Another Blog from Greg

Hello to everybody that reads out blog. We love being able to share our new adventures with you and to stay in touch. It is time for my monthly blog. Things here are going well, and as you can see from Twyla's post we are getting to see and experience a lot of amazing things here in India. We have settled down in our lives here in Mumbai, and coming back to Mumbai after vacations actually seems relaxing. I never thought that would happen.

School is going well and fast. I have had my first grades due, and I have had my first parent teacher conferences. We are screaming towards the end of the semester, and I cant believe it is coming so fast. I got the experience of going on Week Without Walls. I helped lead a trip with the seniors, and we where rafting down the Ganges. We got to start with one of the head water rivers and actually rafted to a major confluence, and the actual start of the Ganges. It is a very holy place. In the above picture you can see the two colors of the rivers joining. We were being blessed by a holly man and then dunked in the river. It was a very beautiful place. We ended our 4 day trip near the town of Rishikesh. This is the town that was made famous by the Beatles and their time spent there. It too is a very holy place along the Ganges with amazing temples along the river. We took the kids in town one night and saw a fire ceremony along the river. The river was pretty tame, but we had a lot of fun. I feel very lucky to be in a school that allows students this opportunity. Twyla got to join the 9th graders, and I think she would agree that this is, or at least has the potential to be a very valuable experience for the students. I guess it is easy when you have class sizes close to 50 students.

India is still an intense place to live for me, but I am figuring it out a lot more. I know a few more words in Hindi, and the rickshaw drivers seem to try to rip me off a bit less. We have found lots of great places to eat, and I can find my way around town and I can use the train. Mainly I can get on and off the train which is the hard part. I am still running a lot, and that takes up a lot of time. Most days I get up at 5:00 or before to run. On the weekends I might sleep in to 5:30. My longest run of date is 16 miles, and I still have 9 weekends left. I am looking forward to not running, but I am glad to have the routine for now. We are still trying to get the climbing wall at school up and running, but I think that will have finally happened by the end of this week. We are meeting great friends, and enjoying those relationships. I am missing the snow, and winter right now, but that is one of my big sacrifices for this experiences. Enstead of going to parties to talk about skiing and snow, we are going to parties and talking about food and Cashmere rugs. Same great people, just different interests.

Well I have to get planning for the weekend. We miss all of our friends, and we would love to hear from everybody. Feel free to skype, facebook, e-mail, or even send mail.

Greg