Turns out that I didn’t really fully explain what I do in India all the time, and lots of people think it is just sunshine and lollipops. Well, if it were, the sunshine would be hot like an underam, and the lollipops would taste like hard work. Here is what I do everyday.

I wake up anywhere from 6:00 to 7:30, depending on how loud the guys are singing in the bathroom, or horking up a loogie, or how tired I am. Every morning, one of the guys, I don’t know who, must go to the bathroom, and sit at the trough-like sink and horks up good phlegm and saliva mixture, about as loud as you could imagine. You can hear the scraping at the back of his throat collecting the goods, from miles away. It’s a special way to wake up.
Once I get up, usually once the noise has decreased a bit, I wash my face, dunk my head in some water, and every now and then, I go have a shower. Finishing this, I come back to my room, clothe my body, sometimes shave, do some computering, reading, music listening when Becky comes and alerts me that breakfast is ready.
Short aside: Becky is easily the hardest working girl I’ve met. Maybe it is that the Canadian girls I know only know how to shop and talk loud, but she works the longest days, doing some hard work and helping out everywhere.

Each morning I eat breakfast India style. Breakfast is composed of rice, chili peppers, dahl (lentil soup that you put on your rice) sometimes dry fish, potatoes, eggplant, cabbage, chick peas, chutneys, other great delights. I don’t miss our sweet-to-death Canadian breakfast much; this is the real way to wake up. Rice for life. I should get a tattoo that says that.

After breakfast, I usually head down to my room for a bit more computing, reading, musicing before school starts at 9.

School begins at 9 and ends at 11:50 or so, depending on if Sir Nic feels like a jerk or not and wants to make his students to more math. I could say a lot about the school day, but I’ll save that for another blog. Each day consists of Math and English, and then in a rotation, Science, Social Studies, Computers and Typing. We don’t really have much for textbooks, so I make an awful lot of worksheets to do. I teach grade 4 and grade 6 in these subjects. I think the words, ‘Be quiet Andrew’ and ‘Do some work’ have lost all meaning, the amount of times I say them… at least 30 times an hour.

12o’clock means lunch time. I eat lunch upstairs with Ray and Ellen, usually consisting of soup, bread, crackers, tea, sometimes a cookie or two. Lunch is a good meal too. Lots of good food and listening to Andrew talk for 30 minutes straight. After this, I head downstairs, sometimes play some football, sometimes read, sometimes get ready for school.

At 1:20 I have school again, for 40 minutes. This is a new schedule addition, where Nic teaches Bible. Yeah, Western really prepared me for being a Bible teacher.

At 2pm, I am finished teaching and go for a good dose of learning how to teach, as well as gaining some Bible knowledge from Pu Ray. I enjoy these classes. I learn lots, it’s usually funny, I know lots of answers, I take lots of notes, I do my memory work.

Anywhere from 3-430, depending on if Ray is feeling preachy or not, I am finished school for the day, and I am free to do what I please. This often means football/soccer, reading, hanging out, filling water tanks, planning for classes, climbing trees with Andrew, checking out my biceps and stuff. You know.

Sometimes when supper rolls around, I decide to eat with the college guys under Becky’s artful cooking, or I head upstairs to treat myself to a made-with-love Ellen Canadian dish. Either way, it is great. Becky’s supper is usually rice and dahl, sometimes there is some meat. Mostly the same as breakfast. Ellen cooks anything from hamburgers to spaghetti to potatoes and gravy to one of my favourites, pancakes or lasagna. Ohhh yeah. Following supper, I have a cup of tea, hang out with the guys or Ray and Ellen, listen to new languages or listen to Andrew’s made up languages.

730 is devotional. Devo is old fashioned, like me, so I like it. A few hymns, a few prayers, a few words. Sometimes I focus so hard to understand what the person is preaching through their accents, that it is like I am lip reading, so that can be a lot of work, but the guys have some good things to say. Post devo there is usually a carim battle. I am a champ, by the way. some computing, and sleeping. I usually go to bed around 930 or 10, because I’m an old man, and 930pm is the new marijuana.….?

This is the main outline of my weekday. More often than not, I end up say nuts to computering, and go walk around outside for a while, hang out with the guys, help Ellen do things, get ready for school, clean my room and stuff. Weekends mostly consist of relaxing. Preparing for school the next week, sleeping, taking pictures, hanging out, marking exams, playing football, getting dates. All the things dreams are made of, really.

Well, I hope this shows that I am pretty busy, and this trip isn’t all about having myself a good time, although you can be sure that I am livin’ the dream. You can be sure.

Today I get to go to a wedding. I love weddings, so this should play out really well.