Well, I gave my exams, and graded them. And my kids did not do that well. Which is quite sad. Especially because it means that I am leaving soon.
Maria has gone, but Adis and I are sharing out apartment with his friend Louise, also from Sweden. She came in last night and will be here until the end of the year. It's time to get serious about getting things sorted out and start packing. I don't think I am going to be very good at leaving.
Well, I am quite sleepy, so more tomorrow.
Good Night!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Pretty Normal Times
Well, since I have been back, very little has happened.
So - today was a pretty typical day in India, so I will tell you about it.
7:00 - Wake up. I am sleeping on the roof now, so I went down stairs to make coffee for Adis and tea for me. I also made breakfast in bed, but I've never done that before. I then get ready for school.
8:05 - Rush out of the house and catch the bus. It would comfortably fit 60, but we cram on about 150.
8:30 - Arrive at school and have assembly.
9:15 - Have my first individual reading student after second standard gets settled. I read one on one with all the kids. It usually takes 15-20 minutes per kid.
10:00 - English with my seniors who have reading problems. Today I taught them about sentence structure, but often we read and sometimes play games. I also get coffee at this time.
10:45 - Fifteen minute break in which I play with second standard, read, play with the older kids or get ready for later classes.
11:00 - Half an hour of playing games and teaching phonics with the Upper Kindergarten. Today we played red-light green-light. Sometimes we have markets, color pictures, read stories or play Quack-Diddly-Oh-So.
11:30 - Try to fit in another second standard reader.
12:00 - Planning period/ 45 minutes of freedom. I usually read, grade papers or prepare for art.
12:45 - Lunch. Rice with one or two different curries. Fantastic. Sometimes a game with the younger kids.
1:25 - Fifth standard reading group. We read stories, play games and just work on spoken English.
2:10 - Break, but no coffee this time. I played with second standard.
2:25 - Art with third standard until the end of the day. We made flowers out of tissue paper and pipe cleaners and believe me, it took an hour!
3:30 - Bus ride home. It doesn't usually leave for half an hour.
4:30 - Arrive home. Adis made coffee while I checked face book and email. Then we switched.
6:00 - Went for walk and met Bravani, our washing woman, and her two sons, Nanda and Vasanth. That's a tragic story I will tell another time. Went out and found a place to buy corn and print pictures.
6:30 - Came home and played with Nanda and Vasanth for an hour.
7:30 - Had a shower and read for a bit. Began to organize packing.
8:15 - Got on the internet. Checked email and facebook and then settled into this blog.
So that's my day. I will now go and organize dinner. Then at around 9:00 which is 15 minutes. Adis and I are planning to watch a movie tonight which puts bed time on the roof at around 12:00.
And that's my life.
So - today was a pretty typical day in India, so I will tell you about it.
7:00 - Wake up. I am sleeping on the roof now, so I went down stairs to make coffee for Adis and tea for me. I also made breakfast in bed, but I've never done that before. I then get ready for school.
8:05 - Rush out of the house and catch the bus. It would comfortably fit 60, but we cram on about 150.
8:30 - Arrive at school and have assembly.
9:15 - Have my first individual reading student after second standard gets settled. I read one on one with all the kids. It usually takes 15-20 minutes per kid.
10:00 - English with my seniors who have reading problems. Today I taught them about sentence structure, but often we read and sometimes play games. I also get coffee at this time.
10:45 - Fifteen minute break in which I play with second standard, read, play with the older kids or get ready for later classes.
11:00 - Half an hour of playing games and teaching phonics with the Upper Kindergarten. Today we played red-light green-light. Sometimes we have markets, color pictures, read stories or play Quack-Diddly-Oh-So.
11:30 - Try to fit in another second standard reader.
12:00 - Planning period/ 45 minutes of freedom. I usually read, grade papers or prepare for art.
12:45 - Lunch. Rice with one or two different curries. Fantastic. Sometimes a game with the younger kids.
1:25 - Fifth standard reading group. We read stories, play games and just work on spoken English.
2:10 - Break, but no coffee this time. I played with second standard.
2:25 - Art with third standard until the end of the day. We made flowers out of tissue paper and pipe cleaners and believe me, it took an hour!
3:30 - Bus ride home. It doesn't usually leave for half an hour.
4:30 - Arrive home. Adis made coffee while I checked face book and email. Then we switched.
6:00 - Went for walk and met Bravani, our washing woman, and her two sons, Nanda and Vasanth. That's a tragic story I will tell another time. Went out and found a place to buy corn and print pictures.
6:30 - Came home and played with Nanda and Vasanth for an hour.
7:30 - Had a shower and read for a bit. Began to organize packing.
8:15 - Got on the internet. Checked email and facebook and then settled into this blog.
So that's my day. I will now go and organize dinner. Then at around 9:00 which is 15 minutes. Adis and I are planning to watch a movie tonight which puts bed time on the roof at around 12:00.
And that's my life.
Monday, March 23, 2009
So I Went to Bangkok for the Weekend
I went to Bangkok for the weekend.
It was kind of sudden and out of the blue, but I enjoyed it very much. I got in on Thursday and did absolutely nothing that day. Friday I went and saw the Grand Palace, The Emerald Buddha and the the Reclining Buddha. The Grand Palace was pretty cool, and the Emerald Buddha made the trip to the Grand Palace worth it. But the really amazing thing was the Reclining Buddha.
IT WAS HUGE!!!!! Our house could have fit in the room it was housed twice. The toes were as big as my head!
I met a really nice German girl on the boat to see all this stuff. We ended up hanging out for the whole day, which makes me a little less nervous about meeting people when I am traveling on my own. Her name was Sarah, but we didn't establish that until we were saying goodbye.
On Saturday I went to this huge market and bought some cool clothes and had a really good lunch of bamboo shoots and chicken. That night, my guest house finally got other guests and I went to a local temple festival with two English girls. They sadly left first thing the next morning.
On Sunday I went on a boat trip, but before that got up very early to go to the produce market. I saw all number of not very pleasant parts of animals. And live turtles. I walked along and saw a Chinese Buddhist temple, which was very big and looked a lot like a Thai one, if you ask me. I could tell there was a difference, but don't ask me what it was.
After a very boring Sunday, late in the day, I decided to go out and see the Liverpool/Ashton Villa game. Which just turned into me hanging out in the backpacker area with a guy called Steve. But Liverpool won so that was cool.
But it's nice to be home.
It was kind of sudden and out of the blue, but I enjoyed it very much. I got in on Thursday and did absolutely nothing that day. Friday I went and saw the Grand Palace, The Emerald Buddha and the the Reclining Buddha. The Grand Palace was pretty cool, and the Emerald Buddha made the trip to the Grand Palace worth it. But the really amazing thing was the Reclining Buddha.
IT WAS HUGE!!!!! Our house could have fit in the room it was housed twice. The toes were as big as my head!
I met a really nice German girl on the boat to see all this stuff. We ended up hanging out for the whole day, which makes me a little less nervous about meeting people when I am traveling on my own. Her name was Sarah, but we didn't establish that until we were saying goodbye.
On Saturday I went to this huge market and bought some cool clothes and had a really good lunch of bamboo shoots and chicken. That night, my guest house finally got other guests and I went to a local temple festival with two English girls. They sadly left first thing the next morning.
On Sunday I went on a boat trip, but before that got up very early to go to the produce market. I saw all number of not very pleasant parts of animals. And live turtles. I walked along and saw a Chinese Buddhist temple, which was very big and looked a lot like a Thai one, if you ask me. I could tell there was a difference, but don't ask me what it was.
After a very boring Sunday, late in the day, I decided to go out and see the Liverpool/Ashton Villa game. Which just turned into me hanging out in the backpacker area with a guy called Steve. But Liverpool won so that was cool.
But it's nice to be home.
Monday, March 16, 2009
After a Very Long Time
Hello everyone!
After a very, very, very inexcusibly long time I am writing to report some of the happenings in the past month.
Dad came back from his travels and we spent some time together. That was very nice. He was the honored guest at the Little Lambs Sports Day two weeks back. He passed out the prizes and shook every ones hand. I think they all enjoyed that very much. He did too, I hope.
Two weeks ago he and I went to Ooty, which is what is called a hill station. A hill station, as far as I can tell, is a city that grew up around a train station that the British thought frightfully necassary. It was very beautiful and very cold. We didn't have anytime to do any hiking or trecking, which was a shame, but we did go for a few long walks. The town was very sweet and an unexpected haven for international cuisine. I recomend Sidewalk Cafe, a little Italian-American all veg diner, (it was actually almost diner like) and Shin Kow Chinese, which was the best Chinese I've had since I was in Hong Kong (so pretty damn good).
This last weekend Adis and I went to Bangalore to experience India's most progressive city. And believe me it is. I even saw some knees. We got in very early Saturday morning and left late Sunday night. Unfortunatly the hotel we were in was only 24 hour, so after burning the midnight oil at a very cool club until quite late, we had to be up and out of our hotel at 7:40 am. Which was pretty good hell. But we had a very relaxing four hour lunch at a fantastic Italian place. We actually only had two meals the whole time we were in Bangalore and they were both at this Italian place. But the food was out of this world. A meal like what we had on sunday probably would have been in the 100-150 dollar range in the US. It was two hours of tiny bits of things on sticks and such and then a main and dessert. I was shocked. I still am shocked. Can't you tell.
Saturday was reasonalby uneventful because we were very tired and napped until around noon. We met some lovely people on the train. I haven't met any nice, educated not insane Indians since I've been here. But that was Friday night. Oh yes Saturday! I remember, the highlight of the day, aside from some shopping by me, was watching Manchester United get absolutly slaughtered by Liverpool. Apparently, according to Adis, it was a very, very important game. I really enjoyed watching it. Man U got the first goal, and then Liverpool got four which was very, very, very unexpected. Two of the goals were really brilliant. Even I can tell that. Sorry Mum, I think I might be becoming a football fan. And not just any football, but Liverpool.
Sigh....
Anyway, I wish I could talk a bit more about school, but it seems very mundane to me. Tomorrow I will write up a typical Tuesday. I hope it proves interesting.
And one final surprise. On Wednesday, after school, I am doing a visa hop to Thailand for five days!
Exciting, no?
After a very, very, very inexcusibly long time I am writing to report some of the happenings in the past month.
Dad came back from his travels and we spent some time together. That was very nice. He was the honored guest at the Little Lambs Sports Day two weeks back. He passed out the prizes and shook every ones hand. I think they all enjoyed that very much. He did too, I hope.
Two weeks ago he and I went to Ooty, which is what is called a hill station. A hill station, as far as I can tell, is a city that grew up around a train station that the British thought frightfully necassary. It was very beautiful and very cold. We didn't have anytime to do any hiking or trecking, which was a shame, but we did go for a few long walks. The town was very sweet and an unexpected haven for international cuisine. I recomend Sidewalk Cafe, a little Italian-American all veg diner, (it was actually almost diner like) and Shin Kow Chinese, which was the best Chinese I've had since I was in Hong Kong (so pretty damn good).
This last weekend Adis and I went to Bangalore to experience India's most progressive city. And believe me it is. I even saw some knees. We got in very early Saturday morning and left late Sunday night. Unfortunatly the hotel we were in was only 24 hour, so after burning the midnight oil at a very cool club until quite late, we had to be up and out of our hotel at 7:40 am. Which was pretty good hell. But we had a very relaxing four hour lunch at a fantastic Italian place. We actually only had two meals the whole time we were in Bangalore and they were both at this Italian place. But the food was out of this world. A meal like what we had on sunday probably would have been in the 100-150 dollar range in the US. It was two hours of tiny bits of things on sticks and such and then a main and dessert. I was shocked. I still am shocked. Can't you tell.
Saturday was reasonalby uneventful because we were very tired and napped until around noon. We met some lovely people on the train. I haven't met any nice, educated not insane Indians since I've been here. But that was Friday night. Oh yes Saturday! I remember, the highlight of the day, aside from some shopping by me, was watching Manchester United get absolutly slaughtered by Liverpool. Apparently, according to Adis, it was a very, very important game. I really enjoyed watching it. Man U got the first goal, and then Liverpool got four which was very, very, very unexpected. Two of the goals were really brilliant. Even I can tell that. Sorry Mum, I think I might be becoming a football fan. And not just any football, but Liverpool.
Sigh....
Anyway, I wish I could talk a bit more about school, but it seems very mundane to me. Tomorrow I will write up a typical Tuesday. I hope it proves interesting.
And one final surprise. On Wednesday, after school, I am doing a visa hop to Thailand for five days!
Exciting, no?
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