The North

I keep meaning to write on my blog but things keep popping up and I don't get around to it.  We leave in three days for the north tour and anticipation is running high for all the exchange students in our districts. I keep thinking of things I have to do and have to bring and then forgetting them only to remember a few hours later or the next day. That's how it always seems to be before a big event or travel.
The group will be smaller this time as there a several students not going for various reasons. The people who are going however, are all people from the previous trip except for one new girl who's staying in Hydrabad. For us in Indore the tour is just one day short of a month because we'll most likely be leaving here on the 27th of February and returning on the 26th of March. The other students will get on a train in Nagpur or when it stops in their respective cities and we'll get on the same train sometime in the night when it passes through a nearby city called Ujjain. We leave the 27th because Ritu is planning on having us spend a day and a night in Ujjain sightseeing and visiting her friends. Speaking of visiting friends, our first stop is in Jaipur where my friend Josephine happens to be living for a few months. Hopefully we'll be able to meet at least for a few hours when I'm there.
The tour agenda is as follows  (I've added a couple of the highlights on some of the days since I can't give the full details):

February 28th- arrive in Jaipur
March 1st- Jaipur
March 2nd- Jaipur and then to Jaisalmer where we will sleep in tents in the desert and ride camals
March 3rd- Jaisalmer
March 4th- Jaisalmer then to depart for Jadhpur at night
March 5th- Jadhpur then depart for Firozpur at night
March 6th- from Firozpur depart for Amritsar and then depart for Dharmsala in the night (Golden Temple)
March 7th- Dharmsala (Home of the Dalai Lama)
March 8th- Dharmsala and then to Manali
March 9th- Manali (maybe skiing!)
March 10th- Manali then head to Rishikash by rout of Shimla
March 11th- Rishikash (River Rafting on the Ganges)
March 12th- from Rishikash to Delhi
March 13th- Delhi
March 14th- from Delhi to Varanasi by rout of Agra (The Taj Mahal)
March 15h- Varanasi (Swimming in the Ganges optional)
March 16th- Varanasi to Bodhgaya (Sunrise boating on the Ganges)
March 17th- Bodhgaya and then to New Jalpaigudi by going through Patna (Bodhgaya is where Buddha was first enlightened)
March 18th- New Jalpaigudi and then to Darjeeling
March 19th- Darjeeling then depart to Gangtok (Watch sunrise over the third highest mountain in the wolrd, Mt. Kanchanjanga)
March 20th- Gangtok (Celebrate the festival of color, Holi!!!!!!)
March 21st- Gangtok
March 22nd- Gangtok then to Hawara stopping in New Jalpaigudi
March 23rd- Hawara
March 24th- Hawara and then departing to Nagpur in the evening
March 25th- Nagpur then depart by bus to Indore
March 26th- Indore

This is a hard trip to pack for because some of the places we're going might be very warm while several will be very very cold. We go between warm desert and semi-tropical temperatures and freezing ice and snow. We're going to spend a lot more time on trains than we did on the last tour. In the south we traveled from place to place by bus just as often as by train but on this tour more of our traveling is going to be by train. Because I got a new camera for my birthday I hope to take lots and lots of pictures. The things we see and do on the tours are once in a lifetime opportunities and I want to remember them as well as possible.
I'm not sure if I'll post another blog or not before I leave in a few days. If I don't I'll write something when I return or maybe I'll get the chance during the tour. I will have more regular access to the internet and emails this tour so if you want to send me something that's fine but I won't be able to respond or update this regularly.

Mom and Hannah's Visit

It was really bad timing for a visit. My sister arrived right as she was coming down with something which meant that her immune system wasn't great which meant that the food here affected her really heavily and quickly. By their second full day here she was feeling pretty bad.
Their third day here Hannah spent the day in bed and mom and I went out shopping for a little bit and stopped over to my house to grab a couple of things and chat with my host mom. All in all it wasn't an ideal visit but I still enjoyed seeing them and that's what matters. Unfortunately, Hannah also gave the illness she brought over to me so I ended up with a fever and stuff. They left early yesterday (Saturday) morning and I went home and spent the whole day sleeping. This was a really bad time for my immune system to fail me. I have yet to be sick in any way here except for a mildly upset stomach, which is really rare. All of a sudden Mom and Hannah show up and I get sick... I had to miss the first day of the District Conference yesterday because I wasn't feeling good. I did go today though and socialized with Rotarians and say some very cool performances by local stage artists.

We leave for the North Tour in a week!!!!!!!

I didn't end up taking as many pictures as I would have liked during their visit especially since I had a new camera to take them with! These are the only two taken on their last day here.

My moms.

17!!!

I forgot to mention earlier but my mom and sister (the real ones) arrived at the Indore airport at 8pm on the 15th and are here until the morning of the 19th when they move on to Nepal for two weeks. Visiting me is more of a stop on the way rather than a destination. They wouldn't becoming here if they weren't going to Nepal and the wouldn't be going to Nepal if I weren't here in India.
Yesterday I turned 17.
I spent the morning with my mom and sister. We went shopping and got them some clothes. I act as a guide and interpreter even when people are speaking English. In the later morning we headed over to Ritu Grover's for a quick visit and coffee and cake. Reba, our counselor joined us there. After being fed too much cake and snacks we went back to the mall for a little bit to to meet my friends Jordan and Nikolas. We had drinks at a cafe and chatted. At 3, upon returning to the hotel, Ritu and Reba had arranged for us to get mehendi (henna) done. The woman came to our room and just set up in there. By the time our mehendi was dry and set we had to get ready for dinner with my family (host). I get very confused because I call both my host parents and my real parents mom and dad. The other exchange students had also been invited which was also confusing because that meant there were two Hannahs (the German one and my sister). We hung out, chatted, ate snacks, and I opened a few presents. Before going to the restaurant I cut the cake. As per tradition they sang to me as I blew out the candle three versus, the traditional "Happy Birthday to you" versus then "Long life to you" and then "Many boyfriends to you". My mom made some comment about the last one. Following the cutting I also had to feed the cake to people starting with my mom, then my host mom, and my sister. Pretty soon I ended having cake smeared on my face instead of begin fed it and I started doing the same. A large cake fight ensued by the end of which I hadn't gotten a chance to eat very much cake as it had all been used for ammunition. I got the worst of it with my sisters, cousins, and friends all ganging up on me to smear and grind it into my face and hair. Consequently, I ended up covered in cake from head to foot. After changing clothes and attempting to wash and brush my hair, I was semi-presentable for my birthday dinner. We went to the restaurant in the hotel mom and Hannah are staying at and ended up being up very late for dinner.
All in all it was a pretty good birthday I even got to talk to my real dad on the phone for a little bit.
This morning we were up semi-early and visited my school in the morning. Mom really wanted to see the school I've been attending. We spoke to my principal and vice principal and I showed them around the school. We saw a few of my teachers and friends in the process and stopped to say hello.
After our visit to school a hotel hired driver took us to a few sights in the older part of Indore. These were all places I'd never been to. I've done no sightseeing in the city so it was all new and really interesting for me too. Unfortunately, by the second sight Hannah was feeling sick so we ended up going back to the hotel early and just resting and spending time there. It's can be really hard on a stomach to adjust to Indian food and environment. Some people have it worse than others. I was lucky in that I've never really been that sick where as some people get it really bad.
Tonight we're supposed to have dinner with my exchange student friends. I wish I could have done more birthday stuff with my Indian friends but it's right in the middle of exams so they can't be out at nights or get distracted from studying...

My siblings and cousins. From Left: Sister Hannah, Me, my host cousin Prenisha, my host sister Ipshita, and host cousin Jahanvi.

Cake.

Waiting for dinner with my host mom.

My sister and I in front my my school.

One More Student's Blog

I know I keep posting links to other students blog but this is probably the last one and is totally my favorite, no offense to the others. I'll post the link on the left with the others but I'll also put at the end of this post. This blog belongs to Chris Yoder of Illinois.

I posted something he wrote earlier about our Christmas experience. His most recent post is about what it's like to be an foreigner on the streets of India. Chris might have it the worst of all the exchange students I know. His city, Nagpur, isn't quite as conservative as Indore but Chris is also extremely tall, blond, and fair skinned which makes him stand out no matter what. I could even blend in to a crowd if I wanted, I could cover my head and hair, and most of my skin and would be able to pass as a fair Indian (there are some people here with a skin tone close to mine). Chris on the other hand towers over the crowd no matter what and covering his head with a scarf isn't really an option for a male.

The stares are something that didn't really bother me much at the beginning of my year. After a while I got pretty good at ignoring them but if not being unaware altogether. After returning from the South Tour though I was much more conscious of the gawking whenever I was out in public. I think that's because on the tour we were all very aware of it since a group of more than 15 foreigners tends to attract attention. Again though, I've gotten more accustomed to people looking at me. I know a lot of the time it's just purely because people are surprised of curious but there are other times that you just have to ignore the stares and walk by without being careful not to make eye contact. Then there are the people who come up to you and ask questions, some of them really dumb such as "are you a foreigner". The answer to that is quite clear as I very obviously and not of Indian descent. My least favorite is when people ask to take my picture of don't ask and try to take it anyways. Some younger people think it's very funny and amusing to dare their friends to come up and talk to us which usually consists of a "hello" then the speaker running away giggling. It's very entertaining to make up information when you get sick of people asking questions. My friend sometimes tells people she's from Prussia, the other day someone told her that they had just come back from a vacation there... I'm not very good at that game whenever someone asks me where I'm from I have a hard time thinking of a place so I usually answer with the truth say "America" or that I live here in Indore. People never believe me when I tell that I'm currently a resident in Indore, I mean how could a white person possible live here??

In a way though, I'm being hypocritical. If I'm ever in the mall or somewhere with friends and we see other foreigners I usually find myself staring. Foreigners have become more popular since I got here, monsoon season is not a very popular tourist season. Winter on the other hand, is when most people come to India do that they can travel in relative comfort. There have been times that I've been with the other exchange students when we argue amongst ourselves about whether we should approach the other foreigners and who should do it. Sometimes they approach us, other times we leave them to their business and assess from afar. So far we've met two other American families living in Indore and tourists from Australia, Germany and France. I'm sure when tourist season ends I won't be seeing fellow foreigners except for exchange students much.


Chris' Blog: http://anindianyear.wordpress.com/

Last Day of Classes

Today was my last day of classes as a student at Progressive Education School. For a really long time I thought that this day couldn't come soon enough but today I realized that I'm going to miss going to school and my friends there. I'm going back on Tuesday to take an exam because I want to. Then hopefully when we return from the North tour I'll find some time to go back and visit. Today was one of the best days of school I had my whole time there which is sad, things always seem better right as your leaving. I learned a lot at Progressive and it's been such a big part of my life since I got here that I can't imagine not going to school there for the rest of my time here.
After school today I went to the house of one of the teachers in my school who also lives in my colony. She teaches kindergarten and we've talked before while waiting for the bus and walk home. Her little 5 year old daughter often is out on their balcony when I walk by and she waves and calls to me asking me questions in Hindi and English, sometimes she asks me to come in. The mother had asked me to come in for tea before but I've always been busy. Both the mother and daughter are very sweet. I got a tour of the downstair from the mother and a tour of the upstair from the daughter. The latter tour involved showing me which room housed which toys and fun things rather than what each room was, I got to meet her pet baby turtles and look at her pink dress and fairy wings. Her bedroom walls are covered in crayon drawings on almost every reachable surface, it was actually kind of cool looking. I was also really surprised at her ability to use the computer, I'm pretty sure that 5 year old knows more than I do. The mother wants to invite me to go out for coffee or something some time which I look forwards to.

I got special permission to bring a camera to school today so I could take pictures for memories and stuff which was a really big treat for all the girls in my class. Below are some of my the pictures we took today. Unfortunately I didn't really end up getting many of the school but a lot more of the people which I guess are more important.

Two Classmates
Left: Aayushi Jain, Right: Mansi Jain (they're not related Jain is a really common last name especially, it seems in my class).  Mansi was my "mentor" when I first arrived at school and the first person I considered a friend in the class. 

Outside during the 15 minute whole school break between 4th and 5th periods. In the monsoon season this acts as a gutter for all the water, the rest of the time it's just a good place to sit and chat during breaks.
From Left: Dhriti, Mansi, Srishti, Aayushi, and Me

Posing next to one of the school's buses.  The average Indorie school bus is yellow with a brown stripe and the school's name on the side.
From Left: Dhriti, Srishti, Mansi, Aayushi, and Me

More poses during break.
From Left: Dhriti, Gulisha, Mansi, Iram, Akanksha, Aayushi, and Me

More poses, this time we're just outside of the stage area where we have morning assembly, performances, and play sports sometimes. There is only a green mesh for roofing so during monsoon season the assemblies were held up in the dining hall. It sort of acts as a much larger "pit" like we have at my school at home.
From Left: Me, Iram, Gulisha, Mansi, Akanksha, Dhriti, Aayushi.

My cousin Preneesha and I both go to Progressive. Her dad is my host dad's younger brother, we've had dinners together and gone to some wedding receptions too.

During a free period (study hall) we got permission to go out and take pictures.
From Left: Me, Iram, Gulisha, Mansi

The Whole Class (minus two)
Front Row From Left: Me, Aayushi, Divya (doesn't like her picture begin taken)
Middle Row From Left: Srishti, Mansi, Gulisha, Akanksha, Iram
Back Row From Left: Nikolas, Dhriti, Yash, Akhil, Kush

Nikolas and I with our class teacher, Mrs. Pragya Dave. The class teachers are homeroom teachers, she also taught us math.

The 11th class room.

Looking down the hall, of which our classroom is at the very end, into the main entry way.

Mrs. Sharma, our Hindi teacher.

10 Cultural Mistakes and Faux Pas

This could be a very long blog post if I could remember every single mistake or faux pas that I've made or that one of my exchange student friends here have made. I'll try to write about those that I do remember. If I think of more later I'll write another post or just add on to this one.

1) Don't shake a woman's hand unless she offered first, many women especially the less educated don't shake hands. If you're a woman, it's usually best not to offer your hand to a man first, let him offer it to you. I think the first mistake I can think of was when I arrived at my first host families house and I offered my hand to my host mom. I knew right away that was a mistake because of the way she reacted. It wasn't until a few days later later that I learned why.

2) Don't expect hugs. Hugs are rarely given. Even on birthdays and when you see someone you've known but haven't seen for a long time you just shake hands. Even if you've been living with a family for a month of so, when you move out of their home not knowing if you'll see then again, don't expect a hug from your hosts especially you parents.

3) Always wash your hands before touching anything in the kitchen. Even if you washed them very recently and have done nothing but sit at the dinner table for a few minutes.

4) A lot of people know this one, eat with your right hand only. It's a good idea to handle serving utensils with your left.

5) The father of the house is always right. His word is final. If he has an opinion or idea it's correct. If he doesn't like the pattern of the skirt you're wearing you have to go change.

6) Never lend money to the hired help. I know this one not from personal  experience but second hand. Lending hired help money could get them fired especially if you use your little host sister as translator and she tells her mom.

7) Your not expected to thank waiters, drivers, or people of similar professions even though I still do out of habit.

8) Only young school girls wear their hair in two braids.

9) When you're visiting a home for the first time it's rude not to eat or drink something if it's offered. Even after the first time, you are expected to take something if offered a few times. Food is important to hospitality and it shows that you have the means to offer extra food to others. Hindus are supposed to treat guests as if they were a visiting god.

10) Never enter of go near a place of worship with your shoes on. In many houses shoes are not allowed at all. Putting shoes and feet up is not okay for many people and many consider it rude to be able to see the bottom of someone's foot when sitting. So if you were to cross one leg over the other and your foot was pointed at someone else in the room you may be giving them bad signals.

The hard thing is that not all of the rules apply to everyone, it depends on the family, religion, traditional-ness etc. There are hundreds more, I make mistakes all the time. Unfortunately when I sit down to write them everything goes out of my head.

Pictures...

I was planning on putting my favorite picture from each month that I've been here but that proved too difficult because for each month there was way more than one favorite. I also had a hard time remembering which pictures I'd already posted. Then I was planning on putting just a random collection of pictures up as I was looking through my pictures I remembered some comments that I've gotten about the lack of pictures of myself. I think I've been better about it recently but for some reason I still have a slight aversion to putting pictures of myself up. So in the end I've ended up with a few pictures that I really like, a some pictures that were my favorite in a certain month but mostly pictures of myself that I chose not to put up earlier, plus some pictures that other people took that I didn't post because I didn't take them...
If anyone has any blog topic ideas let me know. My life here is currently pretty similar day by day which is a good thing but it makes for a boring blog and I can't think of any good specific topics to write about.

A slum child who snuck into a Rotary Navaratri celebration to try to get free food off of the guests and to enjoy the dancing. (October)

Amanda and I in a restaurant in Bhopal. (September)
Photo Credit: Hannah Nowak

Some of the other girls from Nagpur practicing a dance for the Rotary conference in Christmas.
Left kneeling: Nisha Khan (Onterio),   Center: Franzi Linke (Gemany)   Right kneeling: Serenity Tedesco (Florida)

Dancing for the Navaratri celebration in my previous colony.
Photo Credit: Sebastian

The South Tour was busy and tiring, we also had many late nights at the hotels so a a lot of our bus time was used to catch up on sleep.
(Left to Right: Dascha- Oregon born in Russia, Me, Franzi- Germany, Chris- Illinois, Jordan- Oregon)
Photo Credit: Sebastian

On the houseboat at sunset in the backwaters of the state of Kerela.
Photo Credit: Sebastian

I may have posted this before. Me and a friend of my pervious host sister at a Rotary meeting.
Photo Credit: Shruti Agrawal (host sister)

Practicing for the performance at the Nagpur District Conference.
(Left: Serenity Tedesco- Florida, born in South Korea.   Right: Franzi Linke- Germany)

Dropping Sebastian off at the airport for his flight home.
(Left to Right: Nikolas- Germany, Sebastian- Colombia, Me, Hannah- Germany)
Photo Credit: Jordan Fletcher- Oregon

Saying goodbye to Sebastian.
Photo Credit: Deepak (Ritu Grover's driver)

Another Student's Blog

If you ever have time visit www.nisha-in-india.blogspot.com Nisha Khan is one of my friends from the tour. She's from Onterio and is living in the town of Yavatmal. Her posts aren't frequent but they're good. I copied the following from her blog. It was actually written by our friend Chris who's from outside of Chicago and is staying in Nagpur. It's about the Christmas Eve that we spent in Nagpur it's very truthful and well written the rest of the post is written by Nisha about Christmas Day, I didn't have the space to copy that too :


"This is all Chris Yoder. Seriously, you should meet Chris Yoder. He is pretty spiffy.

I’d had no idea this many Nagpurians went to church. This was the only church I was aware of in the city, but even accounting for the scarcity of places to celebrate Christmas, I was shocked to see the turnout for midnight mass. People spilled out of the cathedral, which was literally packed beyond capacity. Somehow we made our way under the church’s roof, and our group was let through until we had seats in the two frontmost pews.

This wasn’t the kind of crowd I was used to in India. People stared at us of course, but something was different in their expressions. There were the usual looks of shock at seeing foreigners, but also something more. On their faces was pity, with a hint of understanding, something I’d never seen flashed in my direction. The curiosity was apparent in their eyes. For once, the silent-stated question wasn’t “Who are you?” but “Why are you spending Christmas here?”

I think that last question dawned on some of us as the organ blared out and the choir sang. What were we doing here?

We looked in front of us: A priest was talking about Christmas. The high-ceilinged cathedral was decorated for the holiday. There was even a tree – a real Christmas tree!

Just like home.

We looked behind us: Rows of Indians sat watching the service, not one a familiar face. Outside, the street didn’t look like snow had ever fallen on it. Two-wheelers, not four-wheelers, were parked in abundance beyond the open doors.

Nothing like home.

We looked beside us.

For once, it wasn’t our families sitting by our sides as Christmas Eve turned into Christmas Day. But it might as well have been a family. Caught between continents, between families, between homes, who did we have but each other?

For the second time that night, we sang Silent Night. Compared to our light-hearted rendition at PC Club, the song at the church was accompanied by a melancholy, albeit oddly cathartic air. Afterwards, many went to be blessed by a priest, half of us completely unfamiliar with the custom. When we returned to our seats at the end of the service, about a dozen Indians came to wish us Merry Christmas, and only one asked for a picture.

Is it really worthwhile to report that almost each of us hugged each other as we left the church around 1 a.m. on Christmas Day? At least five of us were crying in earnest, even those who were unaccustomed to such Christmas traditions. As we stood together at the end of the night, it was as though we had weathered a great storm where the precipitation came from people’s eyes, not the sky above.

When we arrived at the Khatri’s house that night, Pooja noticed “the gents” – Jordan, Jakob and I – were among the few with dry eyes. “Why is that?” she asked.

See, I’m not the type of person to outwardly express their sadness. Only at select moments on this exchange have I even come close to tears – before my flight to Nagpur after ten hours in the Mumbai airport in July, after Mayank left home in September, and while talking to my mom in October, hearing her voice for the first time in three months.

I felt compelled to respond to Pooja’s comment. “Just because there’s not water coming out of my eyes doesn’t mean I don’t miss my family!” Because, dry eyes or not, I really did.

And so did every other exchange student I was with that night.

There’s a chalkboard at Modern School onto which inspiring sayings are often written. One came to mind as I looked back on our Christmas night:

“Shared sorrow is half the pain, and shared happiness is twice the joy.”

We shared a lot with each other that night – our food, our homes, our personal stories, our personal space. We shared in our sorrow and we shared in our happiness. Essentially, we were sharing ourselves.

In spite of all the reasons I had to be sad, that’s why I was happier than I’d ever been on Christmas Eve.

Four hours after falling asleep, the alarm on my watch woke me around seven on Christmas morning. There was no rush downstairs towards a thickly ornamented Christmas tree, no pile of presents off which to rip red wrapping paper, no cold cocoa left half-sipped on the dining table next to a thank you note from Kris Kringle.

But why focus on what this Christmas didn’t offer when there was so much more that it did?

The product of the past day’s media coverage had been manifested in the morning’s paper. I was pictured posing with the others, my palms together over my head for no reason but the aesthetics of the photo. Two other pictures were shown with the accompanying article, but the highlight was the given caption. France, Germany and Canada had apparently been forgotten; according to the caption, the performing Rotary students apparently hail not only from the USA, but also from Sweden and Japan.

So what was it? Did we get new exchange students overnight, or had there been some secret cross-continental emigrations courtesy Santa’s sleigh?

Journalistic inaccuracies laughed aside, we said goodbye and began our search for separate autos home. Amanda, Anaïs, Nisha and I decided to share a ride, given the proximity of our homes. With activity on the streets this time of day scarce, finding an auto was proving to be a challenge. Rarely did anything pass us on the street, let alone an auto. The few our eyes could catch were just taunting us, full and unable to accommodate us. It was a solid ten minutes before we flagged down an auto driver that would give us a reasonable rate for a ride home.

Halfway home, that is.

The rickshaw came to a stop on an empty street, and I knew as soon as the driver turned to us and said “No petrol” that I had another signature moment in my already memorable holiday. I doubt I’ll ever again be stranded in a rickshaw on Christmas, and as the situation resolved itself minutes later when another rickshaw came by, I was slightly disappointed. Couldn’t there be some unexpected twist or epic encounter, like our ride getting stuck in quicksand or chased by a horde of wild elephants?

It was in relative peace that I jogged home from where the second rickshaw dropped us. I could have walked, but it seemed more prudent to run as quickly as possible. Once again I became self-conscious, wondering what the few locals on the street were thinking of the blue-jean clad foreigner jogging through Nagpur on Christmas morning. Patches of sun made their way through the trees and cool air blew softly across my face. Normally caught in a tangled mass of pillows, blankets and dreams this time of day, the morning’s atmosphere was another blatant, refreshing contrast to my ordinary life.

Most members of my host family were not yet awake, but I wished Merry Christmas to those who were. Running on four hours of sleep, the double bed in my room tantalized me with its comfort, but I sat on it quite upright and finished wrapping my gift."

Polio Clinic Photos

I know that these are way over due but I'd totally forgotten to put them up. I was trying to think of something to write about my next post and decided to go through my photos and post a random collection of ones from throughout the year that I hadn't yet when I noticed these ones. They are from the polio vaccination clinic that I helped at in January. (Under the title Lohri and my Cousin's Birthday)

Me with Dr. Sumitra Shidhaye who I helped out for the day.   Photo Credit: Ritu Grover.  

People "lining up" to see the other doctor who dealt with more serious cases and medicines while we did check ups and minor cold and fever medicines on the children as well as mothers.

Children were brought by mothers, grandmothers, fathers, etc.

Some little kids were even brought by their older siblings.

Toys and prizes were given out like balls and there "Michael Jackson" glasses the boy is holding.

The table where the actual drops were administered.

Senior Farewell

Today was the 12th class students' last day of school. There had been a farewell dance and party for them earlier in the year when I was on the South Tour. Today we had an assembly instead of sixth period and the 12th graders got to wear their hair down and brought cameras to school which are both usually against the rules a lot of the girls wore jeans and makeup to school which they usually don't do.
One of the girls in my class conducted the ceremony so she introduced those who were speaking and gave a short speech herself. The 12th class teacher (like a homeroom teacher) spoke briefly, then one of the students had been selected to speak on the class' behalf sharing lessons and memories that they all had. Finally, our principal gave a speech. We started with talking about success and how that can mean different things to different people. How earning a lot of money can be considered successful to some and maybe not to others. I thought he was going to go on to say that success could just mean being happy with what you're doing or have done. Instead he said that success for some could mean being a highly paid employee of a company, especially a multinational company while for others it night mean being the owner and employer of a company. He said that personally he suggested students shoot for the latter. He then went on to give the students advice. The piece of advice that stuck out the most to me and that he lingered on for the longest was this: when you see and advertisement for a position in a multinational company that looks like it pays very well remember that if you are sent abroad that money won't actually be very much and that you should not get cheated by these companies who are getting a deal out of you. The students were given trophies and report cards for their farewell. After the ceremony we had a very nice lunch by school standards. The seniors all ate at decorated tables with flowers in the middle of the dining hall.