life, schools and festivals
I can't believe I have been in India for almost three weeks already! Days have been flying by thus my idea of one blog per week turned into one every other week. (oops😊) I am learning new things every day and adapting more and more as time goes by. Last Saturday we sent off my host brother Kashyap on his exchange to Skaneateles, New York. I hope that he has as amazing of an adventure as I am having.
Three days after starting school we had a whole week off for Janmashtami, Independence Day and Parsi New Year. Janmashtami is the celebration of the birth of Lord Krishna in the Hindu religion and it falls on the same day as Independence Day (the 15th). I will attach pictures of some of the traditions of the holidays.
But now that school has started back up I have been trying out different classes each day to see what I will select. I will be getting my official schedule, or as my peers call it my "time table," in the next few days.
School in India is much different than at Chelan High School. Once you are in high school, you choose either a science or commerce path and focus your studies in that area. I have chosen commerce with a focus on entrepreneurship for this year. Originally I was going to do science but the classes are at a much higher level than where my current knowledge stands so I switched out.
We once again will have a day off of school on Friday for Ganesha Chaturthi which is the day Lord Ganesha comes and is celebrated for 10 days. We have many days off of school because there are so many holidays to be celebrated!
Another holiday coming up in the semi near future is called Navrati. In Gujarat it is celebrated with a group dance "Garba." The dancing happens every night beginning on September 21st and ending on September 29th. For about two weeks I have been taking Garba classes almost every evening to learn the dances. It is a much different style than western dancing and I LOVE it. But it is a major work out and I get a good sweat going without fail every time.
All in all, things here are going very well. I have yet to fully feel like I am on the other side of the world from Chelan but that may just be due to feeling very welcome and at home with my host family.
Lots of love.
Three days after starting school we had a whole week off for Janmashtami, Independence Day and Parsi New Year. Janmashtami is the celebration of the birth of Lord Krishna in the Hindu religion and it falls on the same day as Independence Day (the 15th). I will attach pictures of some of the traditions of the holidays.
But now that school has started back up I have been trying out different classes each day to see what I will select. I will be getting my official schedule, or as my peers call it my "time table," in the next few days.
School in India is much different than at Chelan High School. Once you are in high school, you choose either a science or commerce path and focus your studies in that area. I have chosen commerce with a focus on entrepreneurship for this year. Originally I was going to do science but the classes are at a much higher level than where my current knowledge stands so I switched out.
We once again will have a day off of school on Friday for Ganesha Chaturthi which is the day Lord Ganesha comes and is celebrated for 10 days. We have many days off of school because there are so many holidays to be celebrated!
Another holiday coming up in the semi near future is called Navrati. In Gujarat it is celebrated with a group dance "Garba." The dancing happens every night beginning on September 21st and ending on September 29th. For about two weeks I have been taking Garba classes almost every evening to learn the dances. It is a much different style than western dancing and I LOVE it. But it is a major work out and I get a good sweat going without fail every time.
All in all, things here are going very well. I have yet to fully feel like I am on the other side of the world from Chelan but that may just be due to feeling very welcome and at home with my host family.
Lots of love.
Comments
Post a Comment