"the way i define happiness is being the creator of your experience, choosing to take pleasure in what you have, right now, regardless of the circumstances, while being the best you that you can be."

          Leo Babauta (via kari-shma) 

the week in a nutshell

 

(Totally typical. Cows, trucks, rickshaws, people... all battling for some room on the road. Also take note, there is no sign of a lane or any kind of order, but how PRETTY is that truck? :)


Despite what I once thought, Indians do, indeed, listen to 'Jai Ho' from Slumdog Millionaire. This is great news; I always thought I was being a poser Indian-obsessed human being, listening to that soundtrack over and over again but alas I have proved myself wrong again! One of the priests came over the other day with his new iPad from the States (he had been living in Amarillo, Texas for the past four years...random?) and we spent the entire afternoon downloading iTunes (even though you can't purchase songs, shows or movies from India) and setting it up/jammin' to Jai Ho and some of his other Indian songs. I also had my first sample of nannuri (spelling?) juice. At first taste, it reminded me of some kind of gross cough medicine. The rest of it went down well, though, and I think I may have tasted a little vanilla extract flavor in there. Nevertheless, this juice is supposed to cool the body and after all of this heat, I was willing to try just about anything.

Back in my 5th grade class, since I've been writing stories, I challenged them to write their own. The next day, one boy, Rohit, raised his hand eagerly, volunteering to read his story aloud first. Although his grammar was not perfect, I was extraordinarily impressed with his story, super clever! More or less, the story went as followed:

"Once upon a time, there was a chili, a banana and an onion. They were friends. The three of them went to the cinema one day. On the way to the cinema, the banana was hit by a car and died. The chili and onion cried and cried. While they were at the movie, the chili was stomped on and killed. The onion cried and cried. After the movie, a man took the onion and chopped him up in the kitchen and the man cried."
Get it?! (I didn't at first.) Because everyone "cries" or tears up when they chop an onion! I thought it was great. Since then, Rohit has written a couple other stories (and drew illustrations to go along with them). He reminds me of myself as a little nugget, since I was always writing stories and publishing them (aka laminating and stapling them) or writing plays with my friends and trying to get people at recess to try out for them.

In the food area (which is ALWAYS important to note), I have a new favorite! Puri (fried dough) and korma (green curry with potatoes, onion, garbanzos and tomato). HOLY COW! Absolute bliss in your mouth. I am determined to learn how to make both of these before I leave because I don't think it's possible for me to live without them when I return to the U.S. Thanks Bakkiam for the delicious treat (she's on the right, obviously, with her brother, Paoili).

 

In other news, the sisters and I went about five minutes from campus to make some "family visits," just to hang out and say hi to the families of some of the kids that go to our school. This was a very eye-opening and emotional experience. At first, I wanted to cry, looking at these peoples' homes (aka one room that seven people live in) and the state of the people. But after wandering around and observing a few different households, I realized that they are really happy, even with so little. This just reinforced the idea that things are just things. They shouldn't make or break your mood or your quality of life. Although this is a concept I'm still learning (and I'm definitely still guilty of checking the lululemon or Nordstrom websites, even in India with the slow internet and impossibility of purchase), I'm hoping after a few more months here, "things" will mean a lot less to me. What really matters, and what I learn everyday here, watching the kids interact and the nuns as they care for each other and the kids too, are the relationships that you build with others and the way that you live your life. Again, this is a work in progress; something I'll work at probably for the rest of my life. And even though a little materialism may always exist within me, I think that's just called being human. But nonetheless, it is important to be aware of it.
Last bit of exciting news: the cow here had a baby!! SHE IS SO CUTE! And huge for being only three days old...take a look (Sister Lilly keeps calling her Allie... haha I'm honored):

      

 

 

Wobbly Wegs Wittle One... what a beautiful baby!!!

That's all for now! Thanks for reading (speaking of reading, I just finished The Help...SO good, I couldn't put it down)!

the alphabet according to Santhosh

Sorry you have to tilt your head... I couldn't rotate it on Flickr :) Nonetheless, probably one of the cutest things you'll ever see...ever in your life! I'm so proud of him!
                     

and the first getaway is...

One last bit of exciting news... my parents are coming to this side of the globe the first week of August and we are going to... BANGKOK! We planned on making it a simple trip back to Chennai since it's close but it turns out this trip to Bangkok will be much easier, much more exciting and even cheaper! So we're assuming the trip is meant to be and I am absolutely thrilled! Especially since I'm semi obsessed with buddhas and Thai food. Even though the nuns eat rice like its water (even though technically you don't eat water... you know what I mean), I'm looking forward to this...

 

...and hopefully this "little" guy...

Photo Credit: sagababy.tumblr.com
...and DEFINITELY many of these!

 

If anyone has any suggestions on where to go or what to see/eat, leave me a comment!

can't... stop... thinking... about... bagels...

Don't ask me why. The cravings just keep coming.

I don't even eat bagels that frequently in the U.S. but there's something about an "everything" bagel, not toasted with cream cheese (real cream cheese not that low fat crap) that sounds absolutely to. die. for. right about now. Ok, I'm salivating, I really need to stop it... just thought I'd share!

ANYWAYS, the past few days have been good and pretty busy as well. I'm getting in the swing of the teaching, but throughout the past week, I have noticed that their "English" books are actually written in...well...very poor English. For a person who happens to be a grammar nut and spent the past year-ish editing things at The Vista and San Diego Magazine, this is a huge nightmare. It makes me cringe every time. For example, "all the animals were very happy and made celebrations" and " so the number of animals in the forest was getting reduced day by day" and "while the lion got ready to kill it, it requested him to wait." Trust me, it gets worse, but I'll spare you the pain. Unfortunately, there's no getting around this material in the book, because the government issues a test, evaluating the children on the material they learned in these books. Talk about a pickle! I spent days and nights thinking about how the heck to improve this (mind you without access to other books, a copy machine etc etc).

Finally, I came up with a solution: I will teach from the books (ONLY so that they can do well on these tests) but in addition, I will make up my own stories and teach them, in order to teach new vocabulary and correct grammar. Win! This has been my method for the past two days and both the kids and teachers are loving it (and it's pretty fun getting to come up with ridiculous stories geared towards children). I'll post a good one on here soon. The important thing is that I think they are really learning!

 

Kindergarten class

And speaking of learning, I've been doing some of that myself. Every morning, before class, the children line up by grade and pray, the older kids do a skit and then they sing this fun song (that even has some background music)! I have really come to like this jam, it's totally catchy and I find myself humming/singing the [completely wrong] words, since it's in Telagu and boppin' my head to the beatzzz. So finally, I asked one of the nuns, Berna, what the heck this song was? I thought it was a Bible song or something. She had no idea what I was talking about, so I gave her a little preview in my tone deaf voice and she started cracking up. Apparently, it's the national anthem. Oops. And apparently, you're supposed to stand with your feet in a certain way (first position, ballet anyone?) and your hands by your sides in fists. Double oops. Basically, the moral of this story, is that I've been completely disrespectful to India for two weeks now. Good thing no one noticed. Still, I have to commend this country, quite the tune for a national anthem, I love it... think I can download it on iTunes?

On the food front, things have improved! I discovered a cheese called Happy Cow (basically Laughing Cow) and between that, some good bread Sister Lilly brought back from Hyderabad and their panini press, I have been treating myself to some nice little sandos. Also, CUCUMBERS! Who'd have thought? They never tasted better. And finally my last new favorite, custard apples. It's a fruit that looks similar to an artichoke from the outside but inside are tons of seeds covered in a custard-like gel, totally delicious (though a little time consuming to eat with all of the seeds).

So many people are asking about my buddy Santhosh! He is doing well, although I walked by his classroom the other day and he was totally passed out on his desk. It's funny, he can't seem to stay awake and I can't seem to fall asleep. But nonetheless, that little nugget makes me smile so big! He giggles a lot and it is probably the cutest thing ever. Perhaps I'll make some videos soon!
'Tis all for now. But I'll leave you with this...

 

Sister Alfi... no big deal, just ridin' her motorcycle around. She promised she'd teach me how to drive it (though I don't think we'll be making it to those crazy and terrifying public streets).


Love from INDIA <3