Part 2 of manure!!!!!:)

I just need to say that this is not me, YET!!!!!:) I know there is a striking resemblence between Grizzly Adams and myself, and YES, Grizzly Adams did have a beard!!!!:) And he was a manly man!!!!! So all you ladies out there who "think" I need to shave my beard, ummmmmm let's just see who saves you when you're being attacked by a bear!!!!! Money is on the guy with the beard!!!! SO FACIAL!!!! And any guys out there who think the beard should go, well that's just flat out jealousy you can't grow one!!!!;) Okay ANYWAYS back to my week!!! Thursday night came along and you KNOW IT'S SVU NIGHT!! BUT WAIT........more like The Mentalist!!! OR as Megan pronounces it the "MentaLList"!!! Yeah real smooth Megan!!! And no Chris I have no manure for you!!!!:) SO it was laundry night, cause I didn't want to go into activity week smelling worst than usual and I didn't want to torture the students THAT much so soon!!!! Also, Matt came over for the first time and joined our laundry night/SVU/now The Mentalist night!!!! We ordered some Clock Tower Cafe delivery, and we pretty much made their quota for the month with our order!!!! Needless to say it was a LOT of food!!!:) Oh and a little sidenote, finished my entire two loads of laundry BEFORE 10:30pm!!! It was a record!!!! Friday was AWESOME!!! I wore my green tennis shirt all day, and definitely got some comments about that!!!:) i.e. "That beard doesn't go with that bright of shirt", "were you scared that you would get lost today and no one would find you?", "nice face does it come in stupid!!" Okay I made that last one up, but the students were very vocal about their opinions and my AWESOME bright green tennis Shako Sizzler shirt!!!:) Friday night was RELAXING night!!! Went straight home and got caught up in my journal, WHILE downloading the computer version of Risk II!!!! I missed that game too much!!! SOOOOOOOOOO after my journaling pretty much played Risk from 8pm-12pm!! HEY it's an awesome game back off or I will fight you!!!!!! Similar to Catan it's VERY addicting!! You just can't have enough of Yurtusk or Ural!!!!:) THIS MORNING (Saturday) woke up with NO alarm at 9am, always feels good to do that!!! Had my carbo breakfast and went on my nice relaxing 1 hour 32 minutes 14 second run!!! BEST part of the run BY FAR had to be running just past the Chai Tea Stop at the 5k mark, the EXACT turnaround spot for our very first hike that first weekend here!!!!:) I run past Chai and coming around the corner I come to the most AMAZING VIEW I have seen yet: at LEAST a 30 MILE STRETCH OF THE HIMALAYA'S!!!!! It was literally come around the corner and BAM!!!!! HELLO HIMALAYA'S!!!!!!!! It would have been a wider stretch but two hills were in the way on the right and left, but still seeing that much of the Himalaya's really puts into perspective the AWESOMENESS they are!!!!! They are sooooo TALL!!!!:) So I almost ran off the cud because of a trance at the view!!!! Stared at them the entire run down the hill towards Himalayan Weavers and back again to the Chai stop!!!!!:) Very AWESOME!!! And when I get my NEW CAMERA totally coming back and taking a picture!!!!:) And then saving that pic so NO ONE can see it until I get back to Minnesota, a little present for all of you, and to torture you!!!!:) After my run walked to Chardukan and had some apple/cinamon waffles and a nice relaxing afternoon!!!! NOW it's time to go and PACK FOR A WEEK OF FUN IN THE SUN!!!!! Oh and p.s. for all you Minnesotans out there, immediately after my run and before lunch I laid out in the SUN shirt off for a good 30 minutes in a beautiful 75 degree day!!!! AND THIS IS A DAY BEFORE NOVEMBER!!!!!!:) Can't find that anywhere in the midwest!!!!!;) Please don't be too jealous!!!! ALRIGHT UNTIL NEXT SUNDAY WHEN I RETURN FROM ACTIVITY WEEK HAVE AN AWESOME FANTASTIC AND AMAZING WEEK EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:) I'll be thinking about you all when I'm in Rishekesh and in 85 degree sunny weather RAFTING down the Ganges!!! Again try not to be too jealous!!!! I really miss the snow right now..............:) BUMBLEBEETUNA!!!!!

Was that real manure? NOOOOOOO!!:) But CATAN will have his revenge!!!!!

Well I have to start this post with the EXCITEMENT OF ACTIVITY WEEK STARTING TOMORROW (SUNDAY)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:) Let's start off with MONDAY NIGHT = SETTLER OF CATAN TOURNEY!!!!!!! Freakin AMAZING!!!!! If you've never heard of Settlers of Catan (like me going into the tourney) it's basically a combination of Monopoly, Risk, and an entirely unique game in itself!! Google it, it's an awesome strategy game!!!! Sooooooo being huge nerds Monday night, we had 5 tables with 4-5 people at each one, with the winner of each table going into the championship round!!!! Sadly I came in a gentleman's 4th out of 4 at my table!! Table E (my table) was Greg, Joy, Nicole, and myself!!!! And holy schnikee did I see an entirely NEW side of all 3 of them!!! Sooooooooo competitive and cut throat, it was AWESOME!!!!:) I think Nicole may have been a little perturbed with me and my loudness whenever something good or bad happened!!!! AND then we even had CONTROVERSY at our table!!! So the objective is to get 10 victory points; you can accumulate points by either: building houses, settlements, longest road, largest army, and development cards that have victory points on them!!! WELL that last one is where "SETTLERS OF CATAN CONTROVERSY '09" comes in to play!!!!!! Greg had 9 points and ended his turn, not realizing he had a victory card in his possession, he clearly stated his turn was done and then BAM played the card and claimed victory!!! This would not have been a big deal if Nicole wasn't about to win it on her turn which was NEXT!!!! WELL the Dave's (Boven/Wiebe) and Greg discussed the ruling with Boven and Greg agreeing you can play the card WHENEVER, and that's how they interpreted it in the rules book!! However, Wiebe disagreed and said you can play as many victory cards as you want ON YOUR TURN!!! Well sad story for Nicole, the Bovenmeister made the final decision and declared Greg the winner, with Wiebe and Nicole not too happy!!!!:) I just got out of there as fast as possible cause I thought there was going to be a Settler's Masacre at hand!!!! OF course it didn't help that during the entire last 15 minutes of the game Matt was pushing Nicole's buttons and Greg and I formed an alliance against Nicole!!!:) So Team Ramrod (Greg and I) claimed a TEAM VICTORY when he won!!!!:) Well after that INTENSE ending I went and played in the consolation game, while Greg went on to the Championship table!!! Yeah I didn't deserve to be in the consolation game, but being addicted I quickly ran over and claimed my spot!!!;) OH on top of everything there was SOOOOO much food!! Like 10 pizza's, 8 of them home made YUM, fruit, vegetables, drinks (juice), ANNNNNNND BOVEN'S HOMEMADE COOKIES!!!! Yeah they could sell them, seriously, they are amazing!!!!!:) The whole tourney started at 6pm and the Championship/Consolation round didn't even get done until 10:45pm!! IT was an awesome night!!!!!:) On the way home we walked along the Eyebrow, and I've never walked it at night, and let me tell you the view at one point of the path was BREATHTAKING!!!! Could see for miles upon miles AND all of Dehradun was lit up and beautiful!!!!!:) Well besides Monday night, the entire week kind of FLEW by!!! Staff night on Wednesday was NO WHERE near as fun as last week's, mostly because everyone was at the Class of '74 dance at Hanifl Centre, so it was basically Dave, Joy, Scott and myself playing 2 on 2 basketball for an hour!!!!! MORE OF THIS WEEK CONT....

Oh Chitty you make my heart go wild!!!!:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylNwSv6c7m0 WHO NEEDS A PICTURE WHEN YOU CAN START OFF WITH THIS!!!!!:) I forgot to mention that Woodstock was having a wedding reception in the afternoon on Saturday, meaning for lunch we got WEDDING FOOD, which was AMAZING!!!!:) If only there were weddings and events every weekend!!! After my NO go of finding a bike shop ANYWHERE on the Western part of Mussoorie, I headed back buying some random things here and there: mini notebooks to keep log of my workouts in, rope to climb trees, and lip balm!!! YEAH it's very dry and being 7000ft up kinda makes one lips extra chappy!!! MY LIPS HURT REAL BAD!! Oh and the rope, yeah not that random!! There are PLENTY of trees around Mussoorie, and besides giving us oxygen why can't we have a little fun with them and climb them!!!! Going to make a figure of 8 knot, throw it over a branch and start climbing!! An excellent upper body workout!!! And if I want to train old school, fill an old sack with rocks in it, throw that over the tree and start pulling it up!!! Excellent for the lats and tri's!!!:) WHAT I'M A PE TEACHER, what do you expect!!!! I'm going to go relax and read a book?!?! Come on!!! BORRRRRRRING!!!!:) So on the way home I decided to stop by the Farley's and wouldn't you know who was outside reading a book and looking like an old lady all wrapped up in her blanket!??! Megan!!! But on the plus side, after I told her she looked like an old lady all wrapped up in her blanket reading a book she invited me over for dinner and a movie with Jenny and her!!! I don't know how I still get invited over with all the stuff I harass her with!!:) Well we ate some delicious pasta and watched Pirates of the Carribean #1!!!!! AWESOME!!! Then we had Kate/Elsa's Halloween party later on so Megan and Jenny had to get their costumes ready for that!! For the first time in 5 years I had no costume or ambition to wear one!!! BUT when I get back to the states that will change, since Mussoorie doesn't really celebrate Halloween, don't worry for Christmas though it's on!!!!:) Jenny dressed up as your black ally cat with SHARPIED ON WHISKERS, tail, and all black outfit!!! Megan was your ridiculous pumpkin/jack-o-lantern!!!! Wore an orange Kurta, and taped a face on their including a SQUARE nose, who puts on a square nose for a lantern of jack?!?! COME ON!!!:) Well we were all ready to go, and before heading over to Kate's Jenny and Megan wanted to show off their costumes to some 5th graders that were sleeping over at the Farley's!!! Well they all loved Jenny's cute cat outfit!! Then Megan showed off her pumpkin and they didn't know WHAT she was right away, THEN one of the girls yelled out "she's a BUTTKIN!!!" haha YEAH they said buttkin!!! Even though Megan thought she heard pumpkin!!! Ummmm NO it was definitely BUTTKIN!!!!:) And being the nice friend I thought it would only be appropriate to let everyone know at the party about Megan's new nickname!!! Which held it's ground when I called her Buttkin and she turned her head to look at me!!!! POINT PROVEN!!!:) We hung out at the party for a couple of hours, Jenny made some freakin sweet finger cookies!! They were cookies that looked like fingers with jam at the end so it looked like it was cut-off, then almonds for finger nails!! Very clever!!!! I left around 11:30pm cause it was WAY past my bed time!!!:) This morning woke up at a wonderful 9am and made some breakfast!!!! Did some writing in my journal under a BEAUTIFUL blue and clear sunny sky!!!! WHICH this is my NEW journal now because my old one is all full with 100 DAYS OF INDIA IN THERE!!!! That's right on Thursday it was our 100th DAY IN INDIA!!!!! And my journal has EXACTLY 100 days in it, which is kinda cool!!! Now with my new one who knows how many days it will hold but I'm sure the next 100 are going to be JUST as awesome as the first 100!!!!:) Mostly because in these next 100 will be WINTER BREAK!!!!!:) TRAVEL TIME!!! After journal writing I am GOING to go on a nice little mini hike down the back hillside behind Mt. Hermon to Freezer's Point, or whatever it's called and relax there by CLIMBING SOME TREES WITH MY NEW ROPE!!!!!!!:) IT'S CLIMB TIME!!! If you don't hear from me next weekend, don't worry I didn't fall down the cud too far!!!;) HAVE AN AMAZING SUNDAY EVERYONE AND HAPPY PRAYING!!!!:)

OH YOU CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG!! CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG WE LOVE YOU!!! HI HO!!!!!

Sooooooo writing in my journal this morning (Sunday morning) I look up and what do I happen to see, THE HIMALAYA'S!!!!! It is sooo clear and beautiful this morning!!! It makes me think, I could be living at Monte Cristo right now and looking at a giant cement building and some parts of Dehradun!!! WOW thats a hard choice in scenaray!! Not to mention being up 7000 ft. and having the cleanest air EVER at Mt. Hermon!!!!!! And now I bet you're wondering why the heck Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and where did that even come from!! WELL I'll tell you nosey Nancy!!! If you recall in the movie, they are flying, in Chitty, over and around the Swiss Alps!!! Seeing the Himalaya's this morning and the clarity of them made me think of that same view and how awesome it is!!! And how much I want a flying car so I can fly to them and climb them!!!:) SO THERE!! Not so random after all!!!!!!:) As for this week, it was another SPECTACULAR week, mostly because ALL major sporting events are OVER with for the rest of the semester!! Having 4 straight weeks of SOMETHING major on a Friday (InterHouse/School CC, InterHouse/School Sports Day) is freakin tiring!! Now it's all systems go for focusing on teaching and fitness plans!!! Let's start off the week in review on Wednesday night: STAFF NIGHT!!! And this is mainly for Nicole to read, cause she MISSED this staff night, so this is IN HER FACE!!!!!! So I don't know why we didn't do or think of this earlier in our previous staff nights, BUT after a good hour of climbing I got into cartwheel and forward roll mode, THEN thinking wait we have a GYMNASTICS room!!! Got the key, and from 8-9pm WE WERE 1st GRADERS AGAIN and went into our GYMNASTICS ROOM!!!! We had jumping over random objects contests using the mini trampolines!!! Which Laura was so good at!!!;) We turned the blue mats into a king of the hill ring!!!!! Some even set up obstacle courses!!!! IT WAS AWESOME!!!!:) Needless to say we were SOOOO sore the next day!! Waking up with stiff EVERYTHINGS: necks, shoulders, butts, and of course medula oblingota's!!!:) Friday was amazing as well since it was a Middle School hike day, AND I had to stay back and teach high school so half of my classes were cancelled due to NO students!!! A very NICE relaxing end to an amazing week of relaxation!! A double whammy!! OH NOT TO MENTION SVU NIGHT ON THURSDAY!!!! It's slowly becoming one of my favorite shows to watch here, not, of course, beating Mr. Bean animated!!!!!!;) Then yesterday was another fantastic Saturday!!! Waking up at 7am to workout in the fitness room ALL BY MYSELF!!!:) After our InterSchool Sports meeting went to meet Matt and Brady in the bazaar, but couldn't find them so walked ALL the way to The Mall on the very Western edge of Mussoorie and back again!! Tried to find a bike shop to buy a bicycle, BUT no luck!!! Chitty chitty continued...

DIWALI IS A GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)

HOLY SCHNIKEE I WAS SOOOOO PUMPED TO HEAR DIWALI WAS THIS WEEKEND!!!! My first thought was The Office and how HILARIOUS Dwight and Michael were at the Diwali celebration!!!!!!!! Sorry gang, no wedding proposals yesterday!!!!!;) Okay well Saturday morning (Diwali) I got up at 7:30am, which YES sadly is sleeping in for me now (usual wake-up of 4:45am)!!!!! Made some wonderful breakfast, and by made I mean pouring my milk on my honey oats cereal and TOASTING a bagel with my TOASTER!!! Which is still the BEST investment I have bought yet!!!!!!:) Ate breakfast then decided today was a perfect long run day!!! So after breakfast I put on my running shorts, tied up my shoes and just ran!!! I ran Northeast towards the Himalayan Weavers on Tehri Road, which if you don't live in Mussoorie, a road similar to Duluth's Jean-Duluth Rd. except WAY more extreme uphill and downhill!!! And if you don't know Duluth that well, ummmm GO visit Duluth and you'll know what I'm talking about!!!:) So ran that for a lovely/relaxing 1 1/2 hours!!! Haven't done that since I've been here!! So that felt AWESOME!!!:) Total mileage was 2.35 miles and an incline of almost 600 feet over my run!!:) Oh and that's at 6972 to 7562 feet ABOVE sea level!!!! Now comparing that to Grandma's Marathon of starting at 740 feet and finishing at 610 feet above sea level!!! YEAH just a little difference!!!:) After my run did some core workout and stretching on the little grass lawn we have in front of our Mt. Hermon complex!!! IN THE SUN!! AND from where I was you could SEE THE SNOW PEAKS OF THE HIMALAYA'S IN THE DISTANCE!!!! IT WAS AWESOME!!!! After that met my fellow Woodstockians at Chaya Cafe and ate lunch around noon, then explored the bazaar a little to see the Diwali decorations!! Not a whole lot....YET!!! Just wait til night!!! After that we walked back and got ready for our HUGE HIKE to Witch's Hill, which took us all 45 minutes to reach the top from Hanson Field!! YEAH it was intense!!:) BUT once on top it was AMAZING!! We could see North, East, South, and a little West of us!! Almost a 360 view!!! On the top there was a meadow EXACTLY like Little House on the Prairie's ending where she jumps and they freeze!!!! WELL one of our hikers, who cause of embarassment will remain nameless, did that jump for a picture and TOTALLY crashed and burned the landing!! The weeds were really thick and their foot got caught in it and BAM hard landing stomach first!!!:) HILARIOUS!!!!:) After we reached the top Laura and Kate had to get back to Hanson for a little ultimate frisbee, but didn't want to go the exploratory way/the COOL new way down!!! So Cookie, Dave and I after eating our food the Hustwaite/Swanson's gave us (who were also up there) to enjoy left on the East side of Witch's Hill instead of North which is Laura and Kate's exit way!!!! We hiked down a very STEEP and loose graveled path which eventually lead us to the low road!!! Walked down the road and found the MINE Harvey told us about!! Dave and I, of course, had to go explore it!! Well we got about 20 feet into it when there was no more to explore!! We ran out of light and the end of it had a very small hole that went straight down, another day!!!!:) Arrived at Hanson by 3:45, BEAT Laura, in her face!!!! Played an INTENSE game of Ultimate Frisbee!!! By intense I mean 2 went down with injuries and I accidentally shoulder tackled Stephen by using him as my stopping device BUT he did not land on the ground just a HARD collision!!! However, Aman and I collided with him on the ground and me dragging him by his arm for a couple feet!!! HEY Hanson is freakin slippery!! Ask my relay partner Tim, who pulled a tendon in his foot on that grass!!! DANGEROUS!!! After ultimate, walked back up to SouthHill to visit the Hills and nothing was going on there like planned, so headed home made some tuna sandwhich and carrots for dinner!!! Was planning on heading back down to SouthHill to party BUT after the shower the long day finally caught up and I was exhausted!! SO crawled in bed with my pj's, started to write in my journal and was OUT by 9pm!!! YEAH EXTREME NIGHT!!!!:) THAT WAS DIWALI!!!! Oh and all that night it was BAM BOOM POW BAM BOOM fireworks constantly!!! Except it was just the loud cannon firing sounds, no actual works in the air making sweet lights!!!!! LAME!!!!! Or maybe there was later, who knows!!! But a very nice Diwali it was!!!!!!!!

INTERSCHOOL SPORTS DAY AND DIWALI!!!!!!!:)

Friday morning!!!! The skies are mostly blue and beautiful!!!! The smell of competition is in the air and Woodstock is feeling it!!!!:) The Woodstock students are dressed uniformly in their black and gold Woodstock track suits (looking VERY spiffy)!!! Opening ceremonies start at 9:30am sharp with a couple speeches from esteemed guests and the principal of Wyneberg-Allen (the host of the 12th InterSchool Sports Day/ "Olympics")!!! After the speeches, as seen in the picture, the 4 schools get in marching lines and march the track once then assemble as seen above!!! Now in India marching is a HUGE deal!!! W.A., Waverly Covenent (all girls school), and St. George's College (all guys school) practice marching everyday!!! Woodstock.......we practiced once, and that was Tuesday, 3 days before Sports Day!! So needless to say for the practice we had, we NAILED IT!!!:) The set-up of the day was very similar to our InterHouse Sports Day, track would run their races while the field events would do their thing in the middle!!! As a school Woodstock placed 3rd in both boys and girls divisions!!! Which I have to mention was out of 3 schools!! YEAH!!! YOU KNOW IT!!!!:) Hey for the practice we had, that is exactly what we expected and could hope for!! We had fun!! Individiually we had some very nice performances from our women, and some younger division boys!!!!!! But like I said at least we had a blast being there!!! During lunch time I was invited to the V.I.P. lunch where ALL the big whigs eat lunch and the view from their cafeteria was equally as amazing from our tea garden at Woodstock!!!! You could see for miles!!!!! W.A. sits right on the edge of the hill due North of Dehradun, so it's a pretty incredible view during October and November!!!!!! After Sports Day was done with you could see a BIG sigh of relief from Ajay and myself, BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING NOW UNTIL NEXT SEMESTER!!!! CC's and Sports Day's are DONE WITH!!!! We can actually focus primarily on teaching again!!!:) Not that we weren't before, but now it's ALL teaching!!!;) Friday night I stopped over at Jenny's and Megan's to see what they were up to and BAM hello birthday party for one of their/our students!!!! It was a blast!!!:) But once they left at 9pm to be back for check-in the adults had our fun with a little pre-Diwali celebration with watching THE DIWALI EPISODE OF THE OFFICE on the Mr. and Ms. Farley's projector!!! NOW I say Ms. Farley, even though it is Mrs., because all of the students that were there for the birthday party called Nicole Ms. Farley, because they thought Chris and Nicole were just dating, and they happened to have the same last name!! It was HILARIOUS!!!!:) And I think one even thought they were brother and sister!!! PRICELESS!!!!!:) So we watched 3 episodes of The Office: Diwali, Gay Witch Hunt, and Summer Lose Weight Challenge (where JIM ASKS PAM TO MARRY HIM!!!) (in your face Jay)!!!!!:) IT WAS A PERFECT PRE-NIGHT TO DIWALI!!!! WHICH WAS ON SATURDAY!!!!!! More of that too come......

p.s. AT SPORTS DAY ON FRIDAY, in the morning their song that was playing in the background was the whistling song from GREAT ESCAPE!!!! That's right my hiking crew, OUR HIKING WHISTLING SONG WAS THEIR MAIN THEME!!!!!!! HECK YES!!!!!;) I have video which I'll have to show you!!!!! Everyone else, I'll explain this when you're older!!!:)

Fall just isn't the same here!!!!

SOOOOOOOOOOOOO finally being caught up with the blogs feels SOOOOOO good!!!!:) I can actually write stuff now and not have to strain my brain and try and think about the last month and what happened!!! Anyways being away now from Minnesota for 3 months there are definitely some things I miss!!! First and foremost family and friends!!! Granted if I was still in Minnesota NO ONE would be around cause they're all away from the metro anyways, but I'd be closer to them than half way across the world!!!!:) One thing I really miss is the Minnesota fall!!! Yeah, living there for 23 years it can get repetitious and tedious, BUT now that I'm actually gone from it for the entire fall season there are definitely some little thins about Minnesota falls I miss that one day I will want to live forever in!! One is the coloring of the leaves and the cool weather that comes with it!!! The air is so fresh and perfect at that time of year!! Another thing I find I'm missing are the apple orchards!!! Picking apples during the fall with my mom is something I did last year, that I hadn't done in such a long time and it was the BEST time ever!!! Can't find that in India, especially not being able to pick the apples off the trees and eating them!! Freakin die of polio if you did that here!!! But not in Minnesota, you can pick as many as you want and eat as many as you want while you pick!!! And they are fresh and delicious!!!!!:) Going to a pumpkin patch and picking out that perfect pumpkin to carve for Halloween!!! The leaves rustling under your feet as you walk, and throwing dried out cow manuer at friends as you walk through the field!!! Then get home and leave the extra pumpkin you got for a roommate sit on the floor all winter and become molded to it when you finally check on it in the Spring!!! Mike that is still your fault!!!:) Heck also Sunday football games!!!! Sitting around the tv with friends and family watching the Vikings or whoever your favorite team is kick the crap out of the Packers with their former quarterback they've had for years, or whoever your rival team is!!!:) HA in your face Packer Nation!!!! All the while you have a bar-b-que going grilling up that burger or hot dog, or brautwurst!!!! Then after the game sitting on the porch or outside lawn with the temp being just cold enough you need a sweatshirt!!! Finally being able to sit outside at night under the stars without a million misquitoes biting your flesh and buzzing around your ears!!!! Also the MINNESOTA STATE FAIR!!! Something almost every Minnesotan looks forward to in the fall!! Fried food on a stick, crazy inventions in the Agriculture building!!! Weather that is perfect for being outside for 13 hours straight from sunrise to sunset!!! All makes for one expensive, but fun day!!! All of these thoughts are in my head today, cause on Thursday when I was over at the Mark's house they had a Duluth picture book, not as random as you think, their daughters go to St. Scholastica in Duluth!!! I was looking at all of the pictures and I'm like what the heck, WHERE WAS I in Duluth to miss all of these wonderful sites!! I couldn't believe the pictures that were taken right under my nose!!! You live in one place for such a long time, that place being Minnesota, and you don't even bother really "seeing" what is around you, and what opportunities you have to see beautiful streams or rocks or leaves or nature trails!!! I thought I had to get away to India to see nature at it's finest, which I cannot lie it has been absolutely amazing here, but looking at that book there are equally enough chances back in the states to find that beauty in nature I sought out for!! Now I'm not writing this because I'm feeling homesick and I cry myself to sleep each night thinking I made this horrible mistake!! Trust me NOT DOING THAT!!!!!:) I absolutely love it here and can see myself here for 3-5 years!!! All I'm saying is I definitely know now that I eventually will move back to the states and settle someplace with seasons!!!! Coming to India I had no idea what to expect!! And right now they have exceeded all of my expectations!! However, one question I could not know until I arrived and become settled was how long I could live here!! Could it be forever? Could it only be a year? Could it only be 6 months? Well I know for sure I will be here for my entire 3-year contract, and maybe another 1-2 years on top of that!! But there are so many things I want to do/miss in the states that I know I eventually will return to live the rest of my life there!!! Living in Delhi for 3 days solitifies that I will NOT live someplace hot year round! No thanks to that!!! I think what has made living Mussoorie such an easy transition is the weather!! It is SO similar to Minnesota, just minor difference seperate a Minnesota fall and Mussoorie fall, which is comforting!!!:) And the size of the town!! After leaving Delhi and Dehradun, returning to a nice peaceful town like Mussoorie, similar to Shakopee and Duluth make the living pleasant and relaxing!! One option I will never pursue, living in a HUGE city!! Noooo thank you!!! Simpler the better!! As I eat my PBJ with potato chips for lunch!!!:) Oh you better believe you can find PBJ in India!!! You go to the bazaar, buy some whole wheat bread, jam, and peanut butter and BAM pbj Indian style!!!:) Also, what's really nice about Mussoorie is you still have the Western food option!! Yeah when you first arrive having all of these exotic choices is awesome, but guaranteed in the long run you will crave that pizza or pbj sandwhich every once in a while, and it's comforting to know you can find it here!!!;) Well that's all I got on my mind for today!!! Thanks for listening!! Miss all of you still so much!!! However, would not trade this experience in for anything, STILL VERY VERY VERY GLAD I am here in India!!!!!!!:)