Absolute Serenity Within Absolute Chaos
04 Nov 2011 7 Comments
Heh, well, India’s illnesses finally got a hold of me, and have kept dragging me back to beat me down again and again. (ha, nothing terrible actually) Since the last update I’ve literally had a new sickness every week. I had a fever+cold symptoms, then strep throat, then a Candida infection on my tongue as soon as I got off the antibiotics for strep, then a fever+stomach symptoms, then a cold that is mostly gone, and now I’ve got red dots on various parts of my body and yesrterday I started getting a sore throat and slight fever symptoms. It’s all good though, nothing serious, yet. I never even had to miss any school. I think I’m getting sick this much for a few reasons. At MPA you’re living in close quarters with people from all over the world and they bring all they’re own native viruses and bacterias that you have to face. Also, even the Indians are getting sick a ton this season, so of course I don’t stand a chance. We’ll see, maybe I’m invincible after this last one!
A cool thing about India (or maybe this is true for most developing countries) is that everyone really knows how to get things done in life. In the US we don’t see the behind-the-scenes processes of really anything, but here people themselves know, for example, how to pick out good quality fabric and how to inspect for good stitching (I would have been totally lost on my own!). One of the teachers helped me to get fabric and set me up with a cheap but good tailor for two more suits. The fabric shops have a nice lay out:
I have taken up a couple of teachers’ offers to have dinner at their homes, and it has been excellent. The food was incredible (of course) and it was a very interesting time. Indians take a lot of pride in being good hosts, so much that seems almost extreme! Both times I was basically served rather than sitting down with the person I came to spend time with! They are very nice, but it’s hard for me to find a way give back, even though I really want to, since I can’t really be a host myself. They say that the company is enough.
This is at the home of one of the teachers, Gurmit (the one on the left). It was fun, she cooked and served and chatted a bit, but I actually spent most of the time talking to her step-father about his life (it was the same-old experience as you get anywhere: cute elderly man getting really excited about telling you about his achievements and showing pictures of his graduations/award ceremonies. A nice, smart and interesting chap). Great food.
I also had a charming time getting to see some Punjabi village life in the farm lands.
I’m looking forward to visiting all the other teachers that have invited me over soon!
A few weekends ago was Guru Ram Das’ birthday/Nagar Kirtan; maybe the biggest celebration in Amritsar throughout the year. Among other events the school went into town and took part in a parade next to GT. The school was doing a performance of gatka, a Punjabi martial art. The procession was beautiful and intense. About a third of the students of MPA do gatka, and it was the job of everyone else to hold a gapless circle around the performers wherever we decided to stop and perform for a few minutes. The circle was both symbolic and necessary. We did not let anybody through the circle partly because that would be like breaking ranks in a battle since we were doing a warrior’s act, but also we had to have an inner circle of girls and an outer circle of boys and it was our job to keep people away from groping the girls in the hectic situation. The streets were filled with other performances and parading schools, and spectators watching from the sidelines or in the middle (wherever really), and all sorts of decorations and colors. One moment in particular seems to summarize India perfectly: devoted martial artists putting their all into a traditional fight; flickering streamers strung over the street and confetti coming in overhead seemingly from nowhere; every color imaginable; scents of dirt, trash, piss and incense; sounds of cheers, drums, religious singing through loud speakers and cell-phone-techno; pushing and shoving and smiling; and a tranquil sense of the triumph of spirituality. Absolute serenity within absolute chaos.
It was something like this. (That’s the school’s executive principal jumping, and Kash with his arm up yelling)
Last week was Diwali—a big holiday in India. It feels kinda like Christmas but in the fall because everyone lights up their houses and sweets are given to kids, and then also fireworks rule the streets. At the school the teachers gave presents to the students of our home room (see fb) and the school was brightly decorated. India really does holidays right. It’s too bad we’ve become so removed from such a sense of tradition and festivity.
GT was especially brilliant at 3 am on Diwali with lights and fireworks.
On Diwali the Indians do fireworks at home, in the streets, at GT–wherever like the 4th of July, the only difference is that there are no safety rules to the fireworks so they’re totally kickass! We had our own fireworks at the school, which was among the best show I’ve ever seen. The staff got a load of really good mortars and we were right under them, and a string of 10 000 firecrackers that would fly everywhere and hit you in the face. …Then they let the kids light their own sparklers and these things that were like ground blooms on steroids, and I now appreciate a new sense of the word mayhem. It was insane! Just try to imagine 100 kids running freely with big sparklers, kicking 30 super-ground-blooms that sends sparks 5 ft out at each other or in the air, and putting black powder in cups and lighting it, and straight-up lighting things on fire. Beautiful. And to make it even better I was standing with the head of disciplinary staff and he goes “haha, look they’re making a fire.” This totally makes up for missing the next 4th of July.
Halloween was a ton of fun. I’ve become good friends with many of the 12th graders since I am their homeroom teacher and since they are awesome. Many of them are quite mature, experienced and insightful for their age and I look up to some of them in ways. I went out to breakfast a few days before Halloween with them and there Hargobind and Jesse and I had the idea to do a scene from Star Wars, and within 2 hours we had pretty much the entire outfit in place, including tailored tunics (India is awesome).
To celebrate there was a costume contest between the kids. All of the costumes were incredible, especially considering the available recourses and time. Most kids did group skits for their costumes, which were fun to watch. (The kids here are very talented and creative.) Hargobind and Jesse and I went all out and acted out the scene from Episode One where Obi Won and Qui-Gon Jinn fight Darth Maul, complete with music and sound effects. I wasn’t part of the contest since I’m staff but our Darth Maul won best costume and I’m sure the skit helped. (video of the skit soon to come on fb)
I also started going to dance practices, simply because I thought “nah I don’t do dance…so yeah I’ll do it.” Guru Amrit Hari, who’s really good at this stuff, has choreographed a dance and we practice that (new experiences all the time here!), but afterwards we have big speakers and music at our disposal so we can do whatever. So I finally satisfied my craving to dance to some Gorillaz and Daft Punk at full blast.
The students are in their last week of 40-day seva, which is where they go to the Golden Temple every morning at 2:30 am and do service for GT. This usually means standing in the lake of GT and filling buckets with the water when people hand them to you, or being the person getting the bucket filled and then bringing it to the GT staff to clean with, or sweeping, or working at the shoe storage, etc. I’ve been going off and on (I’m prioritizing being awake enough to teach). It feels good to contribute to something as special as the GT, but what has been really rewarding about the experience is having the opportunity to work together with Indians as equals. Normally in town people stare at you, or talk to you about who knows what or try to charge you too much (you can’t help but feel like a complete outsider whether or not you’re wearing a turban and beard), but when you are doing seva at GT you are directly working with locals for a common purpose. Everybody works with any person without discretion and helps each other to be in the right place and do the proper thing. It is refreshing and powerful. In general seva is a very nice and peaceful time to relax and reflect and have some chai.
So they have offered me twice my current pay to come back next year. I have been considering it, but then I asked CU about a second deferral and they said I’d have to reapply. So probably not! It’s a good job, I do enjoy teaching, especially the college-level classes, and it is a very special place here. It is too much work though. There is a lot of busy work that the teachers need to do and plenty of micromanaging. I spend most all of my time after school doing schoolwork, and most of the time I have to focus on busy work rather than teaching. I can tell that the quality of my teaching is far below what it could be because of all the paper work not leaving me time to plan thoroughly, which can be frustrating, and I’m already working 60+ hours a week as it is. (Haha by the way I calculated it and I’m getting about $1/hour.) The way that the teachers are treated is often difficult for me as well, unfortunately. It’s a very different system, and I am challenged almost daily to understand/discuss/accept the way things are. On the whole I am very happy during the school day though. The other teachers are a lot of fun to work and chat with. We are in the middle of the term now and I’ve given my first-ever tests, which is still exciting for me, and things are going fairly well. My class averages are a C, B, B, B, A, and A, depending on the class, which I can’t complain about! The college-level chemistry experiments have gone well and students are engaged. It feels like I have developed and established my style as a teacher, and it seems to work for most students. The next thing is to expand the techniques I use and find other methods to reach the rest of my classes, which I am currently working on since the teachers are working towards a teaching diploma together. There is so much to learn!
Tomorrow I leave Amritsar for the first time to go to Rishikesh with the 10th, 11th and 12th graders for the 11-11-11 yoga festival (a very important day in history for Kundalini yoga). I feel very fortunate to get to be there for that. Rishikesh is considered the yoga capital of the world, and it’s the place where the Beatles stayed for some time and wrote most of The White Album and some of Abby Road.) We will be staying in an ashram (something like a large yoga studio), doing yoga workshops, seeing Rishikesh, seeing a lot of really good yoga and sikh music, and learning all about yogic philosophies of the times. Should be an interesting experience!
Summary: I am happy, sort of healthy, and am loving every day.
so much butter, so much sugar ~9/19/2011~
19 Sep 2011 13 Comments
So I totally forgot to mention last time that I have been going by James here, and it seems to be sticking. Oddly enough, everyone who I’ve told that I went by Jimmy at home says I don’t look like a Jimmy, which is exactly what everyone at home says about James; first impressions mean so much! It’s still weird, I don’t respond to the name James immediately, It doesn’t resonate yet. But I am interested in making the change in general so this is the trial run, and I think it’s too late for people here would go back anyway. Then there’s a few people who insist on calling me by my Sikh spiritual name (which I have now!). It’s Jairaj Singh, which means “victorious Lion of God who gains victory by relating to the divine flow of his soul,” which like all the spiritual names is totally epic. Jairaj can also be translated loosely as “hail to the king.” My friends here are stoked about it. I’m still introducing myself as James, but at least having the spiritual name now while I’m here makes the experience feel more complete.
I should have written this a long time ago, because I forget a lot of details; a ton has happened. So it goes! The reason it took so long is that I might be more busy than at any other time of my life. However mostly in good ways, and because I am choosing to be. There are just so many new opportunities and I don’t want to turn a single one down, full immersion. (Aaron, your Summer of Yes has been a great influence for this). So, I apologize for my lack of personal communication to anyone who has tried to email me, there’s just so much to do! Also, the internet works only half of the time. So when it does work I usually need take advantage and work on school stuff rather than email.
An outline of what has happened is that in week 1 it started out with me, the other American teacher and the caretakers, who are 18-30 and are from the US, Germany, or Spain (they are the residential staff who make sure all the students are doing what they are supposed to be doing throughout the day and enforce discipline). During that first week I spent time getting to know them and had teacher meetings every weekday. In week 2 the kids came in over a course of 3-4 days, then they all left for a bonding trip to a Sikh pilgrimage site in the Himalayas. During those 10 days it was only me and the other American teacher staying on campus, and then the rest of the teachers were here during the days for our meetings. The 3rd week is when school and the full schedule of activities began. Now it is has been a month for me and 2 weeks of school and we are all starting to step into the rhythm of life here.
Week 1:
Before the students got here I spent a lot of time with the Western staff (before they got too busy, now apart from meals I only see them to play music/have coffee/chat once a week or not at all. Guprakash took me on my first motorcycle ride, to go to the Golden Temple for seva at 3 in the morning. It was amazing. I felt like a little kid doing something really fun that I shouldn’t be doing. Plus the traffic here is wild so the whole thing was pretty hysterical. Probably my favorite GT trip as well; Kash gave me a full tour. Kash has been the one who I’ve learned the most from about Sikhism in the East and West, how the Western Sikhs are seen here and things like that. He is a fun and genuine guy in addition to being surprisingly knowledgable for his age (22), and has been a wonderful teacher and guide for my transition. He also rips on the tabla. Dhianjot (20) was also a big help in my first week. He was the one who took me on my first trip into town and to GT. He also helped me to get some clothes.
This is one of my botani suits. This is pretty much how I dress for teaching, when I go into town, for tabla lessons, for Gurdwara…basically all the time. It’s what most local men wear in town too. They’re awesome. Way more comfortable than American suits. Sometimes it’s hard to believe these are the equivalent of a suit+tie in the US. Unless you go to a mall to get Western clothes you always get clothes tailored here, which was another first for me, and brings up another topic-Indian hospitality. When we went to the tailor, he had us sit and he served us chai and talked about MPA for a while before taking my measurements and figuring out what I want. We have it all wrong; people here insist on giving you tea and talking, it’s really refreshing. Kash tells me that at the private tabla lessons at the master’s house he’ll give you tea or snacks or dinner depending on what time of day it is in addition to the lesson, not at all like paying for an hour lesson then getting out. A lot of the teachers have invited me to call them if I am by their home and said I can come over whenever and we’ll have tea or a meal or whatever is going on in their home. They are very nice. I am looking forward to taking one of the teachers up on their offers!
The school transformed when the students came. Kids have so much energy! One of the first things they did was take a big GT trip, and I finally took my camera along to get a few shots of the magic that is the Golden Temple (which could never do the place justice).
All the students before we got on the buses for their first GT trip.
The Golden Temple.
The Golden Temple and the Akal Takhat.
Week 2:
After this the students left for 10 days for their trek. The campus in that time felt like a tranquil royal palace. It feels like a jungle sometimes. There are some exotic birds, and when you walk through the academic building geckos are running to hide behind all the pictures, and instead of watching your step for slugs like when it rains in Eugene, you have to watch out EVERYWHERE for frogs ranging from the size of ants to full-grown frogs. (Outside the school gates there are cows and pigs in the streets, and there are as many feral dogs as there are birds at home.) It was only me, the other American teacher (Ad Purkh), the guards and chefs staying here, and then the teachers were there for our meetings every day. Ad Purkh and I went on a couple of adventures into town by ourselves for the first time in order to pick up clothes/eat out/go grocery shopping, that was exciting being by ourselves and bargaining for rickshaws and stuff. (It is very safe here in Amritsar, for a developing country. I think India is safe in general, and especially Amritsar because of it being a spiritual capital. Not to say it doesn’t have its fair share of petty crime, but it has a very different feel than say La Paz Bolivia!) Most of my time in those 10 days was spent preparing for classes whether it was attending teacher meetings, taking inventory in the science store room, making lecture notes, homework sets or reading about teaching techniques. I also played a lot of guitar and watched a bunch of Archer and Chappelle’s show. And once I played cricket with the chefs, who speak absolutely no English other than yes and no. The teacher meetings where pretty much a full time job, and I learned a lot about Punjabi/Indian culture because of them.
The first thing I noticed when I walked into the room for our first meeting was that there are way more women than men as teachers, and it turns out that only one of the men is not a music teacher. This is because teaching is a “women’s” job here. Overall the gender inequalities here actually make me a little proud of how far we’ve come in the US, which I never thought I’d say. The second insight is about how much status and authority matter: nobody ever questions the principal. For me there are no problems, I think she’s great to work with. At first I thought all the teachers were shy. Being me, I asked about how an why we did everything we did in the school and about policies, and I offered suggestions and all, but I was really the only one doing that (Ad Purkh did a little bit too), which was funny because I have way less teaching experience than anyone else. In fact the principal would constantly ask for the opinions and votes of all the teachers for every policy she would cover or propose, but only a few of the teachers say anything at all. The power dynamic became more clear to me one time when she wanted us to vote on something, and no one was saying anything, so she left the room to let us discuss, and then the teachers just BLEW UP. They were yelling across the room or debating in groups and everyone one was participating. Ha, I was kinda in shock. Then when the principal came back in everyone got quiet again, and one of the teachers reported about what everyone wanted to do. This is common in Indian culture, and I think it comes a lot from how people are raised. Parents traditionally control their kids’ lives up until they find a spouse for them, so people are taught to respect authority. This is how most schools are run as well. Status is a huge deal, even among Sikhs in India. Sometimes the teachers will be criticizing one of the things we have to do, and they’ll ask my opinion about it too, and when I agree with them they’ll seem defeated, so I ask them why don’t they talk to the principal about it and they usually say “no, it’s not my place.” But I’m confused, because, one day I got a sizable school policy on grading changed (hopefully for the better! I think it is at least). And when this happened all the teachers came and thanked me afterwards, so maybe it’s just cause I’m white and from the US, but it seems to me that the principle is clearly open to suggestions. But She’s good at constantly inviting discussion and openly asks for opinions. It is true at the same time that they really like to enforce all the rules the have in place. It’s an interesting dynamic that I am still trying to understand. Thirdly, there seem to be numerous basic differences between our cultures, which make communicating very difficult. It’s not because we don’t understand what each other are saying, in fact most of the them have very good english, but there are so many basic differences that it’s hard to get past our fundamental preconceptions about what teaching/grading/discipline are to actually have a productive conversation. Haha, which means that most of the time I am just doing my own thing until someone tells me I need to do something else. What else to do? It is very very different, even though it’s an international school, and every day I learn something interesting and new about approaches to academic, spiritual and home life.
The teachers have fun together too. We all went out to a movie at this new theater here (one of the teachers had to translate the whole thing for me), which was cool because it was one of the first times I got to spend a long time chatting with all of them on the bus ride there and back. Some of us went to a book review in town the other day-that was pretty cool to see some of the literate and artistic culture of Amritsar. For Yogi Bhajan’s birthday (the man who brought Sikhsim and Kundalini yoga to the West and founded MPA), all the teachers went to GT together to celebrate there. It was really nice being at GT with a feeling of community and purpose. Since then I’ve been able to socialize with all of them a lot more, particularly the women since then men are so quiet, and I’ve grown to really like all of them. Now I joke with them all the time and I have a lot of fun working with them. One teacher is helping me to learn some Punjabi, and in exchange I’m teaching her with spanish. (I actually get to practice spanish a lot here because of this, and I spend a bit of time with that Spanish caretaker, and there are a lot of students from Mexico and two from Equador. I actually know more spanish than one or two kids know english!) The teachers ask a lot of favors of me, and I can’t tell if they do that with me cause I’m a foreigner or if that’s Indian thing. On the last day of teacher meetings we took some pictures together.
(And there’s another one on my facebook.)
Weeks 3 & 4:
Then the students came back and the rhythm of the school finally began. It’s insane here! Kash made a perfect analogy and said it’s like Lord of the Flies + Harry Potter which really captures it, especially if you add in military boot camp. In some ways there is extreme discipline with formations and how much they push the students physically and all. But then at the same time, there are only 8 adults to keep 114 kids in check, so students really have to keep each other in check a lot of the time. Kids here can do things that they could never do in the US where we have all sorts of rules about safety, like how when they go to town they go around in groups of 4-8 without an adult and they can go do whatever they want, in India (apart from not drinking or smoking or eating meat of course). And they can wrestle and pick on each other (as long as it doesn’t go too far, which is further than it would ever be in a US school) and everything. Very interesting to see how the kids at this age deal with all of this, and learn to depend on each other since their parents aren’t around. Their schedule is extremely full. As a student you really have to want to be here if you want to keep up and be happy. Most days they have physical training every morning at 5, breakfast at 7, school 8-3, Kundalini yoga at 4, sports 5-7, dinner 6-7, then meditations/reading from Sikh scriptures/music lessons at 7-8, then they have to be in their dorm rooms by 10:30, and they have to apply themselves in every activity if they don’t want to get in trouble. Before everything they have to fall into formation and report why anyone is missing, and do pushups for being late/being inattentive. On Sundays they can sleep in, and they go to the GT 2-3 times a week at the moment. For me it’s great, because I can choose to do what I want and how I want to do it. I go to yoga everyday, which has been awesome. I’m glad to finally get back into Kundalini and really look forward to doing it 4-5 times a week. In general I am trying to challenge myself to do as much of everything as possible and fully apply myself; there is so much to learn and experience! I usually don’t go to physical training or sports and instead take that time to sleep or do school prep (which only gives me about 3 hours of time to work on stuff as it is!). The students also have a lot of fun too. After the first week they had a skit competition, and I got to be a judge. They were hilarious! This and future competitions are between the 4 houses they are divided into, and they get points depending on how well they do (yes, exactly like Harry Potter). There is a lot of talent here from all over the world and the skits were brilliant. Next weekend is an ultimate frisbee competition, so I might show people how to throw properly this week. I totally forgot about what high school was like, this makes me miss it. The kids are really fun and a lot of them remind of South kids. Heh, rather than trying to keep a professional distance from the kids I’ve been hanging out with them a ton. I play soccer and frisbee with them, sit with them at meals, hang out in their rooms, etc. They are very smart, talented, driven and deep people. Haha, today I had a heated discussion with some of the kids about how sexual orientation is a spectrum (I really could have used Erin and Kali for help there!) And in general they often talk about real things, and there is less of a need to be cool. But of course the rest of the time they’re picking on someone or calling things/people “retarded,” you know, it’s middle/high school.
So…I’m a teacher now! It’s a riot. Who the heck said teaching is easy!? Oh yeah, no one did. On the first day I found our 5 min before classes started that I was to substitute for 5 classes. Substituting is actually really fun, especially because it was the first day and so I couldn’t do any of the substitute work the teacher made since it was worksheets on material the kids certainly hadn’t learned yet. So, I improvised lectures for 5 classes on the first day. They were all physics classes that day (Satinder the physics teacher was the one who was gone), so I found two balls with different masses and came up with a discussion about gravity and then tried to motivate why we study physics. It was a blast. It went really well so I did pretty much the same thing for my own physics classes. Classes are going well in general. The hardest thing is that some of the kids hardly speak any english, so I have to spend a lot of time explaining things a few times in different words to try and get through. I have a lot to learn about teaching, but for now I feel that I am getting better and adapting little by little everyday. I’ll be running experiments in my physics and chemistry classes this week for the first time, which I’m excited for. The labs are actually pretty nice, and they have quite a bit of equipment. I got a bunch more supplies and chemicals ordered last week so I’m ready to go.
The chem lab is pretty nice, there’s even a hood!
This is the chemical supply room, which has a lot of good stuff in it, but of course it’s either rusted or lid is broken or something like that.
My primary class room (my “home room”). I am home room teacher for the 12th graders, and I really like the them.
I have also substituted for 6th grade algebra, where again I had to improvise a lecture (and I had Agam in the class!), and then 8th grade History and 10th grade English were easy to do. Oh man am I glad I’m not teaching 6th grade! Agam was well behaved, but most of the class just can’t sit down. My 9th and 10th graders are enough for me to handle! My favorites to teach are the chem classes; the material is interesting and the kids are in the class because they really want to be. All in all it’s an awesome yet time-consuming job.
My health has been good — surprisingly I haven’t gotten any bacterias yet! I’m constantly sore from the sitting up super straight all the time and doing yoga so much, it’s nice. I just caught a cold for the first time, but that’s it. (Everyone shares everything, so the whole school gets sick together.) So Indians love their butter and their sugar! With every meal they have roti, which is something like a thick wheat tortilla that comes with some butter on it, and then they douse it with butter. Like 4 slices of butter. And they usually eat 2. They literally make freakin butter sandwiches with them sometimes. Then when they put sugar in something, which isn’t much actually since they’re not supposed to have sugary things at the school for the most part, they use a ton. The teachers get chai every day, and it is super sweet. I always tease them about it. They like extremely sweet sweets too. (Rachel Emma Maddy Jess you would love it here.) For the first two weeks while no one was here and I was working a lot I didn’t exercise, and I could feel myself gaining a little weight from the diet. But lately I haven’t been eating and of the roti and I have more dhaal and rice instead, which feels great. And now that yoga is going and I’m doing some sports I feel better than before I came. I was sleeping well for the first week but then I went back to my usual taking 30min-2hrs to fall asleep again. I have some tea that Joe gave me that has been a big help, and I just asked Amrit Singh, one the three leading staff members of MPA and a wonderful person, about a yoga solution and he gave me some kriyas to try out. Another note is that since I am living the yogic lifestyle while I’m here I have also decided to grow out the beard and the hair, and to wear the turban for teaching. Might as well go all out right!?
They push for all the residential staff to hire maids, who wash and clean your floors, dishes, clothes etc., because they’re here anyway doing that job and they’ll make more if everyone hires them (there are 2 or 3 for the school). After being asked many times, and not being given cleaning supplies or an iron (I have to actually look presentable every day for the first time!) I finally gave in. So the other day there was this poor, non english speaking Indian women on the floor of my room cleaning after me while I was doing work at my desk, and it felt sooo weird. It’s a different place, and things like this I still have to get used to.
Today I went into the city totally by myself for the first time; it was quite an adventure. I rode in a shared rickshaw for the first time, so there were 5 other locals on the ride with me (it’s much cheaper and more exciting this way). I succeeded in finding a sports store and getting some nice cleats for $10, then got another shared ride back. On that ride this nice kid talked to me in english the whole time about how he likes the US and wants to study medicine here, he ended up paying for my ride and giving me a soda (I didn’t want to turn him down). This rickshaw dropped me off in a town 10 min from home, and while I was trying to negotiate a rickshaw home, the school electrician rode by on his motorcycle and gave me a lift (he doesn’t speak hardly any English but I recognized him). That’s India I suppose. The bike ride back was a blast weaving in and out of Indian traffic with this Indian guy I didn’t really know, and the farm lands around the school seemed particularly picturesque. When I got back, the first full-on ultimate game was going on, which was perfect because I got to try the cleats that I just bought. Life continuously reminds me of its beauty here.
It’s hard to believe I’ve been here one month, in a lot of ways. So much has happened every day so it seems like it has been much longer, but at the same time the pace of life is so fast that days and weeks are just flying by. I am very fortunate and thankful to be here.
-James/Jimmy/Jairaj
Welcome to India ~8/20/2011~
14 Aug 2011 9 Comments
Hello! Or should I say sat sree akal! This is my first of, well, knowing me probably not that many posts. I’ll try to keep them coming as stuff happens!
First off, I am extremely happy with my decision in coming to India, and to this school. It is a very safe and positive situation, and there seems to be a lot of potential for new experiences. The campus is really nice, why nicer than I was expecting in every way. It is pretty big and it’s beautiful, as you can see.
This is the main courtyard and the academic building. The dorms line the sides of this area. They also have 3 fields you could play frisbee/soccer on, 2 or 3 basketball courts, a playground for the juniors, a small rice field, a separate dining hall and a whole ‘nother building for music/art/dance, plus more. The classrooms are nice, and the chemistry and physics labs are actually great facilities. There are a lot of other things like constant security, and drivers (in case someone get’s hurt or really for whenever you want to leave), and a campus store for basic supplies, maids for hire, a ton of staff for electricity/internet/plumbing, etc. They are all really nice too. It’s pretty legit. Oh, and I get a cellphone.
My room feels enormous: I have my own bathroom, and kitchen, and there’s even AC.
This is my room from my bed. There’s more window and a desk on the left.
Basically, I came without many expectations, but I still find everything about this place impressive and amazing.
The food: Indian food is pretty much the same as American-Indian food, only 10x better! (thanks Jay for the help with a direct comparison) So far I haven’t really listened to all the hype about being safe with food here, which for those who know my sanitary habits is a big step for me! The way I see it, I live here, so I’m going to eat and live as if I live here. I’ll get sick inevitably no matter what, so, meh. I use the tap water at the school (which is actually filtered fairly well), and I’ve already had food and lassi off the street (which is amazing here). So far so good!
India feels familiar and comfortable and really exciting at the same time. On the whole, india reminds me a lot of my time in South America, only I have no idea what anyone is ever saying. But it certainly has a unique flare that I never could have imagined. I love it here. There is music playing everywhere you go, kinda like fair in a way. I feel very safe in town, especially with the other MPA staff my age (everyone in town knows we from the school and they are really nice). The traffic is way fun and rickshaws are sweet.
This is last night heading back home after a day in Amritsar in the warm monsoon rain, which was excellent. I went to the Golden Temple at 3 AM the yesterday, which was a special experience. I never imagined anything like it. The place of Sikhism in the east and in the world, and spirituality in general has new meaning to me. Religion in the west is completely disconnected from this. I wish I could describe what it is like, people should just come!
I got to wear a turban for the first time of many times in order to go into the Golden Temple!
We’ve had teacher meetings all week, and I’m slowly getting an idea of what the heck my job is here and am getting some teaching workshops in. It turns out that I am actually teaching 5 of my own classes, and running the lab work for 4 others. I am in charge of one 11th grade chem class (basically AP chem), and four 9th and 10th grade physics classes (by the way I believe that Shiv Antar will be in one of my classes!). Then I am running the labs for four 11th and 12th grade physics (basically AP + some US college phys). The organization and timing of things here is very different here, and that is something I haven’t gotten used to yet. Same goes for the general teaching approach. Communicating with the other teachers is hard for me too (there is one other western teacher, she is my age and is teaching English). It is really something to adjust to, and I am doing more than I thought I was going to, but I am really excited about it all and look forward to our first day of school on 9/5.
I have about 5 peers here: 3 from the states, one German and one Spanish. The ones that have been here for a while have been a big help to me, which I am grateful for. They are the ones I have been going to town with, and who have been teaching me about sikh culture and india, and who have been warning me about the students! One is an excellent tabla player and a great guy. We have already played a little bit together (me on guitar). He is happy to play with my western music which is awesome because Indian music is way more complicated and interesting and far beyond me. I look forward to playing a lot of music here. I’m still trying to figure out what exactly I’ll be doing, but I believe that I will be taking tabla lessons with the students at first, and then maybe move to taking private table lessons and singing/harmonium lessons later on. And if I can fit sitar in I would be stoked.
If you have read this far I am impressed. The following posts will maybe be shorter, if I can get on top of it. In all I am very happy here, this has really worked out. Thank you so much Shabd, Sarib, Sat Pavan and mom for the connection, this is exactly what I was hoping to do this year, and is even better than I hoped for. In case you never heard me explain, my reasons for being interested in india are the music, the art, and the spirituality. And professionally I am interested in teaching, so this gig takes the cake. Thank you so much everyone who influenced my interest in indian/eastern music and spirituality, and who inspired me to travel, and who have generally supported me with friendship and love, it is because of you that I am here. I am looking forward to a strange and beautiful year of growth.
Cheers.
