had taken a taxi up the mountain) and Emily’s friend Laura was visiting her this week, so she was there too. We sat and talked for a while and then we got the keys to our new home. Emily, Jared and Laura took us to our apartment/house and apparently we have one of the best views from our place out of the whole school. AND even though it is monsoon season, when we go to our house, the fog and mist had kind of cleared away, so we could actually see down the mountainside! It was insane! I did get some pictures, so everyone can see the view from our house. Our apartment is pretty nice, it has three bedrooms each with their own bathroom, a living room/dining room and small kitchen. Megan’s room is upstairs and my room is right underneath hers. We might be getting another roommate for the third bedroom, but we really don’t know. Emily and Jared made grilled cheese and tomato soup and mangos for us for dinner (they thought that we might be a little sick of Indian food by now – which was correct). And they showed us how to work some things in our house, like the water purifier and stove etc. They also brought us a bunch of stuff, like an electricity stabilizer and converter as well as some good food. They kept saying that they wanted to be good buddies and they definitely were! After dinner, they went back to their house and Megan and I put all of our belongings away and watched a friends episode and then went to bed.
Today, Sunday, I slept until after 11:00, I know shocking… and Megan made some eggs and toast for lunch/breakfast. Later we might go over to Emily and Jared’s and then also might go into Mussoorie to check out the bazaar and buys some things for our house and clothes (I barely brought any clothes with me). Well, that’s about it for now!