Out with a bang

The semester ended with more stress than I'd like. In fact, it was probably the most stressful month at Woodstock for me thus far. By far my least favorite part of teaching is dealing with excuses from students. Slightly above on the totem pole is grading. Unfortunately, the two tend to coincide. All grumpiness aside, my last few weeks did have some highlights.

-Trick-or-Pilgrim Party: Not having celebrated halloween, my housemates and I decided to throw a halloween party...the weekend before thanksgiving. We decided to combine the two and force anyone not in costume to don pilgrim hats. Genius! Needless to say, the party was a hit.

Native American meets Pilgrim.

The best costumes of the night by far - authentic chowkidars!

-Thanksgiving potluck: Another international Thanksgiving for me (I've been in the states only once for Tday since 2006!). This year, we trudged to the very top of the hill and shared our American cuisine with friends from England, New Zealand, India, Japan, and Canada. The food was so good that I didn't even notice the lack of turkey, cranberries, or pumpkin pie.

Set table

Homemade pumpkin momos - yum.

Giddy with anticipation

Evening bonfire

-Volleyball! I have been leading weekly volleyball scrimmages for staff. They are merely for fun, not for competition. Much to our surprise, we arrived at school one morning to find out that we would be having a match that evening against the staff from a rival school. Being our first game ever, we had no strategy and pretty low expectations for ourselves. A rowdy match ensued, with plenty of shouting (mostly between our athletic director and theirs) and a fair amount of cheating from their team. Despite their foul play, we won 2-1. It was incredibly fun.

-Christmas celebrations: Woodstock indulges in any chance to celebrate; I can't even remember how many holiday events I was invited to! Of course, there was the Christmas Chapel and also the Christmas Staff Banquet. My housemates and I had a real Christmas tree this year. It literally fell from the sky. (We think a monkey must have broken a branch of the tree outside our house.) It has a severe case of scoliosis and can only stand when supported by two walls, but it's Charlie Brown qualities proved to be endearing.

Housemate Christmas photo

Charlie Brown Tree at its best

-Trek Reunion: Over a year since the Kuari Pass trek, the students persuaded us to have a reunion. These kids are phenomenal and I am so glad that they continue to want to spend time together. We walked into the bazaar for a Tibetan lunch, ice cream, and lots of laughing.

Sharing a very large sundae.

-Advisor Night: I've mentioned before how much I love my group of 10 senior advisees. They are fantastic. We decided to have an end-of-the-semester party and, of course, they requested to come to my house. In honor of St. Olaf, I decided to have a Woodstock version of Late Night Breakfast, a tradition of eating breakfast food the night before final exams start. We made quiche, pancakes, sausage, and potatoes and ate it all. And then the dancing began...

The feast begins.

-Delhi: Due to "going-down duty" and my travels home, I went to Delhi twice in less than a week. This is not really recommended - the trip is long and tiring. At least this is the best time of year to visit. My first trip was a 12 hour bus caravan with about 300 students all heading to the airport. After dropping them off, I took full advantage of some free time with friends and hit some delicious restaurants. A few days later, I found myself back in Delhi with some free time before my flight. The highlight: taking the fantastic Delhi metro! It is ridiculously nice.

-Travels home: Seeing that I am halfway through my 3 year contract, Woodstock bought me a flight home. Traveling from Woodstock to Baldwin is a long journey especially when, as is becoming a trend in my travels, disaster strikes! Without Amsterdam hold-ups, the travel time would have been approximately 48 hours. However, it was a 72 hour journey due to bad weather and cancelled flights in Amsterdam. I personally cost Delta Airlines $23,000 because I was stranded on the tarmac for 6.5 hours. Multiply that by the 200 (?) passengers on the flight...ouch.