SO to being a Badger for life.

There are some things that I will never forget about the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My love for UW is easily portrayed to my students through the enormous amount of red badger gear I wear to school. I try to keep up with the current events of UW by reading UWbadgers, Channel3000, and wisc.edu. These are all great resources for finding out factual information, but when I want to know what is happening at the core, I read the Badger Herald Shout-Outs.

http://www.badgerherald.com/shoutouts/index.php

The shout-outs are a collection of students feelings of love, hatred, and general confusion about life happenings as a Badger.

"146. Sunday, Sep. 23, 2012 @ 8:03pm:

SO to looking out the window and seeing a person walking their dog while on a segway. Definitely made my day."

SO:Shout-out-generally something that makes you feel warm and fuzzy.

"172. Monday, Sep. 24, 2012 @ 5:58pm:

ASO to the kid wearing a Nickleback shirt around campus today. You can't sit with us. You don't even go here."

ASO:Anti-Shout-out-reserved for feelings of hatred, disgust, or repulsiveness

There are many other acronyms that appear in the shout-outs, but you get the idea. The shout-outs are available online, but the best/elite shout-outs are printed in the Wednesday edition of the Badger Herald. Wednesdays are the hardest days to acquire a paper because everyone is reading the SOs. If you aren't an early class, you are left to scrounge around the floor looking for a used edition. Even worse, you might find a paper and realize that someone has removed the shout-outs. One of my friends had two shout-outs printed in the paper: great accomplishment for an undergrad career.

Here are some India shout-outs for you to enjoy.

SO to the dress code of Woodstock staff being something between pajamas and hobo-ness. (In order to save face of my co-workers, no photo evidence will be posted.)

ASO to living "off the grid" (not on back-up generator when the power goes out, which is often) and having to store water like I'm preparing for a world disaster.

SO to my students being so charming by giving me hugs daily and telling me that they love me.

ASO to carrying rocks in my hands while running in case I get chased by monkeys.

SO to running through the mountains of India with cows, goats, and natural beauty.

ASO to teaching 200 students this quarter and having to write comments for each of them.

SO to monkey chasing stories never getting old.

ASO to monsoon and finding mold on the strangest things: belts, passports, and my hair.

ASO to emails from students with poor grammar, dumb questions, and no attachments (when they send assignments).

SO to going to the Pakistan border on Saturday for quarter break with my fiance! 

His Holiness makes holy jokes.

 His Holiness, The Dalai Lama came to Woodstock School on the 16th. Lucky as I am, this was my second opportunity to see the DL. He came to UW in 2010. I find it rather odd that I have never seen a US President, but now I have seen DL twice!

The DL's visit to WS brought some heightened security among other things. I luckily got a second row seat because my fiance was sitting with his kids near the front, and he saved me a spot. I was in spitting range of the DL.

We were seated in the gym for at least 40 minutes before the DL finally made his way in. The gym was dead silent as we waited, and then it was quickly killed as the DL was busting a gut with laughter as he came in the gym. This guy is a jokester!

He gave a speech about happiness, love, life, and religion. Then some of our students got to ask him their own questions. He usually took about twenty minutes to "answer" the questions. The answer always seemed to be the same, and he was always cracking jokes. He wouldn't stop laughing. I do remember him to be a jokester when he was at UW, but this time I was sitting less than twenty feet away from!

Typical DL, laughing at his own jokes.

Monsoon Flowers

Beautiful views.

Lucky.

Smoke stacking clouds.

 Besides celebrating an engagement, teaching 198 students, and staying alive, I have been coaching the girls cross country team. Our season is short, and I don't always love the WS sports schedule. I'm feeling much more prepared this year, and I hope the girls are enjoying it more too!

The monkeys' favorite targets.

We work out!

My latest baking creation.

A team of tigers RAWR!!

Woodstock's Most Loved Couple

 Engaged!

One of our first trips to Rishikesh

Floating around Cambodia

Catching a sunrise at Angkor Wat

Being tourists in Malaysia

Being tourists in Delhi

Paddle boats in Mussoorie

Trying not to melt at the Red Fort in Agra

Cruising around the mountains

Independence Day 2011

Independence Day 2012

Newly Engaged Couple

Since our engagement, I feel like I have turned into a Bollywood star. The kids have always been our biggest fans and really showed their love after the big announcement. I've been flocked by hoards of girls from 2nd grade to 12th grade: demanding to see the ring and to knowing every detail ever. They want to know when we started dating, where we went on dates, what Anwer said when he proposed, and even better: do I love him? They want wedding details: demanding invitations to the wedding, requesting me to send pictures of my dress, and wondering when we'll have kids. If my answer doesn't satisfy, they simply move on to more questions.

Since this is my first engagement, I didn't know what to expect. It's been really fun and a bit overwhelming at times. Since most of the kids know both of us, they try to demand sweets from both of us as well. (It's Indian tradition to give everyone sweets when you get engaged/married.)

The kids love seeing us together now. Some of my older students didn't know Anwer (he works in the junior school dorms), and they have been just short of staking out the quad before and after school waiting to catch their first glimpse of my fiance.

No date or locations picked yet for the wedding-I'll keep you posted.

Check Out This View/Don't Slip and Die

Down in the valley.

My walk to school can be a bit of an adventure sometime. Don't fall down the cud (Hindi word, not sure how to spell)= Don't fall down the mountain side and die. It is important for each day of my walk.

Part of my walk to school

Another path/trail of death

There is a path in there.

Don't slip! You'll die.

We had a service learning day on Friday. I went with the 4th graders down the mountain to find Woodstock's water supply. It was a great time. The walk down was slippery and full of leeches. I've only been bit/sucked by one leech in my life, and I continue that streak. The kids were not so lucky...

There was a bit of sun for awhile. Then our walk home welcomed rain and one fall by a student. She literally fell on her face and dropped her water bottle down the "cud." I thought she was centimeters from death. A few tears, and we were on our way.

Catching leeches with 4th graders.

Holy Smokes! It's the sun.

Go Green.

We finally made it.

Stream of garbage.

A trail of umbrellas on our walk home.

Beef is not for dinner.

A lot of people ask me what I eat in India. Imagine if I asked you what do you wear in America. You wear clothes-what a dumb question. Well, I eat food.

Some days, I will be SUPER American and have things like pancakes, pasta, and potatoes. Other days, I eat less American and more native. I'll eat things like parathas, rice, dal, and butter chicken. Either way, I'm not starving. Let's be clear though: I am not eating beef.

Here's some photos of my latest cooking venture: parathas.

Flour + Water=Dough       Then you roll it out!

Put some stuffings inside: potatoes, onions, cheese, and some chilli.

This is where it looks a little less like Master Chef India and bit more like Crazy White Girl with a rolling pin.

Put some oil on and fry that baby!

So, that's almost how it should look. When you get it at a shop, it's always perfectly round, soft, yet crispy, and delicious. My version is not as soft, but it has a bit more cheese and love.


Some other things that I always think are funny is the wide array of American products I can get.

Syrup-from America about $5. Ketchup (or sauce, as they like to call it here)-from Mumbai about $1.35

I can get most things. Recently, it's been growing. I can get poptarts for about $6/box (I would never do that). I also finally saw Rice Krispies, only to find out that they are about $6/box also. Nope-not happening. They also have Ragu pasta sauce, Dr. Pepper, and other odd but great items shipped from America. It all comes with a price though. I know what you're thinking: You pay $5 for Aunt Jemina Syrup!!! I choose my battles, but sometimes you just need America in a bottle.

Buying Indian items is obviously a much smarter option. For example a loaf of bread is about 30 cents.

My milk comes in a box that doesn't need refrigerating until opened. What exactly are those creatures on the label?        Beats me. This box of milk costs me about $0.90.

This is the inside of my fridge. Everything is from India except the Ragu ($4-from America) and Mayonaise ($3 from Holland). There's some cheeses (mozeralla and cheddar), which aren't too bad. I also never knew how tiny the bananas are here until I was home over the summer. I never imagined getting full from a banana, but America proved me wrong.

Another thing I love to tell people about is the eggs. I don't keep them in the fridge. They never get cold. Isn't it amazing?? And I'm still alive. The only thing I don't like is how "fresh" the eggs are. Sometimes they come with feathers and chicken poo still attached. I think I pay about $2 for 30 eggs, poo and feathers included.

I hope you're hungry. I hope you go eat a hamburger with cheese and bacon on it.