Today was my last day teaching my students (I have some workshops over the weekend working with the teachers. Why yes, I do still feel slightly uncomfortable teaching people three times my age). I played a version of ‘hot potato’ with my third graders with a stuffed tiger where if they got out they had to write a sentence I dictated onto the blackboard. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so excited about that game or about stuffed tigers. Perhaps they were under the impression that the tiger would come to life when they won…

It was beyond difficult leaving them at the end of the day, though it was even harder to say goodbye to my night school students. Since it was our last night with them we got the OK to have an all-out games night. Jocey taught them a fabulous game called “zoom” where everyone take turns saying “zoom” in funny ways, but if anyone shows their teeth they’re out. If you’ve never seen someone try to talk to you without showing their teeth you are really missing out (and yes, that is an invitation to go around for a day without showing your teeth just to see what kind of reactions you’ll get). I taught the kids how to play ninja (thank you to my Texas buds who taught me that haha), and I’m feeling successful as a teacher by imparting my knowledge of speaking without visible teeth and ninja skills. The best lessons are those of practical skills for everyday use, right? At the end all the kids got glow-in-the-dark bracelets and we had a dance party in the dark followed up by ice cream. SO. MUCH. FUN.

I know I’m not supposed to have favorites, but there’s one student at night school whose really captured my heart. His name is Sukesh, and last year I had the opportunity to teach his older brother, Rakesh. Not only is his English better than all of the other students’, but he’s one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. When I was giving out the glow bracelets for our dance party there was enough for everyone, but there weren’t any left over for me. He knew that my favorite color is pink so he traded his with someone else’s to get a pink bracelet and then gave it to me. One night I had the opportunity to work just one-on-one with him at and we had a “text conversation” practicing his writing where he told me all about his life (no, we did not use text slang that would’ve been somewhat counter-productive). Without going into detail he sacrifices so much to be able to attend school. I think in America education often becomes a drudgery rather than a gift and opportunity. He may be one of the most difficult people for me to leave behind. I included a picture of us together, and I also included a picture of my mini-fanclub of Noorja and Sujata (with the ice cream). They have a tendency to hang on me incessantly and insist that I sit between them every night, which can be annoying in an endearing kind of way. I figured they merited a picture ;)

In conclusion, I’m not glad to be leaving on Monday. Though to be honest it will be nice to have a bed that doesn’t feel like granite again. And I desperately want hot chocolate. They have an excessive amount of tea here: “Do you want tea?” “No.” “Do you want tea?” “No.” “Tea?” “NOOOOOO!!!!” But unfortunately no hot chocolate. So, goodbye India. Hello Swiss Miss.

The Himalayas

Last week a woman from Germany, Eva, came to Antaranga to work with the kids and help earn funds for the school. My family, not wanting to get in the way, took a train out to the Himalayas for the week. The train ride was quite the adventure just in itself, and as I walked on I had the vague feeling I was entering a house with an excessive amount of bunk beds. The train cart was split into compartments, each of which had six cots, three stacked above each other in two columns. I had the honor of getting a top bed, though to be honest, climbing a ladder with an overstuffed backpack over sleeping strangers isn’t quite as thrilling as getting the top bunk at a sleepover. Possibly the best part of the train though was when I left my bunk to go to one of the small rooms connecting the carts. I opened the doors and watched as the Indian countryside flew past me, the sun was rising in the background. I hardly think Superman could get a better view flying around the world.

In the mountains my family and I stayed with a local Nepali family in a village called Makaibari. Needless to say, I was exposed to a whole new plethora of foods, many of which I still don’t know the names of. Actually, I was surprised as to how similar the food was to Chinese food there (Illia and Eden, it essentially tasted like you had met an Indian friend and decided to have a cooking party). And, surprisingly, I had porridge for the first time in my life. No, not oatmeal, not cream of wheat, but legitimate porridge. I don’t think it’s a dish native to the region, and I’m not sure how the family we were with even knew how to cook it, but I will say that I finally understand why Goldy Locks kept on eating under the threat of monstrous bears. Yeah, I would’ve too.

Mostly though, my time there was spent hiking. And hiking. And hiking some more. We were staying on a tea plantation (made ironic by the fact that no one in my family drinks tea) and I spent a lot of time, sometimes with my family, sometimes alone, hiking up and down the slopes of the seemingly endless tea plants. Sean is still attempting to figure out how they plant tea bushes at forty-five degree angles. There were sections were one could escape this sea of tea, however, in more jungle-like areas infested with bamboo and a thousand tropical plants my mother would tell me the name of and I would instantly forget. It was on one of these hikes that I discovered a banana tree (that’s at least one plant I know the name of) and brought back bananas that my brothers and I spent an afternoon throwing on the road to be squished by cars. There’s something satisfying about watching a banana erupt into white goo across the pavement.

It was also on one of these hikes that I had what we’ve labeled as “Mikaela’s fall.” My Dad, Linea, Sean, Jocey, and I were hiking in the jungle on a narrow path. We had to go one at a time to fit on it and on one side was a steep drop-off (essentially a cliff) down to a river/ravine below. Dad stopped to take pictures, and I, being the impatient four-year-old I am, climbed out onto a tree over the drop off. Unfortunately, that tree didn’t feel like holding the weight and I went plummeting down the cliff side, rolling and tumbling, kicking up so much dirt I couldn’t even see. Gratefully I was able to grab onto another branch on my way down and from there climbed down into the ravine where I was greeted by a group of shocked natives washing their clothes. I’m still not sure whether they were shocked by the fall or just shocked that I had survived it, but either way after an awkward stare-off I just said “Hi. I’m Mikaela,” to which one of them (apparently English speaking) responded, “You OK?” Me: “Yeah, yeah I’m fine,” which is… mostly true. Just about every area of my body except my stomach is covered in scratches and I have a bruise on my shoulder and thigh the size of a baseball, but considering that I’m alive and didn’t snap any bones, I’d say I’m pretty all right. I’ve also discovered that luck must be taking special interest in me as a result of my stupidity. Either that or I possess magical properties that protect me from severe harm. The second sounds much cooler, so I’m going to go with that.

As of today I now have another week of teaching, after which I’ll probably be going to Kolkata with my family for a few days and then back home. So, see you all soon!

Weekend...

Saturday was a holiday here in India. The all-knowledgeable Rakhi informed me that it was called ‘Podja’ (guessing on the spelling?) and that it was a holiday for God. I thought about telling her that a lot of American holidays were about God too, but figured the discussion on religious commercialism wouldn’t translate very well into Bengali. Anyway, so I had the honor of going with her, along with my cousin Jocey, sister Linea, and mother to a service in honor of the holiday. Rakhi said to “dress nice” and considering that the nicest thing any of us have here is a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, we all ended up borrowing some of Rakhi’s and her mother’s saris. We got a lot of stares, a group of white chicks sporting saris walking down the busy roads of Bolpur, but I’m not sure how much of that was because we were white and how much was because Linea and Jocey had no idea how to walk in a sari (I was like that last year too, though after last year in India, two proms and a fashion show wearing one I think I’ve got it down now haha). When we got there were hundreds of women (apparently it’s a solely female holiday. Rakhi asked if we had anything like that and the best I could come up with was Mother’s Day), and they were all standing in line with offerings of food or flowers. Once we waited for what felt like a century (yes I am impatient, and yes amusement park lines are never good for me) we reached the front where we were let in through a gate. We left food donations at a shrine and then lit some candles and rang a bell and then left. Like an hour in line for a few minutes inside. It felt almost like a performance, hours backstage for two minutes on stage.

We also managed to discover the hideout for Peter Pan’s Lost Boys this weekend. Or at least we discovered a pottery studio that looked just like it. The house and studio were really more garden than studio and it was incredible, though I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

This morning we got a special treat over at Antaranga. And yes, I do mean that literally seeing as they gave us some ‘mishti’ (Bengali for sweets) but as afore mentioned, those things are gross. More interestingly, today all the children put on a program for us. They acted out a story about two brothers, an older one who was rich but deceitful, and a younger one who was poor but honest. In the end karma caught up with both of them though and the younger one became rich and the older one… well he died. It was a little violent for a bunch of little kids actually, with some of the kids dressed up with skulls dancing around him until he was dead, but whaaaaatever… and there was something about the younger brother asking about a million people for water. Not going to lie I reached the point where I felt like screaming “isn’t there some kind of river or pond somewhere around??!!” But it was still way cute and then the second story was an musical about a mother who ate her husband’s children from a previous marriage and then had indigestion problems (yeah, and you thought the first story was weird).

Possibly just as entertaining as the program itself though was the performance I got afterwards. One of the kids that I tutor in night school was wearing a “Michael Jackson” shirt and so when I asked him about it he said “MICHAEL JACKSON?” Me: “Oh dear what have I gotten myself into…” He proceeded to show me some of his “Michael Jackson dance moves” which I would include a video of except the internet connection is apparently not good enough for that... ask me about it when I get home.

Tonight I leave with my family by train to go to Darjaleen for a week where we’re not going to have internet, so no blog posts for a while. Only a few more weeks though, the time is flying by!

Believe it or not, all the Indians over here celebrate Valentines day just like we do in America. It's not quite as big as it is in America, but still... Rakhi, the teenage Bengali girl we're living with, took Jocey into something she described as a "Valentines store" where they had figurines of cupids and couples in wedding attire. Rakhi was trying to pick something out for her Valentine and kept on asking Jocey "what do you think of this one?" Of course she couldn't tell her the truth which was that they were all so cliche they made her want to vomit.

Anyway though, on Valentines Day I had my third and fourth grade class and so I had them make Valentines in English. It was a huge hit. The kids got really into it and after school they were all running around showing their Valentines to each other. In terms of school, however, I think my favorite day this week would have to be Friday. On Fridays jocey and I have all four of our classes and we play games and have assessments. I finally got it through the skulls of my first graders that "k" says "kuh" not "ssssssssss" and my second graders can now write their names :) my third graders have been working on the verb "to have" and family so friday they all picked out cards with numbers on them to split them into pretend "families." We assigned a mother and father in each and dressed the father up in sunglasses and the mother with a scarf and they all had to talk about their families. SO. MUCH. FUN. Possibly even more fun was what we did with the fourth graders afterwards. We've been doing a unit on clothes and so I essentially brought my suit case and we had a fashion show. why yes, there is a girl wearing my EFY t-shirt in the picture, and Jocey's jogging shorts, and a girl wearing my pink dress... :P I'm feeling good because though the spelling still needs some work, the majority of them can comfortably form sentences now "I wear a hat and shorts. I have three younger sisters" etc.

Of course, we've been having a lot of fun with night school as well. Linea has been teaching some of the older kids in ninth and tenth grade how to use a computer and on Valentines day she brought in my computer and revealed to them the glory which is i-tunes. The result? A full scale Rascal Flatts dance party. AWWWWWWWWW YEAH :D Usually Jocey and I work with a group of sixth graders in the evening, though on Wednesday night we split up and I took a group of two eighth grade girls. "Two people?," I thought, "well that's smaller than I'm used to. But hey, I can make it work." Well, turns out I didn't need to make it work anyways. Somehow throughout the course of the lesson more kidss just started filtering into the room. By the end there were at least fifteen or twenty of us sitting in a circle. Linea and Jocey berate me for "bringing a crowd with me" wherever I go. I guess I can't really contradict them anymore.

I still made sure to see my sixth graders that night though. As I was leaving I saw a giant frog hopping next to my bike. Not really thinking I stooped down and caught it. I guess I'm like some kind of bird, mindlessly attacking my prey... So then I was standing there with this giant frog in my hands thinking "now what?" so I had a little bit of show and tell with the sixth graders :D the girls mostly screamed, but all the boys thought it was the neatest thing hahaha

My night of strange animals continued when I got home and I was sitting in my room when Linea screamed pointing at the door. There was a giant spider there, about the size of the palm of my hand. Thank goodness we got Dad to come in and exterminate it with a pack of tissues. Our hero. You're probably sick of reading at this point so I'll wrap up: I miss you all, and India is fabulous :)
P.S. - Jocey has been getting and eating coconuts recently. I wish she wouldn't eat the skins though, I'm really hoping to hollow one out and bring it home for Monty Python reenactments...

Picnic

On Friday we had our annual Antaranga picnic. Of course when I say "picnic" I usually picture a park with grass and a blanket and paper plates. Well I suppose you could call the location a park, though really it's just public land like a lot of the land here is, and there certainly isn't any grass though there's a good amount of dirt (brown is the general color of the scenery here... well the general color of everything, actually)and while there are no paper plates they do have plates made out of dead leaves held together with bamboo. It is off these plates we ate out rice and mustard dall with our fingers (that's right, EVERYTHING is finger food here. None of this setting the forks on the left and spoons on the right nonsense). The kids had a blast. I separated them into two groups and got a couple games of duck, duck, goose going, granted for them it was cocur, cocur, bidal (Bengali for dog, dog, cat. Honestly, they were just the first animals that came to mind so that's what we used. I'm not sure if they even have Geese here...)Jocey started teaching the kids how to waltz, we had piggy-back races (Sean won every single one, of course, even when we put the bigger kids on his backs) and it was a huge hit. I taught them "bubble gum, bubble gum, in a dish" and you would think I was showing them a sunset for the first time ever they got so excited. We even had a dance party. All the kids from the school came on a bus and so some teenagers that came we able to convince me to climb up on the bus to dance with them there. A little crazy, sure, but hey what's life without a little bit of dancing on buses?

As for other matters, Linea and I found an Indian bakery near the supermarket. To be honest, most of the sweets here taste like vaguely sugary cardboard, but there are these yellow cookies that are AMAZING (hence the picture above). I'm determined to try every single sweet in the bakery before I leave.

There's a whole slew of animals here, but most importantly there are three dogs that come into our yard on a regular basis. They must all be brothers because they look essentially exactly the same: emaciated, small, black and white. It is for this reason Caleb and Josh have named them Oreo 1, Oreo 2, and Oreo 3. Way to be creative, guys. I can't tell them apart but Caleb and Josh are convinced that they can (I don't believe them at all)and the picture is of Oreo 2. We're not supposed to actually touch the animals here because they carry diseases, but Caleb finds other ways of petting them (hence the leaf).

Teaching is going well, though the younger kids are still having difficulty with the sounds. "No, h does not say 'ssssssssssssss....'" But we're making progress, and it feels fabulous to have students again :) I know I'm not supposed to have favorites, but there is one girl I really love in the third grade named Nikart (above) who gets super into the games. Except for when she's not called on or she has to wait a long time for her turn, in which case she gives me a look where her eyes get all big and she sticks out her lower lip and she looks vaguely like a dog. And really, who could not snap under such an adorable facial expression?

The Arrival

After 30 or so hours of travel and navigating the mystical land of airport security, Sean and I finally made it to our home in Santiniketan, India around two in the afternoon on Wednesday. I determined right then and there that I refused to loose time to the terrifying monster we've labeled as 'jet lag' and so I went with my cousin and mother that afternoon to a nearby village where we taught a preschool class. My mother, among others, has been working on building up a preschool system in the smaller villages for some time now, taught by local teenagers, and it would appear that we've made some progress :D

Later on that night I ventured back to Antaranga where I tutored some high school students in English. We have a group of about seven or eight of them that come every night, and while I know some of them from last year, the rest of them were rather entertained to watch me stumbling over their names. "tumar nam chi?... Salamood? Salamat? Salamta?... Salami?" Yeah, you thought you were bad with names? Try memorizing them when they sound more like deli meats and less like you're typical "Nick" and "Jessica" (though there is a girl in one of my classes named Issaca which reminded me of your name Jess!).

The next morning I got up early to teach third and fourth grade English at Antaranga. Apart from being able to see the kids again which was fabulous, I was ecstatic to see that the school itself has made some progress since last year. They've installed a sand pit, and I have one student (Rajesh) that likes to spend his recesses telling me he's Spiderman and doing flips in the sand. Somehow it still baffles me that whether you go to India or Newtown kids will be essentially the same. To use a cliche, kids will be kids. Most importantly though, last year when I came there was one class for first and second graders and another for third and fourth. Now they have four separate classes!!!! This is fantastic because we really had issues before with teaching down to the younger kids and having the older kids not being challenged enough, so I think this should provide more opportunity for the children.

Anyway, I'm so glad to be back. In a way it feels natural to be attempting to decipher the fast-paced Bengali prattle of the children again and I am beyond psyched about the food :D I miss you all!