It's Been a While

Hello everyone-my friends and family. I am so very sorry about taking so long to update the blog but it has been a difficult few weeks and I have been trying to formulate how I will write to you about my thoughts. Last post I had mentioned that life, as a student teacher, was not ideal and I was having a hard time discovering exactly what my role looks like. I would like to say that this week it got extremely better and all of my worries of being a student teacher have gone away but that wouldn’t be true. With this said, I have had so many reassurances from family, friends, and mentors in my life. They have told me that it’s normal to feel out of place during this student teaching experience. Knowing these reassurances has helped me get through the last two weeks without being super hard on myself with teaching.

I have officially taken over all of the sections of the 10^th graders, which is a total of 57 students. This coming up week two of the classes are finishing up with a chapter about transformations and the other class is taking a test on complex numbers and vectors. This week will only be four days because it is Field Day on Friday. Field Day is an event where all of the students are required to do a few track and field activities.

A few highlights from the last two weeks include eating out a handful of times. I went to this place called Abby’s with a coworker and another coworker’s daughter. The food at this restaurant is very westernized. I had a cheese and jalapeño quesadilla and masala cheese fries. It was a great greasy meal that was much appreciated to have something similar to American food. Last week on Friday I went to dinner with my friend Leslie at a very traditional southern Indian vegetarian restaurant called Tava’s. I can’t really remember what we got but other than it being amazingly tasty and spicy! Leslie lived in Thailand for two years so she didn’t think it was that spicy. This Friday night Karissa and I went to Pizza Corner and this pizza place looks very similar to Fudruckers or Abblebees meaning it has signs all over the walls with cleaver sayings. My favorite one was Stressed is “desserts” spelled backwards. I ended up getting something that is called a conizza, a pizza that is shaped like an ice cream cone. It was actually quite tasty.

An activity that I have done is go to a music preview of the choir, band, and orchestra that the high school students put on. About 30+ students left on a field trip to a nearby city to perform in churches and for different schools. They sang some gospel songs and also did a great Beatles mixture of songs. It is so weird to see a school singing about God and is constantly praying in meetings and assemblies. I actually love it but I know I won’t be as fortunate in the public schools of the USA. Anyways, another thing that I did was on Friday. I helped chaperone a movie night at the Elementary/Middle School. There were about 15 kids between the grades of Pre-K and 7^th. We watched this movie called The Groods, which was on okay movie but the best part was listening to the kids laughing really hard. I realized that I haven’t hung out with little kids in such a long time and I forget how much fun it is to spend time with them.

Karissa and I were invited to our neighbors for dinner to different times over the last two weeks. A couple weeks ago we went to Rudy and Hemma’s house for a traditional Swiss dinner. They have three children and a friend who just graduated from high school who is visiting them for a few months. It was great to have a homemade dinner and the next week (Saturday last night) we had another great homemade meal. This time we went to Nandini’s house and had traditional Southern Indian food and taught us how to cook idlys and chicken curry. We had an interesting dinner. But in all, it was full of laughter and conversation.

I have great news; I am half way done with student teaching experience and I will soon be back in Montana. My dad will be here in a little over two weeks. I am really looking forward to spending time with him here in India and sharing once again new experiences in another country with him. I believe I have said this before but we will be visiting lots of temples and eating lots of food. We will be down in the plains so I am looking forward to warm weather and getting off the mountain for a week or so.

The weather back in Montana has been record-breaking snow I here. I am super happy that I am not there to be freezing cold all the time. Another thing that has been going on back at home is that a lot of my friends are getting engaged and married. I would have to say that it is weird to see at least once a week for the last month that a friend got engaged. It really makes me think about what I want in life when it comes to a relationship and I have come to a conclusion that it doesn’t matter if I know or not. All that matters is that I do Christ’s work all throughout my life and never stop taking adventures!

Happy March everyone and I hope you have a great month! I know that this is my favorite month of the year because of Pi Day, my Birthday, and spring equinox. Until next time!

I am ALWAYS learning

Every week I am so amazed that it has been again one week that has gone by. With this said I have only been here for six weeks, which means I have about 10 more weeks left. (OH MY!) The last week was very stressful and full of schoolwork because I had another observation that fell on a day where students began a whole new topic. This meant that I needed to prepare to present the basics of vectors. The topic was not particularly interesting so trying to be okay with a potential busy and boring lesson was impossible. I continually have revelations towards teaching and what I desire for my future classes that I will be responsible for. The hard part about student teaching is getting to the point where you feel like it is your class and that you have the right to do whatever you want to do. Right now, I just feel like I am continually trying to please my cooperating teacher and the people around me. Enough of this though because I know that it takes time to feel comfortable in the classroom completely.

The biggest thing that happened the last week was something called One Billion Rising. This is something that was created last year that brings attention to violence against women. People all around the world on Valentines Day danced in flash mobs. The students and staff at my school participated in the event therefore I danced with all of them. It was a great way to get students passionate for a cause that really mattered in the world. Here are a few photos from it.

For the night of Valentines Day I ended up having a girl’s night. We got dinner to go at this place that makes fabulous roll-up sandwiches that were the amazing spicy taste that most Indian food has. Then we went to our friend Leah’s place and watched a movie and talked a lot! It was nice to be with my friends here but I sure did miss my friends at home.

On Saturday the weather was very gross most of the day because the clouds came in on the mountain and created heavy fog and mist. This was the perfect time to sit at home and read my book. I ended up finishing the book that was only a quarter through when I started it. Of course, Nicholas Sparks books have always been quick reads for me. Saturday night, Karissa and I were invited to go to a going away dinner for a friend who was going back to the US. We ended up having a very European meal and it made me miss France and Europe. There was great company and I mainly enjoyed being able to listen to what all the people had to say. Again, traveling and living abroad brings the most different people into my life.

To finish off the weekend, my Sunday was great! I went to church and Bible Study. Afterwards, Karissa and I went grocery shopping to the market and bought everything that is needed for the week. Actually for the first time, I tried a real passion fruit! It was very good but the texture of it was slimy and in general weird. It took a bit of courage to try it but after I did, I knew that I loved the fruit.

This week so far has included a lot of grading papers. I also caught a lizard/gecko type creature that fell from the drapes when Karissa was closing them. We named it Skreech! I am starting to get some photos with my favorite teachers so here they are! Hope you guys have a great week!

Can I Blend In?

I am continually amazed by my everyday routine here in Kodai. My prayers have been answered because every morning I am awake and have the desire to read from the Bible. I have never been so disciplined in having the Bible in my everyday life. By doing this I have had many moments of revelation of God and specifically Jesus. The last few weeks I have been trying to discover whom Jesus IS. What were his likes, his dislikes? What did others think of him? How did he treat his friends and his elders? I am trying to get to know him just like I would get to know any person on this Earth. Of course this means I have been reading a lot of New Testament but I flip back to old every half a week or so to the Old and getting myself more acquainted with the trials and joys that God’s people has gone through. There is something about reading the Bible as a story and not JUST as a devotional sense. Looking at it as a larger picture helps us see the themes and love that God thought so important that it is ALL over the Bible. Again I am still searching for someone to come along side of me and to disciple me for the rest of the time I am here.

Last week had some excitement of its own. A guy (Peter) from the International Department of the University of Montana came to visit KIS and of course we met him and showed him around a bit. His idea of coming to the school is try to get a stronger connection between our schools and try to recruit students to coming to Montana for college. In his honor, a dinner was thrown for him at my neighbor’s house, the Principal. There were a handful of people at the dinner including myself, Karissa, my French teacher and family, Karissa’s cooperating teacher, the principal and his family, and this guy who is visiting. We all had so much fun talking and it was great to start verbalizing the differences between here and US and starting to tell stories about this wonderful place. It made me look forward to telling stories when I get home.

On Friday after a long day of school, I went to dinner with Peter, Karissa, Leah, and Leslie to get my favorite southern Indian food: idly and dosa. At dinner we were informed by Peter that he is going to write a short piece on Kariss and I for the university’s front page of their website. Finally I got home late and went to bed as soon as possible considering I was going to wake up at 5 am the next morning to go down the mountain for shopping!

In Coimbatore, a group of us went shopping at the mall and of course I went for the clothes! We began eating lunch and then split up to do our shopping. My first stop was the bookstore and I got a few more books to read while I am here: The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks and another that someone recommended. Then I found some beautiful blank cards that I cannot wait to use when I get home to write to friends and family. I next went to a clothing store and tried on tons of kurthas (type of shirt) and pants. Taking a break from the shopping, we all went to a movie at the theatre, which was such a great normalcy even though it was a kid movie (The Lego Movie). Also to say it was $2.50 to go to the movie!! It has been SO long that I paid that little for a movie. After some more shopping and eating dinner we left around 8 pm and got home a little after midnight. This grand trip of shopping totaled to 9 new kurthas, 5 pants/tights, 3 books, cards, and lotion. Here are some pictures of the beautiful clothes!

Sunday was accompanied with the need of doing laundry therefore I spent most of the afternoon in water and watching some lovely Jane Austen movies! Monday evening after school, Karissa and I went to our friend Leah’s house and her ayah (maid) had cooked food. So after a great dinner we watched a chick flick and laughed the night away. It was amazing to have a typical girls night even though I am still surrounded by so much unknown.

I hope you had a great week yourself and that it wasn’t too hard to read my writing. I know that sometimes my thoughts aren’t fully complete and I have a hard time expressing them. I would like to leave you a question that I have been thinking about a lot lately. Take time this week, month, year to discover what you think…Do you believe that Jesus can give you the power to walk up to a lame man and tell him to stand? Love you all!

ONE MONTH

Exactly one month ago I left Helena, MT to come to my next big adventure and life experience in Kodaikanal, India; a place that has been called on many occasions “India Light”. The town is now beginning to get more and more crowded with tourists and lately I have been seeing a lot of white people. I am starting to get to know the town a bit better and venturing into new places, stores, and restaurants. I am starting to get anxious for a little adventure and soon there will be one.

Last week was great and I had a few new and fun things happen to me. I have met more new people. There are these two girls from the East of US that we had dinner with on Thursday night at “Tibs” (a Tibetan place). One of the girls is staying for only three weeks and the other, Kate, is staying all the way to end of May. They aren’t here with the school but doing something with an organization that runs preschools around town and a few other projects. I am excited to get to know the girl who is staying longer because soon she will be living up the road from us. It amazes all the type of people that I have met since being here. There is so much life experiences within each of the people met either by living in multiple countries for a long period of time or people who has lived here for 25 years teaching at the school.

On Friday night I got the chance to hang out with some of my coworkers and friends. A few of us went to a great restaurant and got one of my favorite Indian dishes, dosas. I think I could eat four of those if someone let me. After dinner we headed to my neighbors house and we had snack food and margaritas (well not me-too strong). After some great conversation that was held between old and young, we all circled around a hilarious game of Balderdash. I can’t believe how hard everyone was laughing around me. I mean we were ALL crying about the words that were being used and the definitions that were created. One of my favorites was the word popple, which was defined as “the Pope’s private chambers.” After a long evening of laughter I walked across the porch into my door and crawled right into bed.

The next day was Saturday and I am always nervous that I won’t have anything to do on this day but thankfully I was asked to help chaperone another trip that the National Honor Society was going to take. We left in the morning to go to an orphanage to paint the outside walls. The reason was to freshen up the compound before a big benefit dinner that the owner of the organization of the orphanage is putting on. I had some great conversation with a few of my students about studying abroad, different cultures, working with the orphans, and other things. This is why I am so happy to teach high school age students because I am able to have these deeper conversations. The rest of the day I spent outside in the nice weather talking to my neighbors and relaxing at home reading a book.

On Sunday, I started my day early with talking to my mom and prepping for my first classroom observation. I got most of my work done before church started at 10:30 am. The church I go to is on campus and run by the school. It’s a very interesting mix between many different denominations. There are influences of Methodist, Catholic, and the contemporary church. We sing hymnals but then worship to contemporary music and we have the readings from the Bible just like the Catholic Church (Old Testament, New Testament, and Gospel). I really enjoy being at this church and being there with my coworkers and students. Sometimes I get the chance to talk with my students about was learned during service or other spiritual topics.

The rest of my Sunday consisted of going to a different adult Bible Study, shopping around town for groceries, going to the market, grading tests, and reading my book. I am recently reading four different books: Bible, Killing Jesus, Boundaries, and The Railway Bazaar: Trains Throughout Asia.

I have begun teaching full time my own Math class for 10^th grade. This means that I am enjoying my days more and more at the school but have more things to think about/worry about. I have been enjoying staying in touch with friends and family since being here. I have also been busy planning my trip with my dad in March. This weekend I am looking forward to going down to the plains to the city called Coimbatore. I will be going with friends and we will be shopping! I can’t wait to show you all of my Indian outfits! I hope you all have a great week!