Too soon the end of the school year is coming! I just realized yesterday that we have only five weeks left of our time here in Bangalore, and it made me feel nostalgic. In fact, I also felt a little bit sad. :(
To celebrate the ending of our school year and also the opening of their new "club" the owners of our school invited us for a day long event at the Chairman's Jade Resort. It was the first major event held at the newly renovated facility, which will open to the public in just a few weeks.
The schedule of the day was somewhat of a surprise. We met at the school to ride a bus to the location. My first impression was "Wow!" It was a beautiful resort surrounded by a variety of fauna. Upon entrance we immediately were given drinks and then drawn to the very impressive poolside.
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| We rode a luxury school bus to the party! |
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| Beautiful clean pool! |
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| Even more beautiful colleagues! |
There was much to do there. The first little while was unstructured while we checked out the equipment- a trampoline, squash, badminton and tennis rackets, volleyball, to name a few and snapped pictures. I took a little walk around and found the tennis, badminton and squash courts and skating park.
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| Tramping on the trampoline! |
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| Walking under the vines... |
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Checking out the skate park.
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Suddenly we heard a commotion coming from the poolside. It was time to do some team building with a professional team builder from Bangalore. Oh, right, I said to myself judgmentally, this can't be good. Well within minutes I realized I was wrong, wrong, wrong.
It was fantastic. The group of around 60 people played one of my favourite games, Fruit Salad, followed by a team competition to find things that began with various letter of the alphabet, then a ladies' only game similar to "BUZZ", where we stood in a circle and counted one at a time, but clapped on every multiple of five. "One, two, three, four, CLAP, six, seven, eight, nine, CLAP", etc. The first round was easy but it quickly got complicated as the circle decreased in size and the rate got faster and faster. I was eliminated by clapping and shouting "six" at the same time! At the end the PhD on staff won while doing "sevens". Way to go, Valentine!
Another game was called "phone, stand". Again I was eliminated very early for stalling. That led to others being eliminated for other humiliating reasons.
Finally we played a game men vs. woman which had us passing water from the pool down a line of about 25 people using only our hands. I eventually got to dip in the pool because my hands are so big; however, the men won the challenge by filling half of their beer bottle with cooperatively collected water.
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| Team building with the whole gang. |
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| Onlookers wondering, "What's next?" |
Shortly after the games, a cake was presented to the couple who were married on May 4 and we enjoyed watching everyone share in the enjoyment and celebration. After a lot of loud music and a little relaxation, we tucked in to a delicious dinner of Indian cuisine and then had a swim in the pool.
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| Cake to celebrate the wedding of Alwin and Sophia! |
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| My gorgeous TA and our 2013 baby! |
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| One of the most interesting trees I have seen in India! |
So much has happened in the past year. I went from being an occasional teacher in Canada to a Year 3 teacher to a Year 3 Teacher and Primary School coordinator in six short months. Several teachers and friends left our school, and then were were replaced by new colleagues. My husband moved from Secondary school teaching to Middle school teaching. We got a new Headmaster and a new Director. Our Deputy Headmaster and his wife had a new baby. And so much more!
And finally, just near the end of the school year, our entire staff, including support staff, was treated to a marvelous day in the sun, designed to bring us together! Now that I am feeling like we are together, it is sad to think that my husband and I will soon be leaving this amazing country, saying farewell to new friends and flying home.
Fret not, I say to myself. We will be heading back to another amazing country to spend time with our much-missed family and old friends and planning our future together.
Until next time,
Bee Rich
