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!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Hospital Visit and Kids Are Gone!
Today was the last day students were on campus. This morning Emily invited Megan and me to the elementary school Santa Breakfast (technically we do not teach elementary kids, but Emily needed “help with the music” and by help with the music, I mean she needed two people to make sure she still got all of the good food…). I did a very nice job of making sure she had scrambled eggs, sausage, ham, fruit, croissants and cinnamon rolls on her plate! The Santa Breakfast was the elementary school’s final assembly of the semester. All the children were dressed up in Christmas colors and the fifth graders were wearing elf costumes, because they were the servers. Santa even made an appearance! After each class had sung a song, Santa gave each student a little present. After Santa Breakfast, the middle and high schools had their final assemblies (which were not as much fun or delicious…). Now it is about 4:30 in the afternoon and almost all of the students have gone down the mountain, either with their parents or on the bus to Delhi. The campus is eerily quiet…
Yesterday I had the exciting experience of going to the Landour Community Hospital! It’s not too dramatic, I have just been sick/lost my voice for over a week and so the health center nurse recommended that I see the doctor at the hospital.
At 10:00 Monday morning, I went to the health center to hitch a jeep ride to LCH. It turned out I got to travel with a little third grade boy, Reuel ( I think) who had a big bump on his head from a fall the day before. Well, after our lovely jeep ride to LCH, we followed the employee from Woodstock, who appeared to know what was going on, into the hospital. I am extremely grateful that we had a Hindi speaking adult with us, because I had absolutely no idea what was going on! He took our records (which are basically a little notebook, where I had written allergic to sulfa drugs on it) and told us to sit in the “waiting area”. The waiting area was full of plastic deck chairs and quite a few people -including a mother with two young children, wearing matching sparkly sweaters that kept playing games and running around in circles. I thought it was kind of funny, but the mom kept yelling at them in Hindi. Reuel and I talked about Christmas and how he hoped all his presents were soccer related to keep from getting too bored. After a long time, we were told we could move into the hallway that was right next to the waiting room. There looked to be four doctor’s offices in the hallway. Reuel’s doctor was towards the end, so he went to sit on a bench farther down. My doctor’s door was right across from the billing window, so the hallway was crowded with people. Again I had absolutely no idea what was going on. There were some benches lining the hallway and after a spot opened up I decided to sit down. But about a minute after I sat down next to a rather frail looking Indian woman, another woman squeezed her way onto the bench which pretty much just pushed me off. I decided standing against the wall was better.
Now normally when I have gone to the doctor in Minnesota, you go to the front desk and sign in and give them your insurance information. Then you go to the next desk and sign your name and they call you in an orderly fashion. Well, apparently in India, it is not first come first serve, the amount of time you have to wait is directly correlated to how many times you open the doctor’s office door and bug them. I think I spent a total of about 3 hours at the hospital, and while waiting in that hallway, there were 3 or 4 men and women that kept opening the doctor’s door and trying to get the doctor to see him or her sooner (I think – because everyone was always speaking in Hindi), no matter if the doctor was in the middle of seeing a patient or not! Well, I really didn’t know if I was supposed to do that, but luckily the Woodstock employee was still around and he would periodically poke his head in the door and then relay to me how much longer I should have to wait. Finally, he told me that I would be next. So, once the next person came out of the doctor’s office, I went in, but I was followed by an eager Indian woman, who was speaking rapid Hindi to the doctor. The doctor said something to her and she left. The actual doctor visit was fine, she spoke English and it didn’t take very long. She ended up telling me that I just needed to rest my voice and then I might need some antibiotics, but they should do a blood test first to find out. Then I had to get my bill stamped and find the lab. I could go into detail about this too, but it’s pretty much along the same lines of you have to be pushy to get what you want. I was still not prepared to be pushy; especially since I cannot speak Hindi (I think I’ve only had 3 lessons…). Luckily I also ran into Bunti – one of the cab company owners in Mussoorie – who I knew, so he was pretty helpful. And the Woodstock employee was still there, so he knew what to do as well.
Anyway, it all turned out fine; I got my antibiotics and went back to school in time for lunch. But I can say that I will not go to the hospital again, unless I am very, very sick.
Yesterday I had the exciting experience of going to the Landour Community Hospital! It’s not too dramatic, I have just been sick/lost my voice for over a week and so the health center nurse recommended that I see the doctor at the hospital.
At 10:00 Monday morning, I went to the health center to hitch a jeep ride to LCH. It turned out I got to travel with a little third grade boy, Reuel ( I think) who had a big bump on his head from a fall the day before. Well, after our lovely jeep ride to LCH, we followed the employee from Woodstock, who appeared to know what was going on, into the hospital. I am extremely grateful that we had a Hindi speaking adult with us, because I had absolutely no idea what was going on! He took our records (which are basically a little notebook, where I had written allergic to sulfa drugs on it) and told us to sit in the “waiting area”. The waiting area was full of plastic deck chairs and quite a few people -including a mother with two young children, wearing matching sparkly sweaters that kept playing games and running around in circles. I thought it was kind of funny, but the mom kept yelling at them in Hindi. Reuel and I talked about Christmas and how he hoped all his presents were soccer related to keep from getting too bored. After a long time, we were told we could move into the hallway that was right next to the waiting room. There looked to be four doctor’s offices in the hallway. Reuel’s doctor was towards the end, so he went to sit on a bench farther down. My doctor’s door was right across from the billing window, so the hallway was crowded with people. Again I had absolutely no idea what was going on. There were some benches lining the hallway and after a spot opened up I decided to sit down. But about a minute after I sat down next to a rather frail looking Indian woman, another woman squeezed her way onto the bench which pretty much just pushed me off. I decided standing against the wall was better.
Now normally when I have gone to the doctor in Minnesota, you go to the front desk and sign in and give them your insurance information. Then you go to the next desk and sign your name and they call you in an orderly fashion. Well, apparently in India, it is not first come first serve, the amount of time you have to wait is directly correlated to how many times you open the doctor’s office door and bug them. I think I spent a total of about 3 hours at the hospital, and while waiting in that hallway, there were 3 or 4 men and women that kept opening the doctor’s door and trying to get the doctor to see him or her sooner (I think – because everyone was always speaking in Hindi), no matter if the doctor was in the middle of seeing a patient or not! Well, I really didn’t know if I was supposed to do that, but luckily the Woodstock employee was still around and he would periodically poke his head in the door and then relay to me how much longer I should have to wait. Finally, he told me that I would be next. So, once the next person came out of the doctor’s office, I went in, but I was followed by an eager Indian woman, who was speaking rapid Hindi to the doctor. The doctor said something to her and she left. The actual doctor visit was fine, she spoke English and it didn’t take very long. She ended up telling me that I just needed to rest my voice and then I might need some antibiotics, but they should do a blood test first to find out. Then I had to get my bill stamped and find the lab. I could go into detail about this too, but it’s pretty much along the same lines of you have to be pushy to get what you want. I was still not prepared to be pushy; especially since I cannot speak Hindi (I think I’ve only had 3 lessons…). Luckily I also ran into Bunti – one of the cab company owners in Mussoorie – who I knew, so he was pretty helpful. And the Woodstock employee was still there, so he knew what to do as well.
Anyway, it all turned out fine; I got my antibiotics and went back to school in time for lunch. But I can say that I will not go to the hospital again, unless I am very, very sick.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Thanksgiving, ABRSM exams and Concerts
The end of November and beginning of December have been a blur. Once we got back from activity week, it felt like a race to the finish… We had Thanksgiving, ABRSM exams, music evaluations, end of semester concerts and now finally, grading.
I guess I’ll start with Thanksgiving. This was the first time in my whole life that I had to go to school on Thanksgiving – it was pretty strange. Although the school did make a “special lunch” for the holiday. It was roast chicken and potatoes. It was alright – the gravy was definitely Indian gravy… The kids all knew it was Thanksgiving and some of them thought we shouldn’t have to have band rehearsal because of it--- I squashed that dream right away. That night the Bovens had invited a bunch of the “younger” teachers to their house for a potluck Thanksgiving dinner. Beth and Emily/Jared made chicken (you can’t really get turkey here) and there were mashed potatoes, green beans, bread, more potatoes – I made stuffing (way too much of it) and lots of other things. It was a really fun night, there were probably about 12 people there. The only bummer was that we had to go to school the next day, no shopping here!
Also during Thanksgiving week, the music department was hosting ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) examinations. An examiner flew all the way from England to spend Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday testing our students. There are eight basic levels of examination on all the different instruments – plus a few higher levels that correspond to the university level in the UK. We had students testing from level one, all the way up to the diploma level (beginning of university). I had three clarinet students and one flute player testing at level three, on sax student on level four and two flutes and one clarinet player at level 5. Each student had to prepare three pieces of contrasting styles that came from the ABRSM list (two with piano and one unaccompanied), memorize selected scales and arpeggios, be able to sight-read at the appropriate level, and have a certain level of proficiency at a number of aural skills, including melodic memory and sight-singing. I believe all but one or two of our students participating passed and all of my woodwind students passed – several with merit and one with distinction. I was a little worried about instrument troubles going into the exam week, but I only had two minor catastrophes. The first one happened to the most adorable little seventh grade clarinet player on the night before her exam. She had been having problems with her barrel getting stuck on her clarinet and it happened again that evening and THEN her moveable thumb rest was extremely loose, because the screw had been stripped. We managed with her barrel and then, as much as I hate to admit this, I glued her thumb rest to her clarinet… Her exam went fine the next day. The other instrument problem happened to a 10th grade flute player in the middle of her exam. She was in the hall playing her scales for the examiner, when suddenly her flute “stopped working”… Luckily, it was nothing too difficult, one of her key adjustment screws had been bumped or something. So all I had to do was grab a little screw driver and put it back in place and then she continued her exam. BUT for the first couple seconds before I figured out what was wrong, I was pretty nervous about having a “broken” flute in front of me while this student was supposed to be in her ABRSM examination…
The next week was music evaluation week and concert week – BUT before that, Megan, Jeanne, Mandy, Stephanie, Tamara and one student went to a village wedding that Saturday night. It was a double wedding and I did not know either of the brides or grooms, but we all got invited through Tamara – who taught at Woodstock last spring. It was pretty fun, even if the cab ride down made us all a little sick…
When I say we went to a wedding, I really mean we went to the wedding reception. Traditionally, the ceremony takes place in the girl’s village in the morning and then the bride and groom make their way to the groom’s village for the festivities of the reception. Someone said that there were over 1,000 people at the wedding reception, it could very well have been true, because everywhere you looked, there were people. I didn’t get any pictures, because my camera battery had died – but I think Megan got a couple. It was pretty amazing to see the brides and grooms process in with people pushing and shoving all around them. Both of the brides looked exhausted and not very happy. I asked Tamara about this and she told me that they probably were very tired and they were not supposed to look happy – for two reasons; one being that they should be sad that they had to leave their family and old village to come live with a husband and new family that they didn’t know and two; if they showed even a hint of a smile it would mean that they were happy about consummating their marriage that night – and that would be BAD.
The majority of the night was spent waiting for the brides and grooms to arrive. Apparently, even the younger groom and his bride had to wait outside the village for a while until the older one (the grooms were brothers) arrived. Once there got there they processed into the village where they could sit in their “thrones”. There was a TON of food, we had the chance to eat inside someone’s home, which was nice. The food wasn’t great… most of us found goat hair in with our meat, not so appetizing… but I did kind of like the paneer. After we had eaten, a lady (maybe the grooms’ mother?...) ushered us into a small room where the two brides were sitting. They wanted to get a picture with all the “important” white people, even though they had absolutely no idea who we were… lol. Then as we were trying to leave, Jeanne encountered some people from another village that she visits often. They wanted to have some pictures taken AND one of the women “gave” some puffed rice snack mix to us – aka poured a bunch in each of our hands and then tried to shove more in our jacket pockets. I did not eat mine, because it really didn’t seem very sanitary, but both Mandy and Stephanie said it tasted like stale dry rice…
Ok, so the next week began with music evaluations. These were a little bit like juries in college. The students who had not performed at a recital or taken the ABRSM exams came in to play scales and perform a piece for a panel of music teachers. It was kind of fun being on the other side of the table for something like this! Although I didn’t have a chance to see all of the students that I teach, because we had two separate evaluation rooms ( I guess you can do that when you have 8 music teachers!).
Then it was time for concerts. Wednesday was the beginner concert, beginner orchestra, beginner band, elementary choir and junior strings. This year Emily is teaching beginner band, so I didn’t conduct anything in this concert. Friday’s concert included intermediate band, middle school choir and advanced orchestra. Saturday’s concert was intermediate orchestra, high school choir and advanced band. All in all, I think the concerts went pretty well. It’s difficult to know exactly how the groups (especially the ones Megan and I are doing) did, because we are not quite sure where they were last year. But I was happy with the results and I think the kids were too. (Although I did have to tell one girl that she could not play in the concert on Friday, because she skipped our compulsory dress rehearsal… I bet she won’t do that again…)
I guess I’ll start with Thanksgiving. This was the first time in my whole life that I had to go to school on Thanksgiving – it was pretty strange. Although the school did make a “special lunch” for the holiday. It was roast chicken and potatoes. It was alright – the gravy was definitely Indian gravy… The kids all knew it was Thanksgiving and some of them thought we shouldn’t have to have band rehearsal because of it--- I squashed that dream right away. That night the Bovens had invited a bunch of the “younger” teachers to their house for a potluck Thanksgiving dinner. Beth and Emily/Jared made chicken (you can’t really get turkey here) and there were mashed potatoes, green beans, bread, more potatoes – I made stuffing (way too much of it) and lots of other things. It was a really fun night, there were probably about 12 people there. The only bummer was that we had to go to school the next day, no shopping here!
Also during Thanksgiving week, the music department was hosting ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) examinations. An examiner flew all the way from England to spend Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday testing our students. There are eight basic levels of examination on all the different instruments – plus a few higher levels that correspond to the university level in the UK. We had students testing from level one, all the way up to the diploma level (beginning of university). I had three clarinet students and one flute player testing at level three, on sax student on level four and two flutes and one clarinet player at level 5. Each student had to prepare three pieces of contrasting styles that came from the ABRSM list (two with piano and one unaccompanied), memorize selected scales and arpeggios, be able to sight-read at the appropriate level, and have a certain level of proficiency at a number of aural skills, including melodic memory and sight-singing. I believe all but one or two of our students participating passed and all of my woodwind students passed – several with merit and one with distinction. I was a little worried about instrument troubles going into the exam week, but I only had two minor catastrophes. The first one happened to the most adorable little seventh grade clarinet player on the night before her exam. She had been having problems with her barrel getting stuck on her clarinet and it happened again that evening and THEN her moveable thumb rest was extremely loose, because the screw had been stripped. We managed with her barrel and then, as much as I hate to admit this, I glued her thumb rest to her clarinet… Her exam went fine the next day. The other instrument problem happened to a 10th grade flute player in the middle of her exam. She was in the hall playing her scales for the examiner, when suddenly her flute “stopped working”… Luckily, it was nothing too difficult, one of her key adjustment screws had been bumped or something. So all I had to do was grab a little screw driver and put it back in place and then she continued her exam. BUT for the first couple seconds before I figured out what was wrong, I was pretty nervous about having a “broken” flute in front of me while this student was supposed to be in her ABRSM examination…
The next week was music evaluation week and concert week – BUT before that, Megan, Jeanne, Mandy, Stephanie, Tamara and one student went to a village wedding that Saturday night. It was a double wedding and I did not know either of the brides or grooms, but we all got invited through Tamara – who taught at Woodstock last spring. It was pretty fun, even if the cab ride down made us all a little sick…
When I say we went to a wedding, I really mean we went to the wedding reception. Traditionally, the ceremony takes place in the girl’s village in the morning and then the bride and groom make their way to the groom’s village for the festivities of the reception. Someone said that there were over 1,000 people at the wedding reception, it could very well have been true, because everywhere you looked, there were people. I didn’t get any pictures, because my camera battery had died – but I think Megan got a couple. It was pretty amazing to see the brides and grooms process in with people pushing and shoving all around them. Both of the brides looked exhausted and not very happy. I asked Tamara about this and she told me that they probably were very tired and they were not supposed to look happy – for two reasons; one being that they should be sad that they had to leave their family and old village to come live with a husband and new family that they didn’t know and two; if they showed even a hint of a smile it would mean that they were happy about consummating their marriage that night – and that would be BAD.
The majority of the night was spent waiting for the brides and grooms to arrive. Apparently, even the younger groom and his bride had to wait outside the village for a while until the older one (the grooms were brothers) arrived. Once there got there they processed into the village where they could sit in their “thrones”. There was a TON of food, we had the chance to eat inside someone’s home, which was nice. The food wasn’t great… most of us found goat hair in with our meat, not so appetizing… but I did kind of like the paneer. After we had eaten, a lady (maybe the grooms’ mother?...) ushered us into a small room where the two brides were sitting. They wanted to get a picture with all the “important” white people, even though they had absolutely no idea who we were… lol. Then as we were trying to leave, Jeanne encountered some people from another village that she visits often. They wanted to have some pictures taken AND one of the women “gave” some puffed rice snack mix to us – aka poured a bunch in each of our hands and then tried to shove more in our jacket pockets. I did not eat mine, because it really didn’t seem very sanitary, but both Mandy and Stephanie said it tasted like stale dry rice…
Ok, so the next week began with music evaluations. These were a little bit like juries in college. The students who had not performed at a recital or taken the ABRSM exams came in to play scales and perform a piece for a panel of music teachers. It was kind of fun being on the other side of the table for something like this! Although I didn’t have a chance to see all of the students that I teach, because we had two separate evaluation rooms ( I guess you can do that when you have 8 music teachers!).
Then it was time for concerts. Wednesday was the beginner concert, beginner orchestra, beginner band, elementary choir and junior strings. This year Emily is teaching beginner band, so I didn’t conduct anything in this concert. Friday’s concert included intermediate band, middle school choir and advanced orchestra. Saturday’s concert was intermediate orchestra, high school choir and advanced band. All in all, I think the concerts went pretty well. It’s difficult to know exactly how the groups (especially the ones Megan and I are doing) did, because we are not quite sure where they were last year. But I was happy with the results and I think the kids were too. (Although I did have to tell one girl that she could not play in the concert on Friday, because she skipped our compulsory dress rehearsal… I bet she won’t do that again…)
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