Sunday Morning in New Delhi (Saturday night in US)

Well, we've had our first day in India. Yesterday I walked around in a somewhat familiar heat for several hours (those of you in South Texas know what it felt like). We saw some amazing buildings, including the Indian version of our National Mall, with India Gate at one end, and the Secretariat at the other. Apparently there were monkeys on the government buildings, but I didn't see any.

We also started our official seminar in the evening. I got to meet Mr. Gupta, my cooperating teacher from here in New Delhi. He is an advanced mathematics teacher who works with forms 10, 11, and 12. He talked about how well his students understand the basics of functional relationships (especially trigonometry) which amazed me. He loves to teach math and has been doing so for 17 years. He will show me his textbooks later this week and we'll talk more about our different styles (his students always work by themselves and he gives them all the properties and information they need before they try problems). I am really looking forward to learning from him.

I am going to try and put a picture up ... we'll see if it works!

Keep posting questions and comments. Good luck to Anam as she leaves for China! Ian, I am researching movies for your every day. Katie, I love the food!

We Made It!

Here I am in New Delhi. We arrived last night after the long plane ride, and are enjoying an amazing hotel. We are being treated like royalty in this fancy hotel and by the UCEFI staff who have coordinated our whole trip.

I am about to go out on my first big adventure ... we'll walk around the city a bit and maybe bye some local clothing to wear to our 80+ person reception tonight. Yikes.

My favorite thing that I've noticed so far is the COLORFUL nature of this place. Everyone has such beautiful colors on, and things are decorated so brightly.

I'll post a picture or two and more stories after the big event tonight.

Last Day in Chicago

Now I am definitely ready to go to India. I have spent the last two days hearing people talk about it, and now I am really ready.

The flight tomorrow will be about 15 hours long and will take us over the North Pole, which will be cool. I have met some really amazing people with whom I'll be travelling. They are science, math, art, English as a second language, elementary school teachers and curriculum experts. I know that I have a lot to learn from all of them (and plenty of time, too, starting with our long flight tomorrow).

I enjoyed my last cheeseburger today. Am looking forward to a hot fudge sundae tomorrow before we go. These are the things I'm concentrating on.

The most interesting thing I learned today: The population density (the ratio of people to area of land) of England is higher than that of India, although people always talk about how over-populated India is.

Here's another thing to think about: I was told today that India is is 10.5 hours ahead of New York City and the Eastern Time Zone. Why is it half an hour? Why not just do 10 or 11 hours? Let me know what you figure out, and see if you can figure out what time it is there when you're posting and include it in your post. Ha ha!

June 26

I spent the day listening to some really smart people talk about India -- the music, the language (there are thousands of them, but I think I'm going to concentrate on Hindi), the people, the culture, the history, the economy. There is so much to learn.

I am especially looking forward to meeting the PEOPLE of India. The country has such a rich history and there have been so many influences on their culture. I look forward to learning about how I am the same and how I am different from the teachers there, and from the women, and from everyone.

I hope some of you will post comments with questions about my trip and maybe I can answer them while I'm here!

Almost Gone!

It is the night before I leave for Orientation and I am having trouble sleeping. I am excited and hope somehow this blog will help me tell the stories of what I see and do while I'm there. Here's hoping.