lovely modem lights

it works. finally my internet works in the comfort of my home! well, the comfort part might be slighted by the drips i just felt coming from the air con, but nonetheless those lovely modem lights are a blinking, and it is just pure bliss.

we had back to school night tonight. gotta love it. the first class i must have looked like a deer in headlights. they are much quieter than their kids, let me tell you. there is something so different about speaking to adults than to kids. especially when you know half of these people are VIPs.

this weekend i am heading to neemrana on a school retreat. school just arranged it, there aren't any mtgs or anything. the plan is relaxing and more relaxing. perhaps a spa treatment or two?
i plan on finishing my book....eat, love, pray by elizabeth gilbert...and getting some sun.

filiz and jon come back tomorrow for friday and sat. and they are off again sunday. they narrowly missed the agra riots...and are flying back from varanasi tomorrow.
that's it for now. i'm off to bed. bedtime just keeps getting later and later.

dreaming of more blogging, and capturing the beauty of india....

reach out

every thursday at aes is reach out day. on this day the gates allow the kids and adults from the jugghi come in and participate in amazing activites. for parents, there are doctors. and for kids, wow it's really just amazing. everything from hair-washing and nail painting to ring toss around an archie magazine...tutoring, puzzlemaking, cleaning up scrapes and bruises....you name it. the high school students are the volunteers as are the staff. i will take pictures next week:)
internet is supposedly working at home? we'll see tonight...

covered up!

yes, indeed, my curtains have arrived and been installed. hallelujah. now the dhobi can't look into my windows while i bring him my laundry. as you probably imagined my internet is not working at home. figures doesn't it? one thing at a time. i am going to talk to the maintenance guys this week and ensure that the connection is consistent and conducive to my blogging desires.
this week was good. felice and jon got in on tuesday night and were in delhi until yesterday. as imagined, they have seen far more of delhi than i have. we actually went to the indira gandhi memorial museum here. it is at the residence she lived at, and also, sadly where she was assassinated in 1983 (or4). she was the prime minister of india for many many years. although she has the same surname, she was not related to mahatma gandhi. she was part of the nehru family, who shared similar political and social views as m.,gandhi. the families were friends.
it was nice to get out and see a sight. my weekends have been spent trying to make my place into a home...and little by little it is happening. my friend maureen keeps reminding me that it doesn't all need to get done in the first few months.

this weekend we went to a club called laidback waters for dinner, and saw the mixings of midival punditz. i have never seen a more packed club. it was ridiculous hard to weave through the crowd. luckily we had this upstairs area reserved for us. last night i went over to a colleagues house for drinks and then we went to dinner. very fun.

today i am just catching up on email and grading at school. heading down to the field in a few minutes for a game of ultimate. speaking of ultimate...you can't even imagine the ridiculous heat of delhi today. i might actually sweat of 10 pounds during frisbee. hey, bring it on!

i miss everyone dearly...but this place is starting to feel a little more like home everyday. always good when you can actually tell the tuk tuk driver how to get to your house.
ok, one more tangent. the auto rickshaws must be plotting some evil scheme against me. every single tuk tuk that i took this weekend died midride, leaving us in the middle of the road getting honked out by greater delhi.
i still have faith in the autorickshaw...for now~
pictures are from the museum. sorry, couldn't figure out how to flip it.

xoxo

ins or outs?

monday nights rule. i love the little g-chats that i get to do when everyone arrives to work on monday morning. mondays are especially great when kind 'kr' is sharing their wireless with me.

ooh. what a few days it has been. i have been thinking about how exactly to go about sharing this next entry....when i got the job back in feb. barb, my MS principal, told me about the squatters that live outside gate 3. i have been intrigued to see what it is like. yesterday, i ventured into the 'jugghi.' my friend warren (AES 5 yearer from chitown) took me to find the tailor so i could get some pillows made. i was nervous, all day, about the trip. not sure what i would see, who would see me, the normal becky gets nervous about new things bit. the jugghi, let me tell you, is amazing.

props to warren for helping me with the following history...
50 years ago when AES was being built migrant laborers came in from the 'villages' (not yet clear on exactly where or what these villages are) to work. during construction they set up camp across the road, on what is diplomatic land of some sort (unclear who it really belongs to). nonetheless, when the construction ended the workers thought that life there was better than in the villages and they began building what is essentially a little city in itself. it is probably about 13 acres of land, although i can't confirm that. walking through there was unreal. everything is made from scraps. there is one guy who even has a tile terazza and apparently a marble countertop in his kitchen! far out. nonetheless it is a little maze of lots of life. the energy running through there was so positive towards us. this positivity stems from the generosity and thoughtfulness that AES offers to it. just to list a few of the amazing things is the intern positions that they open up to graduating seniors interested in computers, the uniforms, the library, and the girl's study hall room. i know that everyone wants to see pictures, but until i have the nerve to ask if it is ok, i am going to refrain. it seems like too much of a violation.

the pics i have included are the walk up to my house and a house i see on the walk to school.
xoxo

dramatic

hi everyone. thanks for the concerns. sorry i haven't been blogging. it's been a super busy week. if you can believe it every night this week had some sort of activity to participate in. i actually had to work (sigh) all week! acutally, that is a lie, indian independence day was wednesday, so no school.

the other sigh-able is that my home internet is NOT working, gasp! i figured that my 'free' wireless internet was mine, and it was until... approx. wednesday evening. so obviously, the blog has suffered. there is nothing all that satisfying about coming to school on a sunday, but heck, you gotta do what you gotta do.

this week at school we had back to school night at the high school. it was a "day in the life" format, so i had parents for periods of 10 minutes. of course i was nervous, and of course i didn't pee in my pants or any of the other atrocious things i think about before those events.

hmm, what else? i have already acquired quite a few textiles. last weekend i went to sarojini market and got two cool pieces, and last week bob, our director, had a textile party. much like a carpet party, if you have ever been to one of those. long story short, if you need some textiles, let me know, they are in abundance here.

spent the weekend shopping and lesson planning. trying to make my apt. a little more homey and preparing for felice and jon's arrival, yes my first VISITORS! woohoo. i can't wait to see them.

i promise to be more consistent with the blog once my internet gets put in. or perhaps my generous neighbor will reconsider the sharing of the wireless? if only i knew who 'NETGEAR' was!

needing something to do during that busy sunday of yours? check out udaipur and neemrana, my first vacation spots.

FYI

out of the 13 girls i encountered on the way to school friday 11 were wearing braids. my answer is yes, to braid.

blurred lenses

so walking home from school is quite an interesting site. first off, hearing kids talk about their drivers is one thing. another thing is seeing the ridiculously huge suvs that pull up and pick these kids up.
scene I: i left my after school responsibility activity, and ran into a staff kid who was telling me all about clay club. she's going to photography tomorrow and then wants another art. she is in MIDDLE SCHOOL. i walk out of the gates and am flabbergasted at all the big cars that my students are getting into. so i walk further down the road, and see the female indian workers working on our school renovation wearing their saris and their hard hats. they were probably laughing at my salwar pants, which i am very westernly wearing with a target t-shirt
i realize now that there is no scene II. so, i'll post a pic. i call this one "sturdy?"
xoxo

ALL FIXED!

happy friday. my phone is broken. on the off shot that you were thinking about calling me (allie you rock!) please call my house phone....if you don't have my # and felt an urge to buy a phone card, email me!
all my love
b

to braid or not to braid

beautiful sunset tonight. smelled like rain, but alas, no rain. i include the following picture to pose a question that i ask myself everyday when i am walking to school. to braid, or not to braid? there is something inexplicable about the braids in the hair of the young indian girls on their way to school. is it mandatory? comfortable (i know that the answer is no), or is it just the style? can a school really mandate a hairstyle?

back at AES we don't require any sort of hairstyle. the popular, amongst my korean students is the bleach blond. quite cute. their names, however, are killing me. i am doing all that i can to try to pronounce them right. they are very patient with me.

i was at the high school today. i LOVE it. the pace, the humor, and the high stakes make it challenging and funny for me. i never thought that 85 minutes couldn't be enough, but it flies by~my students are totally sweating me. they are totally freaked that i speak spanish all the time. despite the one thousand and one gestures that i do daily, some seem to be convinced that they can't to it. oh, yes, the can. check out our blog ( am i addicted? ) to see what we have covered in a mere day.
http://aesespanol1.blogspot.com/
it's phenomenal

so now, i leave you to ponder the braids, while i go finish harry potter. finallY!
xoxo

my horoscope today...

Even with the current conflict between your head and your heart, you can still feel a deep sense of well-being that is most welcome in your life now. It doesn't matter what you should be doing today; self-indulgence may win out over your responsibilities. So, why bother fighting the inevitable? Go ahead and play today; life's too short not to enjoy it.

you know you're living in india when....

part I.
you're cleaner comes down and tells you in hindi/english with a written note that i need to wake up at 530 and go outside to flip the water pump switch on. hmm. very interesting. i think that means we are running out of water.
better shower quickly? tonight i'm off to dinner for my friend jackie's going away party. she tried school for a day and hated the kids, so she is leaving. ha. JUST KIDDING. she was interning all summer and heading back to harrrrvard.
xoxo

1st day. whoop whoop.

ok. it totally rocked. waiting for the other shoe to drop? maybe not this year! amazing how smooth a school can really run. i genuinely loved the day. we had all blocks so it was a little hectic, and my feet hurt, but all in all i really enjoyed it.
high school is such a marvelously new challenge. the kids have such spunk. i'm teaching kids from everywhere: sweden, australia, s.korea, england....
even a few fighting illioni.
tomorrow is just my 6th grade blocks. one of my classes has 5 kids. hmmm.
xoxo

the truman show

my life is kinda like the truman show. everyday i leave the house and my guard opens the gate and gives me a nod. i walk further down the street and say good morning to every guard, they respond with a half bow, one-handed prayer-esque salutation and i am on my way. i turn right and say hello to the men in the corner house on their porch watching the dogs run around, and then i pass the flower shop wallah who says good morning madam. i actually just learned tonight that jatin, my helper, is friends with the dude. he actually replaced my dead flowers with new ones, but they look a little dead too...hmm. i guess he takes the rejects and brings them to me. thoughtful. he has good energy. back to truman though...so i walk down rajdoot marg and see the young children going to school, and the young boy and his mom...mom will not yet acknowledge me, perhaps she will warm up? predictability is indeed quite nice.

last night thinh and i went out with kendra and gene to rpm. pretty sure that we were shaking our booties with some high school kids, but we figured that we should go there and check it out before the kids actually knew we were teachers. it was a very fun night.

this morning thinh and i went up to connaught place. i am figuring that if you have come to delhi, you only know connought place. it's in the lonely planet guide and that's about all it references in delhi. it was very CROWDED and stinky. el stinkerino. great shopping though and lots of places to eat. then we went back to our default happy place, khan market. khan rocks. we went back to the market cafe for coffee and ice cream. i really need to stop spoiling myself...

hmm, now i am back at home. visited the fruit cart outside my house, anju came down to introduce myself to the guy. i bought a papaya? me feeling pressured to by something. now i will probably spend 20 minutes looking up how to actually cut that papaya. silly me. anju is continually awed at my inability to prepare food. where are the lean pockets? i mastered those.

tomorrow i am off to school to work and to swim. have to check out the aes pool before all the youngins come and pollute it. bless chlorine.

india notes for the day: curd=yogurt the guard thanks god for the light when he turns it on
and fabindia rules!
xoxo,b

no pics today, sorry

so today we finally got desks in our room, my office ALMOST has air-conditioning and i got some rupees exchanged for my check. score one for me. my most productive day yet. the week was busy and flew by. we are getting ready to go down to TGIF in the Hall of Peace. All staff, it should be fun. THinking about hitting up the embassy later, finally got our ACSA (american community support association?) cards so we can go to the store and the bars and restaurants. it's even cooling off here! well, at least this morning it was a cool 79. who ever thought i would say that?
many have asked about indian food. the only indian food i could really identify is nann, the bread, and dal, the lentil. i don't know the names of anything else. in all honesty, when i go out i usually opt for non-indian food. we get food in the canteen here at school for a super deal. it's always some type of dal and some type of veggie, usually with something curry-like. my opinion is changing of indian food.
on another note, i got my permit of indian residency yesterday. so, conveniently, i can spend all the time i want at home (MKE) in the summer. yippee.
looking forward to a shopping weekend and some much needed harry potter time.
xoxo

ooops. it's called a tika

my first TIKA, no, it's not a bindi. i learned this today. today was the first all faculty meeting at school. the staff was introduced, asked to come on stage where we were adorned with the kumkum and a flower garland. most people washed it off after, i welcomed it on my face. partially for the glam,but mainly for it's convenient covering of a HUGE mosquito bite i have on my third eye. in fact i have big mounds all over me. oh so kindly, everyone reminds me i really want to avoid them. well duh! i have heard of malaria and dengue. so, i have NO lesson plans, no air conditioning in my office, and really no idea how to teach spanish....so things should get exciting here in the next few days. for now i think i will relax a little, and revel in my kumkum.
xoxo