Is there anybody out there online
I made it back safely from India. I had some time to kill before we left so I jotted this little bit down. It gives a good idea of the various situations but it is by no means complete. It tells nothing of the airport security in Mumbai, or the entire community playing cricket on a Sunday afternoon. Sure you get a taste of the adventure on the rooftop but there's no mention of the crazy table of Australians that drove us up there.
But what you see is a glimpse into the trip. If you'd like a little more, give a call. I may be around but chances are you'll leave a message and I won't return it. Some things never change.
It's the day after Thanksgiving for me, I know I should have called home but I got up early and had a great surf. You can see for yourself, it was offshore and firing. The Mumbai story follows these pictures. Enjoy.
Mmmmmumbai
You haven't lived until you've spent a full 4 hours walking through the Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea. It is the most magical place for a layover. Serious, try it sometime.
During the summer the weather in India is way too hot to imagine. So hot that the locals usually leave the country and visit their peeps back in the states while their home country melts. Around November 17th or so, all these Indian nationals decide it is time to return because the weather has improved and they all get on the same plane as I did. I've been on packed flights before, but none that were 9 hours long and without air-conditioning. For whatever reason the designers of the Airbus 320 decided that the passengers didn't need little vents above the seats to regulate their temperature. Oh, and they also decided that if you hit the seat in front of you with enough force it goes back up into it's upright position even if the person sitting there is asleep and finally comfortable.
It was a miserable flight, complete with smelly people and crying babies but we made it into Mumbai around 2 in the morning and actually got into our rooms by 4 or so. That's about 20 hours of travel to get 3500 miles. Doesn't add up, does it?
Whatever, we had a day to relax before the conference so we made the most of it. After walking through the neighborhood of Juhu beach in the morning we hired Sanjay to drive us down to the south end of the city/island to do a little sight-seeing. I wish that somehow I could have captured the smell, sound, energy, mayhem, power, desolation, squalor, heat, happiness, peace, harmony, and beauty of the place and it's people but all I could do was take a few pictures. About 250 or so. I hope you enjoy them, I put them into a new photo-set on flickr. Click here to check them out.
So with day one under our belts we got up on Friday and headed to meet our hosts at Ecole Mondaile school in Bandra, Mumbai. I won't bore you with the details of the conference. You could probably guess that it was a ton of mathtalk and geekyness. The highlight of it all was when the presenter read from the IB manual about the impossibility of graphing inverse functions on a Texas Instruments calculator and I stood up in front of the workshop group to prove everyone wrong. Needless to say, I made some friends with my GDC prowess.
My workshop group was made up of 25 people, 21 Indian nationals, 3 peeps from Australia, and me. After being in Japan for 3 months I had grown used to the quiet way Japanese people discuss topics. People will wait their turns, speak softly, and make every attempt to respect the person they are talking to even if they don't agree. I was taken aback when I saw how these Indian guys would yell at each other, over top each other, over the top of the presenter, as fast as they could possibly get the words out. There were a few times that I thought the arguments would come to a physical confrontation. Phones going off, people yelling out solutions, people yelling out if there was a mistake in some calculation. It was a mess at first and it took a bit to get used to.
After the first day on the way back to the hotel James and I met Peter, Shawn and Joanne who are teachers from Dubai. They're all young Canadians and we got along very well. Everyone had something to say or some joke to tell. But they were staying across the way and James and I needed to check out the pub in the lobby of our hotel. After a few rounds of warm peanuts and Kingfisher beers we built up enough courage to try the "pickle, pineapple, and cheese" sticks that accompanied our beers. Revolting.
The Canadians and I ended up going out that evening to mess around in the balmy evening and explore a little of what was offered in Mumbai after dark. We found some club and watched a car get it's tires deflated because it was parked illegally. I don't know if I am the only one that finds this counter-intuitive but if you want someone to move their car, maybe you should leave it drivable. But a few Kingfishers and it didn't seem to matter anymore. The night got a little fuzzy later on because I was still dealing with a fair bit of jet-lag but I remember sitting by a pool and drinking more than I should on a school night. I made it home and somehow woke up at 6:30 for the next exciting day of IB-ness.
Waking up in my hotel room was one of my favorite parts. My room would glow radioactive orange as the sun came up through the smoky haze that never seemed to lift from the city. I would roll out of bed, walk to the window and slowly drop my gaze from the surreal skyline to the top of the broken-down hotel full of squatters, to the ocean with lines of swell rolling in, and finally down to the slum that existed in the space between two hotels along a brackish stream. Mmmmmumbai.
At the end of the second day of the workshop you could tell that the other teachers were beginning to get excited about the end of the show. To add a little more fire to their pants the school hosted a dinner reception with free booze and food to all those involved. Before we went to the dinner I went to get a haircut. It sounds strange, but if you really think about it, why would you pass up a $4 haircut from someone who can speak your native language when you could just go home and get a $40 haircut from some guy that can't speak a word of English? I thought you'd agree.
I look good. And the best part was the 5 minute head massage that followed the cut. The guy had some pretty amazing fingers and he really got into that scalp. I tried my best to keep from laughing as he was going at it, but now that I've made it through the experience I would recommend it to anyone.
So now that I'm all kakuii with my new haircut I met another teacher from Hong Kong who was staying in the same hotel. The staff had messed up her reservation so to compensate they gave her access and free drinks up at the club on the top floor. She invited James and I to join her friend and her. How could we resist?
We should have.
It wasn't all that bad, but pretty boring conversation, one weak drink and that was about it. I got to tell a few lies and James followed my lead so at least it wasn't a total wash. But we left Wendy and ... um... I don't know her name but I think she was wearing a helmet. Anyway, we left them at their strange little club and went down to the party. Great food and a beautiful setting. We met people, drank a bit, talked some shit to Ros and Jo, met some crazy Australian women who were really really really ready to let loose, talked some more shit to the Indonesians, and then found the good old Canadians.
Shawn and Peter were both a few sheets down but Jo still had her wits about her. The four of us stayed at the party until it was just about dry and then stole some beers and found our way up to the roof of the hotel. Not a roof-top bar, but the roof. Mumbai actually looks nice from 8 stories up. I was just glad that neither of the two guys wound up falling off the roof.
Anyway, the last day of the conference came and went without much fanfare. The night wasn't all that exciting because the previous few had finally caught up to me. I was knackerd by the end of it all and passed out quickly after a spicy night out.
Monday morning we met up with the Indonesians; Puti, Pia, and Ranny. They're all early elementary teachers born and raised in Indonesia and living in Jakarta. I couldn't have asked for a nicer group of strangers to kick around Mumbai with. We hired Sanjay for the day and headed out through the streets to take pictures and kill a little time.
I should fill you in on the schedule, it will make all this seem a little more awesome-o. We don't fly out unti 4:30 am on Tuesday morning so we have many many hours still in Mumbai. Our flight leaves at 4:30 am, gets into Seoul at 4:30 pm, and then we should leave there by 6 and arrive home around 8 pm. So, we'll be up traveling from 7:30 am Monday morning until about 8 pm Tuesday night. Perfect.
Anyway, we had a great time with the girls and we're hoping to set up some type of exchange program so that I can stay in Indonesia for a month or so and they can come up to Fukuoka. I don't know if it will happen, but we can only hope. Regardless, I met some peeps that I can stay with if I ever make it down to Jakarta.
So it is about midnight and we're still at the hotel. I'll post this and all the pictures within the next few days. Take care peeps.
But what you see is a glimpse into the trip. If you'd like a little more, give a call. I may be around but chances are you'll leave a message and I won't return it. Some things never change.
It's the day after Thanksgiving for me, I know I should have called home but I got up early and had a great surf. You can see for yourself, it was offshore and firing. The Mumbai story follows these pictures. Enjoy.
Mmmmmumbai
You haven't lived until you've spent a full 4 hours walking through the Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea. It is the most magical place for a layover. Serious, try it sometime.
During the summer the weather in India is way too hot to imagine. So hot that the locals usually leave the country and visit their peeps back in the states while their home country melts. Around November 17th or so, all these Indian nationals decide it is time to return because the weather has improved and they all get on the same plane as I did. I've been on packed flights before, but none that were 9 hours long and without air-conditioning. For whatever reason the designers of the Airbus 320 decided that the passengers didn't need little vents above the seats to regulate their temperature. Oh, and they also decided that if you hit the seat in front of you with enough force it goes back up into it's upright position even if the person sitting there is asleep and finally comfortable.
It was a miserable flight, complete with smelly people and crying babies but we made it into Mumbai around 2 in the morning and actually got into our rooms by 4 or so. That's about 20 hours of travel to get 3500 miles. Doesn't add up, does it?
Whatever, we had a day to relax before the conference so we made the most of it. After walking through the neighborhood of Juhu beach in the morning we hired Sanjay to drive us down to the south end of the city/island to do a little sight-seeing. I wish that somehow I could have captured the smell, sound, energy, mayhem, power, desolation, squalor, heat, happiness, peace, harmony, and beauty of the place and it's people but all I could do was take a few pictures. About 250 or so. I hope you enjoy them, I put them into a new photo-set on flickr. Click here to check them out.
So with day one under our belts we got up on Friday and headed to meet our hosts at Ecole Mondaile school in Bandra, Mumbai. I won't bore you with the details of the conference. You could probably guess that it was a ton of mathtalk and geekyness. The highlight of it all was when the presenter read from the IB manual about the impossibility of graphing inverse functions on a Texas Instruments calculator and I stood up in front of the workshop group to prove everyone wrong. Needless to say, I made some friends with my GDC prowess.
My workshop group was made up of 25 people, 21 Indian nationals, 3 peeps from Australia, and me. After being in Japan for 3 months I had grown used to the quiet way Japanese people discuss topics. People will wait their turns, speak softly, and make every attempt to respect the person they are talking to even if they don't agree. I was taken aback when I saw how these Indian guys would yell at each other, over top each other, over the top of the presenter, as fast as they could possibly get the words out. There were a few times that I thought the arguments would come to a physical confrontation. Phones going off, people yelling out solutions, people yelling out if there was a mistake in some calculation. It was a mess at first and it took a bit to get used to.
After the first day on the way back to the hotel James and I met Peter, Shawn and Joanne who are teachers from Dubai. They're all young Canadians and we got along very well. Everyone had something to say or some joke to tell. But they were staying across the way and James and I needed to check out the pub in the lobby of our hotel. After a few rounds of warm peanuts and Kingfisher beers we built up enough courage to try the "pickle, pineapple, and cheese" sticks that accompanied our beers. Revolting.
The Canadians and I ended up going out that evening to mess around in the balmy evening and explore a little of what was offered in Mumbai after dark. We found some club and watched a car get it's tires deflated because it was parked illegally. I don't know if I am the only one that finds this counter-intuitive but if you want someone to move their car, maybe you should leave it drivable. But a few Kingfishers and it didn't seem to matter anymore. The night got a little fuzzy later on because I was still dealing with a fair bit of jet-lag but I remember sitting by a pool and drinking more than I should on a school night. I made it home and somehow woke up at 6:30 for the next exciting day of IB-ness.
Waking up in my hotel room was one of my favorite parts. My room would glow radioactive orange as the sun came up through the smoky haze that never seemed to lift from the city. I would roll out of bed, walk to the window and slowly drop my gaze from the surreal skyline to the top of the broken-down hotel full of squatters, to the ocean with lines of swell rolling in, and finally down to the slum that existed in the space between two hotels along a brackish stream. Mmmmmumbai.
At the end of the second day of the workshop you could tell that the other teachers were beginning to get excited about the end of the show. To add a little more fire to their pants the school hosted a dinner reception with free booze and food to all those involved. Before we went to the dinner I went to get a haircut. It sounds strange, but if you really think about it, why would you pass up a $4 haircut from someone who can speak your native language when you could just go home and get a $40 haircut from some guy that can't speak a word of English? I thought you'd agree.
I look good. And the best part was the 5 minute head massage that followed the cut. The guy had some pretty amazing fingers and he really got into that scalp. I tried my best to keep from laughing as he was going at it, but now that I've made it through the experience I would recommend it to anyone.
So now that I'm all kakuii with my new haircut I met another teacher from Hong Kong who was staying in the same hotel. The staff had messed up her reservation so to compensate they gave her access and free drinks up at the club on the top floor. She invited James and I to join her friend and her. How could we resist?
We should have.
It wasn't all that bad, but pretty boring conversation, one weak drink and that was about it. I got to tell a few lies and James followed my lead so at least it wasn't a total wash. But we left Wendy and ... um... I don't know her name but I think she was wearing a helmet. Anyway, we left them at their strange little club and went down to the party. Great food and a beautiful setting. We met people, drank a bit, talked some shit to Ros and Jo, met some crazy Australian women who were really really really ready to let loose, talked some more shit to the Indonesians, and then found the good old Canadians.
Shawn and Peter were both a few sheets down but Jo still had her wits about her. The four of us stayed at the party until it was just about dry and then stole some beers and found our way up to the roof of the hotel. Not a roof-top bar, but the roof. Mumbai actually looks nice from 8 stories up. I was just glad that neither of the two guys wound up falling off the roof.
Anyway, the last day of the conference came and went without much fanfare. The night wasn't all that exciting because the previous few had finally caught up to me. I was knackerd by the end of it all and passed out quickly after a spicy night out.
Monday morning we met up with the Indonesians; Puti, Pia, and Ranny. They're all early elementary teachers born and raised in Indonesia and living in Jakarta. I couldn't have asked for a nicer group of strangers to kick around Mumbai with. We hired Sanjay for the day and headed out through the streets to take pictures and kill a little time.
I should fill you in on the schedule, it will make all this seem a little more awesome-o. We don't fly out unti 4:30 am on Tuesday morning so we have many many hours still in Mumbai. Our flight leaves at 4:30 am, gets into Seoul at 4:30 pm, and then we should leave there by 6 and arrive home around 8 pm. So, we'll be up traveling from 7:30 am Monday morning until about 8 pm Tuesday night. Perfect.
Anyway, we had a great time with the girls and we're hoping to set up some type of exchange program so that I can stay in Indonesia for a month or so and they can come up to Fukuoka. I don't know if it will happen, but we can only hope. Regardless, I met some peeps that I can stay with if I ever make it down to Jakarta.
So it is about midnight and we're still at the hotel. I'll post this and all the pictures within the next few days. Take care peeps.
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