Tina calls a cow gay and we become proud owners of Harry Styles tickets - Week 4

Week 4: January 26 - February 1

Monday, January 26:

As announced, this day was Republic Day and while the new school gave the children a day off, there was a program at the old school. In India, schools can decide what to do on holidays and what not. Due to my physical decline on Sunday, I took the liberty of spending the morning at home and not attending the event. Instead, I slept until 9 AM, showered, and later went to school with Yashoda to meet a person from the management along with Tina. We chatted a bit with him and were then brought back home, where our lunch was already ready (well, Tina's, because I was on a bland diet). Afterward, we focused on what I like to call the business of trying to get tickets for the recently announced Harry Styles concert. The options were Amsterdam and London, but I saw my chances dwindle when I landed at position 143,000 in the queue. With number 68,000, Tina also had little luck, which was truly unfortunate since Harry is her favorite singer. However, we didn't have this mission only in mind for two, as we were joined by Anna and her best friend Chiara. With Anna at position 5,000, we had realistic chances, but unfortunately, her page crashed at checkout (which brought back bad memories for me, keyword: Eras Tour), so we all placed our hope in Chiara's number 7,000. And there she was well positioned, as Chiara managed to get us four contiguous seats with (hopefully) an excellent view of the stage. So the mission was successful for us and we will all meet in Amsterdam. After the obligatory chai in the afternoon, I also set off to finally find shoes for the gym, as the others had flown out on Sunday and had even found success. Unfortunately, it looked different for me. Either the shoes were very expensive or very ugly. There didn’t seem to be anything in between in that mall, and I didn't want to spend the money, having just purchased the Harry Styles tickets. Even at dinner, I only consumed bland diet (rice and dal, meaning lentils – and even that is not so gentle on a German stomach used to hardly any spices). After that, we drove out to meet up briefly with two of Raghunath's family members. That was nice too.🎤

Tuesday, January 27:

Another day at the DPS Nava Raipur school and this time I brought my own food to take care of my stomach. However, the teachers providing for us were so kind and had adjusted their meals to be lighter. This led to a separation of our activities, so I ended up in the preschool group. There, the children were doing some written addition. After that, I was in 5th grade, where some students presented their projects for a competition on environmentally friendly products. Irfana (Ma'am) and I had to evaluate these and select the best four entries. It was important that each house had a child represented. You can imagine it like in Harry Potter. The school system has it set up so that there are four 'houses.' The children are randomly assigned to one of these groups, and all houses are represented in a class. This creates an internal school competition, although different age groups can support each other if they belong to the same team. Furthermore, I observed a grammar lesson in English and ended with a little warm-up game with the class, before heading next to the 8th grade, where I taught a lot of German phrases. The children also wanted to learn the alphabet and our numbers and then had time to ask me questions. From 'What is your favorite sport?' to 'Does German really have such long words?' everything was represented. I didn't hold back the fun and taught them the word 'Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher' (a truly German tool if you want to peel your egg perfectly). After that came lunch and the bus ride home. There, we all had a long nap for your favorite grandmas (that later deprived Tina of her nighttime sleep - oops). Like every day, there was also chai (delicious) and then Disha, the daughter of Anita (our cook), came and we helped her with her homework until it was time for dinner. After that, the Mukherjee family and their adopted German daughters went to the shopping mall to find - you guessed it - shoes for this young lady (meaning me). And you won’t believe it, but we were successful! I managed to get some wonderful sneakers that I actually like and didn’t cost a fortune. I’m really happy about that! The others then bought 1-2 pieces of clothing or things per person in other stores. So we were really successful and had a lot of fun. During the car ride, Yashoda and Raghunath took it upon themselves to teach us the words for cow (gaay - pronounced 'gei,' accidentally called 'gay' by Tina), bull (bail - 'behl'), and dog (kuttā), which is now part of our everyday vocabulary.👟

Wednesday, January 28:

We also spent the 3rd day of this week at DPS Nava Raipur, where we had our breakfast. After that came the daily separation and I landed that day in the Nursery (equivalent to the smallest kindergarten group), where the children are around 3 years old. This is the youngest 'class' in the school and their day starts at 9 AM and goes until 11:30 AM. When I arrived in the room, the little ones were busy tracing Hindi letters (I mean, some of the vowels) and practicing writing. Afterward, the little mice were allowed to play a little before it became time for the day's activity. The task was to fish colorful pom-poms (small fluffy balls made of wool) with a spoon from a mini water basin and place one pom-pom on an upside-down cup of the same color. At the same time, the children were to name the English color. Once everyone finished, there was the lunch break before the rest of the day until 11:30 AM was used for an extensive movement break. It’s quite admirable what those tiny little mice learn and can already do at the age of 3. After I attended the Nursery class and it was time for the children to go, my next stop was the first grade, where I had been the previous week. The art teacher was teaching there. The students had to draw and paint clay pots with flowers. I then followed the art teacher into the two second grades, where landscapes were drawn that also had to be colored. Meanwhile, the children were again curious and questioning me, and I diligently distributed my 'autographs' – on papers, notebooks, bottles, and even hands. The children are crazy about our signatures, it's quite cute. You really feel like a star. They also always give you cute little things, like little notes or bookmarks. After that, Tina and I had lunch before the bus brought us home. There, I met the art teacher again, as he also travels with bus 110, which means we live nearby. After a (this time relatively) short nap, so that Tina would not have sleep problems again, we had chai for all of us and then the other three went to the gym. Even though I want and will come along in the future, I decided to be sensible this week and rest my body. So, I wrote on my blog post from last week, watched the season finale of Percy Jackson, did some lessons on Duolingo to practice my Hindi, and treated myself to a refreshing shower. After dinner, we all watched our favorite evening program: cricket.🖍️

Thursday, January 29:

This week there was another sports day at the old school, specifically for the preschool children. First, there was a small yoga presentation by the little ones as well as a performance with hoops. This was followed by athletic competitions, such as hurdle races, duck races, bunny hopping, and sprinting. It was adorable to see how the little mice put in so much effort. The winners were honored with medals (among others from the two of us) and self-made trophies, which we liked very much. Around noon, there was food before we took bus number 1 back home, where the bed was, of course, waiting for us. After adjusting my eyes to daylight again, I finally finished writing last week's blog post. A good friend of Yashoda and Raghunath was visiting for the afternoon chai, and then the others went to the gym while Disha came by so we could finish the rest of her homework (exam preparations) together. The only subject left was 'computer,' and after she diligently noted everything and sketched it out, she was allowed to apply what she just learned practically with our tech devices. After that, we switched roles, so she became the teacher and taught me some Hindi. The topics covered were the terms for family members. Shortly after, the others returned so we could have dinner together before winding down the day with Duolingo and reading.🏆

Friday, January 30:

The day started chaotically, and that didn’t really change. A stain on Tina’s pants, caused by whitening toothpaste, bleached them, so our little travel laundry detergent had to be used. Furthermore, we received our hot chai at 7:50 AM and were supposed to leave the house at 8 AM: Guess the error. However, when we arrived at school, we had a very nice day, as we spent it with the dance teacher. She had prepared breakfast for us before teaching us an Indian dance until noon. It’s interesting that these dances are very small-stepped and involve a lot of foot and arm work, as they are mainly solo dances, while in Germany we practice more partner dances. So we learned just the beginning at first, which already required a lot of practice. We had a great time and were pleased that the teacher could and wanted to take the time for us. She said she wished her protégés were as motivated and eager to learn as we were and that she enjoyed it too. After that, we enjoyed a group lunch before it was time to go home. With the bus…that left without us. We had naturally already said goodbye to everyone, and so we shamefully walked back into the building. But we swear it wasn’t entirely our fault! The thing is: Normally, someone announces to the bus driver when we want to ride, and that didn’t happen. Furthermore, we were late for lunch, and dessert had not yet been served. How rude would we be to leave without dessert? However, luck was on our side, as Irfana just happened to come around the corner on her way to her car, asked what our mission was, and invited us to go home with her and her family, as they had to go that way anyway. Good luck in misfortune. At home, the bed was freshly made ready for our nap before we enjoyed a chai and played housie with Disha. Additionally, she, along with her mother, taught us a bit of Hindi.🕺🏽

Saturday, January 31:

As usual, this week was a 6-day week. You learn to appreciate the two-day weekend in Germany in a whole different way. In the morning, we set off for Nava Raipur, where a delicious breakfast awaited us before it was time for a competition for the elementary school children (grades 1-5), themed 'Advertisement for an environmentally friendly product.' The pre-selection had already taken place in previous weeks, so this was the finals. Together with another teacher, Tina judged the first two grades and distributed points for different categories. I then followed her lead for grades 3-5. Although we don’t have much competitive culture within schools in Germany (which we both don't see as bad, but rather positive because it loosens up competitive thinking), I must admit at this point that the children here seem to put in more effort than German students when it comes to project work. Furthermore, they are super creative and can speak wonderfully freely at a very young age. It was a great morning that brought us much joy and fun. Afterward, the children were allowed to go home earlier on their short day, but we stayed due to Yashoda and Raghunath's organizational appointments and therefore spent our time reading. After lunch, we all headed home, ate delicious ice cream, and then rested. Besides a cricket match in the evening, not much else happened except that we called Nati because it was her birthday.♻️

Sunday, February 1:

After having to skip last Sunday (aka the only free day of the week) because I spent it in bed feeling unwell, I was really looking forward to this one. Although the plan was to work on our teaching program applications, one starts the day much better when allowed to sleep in until 10 AM. Afterward, we had a leisurely breakfast with Yashoda, and she had brought us a delicacy that reminded me of the Schillerlocke from the Ottendorfer Mühlenbäcker and actually tasted the same (only without chocolate). Heavenly! After that, we got to work, ate watermelon, and put masks on our faces. Everything went well until I realized that my data transfer from the laptop to the tablet before the trip hadn't quite worked, which is why I frightened my parents immensely by calling them in full mask mode and asking them to send me those documents over my laptop. In fact, they laughed more about my appearance than being frightened, but one can surely still exaggerate a bit, right? After that came lunch before we plunged back into work. Additionally, I wrote this blog post, but my new strategy is to write the entry after each day instead of trying to cover a whole week at once because that takes a lot of time. Otherwise, we used the free day for reading, planning, eating watermelon, borrowing clothes from Yashoda, tidying up, doing crossword puzzles, listening to music, and showering. So, a quite relaxed day which really benefited me as an introvert.🛏️

➡️ That's it for this week, until next time!