There Are Places I'll Remember All My Life....

The Beatles sang "There are places I'll remember all my life...." I wonder if they were singing about Kolkata. Though I highly doubt it, I feel like if they had been to Kolkata, they certainly would have written a song about it.

I on the other hand will not be able to write a song about Kolkata...in fact it's hard for me to even find the right words to capture this city and my experience at all. I have travelled and lived all over the world, yet of all the places I have been, no other city is quite like this one.

The cars, the traffic, the noise (OH THE NOISE!!), the smells, the heat, the wonder, the beauty, the people, the fact that each moment every sense is being used! There was the good with the bad, the memories I'll hold onto for the rest of my life, and those that will haunt me.

Give me a week to process my journey and my experiences and my feelings about life after Kolkata and I'll be able to provide more insight. I will be continuing my summer blog from home. But as for now, All I can say is so long old chums...so long my new friends....so long Kolkata. Mom your baby's coming home!

What Exactly is this Public Service Stuff Anyways?

I have always had a very clear and defined idea of how I wanted to devote my life to public service. Growing up in the developing world I have always envisioned a life where I would travel deep within the souls of countries to work and live among the people. I have always had a passion for working with refugee youth who I have always considered to be among the most vulnerable populations of the world. This and only this has been my idea of what public service was. Since being in Kolkata I have had to reevaluate my notion of public service...as I've seen that my body and lungs won't put up with my global nomad habits and desires. So now Im asking...what exactly is this public service stuff anyways? How do I find a new place for myself in this sector? How do I tell my heart to feel strongly about another direction when I have been so focused on going somewhere else? So family your worst fears may be over...I may be putting my dreams of going into the deepest darkest places on hold for a while...but I think it may take a while to find the light in something else.

The Hospital Part Deux

So just because I said the first time that Ruby General Hospital was the bees knees didn't mean that I was in the mood to return!! I thought things were going fine for the most part...while I had been living with an elephant on my chest (a very huge elephant Joe) for the past 6 weeks I thought it was going to be manageable. But the last couple days I have been feeling worse and last night at about 10:30 Jay and Molly piled into a taxi with me and ushered me over to Ruby.



So there I was sitting in the emergency room that is technically outside as it only has 3 walls barely breathing and before they could treat me for anything Molly had to actually go out and buy the medecine. Thats when I knew it may be about time to go home.



So I will be ending my adventures early folks to go home and get these lungs of mine fixed. "I already know" to all the people who are whispering "I told you so!" As of July 3rd I will be working state side...continuing my project of creating a 3rd and 4th grade curriculum. I've had an amazing time...a time that will surely stay with me the rest of my life and I have fallen in love with my students who break and rebuild my heart daily with their laughter and tears. So I will leave my heart in India along with these girls (as my soul was given away a long time ago to West Africa) but I am taking my lungs with me to get fixed.

This Bollywood star got Bamboozled

We are all looking for our 8 minutes of glory...our time in the spot light....our moment to shine. They say that every minute a star is born...well guys my star was born right here in my very own city of joy. The story I am about to tell Is completely true...pictures will follow (when Molly can get them off her camera). While some of the choices made may not have been my wisest...at least I made it home in one piece with a story to tell.

Thursdays are holidays at the Loreto Day School. So Molly and I set out early to make an attempt at the new market to see what wonderful trinkets we could come home with. However we never quite made it to market, to market that day. Instead we wound up on the scene of a Bengali Mafia movie playing the mobsters girlfriends. Luckily kissing is not allowed in Bengali movies or we would have been seriously out of luck.

So they say a star is born everyday, but they also say a sucker is too. I guess in this case I am both. So on our way to market, Molly and I run into a man named Jack who tells us about his movie and promises two things 1) we will be back by 4pm and 2) he will pay us 1000 rupees each for our two scenes.

So Molly and I climb into the back of Jack's car (in hindsight not the greatest idea). About half way to the movie set I start thinking about how dumb we were to just get into the car with a total stranger and I began to imagine myself being sold into some kind of bondage. Luckily Jack was telling the truth about one thing...there really was a movie set. Unfortunately Jack was lying about having us home by 4 and about paying us.

After being on set till 8:00 at night we were finally done working! and once we were returned home Jack suddenly forgets to pay us. So with no money in hand Molly and I returned home with nothing to show for our day except the knowledge that we could very well be the next leading ladies of Bollywood. Dean do you think you could preview my acting debut as a Clinton School program?

Me and My Dad

I'll admit I'm a daddy's girl. I have been one forever. For those of you have known me a while, you may heard the many "me and my dad" are doing this or "me and my dad" are doing that. Despite the frequent attempts of my mother to change my grammar, one thing has always remained and that is "me and my dad"

Me and my dad have done a million things together. Me and my dad used to go and get ice cream on school nights, me and my dad played soccer together, me and my dad went on a tour of Boston, My senior year of high school, me and my dad went on a tour of Cote D'Ivoire and now I have one more thing to add to my list of me and my dad things....me and my dad toured Kolkata!

On this way home from Indonesia to the states for the summer, my dad spent a few days with me in Kolkata. We toured the city from sun up to sun down. From the craft museums to Science City we saw it all. Then to replenish our souls after a long day we kicked back for the evening with a couple of kingfishers and some good conversation.

Unforturnately my dad is not as internet saavy as I am and so he booked himself into a less then stellar hotel. The place was pretty much creeptastic but for 25 bucks a night I guess we got what we paid for. At least there was an air conditioner. And we were so tired by the end of the day's adventures that we both fell asleep instantly.

Oh in 24+ years, me and my dad have done some amzing things together...but I don't think any of those will compare to our Kolkata adventure.

Can I have a redo please

You know hoe somtimes you know from the minute you wake up that it isnt going to be a good day. Well Tuesday I had one of the those days..and to the extreme. I should have known from the sheets of rain pouring down when I first opened my eyes that I should have just stayed in bed. The rain was foreshadowing my day...I've been in enough English Lit classes to have missed this obvious sign.

The day started with me not being able to find a taxi to make it to work on time. No taxis were willing to stop in the rain! As the day progressed I would eventually find myself in water up to my armpits trying to wade from one end of the city to the other. Caught in the rain, the taxi made me get out and walk to my destination. So there I was, water up to my armpits, tears streaming down my face, people staring, and me trudging along. One man even took my picture...as if I was a sight to see! Honestly, it was the first time since I have been here where I actually thought...I just wanna go home!

Of course, two days later and much drier, I am embaressed to have thought that but for those couple hours all I kept thinking was..could I get a redo please on my day!

Science City

When I was a little girl I was fascinated my science. I mean I was head over heals in love with the stuff. I think I was a mad scientist for halloween every year from Kindergarten to fourth grade. While I am not as passionate about science now as I used to be, when I found out Kolkata had a science city I knew I had to go (it aslo helped that they had a life sized dinosaur at the gate that I had been dying to take a picture with).

Unfortunately, what I found was not that impressive. While I had been warned time and time again not to get my hopes up to high, in my mind I had envisioned a sort of ultimate science city wonder..a place where all your science dreams could come true. I had built the place up so much in my mind (to Jay's amusement as he was one of my warners) that when I finally got there there was no place Science City could go but down. The one exhibit that I couldnt get enough of was the Hall of evolution which took you on a long hot walk through a poorly lit building past moving plastic dinosaurs all the way up to the "neandrathal men"

There was one wonderful part about science city and that was the cable car ride that you could take from one side of the park to the other. From up in the air the park looked great and the view of the city was actually quite pretty. So while my wildest science fantasies were not met, I suppose I can just chalk my day up to another Kolkata experience.