“Why is the decoration in this alley so smart?” our New Delhi guide asked our India teacher tour group with an evil smile.
The seven of us clumped together in the tiny yellow alley, staring at the porcelain tiles showing Buddha, Jesus Christ, Ganesh, and assorted other deities. We were stumped.
We knew India has a passion for religion (or rather, a sea of many religions), but why would someone want to hang all these religious [...Read More!]
“So… now is not a good time to come here,” the Vermont native told me, trying to break the news gently.
“What are you talking about?” I retorted. “I love Vermont! I’m sure any time of year is lovely.”
“See, the thing is…” the gal tried again, “April here is not like our beautiful Winter, Fall, or Summer. It’s just kind of… brown.”
“Pshaw!” I scoffed. With that, Colin and I piled our suitcases [...Read More!]
Aching for fresh air and a tranquil place to do our piles of grading outside of Boston, Colin and I spent this week in the beautiful New England state of Vermont. We picked the town of Brattleboro for its proximity to hiking, Boston, and… FOOD.
What was the highlight of our culinary pillage of Brattleboro, Vermont? Without a doubt, the highlight was the mystery food you see pictured before you. It was [...Read More!]
“TWO HUNDRED RUPEES?!” our India tour guide, Manu, gasped. “That’s WAY too much, David!”
“Sheesh,” mumbled my brother as we walked out of the Gandhi Memorial in New Delhi. “Three and a half dollars isn’t a terrible price to stroke one of those fancy snakes, especially since the guy said the fangs were removed. Anyway, I bargained him down from 1,000 rupees.”
“Next time,” Manu instructed my little brother, “Pay only 20 or 50 rupees– [...Read More!]
Snack shopping in a foreign country is hilarious. Who knew that Lay’s potato chips made a popular flavor called “India’s Magic Masala” in Asia?
During our India tour, my brother eagerly bought a bag of the snack, shoved a handful of chippy goodness into his mouth then screamed: “SPICY!”
“What did you expect?” asked our guide with a grin. “Masala usually means spicy here!”
We moved down the snack aisle and came face to [...Read More!]
I couldn’t stop laughing, flipping through these final Old Delhi photos from our teacher tour of India. As you may have seen from the previous two articles, Old Delhi is chaotic on foot, so you can imagine how much more of a crazy rainbow whirlwind things became when our guide hailed a pack of bicycle rickshaws to zip us around! In the moment, I hardly realized what my camera was capturing.
Now [...Read More!]
You’ve likely heard of New Delhi, India, but what about OLD Delhi? Our India teacher tour spent part of our second day touring Old Delhi. By the first minute, we’d breathlessly declared, “Old Delhi has the best sights in India so far!” Check out these photos to see why.
But first, what exactly is “Old Delhi?” Old Delhi, originally called Shahjahanabad, was formally walled in by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan starting in [...Read More!]
WOWZA did we have a lot of snow in Boston! Two feet, to be exact. Raging winds whipped the wet, fat snow of Blizzard Nemo all over our city. Windows shook, the view was waves of white, and schools were closed for three days. Driving was banned, and travel ground to a halt.
Being married to another teacher is splendid on a triple snow day like this. Colin and I ate tons of ice [...Read More!]
When I heard we would be visiting a famous shelter for street children on our first day in New Delhi, India, I pictured doing some tranquil arts and crafts projects, or reading a few good books with the kids. What I never expected was what actually occurred: a full-out dance party!
Our teacher group had started the day with an intense walking tour of the Paharganj neighborhood of New Delhi and we were in [...Read More!]
Where to start? We went to India for 12 days and it was… so much! So much of everything all together: people with animals, rich with poor, fragrances with shocking smells, beautiful colors with dismal grays, chaos with order… I could go on all day. India was everything that everyone said it is, and more. All those rumors are really true!
After 38 hours of travel (including an epic 14-hour layover adventure in [...Read More!]