quarter break.

last weekend was quarter break here. so as residence staff i had to plan a trip for the kids who couldn't go home. we decided to head off into the hills for some camping, trekking and the famous temple of yamunotri. so after a 6 hour jeep ride on thursday afternoon, a tire puncture, and a landslide, we arrived in the tiny potatoe village of hanuman chatti. we were lucky that there was one tiny chai stall open and we found some rooms where we crashed for the night.

don't worry mom, there was a hospital... sort of

early morning chai

there was a small group of boys who wanted to go "extreme" and find some snow and camp on one of the local peaks. we were thinking after a day we'd reach snow and then camp... but after 2 hours we were waist deep... so we headed back and camped with the rest of the group.

we did a day hike up to the yamunotri temple one day, this a view looking back down the valley

this is the famous temple.. pretty dirty and tacky, but we'd heard of hot springs being here.

we'd set ourselves up for some filthy, luke warm springs... but they were super hot! i can't remember the last time i had a bath... no bathtubs here in india. the holy sadhu's in their skimpy sumo style shorts was pretty funny. the girls were a bit disapointed though as the ladies section is below the mens with all of the dirtier runoff water... the equality hasn't quite made it here.. this is kyle and i soaking up the holy goodness. legend says that one dip in these waters and you will be spared from a horrible death! so we were pretty confident on the drive home...

it was a great way to spend our easter break... and there was also a hindi festival going on at the same time called "holi". this festival is basically a big water fight, but the water is dyed with many bright colors... it was neat watching the villagers go at it and hearing the drum procession as different groups marched through town trying to find their next victims. for the most part they left us alone but we managed to get some color at the temple... my color looked more like a war wound to the head so i think some people were concerned as we walked by... just another reason to stare.

a day off.

i was able to get on the bike this friday and get some exploring done. i drove along the mussoorie ridge until the road ended, then started walking...

this is the view down towards dehradun and the hot plains below, the step farms were pretty amazing in this area.

after a few hours i made it to this temple at the end of the ridge. it was pretty nice, and the amount of garbage around was quite small compared to the other temples i've seen. it seems the holier a place is the more garbage there is.

a funny thing happened when i got here though. i didn't see many people the whole way, but there was a family near the temple eating lunch when i arrived. now two of the men seemed to find me pretty interesting and soon were there right beside me staring as i tried to enjoy my lunch and catch a snooze. they didn't say anything, just sat there and watched.... kinda strange. and i didn't really feel like entertaining so i let them gawk away. and then as soon as i packed up they followed right behind me for awhile until i made a detour and they gave up the chase.

ring the bell, say your prayers

some old carving on stone near the temple

looking back towards mussoorie, the peak in the foregroung is benog tibba, where we took some students camping last semester, and near where i started my walk today.. the town is on the other side somewhere.



this last picture is from a hike a couple weeks ago. the whole high school had the day off to do various trips. this one was pretty fun as we were treated to some amazing panoramas of the snows... (yes greg, it was clear, unlike our trip)

Spring

It is spring here, and I love it! The air is warmer, the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and the wood stove was taken out of my art classroom. We have just reached the 6 week mark of school, and quarter break is just around the corner, so things are looking pretty good. The picture below shows my relief that winter is finished and that I am surviving teaching.


I have been working in the pottery studio quite a bit creating all sorts of things and trying to figure out how to mix a good glaze. It has been a long and frustrating process as with every firing the glaze doesn't melt quite right, but it has been a really good learning process. Below is a cup that I made that the glaze ran too much and whole bottom of the cup stuck to the kiln shelf. I guess this could be a bottomless cup of coffee.

This past weekend I went for my first long motorcycle adventure with a fellow teacher, we both had our own bikes. It was so good to be out on the windy roads in the sun with the snowy mountains in the distant. There was a women's Mela (festival) at town that was about an hour drive away so we decided to check it out.

Part of the Mela included a cultural programme which means different types of dancing. The thing that impressed me the most was the colours and pleats of the clothes that the women wore.

There were also little stalls set-up around the town square selling all sorts of cheap plastic gadgets and jewellery. I decided that I needed to get some bangles for my wrists, so these men helped me pick out some nice colours, the unfortunate thing was that they didn't fit, my hands are too wide. But, luckily I was in India and there is no such thing as doesn't fit when it involves making some money. So, the bangle man forced all kinds of colourful glass bangles onto my hands, it was a really painful experience. I didn't really like the colours (reds, yellows and blues) that he had choose, but I couldn't get them off so I had to pay for them. The picture below is only a glimpse of the bangle selection, you can see the shadow of boy looking at the colours.

Most of women that were at the Mela wore bright head coverings, long pleated skirts and blouses. The colours were beautiful and it was good to see so many women together enjoying the day in the sun. In all, it was a good weekend and I am glad that spring is here.