Return from India

We're back! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Hope all of you are well and you somehow took in the holidays with some cheer, joy, peace, good family and friends. This year we trekked a bit south west to the land of spice and tea. India has been calling us for a while, actually, specifically our friend Cyriac and his family have been calling us to visit them, but India has also been a bucket list item for me (Ben is on his second round now) and it was nice to have a full four weeks to definitively checkmark that goal quite clearly (not some stop over in an airport or all-inclusive dealio, just to say we did it:). We started our journey on December 23rd and headed south to first spend a bit of time with our friends in Chengdu, China, where Ben was living as a student before we were married. Our friends have 3 beautiful, fun, fantastic and hilarious little girls who we revelled in our time with, giving us the kid fix we needed as we are still DINKs for the moment (hehe, whoever thought of that acronym is FU-NNAY!). We then moved onto our first destination: Bangalore! This is where we just did a stop off and intro to India. Sights, sounds, smells, and warmth, oh to be warm! (Nice change from our -20 degree weather). Next we bused down south to Mysore where we stayed with a friend who is working at a women's clinic just outside of the main city. We spent an evening at the Brindaven Gardens where there were water and light shows playing to wonderful beaty bollywood-esque music and a grand finale done to the Indian anthem. What a roar that erupted when that song tumbled onto the track! Quite thrilling to hear all the excitement. Children were everywhere, brought as school groups, barefoot and bright-eyed, and quite late at night, but nothing stops a good time, good food and an evening in a beautiful place. For a couple days we wandered around the rest of the city visiting the Mysore Palace and touring up the mountainside to some temple areas. Temples are something of a contemplation, watching people in their pilgrimages, prostrate and shackled in face-paint, lots to wonder about. What was actually particularly more thrilling was the view from high above the city, seeing everything sprawling out from far away. Mysore is where we started seeing a lot more greenery, but boy were we in for lots more as we moved further south. We then said goodbye to our friend Padmaraj, and headed to Sultan Bathery in Wayanad, with a friend, Manual, who became a tour guide of sorts and arranged a number of private tours through some tea, coffee and spice plantations. We spent some time with him and his beautiful wife and children and then headed further south, though not before another private tour of a tea processing factory, where we were awarded a special vacuum sealed 2 kilo bag of pure, untainted tea. I am not sure if you are aware of how unheard of this is, since in India, every tea is a mix tea, no teas are ever purely from one place, this is done for a number of reasons, taste and flavour blending being one, something to do with competition and fair markets is another, whatever the case, we were excited to be given such a special gift. Now we continued on to where we would would finally meet up with our dear friend Cyriac and his wife Hephzibah and their two boys Joses and Johan in Mannarkkad. From here we took various short trips up into the mountains, down to Palakkad and onto Cochin to see the Chinese fishnets. A bit more time in Mannarkkad and we made our way to Kannur where we met the beach, which in some places seemed a lot like Tofino! We spent some time roaming the city, raiding cheap book stores (in India you will find books brand new, same as you would in north america, but a third of the price), eating more paratha and chilly chicken, and falling in love with Saint Angelo fort. A bit of time was spent driving into the hills where we met Cyriac's father and saw the house that Cyriac built for him. We explored the property, collected some small harvest items, learned how to tap rubber from rubber trees and ate a fabulous meal on the rooftop under the stars and coconut trees. This completed our time with Cyriac and his family, as we made our way to the train station to catch an overnight sleeper to Goa, a short stop on the beach for a few days (note to all: never stay on the north end of Goa beach unless you like to party all night and lie in garbage while you tan on the beach.) Not much tanning for us, a bit of exploring and we simply enjoyed our fantastic hotel and then we said goodbye for our last leg into Delhi. Delhi is a whole other world. The north itself is a whole other world. Another note: if you ever decide to visit the north, don't visit Delhi for more than a couple days, even the locals would give the same advice. The north is quite unkempt, to be polite, and there are many more shady locals to be wary of. Watch your bags, your purses, your passports, your naivety and your sanity. They will all be watched and tested. On the upside, more bucket list items: the Taj, the Agra Fort, the Lotus Temple, Qutub Minar, and a few others. Good to see these brilliantly fantastic monuments....though smaller than I expected, the Taj was like a little miniature of what I thought it would be, but really, I would never go north again, though apparently Mumbai is a whole other world of its own, and a few other notable places as well, overall the south really was a dream, for landscape, richness and people. Doesn't compare to Canada, but a fairly wonderful experience all the same. So we finished in Delhi, and headed back to Chengdu for a few days with only some pictures, tea, spices, and churidars to show for it. I am sure we will share more with any of you we meet up with later on, but that gives you a good overview of our trip for now. Until next time, Namaste!

Winter Season

Lots happening right now at school and alas we have completely been neglecting our blog for people from far away. Winter is here and we are often bundled in long underwear and layers upon layers of clothes. Warm muslim noodles often fill our bellies, and we are thankful for quite a well working heating system. Only a few days left of school and we will leave all this cold behind which will fade into a memory as we head down south for a few days with friends, then REALLY south to India! Yes, our friend Cyriac has been asking us to come and we finally have the time, the money and close proximity to make our "one day"'s into TODAY! I am nervous but excited to explore us much as we can, and Ben should be a decent tour guide after spending a number of months as Cyriac's travel companion, long ago when they were both still bachelors. Now married, we are excited to meet his lovely wife and adorable little boys.
Heading up to these last few days of school we have been enjoying holiday festivities with the kids. The other grade one teacher and I have really enjoyed melding our classes together once again for all the fun. Here are a few shots of past and more present past. We've been making penguin adoption snow globes, reindeer hats, cookies, cupcakes and more. Such fun such fun!

MOVEMBER

It's been a month since we last checked in, so here's a whirlwind. Term 2 started, we finalized our Christmas holiday plans... INDIA!! We headed to Beijing to get visas for India, then had to go back, and then go back one more time to officially get them [India has lots of holidays and Ben needs to check when the Visa Application Center is open :)] We only have four full weeks of classes left before the break (the last week is half days and Christmas performances!!) The weather is getting colder, but not as cold as last year, for which we are very very thankful. The sun was shining bright today and it was actually a bit on the 'warm' side in the apartment. Christina enjoyed a peaceful afternoon at 798 on one of the most recent Beijing trips and Ben enjoyed eating at FatBurger!!

Most importantly, it is MOVEMBER, which means MOUSTACHE growing. Ben is loving it, but Christina wants to have her husband back... Moustaches can do strange things to men it would seem, and as such, November 30th can't come soon enough.

A real big shout out to Calvin and Lenny who are also MOVEMBERing this year. Search for Calvin Farnell and Len McCormack on the ca.movember.com website to see two truly majestic moustaches. Mo on!!

Christina continues to expand her culinary skills and for this I am THANKFUL. Today it was another batch of her Pumpkin Curry Coconut Soup. It tastes even more delicious than it sounds....

We'll be sure to keep you updated on the India travels as they unfold. Until next time

Done and on with the next

Report cards, parent/teacher interviews, crazy first term DONE! I am looking forward to second term, it shall be far less of a mess than this one. To cap it off, I started with a class of 18 rug rats, and for math it was boosted up to 24 with 6 early language learners to help through major math terms, on top of which a handful of second language learners I already had in the class to help with lower level of language comprehension. Then, a slew of unusual parent issues and things that seemed to come in large waves, and THEN my class was split in two, a month ago, but only part-time and I was still in charge of giving full-time report cards marks, comments, and interviews for 18 of the 24 students, 10 of which I only still had part time. All that and only able to use half my classroom space because the other half is in rotation to the pre-k kids for use of our smart board. Major report card vamp 2 weeks before they were due, teachers responsible for compiling and arranging in final order, based on a an elusive draft curriculum and anything else we chose to use, sort of, still not clear on that no matter how many questions I ask, yet keep it linked to all other grades and the high school too, wait, do I know that information? Nope...... Oh, and major changes in my TA help halfway through the term. Vague is all this forum can handle, specifics would baffle. But its done, term two has great promise in store. Parent/teacher interviews were the last of my stress for now, and they went incredibly smooth, so much for all my worries. Ah, looking ahead to new, leaving behind the old, wonderful:)

Back to work

Here we are, the night before another day another dollar. We are back to work tomorrow after a nice week off, though more than half of mine was spent on report cards and getting ready for term 2. YIKES!!! Term two already. My class has shrunk from 19 students to 10 (most of the time, sometimes there are three cute little Korean ESL kids that join in for Math class, no English but adorable smiles and delightful giggles.) 10 is heaven, though I am still taking all 19 for science and social studies, at the moment, but at the end of this week it will be my ultimate treat, with just the 10 and me. The tough part is that I still have to do report cards for all 19 for this first term....and I lose 3 weeks assessment time for half of them.....plus some other time for some this and thats at the beginning of the semester, are you following? Cuz I don't think I am:) Anyways, after this first term reports hopefully I will find life to be a little lighter and a little easier. The students are still so cute and I love seeing their smiling faces everyday. There is no shortage of tattles and "he did this" and "she did that" but they are still so stinkin in cute! Makes my day exciting, makes me feel like I can participate in someone's life and affect that little being in a positive way somehow with a simple "well, what do you feel about that?" or "let's talk about it together". Simple things, simple conversations, these, even the tough ones, get me through each day. Mini people are so full of life its great:)

WOW! Long time no blog!

Oops, seems we have neglected to keep up on our posts, with the craziness of school and all that is going on, I think we have just felt there is little time to do much. BUT, thankfully this week we got a break and spent a few days in Beijing exploring some areas we have not ventured into before. One place being an area called the 798 District. Now, markets in China are fun and all, but they are exhausting, with all the vendors trying to entice you in, trying to haggle you into paying outrageous prices, sometimes even grabbing at arms and bags, its almost like a scary movie when someone finds themselves in a cave of grabbing moaning hands:) So, we have done the usual, and made some connections at those markets, but we decided we wanted to try something new, and 798 turned out to be a GEM! 798 is an area that holds a large number of old factory and industrial buildings. Old brick walls, metal stacks, and strange pieces of heavy machinery litter the 3-4 block area and are now a part of the plethora of art pieces also on display. The area has quite a number of public galleries, along with unique clothing shops, tea houses, leather shops, trinket stores, jewelry stores, and more. What lies within this space welcomes the old and new and modern all together. Everywhere you go the walls are smattered with art and graffiti, people are mulling along exploring each new jewel they find, and the walkways and alleyways are constantly being used for photo shoots (it would seem that 50 percent of asia are photographers with all the latest and greatest in gear, and the other 50 percent are models, quite amusing:) It was hard to believe this place is in China, there was so much appreciation for art and raw aesthetics that it seemed too unpolished to be here, but it really is, and a number of people were there appreciating it. Definitely a place we will go back to, and if any of you ever make it to Beijing, a place you should drop by, but give yourself a whole day, you'll need it:) Here are only a few pics, it was pretty crowded in most areas where there was some really funky art pieces so I couldn't get any shots, it was the holidays so people were EVERYWHERE! More next time.

The Crew

Its been a while, yes, forgive me, and far too much has happened so far to explain it all. But the short of it is that there has been much to transition into, much to be challenged with, and yes, still much to enjoy. Our first month and a half back in China have been a whirlwind and we are struggling to find time to relax. Seems we are always on the go and always more to be done, but we are attempting to find balance. I am LOVING my kids! Maybe there are struggles in certain other areas, mainly in the adult world, but thats what life brings, beyond that though, and before it, I guess, are the chillins who make me laugh, question, wonder, smile, and ache for them. They are bundles of joy and I am thankful for each one of those little bundles in my class. So here are most of them, a few I haven't had a chance to capture yet as they were absent.