a month in review

My apologies for not keeping anyone up to date. The last month has been incredible, busy, and rewarding. I am teaching a ridiculous amount, though this week I have had random breaks in my days due to students canceling for some reason or another. I am grateful for the breaks because last week's 11 hour days were a bit much. I am enjoying teaching and even though I have had long days, the relationships that I have built with my students have totally been worth it. I have felt as though many of my teaching times are an opportunity to spend time with my friends. We get to know about each other, but they are also learning English rather well. They are improving and I am glad that I have been able to help them.

On Sunday I went shopping! By the end of next week I will have four new outfits! I'm pretty excited about that. I bought the material, I just have to drop it off with a tailor. Hopefully I'll be able to do that tomorrow. I am also delighted by the incredibly low price of earrings! I may need a whole suitcase just to hold the collection I have been acquiring here when I return to the US in a few months.

Here are some pictures from Brindavin Gardens.

Read the sign carefully.
"Don't miss if visit once you will again and again"

By the way, the aquarium was rather lame. There was a fish from Malaysia that they had paid 40,000 rupees for (approximately $800) and it was floating lamely near the top of the water in a tank that was far too small for the fish's size. That was rather sad. We were all in agreement that they shouldn't have paid so much for it.

Here I am with a couple of the girls that work here. The girl on the left is an amazing cook! I have thoroughly enjoyed everything that she has made. She does quite a bit of the cooking for the crisis center and also for Tim and Karla. Mostly, she makes the breakfast. This morning it was chapattis with a potato mixture which is one of my favorite dishes. Yum...

Here I am sitting all my myself. I am, of course, the center of attention. Isn't that my favorite place to be? Well, I'm certainly getting used to it. It's pretty easy to ignore, especially since I'm honing my skill of being oblivious.

This I thought was beautiful. The way the sun shone off the fountains at the gardens was amazing. Pictures will never do it justice.