Goa

What started as a night spent in a bug covered room ended up as a very nice relaxing week spent at a charming guest house in Anjuna, Goa. We were surrounded by lush green palm trees, with swinging monkeys. I spent my days on the beach and my nights at restaurants over looking the Arabian Sea at sunset. We did one cultural day or should I say half day, seeing Old Goa, which was inland at bit. There were a lot of old churches we visited and some very cute, Portuguese influenced streets and areas. Every Wednesday in Anjuna, just off the beach, there is a huge market that takes place. There were people of all sorts there! Anjuna is known to be a hippy town, and boy did they come out!

Would you believe I met two people from Maryland, one from Gaithersburg and one from PG county... offered to sell me some "things"... I just smiled and politely said no thank you :) Small world it is! The girls and I had a bet going, the first person to meet someone who knows someone gets a drink! I won!

I finished my vacation off back in Chennai. Two of the girls and I went to a 5 star hotel and got massages and mani/pedis! It was wonderful!

Check out my pics from Goa!

A fun giveaway I found on Anna's page. I could even wear them in India if what they say is true. I think if I win I'll save them for the cold winters at home though :) Something tells me they weren't talking about India heat when they say they keep your toes cool in the summer as well!

Things that make me smile!

*A Ganish Lamp!

*Cute 4 year olds who greet me with a huge smile and jumping and singing!

*Monkeys at toll booths on the highways of India!

*An auto packed full of Indian men who smiled when I took their picture!

*Brunch with new friends!

*BRIGHT colors*

*The ambassador car

Been A While!

Wow... I didn't realize how much time had passed since my last post. Sorry to keep everyone in the dark, because I know you are checking everyday with anticipation ;)

So what's new...

The past few weekends have been fantastic. A couple weeks ago I bought a saree... which I love, I can't wait to wear it for India week at school. I'm also hopping that someone will get married and invite me to their wedding so that I can wear it there too :) In that same weekend we went to this awesome restaurant, Zara's, Spanish tapas! Mimi and I pampered ourselves a little bit, she got a great hair cut and I got a facial.

This past weekend I went to Pondicherry, an old French colony, 3 hours south of Chennai. I went with Mimi but there were a lot of other teachers down there, we had Friday off for Gandhi's birthday. There was a huge Gandhi statue on the beach at Pondicherry. There were stair leading to the top where people climbed and put these flower leis. It was so nice there! You wouldn't think you were in India except for the autos that were still all around. It is a tourist town so it definitely catered to tourists, lot's of shopping, no trash on the streets, there were actually signs encouraging people to throw their trash away. You wouldn't believe though still all the people that we watched just litteraly let their trash go in the wind, right on the beautiful beach there! That aside it was wonderful... quiet streets (no horns signs were posted all over the place!), empty streets, we actually found ourselves standing in the middle of the streets stopping to take pictures and not even having to think about getting run over by a bus, motorcycle, scotter, auto, bicycle, etc... So while I was there we did some shopping, ate some great food, relaxed, and pierced my nose! I was a mess, so scared, but it was worth it, I love it! I got it done with a needle, not the gun, but I found out after the fact that the way the guy did it was very traditional. He pierced it with the needle and then treaded string through, and basically flossed it through to make the hole bigger (yes, ouch it hurt a lot!) But now I have a cute little diamond (well it's not real yet, I'm working on getting a real one soon) in my nose :) What is that saying... When in Rome!

I have one more week of school until our week long October break. I can't wait, I'm heading to Goa, a beach town on the west coast, with a group of girls from school. I should have some great pictures and stories... we can drink there ;)

Pondicherry Photo Album

Mishmosh... One Night's Experience

South Indian Cuisine

I went out to dinner for some traditional South Indian food this past week. Surprisingly it wasn't too spicy and it was delicious. As you can see in the picture it was served on a big banana leaf. There is no silverware, you eat only with your hands. It was quite an experience and actually walking up to the restaurant it looked like something you'd see in New York, the neon lighting, not quite the cleanest looking place but everyone raves about it and it's always busy so you figure it can't be that bad.

Cross Dressing... In INDIA?!?!

The next part of my evening involved seeing some local cross dressers. I truly could not believe what I was seeing, I looked at the door to the restaurant and standing there is, what appeared at first glance to be a woman with a shaved head wearing a saree. Then at second glance I realized no it was not a woman but a man wearing a saree! Oh my gosh, in India?!?!? Evidently they are very prevalent. They are beggars and will come to restaurant requesting money from the manager and if the manager does not give them money they will start to make a scene... ultimately threatening to strip. There is some kind of weird clapping thing they do as well, I've heard that they are very aggressive and won't leave until given money. I also heard that there are stories of young boys who are kidnapped at a very young age and forced into this. It's all very strange.

Motorcycle Ride

So I rode on my first motorcycle ride. My friend's boyfriend has a motorcycle. Everyone in India has a motorcycle and you would not believe how people ride them! Families of four ride on one motorcycle, child in the front, father behind driving, mother on the back with another child on her lap... only in INDIA!

The Slums

"The slums"... Yesterday I visited a foundation called Speed Trust. Speed Trust was started by a French man who moved here to Chennai about 10 years ago. He founded this group to help underprivileged (mainly women and children). The foundation began by taking women off the streets and teaching them useful trades like this bag making. The bags were made of this plastic, gimp (remember those key chains we all used to make as kids) looking stuff. After they finished weaving them together they melted it down and put liners in the bags to create these wonderfully fun bags! I, of course, had to purchase some of these one of a kind bags! Another trade which was taught to the women was Auto-Rickshaw driving. The woman were taught to drive, received their drivers license and then Speed Trust gave them an auto to use. As they earned money they would pay Speed Trust for the auto. This foundation is so empowering for women, out of the 50,000 autos that are in Chennai alone only 20 of the auto drivers are women. Fifteen of those women began through speed trust. The other 5 or so were women who saw these other women drivers and decided "well if they can do it so can I" and told their husbands to get them an auto and teach them how to drive... now are out their earning double the money for their families. These women who are now driving these autos went form earning 200 rupees a month to now 200-300 rupees a day! Not only does this program teach women these different useful trades but also educates children. They are sent to school during the day and then after school they come to these classrooms (40-50 children in a room!!!) and do their homework and afterschool activities in this building. The really neat thing about this program is that it isn't a charity, it teaches woman how to survive and make a proper living for themselves and children. The families are responsible for paying 10 rupees a month (about $0.25), which doesn't seem like much to us, but it makes them accountable for what they are doing, therefore the children show up everyday because the families are invested. The younger children in this program are also on the English track learning English in school. The program also just saw two young girls go to college in India! Check out the website for more info. or to help! http://www.speedtrust.in/index.htm

One of the major stories behind the women who are part of this organization is that they were either widowed or abandoned by their husbands. When a young girl goes into marriage she is essentially leaving her family and joining her husband's family. She no longer has contact with her family but if/when her husband dies or abandons her his family will turn their back on the wife, leaving her and her children often in the streets with no skills to help make a living for themselves.

**Some of the children coming home from school as we were leaving. They were so adorable, not shy at all, walking up shaking our hands with the biggest smiles on their faces. The little girl in the first picture couldn't wait to see her picture and was making sure that I showed everyone!

Onam

Onam is the biggest festival in the South Indian state of Kerala. It falls during the Malayali month of Chingam (Aug-Sep) and marks the homecoming of the legendary King Mahabali. Carnival of Onam lasts for ten days and is linked to many elements of Kerala's culture and tradition. Intricately decorated Pookalam, ambrosial Onasadya, Snake boat Race and the Kaikottikali dance are some of the most remarkable featurs of Onam - the harvest festival in Kerala. (wikipedia definition). Lots of pictures and explanations of these different things are on this website http://www.onamfestival.org/.

*The beautiful pookalam outside the house next to mine! Made from flower petals.

This week I also started at the orphanage (House of Hope). I loved it the children were so cute... they were so happy for us to be there and really enjoyed the art project that Kate and I did with them. We had mirrors for the kids and they could draw a self portrait of anything that they would like using the chalk. We had them draw things that represented themselves so that we could get a sense of who they were. In the coming weeks I am going to take my cameras and laptop and with the older children do some photography and let them play around with their pictures on photoshop.

The kids did a fantastic job! Here are a few pictures of some of the kids drawings! Around christmas time last year the children made some greeting cards with traditional Indian art and sold them at my school. Kate and I are planning on having some photography for for sale this year... have the kids take the pictures and change them in photoshop then we'll go get them printed and framed to sell! The money is used to go towards the children and supporting their education, we are in the process of trying to set up a trust/scholarship type fund for the children's college education.

Go, go, go...

Week number 3 down and I'm not slowing down...

School...

I'm about to start my 4th week and I can't believe how time has flown by. Last week we had back to school and 11 out of my 14 parents showed up! The night wasn't much different from a back to school night at home... two sessions so parents could have the opportunity to meet multiple children's teachers. Refreshments... well that was a little different, yummy Indian food! THEN on Saturday there was a school picnic... oh my gosh, what a picnic! Huge tents set up, people dressed up in different Disney character costumes, food like you wouldn't believe, huge fields for the kids to play around on, the gym, pool, and roof top (yes roof top) tennis courts were open for different age group rotations. It was pretty impressive.

*The entrance

*Look at all those tables... they were filled with people!

Kamini, Anne, Ashley and myself serving drinks at the picnic :)

Social Life...

I continue to take my pilates class every Tuesday and Thursday. It is wonderfully relaxing, especially after leaving a stressful day of work and then sitting in traffic with all the car horns blowing.

This past weekend I went to Ideal Beach Resort. It's about an hour down the coast from where I live. It was wonderful there and so nice to escape the busy city. I spent the day on the beach lying in a hammock!

*THE BEACH!!!

*My Hammock

*Reading in the hammock

*The fisherman's boats just next to the resort.

I have also just begun doing some volunteer work at a local orphanage, The House of Hope. The orphanage is here in Chennai and homes children who were effected by the Tsunami. The children living in the House of Hope either had one or both of their parents die in the Tsunami. On Friday the group of us that are volunteering went to meet the children and have a small ice cream party with them. The children were so happy and polite, I'm very much looking forward to working with them. I will be going every Wednesday with Kate to do an art lesson with the children.

This week, some time, I'm off to see about getting a treadmill and turning my empty room into an exercise room. I'm itching to run and there aren't any safe areas, away from all of the traffic, around my flat or the school. Also looked into doing a race (possibly a half marathon) here in India... wow the reviews for the races were horrible. "Disorganized, not enough water, people and traffic in the way... During one race the person who won was disqualified for not following the official car even though the official car didn't go the correct route and the winning runner did!" So we shall see... maybe I'll take a weekend and do one up north where it's cooler and the races are supposed to be a little better organized. It would be cool to say I ran a half marathon in INDIA!

WOW spice!

So today was the first day my maid (I feel silly and slightly snobby American saying I have a maid), but anyways, she is great, super friendly, and tells me about all the places to shop! Anyways back to what I was saying... Today was the first day, Selena (my maid), cooked for me! Oh boy that first bite was delicious and then WOW, POW, SPICE!!! Ahhh, I think I downed an entire bottle of apple juice and half a loaf of bread (ok so maybe that's a little bit of an exaggeration) but it was spicy! I'm definitely going to have to tell her to tone down the spices for my American tongue!!!

Ganesh Chaturthi

The birthday of the Hindu god Ganesh is known as Ganesh Chaturthi and is celebrated on August 23 this year. Ganesh, the elephant- headed god is not only the god of wisdom and success but also the Remover of Obstacles. He has the head of an elephant and is plump with a prominent pot belly! Many Hindu homes, shops and temples have an image of Ganesh over the main doorway to ward off any evil. His blessings are invoked before beginning anything important such as starting a business venture, getting married, constructing a house and even before embarking on a long journey. Even other gods worship Ganesh before a new beginning.

Beautiful clay images of Ganesh are made for worship on Ganesh Chaturthi. After prayers and offerings have been made to the clay image, it is taken in procession to the sea or river for immersion. Special sweets like laddu and steamed rice dumplings stuffed with jaggery and coconut known in Tamil Nadu as ‘Kollakotai” are made for the occasion.

Ganesh is also called Ganesha or Ganapathi. As Remover of obstacles (vighna) he is called Vighnesa, Vighneshwara, Vighnaraja and Vinayaka(leader).
All Hindu Gods have a vehicle and Ganesh rides a mouse. He is man, elephant and mouse in one and has a solution for every problem.

There are many stories about Ganesh and how he came to be. The most widespread story goes like this… ..
Goddess Parvati wanted a follower who would be loyal to her above all else. So she created a beautiful son and told him to stop anyone from entering her chambers. When lord Shiva, Parvati’s husband was stopped by this boy Shiva was furious and chopped off his head! Parvati appeared when she heard the shrieks and was in tears as she told Shiva that the victim was her son and he must restore his life immediately. The first passing animal was an elephant and Shiva used the elephant head to restore life to the boy. He also promised Parvati that the child would be the lord of the followers and be worshipped by all the gods.

Getting out There!

It's barely two weeks into my life in India and boy did I hit the ground running. My first week I didn't seem much more than my apartment and school as I was trying to make a classroom out of not very much at all and catch up on my severe case of jet lag. As the weekend rolled around I was feeling like I finally had recovered from the jet lag and well... that classroom was what it was going to be until I received more supplies.

Friday nights so far... well the two that I've been here for... seem to be teacher happy hour nights. Which is great! Like I mentioned before there aren't many places to drink, alcohol is only served at hotels. Conveniently enough there is a hotel within a 5 minute walk from my place... PERFECT!!! Some of us are going to check it out tomorrow evening. It's not supposed to be as nice as some of the other hotel bars but it's close and they have alcohol!

Last Friday I met up with some teachers and we went to a restaurant called Eden's. It was delicious, my first real taste of Indian food! I had this amazing coconut and cashew curry. But what was even more amazing was the cost of the meal! Ten dollars got me... are you ready for this... my delicious coconut and cashew curry, a bed of rice, 2 buttered naan (basically a buttered tortilla), a big bottle of water and a brownie sundae!

Naan

Coconut and Cashew Curry

After dinner we had quite an adventure. Eleven of us squeezed into an SUV of one of the teachers and traveled 30 minutes across town, in Indian traffic, which is not the smoothest or safest of rides, to a hotel bar. We met up with 15 or so more teachers and had a great time getting to know each other and for those of us who were new learning some insider information on how different things worked around town. About halfway through our evening a few of us girls found ourselves in the bathroom (yes we travel to the bathroom together, even/especially in India) chatting. When in walks two girls looking very NY, but of Indian decent... out of the blue one girl turns around, throws here hands up in the air and yells AMERICANS! I find myself giving one of those confused, probably not one of the most friendly, looks... for a split second I'm trying to figure out do I know this girl, is she being friendly, does she hate Americans, and then instantly she yells, I'M AMERICAN TOO! Haha, how cute and funny, well the long and short of it was this girls is 22, maybe 23, she came to India in September, after graduating from NYU to do some volunteer work before starting a career back in the US. Well she is not returning to the US now, she met a man here, fell in love, they were engaged by December, she went home for a month or so, came back and got married in May! Wow... talk about a whirlwind, she seemed happy and extremely friendly, took our numbers and said she'd be in touch. She was so excited to be around so many Americans especially when we told her that there were more of us :)

Saturday brought some adventures as well... another new teacher, Terry, and I went out and did some walking and exploring around our town Adyar, which is in the city of Chennai. Chennai is absolutely huge! We walked around to a few shops then made our way back to my apartment to catch a taxi we hired... 3 hours for $10, I know craziness! We went to a shopping mall (not quite what your picturing I'm sure) but nice enough and did some looking around. A lot of things had or were elephant patterned so I bought myself an elephant key chain and a small wristlet with an elephant imprint. I also bought a beautiful blue printed shawl, which I'm not using as a shawl but have placed over the back of my couch to add some color and decoration to the apartment.

After returning home I ventured out on my own to buy some groceries, about a 15-20 minute walk down the street to the store. I also have a wonderful fruit stand about a 2 minute walk from my place, which is another shocking price story. Eight bananas, one papaya, are you ready for this... 40 rupees (47 rupees = $1)!!!

Random sights on Saturday...

wedding car

*Read the sign closely*

Earthquake!!!

YES!!! There was and EARTHQUAKE here!!! I woke up at 1am to my bed shaking, boy was that the craziest thing ever! I was in such a deep sleep and was so confused, I couldn't quite figure out if my bed was shaking or not... I turned on the light put my foot on the floor it was so weird, it didn't seem to me that anything else was shaking, but I guess it was! It went on for a good 10 minutes stopped and then started up again. Actually I was so out of it that I thought maybe my place was haunted (my cell phone light randomly turned on also)! Yay, yay... go ahead and laugh, I did! In the morning when I woke up my first thought was "Ok that definitely happened I remember turning on the light and trying to figure out what was going on." The first thing I did was try to make my bed move, I shook it from the end and then sat on it and tried bouncing to see how much it would move and boy was that thing solid! It didn't move at all!

The earthquake wasn't actually in Chennai, it's epicenter was around the Andaman Islands, off the coast of India. Click here for details!

School Days

So my classroom isn't quite finished, I'm still waiting on more bookcases, as you can see all the books are piled up on the tables at the moment (but at least I have books)! Like I mentioned in my last post my students are from all over the world. I had them write where they visited this summer, I think almost every continent was touch with the exception of Antarctica and maybe Africa, pretty incredible! The students are fairly well behaved but that could also have to do with the fact that there are only 14 of them. All of my students with the exception of 2 or 3 are all English language learners. They are all very eager learners and should make for a fun and exciting year. My classroom is my classroom unlike in the states where I had to teach what they told me, when they told me, how they told me! It's a bit challenging at the moment because I'm used to having more of a direct curriculum but I know it's going to be fun and exciting being able to implement things I wish I could have done before but there just wasn't time!

Oh yeah... the kids call us by our 1st names so I am Miss Coleen, I love it!

*From the entrance
*From the windows (opposite of the entrance) door to the left connects to another 3rd grade classroom

*From the back entrance side corner
*From the my desk (front of the room farthest from the entrance)