Taj Palace Hotel

There is a gorgeous 5 star hotel in Mumbai near the Gateway.  My friend Gretchen offered to take me there for lunch to celebrate my graduation and earning my masters degree.

There was scaffolding obstructing the view today so I took this picture from bbc.

The lobby was beautiful.

Over Thanksgiving in 2008 massive terrorist attacks were carried out in Mumbai and Taj was invaded, people were held hostage for days.  Here is more information.   Several other places were attacked including a restaurant where we eat sometimes and you can see bullet marks in the walls.  The hotel was rebuilt and here is a memorial wall for the people that died in the hotel (including a couple who had kids at our school)

We were looking around and enjoying the lobby when I see Carol!  I didn't know that Gretchen had also invited Carol, Madeline, and Jane - all the sweet Christian ladies at my school :)  Madeline and Jane have babies and couldn't come, but Carol came to celebrate.  Carol's parents were missionaries in India so Carol grew up in northern India.  She ended up making her life in India.  She has taught at our school for 20 some year.  She married the son of American missionaries who grew up in Mussoorie, India.  He became a very famous author and Bollywood actor.  The kids all know what movies he is starring in etc. :)  She knows everything there is to know about India and Mumbai.  She gave us a great history lesson of the hotel.  She told us where the terrorists entered and where the most damage was and details of how it was rebuilt and what was changed about it.  She is such a wealth of information!

Me and sweet Carol

Carol wanted me to take a picture with Mr. Tata

We had a lovely lunch at the Sea lounge. My delicious mocktail :) 

I  got to wear my fanciest scarf. 

It's hard to tell in the picture, but It's actually really gorgeous - sheer and intricate.
Carol and Gretchen kept touching it :)

 In my opinion - this is the best view of the Gateway of India because you don't have to deal with beggars and crowds. 

Since Madeline couldn't come with us, I met up with her and Ethan later.  

What a great great day!!  So thankful for sweet friends!

Masters Degree in Educational Technology

I never really had the desire to get my Masters degree.  It wasn't required to keep my teaching license in Texas.  It was really expensive and I didn't want to spend my time or money on it.  Most teachers that I know that got their masters degree did it to get out of the classroom.  They would get their degree in counseling or administration to move on to other jobs.

When I moved overseas, I realized almost every teach had their Masters degree and were still in the classroom.

I had very little technology ability.  VERY little.  A few weeks before I moved to Mumbai, I attended a technology conference in Memphis with the other new teachers.  I was so stressed out and confused - I thought for sure they were going to fire me before I ever got to India!! Thank goodness Megan was sitting next to me and literally said "push this button" etc. so I could keep up.  When I got to India, I saw all these great teachers doing amazing things with technology and I couldn't keep up.  About 6 weeks into school, we had a faculty meeting about technology and I had a meltdown.  I started crying in the middle of the meeting.  My principal pulled me out and said there were three major things 1) adjusting to India and she couldn't help me with that.  2) loving on middle school kids and I was great at that and 3) technology.  She said we could take technology off the table and use paper for awhile.

I knew I had to get more comfortable with using technology in my classroom so I decided to go to grad school.  The assistant principal had just gotten her degree and recommended the program at Michigan State University.  You can do it in MI, as an overseas cohort, or online.  I chose to do the cohort so I could learn hands on with other people around.  I went to Dublin, Ireland for 4 weeks in the summer and completed 9 credit hours!  I did the same thing the next summer in Galway, Ireland.  It was great to concentrate on only grad school and not have to do it during the school year.  You have to take one online class to make your 30 hours so I did that my second year.  I did not want to give up a third summer so I decided to complete the third year (three classes) online.  And I graduated this May - two years and I'm done!  I have a Masters degree from Michigan State University and have never stepped foot on the campus!!  I do know the fight song though :)

I was able to pay for it in cash and got to meet a lot of other teachers from all over the world.  I now have a passion for using technology in the classroom and actually created online classes for my 6th graders this year.

One more way that moving to India changed my life!!

Hong Kong

So we had a five day weekend so i decided to go to Hong Kong.  There were two major reasons for this.  1)  I am training to hike the Inca Trail and could really use some hill training and Hong Kong has lots of those.  and 2)  My teaching parter my first two years in India abandoned me  :) and moved to Hong Kong so I wanted to check it out and visit him.

Things did not go as planned. I had a 5 hour non stop flight and I felt really sick on the plane and spent the last 3 hours basically willing myself to not throw up.  Not a good start!  I felt a little better in the airport, found my shuttle bus to the hotel and was on my way.  I stayed at the Cosmopolitan hotel right across from the Jockey club.  Jordan and Katy met me at the hotel and brought cupcakes!  so sweet - I had to save them for later though :(   we went to lunch and I got up from the table 4 times to sick in one way or another.  Not good.  We had planned to go hiking, but I just wasn't feeling well enough.  I went back to the hotel and rested and got sick :(  On Friday, they had to work so I went walking for a few hours, took a nap, and then met them for dinner.

In my walk, I noticed
1)  There is far less honking.
2) There is lots of traffic and it feels more busy, city like than Mumbai.
3) not ONE person stared at me
4) No one spit near me
5) No one was sleeping on the street and there was no garbage

We met two of their other friends for dinner and I tried this macaroni and cheese they raved about.  I was still being super cautious about eating so I ate about half of it and gave the barely cooked egg to Jordan so I didn't have to look at it! Normally I love eggs, but I just couldn't risk it.

On Saturday, I was well enough to eat some of the cupcakes!!  We took this trolley bus thing through part of the city.  They are slow moving, but cheap (about 50 cents) and the sides weren't enclosed so you could stick your head out and look around like a dog!  We went up on the double decker and we had great views as we were meandering through the city.  Hong is so busy that it is major sensory overload.  Mumbai does too, but Hong has more visual stimuli and less smelliness!!

I'm excited to see if these two women are on next season's Amazing Race!  There were two white women dressed alike and running around while cameras followed them.

We took the Ferry to Cheung Chai Island to go hiking.  We took the fast ferry on the way there.  It cost about $3 and took about half an hour.  It was also pretty bumpy - I had to close my eyes and go to my happy place to keep my cupcakes down!   The island was beautiful.  Jordan and Katy were gracious enough to allow me to wear my ridiculous hiking boots and huge backpack to train even though we were on a very tame trail :)

The island so peaceful.  There were lots of people out there enjoying the great weather.  It was so cute to see adults riding bicycles with training wheels :)  When you think about it though where on earth would they learn to ride a bike in the crowded city.  We took the slow ferry back and it was only about $1.50, took an hour and was much less bumpy.

We went home to shower and nap then met for dinner.  I always try to eat beef when I am out of India and all my beef eating plans went out the window because, well, I couldn't eat!  but by this third night, I was willing to try it.  We went to a place called Beef and Liberty (cool name) and I had a delicious cheese burger.  I still couldn't eat much so no sides - just the burger and half of one bun, but it was awesome!

On Sunday I went up a very steep hill to a jogging trail/park area.  I was still in the middle of the city, but it was quiet and green!

This shows how there are parks and trees right in the middle of the city. 

Here is the jogging trail - so nice. 

I am disappointed in this picture, because it doesn't capture the steepness
of this hill like I wanted.  It was REALLY steep. 

I had a great time, and I would love to visit Hong Kong again!  It could be a possible next place to live.  The apartments are TINY, but the city is great for walking and has lots of western food :)