Closing Time

At the end of every 7th and 8th grade dance, the song "Closing Time" always played. I now play it in my head at the end of all major and minor events. And here we are, closing the second year of my teaching career and my second year in India.This semester has been full of games, events, and work.

The Girls Bball team wins the Lawrence School tournament.

These are just some of the cool kids that I get to hang out with in my Walking Club.

First and Second graders go rock climbing.

Anwer and I baking chicken for the bball team banquet. It took hours, and I smelled like chicken for days. Imagine working at KFC!?

Some of the thugs at the thug-themed bball team banquet.

The 6th grader thugs from the dorm Mr. Anwer works in.

The Walking Club comes over for some treats and games.

The 6th grade farewell party with characters from your favorite books, movies, and music.

Daisy and J. Gatsby

Thank goodness, Spiderman to the rescue.

Riding home-side saddle with J. Gatsby

This is how I feel after all of that-exhausted.

June 3rd-Delhi
June 5th-Paris
June 7th-Minneapolis
June 13th-Madison
June 14th-Chicago
July 17th-London
July 18th-Delhi

See you soon!

Is this your first time?

The Mukteshwar Half Marathon was developed to support the Chirag School of Mukteshwar. It was organized by some friends/Anwer's brother. We made the journey to Mukteshwar in hopes of winning some prize money and torturing ourselves on another hilly half marathon course.



We (Anwer, Brent, and I) left Woodstock at 8:45 PM on Friday night. We hopped on a train in Dehradun at 10:55 PM to travel through the night to arrive at Kathgodam at 7 AM. We took a taxi 2.5 hours to reach Mukteshwar. We did all of this to run 21 KM at 2200 meters above sea level.

The drive up to Mukteshwar. It looks a lot like Mussoorie.

The guest house we stayed at was quite lovely.

The Human Hospital was within walking distance.

Another winter line?

The start of the race, which I didn't really know was the start because there was no gun/loud noise. People just started running. I did have some of my Indian mob fear that I might get knocked down, but I made it. Photo: Mukteshwar Marathon

Feeling like a boss because the beginning was all downhill, and look-I'm already passing these walkers! The race drew in a lot of people who had never run a half marathon before and even some people who probably had never run before. You want to run in sandals? No problem ma'am. Photo:MM

Yep, not feeling so awesome anymore. Photo:MM

It was uphill for about 7 Kilometers. Awesome. Photo:MM

3rd Place: Rs. 10,000--not bad. Photo: MM

We ran a marathon at 7:30 AM on Sunday. We left Mukteshwar at 4 PM. Drove two hours back to Kathgodam. We had dinner at Krazy Kitchen. We got on the train at 7:45 PM. We arrived in Dehradun at 4:00 AM on Monday. We drove one hour back to Musoorie. I went to work at 8 AM.

All I want to do is have a little fun before I die...

The Rink-Lindsay gave Anwer a "push"

Boyd busting some wild moves.

Applebee's Half-off Apps

2-for-1 Rice Krispie sale due to nearing expiration date-No problem sir.

I love the 90's.

When you're having a rough week, the best thing to do is put on a 90's playlist.

Sometimes you have to confiscate two cell phones from kids who are gaming during an Easter Chapel.

Other times you will try not to laugh when a student tells you that his team has "proven" they deserve to be in the gym.

There might be an occasion when a student kicks a soccer ball at a group of defenseless third graders, and you feel like kicking the ball in his face.

You will continually have to kick kids out of the gym who are "doing a project" for a class, "in study hall", or simply lost.

Sometimes you will tell the same kid not to kick volleyballs 100 times in the same week.

There will be numerous opportunities to tell kids to go check the lost and found for whatever irrelevant object they have left in the gym.

Then the first/second graders come to class and give you hugs as soon as they see you, and you feel a little better.

You go to Rokeby for dinner with your best friends and fiance as many times as you can fit in the schedule, and you have mashed potatoes to ease the pain.

Then you put on an episode of Dawson's Creek and are reminded of the little things in life.

"I don't wanna wait for our lives to be over..."

Two of my least favorite things.

Thursday morning was destined to be a good day, but the universe had bigger plans for me. 

We had basketball practice at 6:50 AM because of numerous schedule conflicts that WS loves. I was walking to the gym the long way because the school was still locked, and I couldn't cut through. As I was walking up the ramp, I felt a little mist hit me. I kept walking ahead before I turned to look up to see if it was a water pipe or what. Yep, there was monkey sitting in a tree up above, and it definitely just peed on me. What a fabulous way to start the day--getting peed on by a monkey.

There was really no chance for recovery for two reasons. I had a busy morning before I was scheduled to leave for the 3rd and 4th grade RE Retreat. Also, I had done my hair in preparation for dressing like the White Witch of Narnia for the retreat. I looked at is a opportunity for my hair to get some extra vitamins and minerals.

That evening at dinner came the second unfortunate event of the day. I was still in my white witch outfit, and someone thought that I needed glitter in my hair. Any person who knows me would know that was a bad idea. I dislike glitter for several reasons. The major reason that it is like herpes, and it really never goes away.

There I was covered in glitter and fearing the future that was ahead of me. Glitter on my clothes, in my backpack, in my bed, and basically all over my house. Here I am two days later still feeling like I have been violated with glitter. I go out in public and fear that people might spot some glitter still in my hair or on my clothes and mistake me for the sort of person that intentionally uses glitter.

If you think you had a bad Thursday, at least you weren't peed on and glittered. A new form of torture.

 

Two Word Jobs

"Well a simple kinda life never did me no harm
A raisin' me a family and workin' on a farm
My days are all filled with an easy country charm
Thank God I'm a country boy."


Sometimes when I try to describe growing up on a farm to non-farmers, I can't help but laugh. Just like describing India to someone who has never been, it doesn't make any sense.

One of the best ways to make a buck growing up was "picking rocks". If you think life is rough, try wandering around acres of black dirt picking up rocks. I have vivid memories of working with my neighbor and dear friend, Rose, on a Saturday morning. We were covered head to toe in smudges of dirt and discussing the latest gossip from the 7th/8th grade dance the night before. Just like a scene out of Gossip Girl... except instead of the Upper East Side... we were in the middle of a field in Minnesota. We'd make a lot more memories in black dirt fields throughout our lives. We even made a song about picking rocks, but I won't bore you with the lyrics about rocks and picking them.

Life on the farm is full of other strange sounding two word jobs. Here are some more to let your imagination wander: picking rocks, cleaning pens, milking cows, feeding calves, shelling corn, picking corn, unloading hay, stacking hay, loading beans, scraping mangers, washing milkers, spreading hay, feeding hay, feeding corn, raking hay, washing pipeline, baling hay, sweeping wagons, greasing wagons, filling water, chasing cows, cutting hay, trimming fence, and the list goes on...

I only feel sorry for those who have never had the wonderful opportunity to experience two word jobs.

Snow.

Mother Nature is certainly proving herself this semester in Mussoorie. Snow, rain storms, and more snow.

I came back to Mussoorie near the end of January. The view from my front yard was better than ever.

Unfortunately, I could barely walk up the sidewalk to my house because it was so slippery. Imagine me carrying a huge backpack, numerous bags in my hand, and wearing my hand made boots with no grips trying to shuffle my way to the front door.

Imagine a world with no snow shovels. Sloppy.

The cold weather resulted in the official welcoming of the fireplace. The only trouble is that you have to sit this close to feel warm. (photo pre-90's party)

It's still hard to complain when I look out my window and see this!

Another snow storm popped in a couple days ago causing my power to go out for somewhere around 14 hours. It didn't stop me from taking a pathetic run around the chukkar.