The End of Semester 1

The fall semester ended in stages - classes finished Dec 3, exams finished Dec 11, kids left Dec 12-13, and the final staff meeting was Dec 16. Instead of getting to take a breath of relief between the 12-16th, I was given the task of "Going Down Duty." Most of the students here are from quite far away, so Woodstock accompanies the majority of them to and from Delhi at the beginning and end of each semester in order for them to catch trains, planes, and automobiles. It is quite the organizational nightmare for the travel office here. Not only do they have to figure out when and where each student needs to go, they have everyone's traveling documents to take care of (visas, passports, residential permits, airline tickets, etc). Luckily, the travel office is outstanding and nothing ever seems to go wrong. My trip consisted of a 12 hour bus ride with 35 Nepali students from 5th-12th grade. We were 1 of 7 buses (there were also groups traveling by train). We reached the hotel in Delhi at about 10pm, where a hundred or so parents were waiting to take their kids home. After safely getting the Nepali kids and all their documents to the hotel, I was able to sleep a few hours before chaperoning a pair of girls to the airport at 3am. Then a few more hours of sleep before taking 30 Nepali kids to the airport at 7:30am. Basically, we get them to their check-in point and wave goodbye. After the Nepali kids were safely inside, I was free!!! A few of us took the morning/afternoon to do shopping at Khan Market where I got some things for our new house, 2.5 bottles of red wine (which is pretty scarce, and really expensive, in Mussoorie), and treated myself to a real American milkshake! In the evening, I went out again to Vasant Vihar and enjoyed some nice bookshops. Delhi in December is lovely - cool temps and relaxed atmosphere. Besides the lack of sleep, it was really nice to be there. We took the early morning train back to school the next day.

Once back, Laura and I had to frantically pack up our apartments and move to a nearby house. Neither of us will be dorm parenting next semester (hurrah!), so we have shifted to a duplex just a stone's throw from our old apartments. The house is the lowest house on campus, which means my commute to school every morning will be steep. The other side is occupied by a wonderful family from Minneapolis with 3 young kids. It is fun to hear and see kids playing outside in the afternoons. They are very creative and are always inventing something. Laura and I spent the rest of the week organizing, painting, and decorating the house. At last, if finally feels functional and homey.

Most of the staff left on Wednesday, but there are quite a few quality people still here. Many of us are staying for Christmas and then leaving for a month of travels. (A highlight about living at Woodstock is the 6 week Winter Break!). We've been invited to lots of get-togethers and potlucks. One of the most entertaining was the White Elephant exchange, I walked away with a used make-up kit and Laura got 5 pairs of men's underwear. For Christmas, we will stay busy. Laura and I are inviting friends over for a Christmas eve dinner, then we'll go to a nice restaurant for dessert, and then to a local church for midnight mass. Christmas day we're planning to have a lazy morning with Kate, then maybe walk around the chukkar before going to a Christmas potluck with other staff. After Christmas, we'll have two days to eat leftovers and pack before heading off on our travels.

Our travels will stay within India, but will offer quite the range of sights and experiences: mountains and Tibetan monasteries in Dharamsala, the Golden Temple and Punjabi food in Amritsar, layovers and shopping in Delhi, Rajasthani forts and camel rides in Jaipur, live music and city-life in Mumbai, beaches in Goa, and backwater canoeing and spice plantations in Kerala. In total it's four weeks, with one entire week on the beach in Goa. We're traveling primarily by train, which is ridiculously cheap. The longest train journey will be two nights, three days from Kerala to Delhi (I will be bringing books!). The group of travelers is always changing - for parts of the journey it will be 3-4 of us, at other times 7. It will be fun to spend time with people outside of school.

So, that's Winter Break in a nutshell. Overall, it's lovely to be on vacation.

Here are some photos of the new house:
The house!

Our living room, with Christmas decorations.

A highlight of the house: the bukari! (A woodburning stove.)

Looking into the dining room (the stars were my Christmas project).

Our spacious kitchen, another highlight.

We have two bedrooms and two sunrooms. This is the less sunny of the sunrooms.

Three Thanksgivings

Thanksgiving #1: We kicked off Thanksgiving with an early dorm staff celebration, which is quite an international crew. We managed to make most of the traditional food (except that Turkey is almost non-existent in India) among the Americans in the group while our Japanese, Indian, and Korean colleagues brought great additions like cheez bits, seaweed balls, indian cheetos, momos, etc!


Thanksgiving #2: The day of Thanksgiving, we had the annual dorm staff lunch at a fancy hotel in Mussoorie. We got to sit outside in the sunshine and then were served a fancy meal that was half Thanksgiving, half Indian and totally delicious.


Thanksgiving #3: Since we didn't get any time off for the holiday, we held our most traditional celebration with American friends (and a few international friends) the following Sunday. We had so much food and lots of merriment. We even had a kids room where we made pilgrim hats, colored, and had pillow fights. It was wonderful.

Evening Stroll

Amidst the craziness that comes with the last week of school, Laura and I managed to take an evening stroll with two of our high school residents up to the top of the hill. We left around 5pm, just as it was getting dark. The entire walk up consisted of beautiful sunset views over Mussoorie. Sunsets are particularly beautiful here at this time of year due to the "Winterline." The Winterline is a natural phenomena that is visible only from a few places in the world...the Himalayas and Switzerland are the only ones I'm aware of. In essence, it is a fake horizon set a bit higher than the actual horizon. Most sources say it's due to the pollution difference between the plains (Delhi) and the hills. The odd thing about it is that it appears only from mid-October to mid-December.

Mussoorie at dusk.

Woodstock campus at dusk with the Winterline emerging.

Looking to the east.

The Winterline producing brilliant colors over Dehradun.

Sunset through the trees.

Lights of Mussoorie with the Winterline.

The Himalayas basking in the last colors of the sunset.