The day of independence

It's true what Ms Maya said: Independence day is the day Woodstock is most beautiful.

Everyone resplendant in their clothing, the most fabulous food and drink, celebrating 65 years of independence from the British.

Behold!

Mehendi: 200 RS, equivalent to about 1. 80$

On our way up (Tanuvee and Devika)

The decorations, in green and orange. Made from fresh leaves and flowers

Slightly creepy colour matching by Lexine and Devika

The gate to the Quad

So pretty

Group shot: Tanuvee, me, Lexine, Devika, Ugyen, Amber, Mansi

Tanya and Tanuvee

Kalki is siper excited to find a fellow Ethiopian

Mehendi! Clockwise from bottom: Me, Kalkidan, Annabelle, Lexine, Devika.

To the gym!

The fabric of my outfit!

Me, Tanya and Lexine

An inspirational speech from Woodstock Alumnus Bhubhnesh Kumari (class of 1950)

Raising the flag!

Uma and Annabelle. Sad note of the day: Uma has been trasnferred to hopital for tests as her fever has been constant for the past 3 days.

Group shot! There were a LOT of these

Les roommates

Mr Luukkonen's advisor class (advisor night this friday!!!!)

Tara looking lovely...

Me and Devika!

Asma and Lexine: the running girls

Caroline and her friends

Nina, looking gorgeous as always

Devika and Caroline

Moi et Mme Amy, mon prof de français.

Cuuute

Me and Mr Okie, my vocals teacher (who fails at smiling)

Mr Wunker, fellow Canadian and english prof

I posted this just for the face...

Mr Luukkonen, my advisor!

Mr Conrad, my math teacher.

On to the meal, the main focus of the day:

Gulab Jamun: like timbits but better!

So much good food...

Making Tandoori Roti...

Bhatura

Masala Dosa.

And then Devika grabbed me some Papdi Chaat, Jalebi with Rabri, Aloo Tikki with a lot of chutneys (all this was typed by Devika, because I have no clue what I was eating, but it was DELICIOUS)

Indian man!

Tanya's Pakistani style of Mehendi

Give us a twirl!

Traditional Ethiopian dress. Lovely!

That's all for today, 

Love you and miss you all,

Emily 

Bad night

On a scale of 1 to 10, guess how happy I am?

NOT FREAKING HAPPY

For those of you confused right now, this is my quick jotting down from about 4:30 am last night, whereupon moisture entered the system and the fire alarm went off. At first, I thought it was all part of a dream, but its pervasive nature continued until one of the girls ran into our room shouting, “THAT’S THE FIRE ALARM”! I was instantly awake, grabbing my water bottle, shoving on my shoes, briefly considering pants instead of shorts, and grabbing my umbrella before dashing downstairs with everyone else.

Here’s where it gets ^&^$^&^&&((^*)%%@## scary: the fire escape door, as well as every other door in the dorm was padlocked shut. I was almost hyperventilating in fear: another ten seconds and I was ready to javelin my umbrella through the window. Thankfully, one of the girls in head of care informed us that it was a false alarm. I think the sentiment of all was “who the HECK schedules a fire drill for 4:30 am?!?!” I went and talked to Ms Maya and Ms Geeta, who explained that it was just moisture that got into the system

So then, in a very infuriated mood, everyone proceeded back to bed. And then the alarm went off again after about 15 minutes. No one paid it any attention this time.

I plan on having harsh words with the dorm parents about the wisdom of locking the fire escape shut and having no one is able to open it.

That’s how my day started, how about yours?

PS I also forgot to mention we're on water rations. But whatever, INDEPENDENCE IS TOMORROW!!!!

Retreat!

Woodstock choir retreats are NOTHING like Rocky Ridge!

First thing this morning (after calling home!) we took the bus to St. Pal's church. Some EPIC photos from the drive:

Ok, so this isn't actually from the drive, but I stuck it here because it's awesome ;)

Campus!

The village

Kalkidan is chillin'

At church, we played icebreakers and RED ROVER! Kind of excited about that, considering it's totally illegal in Canada. :D

We went through 3 songs: Ahrirang, Thirty Second Fa-La-La, and Over The Rainbow. After that, we went out to lunch at a cute place in Landour. I got to try Momos and chicken fried rice, although what I ordered came later: an inch thick 20cm diameter banana pancake. Possible the best pancake ever, it was crispy on the outside, moist and fluffy on the inside, and had the perfect ratio of bananas, finished off with a hot chocolate. Mmmmm...

Also, on the walk home with Apa, Annabelle and Kalkidan, we had the opportunity for male-female interaction with a couple of choirboys, Bendix and Martin. This was fabulous for me, as I haven't talked to any guys (aside from Dad and Will) for about a week. I'm drowning in estrogen!!! (Take note LukasBenMattDannyWill, I will be desperate to hang out with guys when I get home)!

Chez Midlands, I watched the Olympics (Japan vs. Korea women’s volleyball-tensions running high! Also found Rosie MacLennan’s gold medal win on YouTube) and skyped home. It was raining waaaaaaaaaay too hard for me to want to go out to dinner, so we ended up eating toast and bananas and watching Brazil vs. Mexico.

On the edge of our seats...

Well done Mexico!!!

Then, Kalkidan decided we should do facemasks:

Allie, I miss you!!!

(Glacier clay, LUSH, take note)

And then Tanya, Tanuvee, Devika, Kalkidan and I watched Pretty Woman with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. How have I never seen this before?!

We stayed up until 2:30 chatting about differences in our cultures and everyone around the school. I love everyone here so much, it’s just amazing. We slept 4 people in 2 single beds. As Terry Prachett said “In such a space, you could get three people in there if they knew each other well. Four people would know each other very well whether they liked it or not”.

Sunday has been pancakes & cereal, one sick friend back in the health center, and Chapel. Chapel was very interesting; we discussed how Christianity has influenced India and its effect today. After that we visited Uma and Tanuvee, who have both been locked up until further notice.

I love hanging out with friends whilst studying. You get so little done, but you get culture shock about once every minute!

Aaaaaaand now the water’s gone until 6 am. Crap…

Love to all:

Emily

PS. Wide Awake by Katy Perry. I have heard it enough for a lifetime, that’s all I’m saying.

PPS OMGOMGOMG Independance is on Wednesday OMGOMGOMG

At last... the weekend!

Hello my lovelies!

It's been a big week chez Woodstock. I've started getting an intense amount of homework (apparently only the tip of the iceberg...), but I'm loving it. I'm incredibly motivated in my French and English classes, and music, obviously. Having a bit more difficulty being excited in my other classes (especially about mole theory, which I DO NOT UNDERSTAND), but that's understandable, considering it's math, chem and bio.

I officially have no idea what I want to be. I feel so passionate about language now, instead of science. What do I do?!?!?

We have a choir retreat tomorrow from 9 until 2:30. I'm super excited, I have no clue what to expect, and that just makes it more exciting. To make it even better, we get to buy food on our way home even though it's a closed Baz day (closed bazaar)

Oh, and I had to share, you're all invited:

Awesome, right? If it's clear send me pics, because I doubt we'll have clarity enough for it.

So aside from school news, not much has happened. Tanuvee, Kalkidan and Uma have all gotten fantastically sick, but I'm on some hardcore antibitoics that probably killed anything harmful in my stomach.

And, after having fantastically failed first room check, we all vowed to do a major overhaul on the room. This morning, it was totally clean before I left for Morning Workout, and Ms Geeta forgot to do room check. D.E.R.K. shared a communal groan at that.

Tuck shop tonight! One chocolate donut, some kind of chocolate timbit thing, and dark-chocolate-covered-cashews later, and I am well over my chocolate cravings. 

Amazing photos courtesy of Devika to come later.

Lots of love!

Emily