Friday and Saturday

Friday morning I was literally shocked when I tried to take a shower. There is a short or something in our hot water heater. I managed to get the tap turned off and headed up to school to request a repair. We had already asked for a plumber to fix the leaky taps in the bathroom and kitchen. The electrician/plumber came in the afternoon. He fixed the taps but said the geyser (hot water heater) would need to be taken down for repair. He suggested letting it heat up, then turning the power off when showering. I found out that it needed to be unplugged, too, so we are now able to shower safely. I suspect when this house was last fixed up and the water heater installed, the wiring wasn't upgraded quite enough. A bit scary when the power is 220 volts!

After a busy week, I was happy to spend most of Saturday relaxing at home. We were (again!) invited out for dinner in the evening. Former student Marian and Tina were staying at Rokeby Manor and asked us to join them for dinner. Mark and Annie, our next-door neighbors, were invited, too. Both of us couples went by motorbike, we on the scooter from the New Road and M&A on their cycle from the school gate.

I took a few pictures with my iPod but they turned out pretty grainy. I need to figure out how to get better ones, as I've seen other people with good clear shots. The people shots are quite terrible, but the food is better, so here it is. Everyone ordered something different and all the dishes were delicious.

BBQ chicken w/veggies & mashed potato

Fish and chips

Mustard chicken w/ veggies and mashed potato

Mutton biriani with raita

Ratatouille

Veg lasagna

Thursday Evening

Our busy social schedule continued on Thursday, as we attended a dinner honoring a visiting alumnus from 1949. I enjoyed talking with his wife for a while as we ate. The Whitemans' wonderful cook Naveen again provided incredible food. Some of it shows below. There were two chicken curries, a paneer dish (crumbled cottage cheese), roasted mushrooms and peppers, raita, and chapatis that kept coming fresh one after the other. And a lovely dessert of kheer made with real saffron as well as apple crumble and ice cream. We were glad that the walk home was relatively short -- the dinner was at Doshisha, just above the "New" Road, so not as far up the hill as school.

Wednesday Evening

Yes, two posts in one day! Sometimes I have too little, sometimes too much. Last evening we went up to see friends at Shanty, a house near and just below Sisters' Bazaar. We had a great visit!

We arrived just before sunset. I went up onto a balcony above the main house and got this great shot of the Winterline, which is clearly in evidence. Reminder to new and old readers -- that line is not the horizon, it is an atmospheric phenomenon that happens here in the winter time.

Momo enjoys his hookah, as does Dan.

Here is a closeup of the chest you can see in the above picture.

 

Momo's mother Doma was staying with them; she will head back to Delhi next week. The Tibetan shops are closed right now due to Metro construction, but should be open again soon, she says. We first met Doma when we moved here in 1968. We always try to stop by her shop whenever we are in Delhi.

Tsering loves to cook in the kitchenette that is attached to the living room. Main meal elements are prepared by the cooks in the kitchen at the other end of the house.

Starters included nuts, little barbecued sausages with dahi-based sauce (dahi=yogurt), as well as some chicken bites and little pork chops. The main meal of rice, curry, dal and roti was served later. Too much food!! And all delicious.

It turned out to be quite a day for me -- walking from our house to work in the morning, then walking up to Shanty (about a similar distance or perhaps a bit further), and ending up at 11:00 pm walking all the way down to home. Almost, but not quite, as hard as going up!

Coffee Time

One of the great things about being here is that we have a coffee break every morning about 10:30. There are usually snacks, some from the school kitchen, others brought by staff members. (I usually bring some special treats from the US to share.)

On Wednesday we had an alumnus and his wife visiting and amazing refreshments! Bill and Norma seemed to enjoy their visit with us.

Cheeses and crackers, chocolate cake, and fruitcake from the school kitchen!

Our lovely receptionist Immu working at her desk.

Fall Weather

At 5:00 this afternoon (Tuesday) I went out to our front yard area and took these two photos. The first is toward the southwest, the second to the northeast. You would never know that at 3:00 we had an enormous rain and hail storm that went on for nearly half an hour. If you have never been under a tin roof in a hailstorm you can't imagine how loud it is!

There are a number of skylights in our office and several were leaking. There were hailstones lying on the floor in the welcome area. Above my desk I heard noises and looked up. There appeared to be a man crouching on the skylight and shouting. Soon a second man joined him. We called someone in and they sent out a rescue crew. Evidently they were doing some work on the roof and were caught unaware when the storm blew up. (And it did blow!) The painted tin was slippery and they were afraid they would fall. In the end it turned out all right. Too much excitement for one afternoon!

Surroundings

As you know, we are on the first ridge of the Himalayas. There is enough great scenery around to fill books of photographs. My small efforts of yesterday afternoon are more prosaic, but show some things close to our house.

Looking toward the first part of the path up the hill, just outside our gate

Strobilanthes on the khud just below our fence (view is straight down)

Overgrown front garden - mums are budding

Playing flat below our house

On the wall in our dining room is a huge framed map of the entire Mussoorie area. It is a Survey of India map from 1968. I think I have a copy at home. A visiting alumna was curious about some of the houses and was looking for a map. I photographed the school area for her. Unfortunately, many of the houses are just numbered, not named. The legend is along the side of the map and too large to photograph properly. She'll just have to come to our house to see it in person.

Of course, what's missing is a way to truly see the elevation changes!
Double-click image to see full amount photographed.

Miscellany

I haven't quite gotten into the swing of things here yet -- I forget (or neglect) to take my camera so I don't have many pictures to offer. Here are a few things that have happened in the past couple of days.

On Saturday, we walked up to Tehri Road and out (and up) to Oakville. Our friend Ellen was visiting her local-resident son and her other two sons (and wives) were there as well. Had a wonderful visit. From there we went up still further to the Chakker and Sisters' Bazaar. The Prakash store has all kinds of wonderful things, so we picked up some supplies, including bottled mayonnaise and mustard (one of the major changes in food availability over the past years). We walked along the ridge to Char Dukan, where we had bun omelets for lunch at Anil's Cafe. The buns are slightly sweet and grilled, the omelets have onions, tomatoes and chills, quite greasy but very delicious. I also had my favorite fresh lime soda -- sada or plain, no sugar or salt. From there we crossed the hillside heading down toward the school, past the Edgehill Estate, now a dorm (and right by Uncle Tom's Cabin, where we stayed a few years ago). By the time we got home I was pretty tired and my calves were protesting.

Dan went back into the bazaar to get a repair on the scooter and picked up some samosas for supper.

Sunday we went into the bazaar for our regular poori brunch. We took the scooter from the "New" Road but found the road going up to the Clock Tower area was pretty bad. I went to Broadway Optical and ordered my new glasses. In the afternoon Dan took the Bullet (motorcycle) out for a ride to Suakholi just to check it out. He came back with a wireless router and set it up in our house. So now we don't have to connect to the ethernet cord to get online. In the evening we were invited out to dinner with friends in Doshisha, the house just above the New Road.

This morning (Monday) I made it into the office about 9:00. It took me 25 minutes -- my backpack was a bit heavy and that slowed me down. All this hill climbing will be good for me! Back problems seem to be doing all right -- no major episodes so far!

One of the fun things in this office is meeting visiting alumni. One old friend, Margo, is here working in the archives. A former student showed up for a visit today; she and her friend will be staying until the 15th so we will try to get together again.

New Home in Mussoorie

On Friday we took the Dehra Dun Shatabdi train. It arrived in Dehra Dun about 12:45, where a taxi was waiting for us. [It is usually better to hire a taxi from Mussoorie who knows the road and school location than to take a chance on one that just happens to be at the station.] When we got to the school gate, the guard had the keys to our house ready for us. Mrs. Chelvam, the school hostess, had arranged for our stored boxes to be delivered to our house, so we headed down.

We are staying in Hill Haven, the lowest house below the back school gate. Someone commented, rightly, on my Facebook post, that it hasn't always been the lowest. There was a large house that went down the khud at some point, I think in the late 1960's around the time we first came to India. There is still a flat area that can be used for games just below us. Just above us is Eastwood Cottage, which has two apartments, above that Sunnywood, a two-story house. Above that is the "new" road that bypasses Mussoorie. Just above the road is Doshisha, also a duplex. The entire group of houses known as Eastwood Estate was owned by the Methodists in missionary times. This morning I walked up to Tehri Road just below the school and it took me about 17 minutes. That should come down a bit as I get used to the altitude and the amount of walking here. The majority of the path has steps, so it is quite steep. I've no idea how many feet up; I'd love to know.

Hill Haven is a roomy two-bedroom, two-bath house. It was great to have our luggage already here. Mrs. C. had arranged for a coolie to bring our trunks from the school attic and also to carry our suitcases down from the taxi. We had a flurry of unpacking and Dan made a quick trip to the bazaar to pick up a few items. We had tomato soup and peanut butter on white bread for supper. Today we got some brown bread and a few more supplies.

Front gate and door with luggage being delivered

Dan enjoying the living room

Dining room (kitchen off to right, living room to left)
The map on the wall is a 1968 map of all of Mussoorie

Kitchen view from door (that's a bag of fresh samosas in front of the stove!)

Kitchen (door on far right wall)

Bathroom -- can't see much, but tiling and shower are very nice

In Delhi

We left home at 6:40 on Tuesday morning, October 2, Gandhi's birthday. This trip has become quite routine for us. It is about one hour and 20 minutes from our house to the Clarion Inn at Michigan City, where we can park our car and leave it (yes, free for two months!). The CoachUSA bus leaves from there at 20 past the hour throughout the day. [That leaves enough time to get a cup of coffee or tea at the gas station nearby.] We try to get an early bus, checking into our flight before the crowds get there. It does mean a wait at the airport, and O'Hare's International Terminal is NOT the best place to wait around. Inside security there are no restaurants or bars, just some kiosks with sandwiches, magazines and Chicago tchochkes. At checkin, our nice clerk offered to change our seats from two aisles to a side window/aisle combination without a middle seat, so we did it. This plane is a 3-3-3 configuration and last spring we took to aisle seats on the middle group, which meant no climbing over anyone (or having them climb over us). There is only one place with two seats on the side, at the back of the middle section. But the seats reclines as much as any do and it was nice not to be next to other people. I brought my First Class Sleeper this time and found it really helped my comfort level. I've had it a few years and used it once but hadn't bothered to bring it after that. Since I've developed some back issues, I figure it is best to do everything I can to be comfortable.

Immigration and luggage pickup were fairly quick at the airport, which had signs advertising IGI (Indira Gandhi International) Airport as the number two airport in the world! The new terminal is certainly a tremendous improvement over the old.

Coming out of the airport we crossed the first traffic lane to the official pre-paid taxi booth. For the princely sum of Rs. 350 (ca. $7) we got a rickety old Maruti minivan to bring us to our hotel. This time we are staying in Dan's favorite place in Paharganj, the Cottage Yes Please. The rate is only Rs. 1000 per night, including A/C and internet. 

We settled into our room, showering and getting out the necessary items for two nights here. (Packing carefully means only having to open one of our two large suitcases before we get to Mussoorie!) For supper, we went about a block away to a hole in the wall where we had veg thalis. Sorry, forgot to take the camera or the iPod. Probably still a bit dazed from the trip (good excuse, anyway).

We both slept quite well (with a little pharmaceutical help). As usual in Delhi, Dan went out around 6:00 this morning to pick up some freshly made chai. He brings it back in a plastic bag. This hotel doesn't provide glasses, so we bought two glass mugs last evening. We are both quite addicted to having chai first thing in the morning wherever we are!

There are two small restaurants right across the street from Cottage Yes Please (love that name!). We went to the Malhotra this morning. There were a few tables outside on the street, but it was noisy and busy. We prefer the relative peace and quiet inside on the lower level.

Many, many tourists are in this area, known for its inexpensive lodgings. The menu is quite international.

But we like our porridge. Here it comes with bananas and honey, very nice. Unfortunately, a photo of a bowl of porridge isn't all that appetizing! Porridge here is almost always dalia, cracked wheat. This was cooked with milk and was very tasty and satisfying. Chai and buttered toast rounded out the meal. Now we are ready to face the day!

Coming and Going

We've been back from Virginia for ten days and it's time to go again. There are so many beautiful places in the world and we are fortunate to have lived in and visited many of them. The hills of the Himalaya are amazing and I always look forward to seeing them. My friends in Virginia can't imagine why we would leave such a beautiful place. But Goshen has its own beauty, as well. The maple trees are beginning to turn the colors of fall. This tree is in front of our neighbor's house just across the street. The second photo (not all that good!) is of the moonrise looking out of our front door. We were watching the Ryder Cup golf match on TV and they had a great shot of the moonrise in Chicago. I realized we must have it too and hurried out to shoot it. 

My India blog should be up and running by the weekend, assuming good internet access. See you back here soon!

Home Again

Walking on the beach on our last day, the sky was amazing.

We left Virginia Beach on Tuesday to head for Charlottesville. On the way we stopped at the Richmond headquarters of Child Fund International, the organization through which we sponsor several children. We wanted to meet our main representative and some other people there. It happened to be a day where they had a lunchtime speaker. He was put into a CFI orphanage as a child in China; at 17 he emigrated to the US, learned English, and attended college and medical school. He is now a cardiologist in California. He had lots of slides and the pictures and stories were fascinating.

On the way to Charlottesville, we came through a heavy storm. Here it is looming ahead as we drove west on I-64.

Charlottesville was a blur of visiting -- staying with a friend, meeting people for lunch two different days, trying to squeeze in other visits. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to see everyone I would have wished to.

Friday we drove home in 11 hours. As usual, listening to audio books made the miles fly by. One we both enjoyed a lot this time was Larry McMurtry's Telegraph Days. It was laugh-out-loud funny much of the time, which was unexpected.

For more about our visit in Virginia Beach, you can read Anjali's blog at anjviola.com.

We now have about 10 days to prepare for leaving for India on October 2. Check back here early in the month for the next round!

Saturday Outing

We decided to visit the Outer Banks of North Carolina today. It is about a two-hour drive south of Virginia Beach, so not too bad. Our first stop was at the Wright Brothers National Memorial site in Kitty Hawk. We listened to an entertaining talk by a volunteer in a room where there was an accurate reproduction of their first plane and a small glider like they used earlier. After the talk, we went out to the site where they camped and took off on their successful day, December 1903. Walking the distances they went on those four flights was interesting -- the longest was 852 feet, not far at all. Here we are in front of the rock that marks the take-off spot.

Our next stop was Manteo on Roanoke Island, the site of the Lost Colony. If you don't know the story, do check out the link. It's interesting! They had picnic tables and we ate the lunch we had brought with us.

During the summer, there is a "symphonic play" that runs six nights a week in this outdoor theater with an ocean view. Very nice.

Near the theater is an Elizabethan garden (the Lost Colony was founded during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I). We went into the gift shop but decided not to tour the garden. Just outside there were flowering bushes that had lots of butterflies. Anjali got close to photograph them.

On the Road Again

Can we stay home for more than a month at a time? We will find out next winter/spring when we won't be traveling back to India for a change!

Monday evening we hosted our usual small dinner group at our house. My friend Irene had told me about a lemon meatloaf that she made the week before, so I decided to try it. I made them in muffin tins, which made lovely small loaves. The recipe (found on the internet) was a fairly ordinary meatloaf, but with lemon juice in it. Topped with a dollop of barbecue sauce and a lemon slice, they were both attractive and delicious. Served with some of the last fresh corn and spinach topped with chopped hard-boiled egg (one left in the fridge before the trip, what else to do?).

Tuesday morning we left to drive east, where we are visiting our daughter and son-in-law in Virginia Beach for a few days. We drove into a beautiful sunrise just after 7 a.m.

We spent the first night with Dan's brother in Manassas, VA. Camille, the cat that their sister brought for their mother, is enjoying life.

Anda served a lovely dinner of chicken kebabs marinated in Thai flavorings, plus a mixed salad of roasted vegetables on lettuce with olives. Beautiful and delicious. Unfortunately, it was already eaten into before I remembered my camera.

Our niece's husband has class on Tuesday evenings, so she joined us with her 4-year-old tiwins. They are delightful. They enjoy going to "school" every day here at Grandpa & Grandma's house while their mother teaches first grade in a local school.

We left at a more civilized time (9:00) on Wednesday. As we passed Williamsburg, we decided to stop at the old Williamsburg Pottery, a place we used to love exploring. To our great surprise, it has been completely changed. You can see a picture of the faux-French village facade of the new buildings. It is very nice, but does lack the character of the old place, as well as the serendipity of finding unexpected things in unexpected places.

We ate lunch at Au Bon Pain, a chain that has partnered with them. Lovely fresh soup, sandwiches, and salads. Dan had a pesto chicken sandwich and I had a Thai peanut chicken salad.

Now we are with Anjali and Domingos, about to head off to get her bow rehaired and visit the Apple store.

Days Twenty-four and Twenty-five

We are home! It was a wonderful trip but it is good to be home in our own bed again. I'll put some summary information at the end of this post.

Wednesday morning we left Wall and drove a loop through the Badlands National Park. The wonderful moonscape quality of the eroded hills was amazing. We were fortunate to see a bighorn sheep at one of the overlooks. I think it was a young one, as the horns were not fully grown.

I-90 was a pleasant highway without heavy traffic. We stopped for a picnic lunch and talked with a rest stop employee who recommended a side trip to the Laura Ingalls Wilder homestead near DeSmet. So we drove about an hour north. They have a nice visitors' center and restored and rebuilt buildings on the site. It was extremely hot and we decided to take a look around and leave. I'm sure it would have been interesting to tour all the buildings and take a covered wagon ride to a schoolhouse, but we didn't feel we had the time.

Continuing our eastward trek, we passed through a tiny corner of Minnesota and headed south to Sioux Center, Iowa. We had a pleasant visit with former Woodstock staff Bill and Dixie Roelofs. Bill's family has been in the town for a long time; his grandparents had a general store. Dixie runs the successor to that store, a quilt shop downtown. My mother would have loved it! As always, it's fun to catch up with old friends.

Recreation of original store in historical village area

Downtown quilt shop

We left Sioux Center at 7:00 Thursday morning and arrived home just after 7:00 PM, losing one hour along the way, so just over 11 hours. We worked our way through Iowa to I-80 and took it most of the way back. The house was warm, but the AC brought it down to a comfortable level fairly quickly.

We had always wanted to do a drive west like this one, and now we've done it. I don't know if I would want to do such a long driving trip again. It was hard on my back and sleeping in a different bed almost every night (most very comfortable!) wasn't always easy. But we saw many wonderful things, enjoyed incredible scenery, had great times with family and friends! All, in all, a success.

We finished two more audio books on the way home -- Whiteout by Ken Follett (thriller about a theft of  a dangerous virus by terrorists) and The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach (a college baseball prodigy and the people around him). The latter was excellent, and we had only about 20 minutes left when we pulled into the garage. We'll have to finish it soon! I also completed one sweater and got the back done on a second. Working toward Christmas gifts.

We drove a total of 5707 miles, averaged about 43 miles to the gallon in our 2010 Prius, drove 646 miles on our longest day (Thursday August 2), and had non-driving days of rest in Vancouver, Seattle and Spokane. Thanks to all of those who hosted us along the way!