Four stories #4

Story #4- happy
I have alot of happy stories from my time in India, but since i was there for studetns teaching, I'll share the story of a few of my final 10th grade IB music class.
By this point I had pretty much completely handed ove the class to the new teacher, greg.. I told greg i wanted to do something a little special for my last day there. Benn, the teacher of 12th grdae IB music had asked me to give a lecture on Shostakovich at some point. it wokred out perfectly because the classes were back to back, and both had covered some relevent topics which I could tie into my lecutre.
Long story short, I gave two lectures on the first movement of Shostakovich's 9th Symphony. Those of you who kow how much I love Shostakovich's music understand how much fun i had during these two classes. On top of it all, this was a piece that neither Benn nor Greg had heard before. Not only was I teaching the class, I was teaching the teachers as well.
Pretty short story, but that was one of the happiest moements I had at kodai.

Future...
As far as the future, I've accepted a paid music internship at The American International School of Muscat (TAISM). Muscat is the capital city of Oman, and seems to be a really great place. The coutnry is internationall ranked as one of the most stable, prosperous, and peaceful nations in the world. I leave for Muscat on Febraury 7th.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=The+american+International+School+of+Muscat&hl=en&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=52.68309,113.818359&vpsrc=0&hq=The+american+International+School+of&hnear=Muscat,+Masqat,+Oman&t=m&z=12

so yah... there it is.
thanks for reading

Four Stories- story #3

story #3- Sad (don't worry, we'll end on a high note)
This is a short one, but pretty powerful. It was certainly tough to experience.
First one: To begin my travels I went to my dad's apartment in Bangalore to drop off most of my things. There was enough time for us to spend as afternoon exploring Bangalore. We grabbed a Rickshaw to go to some destination (I don't remember whree we wer going). As is very common in India, we got caught in traffic. As is also common in India, beggars and vendors were wandering through the mass of stopped vehicles trying to sell things and get food and money. I had gotten into the habit of keeping my window closed during these times to try and avoid awkward situations like what I am about to describe. Unfortunatley Rickshaws are opne air.
My dad and I (and midori who was traveling with me through Dehli) were having a discussion about what India is like and how it compares to the states. During this conversation and boy comes up to my dads side of the richshaw and shoves a tow car in his face, trying to make a sell. We had all seen this plenty of times before, so we ignored it.
Suddenly I feel al tap on my arm. I turn to see a female begger standing in front of me asking for food. Initially I brush it off, but she turns her head to show me her ear... or what used to be her ear. That part of her head had either been cut off, or smashed in leaving a bloody whole where her ear used to be..... I still remember the long, awkward silence among the three of us, and the desperate attempts by the three of us to keep the conversation moving and ignore the heart wrenhing example of poverty that was tapping me on the arm.


so ya.... poverty sucks... not really sure what else to say about it.

Happier things next time.

Four Stories #2

Story Number 2: Scary
My friend Tim and I took a weekend and visited the City of Kochi. Our second day there we decide to spend at local beach called Cherai Beach. To get to cherai from where we were staying we had to take a ferry across the bay, then take an hour long bus ride to the town of Cherai, then finally walk about an hour to get to the beach. it was a bit of a journey just to get their.
Our day was awesome. It included swimming around in the Arabian Sea, hanging out with this group of Indian college grads who decided to make us their friends, getting Rs 10 for my picture, and having my first coconut.
We started to head back, and after the lengthy walk, got on the bus back for the ferry. Unfortunatley our journey back would not be as easy as going out was. I was under the silly impression that the stop for where we get off for the ferry would be the same stop where we had gotten on the bus from the ferry. This was not the case, and in typical Indian fashion, there were no signs designating where the ferry stop was. My only hint was that we were suddenly driving across the bay which we were supposed to be ferrying across, and inthe wrong direction no less. we tapped a gentleman in front of us, who because of his porr english refered us to another gentleman, who told us we should have gotten off at the last stop. At this point we were presented with a decision, we either get off, take the next bus back a stop and get on the next ferry heading back to Fort Kochi (where we were staying), or take the bus all the way around the city to the end of its route in Fort Kochi. We chose the later. We figured it couldn't possibly be that bad, just ride the bus until someone tells us we can't ride anymore.
About 15 minutes later the bus stops int he middel of who-knows-where, and everyone gets off. We find out from another passanger that we actually have to switch busses, because this one is not going any farther. Unfortunatley the bus leaves, and there is no other bus there to pick us up. Seaminlgy everyone else fromt he previous bus had gone elsewhere, and we were getting conflicting reports as to which bus station the next bus wouold be picking us up at.
Finally after wandering that part of the city for about an hour we return, and are directed to get onto a bus that has just arrived. This is probably the most packed bus I have ever seen. It is standing room only, and I barely have room the breath. It s a very good thing I am no claustrophobic.
The bus continues on it merry way, and as the bus nears the end of its route in Fort Kochi, it begins to get emptier. About half an hour from the end of hour route, I hear yelling in the back of the bus. I rutn around and see two gentlmen fighting, with a bunch of other men, including the man collecting tickets, standing and watching them. Punches are thrown, and at one point, they are trying to throw each other out of the moving bus.
Eventually the bus comes to a stop, and one of the gentlemen is pushed out of the bus and barred from re-entering. We heard later that he was drunk and said something that the other took offense to (probably something having to do with a girl).
We did make it home safely, but that was one of the most adventurous bus rides I have ever taken.

four stories

I felt bad for not putting a finnishing touch on my blog about India. I decided the best way to summarize this would be to tell a few series of stories from my adventure. I was inspired by a friend of mine who asked me to tell four stories from my previous summer: a happy story, a sad story, a funny story, and a scary story. I'll switch up the order simply for better "programming", and end my plans moving forward. I'm aiming for one post per day for the next 5 days to finnish things off. If i fall off of that send me nasty-grams or something.
Story #1- funny:
During my final two weeks in India I traveled north and spent 4 days in Mcloedganj, the home of the tibetan government in exile and the Dalai Lama. I decided to travel here the Indian way, with no plans what-so-ever. I simply woke up, packed my things, and walked to the nearest bus statioion.
India has these things called tourist police. There job is to patrol major bus stations, trainstations, etc. and look for confused looking white people (because what else could they be except tourists). The tourist police at the Chandigar bus station connected me up with a british guy about my age namedd peter.
As a small aside, I want to point out that this tourist policeman was a real creeper. He had this guset book that he was so proud of. He considered each and everyone of them his firneds, and kepe talking about how he had somany different girlfriends from so many diffrerent countries. At one point he leaned over and asked if I had enough friends. Yah... weird guy.
Anyway with both peter and I being english speaking ex-pats, we took the final leg of the journey together. We finally arrived at Mcleodganj at aroudn 1 am. Neither one of us wanted to pay for a room that night so we ended up standing around the main ganj with about 6 other like minded people, waiting for the sun to rise. It was actually a really amazing experience, being temporarily homeless up in the mountians with with a small group of ex-pats surrounded by tibetan monks.
The next day Peter, Myself, and danish couple decided to go register to see the Dalai Lama. He was in the middle of teaching about meditation. As we were walking around close to the temple peter stopped and asked us to read a sign with a list of donors who helped build the temple. The thirf name on the list was "Mr. Richard Gere, U.S.A". Maybe some of you knew this, but i had no idea Richard Gere was involved with the Tibetan cause.
We register and the next go to see the Dalai Lama speak. It was ana amazing experienece. Sitting cross legged in a room surrounded by Tibetan monks and crazy western tourists trying to find themselves, all the while listening to the deep throaty voice of one of the most powerful spiritual/religious leaders in the world. Its an experience I will no soon forget. At one point everyone put red strips of cloth over their foreheads and red string around there wrists. I didn't want to be presumptuous, so I sat there respectfully with the red cloth in my hands. Suddenly an elderly female monk taps me on the knee and, without using english, motions for me to put it on my forehead. I did so, and remained in complete awe for the rest of the cermony.
At the end of the ceremony the Dalai Lama walked out of the temple about 10 feet away from where Peter and I were sitting. People were bunching up trying to get closer to him, trying to touch him or give him things for him to bless. As he passed, surrounded by his enterage, I felt this incredible sense of awe. I was withing touching distance of this incredibly powerful man, a man whom many believe is a god. After that experience I can understand why they would believe this. He has an aura about him that is undeniable.
He walked down the stairs and the excitement of the crowd around us subsided. Suddenly peter taps me on the elbow and says "is that Richard Gere?" Sure enough Richard Gere was leaving the temple just behind the Dalai Lama; presumable off to hob-nob with the leader of the Tibetan people for the rest of the day.
I still can't decide which is more impressive, seeing the Dalai Lama, or seeing Richard Gere?

I'm limiting myself to one story, so if you want another one you'll have to ask for it.
More tomorrow

I'm back, part 1.1

So before I begin my detailed and whitty captions for the 200+ pictures I just put up, I wil give you all a description of the travel schedule I worked out between Oct. 15th and 30th.
At 6:30pm on Oct. 15th a fellow student teacher, Midori Neaton, and I will board a KPN sleeper bus bound for Bangalore. We will arrive on the morning of the 16th, and spend the deay with my dad. I will drop off a bunch of my stuff (like trumpet and souvenires from south India) here so I don't have to lug them around india with me.
Early on the morning of the 17th Midori and I will board a plane for Delhi. The purpose for the visit to Delhi is to take a day and visit the Taj and Red Fort in Agra. Other than that I'm not sure what we'll do; explore, possibly hook up with the Global group (although I don't know when or even if they will be in delhi).
On Oct. 20th I will board a train bound for Dehra Dun, and from their bus or taxi/bus up to Mousoori to spend a few days at Woodstock Intl. school. I have two friends who are student teaching there, so I'll spend time with them and just explore the school and the surrounding area.
On Oct. 24th Ill start the leg of the trip I'm most excited for. Probably via local bus I will make my way north and west to Dharmashala, the home of the Dalai Lama and the Tiebtan Government in exile. I checked the schedule of the dalai lama and it seems that he will be in town while I am there. Who knows, maybe I can get an audience with him (probably not, but a guy can hope right?). Other than that I'll just spend the next few days exploring the area. Everyone tells me its beautiful with mountians all around. Apparently one of the most picturesque cricket grounds in the world is in Dharmashala, so maybe i'll catch a cricket game.
On Oct. 28th I will fly back down to bangalore to spend my last weekend in India with my dad. it will be a wonderfulway to end my time here. By that point my dad will have been in bangalore for almost a month, so maybe he can give me a good tour of the city ;)

On Oct. 30th at about 8pm I begin my treck home. its hard to believe that my time here is almost over. Ill refrain from saying too much because I plan on this topic being my last reflection of the blog, but I will say that so far my time here has been unreal. It will certainly be tough to say good-bye to this place.

more to come soon,
Kevin

Im back, Installment no.1

Well, Its been a while. August 23rd huh? Wow. I had predicted early on that the month of september would fly by, and so it. This month was contained two partial weeks, One long weekend, one full week field trip, parent week, and two extended weekend field trips. In addition I've finalized my travel plans, been hard at work on my TPA, and had some fun and exctiing classroom expereiences. The month will end this coming weekend with a much later than expected, and yet earlier than expected (I'll explian) weekend visit from my dad.
Yah alot to write about.
Fist though, there are like 200 new pictures on my photobucket from the month. make sure to check them out.
http://s975.photobucket.com/albums/ae233/crusader3629/Student%20Teaching%20in%20India/
Alright, here goes.
So the month started with a weekend trip to Kochi with my friend Tim. Tim and I had some extra time on our hands and decided we needed to get away for a little while, so we went west into Kerala and ended up in Kochi.
First a little bit about the city. Its old. Very old. It was occupied by the Portugese in the 1500's, and before that was a center for the spice trade, and the seat of the Kingdom of Cochin (Wikipedia,Kochi). The city itself is made of a bunch of Islands. The mane part of the city in on the shore and is centered around an area called Ernakulam. The historic partsof Kochi , called fort Kochi and Jew Town are two Islands to the east, and are where Tim and I were fortunate to find a place to stay.
The first day we spent wandering around Fort Kochi. I found this really interesting. In the US we seem to set our historic landmarks aside. Their is a very strong "time traveling" element to visitng historical landmarks at home. We look at them because they are pretty and theytake us back to a time which we can only imagine. We don't touch them. In India, these historical landmarks are very strongly mixed with the squalor and grittieness of the typical indian city. Their is trach everywhere, run down buildings, dirty and poorly mainteined streets, bright colors, tons of people. In the midst of all this you walk past an inconspicuous looking building with a plaque on it that says it was build 600 years ago. It was remarkable how well the narrow cobblestone alleys mixed in with the rest of the feel of Kochi.
We say a few really cool things in Fort Kochi/Jew Town. First were the chinese fishing nets (see pictures in my photobucket). These are large nets that have been used for thousands of years for tidal fishing.  The Idea is that the net is lowered into the water, and the incoming tide washes fish into the net. pretty cool. They looked like large aquatic dinosaurs, which in a way they were. Due to modern fishing techniques, this style of fishing is becoming increasinlgy rare.
Fort Kochi/Jew Town also had some very old places of worship. The first we visited was St. Francis Church. Built in 1503 it was the origional burial place of Vasco de Gama before he was moved to Lisbon. The second we visited was the Satna Cruz Basilica, which was founded by the Dutch in 1505.
Finally we visited the Old Synagogue in Jew Town. This was an especially cool experience. Although we new it was closed on Fridays, we got a rickshaw their anyways, just to see the outside of it. As we were looking at the fairly inconspicuous exterior, a man came out and asked us if we woudl like to come in. Apparently we had lucked out as this was the one friday of the month that the synagogue was not being used. The synogogue was built in 1568 and serves five families in the area (I'm not gong to lie, I didn't really expect to hear about any sort of Jewish influence in India... at all). The inside was amazing. The floor featured hundreds of individually hand-painted, Chinese porcelain tiles. No two tiles were unique. our pricate tour guide then showed us a 600 year old copy of the Torah, and a the synagogues weekly calender, which was hand written in three different languages. It was a remarkable place, and w were very fortunate to get to see it like we did.
The next day we decided to go to the Beach, and this is where the stories really being. Cherai beach is a 2 minute Ferry ride and a 30 minutes bus rde away from Fort Kochi. Our journey out occured without a hitch. We got to the beach to discover that it was much dirtier and rockeir than we expected. basically it was more Indian than we were hoping. We wandered down the beach a ways and found a nice comfortable rock grouping to camp out in. After gooping up with sunscreen, we both took off our shirts and started swimming. I was feeling little uneasy though. I wasn't entirley comfortable with leaving our stuff their unattended, so I kept a very wary eye behind me when a group of people passed by. After about the third or fourth group, I decided I had had enough, and resigned my self to bag duty. Eventually Tim came back, and just as he sat down a group of about eight indian guys come up and sit around us. One of them asks tim very directly "do you have any problems?" This made us a little uneasy. A large group of indian men coming up and plopping themselves down right around you when no one else is around. Needless to say we kept our stuff really close to us.
Despite our unease, we struck up a conversation with these guys. We foudn out that they were all bachlors of Business Management Students from Bangalore. One then led to another and we were happily chumming around with these guys, ending the day with a fish fry at a local place next to the beach. I'm not going to lie, that fish was probably the sketchiest thing I have eaten here. It was cold, and very clearly not fresh. I was starving though and ate the whole thing with not ill side-effects.
Thing that struck me the most about these guys was that they were 25 and 26 years old and still had 2 years left on their bachelors degree. Here I am 22 years old with a completed (or nearly) bachlors degree and completely qualified to go to graduate school or get a job. I have come the the conclussion that the US is quite unique in that regard. Our secondary system ends pretty early, and thus our College system graduate young students. Just and Intersting observation.
After parting ways with these fine gentlemen and wandering on the beach for another half hour or so, we decided to make ourway back to our hoe-stay in Fort Kochi. The thing you have to know about the Indian Bus system is that its not in English. This means that, for an english only person like myself, once you get on a bus yo have to find a young person near-bye who is likely to speak english, and aks them to tell you wne your stop is. Tim and I hadn't learned that yet. Before we knew it we were traveling on a bridge acorss the bay (which we were supposed to be corssing by ferry) into "West Kochi." After asking a few people it was decided that rather than simply catch a bus back to the ferry, we should take the bus to the end of its route, which was Fort Kochi. With a bus switch in the middle this ended up being a good 2 hour tour of the City in one of the most crowded bus I had been in up to that point. The make things even better, near the end of the bus ride I hear shouting a behind me. I turn around to see a fight breaking out in the back of the bus. With no security on the bus except a ticket collector who clearly had not intrest in getting involved, the fight contiuend unhidnered. It finally ended when one of the offenders was puched out of the bus and not allowed to get back on.
Great way to end the day.
The next day we headed home.
Here's a look at the path we took home: http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Fort+Kochi,+Kerala,+India&daddr=Ernakulam,+Kerala,+India+to:Munnar,+Kerala,+India+to:Theni,+Tamil+Nadu,+India+to:Batlagundu,+Tamil+Nadu,+India+to:Kodaikanal,+Tamil+Nadu,+India&hl=en&sll=9.985081,76.483383&sspn=0.53085,0.614548&geocode=FdUMmAAdHleLBCmNFwtPMW0IOzE7tA05PyNFxQ%3BFYzQmAAda0yMBCmp83b5CA0IOzFU1G7wRLTN6Q%3BFeXxmQAdxdWXBCltmglNeZkHOzEMfjxV5VAyBg%3BFWmvmAAd7SKeBCktinW-rxQHOzGLECeT1XaDwA%3BFXMfmwAdGYSiBClByvwrcU8HOzFsEOEbBqgbeA%3BFaI4nAAdHmSeBCmHAwp_Y2YHOzE8wVg3N-n6nw&vpsrc=0&doflg=ptm&mra=ls&t=m&z=9
We decided, rather than taking the more expensive KPN bus, we would take the local busses home. Think city bus, but with open windows, several holes in the floor, and probably built in the 70's. The trip ended up being about 13 hours long, and probably half of it was spent either standing or sitting on the engine cover.
The first half of this ended up being one of the most beautiful bus rides I had ever been on. The Munnar area is one of the most stunning places I have seen here in south india. It tough to descirbe, so i'm just going to point you to my photobucket again.

So theirs istallment 1. 2 and 3 will come soon, hopefull later today. For now I need lunch and a break.

Till then,
Kevin

We've lost a lot of men out there

Benn and I have decided that "we've lost alot of men out there" is going to be the unofficial moto for this semester. As it stands the music deparment is now four staff members short. Fortunatley that is only temporary as two will be back by the beginning of september, but it has also made all of our collective jobs here much more intense. I personally took 16 of stu's students, and almost sole responsibility for the wind ensemble when he left. On top of all this we have been planning a trip for the Wind Ensemble and Orchestra to bangalore for this coming weekend. basically whether I like it or not, I became the point man for the band in planning this trip. This has been a real crash course in the behind the scenes workings of a band program, specifically when planning events like a trip. I've had a significant role in writing the budget, Deciding whether a group of volleyball studetns shoud join us half way through the trip, and getting within a whisker of being embroiled in school politics. Fortunatley I escaped that one, but It wasnt easy. This on top of my 31 block a cylce schedule had meant that I've been regularily staying at school until 7 or 8 at night. Welcome to the world of band directing I guess. Unfortunatley all this activity has not left me with much energy to write in my blog, and for that I apologize. But that means this one should be really fun to read since I'll have so much stuff to sahre with you all.

Lets start with the weekend following the chennai trip, which I'm pretty sure I talked about. The weekend of the 15th was indian Independence. What a crazy time. It started saturday night with the Mother Mary festival. I think this is a celebration on St. Mary's feast day. It was wild. There were decorations everywhere, includuing these large light pictures on bambooo framwork. The one down the budge had to have been 100 ft tall, and that wasn't even the biggest one. This occasino epitomized India (or at least this part of India)better than any other that I can think. First, the prepearations seemed the be made quite haphazard. In one particular case, the Kodai club wanted top put un an awning over the street. The onl problem was that the street was in the way. What did they do you ask? Only what any sane person would do, send a team of men out with a hammer and chisle to chop through the street. From what i could tell they spent all night, and part of a day drilling four holes in through the asphalt to put up this awning for two days. Things are diffeent here.

The other thing that struck me was the crazy mix of cultures that was going on. Kodai was origionally founded as a mission, so it is not unusual to see chrisitan slogans written on cars, busses, lorrys, and buildings (In fact one of my friends likes to say of Kodai "you have to be high on jesus... or something to work at Kodai). The mother mary festrival was a direct extension of this very strong visual christian message. There were pictures of mary every where. The interesting part was the clear Indian style that these picutures and messages had taken on. Like I said in an earlier blog, India is loud, and this was no exception. Everything about it was very "in your face" The light displays were huge, bright, and in some cases have moving components. They also liked to contain seemingly unrelated imagry. One picture was of Mry with a Helicopter and a marching band of Bunnies below her. My friends and I couldn't help but chuckle at that.

All of this decoration (which you can see in the pictures I've posted on my photobucket) and noise (there was music blaring 24/7, gave the whole festival a really strong christmasy feeling. At one point I think I even heard christmas music playing as Icrossed seven road junction. probably because of this, one of the coolest exerpeinces I had that night was walking back from mungigal (the focal point of the march/festival) the call to prayer from a near by mosque went up. Such a cool mix of cultures and traditions.

As I said, this was a two part weekend. That next day, monday, we had off. Kind of. It was Indian Independence day, and in stu's absence, I was in charge of leading the band through the National Anthem and school song during the school wide assembly. Kind of a debut for me which was really fun. The music wasn't all that challenging, but it sure tested my ability to organize my band into a performance. I though it went off very well, except for clean up, which was like pulling the teeth of my students. That left me a little frusterated.

Beginning that Tuesday our St. Olaf observer arrived to observ all us teachers. She stayed for the week and ended up observing my four times (once with each band, one lesson, and my 10th grade music class). As nervous as I was for this week, it flew by, and she did a fantastic job of making it a stress free situation. Although she is not a music person, she did a great jkob of giving advice for the teaching side of my skills. Her biggest positive comment was my knowledge of my content area, and my enthusiasm for it. I think this especially showed through in my 10th grade music class where I'm teaching Sonata (one of my favorite boring subjects). Her biggest constructive comment was that I need to improve my awareness of the classroom and the students in it. She recommended changing the seating in my 10th grade music class (which I did today and it worked incredibly well) and being more aware of students in my bande, which sounds easy, but when you are a new teacher and you have 30 kids on your class, its easy to not make eye contact with everyone.

That brings us to this week. Honestly, apart from being incredibly busy all the time, Its all been pretty much the same. I have conversations with the orchestra almost daily to resolve a "big problem," I'm teaching more than i've ever taught before, and I'm learning all sorts of new things. My classes, as can be expected have been pretty up and down. 10th grade has been good for the most part, honestly the situation I'm in for that class is a teachers dream. 9 students who want to be in the class, in a classroom thats well equiped, I may never have that again in mteaching career. The reason it's been up and down has simply been because I've been experimentgin so much with how to run a class. Its probably more organized thatn any of these students have ever experienced before, but given the the incredible situation that this class in putting me in, i'm trying to make it as productive as it can be. My plan has been to take them through the four major musical forms of the classical period (Minuet and Trio, Sonata, Symphony, and Concerto) and culminate with them giving a presentation on one of these forms. Hopefully this will allow them to reveiw each form before a final test, and to practice good research and ctiation skills (which has been ahuige topic at kodai this year since three students failed the IB exam because of poor citations).

My bands have been a mixed bag as well. My biggest challenge has simply been keeping them focused and productive. Band it always at the end of the day, so they are usually tired and ready to do something else. Sometimes they are wonderful like last week when Kathy was observing me. My wind ensemble were angles, which was wonderful. Sometimes they are a realy challenge, like my Intermediate band when Kathy was observing. that band was reading a piece of music for the second time, and they were not doing it very successfully. Keeping them focused through that type of activity is quite challengeing. My saving grace though is that I'm still learning and I have wonderful advisors and metors around me to learn from. I'll get a hang of it eventually.

My final thing to add is that last week we had our Staff recital for the school. I opened the concert with Otto Ketting's "Intrada." I'm actually extremely proud of how it went, and managed to make a recording. I'm hoping I can post that here or somewhere else for you all to listen to.

Thats it for now. I need to go play some volleyball.

Cheers,

Kevin