We celebrate a birthday child and visit the Sun Temple in Puri - Week 12

Week 12: March 23-31

Monday, March 23:

You won't believe it, but as the principal's chosen children, we sometimes have it easier than other teachers and were allowed to stay home for an extra day unlike the others, because we didn’t really have anything to do at school. We took that day to catch up on sleep, go to a café, and engage in other leisure activities, which, unfortunately, I can't remember five months and some days later. Of course, there was chai and the daily gym routine.🧋

Tuesday, March 24 - Thursday, March 26:

You won’t believe it, but your holiday mice actually made it back to work. Just like before Thailand, we went to Senior DPS for the rest of the month. In India, the new school year started on April 1, which meant that teachers were preparing their rooms and doing a lot of parent work. Families came to pay school fees, pick up the results of the previous year’s exams, and take home the new textbooks. We couldn’t be particularly useful, but we helped wherever we were needed - even if it was just chatting with the teachers about Thailand. Especially Neeti Ma'am wanted to see the pictures. One of our favorite and funniest memories with our Indian aunt. After that, we went home, and the days went on.🏝️

Friday, March 27:

Friday was predominantly all about Radhika's birthday!🥳 So we celebrated! However, we had to get up quite early because the start of the celebration consisted of us going to a 4-hour Indian movie that started at 9 a.m. Why didn’t you go to a later showing, you ask? Rightly so. Well, we had other plans, but more on that later. It was particularly important to Raghunath that we could book seats in the back row, as they can be adjusted to lie down, and I tell you: that was really comfortable considering the length of the film. Please inquire privately for specific feedback about the movie. But to celebrate the day, we also ordered pizza and Pepsi, as well as coffee in the cinema, which was pretty cool too. Afterwards, we went for a nice lunch and bought Radhika a gift. At home, we packed our bags and enjoyed birthday cake while singing. In the evening, Yashoda, Tina, and I left Raipur again. (Yes, the travel mice were off again.) This time we wanted to go together to Cuttack, where we planned to meet Poonam. She is a trained nutritionist who puts together the diet plans for many of our acquaintances and friends. As our transport of choice, we selected the Indian night train this time. This means you sleep on a berth in a compartment. Kindly, Yashoda booked us a compartment of the train where you sleep with a maximum of 3 other people in a room, plus it has air conditioning. The concept of the sleeper train is quite nice and surely not new to you. It’s especially nice if you, like me, cannot sleep in moving vehicles (this goes for trains, cars, buses, planes, etc...). Well, at least we arrived 15 hours later, albeit three hours late, but now it’s Saturday and as Germans, we are more than used to train delays.🚊

Saturday, March 28:

Poonam kindly picked us up at the train station. You must know, regardless of when and whether you meet her, everyone has heard of Poonam. She is basically the legend of India (at least in Yashoda's and Raghunath's circles). Many people use her services. So we met her for the first time and found out that she is really a very cool person. At her home, we first ate (we had food on the train too, don’t worry) and cuddled her very friendly dog, Doodle. After that, we packed our things into the car and drove another 1.5 hours to Puri for a little girls' trip. Puri is located by the Bay of Bengal and thus in a bay of the Indian Ocean. There, Yashoda and Poonam booked a really beautiful resort where we could relax, eat, and even go swimming together. The sunset was also stunning. Additionally, we were delighted by a praying mantis that visited us all night in front of our door. It was an eventful but lovely day.🌅

Sunday, March 29:

The next morning, we first enjoyed a hearty buffet before checking out. What I really liked about the buffet were the options. Since the resort, like any other vacation destination, also houses some tourists (like us), there was both Indian and familiar breakfast available. You can choose whatever you feel like depending on the day. Once the car was packed again (and I found my long-lost wallet... it was hidden right at the bottom of my backpack), we headed to the Sun Temple in Puri - a place with a lot of history. This was definitely worth seeing, especially since Poonam shared all her knowledge with us, allowing us to learn a lot. Afterwards, we made our way home to Cuttack, where we stopped at a restaurant. Back at Poonam’s place, we took a short nap, spent a lot of time on the terrace with Doodle the Labrador (or “Cow,” as I affectionately named her because she chewed on the plants), and ended the day with a delicious scoop of ice cream.🐶