Rishikesh and Sports Day

I have been getting worse and worse at keeping my blog up to date! In the last couple weeks I have been to Delhi and Agra (to see the Taj Mahal) and Rishikesh. There was a group of six of us that went to Delhi for quarter break a couple weeks ago. We stayed at our friend Saahil’s house and took it kind of easy. We did some shopping ( I bought shoes FINALLY – and yes I can find shoes that fit my rather large feet here!) We also went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, which was really cool. Although I would really like to go back to see it at a different time of the day. We went at about 1:00 pm and it was really hot. They say if you come at sunrise or sunset, the taj changes colors and it’s gorgeous. When we saw it, it was pretty much white.
Last weekend Megan and I went with our friend Jeanne and her sister along with three other friends to Rishikesh. This is a super hippy town about 2 hours away from Mussoorie. The city is built along side the Ganges (Ganga) river. Every evening at sunset people come to participate in a ceremony for the dead. This basically means they light candles and then let them float down the river. I’m not really sure what happens to all the candles once they float away, I suppose they end up sinking and flow on with the water… The Ganga is considered a holy river, but it is also extremely dirty, I’ve been warned by several people not to swim in it. Because Rishikesh is a city that has strong ties to yoga and vegetarian cuisine etc. it attracts a lot of free spirited people – meaning we saw a ton of people with dreadlocks in their hair. Now, I have never been a person who could really pull-off dreads, but if I was ever going to get them in my hair this would be the perfect point in my life! I mean I’m in India! While in Rishikesh, I was really tempted to have my hair dreaded, BUT unfortunately Woodstock does not allow students or staff to have dreadlocks. So I decided to get my hair put into little braids instead. It turned out alright. While I was getting my hair braided, Megan, Jeanne and her sister, Diana all got massages at a very clean, professional (for India) looking place. Next time we are in Rishikesh, we will definitely go back there! I also bought a few things at the shops there, including a singing bowl (so cool!), finger cymbals, a wood carved flute and some crazy, but unbelievably comfortable pants. I really wanted to buy a pair of “Aladin” pants (the really poofy ones that almost look like a skirt), but all the clothes were premade and none of the pants I found were long enough for me. If I thought I was tall in the US, I am REALLY tall in India. I’m very noticeable as the “tall, white girl”! In fact in one of the first shops we stopped at, the store owner was very interested to know where I was from (I’ve gotten used to this by now) and he wanted to shake my hand, but he didn’t bother to find out anything about Megan, Jeanne or Dianna. As soon as we left the shop, it dawned on me! Out of our small group, I was the only white person! Megan is adopted from Korea, and Jeanne and Dianna are Chinese, but born in the states. There wasn’t anything much more exciting that happened on our trip to Rishikesh, although we did stay in a very sketchy hotel, cheap, but still sketchy. For a double room, it only cost 350 ruppees per night, that’s less than 10 US dollars…
Today was Inter House Sports Day. Basically it was a Woodstock track and field meet between the three houses, Eagles, Merlins and Condors. The Inter Band acted as the pep band and we played some pep tunes and the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana. It was a rather big ordeal, because that meant we had to bring all of the instruments, stands and equipment down (that’s right down the mountain) to Hanson Field and then bring everything back up immediately after we were done playing. It was a very interesting experience and Megan will get to do the same thing with the Advanced Band in a week and a half, but she will have to bring everything to a nearby school for Inter School Sports Day. The kids all did a nice job participating in the track and field meet, although it was often apparent that the students hadn’t had a lot of training on how to perform specific events – at least not compared to what I’m used to in the states. They didn’t really have much time to prepare and practice for the meet. The middle schoolers had try outs for events last week after school, but as far as I know the high school house captains just pick who they want to participate in each event. It kind of made me wish that they had a track and field team that practiced regularly so I could do some coaching! At the very end of the meet, there was a staff 4X100 meter relay. The women Merlins put together a team at the last minute and we won our race! Our team was me, one of the middle school dorm parents, Mrs. Jung, the HS art teacher, Christina and another middle school dorm parent, Jen. It was pretty fun – but strange being that we had no starting blocks, and the 200 meter track was just grass and dirt with line painted on it.