WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY cont...!!!!!!!!!

So THIS MORNING went for my run AND NAILED IT!!!! Before I had to stop for a couple minutes or so and grab what was left around me the precious oxygen!! Kinda gets lost in the INCLINE AND HILLS GOING UPWARD!!! Stupid less oxygen!! WELL THIS MORNING ran the ENTIRE run, start to finish!!! 20:23 for a time from front door to Woodstock!!! Even ran the entire BAZAAR HILL!! I feel the hill will sound more intimidating if I capslock it!! Your thoughts!!;) Anyways after conquering BAZAAR HILL, it is a pretty easy run after it!! It's just trying to run BAZAAR HILL that is this 70 degree almost straight up inclince!! Very hard, especially with the loss of oxygen along the way!! But conquering BAZAAR HILL was a feat in itself!! Got to school in 20:23 and decided let's make it a nice 30 minute run!! Well went along Tehri Road for 4 minutes then turned around and decided to make my final 2 minutes going up steps!!! Get to the steps CONQUER the first flight, THEN NAIL the second, THEN dry heaved!!:) Haha okay maybe a little too many steps, BUT it was only dry heaving, you will be happy to know no pukeage!! Then jogged back down and ate breakfast!!:) After breakfast let the day of ONE MEETING BEGIN!! So the entire dorm and academic staff had to attend an ADHD seminar that lasted from 9:30-5!!!! It was interesting but very very long!! We all agreed after 5p, rolled around next year to make it TWO mornings instead of all day!! Cause it got long!!:) There was some lovely discussion though, including a very heated debate on medication and when to use it!! Kinda got scared a verbal fight would break out, BUT being awesome Woodstockians we held it together and all hugged and made up at the end!!:) Very awesome!! Soooooooo that being basically the entire Thursday, the staff did get a treat tonight at 7:30!!! It was called "Just Dessert"!! A veteran staff family hosts a newbie for dessert and dessert!! I got to eat dessert at: yeah THE BIG GUY'S HOUSE!! Dr. Laurenson, Principal at Woodstock!! No big deal!!;) I kinda know people!! I have many leather bound books, and I smell of rich mahogony!! Or another type of expensive wood!! Birch?!? Whatever, so had dessert and some amazing conversations!! Totally impressed everyone telling them of my runs from Monte Cristo to school! Got the comment of "most fit faculty member" from Dr. L.!! Yeah once again kinda a big deal right now!!;) haha just kidding!! But seriously I know people!! After dessert came back to Lyon's Lounge where I am CURRENTLY blogging and catching up so all you people out there who said OH Steve where's your blog from yesterday, you're such a jerk for missing ONE DAY!! WELL HERE THEY ARE!!!:) And for someone here's a nice long !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FACIAL!!!!! That is it from Mussoorie!! As you can tell from the clock to the right it is LATE!! I'm off to bed! And as they say in Great Britain: Goodnight!!!!:)

WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY!!!!

Once again NO PICTURE!! Okay sorry, BUT Saturday night if I do get a chance to blog, I will be going on a 6-8 hour hike to Dehradun and back SO I'm pretty sure I can manage ONE pic from that!!:) So COOL OUT with the picture demands!! Even though none of you have been demanding for any!!! Well as you may have noticed I missed Wednesday's posting!! I apologize but there was no time what so ever to post and I had an EXCELLENT nights sleep because of it, so BACK OFF!!! Well Wednesday morning was also monsoon morning!! AND totally ran to school IN the rain!! But this time no rain game, sorry but my hands were busy pumping back and forth going up the hills!!! Got to school and of course my bag was SOAKED!!! Going to the bazaar this weekend and buying one of those gortex covers for my bag so it won't get soaked!! HOWEVER, I have learned from last rain to put everything in plastic so the bags will cover the important stuff! HA take that Kathy Lee!!!! Wednesday's meetings were a breeze!! Since I do not have an advisor group this year:( I didn't have any meetings in the morning!! So I got some work done for Ajay and myself in the staff lounge!! AFTER the meeting we had STAFF PHOTO'S!!! Once again in black shorts very worried I would be placed in a chair or front row and once again feel like an idiot that I'm wearing black shorts in what probably should be a formal type picture!! BUT thank you mom and dad for the tall genes, whoever that is from seeing I'm taller than both of you, BUT I was in the BACK ROW and the legs were just FINE and COVERED!!! However, I did put on the black rain pants just in case and they were still nice and sweaty wet from the run this morning!! SOoooooooo yeah that was an amazing smell on my legs for the rest of the day!!! After staff pictures we had lunch THEN ACTIVITY WEEK MEETINGS!!! This was AWESOME cause we got to discuss WATER RAFTING AND HIKING TRIPS WITH THE KIDS!!! I'm totally volunteering for rafting OR the LONG EXTREME HIKES!! Let's see what these kids are made of!!:) After that totally went to the Tavern!! A local bar in the bazaar, which I only thought like 8-10 people would show up, NO it was 28-30 STAFF MEMBERS!! We basically ruled the bar!! It was awesome!! AND sang along with this guitarist who showed up at 8:30!! Especially this one song, which you may know: COUNTRY ROAD!!! We ALL sang at the refrain!! Look up refrain if you don't know what that is!! THEN Addy, one of us Woodstockians...Woodstockites...Woodstockogoans....I think Woodstockians, got up and totally rocked the guitar!! He played this one Hindi song which none of us knew, EXCEPT Ajay (different Ajay) told us to listen for this one part to sing along too!! WE DID.....AND WE ROCKED IT!!! It went: Ooooooooh ooooooh oh oh oooooooooooooh oooooooooooh!!! Yeah we're musically talented!! We all split up around 9-9:30 and went our seperate ways!!! Thursday continued in the next post....

TUESDAY!!! TUESDAY!! TUESDAY!!!:)

First there won't be a picture for this one cause there's really no picture moment!! SO COOL OUT if you wanted a picture!! You can just leave right now if you're that upset there is no picture!! Today will be called Monsoon Tuesday!! Because of the massive amount of rain we received from last night onto this morning!! I'm pretty sure this is a typical day for monsoon season, BUT we've not had a typical monsoon season according to all the veterans that have lived here!! Which I'm not complaining AT all about!!:) Woke up this morning to rain!! On the walk to school in the rain made up this really fun rain game!! Called "Are you quicker then rain!?!?" Basically it involves you sticking out your hand in the rain!! Once you count 10 drops of rain on your hand, you have to quickly move the umbrella over your hand!! IF you feel an 11th drop on your hand you lose!!! I was like 54-23 today!!! Take that mother nature!!!:) Once arriving at school we had EVER so fun staff meetings again!! This time was high school, and that was riveting!! Talked about policies, handbook and schedules!! It must be in the phy ed water, but Ajay and myself could not sit still and hate sit down meetings!!! LOVE IT!!:) After said meeting which lasted for an HOUR AND A HALF, we had our break then another sweet hour meeting on Activities week, which started off awesome talking about WHITE WATER RAFTING and CLIMBING and HIKING, buuuuuuuuuuuut then it overstayed it's awesome welcome and got repetitive!! So that was basically all day, and after an hour in the computer lab got kicked out cause they had to close it down!!! Would have had my laptop EXCEPT all my dirty clothes were in my bag because it's LAUNDRY DAY AT THE FARLEY'S!!! HOORAY!!! No more damp smelly clothes!! Well at least until tomorrow morning when I sweat and stink them up again!! But that's tomorrow!! Currently, as you could guess I am at the Farley's doing the laundry and borrowing some internet to be writing this lovely blog!!! Then going to walk the lovely 50 minute hike back home with the BEST smelling backpack AROUND!!! Literally the monkey's will be gathering at the smell of my bag!! In your face Martha Stewart!!! That's about it from Mussoorie!! Have a TERRIFIC TUESDAY EVERYONE AND LOVE FROM MUSSOORIE!!!:) They'll be pictures tomorrow if I blog tomorrow!! GOODNIGHT!!

MONDAY!!!!!!!!:)

MONDAY MONDAY MONDAY!!!!!! My first actual day of WORK!!:) We had staff meetings today and after that PHY ED WORK!! It was amazing!!! BUT can't get ahead of myself let's start off with morning!! Soooooooooo haven't showered for 3 days and it's starting to smell!! The clothes need some laundry service soon, aka tomorrow!!! Using the Farley's washing service tomorrow so that'll be awesome!!:) Totally ran to school today and it went awesome!! Last time had a time of 22:46, this morning 20:39!!! Oh yeah take that oxygen intake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:) That's right ! point time!!!;) After breakfast we had a FULL staff meeting in the Parker lounge!! It was sweet! Sang some songs, had some laughs, listen to Ray our key note speaker!! Really well spoken!!:) After our group staff meeting had some TEA for TEA TIME!! Then middle and elementary school departments had our meetings, which of course being PE was involved with!! AND YOU ARE LOOKING AT THE MIDDLE AND ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SPORTS COORDINATOR!! A thank you!!!:) Yeah I'm kinda wearing my big deal shirt right now!!:) Okay maybe not but it's sweet to have responsibility already!! After lunch we split up into our department meetings, sooooo pretty much Ajay and me!! THIS is the Phy Ed work I was talking about earlier!! We totally had to put ALL the students AND faculty into houses!! Every once in a while we have Innerhouse Competitions!! A house consists of students and faculty!! There are 3 houses: Condor, Eagle, and Merlin!! The Eagle's being the BEST by far (yes I may be on this one!!) So in these competitions students compete against the different houses!! Students get really into it AND get dressed up!! MUSIC TO MY EARS!! If you couldn't tell from Shakopee tennis AND BASELINE!!;) So we did that for 3 hours today!! Rearranged ALL the staff into their respective houses AND all the students into their houses!! It felt awesome to start working a REAL job!! Tonight was a REAL important dinner for ALL the staff!! It was a welcome dinner!! HOWEVER, I was asking around if the dress was casual, semi-casual, etc.!! Yeah got an answer of ALL OF THE ABOVE!! Soooo show up to dinner at 6:30 and of COURSE everyone was dressed up in their Indian garb or fancy ties, annnnnnnd I had on..........the shirt from the picture below that's of my dad and me AND black workout shorts!! YEAH needless to say felt like an idiot!!!:) So all night whenever I had to get up, I had my escort service that would walk with me to cover up my shorts, thus all people could see was my semi nice looking shirt!! After a while though, just gave up and showed the world my shorts!!:) WHOOPSIE!! Not going to make that mistake again!! Whatever I'm PE they probably would have died if I had nice clothes on!!:) At least it wasn't my scooby doo pj pants!!;) The dinner though was AMAZING!! It was a jungle theme so the entire dining hall was jungled out!! Our MC for the night was Mr. Ben Lall, hilarious all night and very entertaining!!:) There were several games throughout the night, with the most important one being the airplane contest!! He gave us a sheet of paper to make an airplane out of, I was kinda the pilot for this one and when I threw it, of course it hit one of the decorations and NOSE dived right away!! LAME!! So we lost that, but the plane that did win (Air France) was thrown by the French teacher and it went REALLY far!! After dinner we settled back in at the Lyon's Lounge and relaxed with some Tei Boe and dance party!!! Overall an AMAZING day!!:) Well as you can see from my Mussoorie time it is almost bed time so I am out!! Hope everyone's day is going fantasticly!!!!! NIGHT!!!:)

Saturday night and Sunday!!!! TODAY!!!:)

Saturday night was really fun, we all met at Midlands dorms and watched an excellent movie!! About a kid who has dyslexia, and no one knows or has diagnosed him about it! Basically everyone in school and at home thinks he's a slacker and dumb, so this parents move him to a boarding school!! Where STRICT/DISCIPLINE is the main philosophy of all the teachers!! And Ishaan (little boy w/dyslexia) hates it there because it is so strict and misses his family, and all the teachers hate him because they think he's dumb and an idiot! Which the word idiot was used so often, kinda funny!! When there seems like there is no hope left for this kid, there is an art teacher who fills in for another teacher, a person who also had dyslexia as a kid! He figures out the problem, learns Ishaan really loves to draw and holds this art competition, which everyone who's watching knows it is specifically for Ishaan but he doesn't want to say it!! Ishaan WINS the contest, gets his self-esteem and personality back and the teacher and him have a nice hug to end the movie!!:) Very sweet Bollywood movie!! TODAY (finally caught up) is a very nice RELAXING day! Walked to school for breakfast and since then been a HUGE computer nerd and catching up ON EVERYTHING!! Blog, facebook, picture uploads, THE WORKS!!!:) But my legs aren't complaining after a week of hiking and soreness!! So it's going to be a very lovely Sunday!!! Well that is it up to this point from India!! There are obviously more detials left out, but this is the main events that have happened!! As I update daily it should be more detailed and less left out!!:) Until then everyone have a WONDERFUL Saturday night, and Sunday!!!!:) MISS YOU ALL FROM MUSSOORIE!! INDIA OUT!!;)


p.s. the picture of the dog sleeping is something very common found in Mussoorie!! DOGS EVERYWHERE!!:)

Thursday Hike to Sunday!!!:)

Thursday after breakfast we left for our first hike!! It was a simple one of only 10k and along Tehri Road, the same road Woodstock is located on!! We first passed the Hanifl Centre, which is the new Outdoor Education building!! This is a view from Hanifl!! It's AMAZING!!! So after Hanifl we kept hiking up to Flaghill, which is exactly what it sounds like!! Nepoleans in the old days, when they climbed the hill, would hang their flag on these ropes on the hill!! They are still there today and look very nice all blowing in the wind like!! Once passing Flaghill, on the immediate right is the option of hiking up to the Haunted House!! Basically this house was abandonded 90 years ago and since then it is haunted!! Not really but we like to say it is for dramatic effect!! A mile or so down the road we come to the part of the hike that is called The Gap!! No, not the store, but a part in the road that you can see BOTH sides of the hill!! North view, which is AWESOME, and South view which is EQUALLY awesome!!:) Past the Gap is more amazing view because we are now at 7000 feet above sea level, BUT couldn't see a view because of the stupid fog and clouds!! So the rest of the hike we didn't see miles upon miles BUT it was still very fun!! We went as far as the Chai Tea place at the 6km mark!! This is where we had our pbj's and tea!! ALSO, met some Irish high school students there for a community service mission trip!! After that friendly meeting we hiked back and had some TEA!!! Friday was an interesting day as well!! I met with Ajay (my HOD Phy Ed) and he's such a cool guy!!:) Unfortunately I found out some interesting news that Amanda our 3rd PE teacher scheduled to be on the team, is NOT showing up now!! LAME!! She told Ajay 5 days before she was supposed to come back!! Basically we are in scramble mode now!! We'll talk tomorrow (Monday) about our NEW teaching schedule and filling in Amanda's spot!! Other than that SOOOOO excited about teaching here and all the different and unique units I'll have, compared to America's system!!:) Saturday was a MONSTER hiking day!! Hiked for 6 hours everywhere around my house!! 3 hours of the hike was heading down the hill and then back up!! 2 hours of the hike was through the bazaar's where I met Sheliesh, owner of a Body Care shop!!! Coolest old guy ever!! He's lived in Mussoorie for 40 years, and after our talk gave me some CANDY!!:) Getting to know the shop owners and recognizing them throughout Mussoorie will be REALLY fun and exciting to hear all their stories!!;) Saturday night and Sunday continued in the next one!!:)

Life in Mussoorie!!:)

Well life is definitely an adjustment now that it has become very simplified!!:) NO CARS!! HECK YES!! Walking everywhere and anywhere!! There is an option of a school taxi, but no to that!! The walk from our apartment to Woodstock is about 30-35 minutes!! I ran it once and that took 22 minutes, sooo about a 2.8 mile distance I would say!! In comparison to a 5k pace!! Oxygen levels took about a week to get used to, since we're at altitudes of 6000+ feet!! Others still are complaining of adjusting, so anywhere from a week to a couple it takes to adjust!! Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are all supplied by the school so that is VERY nice!!! Cause I wouldn't even know where to begin cooking Indian food!!:) First couple of days here the walks simply blew my mind that I lived here!! The view and sites are AWESOME!! The picture is from my balcony!! On a clear morning, WOW, it is breathtaking!!:) Monday was the first day of orientation, so we got to meet EVERYONE that is a newbie here at Woodstock, even though Saturday and Sunday we got to know each other anyways doing everything together!! Monday was signing day, we had SO much paperwork to fill out to become legal in India!! It was so repetitive filling out our name and address on every sheet!! And in India you have to repeat everything a billion times on the SAME sheet!! Thus, one sheet could have our address on it 4 times!! Annoying!!:) Tuesday and Wednesday were a little better! NO PAPERWORK, but just conferences about how to adjust to Indian life and handling the monsoon season!! Even though they are saying this monsoon season is VERY dry!! So that makes it a little easier!!:) However, no good for the farms and water supply in India so that's a bummer big time!! Thursday by far was the sweetest day of the week!! Went on our FIRST group hike, and my first official Mussoorie hike!!!:) More on this hike in the next post!!:)

Delhi-->Dehradun-->Mussoorie cont...

Once on the bus we had a 3 hour bus ride ahead of us for going all of 8 miles uphill!! Yeah, longest BUS RIDE EVER!!:) So going uphill on a bus with the roads the size of a bus makes for ONE interesting bus ride!! In order to go around every corner the bus had to honk it's horn at least 3 times letting oncoming traffic know to GET out of the way!! But the cool thing was we had the SWEETEST horn ever!!:) Of course the view after every 1,000 feet kept becoming more beautiful!! The most amazing coming from 6,000 feet on top of the hill at Woodstock!! As we progressed up the hill, whenever we looked out the window straight down that ledge became more steep and farther down!! It was really cool, well cool for the people NOT scared of heights!! Half the bus was still drugged up from the motion sickness pills they were given for the bus ride!! I didn't take one and was just fine, it wasn't that bad!! So after about a billion turns and amazing views we arrive at Woodstock at 4:34pm!! We go through the welcoming and meeting our buddies, and then our buddies took us to our homes!! Shiv, our taxi driver, drove Sheliesh and I to our apartments AT The Monte Cristo!!:) Where the view is SPECTACULAR!! Can see ALL of Dehradun from my balcony and then some!! Amazing to wake up to every morning!! Once we got settled in our apartments, well I more than Shelish seeing he already has lived there for 6 years, we headed to the bazaar and had some food at the Tavern!! The Tavern is probably the nicest restaraunt in Mussoorie, so that was cool!!:) After dinner got some stuff in the bazaar and headed back to M.C. for an EXCELLENT night's sleep!!:) Well that's the trip from Minneapolis to Mussoorie!! A lovely Wednesday-Saturday experience!! For all those interested in visiting, prepare for that, but we'd do that trip in 3 days!! YAY!!:)

Delhi-->Dehradun-->Mussoorie cont...

Saturday morning we wake up at 5AM to load all of our gear and bags into the bus that will take us to the Delhi train station!! On our way there we see more of Delhi and the incredible space consumption they take up!! We're talking building to building space takeage!! No gaps or little path between buildings, just buildings after buildings!! We get to the train station at 6, with the train leaving at 6:50am departure!! Sure enough we load on the train at 6:30 and by 6:50 we are leaving for Dehradun!! The ride there was so interesting, with the sites seen and unique people!! There were a plethora of small villages along the way, but mostly rice patties and irrigation systems!! We saw a ferris wheel in one of the villages!! That was unexpected but very cool!!:) At most stops we saw a lot of the people dressed in orange and carrying water!! It was a holiday weekend and most locals were bringing gifts and dressed in orange to celebrate, as seen in the picture!!:) Arrival at Dehradun was 1:04pm, so about 7 hours on the train!! Loving traveling at this point!! Not sick of it AT ALL yet!!;) Unload that train and head to our bus that will take us up the hills to Mussoorie!! Continued in next post....

The Trip from Delhi-->Dehradun-->Mussoorie!!

After we all gathered ourselves at the airport we boarded a bus that took us to the hotel!! WOW, that first ride on the Indian highways is an experience all within itself!! Cars, motorcycles, and bus drivers are INSANE!! The horn is put into good use here!! Drivers, I've noticed, never focus behind them, they assume if a driver is behind them they will let them know they are there (aka HONK)!! Which most do!! And the lanes on the highways, are more there for a suggestion rather than actual use!! A two lane highway, we've seen that turned into 4 car lanes!!!:) Hilarious yet scary at the same time!! We get to the hotel at 10pm and we ALL are exhausted, so we turn in for the night ASAP!! BEST SLEEP OF MY LIFE!! Slept 10 hours straight!! Woke up had breakfast with everyone and then we headed to downtown Delhi to FABINDIA and some shopping!! BEST news of my life is when I saw PYJAMA'S (pajama pants) AS AN APPROPRIATE WEAR FOR HOLIDAYS!! Sooooooooo amazing!!:) Definitely got a pair of those and a kurta (men's formal shirt) asap!! Felt cool to be more Indian now!! After an afternoon in Delhi we headed back to the hotel again and had some dinner!! Indian food is DELICIOUS!! Mostly everyone said look out for the spices in India, but honestly after a couple meals the spices really blend in with the main dish and can barely notice it anymore!!:) PLUS no diarhea!! YAY (knock on wood!!) Got back to my hotel room, met Aman my roomie for the night and we went to bed because tomorrow (Saturday) was an EARLY morning!! Heading to Dehradun and Mussoorie all in the same day!! Continued in the next post....

Leaving Minnesota for 18 months!!

This was probably the hardest month of my life!! Never have I needed to say goodbye to so many people, and deal with so many freakin emotions! Mostly sadness!! The hardest goodbyes were definitely my families!! My blood family and of course my tennis family!!:) Being a part of something for 17 years and then having to say goodbye to it for a pretty long time is so hard and takes a lot out of you!! After the goodbyes it was off to the airport for a VERY VERY long trip ahead!! I left the airport at 11:12am (sorry Amy!) and arrived in Chicago at 12:04pm!! 5 minutes ahead of schedule!! Yeah that's right!!:) At Chicago that was a 3 hour layover, due to customs and all that jazz!! So caught up on my sleep and put together some playlists for my i-pod!! Boarded AirIndia at 4 and was off around 4:30pm!! The flight wasn't too bad!! A LOT of i-pod and sleeping on the plane!!;) Once landed in Delhi, 9:12pm our time, about 10:30am your time, I had to go through customs which I was not looking forward too!! BUT it was awesome, all they did was took my health sheet to make sure I don't have SARS or HCM1/Swine Flu and then stamped my passport once I handed them my Customs info!! The whole process took 10 minutes!! Compared to Italy which took an hour or so back Sophmore year of high school!! So that was awesome!!:) Got my bags, ALL of my bags, unlike some of my friends who have STILL yet to get them!! The karts at the airport was SOOOO cool!! They were similar to lawnmowers, where the handle has to be pressed down to move it, and then once you release the handle it stopped!! Very clever AND they're free, take notice America!! Not $4 to borrow!! I take my luggage and look for the Woodstock sign, FOUND them, and then we waited for everyone else!! Yeah I felt like an idiot cause I saw people on the plane I thought might be staff, didn't say hi, and sure enough THEY ALL WERE!! So that was stupid I didn't introduce myself earlier!!:) Sorry Nan, Laura, and Kate!! Next post will be from Delhi to Dehradun to Mussoorie!!:)

FIRST BLOG EVER!!!!

Hey guys!!! So I finally have some time here to set up a blog and start blogging my experiences in INDIA!!!!:) There is a lot to blog about so bare with me!! I'll try to be caught up by SUNDAY night!!

p.s. I MISS YOU ALL IN MINNESOTA!!:)