Dharamsala

The second big stop on our quarter break trip was Dharamsala. This has been the home of the Dalai Lama since he fled from Tibet in 1959. There is still a large Tibetan community here and this is usually the first port of call for newly-exiled Tibetans fleeing the country. The main Buddhist temple in the town was a popular tourist destination, as well as a place of pilgrimage for the faithful.

There was, of course, an abundance of Buddhist art there.

There were lots of monks wandering around the town and they were often engaged in devotional acts.

In addition to the preservation of religious practice, the Tibetan exile community in Dharamsala does its best to preserve their cultural identity. There were lots of arts and crafts centers where traditional Tibetan jewelry, rugs, and clothes were being produced. There were also some monks participating in what is apparently the traditional style of Tibetan debate, with lots of foot-stamping and hand-clapping.

Of course, we also took advantage of the traditional Tibetan food available in the town.

Because our quarter break was scheduled over the holiday, we ended up in Dharamsala on Easter morning. We found an old Victorian church that was open for a service that morning and made plans to visit.

In addition to a beautiful old building and a friendly pastor, the church had a great old cemetery and fantastic views of the Himalayas.

After being in the big city of Amritsar, it was definitely a nice change to be in a more slow-paced and relaxed town like Dharamsala.

Dave and Beth

We're Golden

This past weekend was our quarter break here at Woodstock and we decided to have one last traveling hurrah. Our ambitious plan involved traveling to Amritsar and Dharamsala. The first stop on our trip was the Golden Temple in Amritsar. This is the holiest site in the world for followers of the Sikh religion. Naturally, at such a sacred site, we were required to wash our feet before entering. This essentially involved stepping into a shallow pool of gross-looking water, but it seems to have gotten the job done.

The Golden Temple itself is situated in the middle of a large pool. Sikhs like to go for a quick dip to be blessed and cure illnesses. The lifeguards on duty had pretty sweet uniforms and mean-looking sticks.

We decided against swimming in the pool, but a lot of the faithful decided to take the plunge.

Another part of the Sikh religion is that men need to have their hair covered at all times. In the Golden Temple complex, the head-covering rule was extended to anyone that visited, so we made sure to keep ours covered.

One of the best parts of the Sikh religion in general and the Golden Temple in particular is the desire to feed those that come to visit. If you go to any gurudwara (Sikh temple), they will probably give you something to eat. Because the Golden Temple is such a big pilgrimage site and a big tourist destination, they have to feed lots of visitors. The whole operation involved several large rooms where people were cycled in an out. It also involves a lot of plates and cutlery.

Just outside the dining room was a huge open air kitchen. The big cauldrons below are full of dal being cooked for the guests. There were also teams of women making dough and rolling our chapatis. The man with the long stick below is actually cooking the chapatis that the women are making. We were not too trusting of the sanitary conditions of the kitchen and we're not huge fans of dal, so we decided to have lunch elsewhere.

The Golden Temple is free to visit, so after seeing some of the other sites of Amritsar, we thought we'd stop in again to see the building at night. It was a beautiful site.

People have told us that Amritsar is an overwhelming city and that we shouldn't have planned to go there over break. We found it to be no different from other large cities in India and really enjoyed our experience at the famous Golden Temple. We don't need to plan any return trips in the near future, but we're glad we visited.

Dave and Beth

Retreat Number 4

Every year, Woodstock has a retreat for all its students. In the middle school, we have one retreat for grades 7 and 8 and one for grades 5 and 6. This past weekend, we did our last Woodstock retreat. We were down at the Torchbearers conference center in Dehradun. It was a great chance for both students and staff to get away for a bit. There were, of course, a few sessions of learning for the students. The focus this weekend was the life of Joseph.

The students also enjoyed some chances for non-school food.

A lot of our free time was spent playing games and Dave took the opportunity to hone is cricket skills with the boys.

It was a great restful weekend for the kids and they learned a little bit about God in the process.

Dave and Beth

Science is Real

The big news in middle school here yesterday was the science fair. Every year, the sixth and seventh grade students at Woodstock practice the scientific method and try their best to test hypotheses to reach a conclusion. This was Beth's first year teaching the process here, but you should be able to see by the quality of these presentations how great she did.

The Woodstock community also did a great job of supporting the students by coming out and asking the students questions about their work. A lot of time was put into these posters, so it was nice for the other teachers to come and show some interest.

As with any good science fair, one group had an exciting analysis of mold. The big test of the day was to see if anyone could stand putting their nose in the bags below.

Beth's colleagues from the science department came through and judged the use of the scientific method in all the experiments and chose winners in several different categories.

The fair was a great success and Beth did a fantastic job.

Dave and Beth

Taking it Easy

After our trip with Beth's sister, Emily, we had grand plans to take a whirlwind tour of India. After some thinking, we decided that it would be better to simply stay in Mussoorie for the remainder of the vacation. Though not very exciting, it was the best situation for us. We did have a chance to celebrate Dave's birthday. If you look closely at the cake Beth made, you'll notice that it looks just like our local mountain (Banderpunch).

We also played a great game of 6 Nimmt with all of the friends that were still on the hillside.

It definitely has been nice to take it a bit easy for a few weeks. We know that the upcoming semester is going to be ridiculously busy, and we'll be looking back fondly on this time in a few weeks.

Dave and Beth

A Touch of Austria

After our rainy desert camel safari, we returned to Jaisalmer proper and checked in at the Artist Hotel. This was a quirky little place that had been founded by an Austrian hippie to give local artists a place to perform and present their work. Our room and the rooftop restaurant both had a great view of the fort in the center of town.

Our favorite part, though, was the Austrian food that they served in the restaurant. It was nice to get some good schnitzel, frikadellen, and spätzle.

We also had some great entertainment as we ate our dinner. These were some local musicians that gave us something to watch as we feasted. The video is a bit dark, but the music should come through pretty well.

Dave and Beth

The Blue City

Jodhpur is another one of the cities in Rajasthan. It is called the "Blue City" for obvious reasons.

We stayed in a neat haveli, which was an old mansion with a courtyard in the middle. The room was comfortable, but the door was a bit of a squeeze for Dave.

Most of our first day in the city was spent waiting for midnight. This was New Year's Eve and we had no Dick Clark or Time's Square. We ate dinner and played a few games before laying low.

We pulled ourselves away from our books shortly before midnight and went up to the roof to celebrate 2010. Though we have never experienced one first-hand, we imagine a warzone to be similar to Jodhpur at midnight on New Years Day. The shear volume of fireworks being set off was amazing. It was also remarkable to see how absolutely dangerous these celebrants were.

The next day, we went to see Jodhpur's fort. Like that of Bikaner, it was very well preserved and it even had a nice little gift shop at the end.

We also spent some time in the bazaar there and did some shopping for spices.

Judging by day one, it seems as though 2010 will be a great year!

Dave and Beth

Christmas Mountains

After our big haul on Christmas morning, we were off to the house of a friend for a potluck Christmas dinner. Most of the Woodstock staff that are still on the hillside went over to share some Christmas fellowship. We took the long way aound to their house because it brought us within view of the snow-capped Himalayas and because we wanted to wish our ayah a happy birthday and a merry Christmas (Beth baked her a birthday cake).

As you can see, the mountains looked breathtaking. We haven't posted many pictures of them of late, so we thought we'd give some here.

Even when we got up to the potluck, you could still see the mountains peaking through the trees.

But once we got to the dinner, no one really noticed the mountains because there was so much wonderful food to share.

It is always amazing how people can improvise here and make things that transport us back home to North America.

We spent a lot of time playing games and there was even a Christmas movie. On our way home, we stopped to take one last panarama from the top of our hill. It shows most of the mountains that we've seen from there. You will have to click on it to be able to see it more clearly.

Dave and Beth