A typical day and Bluebells

The grounds at Bluebells:an oasis from urban noise, crowds, even cows.

Friends at home say they want to hear about my day to day life here. That suits me because it's my day to day life here that I truly enjoy. On the good days. Most days.

On a typical weekday, I wake up to my alarm at 6:35 to be up for Danny and Christy as they get ready for school. One fantastic perk of Scott's Fulbright-Nehru grant to teach and do research here at the India Statistical Institute is a connection with the Bluebells International School, It's an academically rigorous K-12 with forward thinking teachers and a beautiful campus. Even though we came in mid-term, Bluebells Principal Mrs. Suman Kumar agreed to let D and C attend some classes  for electives credit at home and also use the school's research/computer lab to do their online classes from Timpview. India has a lot of very competitive national testing that D and C are skipping. They like going to school even though they are the only white kids, except three kids from Turkey. They're hanging out with bright teenagers from  Cuba, Laos, Madagascar,  Indonesia, Vietnam, and of course, India. Generally,  the schools in Delhi are English immersion.I think. At Bluebells, if the kids get caught speaking Hindi, they have to write a 1000 word essay, but it's not enforced. On Teachers' Day, students from class XII taught all the other students while the teachers prepared a talent show assembly for the students. Danny taught 4th grade English and got a major award, well, a certificate for "secured 1st position in teaching primary school." We're so proud of our boy! Christy is the star of the soccer team. They've had two practices and the only scheduled game got cancelled. They put Christy on forward and the coach told the girls the kick off strategy was for Christy to boot it straight into the goal. Hmmm. Christy also got to make an announcement on the school radio. I definitely get the feeling our kids are , what, mascots? Show and tell? In any case, they both have a safe, clean, beautifully landscaped place to go every day with kids their own ages and lots of  work to do.
Which is more than I can say for myself.

The classroom building at Bluebells.

Back to the schedule:
Danny and Christy walk out at 7:10 to catch their bus in front of the nearby market and they're home most days by 2:45. At 7:10 I offer to make Scott a PBJ for work and he always says yes. He goes into work sometime between 8am and never; he usually works one day a week at home and otherwise he's gone by 10. Or 11. And home by 6:30. Or 11. That's my Scotty.

My washer.

I do a mini batch or two of laundry every day and haul it up one flight to the roof to hang on the lines. I'd enjoy the gentle breeze and the views up there if it weren't always so blasted hot, and it won't be. I learned to pay attention to weather from inside the house after my clothes on the line were soggier when I went to bring them in than when I had taken them up. I had to start over, starting with the spin cycle in my mini-machine, for which I am most grateful.

I go to the market almost every day. I've made a few friends there: the fruit wallah; the Mother Dairy man; the tailor who parks his sewing machine under an eave; the adult son of the owner the main grocery shop; the boys in the copy and printing shop (the boys are between 20 and 40, I'd guess, and only one is friendly, but I'm there all the time since we don't have a printer.) There are very few women working in the market. I know which store has 4-packs of toilet paper and which has Lays potato chips for Scott and which has good shampoo options and which has envelopes. Today I found facial tissue. A triumph. I'm genuinely pleased with my problem solving today. Bless all the people who can speak to me in English. I'd be helpless.Or I'd study Hindi in earnest.

After Danny and Christy come home we talk a bit and they both escape to their phones for a while then have a snack then dig into homework. I read or start dinner or fall asleep.

We often watch a netflix episode together before bed. I'm only now feeling settled enough to realize I need to find something meaningful to do outside of this flat. Teaching English is probably what I'm most qualified for and I don't have a work visa so it will be service.

That's enough drivel from Delhi for one day. I'll post it and see if I regret it.