Just another Sunday

   It is 7:02AM, my first cup of tea is finished and the batter for crepes is resting in the fridge.  We are embarking on one of our few remaining, yet typical, Sundays at Chanbari House. The cook has the day off so we are on our own for food (just fine with us), and we will spend the day doing homework and getting ready for the week.
     Last week we all took a trip to Darjeeling with Glenn's parents, who came to visit us for over a week.  It was a wonderful trip, I will post photos later.  The girls really enjoyed the trip even though our room was freezing (no central heat in Darjeeling either) and there was only a small heater for hot water in the hotel room.  Darjeeling is oddly similar to Gangtok and yet somehow more than Gangtok in a way that resonating with us all.  Given that it was Dewali, the atmosphere was particularly festive with lots of lights on the buildings, fireworks going off at night, and performances at the main square.
    This Tuesday we are off on another adventure, this time with students and teachers from Taktse.  We are headed to Delhi for a sightseeing/history trip and a visit to a book and writing festival called Bookaroo.  Each of us is nervous and excited about the trip -- nervous about the conditions of Delhi and the conditions of our living arrangements and excited to be taking this trip with friends and colleagues.  There will be little to no internet access again, so it may be a while until there is another post to this blog.  When we return from Delhi we will only have 2 weeks until we start our journey back to the US.

Waiting for the News

     For the first time since I started voting over 20 years ago, I believe I am going to be awake when the results of the presidential election are announced.  I will be at school when the announcement is made, I hope to have my computer on when the decision is clear.
     I never worked so hard to cast my own ballot -- absentee voting is a fascinating process.  After filling out and scanning an absentee ballot request, which was rejected, I filled out an electronic request for my ballot, then had the ballot sent to me as a pdf from the town clerk in Beverly (Jane Murphy is her name and she was incredibly responsive to my needs), filled it out scanned it and sent it back.  Of course you can imagine the rigmarole required just to have the ballot printed and then to get it scanned and emailed to me!  Anyway, late last week I got confirmation that my vote had been completed.
     On the home front, there is something wrong with the hose to the water tank and we are currently living without any water.  It started to become a problem yesterday morning, we all washed our hair in the sink when it became clear that all we would get out of the shower head was a trickle. By the evening there was no water at all and we went out to eat.  Not sure what today will hold, but I am worried that it won't be fixed before my in-laws arrive tomorrow evening.