Canada: Akira, my first nephew!

So I'm back in Canada for 2 weeks! I'm here for two reasons. A baby, and professional development. I will write more about PD after, but here is the happiest news.

My older sister, Madoka just had her first baby on May 19th. Adam, her husband and Madoka lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The baby's name is Akira, and it is spelled as the same kanji letter as our first younger brother, Hikaru. I never thought I would be missing the moment of my sister' first giving birth, but I had my first concert performance with bands on the same day. I don't regret but I wish I was there too! I showed the pictures of Akira to my students.

This is a fake one!

Strong neck

First nephew

So I'm an aunt now! My mom insisted her niece to call her "o ne-chan" ("sis" in Japanese) so I'm going to do the same and make Akira call me that too. After all I am "o ne-chan" with two younger brothers but they never call me that. They used to call me "Sa-chan" which I liked, then it became "Sachi" which is a little harsh, and then "omae" (you) or "baka" (idiot) even! Anyways, I've always wanted to be called so and my dream is going to come true! Thanks Akira!

Akira is doing really well. He is a very energetic and cute baby. Madoka and Adam plays with him a lot and honestly sometimes Akira looks really confused and scared of his parents going crazy on him. Well, it's their first baby so it's understandable. Since I arrived I can already see some difference. He is heavier, and smiles more often. His smile just melts my heart. He is going to be such a heart-breaker. He is especially cute when he sneezes or yarns. He makes this super cute sound like "owwh" right after he sneezes.

Sink bath

Who is this crazy woman!

Mother playing with her baby

Standing lesson. He can only do it when he is angry.

Akira loves bouncing on the big rubber ball. Well, we hold him on our lap and and Akira just sits there. When is crying a lot and nothing works (even Adam's crazy Polish songs) then we go to the magic ball. It seriously works like magic every time. He loves it. He doesn't like the side swing or being shaken up and down in the arms. It has to be the ball. We even experimented by doing the same movement as the bouncing ball but on couch. It doesn't work. He can tell when it's the fake deal. I hope he never gets sick of it though.

Adam bouncing with Akira

Our parents were here for few weeks when Akira was born, and our mother made him a mobile. It's a really cute traditional Japanese one that she made by hand. This is also another favorite of Akira's. When he is awake and laying down, this mobile has to be turning constantly. Unfortunately it's not battery operated so whenever it stops turning he cries and demands someone to come turn it for him. It's really well made and makes me want to have a baby just so that I can get one of this made by her too! Apparently when she was here she was constantly working on the sawing machine.

Akira and his mobile

He just stares and stares...

I'm so looking forward to kidnap him from school and take him to rock concerts, play taiko with him, hear about his girlfriends, so on and so on... I'm going to be the coolest auntie for him! oh I mean one-chan!!

Here are some more pictures...

First ear check. Well behaved!

I got him an Indian dress. Super cute eh? But he was furious...!! He likes to be naked as long as he can.

Fall 2010 semester summary: Part 2 - Parties!!

There were many end of semester/Christmas parties in November and December. Woodstock staff are party animals! (Well, it's because there will be no social events to go to unless we plan our own...)

First there was an "Ugly Sweater Party" at Nan/Emily/Lauren's house. These ladies are pretty creative with their parties! But the problem was, not many people owned ugly sweaters. Emily actually went down to the bazaar just to find herself one. Great party spirit.

Then there was a Halloween party at the same house. Good friends, good food, and some stupidity was needed towards the stressful end of a semester.

Ben + real guard uniform he borrowed from a retired Indian soldier

Nan, Aman, me and Kate

Our host, Lauren, Nan and Emily

There were also many small house get together parties that involved really good food!! It's nice that Woodstock have many young teachers in 20s~30s, and we all share (at least) one very same strong interest - travelling! It's fun to get together and talk about all kinds of places we have been to, where you are from, and all kinds of adventure stories! It's also nice to have occasions like these to let it all go and have fun outside school once awhile, since it's not easy staff to find social events to go to at an isolated boarding school like this.

First of many chocolate fondue party at my house

A dinner at Tim's at Boys Hostel - Alvin made a banana cream pie!

A get together at Elsa's. Many cups of tea and soup. 

Party at Raveen's. Great Indian diner and lots of classic rock. I also played around with Rob's hair!

And of course there were many X'mas parties. There are large number of Christians in this community since Woodstock is a Christian school, but there are also quite a few non-religious people around. Non the less, we still attend all the X'mas events, enjoy the great free food and jolliness of the event. Caleb, Jesse and I baked MANY cookies and other sweetness to bring along to the parties. I have seriously never been this full from Christmas food!!

X'mas party at Judy's. Lots of food! Even ham!

Short breads. We left the evil skulls at home to not to destroy the joyful mood of X'mas.

We also did X'mas gift exchange party at Caleb's. It was really fun to see all the really unexpected and well-expected gift that we got for each other... Caleb got me a treasure chest and Jesse got me a tall mirror. They were both VERY necessary things for me at the time. Specially the mirror... I don't know why but I just could not find a full body length mirror no matter how and where I looked. Jesse got one made by twisting people's arm at bazaar. I also got to shave both of their faces as their X'mas gift for me. My brothers wouldn't let me do it so it was my dream come true.

We got this made at a local tailor for about 10 rupees each

Jesse, Alison, Caleb and I with food and gifts

It was not as easy as I imagined... no blood involved though!

There was also X'mas banquet at school for staff members. Each of us received a gift from school, and this year was a really nice comforter. What a practical gift! Young staff have't had enough of parties so we went down to the Hostel and basted some moves. It was after all the kids have left for holiday, so we had the whole place to ourselves. Hostel is the newest building so it's equipped with DJ stuff and a nice hall for dancing. It also have a swimming pool and basketball court! Anyways, it was also Jesse's birthday so we had a cake and lots of drinks!

Megan (another band teacher) and I. Megan is wearing a beautiful Tibetan dress called chupa.

Banquet food

After the banquet, bonfire & music at quad

Dancing at Hostel. Watch out for Devan's move!

Dancing to MJ at steps outside...

And lastly there was a X'mas carol night at our principal, Dr. Laurenson's house. There is not much t say except the fact that again, there was lots of drinks and food involved!! It was getting really cold by then but it was really nice and warm inside. Woodstock has a really cozy and warm community that makes you feel at home.

House packed with staff singing carols

Pete and Dr. L

Fall 2010 semester summary: Part 1 - Grade 5 Hike

So just as I anticipated I did not make any post since the last one until the year ended! Well, first year of teaching is busy enough, and on top of that my computer being six years old grandpa and internet connection at home being terrible didn't help. That's my excuse!

Here is Part 1 of a brief summary of what else happened during the Fall 2010 semester before the winter break...

So as I mentioned at the end of our camp story, I went on a hike with a group of Grade 5 kids. Woodstock has a very active outdoor education program, and students are required to finish certain amount of hike credits. Staff volunteer as chaperon and get to tag along with the adventures, so I signed up as well. It was tiring after the camp, but a lot of fun! I also teach many of these students in Beginning Band, so it was fun to get to know them outside the class. This was about 6 hours hike. It was to something-Tibba.... I forgot the name of the mountain!

Energetic Grade 5 students

On the way we saw what's called the ripple mark - wrinkly and wavy mark on rocks. It's the prove that this rock used to be underneath the ocean. Isn't that amazing? Kids kept on begging us if they could eat the snack from their lunch bags, and it was like a war to keep them away from it until the actual lunch time. It was not a very difficult hike since we walked along the road for most of it, but at the end we climbed to the top of a hill which was a quite steep walk.

When we got to the top we saw many Himalayan vultures. They were circling above out heads and kids  were honestly scared that the vultures were going to attack them. We, staff chaperons had fun teasing kids around saying that it was true...! We could also see the great Himalayan mountain view. It was all covered in snow and looking magnificent. All the adults were already exhausted, but kids had no mercy. They found themselves a little bush cave and played in it for an hour straight. They also stood at the edge of every cliff and made us sweat in our hands. I'm glad that at least these kids are able to enjoy playing in the nature without being afraid of getting dirty. I hope they won't ever lose that.

Ripple mark

The beginning of steep walk

The gangs with amazing scenery in the background

Himalayas

Kids discovers a secret playing spot in the bush

On the way back these genius kids again did it. One of the student poked a little tiny hole on a melted chocolate package and swung it around in full strength. Obviously the liquid chocolate got on everyone's face, clothes and backpacks, and they all loved this game. It was too late for me to stop them so I just stayed away and enjoyed the entertainment. Kids always amazes me with their creativity of inventing fun things to do no matter where they are. Poor dorm staff who actually had to deal with the problem later on...! Sorry!

There were also three students walking back with me, who were all telling me different stories at the same time. I honestly felt like they had put some magic spell on me because my mind went totally blank and I don't know how I got home. I was supposed to go to a sitar concert after I got back but I guess I passed out as soon as I reached home and when I woke up it was already the next day at noon.

Last few months in few seconds

To summarize, these are the things that happened since I have arrive to India.

First of all, the Mussoorie tour by couple of kind teachers who took time to show me around the town. They introduced me to couple of their favorite Tibetan stores, vegetable stops and the tailors they trust. It's all about connection and building relationships in India. If you know who to go to, you get good deals! Apparently if I let them know that I work at Woodstock, I should be able to get 20% off right away. Nice! Also when you make good friends with the clothing stores or the tailors, it becomes impossible to leave the place without their welcoming cups of chai. 

Main Bazaar in Diwali decoration

Chaaya, everyone's favorite little cafe. They have beagles!

In first few weeks some kind staff invited me over along with other new staff for dinner and gave us quite a few tips and advice about the life here. How to deal with the coldness, mold, monkeys, food, ATMs, so on and so on. The get together involved some seriously, amazing, delicious food. I really need to gain some proper North Indian cooking skill this time. No more faking like I know how to cook Indian food!

Sareena, a HR staff who helped me get to WS, cooking her AMAZING tandoori chicken.

Devan, Jesse, Karen and our host Sareena. We are all new and fresh!

And then on November 5th, there was Diwali, the Hindu festival of light. It's one of the biggest festival in India. I remember KIS been all beautifully lighted up with candles and we got a lot of sweets that day. You can read more about Diwali here since I'm too lazy to explain the whole story.

Well, I had never been out in a town on Diwali. After the school firework show some of us decided to be adventurous and go out to the bazaar. I kept on hearing that it's pretty dangerous because many local people will be quite drunk and when they see foreigner they could throw firework at us. But as always, I don't care what other people say, specially when it's about how dangerous India is. I wouldn't be here in India if I didn't want that thrill, would I?

Get ready for BANGGG!!

Mussoorie was all decked out for Diwali. Beautiful, isn't it?

So anyways we went out, and yea... to say the least, it was VERY thrilling! It was like walking through a war scene. We were constantly hearing huge explosion sounds coming from both behind and front of us. We couldn't really back off once we walked into the bazaar so we had we keep on going. Seriously, I love firework but most of the firework here is just this big BOOOOOMMM sound that scared the hell out of us every time. What was most scary about what we saw was that there were groups and groups of little kids without any adults watching them, who would be firing some really scary looking firework all by themselves. They were having a blast but really...

In front of the best sweet stop in Mussoorie. Very busy day for them!
In the picture: Me, Paul (Art teacher who also does amazing "stretching" Yoga class),
Hisayo (Japanese dorm parent! Sadly she recently left the school),
Caleb (A crazy dorm parent from Colorado!) and some Kiwi friends.

I also went camping with two other staff friends on November 12th. What a cold and funny experience that was! We camped at a place called Flag Hill. You'll see why in this picture.

Sunrise at Flag Hill (taken by Jesse) 

Apparently Mussoorie (or Dehra Dun?) is the first place in India Dalai Lama escaped to from Tibet. So there are many places here that have significance to the Buddhists and Tibetans and they are usually covered by prayer flags like this. It is believed that every time wind pushes the flag the prayer written on the flag is being read. Anyways, it makes the beautiful scenery even better.

The prayer flag, written in beautiful Tibetan

The two friends were Caleb and Jesse. Caleb is a dorm parent at boy's Hostel, and it's his third year here. He was kind enough to invite us newbies to join him with a Woodstock experience. Also it's almost impossible to say no to Caleb. He is very persuasive. Well, he is just good at making me feel how much fun I could be missing out on if I don't listen to him. If you see what I ended up doing this winter holiday, you'll know what I mean by that. Caleb is also the head lifeguard for the school swimming pool, and he has been using that as an excuse to pull me into all kinds of dangerous adventures. It usually ends up being fun so I'll stop complaining.

Jesse is a newbie just like me. He got hired much earlier than I did but because he only holds a Canadian passport, unlike me who has dozens, he got stuck in Canada for 4 months until India gave him an employment visa. He is a science teacher and I have to say he is as animal geek as I am. He likes to ride them all, and I like to touch them all. Actually his love for snakes are kind of scary. I was surprised to find out that Jesse's home is Sarnia, Ontario because Windsor (where I went for university) is quite close. He also taught English in Japan for a year. My new entertainment is to listen to him speak Japanese, but he makes fun of me all the time so it's sort of fair.

Caleb and I had to go back to get woods for fire... life of living in protected forest! 

Out plan was to be in the air... Anyways, snowy Himalaya in the back!

Tonights Menu: Miso soup, pasta, cookies, chips and some rum!!

Anyways, going back to the camp story... We made a nice dinner. The menu was instant miso soup, pasta with cream sauce and random vegetables, cookies and chips for dessert, and of course some hard drink - rum. I also taught Momotarou story's song to them and we all sung together with hand gesture. We also did animal sounds competition and as usual Japanese animal sounds were rated high since they sound nothing like it but funny.  

Despite the fact that we setup two tents, we ended up sleeping outside in sleeping bags beside fire. I was feeling much colder than those two somehow, so Caleb tucked me into double layers of sleeping bags. This process was hilarious... He had to roll me around and pick me up occasionally to get me in and I felt like a little baby.  

The stars were amazing too

I had to wake up early to catch the hike group. Why did I sign up to chaperon a Grade 6 hike after camping? I don't know. But seriously it got to be quite a weekend with all the outdoor activities. In order to wake up on time, I had brought my high-tech alarm clock that records things. Caleb and Jesse recorded a "pirate wake-up call" for me and it was some way to wake up. It's still in my alarm clock since it's pretty epic. Well, that's it for the camp.

Beautiful mountains

Dehra Dun in night

This post is getting to be to long so I will summarize the Fall 2010 semester in the next one!