Incredible India

After the bumpiest flight of my life, we landed in the capital(Delhi) of incredible India.

India, green and lush, felt calmer, more peaceful-making. Though some scenes were chaotic and filled with need, there was so much natural and quiet beauty. Everywhere there seemed to be a continuous soundtrack of bird songs.

Arrival.
When you fly Emirates, regardless of the length of flight they serve a meal and a coffee service. As soon as we are in the air, they bring out the complimentary wine or beer, too, which was surprising the first time since it's just minutes after take-off from dry Kuwait.

So, after a well serviced (my favorite airline is still Turkish Air) and bumpy flight, we disembarked and were met by a guide with a sign and leis. We were picked up by our rental vehicle and driver for the week. Traffic was light as we made our way to the hotel due to Good Friday. In each city a "company man" met us. We also had a different tour guide, a specialist for the local sights, in each city.

DAY ONE: 

Our first morning in India, it raining steadily. I gazed at the pools of water sprinkled all over the manicured hotel grounds as I drank sweet lassi(Indian yogurt drink) and fresh watermelon juice from the hotel's extensive juice bar and ate wonderful waffles.

We visited the Red fort, took a bicycle rickshaw ride through a popular narrow-allied shopping area in Old Delhi to India’s largest mosque. We had to wear these flattering jewels (*note the matching bed slippers). 

We also went up the minaret to get a great view of the city. We visited the cremation sight of Gandhi and Deborah got her nose pierced. I briefly considered it as well. We also visited one of the world's tallest minarets built in 1193 (though our guide told us at the time it was the tallest) and the ruins of a mosque built from Hindu temples that had been destroyed.



DAY TWO was Easter so I researched and found a place for us to worship. Our driver agreed we could leave later than planned. 

On our way out of town, we drove by the India Gate.

This is actually at the Taj, but same-same.

We mainly traveled this day, to Agra. Agra is considered a small Indian city with just a little over 2 million residents. Yeah, that is the total population of Nebraska. It is also the home of the famous Taj Mahal. The 4 hour drive, for the most part, looked like Nebraska's I-80. Close to Agra we stopped to tour one location, but our local guide did not show up. Our driver didn't speak English fluently nor did he know all the details about these places so we ventured out alone. This resulted in an increased appreciation for our guides because we were bombarded by picture requests. They wanted their(Indians on holiday) pictures taken with us. No one asked us for money and everyone was friendly, but they wanted a picture. We were probably in 6 photos. We contemplated asking for money to have our pictures taken but, in the end, we decided against it. LOL. We learned to avoid eye contact; were aware of our surroundings through our peripheral alone.

DAY THREE: We declined the sunrise tour and met our guide at 9:30 in the lobby to go to the Taj Mahal. My favorite view is the most typical, but up close it's amazing, too. 

The inlay work especially struck me. The region is still known for this type of work.  It is un-stain-able white marble with inlays of lapis lazuli, mother of pearl, jasper, etc. There were even inlays in the trendy chevron pattern. 

Our guide knew all the best picture places.

At another Red Palace next to the Taj Mahal.

Love the arches.

Later, we secretly met up with our driver to go shopping in a cheaper location than our guide wanted to take us to. Lol. It still seemed pricey, but... it was awesome. We also got to practice are bargaining skills. We got to see how inlay marble work is done and we bought these from the young, humble artisan. The elephant looks like the inlay work done on the Taj Mahal. 

The inlay work has supposedly stayed in the same families, and the secret to the glue has been passed down to the men in the family (only), since the women will later marry into other families. 

Mary, after bargaining for some colorful clothing of her own.

We got a demonstration of how to make rugs, too. A typical single knotted 5 by 7 rug is a 6 month, full time process and sold for around 450 USD. Double knotted, finer rugs of a smaller scale, also take nearly 6 months and are sold for about 200. 

DAY FOUR: Also mainly a travel day. 6 hours from Agra to Jaipur. We did stop at the extravagant ruins of a palace. The entire place was made of carved red sand stone. 

Jaipur is also considered a small city at 3.5 million people. Like Delhi, it is clean and modern. Jaipur is called the pink city because all the buildings in the old town are painted pink.

DAY FIVE: Here we did a drive by of a few places but the highlight was an elephant ride up to a palace with great views, and getting henna tattoos at another pretty palace.

DAY SIX: On the drive back to the airport, we stopped at a jewelry store. We were shown raw jewels and learned how they make them worthy of selling. Initially I didn't want to buy anything but after tea and a demonstration (which I took photos of), I felt a little pressure. My companions bought enough that I really could have said no, but I ended up buying a silver cross pendant with a blue sapphire. Apparently there are 6 or so colors of sapphires. I haven't bought any adornments in the shape of a cross before. I felt it was often more fashion than faith for many, but it seemed right to do it now. Where I'm living, no one wears a cross simply for fashion. I also liked the idea of buying it in India. The sapphire comes from Kashmir (in the north of India) and Jaipur is renown for silver. After our extensive jewelry shopping, we loaded back into the car for a 6 hours drive to the airport.

Lodging.
All of our hotels were all awesome and unique. They all had great service. One had a repeating Alan Jackson CD playing from the 90's. One made this towel monkey. 

They all kept us amply supplied with free bottles of water- a happy surprise. 

India was, and is, one of my favorite countries. One of the reasons it's a favorite is because it is so colorful. Flowers, cars, buildings even people are decorated in bold, bright colors, though women's smiles and clothing were my favorite color splashes. 

Incredible India.

Snip, snap, snout. That tales told out.

CONTEST, COMPETITIONS, CONCERTS AND CLUBS, OH MY! Almost All Things School

Justifying My Spending.

I have been justifying my spending quite a bit, but there is a legitamate reason for all of it. I need to spend 75 dollars to go to the beach. There are no clean public beaches, but I live on the Persian Gulf so I have to go to the beach somehow. Also on a public beach I can't wear a tank top and shorts or heavens-for-bid a swimming suit. There is likewise a perfectly legitimate reason why I need to spend 22 dollars for my delivered-to-my-door dinner. If I took a taxi to the restaurant, it would cost 7 dollars and then I would have to wait there (and surely my time is worth something) so I would have to pay the taxi driver to wait for me which would cost another 3.5 USD. Also Tikka Paneer. Do I need to say more?

Arabic Again, but No. 

I signed up to take another Saturday morning class, but I must have been one of only a few interested parties. I'm totally bummed about this and I hope the next time around, the class will be able to run.

Ticket Buying Spree.

Honestly it's pretty insane the amount of plane tickets I have in my name. The list is comprised of the following: India, Hungary, Rome, Athens, Santorini, San Fransisco and Nebraska. Pretty ridiculous, I know.

Math Club. 

There are free after school clubs available to our students. Teachers offer up an idea and if enough students sign up for their club they get paid to lead a weekly hour length club of 12 students. Since I haven't given in to the many tutoring requests and I passed on leading a club last semester, I signed up for one this go around. Well, actually I signed up to lead 3 clubs. Each club meets for 7 weeks. Only one of my clubs got enough registered students to run though. Normally it is required that at least 12 students register but since my club is academic only 7 were obligatory. 8 students signed up it. It's been fun and it's giving me more bait for my teaching tool box. Though it was open to 2nd- 5th graders, only grade 3 students attend. Also I have never had more than 4 students come in the 3 weeks we have been convening. Two of the students are from my class and all 4 of them are third graders. They are also all energetic, chatter box boys. Remember my class of 25 has 16 such boys, as well. #thestoryofthisyear

We interrupt this blog to bring you a picture break.

A fancy abaya.

An example of how a cubbie should NOT look. A true story.

Our tree is now covered in equivalent fraction flowers. No one noticed the un-equivalent mistake in my example flower.

Our read alouds from this year.

My dinner. I currently, basically eat this every night.

A friend took this picture of our neighborhood.

Avacado and chocolate hummus. I tried the avacado. It was good, but I'll stick with the normal kind from now on.

The Road of the School Year is Curved.

I spent quarter 1 and 2 getting acclamated to teaching and then quarter 3 and 4 come along. 

To end our Science unit on flight and design, Grade 3 competed in an airplane contest. My students were disappointed because their planes weren't awesome. Sorry 3A, I will improve my airplane making skills. If only you also knew how little I knew about flight or design before we began this unit. #storyofmyfirstyearteaching

Last month we had Student Led Conferences. The way it works results is I actually only have to have one official meeting with the parents a year, unless the parents request to meet more. Parent Teacher Conferences are in the fall and Student Led Conferences happen in the spring.  They were a pretty good experience.  I set up 3 or 4 conferences to happen at the same time in our room.  They were completely student led. Of course, prepping them was time and energy intensive. 

Last week there was a student music concert I had to attend.  I knew I was expected to attend it, because I was told so, but when I arrived the other teachers were with their classes. I am still not sure if I was suppose to be there as a teacher or an attendee, I spend the next 35 minutes trying to quietly keep my class quiet, but not overstep the role of any parents who were present. The awkwardness of not knowing what is expected of me. #storyofmyfirstyearteaching

This week my students delivered the persuasive papers they turned into speeches and condensed to index cards. Traumatically, for ME, I had to pick 5 semi-finalists and then I brought in another teacher to help me pick my class finalist. The results were impressive actually. I did not give speeches when I was in third grade. But also, there was bitter disappointment and even tears as the result of my decisions. Broke my heart. 

Today we had Sports Day. I refereed a 15 minute soccer match. That was beyond ridiculous. I had to ask the 8 year olds how a soccer game starts. I had to ignore and placate claims of fouls. "I didn't see it." "We only have a short time." "Lets just keep playing." Seriously it was humiliating. 

We also have a business fair coming up next month where my students will create a business plan and design and create a product to sell (for fake money).

NEXT INSTALLMENT: NO THINGS SCHOOL. T.G.I.S.B.