Diwali in Delhi!

Possibly the best holiday I've ever had. Shopping, partying, good food and good company made for a most fantastic few days.

Day 1 of diwali break: To make up for the oncoming break, the school decided to have a day of class on saturday. You can imagine the students were less than enthused about that, but the displeasure was mitigated by the fact that it was pyjama day.

Of course, some students (myself included) were still exhausted from drama, having stayed up at school until 10 pm every night. Friday night was even later, because we had the cast pizza/dance party after the play was over.

Milo finds sleeping areas in the most unlikely places...

After enduring a very long day of school, Tanya, Tanuvee and I rushed outside as soon as the bell rang. We found all of our travellig companions, and boarded the bus for Dehradun. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough space in the bus for our bags and all of the people, so Tara and I ended up lying on the floor. Surprisingly, it was quite comfortable. I enjoyed an unlikely nap myself.

After getting to Dehradun, we had a 6-hour train ride to Delhi, where we got to Tanu's house at about midnight, stayed up for a little bit longer to see off Devika, Asma and Sarah to Mumbai.

The house we stayed in was amazing. Here's a shot of our room area:

Nice, eh?

After appreciating the room for a grand total of two imnutes (and being given some awesome pj's by Tanu) we fell fast asleep.

Day two (sunday the 11th): A day of waking up at noon, shopping in Dilli haat, good south indian food, free clothing and swanky dinners. 

We slept like babies until noon o'clock, then enjoyed a brunch of idlys, olive bread, fresh fruits and dosa. Tanu was making sure we were well fed on traditional indian cuisine!

Mmmm, breakfast for lunch!

Getting a tour of the house: here on the patio

A view from the upstaris terrace

Getting ready to head out!

After brunch we went out to the shopping plaza of Dilli Haat. A shoppers paradise, indeed! I finished all of my Christmas shopping and acquired a couple of things for myself as well.

Going in

Enjoying our kulfi (an iced treat)

All the purchases, all of them!

So many choices!

Having a good time!

After our shopping extravaganza, we returned to the house to unburden ourselves of our packages. Little did we realize, even more was coming! Because Tanuvee's dad is an exporter for Victoria's secret, we came home to two big boxes of victoria's secret beachwear!

Lexine and Annabelle doing a bit of modeling

Lots of clothing!!!

We then participated in a brief puja (worship ceremony) as it was the first day of Diwali

Then, on to the super swanky dinner at Smokehouse BBQ, for some very delicious and non-indian dishes!

A rooftop restaurant with futuristic settings? Awesome!

Pulled pork sandwich-deeeelish

For dessert, none of us felt up to consuming a full portin, but the menu held too many temptations to resist. We decided to get 4 desserts and pass them around, taking 1 bite each time, until there was no more to eat.

Dessert 1: Banoffee pie

Dessert 2: Crème brulée

Dessert 3: Poached pear with vanilla ice cream and saffron

Dessert 4: Melting mud pie

Day 3 (nov 12th): This was a day of nose piercings, street shopping, fabric shopping and getting our sarees, as well as Häagen dazs fondues and going out to party!

We began the day by goign out to the fabric stores of Delhi. Megan and Lexine are both seamstresses, and they make some incredible things, up to and including prom dresses! Annabelle, Kalkidan and I were just mesmerized by the pretty colours and patterns...

Making selections

So many choices!!!

Ah, the joys of leopard print fabric!

I aquired some more gifts for people, we paid our bills, and proceeded to the next item of buisness: Annabelle getting her nose pierced! Megan, Lexine and Tanuvee also got their studs from Bazaar replaced with something of a bit higher quality.

Lookin' great!

We then crossed the street and ate lunch at the oldest restaurant in Delhi. It was sumputous and delicious and amazing :)

And then, the much anticipated event: SAREE SHOPPING!!!!!!

We went out to two stores, and found some incredible pieces for under 1000 rs (under 20$) I purchased two lovely ones, entitled "Turquoise" and "Macbeth" (the latter because the Macbeth colour scheme was black, grey and red)

Turquoise

The helpful saree marketer, displaying the Under 1000 range

The balck and red one is Macbeth :D

Happiness is...

AAAGH!!! Megan can't decide!!!!

So she got both. Works!

Once we had finished making our purchases we returned to the house, for mehendi! (henna to you westerners out there) The mehendi-walla made some gorgeous designs on our hands, much better than the Independence designer. 

See if you can find the hidden initials in each one:

Cam you find the "M"?

Here it is! Did you find it in the last one?

Other side, no initial

Find the "L"

Annabelle's turn!

Because the mehendi took a while to do, Kalki and I decided we would get ours the following day. Once everyone's mehendi had dried off, it was time to get ready for the party! We all had matching suits courtesy of Tanuvee.

Ah, Kalkidan...

Love the pink!

Swapping churridars

Once we finished getting ready, we participated in another puja for the second night of Diwali, this time with 21 diyas!

We then head out to the mall for some Häagen dazs fondue:

Cappucino ice cream with waffle :)

Chocolate fondue with sponge cake, assorted fruits, cookied, waffle cone, sprinkles and ice cream balls

Are we having a good time????

I think the answer there is a definitive "yes"

On to the party! Where we enjoyed even more delicious food on gold-edged plates, played cards with the other youngsters and thoroughly exhausted ourselves. All in all, a great night!

The serving area

See, because this is how mountain people act when they encounter civilization: they pile on to their host's über comfy bed :)

Waiters, waiters everywhere

Yumms!

Even more dessert yums!

Ok, this post is getting amazingly long. I think I'll do the remainder of the trip in another post. Thanks for reading!

Emily

macbeth, MacBeth, MACBETH!

Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn the power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth...

Over the past week I've bee quoting Shakespeare in my head almost incessantly, having spent 5 hours every day in Parker Hall, performing, costuming, make-up-ing, practicing lines, and all in all having the time of our lives! This show is 10000000000x better than e-Volution, that's for sure!

Every night of our performances, we've managed to rip it out and deliver a better performance every time. Our dress rehearsal on sunday and monday were rather depressing, with lighting cues still being sorted out, costume malfunctions happening, actors missing cues, and general chaos with blood and props. Moday evening, we retired back to dorms at around 9:45 pm feeling ver despondent and worried about the week ahead.

I spoke to my mother about it, and she reassured me with the truism of "crappy dress=great show". I felt slightly better, but everyone was very nervous.

Tuesday night, we performed for outside schools studying the play. As people began to arrive, the tension mounted higher and higher backstage. In all truth, this tension gave us the boost in energy we needed. That night, we KILLED the stage, with everything coming together perfectly at the right moments, Shalaka and Tara (Macbeth and Lady Macbeth) nailing their monologues, and the Weird sisters terrifying the bananas out of the audience.

Wednesday was our official "opening night" in front of grades 10, 7 and 6. Feeling much more optimistic, we once again surpassed our own expectations. As Mrs Okie said "the only reason the light cues were a little off was because we were so mesmerized by watching you!". Last night (thursday) was our best show yet, with all the murder scenes going smoothly, blood exploding from Banquo's mouth and Young Macduff getting blood smeared all over his(her) shirt. We also had our residen photographer, Fuse, come in and take shots of various scenes, which I will post as soon as they are made available.

Tonight is our closing night, in front of grade 11's and 9's. I will admit to still having some trepidation, simply because everyone is exhausted (we get back to dorms at about 10pm every night) and we've had such a good run so far, we're due for a bad one... (touches wood surreptitiously)
We're also having a pizza party after the show. If that's not motivation, I don't know what is!

May there be blood,
Emily

Goodbye Ms Claire!!!

A sad farewell preceding Diwali break: AP Biology 11 is losing its beloved student teacher, Ms Claire Weiss.
Ms Claire is a student from St Olaf's liberal arts and science college in the US, Minnesota. She has been our part time teacher since the beginning of August, and has been teaching us full-time since September. She has been a fun, engaging and competent teacher, and we all wish her well in the continuation of her studies, and pray that she one day returns to Woodstock!

Some of you may remember Ms Claire as one of the female chaperones on our Darwa Pass expedition. She was understanding, supportive and funny. Such a great chaperone to have!

Ms Claire, you will be missed!!!

AP Bio 11 class, and Emily Steers

Experience the Himalaya: A Mountain Festival

Dear readers,

This week at woodstock we have had the unique opportunity to "Experience the Himalaya" in a new way. Over the course of four days, we hosted talks on mountaineering, a film festival, concerts, himalayan banquet, and concluding in the first annual Mussoorie half-marathon!

On November 1st, we were privileged to hear Rekha Bhardwaj, a singer from Bollywood (if you've ever seen a bollywood movie you'll understand how the actresses have GOT to be lip-syncing!) Unfortunately, I was once again in health center that evening, so I was unable to attend. By all reports, however, it was a most fabulous event. (Although as Ishaan said, it would have been 10x better if people had spontaneously started dancing in the last few acts). 

The next day we were excused from class at various points during the day to see videos and guest speakers featured in Parker Hall. One of the most notable of these was speaker Steve Swenson, a hardcore mountaineer hailing from Seattle. He described to us his experiences of mountaineering in the Himalayas throughout his life, and his experiences of climbing K2, Everest, and in making a trail up the second tallest unclimbed mountain in the world: Saser Kangri II (The tallest unclimbed mountain is in Bhutan and not available to alpinists). We also saw some mountaineering films, from Swenson about his experience climbing Saser Kangri II, and an award-winning video from an Italian cliff-climber.
A very awe-inspiring way to start the morning!

For lunch we got to have a Himalayan food festival, with Kashmiri rice, momos, nutty ice, naan, chicken kebab, pappers, and more, all of it delicious!

That evening we got to hear a performance from the Tetseo sisters, a group of three women singing Li music. The harmonies were beautiful, the songs sweet, and the sisters engaged with their performance. They traditional Li songs, and then surprised us at the end with their rendition of "Winter Wonderland" with their brother playing jazz guitar.

Read more anout the festival here: http://www.woodstockschool.in/page.cfm?p=717

Saturday I was unable to attend any of the events. Lighting crew had an all-day work job testing sockets and wires, hanging lights, labelling fixtures and making maps of every plug  and socket in Parker Hall. I have an enormous amount of respect for theater techies now! Actors aren't usually in a position to straddle ladders 20 ft in the air reaching up with a sharpie to laboriously label a light socket. Tall people definitely have an advantage over me there...

Bright and early on sunday morning, most everybody woke up at an ungodly hour (5:30 am) to get down to New Road and go to the starting line of the half marathon, as well as designated water stations and checkpoints along the way. Annabelle and I, not being what you might call "athletic" opted to run in the "Fun Run", a 5 km race from the Tibetan Bazaar all the way along the Mall Road to Woodstock gate.

 

The morning of: ladies getting ready to leave!

Finding our way to the starting line. 

Is it bad that we actually had no clue where it was until 3 minutes before the race?

Nearly there...

I made the mistake of bringing with me my camera, iPod, jacket, and water bottle, thinking that there would be people at the starting line to take the stuff. Little did I know that in the email where we were told we could just bring our things to the starting line, and that fellow woodstockers would take our things, that that opportunity was only being offered to the runners of the half marathon, not the Fun Run. I ended up running about 1 km carrying my things under 1 arm until I found Pauline's group at a water station and dropped all my things on the table whilst running by. They were more than a little confused!

In the end, I placed 2nd to Michael Wiggins, the uber buff dude in our grade. 

Coming in to the finish

 Post race, and with Mr Steve and Annabelle after he placed second in the half-marathon.



Over 101 people participated in the marathing, including a whole whack of Woodstock students. Runners of the race included Sarah, Kalki, Bendix, Asma, Jinoh, Teva, Megan, Maggie, Rowan, and many others! It was so great to have such active participation in the first ever half-marathon in Mussoorie (even if the route was changed the night before...)

Lots of love and 32 days!
Emily