quarter break.

halfway done the semester already! crazy how it's flown by again... it's been a good quarter, christina is over 7 months along now, with the end of her teaching in sight. we spent some time this break getting the baby/art room ready, visiting the local hospital for a check-up, playing squash and climbing in the new gym, and then decided to head into the hills one last time before the little one arrives.



we passed through some amazing terraced farms. the villagers were all busy out working, but would usually stop long enough for a smile for the camera.





no big case combines here! nothing but your hands and feet to get the job done...





we hiked into a protected forest area, it's amazing to see the contrast of barren-lumbered hills to thick pine forest... amazing at how a few laws can change the hillside, that is if there are people and infrastructure to enforce them...





a creepy old hindu temple in the woods...

everybody on! i guess it beats walking 10km to town

running the race

It's hard to believe that school has been in session for 6 weeks. It's my third year of teaching art, I can't believe how fast time goes. In my sculpture and ceramics class we just started an abstract figure project using plaster, chisels and files...it's a pretty messy project but fun. Some other projects in my classes include figure drawing, monsoon theme-based pieces and typography.

Monsoon had a slow start this year and it is lighter then most years, but it rained all last week because there was cross-country day scheduled on Wednesday...but because of the weather it didn't happen until Friday when the rain finally parted for the afternoon. This is one of my favourite school events...but this year I didn't run.

The beginning and end of the race was stationed at a cross-roads where a big church is, this gives catherdral seating for the spectators. The entire school is spilt into 3 teams, Red (merlins, Blue (eagles) and Green (condors) and points are awarded for places and number of participants. Go Merlins!

Casey was given the title of 'Course Marshall' which means that he was at the back of the pack of runners, encouraging them to run when they started walking.

The race was at the top hill called 'The Chakkar' about a 20 minute walk up-hill from the school. It is a scenic and relatively flat area, so it makes for a great cross-country track, but there are always obstacles such as cars, buses and the odd coolie carrying plywood.

Students are usually excited for an afternoon off of school, as well as teachers.

Here are some engernetic fans....

Casey decided to run this year, and he planned his outfit carefully. He didn't come in first and he wasn't last...I'll leave it at that, but I thought that he did a pretty good job of running 6 km.

As you can tell I am kind of running my own race, counting down the days till the little one arrives, eating healthy food that will give me energy to endure the teaching day and trying to wonder what the marathon of parenthood is like.

monsoon round 3.

so it's our 3rd monsoon over here. i remember the last 2 being a lot damper and miserable than this one so far, maybe we're just adjusting to it. you learn to just accept the moldy-damp-old man smell that lingers in all of our clothes, the laundry that hangs in our house for days on end until at some point we decide that this is as dry as it's going to get. but the hillside has sprung to life and it's pretty amazing to see, only one leech so far too!

yes, mama and baby g (how the kids address them) are healthy and well. we went and had an ultrasound again the other week at the local hospital, pretty amazing stuff... it's wiggling and kicking lots... just like it's mom.

summer.

after a month of easy summer living in manitoba we're back here again to the damp hills at woodstock. after two years away it was so great to head home again, lots of things have changed but the familiar faces of family and friends were so great to be around. our days consisted of bbq's, golfing, strawberry picking, hockey, camping, canoeing, long showers and other things typical to a manitoban summer.

culture shock.

it has been almost 2 years now since we've been home. time has gone quickly and slowly at the same time. things here seem quite normal and comfortable now. things like wobbling my head when i talk, having vegetable sellers come to our door, driving on the left side of the road, walking everwhere (but never flat, either up or down), sticking out in a crowd, public displays of male affection, bargaining, having tea with store owners, our accents.... it's hard to imagine that we'll be back in manitoba in one week. we've heard of the culture shock that some people have when they step back into their world that's supposed to be "normal", some things may never be "normal" after india...

here's a few of the contrasts we are preparing for.

see some of you soon.

Big News, Part 2.

so i've really wanted one for awhile now. christina hasn't been so sure if she's ready but i guess i've managed to convince her. quite a few of our friends here at woodstock have them and it seems like a great place for them. it's taken a few tries, but that's half of the fun right? we also weren't sure if we were in a good enough place financially to make this committment, but there is no time like now. we also figured this would be another way to get family and friends to visit.

For those of you that remember a similar blog from october of 07, this one's the real thing. I am just over 3 months pregnant, feeling good except the Indian food is the one thing that makes me feel nauseous, which is kind of unnavoidable. We are planning on having the baby over here in India at a community hospital a mile down the road. This has occupied a lot of our thoughts lately, but life has continued to go on. Here are some pictures of what's been keeping us busy.

This is a recent project from my Drawing / Painting class. Each student was given a square to paint and then we put them all together to create a copy of this famous Indian Mughal painting, thanks for all the help Mom!

Some flowers from our gate that sprung up from our yard that surprised us.

Casey is finishing up his year in the PE Department. He was greatly appreciated and I think all of the little girls will miss him. This was at a recent PE Banquet, doesn't he look like his Dad?

This is my Advisor Group, all Grade 11 students from all over the world (India, Nepal, Germany, US, Korea). We try to have them over to our place as often as we can for some good home cooking and baking.

This last one is of one of my senior students working on her final project. All of their paintings will be put up in the High School hallway.

Only 10 more teaching days left for me! And 16 for Casey... We are really looking forward to coming home soon, 2 years has gone by quickly!

quarter break.

it was quarter break time here again... classes ended early on thursday and we were set free for a few days. we decided it was time for a motorcycle adventure, so we packed up all of our gear and headed north. i'd heard rumors of a "short-cut" across a certain pass that used to only be hikeable and would save us hours.... well, i should've known that nothing here is that simple. it was definitely the roughest road we'd ever been on, and it was pretty obvious that we weren't going to take it on the return trip. but we made it...

this is just across the pass... and it is one of the smoother sections

we got into uttarkashi (a bigger town) at around 9pm, spent the night and headed another hour north in the morning. we stashed our bike and started climbing hoping to get up to an aread called kush kalyan which is known for it's rolling green pastures.... we camped the first night near some shepherd huts where a few curious cows, mules and shepherds stopped by to examine us.

our campsite on the second night, just below chuli peak (around 13,000ft)... can you spot the tent?

some easter reminders for us along the trail.

this is a view from the village of silla looking up. that's chuli peak, where we camped on the 2nd night... a long way up

a lot of the wheat had already been harvested here and the fields were being plowed for the 2nd crop... maybe just a little ahead of the fields back home? but it was amazing seeing all of the harvesting being done by hand, the people would give us a quick look, maybe ask a question or two and then get back to work as we passed.