Sales and stuff. Tuesday 26th of August

Hey everyone,

I hope you all have a had a great week as I have had a good one too.

Recently I was involved in making the Development and Outreach Student Team (DOST, it means friend in Hindi) for the school. I'm really excited about being a part of the team because we get to run all sorts of community service and really make a difference in this great part of the world.

Our first project was a clothes sale at St Paul's church to raise funds and also supply clothes for an area called Sippancoat which was recently affected by a really bad landslide as well as raise funds  for the DOST budget so we can serve other places of need. So it started last friday where we collected all the donated clothes and took them up to St Paul's church, it is about 15 mins drive from the school. When we got there we had to sort the clothes into shorts, tshirts, sweaters, etc. That was it for friday but it took about 3 hours.

So i arose early Saturday morning and headed for school to catch a bus to St Paul's. We got there at 9 and immediately started setting up tables and unpacking more clothes that were left over by the seniors that graduated last year. By 10 o'clock we had got all the clothes on all the table's, t-shirt's at one table, shoes at another and so on. I was lucky enough to have the shorts table, where we sold shorts for 10 rupee, about 20 cents. I say I was lucky because hardly anyone would buy shorts due to it being Monsoon and the end of summer, so I had a pretty easy day. Most of the time I was just watching for people trying to steal the clothes. It was fun calling out the guards if you saw someone walk away from the table with shorts in there hands without paying.

The view of the line in-between waves of desperate customers.

On friday night we had a surprise visitor to the dorms, it was a cat.

Making itself at home on Cory's bed

It first appeared when Isaac, Cory and I went out on the deck to look at the stars and stuff which we do most nights, we soon found the cat curled up under a concrete seat, it woke up when it heard us and went straight into begging mode. The cat immediately started rubbing itself all over us and being really cuddly. We thought it must be hungry so we got it some food and some water and it just devoured it. We went to our dorm parent, Mr Tim and told him about the cat, he just said to leave it because it was a stray, but of course we just couldnt leave it. Somehow it ended up in Cory's room in his bed where she (Yes we found out now the cat was a girl) fell straight asleep.

Cuddly Cory

Mathai getting some action

We put the cat out for the night, hoping that it would just go home, but suprise-suprise she returned the next morning, just as hungry and cuddly. Mr Tim was pretty annoyed so he 'Disposed' of it during the day, but long behold she returned again sunday morning. It's tuesday now and she's just in the lounge. There are rumours going around that she is infact pregnant and is just waiting to drop her babies here then leave. If that is the case, ill never love a cat again. 

Well thats all for today, I know this is posted late but i've been busy and tired and never had the energy to make a good blog. But i'm setting up a new method where ill have a draft saved of the blog then add stuff to it and upload the whole thing every week. Hopefully that makes it easier, so i don't have to do everything in one sitting.

Stay well,

Lachy Wild

Independence and other stuff. 18th August

Hey all, hope you had a great weekend.

So friday was Indian independence day, it was a great day (because we had no school) There was a flag raising ceremony and Indian performances, we heard some traditional Indian music and saw some cultural dances. It was also Korean independence day so there were some Korean performances by the Korean students, they were enjoyable. 

Yes, I did in fact get dressed in Indian formal wear ;)

After the flag raising ceremony we had a special lunch in the quad. The quad is a big open area that has no shelter from the rain, so due to it being monsoon, where it rains everyday, they set up tarp's to act as shelter from the rain. The only problem was that they didn't predict how heavy the rain was going to be. About halfway through the ceremony we start hearing a little tip tap on the roof of the gymnasium, quickly those tip taps of rain get louder  and louder until it was hard to here the speaker over the atrocious noise from the roof. Luckily there is shelter for the walk from the gymnasium to the quad.

This is what the quad looked like, and you can see the tarps. It was a great atmosphere and the food was great but all that joy soon turned to panic when the tarp's gave way due to the sheer amount of water. 

The walk back to dorms was probably the worst part. My friend Isaac and I decided to try be brave a face the rain and not wait for it to pass. We both huddled under my umbrella and started our journey back to dorms. I do have videos but there is some course language so just tell me if ya wanna see them but I won't post them here. But I do have a photo, there was a lot more rain in person. There was so much water it completely covered my shoes, and they took 2 days in the sun to dry out.

On Saturday we went into town again, my friend Mathai showed us this really good punjab restaurant which apparently had the best butter chicken, it was pretty damn good. Some of the boys needed haircuts, so 2 others and I headed for this little cafe. It was really nice and the best part was that they have wifi. We do have wifi at dorms but it has a stupid filter called "Cyberroam" which pretty much blocks 2/3 of the internet. So at this cafe we were finally free to check the internet without everything being blocked. Oh and the food there was great we got nachos that cost 60rs which is a bit over 1 dollar, and there was a fair amount of nacho's there.

On the walk back to dorms from the town the weather cleared and we got a good view of the dorm level of the school. The building I am in is the one closest to the camera with the pool out the front. 

After dinner we saw it was a good sunset so Cory set up the hammock and a guy called Reuben brought out his ukulele and played some smooth tunes, the mixture of a good sunset, hammock and ukulele was perfect, it seemed like a scene from a movie. 

When the sunset we played card games outside until bedtime, it was a great night.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day like always, I had homework to do which was read the Hindi holy text "Bhagavad Gita" for Indian History then write a summary and commentary on chapter 2. I thought it was going to be boring but it turned out to be really interesting. It talks about how to live a god-dedicated life and how to block out un-healthy desires. I got quite absorbed in it. There was also this optional Sufi music show at the school which i decided to go to. They did this beautiful rendition of "Imagine" by John Lennon.

Well that's all folks for today, i'm going to try get these blog's up at least twice a week. I hope you all have a great week.

Stay well,

Lachy Wild

All settled in! 11th of August

Hey everyone!

So I've finally had my first full week of school and am some what developing a routine. The school days are non stop from 6 in the morning to 6 in the evening, so i'm pretty tired majority of the day, but it's fun and I am enjoying all the new experiences I am having.

There are a couple of questions people have been asking me about my time over here, so i thought i might as well answer them in a blog because i'm sure some others would be thinking the same questions.

Q. What's the food like?

A. It varies, alot. We get three meals a day. Breakfast normally consists of toast, tea and another dish that changes every morning (normally egg related) Lunch is pretty much dinner in the middle of the day. There are your standard rice and Dahl, but there's normally some sort of westernish dish, like the other day there was pizza and ice cream. Dinner is same as lunch essentially. Overall the food is pretty good, it's not amazing, but I haven't been food poisoned yet so that's good.

Q. What's been your biggest challenge?

A. I haven't had one 'Big' challenge, it's more just a collection of small challenges. Things like understanding accents, branching out to meet new people and keeping organised are thing I have to face daily, but actually i haven't had too much challenge at all. This school really is so warm and welcoming and i always have people asking how I am going.

Q. What's been the best moment or highlight?

A. I have really enjoyed the friendships I have made so far, i also have enjoy looking at the scenery and thinking how lucky i am to have this experience.

Q. Everyday things I miss most about home?

A. My guitar, my dogs, friends and family. I believe i'm coping pretty well with all the homesickness, there's the occasional moment of sadness when i think of friends and stuff and i know that's natural but to quote Barney Stinson "When i get sad, i stop being sad and be awesome instead... true story"

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask me.

I went on a hike last saturday and the sceans were beautiful. it was a begginer hike just around the school area, but still the views were great. It was about 6 hours long

Sorry to fill the whole page, i couldn't find an album option

That's all for today

Stay well,

Lachy Wild

First Week Complete! August 4th

Hey everyone! I hope you're having a great day.

Saturday marked me surviving my first week here, and what a week it has been. It feels a lot more like a month then a week, and the memories and friends i've made here feel strong even though i've only known them for a week. 

Last thursday night we made the hammock again. It was a great sunset and we were probably out there for a solid 2 hours. 

There is some major interest in the hammock these days. Everyone that sees it wants to have a go in it. Cory was thinking about charging 250 rupees for entry.

On friday night there was a 'welcome back' dance for grades 9-12 in the hostel. No one really danced so a couple of friends and i just played table tennis and cards against humanity. It was a fun night and in the morning the whole dorm was a mess.

Saturday was open bazar day, which basically means the students are free to walk into the town of Mussoorie and buy food or go shopping. So of course my mates and i headed of at 12 for the bazar. One of my friends said he kind of knew the way there, so we trusted him and off we went. We walked for a good 30 minutes until my friend whom we had been following muttered out "I have no idea where we are" All of us just looked at each other with the most worried expressions. None of us were from India or knew any hindi, so we were in quite the dilemma. We talked about if we should head back to school or go up these really steep steps that had a chance of taking us where we wanted to go, but we weren't sure if they'd get us even more lost. We stopped everyone and asked "Bazar?" and we either got a "What the hell" expression or just random sounds none of us knew. We finally decided to just Y.O.L.O it and go up the stairs. These stairs went straight through houses and people were drying cloths and everything on them. People gave us weird looks as we casually walked through the middle of their houses. We got held up at one point when we came across a pig just chilling on the footpath. It gave us quite the scare but we got our way around it. At the top of the stairs we crawl through this gap between two shops and enter these really busy streets and the friend we had followed said "oh, i know where we are" It was such a relief to hear those words. The first stop was food. We had heard of a place called "Kalsang" which had really good food and most importantly it was safe. The only problem was that we didn't know where it was. We walked around the busy streets for another 40 minuted until we finally found it. The streets here have no footpath and there are plenty of cars just constantly honking. You had to stay really alert because cars would be within 10 cm of you and one brain fade and your foot is run over. It was nearly 2 oclock and we were absolutely starving so we orded our food at "Kalsang" and it was soooooo good. I had sweet and sour chicken on mixed meat noodles and it was the best! We all walked out of their with full stomachs and happy smiles.

 Isaac (left) Cory (right)

Saturday night there was a huge storm. It was easily the biggest storm i've ever seen and it was so damn cool. As soon as i saw the first flash of lightning i dawned on my raincoat and equiped my camera and went out on the deck for some photo's. I was joined by a kid called Mathai and Cory and together we went into the storm. The video below was by using Mathai's camera because my camera only video records at 15frames per second so it didnt pick up the lightning as well as mathai's.

Youtube Video of storm here

I did take a couple of picture's which I hope you enjoy.

For those interested, the 1st 2nd and 4th photo's were done with putting the camera on macro mode and turning on the flash, i thought it turned out pretty well.

Sunday was a super lazy day. They have the indian equivalent of foxtel in the dorms and one channel was showing all the spiderman movies back to back then redoing it. So I woke up and watched the beginning of spiderman 3 while having breakfast, then went on my computer for a while and then saw the amazing spiderman and spiderman 1 in the lounge while reading my english novel. I then played some pool and mucked around with Isaac, then came back and saw a bit of spiderman 2. After that I had dinner and watched spiderman 3, again, then 'The amazing spiderman', AGAIN! This day will always go down as Spiderman Sunday.

Well the bells about to go for lunch today i've spent my whole study period writing this entry when I should of been reading, but who cares i'm on exchange ;) Quick shoutout to my man Rohan Bunsee coz it's his bday today! 

Stay well,

Lachy Wild

So what's been going on! July 30th

So it's been a few days since I last posted and alot has been going on! It's amazing to think that so much has happened and I haven't even been in India for a week yet. 

Today is the first day of classes and I have 2 study halls together which takes me up to recess. The classes I am taking are: English, Algebra 2, Indian History, Beginner Hindi (For the lolz) Drawing and painting (Also for the lolz) and applied life science. For after school activities i'm doing: Astronomy, Rock climbing, Multimedia and Camping/hiking. 

The normal ritual is wake up at 6:30 have shower's till 7 (Thank god there's hot water) Have brekkie (The food is super good and different everyday) then get your stuff ready and leave for school at 7:30. The walk to school is an absolute pain, it makes auburn road seem like an escalator.  School most days finishes at 4:20 then we have after-school activities called enrichment which go till 6. Dinner starts at 6 and we have check-in at 7. From there it's study then relax time. So day's are pretty busy, but exciting because you never know what tomorrow will bring.

Last night an American kid called 'Cory' and I made a hammock outside by attaching it to 2 concrete pillars. It took us about 40 minutes to make it high and tight enough so you didn't touch the ground. It was really cool and inside it was really relaxing looking up at the stars in the gentle chill of the night. 

The weather is really diverse here. It's monsoon season so most of the time it's like this.

But occasionally when the mist goes away it look's like this.

One of the most interesting parts of Woodstock is the monkeys.

Luckily I haven't been attacked yet but i've heard horror stories. There are very strict rules such as not going outside with food, otherwise YOU WILL be attacked by monkey's and their scratches can hurt. 

So that's going to be all for today. Ill blog again soon, with hopefully more stories to share with you all.

Until then, stay well
Lachy Wild

First impressions of this great land 27th of July

G’day, hope your all having a great day, I myself had a great one and I’m just ready for bed. Today was a huge day. I got up at 4 am, showered (Bad mistake, the shower head was full of mould) the  went down and talked with a couple of U.S.A kids I shared a room with the night before. They were both severely jet-lagged and hardly slept all night. At 5:30 we all gathered together to get on the busses for the train station. The bus ride was about 20 mins and was awesome. I saw my first cow in the middle of the road, which was quite hilarious. It was just chilling in the road just minding itself while people swerve around it, this country is just a whole new level of crazy. The sound of constant horns belting it out was funny and made the whole place feel alive.

The train station was insane! We got dropped off a good 200m from the station because there was physically to many people blocking the road. When we got off there was this dude just pissing within a meter of the bus and it did not smell good at all. I wish i had some pictures of the station, but we had to move fast so people didn’t get lost or taken.

Overall the train ride was good. It was a bit over a 6 hour trip. I spent a third of that watching Futurama (first season) the second third sleeping and the last third listening to music while looking through the window trying to understand this country.The train went through very rural areas of india as well as the main city centre of Delhi. In the city an interesting thing i noticed were that people slept everywhere, literally everywhere! People were lying on steps, on statues and in wagon's on the back of bikes. 

In the rural areas there were lots of kids walking along the train tracks, within a meter of the fast moving train. I also saw houses made of scrap metal in the back of carparks. I’m starting to understand why people call India such a diverse place, there is massive gap between the rich and poor.

When we finally got to Deradun, we immediately got on the bus for Mussoorie, the town where the school is. This trip was really spectacular as we climbed into the mountains, above the clouds. It was by far the windiest road I've ever been on but the views were spectacular. The bus trip was an hour and a half of constant turns and blind corners. 

The views were great and got even better the further you got up. I would of taken more photos but it was hard taking photos on a rusty old bus swerving and bumping up and down.

Finally we got to the school, and all that bus ride was worth it. The basic layout of the school is that the classrooms are on the top of the mountain while all the dorms are a good 15 minute walk below. The grade  9 to 11 boys are in this dorm called 'Hostel' it's quite nice and was refurbished 2 years ago. Here are a couple of pics of my room

I was lucky enough to have a room which overlooks the pool and basketball court which is currently being resurfaced.

The rest of that day I spent watching Futurama and diner. I hadn't met my roommate yet because he was a returning student and he would come in a few days. 

So that was my first full day in India. I'm really excited about discovering more about this country and sharing it with you all. 

Stay well, 
Lachy Wild

Waiting lounges are fun. 26th of July

So here I am waiting for my first flight to Singapore. I'm in this large room with one other person, it's really quite, so I decided to just write up this journal.

It's a weird feeling now. I've done all the goodbyes and now it's time for all the greetings. I'm not going to lie, there were tears shed last night. I had my mates over to play some basketball and 2 square down at the church hall, and when they all left, the waterworks started.

The plan from now is to get the plane to Singapore, then spend an hour In Singapore, catch a flight to Delhi. I then spend the night in Delhi with other international kids that are  going to the same school. Early the next morning we get a train all the way to Deradun, a city near the school. Since its a bit hilly after Deradun we get a bus, and that will be my first experience with Indian driving. I'm really excited about seeing Indian driving, it seems like it will be such an adrenaline rush.

Well that's all I'm going to write about now, don't wanna waste all my phone battery. I'll post again hopeful in India.

Until then,stay well
Lachy Wild