My Favorite Moments!!!!!

Nine months in India have flown by. I seriously cannot believe that it’s over. As I think over this experience, I have decided to highlight a few of my favorite moments. Trust me, there are many more moments that brought me joy, but here are my top 5 (in no particular order).

My 25th Birthday

As we all know, 25 is viewed as a BIG deal – one of those milestone birthdays. And I had the pleasure of turning 25 years old here in India. One of the coolest things about this birthday was that my mom and sister were here visiting me! My mom and I share the same birthday and since I went to college when I was 17, I haven’t spent my actual birthday with my mom due to the fact that it’s ALWAYS finals week during my birthday – but who knew that I’d have to come all the way to India to get to spend my birthday with my mom. That was great, but my students are the ones who really made this birthday one to remember.

I can honestly say that I have never ever, in my whole life, felt more special and loved than I did on my birthday while I was at school. Let me first say that my students had been wishing me a happy birthday for about a week prior to my birthday, reminding me of how many days there were until my birthday was to come. On the morning of my birthday, I was greeted by students with presents and cards before the morning assembly; in each of my classes my students greeted me with their own unique Happy Birthday renditions; in the hallways all day long every kid I saw (whether or not they were in my class) wished me a happy birthday; and even some of the primary kids who I worked with on a dance came to the staff room to present me with flowers and handmade cards. I mean it was the best day ever. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to turn 25. Those kids have no idea how much that day meant to me. I am so grateful. Oh and it didn’t end there, I even received belated birthday wishes the day after my birthday (even from the students who saw me and wished me a happy birthday the day before) – I guess they didn’t want my birthday to end either ;-)

Visits with Friends/Family

I don’t know how I got so lucky as to have 5 people come little ole me in India. But Lord knows that I am so thankful. My mom and sister were the first to make the trip in December and it was great. Those two are my right and left hand girls, we are truly a team, so it was great to be with them again. And you know, family is family, so we had fun getting on each others’ nerves and simply being who we are when we are together.

 Now seeing my mom and sister would have been enough to make me happy, but then in March the friendship train made its way through India too! I got to see my best friend since childhood - Jaclyn, my Spelman Sister – Ieshaah, and my favorite person from law school – Violet. It was great for me to be around people that know me and love me for real. There’s nothing like spending time with old/good friends– skype, facebook, gchat, and email don’t do friendships justice (although they help us out tremendously when distance is an issue). We saw the Taj, rode elephants, drove rickshaws, ate some good food, talked for hours on end, and even took a trip to the hospital (Jess got sick :-/ whomp whomp whomp) – all in all, we had a good time and I am so grateful that they made the trip. It was an experience of a lifetime for each of us ;-)

Games Period with my students - this is many moments ;-)

Now this was a recurring experience, but I loved it so much. As much as I enjoyed teaching, I loved the time I spent with my students out on the playground during their games periods. I seriously looked forward to playing with them and even Jessica Ma’am would be disappointed when it rained or when games period was cancelled for any reason :-/ I learned some cool games – handball, gallery, coco, ice water and throw ball. And I taught them some of my favorite games – simon says, Chinese jump-rope, freeze tag (which turned out to be ice water lol) and telephone. Some days I would have up to 3 games periods in addition to my classes. I was a busy Ma’am – and I was happy. I will surely miss playing with my kids – they kept me young and added sunshine to my days.

Holi

The Festival of Color! Ya’ll know I love color, so this was a wonderful experience to have here. I am so so so glad that I was here for this holiday. And I am so lucky to live in an awesome neighborhood (shout out to Malviya Nagar). We a great Holi celebration in the park and it was a ton of fun. Other than the water fights and color throwing, my favorite thing about Holi is that everyone – young and old – participated and had a good time. No one was off limits and it was just some good “clean” fun. I wish we had Holi in America – this is one thing I am truly going to miss.

Jessica Week

I already posted about this, but I must say that one of the best weeks that I had here in India was when I got to spend some quality time with myself. We were all on fall break and everyone else decided to explore India, I opted to get to know New Delhi more intimately ;-) I pampered myself – mani, pedi and massage. I spent plenty of time outside and I made a trip to favorite at place in the city Haus Khaz village/Deer Park. I did some sightseeing and went to the zoo! Took myself to a movie. Had some good food – including sushi and waffles ;-) Learned more about Gandhi-ji. Saw a play. I had a great time! I may need a Jessica week more often, we’ll see how that goes ;-)