MONDAY!!!! MONDAY!!! MONDAY!!!!!

STUDENTS ARE HERE!!!!!!!!! Today is an off day but not an off day!! There isn't any orientation scheduled, so had off in that sense, BUT definitely had a lot to do for WEDNESDAY!!! FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! FINALLY!!!!:) Got to school around 8:30, had some breakfast then worked the rest of the day!!! And by work I mean writing down ALL of my students into the gradebook!! Got up to 9th grade, only 2 grades left to put in!! BUT IT'S SO COOL TO HAVE MY OWN GRADEBOOK!!! Feels soooooo professional and amazing!!!!:) After putting in all of the names took a lunch break and then went for a lovely afternoon run!!! DURING my run I felt this wet little bump hit my leg!! Turn around, A beautiful alaskan husky (named him Gorty), was running behind me!! Now in America totally would have pet him, but HERE no way!! Too many diseases sadly!! So tried ignoring him and thought he would stop!! HECK NO Gorty was determined!!! He ran with me 20 of my 30 minutes!! It was sweet! AND half way on my run ANOTHER dog joined the group!! I called him Tron 4000!!! So Gorty, Tron 4000, and I went for a nice run today!!! After my run worked out on the playground, and with all the students around it was fun to see them copy my exercise and try to outdo me, yeah no good, BUT at least they were trying which was awesome!!!!:) Did my stretching and then came to the Lyon's Lounge and STARTED TO BLOG!!! We're on hour 2 of blogging!! SO YOU BEST ALL BE HAPPY I'VE FINALLY CAUGHT UP!!!!! CRIKEY!!!!!!!!! Tonight's plan is more lesson planning and getting ready for Wednesday!!!!!:) Hope everyone has an AMAZING Monday AND ENJOY THE READING!!!!!!:)

SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY!!!!!!! Possibly Monday too, you'll have to READ IT!!!!!:)

SATURDAY NIGHT WAS INTERESTING!!! Walking home to home was SWEET!! I got out of the gate of Woodstock and BAM Son, my landlord was driving by on his scooter and TOTALLY offered a ride!! HECK YES I TOOK IT!! So first ride on a scooter in Mussoorie!! It was AMAZING!! Wind blowing in my long, flowing hair of 2 inches!! Animal poo flying up off the road into my teeth!! Okay maybe no poo, but it was a pretty dirty road!! We took the lower road home, instead of upper!! The view was amazing but a lot of garbage and fecal matter!! Made it home and IMMEDIATELY took a shower!! Smelled so bad!! Let's compare the smell to pig sty+marathon after sweat+cow fart+my natural smell!!! Yeah it was bad!! Took the most refreshing shower ever!! Then was definitely craving carbo's and pizza, so had to go to Clock Tower Cafe again! Walk in and WHOA, hello smoke!! Apparently they blew out their electricity and smoke was everywhere!! Of course their ovens didn't work, so no pizza!!:) BUT had some American Chop Suey which was equally delicious!!:) Had that while I was being pushed to the back of the restaraunt by the windows because it was too smokey in the front part!!!! After dinner headed home and was planning to write in my journal, got out my journal, rested my head on the pillow, that's the last I remembered of that!!!:) Was out like a light!! Woke up Sunday morning stiff as a board!! BUT had a great night's sleep!!! Sunday was another relaxing day!! Wrote in my journal for 9 pages worth, average amount of pages has been around 3, soooo YEAH a lot to write about!!:) Walked to Woodstock around noon and chilled in the Lyon's Lounge with Matt the entire day watching movies!! Especially THE SIMPSONS MOVIE!!! Hilarious!! Spider Pig, Spider Pig, does whatever a spider pig does!!:) Left Lyon's Lounge around 8pm after Pirates O. C. 3, and went to bed by 10pm!!! So a GREAT but non exciting Sunday!!!!!!!

SATURDAY!!!!! HIKE DAY!!!! ALL DAY!!! PART 4!!!!:)

UPHILL TIME!!!! We arrive at our original pick-up spot, now known as the "drop-off" spot, and head to the trail!!:) On the way back Dave and Nicole weren't cool enough to join us, they were too busy shopping and emptying there wallets!! So Matt and I started the ever so fun ALL uphill hike to Mussoorie!!! The first 15 minutes were probably the MOST brutal of the entire uphill hike!! It was HUMID/HOT and wearing black rain pants was no good with that!!! Matt and I were sweating like pigs on a hot day! If pigs sweat?!? Anyways so first 15 minutes we had to stop, grab a drink and catch our breath!! We're like what the heck, Matt a triathloner, myself a marathoner, getting winded in the first 15 minutes, there goes our manhood!!!:( Just kidding, but seriously it was brutal!! After our stop the rest wasn't too bad!! We head up the hill and of course it wouldn't be a hike if we didn't get lost!! We're walking along and sure enough we hear the waterfall getting louder, UH OH!!! No good!! Because the entire way down we heard the waterfall but NOT that close, even when we headed down!! So now we knew we're going the wrong path!! We turn around and we're like yup don't recognize......that! that! that! that! and that!! BUT Matt, stealth eye catches a side path that looks like it goes up! We figure it will join the other path, SO we take it and SHAWHAMMY back on the correct path!! Heading back on path we make it to the top and back on the LOVELY cement path!! That was brutal again on the joints and knees!! Holy crack joints batman!! Matt hips were hurtin, my right foot was blistering and rubbing on the back!! BUT we're tough and slowly earning our manhood back from that first rest!!:) At this point we're at record time!! No MAN or WOMAN before has gone this fast uphill, Guiness Book was with us to make sure we were on pace!! We were!! Ahead of record pace by 3 minutes and 13 seconds!! We pass SGC (St. George College) and the bridge, make it up to our choice, and of course we can't remember which path was the shortcut, and we end up taking the longer path!! BUT still on world record pace, ahead by 2 minutes and 53 seconds!! We start seeing Wynberg-Allen property so that is a GREAT sign!! We head up the road and see the sign for WA High School pointing DOWNWARD! We're like crap how did we miss it!?!? BUT I luckily knew where we were, we came out on the South side of my apt. instead of the North way which we took in the beginning!! So now the record pace is down to 35 seconds, so we're sprinting at this point!! Guiness is right behind, we dive to my apt. steps and STOP THE CLOCK!! We SET THE RECORD BY 3 SECONDS!! You can see us in the book next year in the 2010 edition!!!:) Under Master Hikers!!;) After we celebrate with some bro hugging, we hike back to Woodstock to try and beat the taxi's back!! We chilled at Lyon's Lounge and loved it!! Took off the shoes, Matt had this HUGE blister cut on his right ankle, AWESOME, and I had minor blisters, not as cool!!! We watched Dead Pool (Dirty Harry), and I left for home around 5pm for some much needed dinner!!! Saturday night and Sunday cont.....

SATURDAY!!!!!!! HIKE DAY!!!!! ALL DAY!!!! PART 3!!!!

Cont.....still!!:)

We made it to the nature part of our hike!!! OUR SECOND CHECK POINT!! From here the rest of the way was butter!!! All Dave was worried about was getting to this point of the hike, now were are here and it's a straight shot to Rajpur!!! Well not straight shot, but one single hiking trail!! This trail was beautiful!!! On one side was a lovely 4000 foot drop BUT a view you could see for miles!! Specifically the valley in the earlier parts, AND Rajpur in the later parts of the hike!!! On the other side of the trail was cliffside!! Mostly green and bushy as seen in the pic!!! This part of the hike was much more giving on our knees and joints!! Nice rocks and grass to support our feet!! And holes every so often to go poo in!! Okay just one, but it was a nice plumbing system!! Flowed all the way down to the valley!!! Half way down the hike we made it to a rockslide!! This baby was sweet to cross!! One false move, and SHAZAM you fall and slide 3000 feet down the hillside!! No pressure!! We all made it across safe and sound!! Then 3/4th along the way we make it to pure rock/sliding trail!! This is where our skiing pays off!! Both feet pointing right, then left, then right, then left!! Very fun and very effective!! Of course heading almost down to the Rajpur road we get to this mini jump down!! Dave goes first, nails it! Matt jumps, nails it! Nicole jumps, nails it!! Apparently all of those jumps loosened the earth, or I'm really heavy, cause when it came to my turn I jump down the earth just moves down and totally wipe out going backwards!! NO BLOOD!! Keep on going!! It's all good!!!:) With my expert PE balance I catch myself with my left hand!!;) haha but still failed the PE nation with my inability to land the jump, I fail you all!!:( We hike up to the road and continue to our meeting point, where the taxi will pick us up!!!:) It's a round piece of cement with a tree growing out of the middle!! It's at a 3 way part of the road, so it just made sense to meet here!!! Taxi comes, 7 people pile in to a 5 person taxi, AWESOME!! The true Indian way!! We first drive to KKM Leprocacy colony where we bought the most amazing clothes for a reasonable price! After KKM and our tour of the looms we head to DEHRADUN for lunch!!!! Of course we pick the true Indian restaraunt of McDonald's!!! McMaharaja, the beast of the Indian McDonald's!!! It wassssssssss interesting!! Good not great!! I was kinda hungering for a true McChicken BUT it still did the job!!!:) Hike up continued after this.....

SATURDAY!!!! HIKE DAY!!!! ALL DAY!!!!! PART 2!!!:)

Cont.....

So we're heading downward now, ON cement, felt SOOOOOOOOOOO good on the joints!! You want paint go downhill on cement for an hour! Holy schnikee!! Now, Dave, our hike guide has not been on this hike for 14 years, so we don't know what to expect!! For the FIRST part of the hike he only had to ask clarification TWICE!! IT was pretty amazing!!:) The first time was checking if we were heading towards St. George's College, OUR FIRST CHECKPOINT!! Oh we were!! IN FACT, the students he was asking showed us a shortcut!! Took 5 minutes off our time, no big deal we know people!!:) We head down the road and into this mini bazaar and sure enough, past the random cow in the road (seen on facebook) was St. George's College!!! MADE THE FIRST CHECKPOINT!! It was 8:04am at this point!! We past SGC and right away we look up and see this REALLY COOL bridge!! It literally came out of Indiana Jones!!!:) Totally wanted to cross that, but we were on a time schedule, so NO time there!! We continued downhill on MORE cement, the knees were kind of feeling it at this point!!;) On our way to the nature trail (2nd part of the hike) we passed this really cute elementary school!! All the kids came out and said hello, it was awesome!! HOWEVER, the teacher did not think it was so awesome!! Being teachers we should have known better, BUT COME ON they were adorable and pretty much we'll never have that chance AGAIN!! Unnnnnnnnntil we hike to Rajpur another day!!;) So we quickly apologized to the teacher and continued walking!!!:) About 10 minutes after that we made it to THE NATURE part of our hike!! The old old British trail used by the British for the British to get to Dehradun way back when!! THE ONLY road at that time!!:) Nature trail continued......

SATURDAY!!!!!!!! HIKE!!!!!!! ALL DAY!!!!!!!!!!!:)

IT's HIKE DAY!! IT'S HIKE DAY!! TO DEHRADUN!!!! Actually the technical destination is Rajpur, BUT our OVERALL destination was Dehradun!!:) SO 6am, BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!! No it's not a truck backing up IT'S MY ALARM!! RISE AND SHINE IT'S DAY HIKING TIME!!! (Cool Runnings, anyone!?) 6am, got up tried making hard boiled eggs!! Could not have failed any better!! Eat your heart out Juliet Child!! Never turned on the stove to this point before, never tried filling a pot with purified water before, it was a morning of firsts!! I open the fridge, pull out the eggs, and sure enough EVERY SINGLE EGG WAS FROZEN!! Mainly the fridge's fault, but in the eggs' defense they have been in there since I arrived, plus a couple days before I arrived to my apartment!! Put the eggs in the pan full of tap water (no good right there), BUT I figure the boiling water will purify the water, a 2fer!!! Boil the eggs while cleaning the water!! Yeah that failed like a fat guy sitting in an airplane seat!! No good!! The water took literally 30 minutes to boil and at that point I had to go, so I broke open an egg and sure enough it was STILL frozen, decided NOT to bring the gross uneatable eggs to the group for breakfast!! Throw all 14 away and gather my things and out the door I go at 6:40am!! Now the plan was to meet at Woodstock at 7am, Ms. Nicole, Matt and I decided the night before 6am, but after talking to Dave figured that was not necessary!! So Dave and I decided to change the time to 7am and I would let Matt and Nicole know!! Well knowing this world of technology we live in I have 3 ways to try and reach them: phone, e-mail and of course facebook!! Send messages via e-mail and facebook, and try calling them!! Never got a hold of them by phone!! However, I did have a 4th backup plan!! I told Aman and Kate to tell Matt or Nicole that the time was changed to 7!! IT WORKED FOR MATT!! Aman saw Matt and let him knew, so Matt knew!! I had no idea about Nicole!! Apparently, 6am arrived and Nicole was waiting AT WOODSTOCK!! She leaves, goes home, at 6:40am NOW checks her e-mail and what do you know gets my message about meeting!! Luckily she made it and they start off from Woodstock!! I meet up with them about 7:15am, so they would have been 10 minute walk away from Woodstock!! We're all happy, fresh and ready to go hiking to Rajpur!! We take my normal way home all the way up to Wynberg-Allen Junior school!! Now if we were going to my apt. we'd take a right, however, we need to go down, down, down, down 5000ft. so we took a left (the downward way)!!! Start heading down and everything is good to go......

A LOT to catch up on!!!! Friday!!!

Friday was a pretty laid back day!!! Getting ready for Saturday's hike would be a good way to describe it!! Ran to school in the morning, WITH A NEW PR (Personal Record)!!! 19:36!!!!! A sub-20 minute run!!! THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!!:) So my muscles are ready to go for Friday!! During the morning and afternoon had some final meetings with Ajay, getting all the middle school sports ready and looking for coaches!!! Send out my FIRST all Woodstock Staff e-mail!! IT WAS PRETTY EXCITING!!:) It felt real official and real AWESOME!! After the afternoon meetings I had a chance to show off my soccer skills in front of Ajay and the staff, in our first staff soccer game!!! IT WAS A BLAST!!! I called our team the Yankees, just because we won a lot and everyone hated us for constantly winning!! They literally were scared of us, cause they kept putting out other teams before us, when it was clearly out turn!! No one wanted to face us!! Who could blame them though, we're kinda big deals!!! Two Phy Ed teachers, an assistant for Phy Ed, and 3 staff that were clearly in shape!! The ultimate team!!!:) TEAM RAMROD!!! AND it was amazing, the 3rd to last game we played, MONSOON season continued!! IT JUST DOWNPOURED!!! Of course that didn't stop us from playing!! I mean once you get wet, continue playing wet, cause you can't get any wetter!! YES WETTER!! Played 30 minutes in the continuous downpour that is Mussoorie Monsoon Season, MMS!!!;) We called it quits around 6:30 for dinner!! Gotta re-energize those muscles!! And plus I had to get some energy to walk home and go to dinner!! So dinner at the dining hall was more snack and energy boost to get TO my dinner, which was at the Clock Tower Cafe!! Left Woodstock at 7:30, no rain anymore, thankfully!! Arrived at the Clock Tower Cafe at 8pm and ordered the delicious penny pasta dish!! The Clock Tower Cafe is a VERY Western eatery!!! For example they have a lot of bumper stickers on the walls and CONSTANTLY play Western Music!! Felt very at home and very yummy!! Went here mainly for the carbo-loading for the massive hike tomorrow (Saturday)!!! After dinner, went home and just crashed because I was so exhausted from the day, and the fact I had to get up at 6am for THE HIKE!!!:) More on the hike, after this..........:)