my new adventure begins in Mysore...

I arrived in Mysore on Wednesday and since then my schedule for the coming weeks has filled up faster than I anticipated. I'm hoping I have time to breathe.. but I'm not going to schedule that in. I will have a 1.5 hour break around lunchtime, but other than that I will be teaching students from 7:30am-8:30pm. Yes, I know. I am crazy. That is my Monday-Thursday schedule.. Fridays I will be done at 4 and Saturday I will be teaching 2 hours, but only for one month. All I can say is I will be trusting God to carry me through all this, because there is no way that I'll have the strength to do it on my own. I don't have time right now to think about all the work that I will have to do in addition to the teaching, because I know I will feel overwhelmed. God will provide me with the time. I will be saying no to all future inquiries unless the prospective students are at the same level as another student I already have. Most of the time I am tutoring one on one, but I will be teaching three TOEFL courses (an international English exam). I'm actually starting that course here.

I am living in a small apartment on the Hope Center campus.. I would give measurements, but I don't know them. All I know is that it's the perfect size for me. The bed is like sleeping on hardwood, but at least it doesn't feel like concrete. That is the only thing wrong about it.. well.. that and the small roaches that I discover in the mornings. I don't know where they come from, but Tim and Karla's son (he's 3 or 4) doesn't mind picking them up for me and disposing of them - glad I have someone to do that for me! I have a couch and a couple chairs in the front room, along with a small table and a coffee maker. There's a fridge and a microwave and a small assortment of Indian tea.. which actually gives me the shakes if I drink it on an empty stomach. I do think the tea will become my friend for the next month, I'll just have to eat a banana with it or something.

I will be learning to ride a scooter!!! Mercy, one of the girls that works here, is going to teach me! I'm kind of excited. I wasn't really excited about it at first, but today I went with her and Somiya, another girl that works here, and the associate pastor of the church that meets here - I can't remember his name - to Bandavin Gardens and the KRS Dam which are 40 minutes away by scooter. The ride was so much fun! I mean.. we only went up to 40mph (that in itself was rare), but it was so enjoyable. What a freeing feeling to have the wind blowing back my hair as we "sped" through the villages and countryside.. at sunset. I mean, really, what could be better than that?

Another thing that is great about this place is that there is always some kind of activity. Tim and Karla have four children, so their house is always busy. The school meets on the bottom two floors, and during the school-day there is a lot of activity there. I can hear them playing and singing throughout the day. I start teaching on Monday, and my life will be very full from there on. However, two of my morning courses will not start until the 26th, so I'll be easing in to the craziness of my scheduled life rather than diving in..though I feel like I'm diving in. One student who will by in my TOEFL course handed me his 265 page thesis to mark this weekend. I told him I would have it done by Monday...and even though that is ambitious, it will have to be done by Monday because I won't have time to work on it after than.

I'll add some pictures later. For some reasons my computer isn't reading the picture card :( Ah well. I'll make sure that works next time :)