Shopping, Saturday School and Sleeping Outside

Andrea and I in our new kurtas. 

My teaching supervisor, Sujata took Andrea and I to the mall to go shopping for Indian clothes. I was very excited, because even 100 percent cotton clothes feel hot here. Indian clothes are very lightweight and loose-fitting. Also, I kind of wanted to fit in and look professional, like the other teachers at school. Only a couple teachers wear saris (it's more of a matronly status symbol for married women). Most wear a long tunic, called a kurta, with a scarf and leggings. The leggings and scarf are supposed to match. We went shopping and had so much fun. Everything is cheaper here (and I LOVE the bright colors), so it was hard not to binge shop. Afterward, we went to a little sit-down shop to try an Indian street food snack called pani puri. You eat it by puncturing the crispy ball and filling it with the potato/vegetable filling and spicy flavored water. Yum!

Pani puri at a popular snack shop.

In India, teachers go to school on Saturdays for collaboration and planning. That's a long work week, but it has built a tight-knit community of teachers who are also friends. Andrea and I weren't sure if the bus was running, so we took an auto rickshaw--think very scary open air taxi with a driver who spoke only Hindi. He had no idea where we were going, so it's a miracle we made it to school!

In the morning, teachers sit with their department (subject area) and have coffee and  talk. The 3rd grade English teacher, Lakshmi, invited me over to her house, as did my cooperating teacher, Sunu. They have made me feel so welcome, and that I am part of their team. All day, they were bringing me coffee, tea and even a samosa for a snack!

Sunu is a rockstar. I am completely in awe of her, and hope I can be half the teacher she is. When he was first introducing us, the principal said she had her Bachelor's in Education. He did not mention that was on top of a graduate degree in microbiology. She is teaching the primary grades science; those kiddos are sooo lucky to have her and I feel honored to learn from her. All the teachers are highly educated and work very hard. There was a special event last Sunday (yoga day), where the teachers had to be at school, so they were saying some of them had been working for 20 days straight! At the end of the day, all the teachers gathered to eat lunch together.

The terrace at the host family's house.

The host family has a terrace that wraps around one side of their top floor. We have been eating
dinner outside every night. It's very comfortable outside, so we decided to sleep under the stars the past two nights! I was having trouble sleeping, but I slept so well out there. It's amazing, and I may just sleep out there every night until the monsoons start.

Baroda Palace

On Sunday, we visited the Lukshmi Villas Palace, where the royal family still lives when they are in Vadodara. A few people told me many of the buildings and a lot of the land and university buildings in Baroda (another name for Vadodara) were the king's and given to the people to use.

Ice cream with my host family in downtown Vadodara. 

I am starting to get used to the cows wandering in the middle of traffic, people staring, being called "ma'am, and doing things a little differently. This week I continue observations in all the 3rd grade classrooms (there are six 3rd grade classes of 40+ students!) so I can see many teaching styles and gather ideas.

Hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th of July!

xoxo

~Rachel