Reflections

So, it's been five months since I came to India. Perhaps now is a time to step back and take a look at all that has gone on.

I have been teaching since August. A lot of it was pretty tough and kinda rough around the edges. I'm still a learner here and at times it really shows.

Do I like it here? Of course. I get three square meals a day, an ayah to come and cook/clean/do my laundry, coolies to deliver my supplies to me. It's a relatively quiet life up here and it's very nice to be free of things like an auto, rent, mobile phones, and any other numerous things that are required for living back home. At the same time, however, living in Woodstock is very quiet. Everything dies around 9 or 10 in the evening so you have to make your own fun. That's not necessarily a bad thing but if I stayed up here I think I'd need a new liver in a few years. Then there's the fact that I really feel like I have to tiptoe around this place. Living in such a small community, I feel you have to be careful of what you say and to whom you say it. You also have to be careful of what you do. Word travels fast on the hillside and sometimes staff can be worse about rumors than the kids. I guess we all need our soap operas.

So, how is teaching? I don't know exactly for sure right now. It can be great and rewarding but at the same time it can be too much. I work so hard to get a lab written and set up and it all just blows up in my face (not quite literally, knock on wood). At the beginning of the year it was really nice to have the kids thank me after the lessons. It just felt really good and I was really excited. Now, I feel like we're just going through the motions, both them and me. Don't get me wrong, I love the kids here. Well, most of them. The grade twelves have been pushing my buttons a lot this semester but the grade tens have been overall amazing kids. Anywho, I really do enjoy being with the kids here and have a lot of fun hanging out with them in and out of class. It's been a lot of long days. I get to school around eight and teach until 3.30. Then I stay and prep or grade or reteach kids until 6. I go down to have dinner in the cafeteria and head home finally around 7. I'll relax for maybe an hour and prep some more until usually 10 or 11. Then it's off to bed to start over. It's been quite taxing and I'm hoping to not go through that next semester. Well, not as much anyway.

It's always been the plan that once my contract is up I will go on to grad school. I'm not sure exactly where or what to study yet though. Could be chemistry, teaching, administration (probably not), or I might even look back into engineering. It just all depends on how this next year and a half go. I really do miss working in a lab. Heck, I was all excited when our lab tech went to a wedding b/c I had a lab and had to make up some extra solution. It was just a simple dilution but it was really nice to do. I have been looking into grad schools already. Just a preliminary sort of thing to see what all I would have to do to apply and in the program itself. So far, I've only looked at schools that offer a program in chemistry or engineering (either chemical or biomedical). I'm not going to go into details, but that first year of college that I spent up at da tech was stressful. Not because of the material but because of everything else. I think that if I were to go back in to engineering I would be more focused now and able to pull through with it. I've narrowed things down to six universities mostly in Illinois or Michigan but there are a few elsewhere (and I haven't even begun to look abroad). Nothing is official right now and I'm still just looking. I have about another year before I need to start applying so things may swing and I'll go for something in education. We'll see.

I am really enjoying the people I meet around here. There is just such diversity in the staff. You have Indian nationals, Americans, French, Canadians, Brits, and a few others all working together and somehow making it flow. Everyone brings something and I think I've really learned a lot from so many people with so many different views. I've made a lot of good friends too. The only problem is that there is such a huge turnover around this place that more often than not, they'll be gone in a year or two. Two of my best buds this semester were volunteers and as of today (24.12) they're both gone. One was a seventy-five year old counselor whom I had dinner with just about every night. The other was a twenty-two year old ICT guy that I hung out with a lot. A few others that I've felt relatively close to will be leaving at the end of the year. Luckily, there are a few really cool people that will be sticking around.

So, there we have it. I'm enjoying myself here in the mountains. I may not know exactly where I'll be in a few years but I'm enjoying figuring it out.