Pondicherry

Bonjour from Pondicherry!

A group of us, six total, took a car to the coast for the weekend to a city called Pondicherry. It is the place where the French used to have their colony, to there is this huge French Quarter where people speak French and everyone eats French food!! We had the most amazing meal last night, everything we could eat, steaks, milkshakes, ect, for about $15.00 total thanks to the blessed exchange rate. The city is right on the boarder so we got up early this morning to watch the sun rise over the Bay of Bangal. After some touring and shopping this morning, we got to sit on the beach in the sun all afternoon. I even bought an Indian Vogue and People for the occasion. The best part was that we staked ourselves out in a remote part of the beach, far away from the other Indians there. Slowly, groups of Indians in their early twenties or so came closer and closer to us. Soon camera phones emerged and they were asking us if we were movie stars. The weridest part was being one of the only girls on the entire stretch of beach. Apparently it just isn't permitted for girls to do "crazy" things like go to the beach. Sadly our beach vacation ends tomorrow after the massage, but it's been a much needed weekend of relaxation.

Things at Shanti Bhavan are good and very busy. We're getting ready for the end of the year and all of the teachers have to test and evaluate all children. I'm busy trying to cram the Cold War into two class periods AND explain the problems in the Middle East. How do you explain something like that?! My second graders learned a very valuable lesson this week: how to read roman numerals. They couldn't grasp the concept of fractions at all, so we changed gears and taught them how to read roman numerals. For some reason, they understood that in about a second so they have no idea what a fourth of something is, but can tell you exactly what Super Bowl or Olympics it is!

Things are so good here at my little haven here in India! Keep me posted on everything back home!