Hi everyone! It has been a long week but I am finally starting to get time in to be able to write about how my travels went and how settling in is coming along.
So my journey began Friday afternoon with a friend who surprised me by coming to say goodbye at the airport. It was definitely hard saying goodbye to my mom and also saying goodbye to my brother and dad on the phone but I was ready to get this adventure started. I met up with my fellow student teacher in Denver and then off we went to Frankfurt and Mumbai. Everything did not go smoothly because 5 minutes before boarding, I still did not have a ticket in my hand but eventually God worked it all out. When we got to Mumbai we were a little late and we waited for our bags for about minutes. Then it took about 15 minutes to do some currency exchange. By the time we had exited the airport, we were about 1 hour and 30 minutes later than what we told our driver. I was SOO nervous that he was not going to be there but luckily he was but another 15 minutes he would have been gone.
The hotel we stayed in was amazing and pretty much luxurious compared to the buildings around it which were slums. We ended up doing very well with going to sleep and getting up at the correct times. We did go to the olympic sized pool at 6 pm and there was no one around because it was too cold. Us Montanan girls thought it was CRAZY that we were swimming at the beginning of January and we didn't even see our breath. I was thinking of you guys who have the zero degree weather.
On Monday we took three more legs of the trip that had the typical bumps that would be expected while traveling to India. We ended up taking a three hour taxi ride up the mountain on a winding road but I did not get sick, surprisingly. We did stop about half way up and went to an overlook of the lower plains that had mango and coconut trees being farmed. All around us were these little cat-sized monkeys that were eating fruit from the side of the road. When we arrived to the town of 40,000 people it was 7 at night and we were met at the school by two teachers. They took us to our apartment that has "the most beautiful view" of the town at the Jaffna compound. We are apart of a duplex that is connected to the principal and his family who are very nice and helpful. I was not expecting this but our apartment has three bedrooms, kitchen with most amenities, bathroom, a couple fireplaces, sunroom, and a living room. We have more room than we need but we are very grateful for it. It is about a 10 minute walk from the school which must be done with someone else at night. We don't have internet at the house which is a big bummer but I have it all set up at the school.
Tuesday I was in meetings all day for professional development and learning about the Middle Years Programme. After that I walked around with another teacher and she showed me all of the places to go around town for about 30 minutes. I was so tired that I went home crawled into bed and fell asleep at 6 pm and didn't wake up till 4 am. Today (Wednesday) I had a meeting with my cooperating teacher, Graham, and the Math Department which was so great because I got to work along side of all the teachers and do some collaborative work. Guess what else is super cool! We started our meeting with prayer!!!
Tomorrow I start teaching with 10th grade mathematics and I can not wait to meet them!! When the fog clears out I will take some pictures and post them. Miss you all!
So my journey began Friday afternoon with a friend who surprised me by coming to say goodbye at the airport. It was definitely hard saying goodbye to my mom and also saying goodbye to my brother and dad on the phone but I was ready to get this adventure started. I met up with my fellow student teacher in Denver and then off we went to Frankfurt and Mumbai. Everything did not go smoothly because 5 minutes before boarding, I still did not have a ticket in my hand but eventually God worked it all out. When we got to Mumbai we were a little late and we waited for our bags for about minutes. Then it took about 15 minutes to do some currency exchange. By the time we had exited the airport, we were about 1 hour and 30 minutes later than what we told our driver. I was SOO nervous that he was not going to be there but luckily he was but another 15 minutes he would have been gone.
The hotel we stayed in was amazing and pretty much luxurious compared to the buildings around it which were slums. We ended up doing very well with going to sleep and getting up at the correct times. We did go to the olympic sized pool at 6 pm and there was no one around because it was too cold. Us Montanan girls thought it was CRAZY that we were swimming at the beginning of January and we didn't even see our breath. I was thinking of you guys who have the zero degree weather.
On Monday we took three more legs of the trip that had the typical bumps that would be expected while traveling to India. We ended up taking a three hour taxi ride up the mountain on a winding road but I did not get sick, surprisingly. We did stop about half way up and went to an overlook of the lower plains that had mango and coconut trees being farmed. All around us were these little cat-sized monkeys that were eating fruit from the side of the road. When we arrived to the town of 40,000 people it was 7 at night and we were met at the school by two teachers. They took us to our apartment that has "the most beautiful view" of the town at the Jaffna compound. We are apart of a duplex that is connected to the principal and his family who are very nice and helpful. I was not expecting this but our apartment has three bedrooms, kitchen with most amenities, bathroom, a couple fireplaces, sunroom, and a living room. We have more room than we need but we are very grateful for it. It is about a 10 minute walk from the school which must be done with someone else at night. We don't have internet at the house which is a big bummer but I have it all set up at the school.
Tuesday I was in meetings all day for professional development and learning about the Middle Years Programme. After that I walked around with another teacher and she showed me all of the places to go around town for about 30 minutes. I was so tired that I went home crawled into bed and fell asleep at 6 pm and didn't wake up till 4 am. Today (Wednesday) I had a meeting with my cooperating teacher, Graham, and the Math Department which was so great because I got to work along side of all the teachers and do some collaborative work. Guess what else is super cool! We started our meeting with prayer!!!
Tomorrow I start teaching with 10th grade mathematics and I can not wait to meet them!! When the fog clears out I will take some pictures and post them. Miss you all!
What a great trip. So happy you are getting settled and I got to talk with you last night. Time to start planning my visit!!!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a pretty amazing place so far. Have a good first week of work. It always the toughest.
ReplyDeleteHey, how did you get your picture to show up? I want to do that.
DeleteI am using my gmail account to log in. I belive it works through ur google + picture
ReplyDelete