Friday 30 December 2011

Indus Sports Day

Hey Everybody!  You're going to have to be patient with me.  I keep telling Matt that I am "back blogged" b/c I'm so far behind in the things I want to blog about.  Get it....back blogged!?!?  I think I'm soooo funny.  I don't think he's laughed at my joke once.  I keep repeating it thinking..."He probably just doesn't 'get it'?!!"  Hahaha!  Anyhoo!  I have so many things I still want to blog about so I hope you don't mind coming along for the "slow and steady" ride. 

One of my favourite days leading up to Christmas vacation was an event that was held at the kids school called "Sports Day."  They literally had been practising for the days events for well over a month.  There were races held in the spirit of "we are all winners in the race of life....there will be hurdles you all have to conquer"....blah blah blah.  I started to tune it out real quick because although it's a good sentiment and all who are we kidding....we know what it's really all about, now don't we!?!?  WINNING!  Hahaha!  The school has placed each child into a "house" and all of the "houses" come together to compete in the big "Sports Day Event".  Prior to Sports Day the children have competed in initial "heats" as they call them.  So only the best of the best actually compete on Sports Day.  None of the Weimann made it past the initial "heat" rounds (SHOCKING! isn't it!?) but we are already conditioning and practising our track and field skills because next year - WE WILL BE UNSTOPPABLE!!!!  ;0)  All of our kids are part of the Hercules House and their house colors are BLUE!  I think I should start shopping for blue hair color and face paint for next year!  Skill and talent is only 1/2 of it - The other 1/2 of it will be made up for with sheer spirit, crazy determination and manic motivation! ;0)

Mel, you shall be our fashionable inspiration for the Hercules House next year!  GOOOO BLUE!!!

David is in the youngest class at the Indus International School.  He and his fellow classmates kicked off the day of games by marching out onto the field with mini-flags in their hands from all the countries of the world.
 David holding his flags while they all line up for their presentation.



David on the far right

They swayed their little flags in time with the music of Michael Jackson doing "We Are The World".  GOOD SONG, might I add! 

David proud to be playing a role in the days events!

Time to watch the big kids do their part!

As the morning moved along the "acts" just got more and more complex and choreographed.  I mean David's class was adorable but they didn't work them too hard.  All they had to do was wave their cute little flags. ;0)

Rachel joined in a special group of primarily 5th and 6th graders doing a synchronised yoga demonstration.  There was a lead little girl that would bark out, "SWITCH" and on command the entire group of probably 50 children would switch to their next yoga position. 


Love that my Piggytail Princess in the back row wasn't too proud to peak out into the crowd and find her Momma! :)


Laying on their bellies - One foot reaching towards the Heavens.

These are some seriously malleable munchkins!!  I am the most inflexible person in the free world and I have no idea where Rachel has gotten her bendable abilities!?  It's a mystery!

Some sort of modified bridge-esque, human tripod yoga move!?

All together now...bottom's UP!  .... AND....
S W I T C H!!!!

Human Eggs?!
Can you tell I don't do yoga!?  I'm sure there are "real" names for all of these poses but I have no idea what they are!



Walking off the field...Full of pride and a sense of accomplishment!

From there all of the PYP children (Primary Years Program) gathered on the field to get into their groups and prepare to do their dance.  In my opinion - This whole process was very "Indian".  If you have ever seen any Indian Bollywood movies or watch them dance - It is ALWAYS synchronised!!  Very country line-dance-ish b/c everyone is doing the same thing.


Here's a 20 second snapshot so you get the idea!

Complete with JAZZ hands!
WOO-HOO!!

If I can figure out how to get the video off my cell phone I will upload that later.  It's giving me all kinds of trouble but the kids started out with a random song I didn't know and then it went into Britney Spears, "Hit Me Baby One More Time".  I'm tellin' ya.  It really was the COOLEST thing.  It was amazing to see all of these kids come together as a team and create a really incredible show!

 
You can see all of the various house colors represented in this photo.  This specific group of children are working together to move these long glittery poles in time with the music.

After they finished their Britney song they all ran off the field and it was time for the games to begin.  They called out the names and age group of which children would be competing against each other.  While the older children did this - David's class participated in some games of their own.

 David and some of his classmates getting ready to race.


Run, David, Run!!


Aw Shucks!  Don't that just warm the cockles of a Mom's heart!?  Mid-stride he's catchin' his Momma's eye. 
LOVE THAT KID!

Starting to get a Wittle-Bit Sweeeeppyy....zzzzz

So proud!


Medals for ALL!!  Even the Mommy!

Managed to find 3 out of the 4 in the midst of the madness!

What a fun-filled day!  I am already looking forward to next year and in case I never get the videos off my cell phone....next year I will make sure to bring my camera so that you can all witness the mass choreography first hand! :)

Sunday 11 December 2011

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

We may not have snow, sledding, or Jack Frost nipping at your nose but people here in Bangalore are getting in the Holiday spirit.  Christmas trees, shiny ornaments and twinkly lights are popping up everywhere.  Local stores are piping in the Holiday tunes (some are recognisable - Others NOT AT ALL!)  My new favourite that absolutely cracks me up every time I hear it at the store goes, "Bonga, Bonga, Bonga, Let's do the Christmas Conga!"  Hahaha!  Does anyone else know this song?  I'd never heard it before moving to India.  I wonder what would happen if I ran up behind one of the patrons in the store and latched onto their hips and started to do the conga?!  I'm not sure if people would share in my enthusiasm but I would love to be doing the Christmas Conga through the produce aisle! 

Bonga Bonga Baby!!!

Last week I attended a Christmas cookie exchange.  How fun to literally be trying cookie recipes from all over the world.  I scored some Hershey Kisses (shocking to find them here in B'dore) so I bit the bullet and paid about $5.00 for a small bag of Kisses (caramel filled, no less) and made Peanut Butter Blossoms!  Shucks.  Those things are so stinking good.  I literally had to have Salomi HIDE them so I didn't eat all 3 dozen of them before the big exchange. 



Yummy Sweet Treats!

Some of us that attended the cookie swap!

The kids have been helping me get the house all decorated as we are going to be travelling for a good portion of the month of December and I didn't want to feel like we didn't get to fully enjoy the Christmas season!

Buddy is Back!

The kids were so tickled that Buddy found his way to India.  His only hiccup was that he got stuck between the window and the window screen and couldn't figure out how to actually get into the house!  SILLY BUDDY!!  Once we rescued Buddy from the window we've found him all over the house!  He's always keeping watch over the kids and reporting back to Santa.

 
Tree Trimmers!

This is the first year since Matt and I have been married (13 years!) that we don't have a real tree.  I gotta say....I'm not missing the pine needle mess at all.  I missed the experience of going out and looking for "The Tree" and I miss the fresh smell but the neatness of it all and not having to worry about whether the tree needs more water etc is REALLY nice!  I got this tree from another member of the Overseas Women's Club (OWC) that wasn't going to be in India over Christmas anymore so she happily sold me hers.  YAY! 

Rachel "The Peaceful" Elf ;0)

Although we brought along a lot of our seasonal decorations - A few things either got left behind or maybe I threw them out at the end of last year and just didn't remember?!  Of course at the time I had NOOOO idea I was going to be moving to India and didn't realize how hard it would be to find certain things here.  Certainly, anything I might have been contemplating throwing away I would/should have saved b/c things here are sketchy at best!  One of the things that I never found was my tree skirt?!  Weird.  So I had to be resourceful and I was pretty proud of myself when I figured out that my sari would make a lovely, sparkly wrap around the trunk of my tree.  That got me in the Indian theme of things and I found some strings of elephants that I turned into garland.  All in all, our tree is shining bright, we've had our traditional cup of wassail for the season and we're all feeling mighty festive around here!

Oh Tannenbaum!  Oh Tannenbaum! 
How Lovely Are Thy Branches!

I nearly had a heart attack when after multiple trips up and down the ladder and very particular placement of MULTIPLE strands of lights, we had a power outage (happens ALL THE TIME) and when everything else came back on - My tree remained BLACK!  My heart was heavy.  How was I going to find lights in India to cover a 10 ft tree?!  The lights you find here do not string together like they do at home.  I would have been lucky to have more than 2-3 strings of lights on the entire tree.  It was a Christmas Miracle b/c the following morning, Matt gave the tree a little shake and a wiggle and although not all of the lights came back on - A good majority did and my heart soared.  I learned from that mistake and now have taken special precautions to prevent a "blackout" on my tree again.  I've got it plugged into a surge protector and a step-down converter.  HOPEFULLY - We'll continue shimmering for the remainder of the season.

Sari-Skirt

Look at those pretty little pachyderms
 hanging on my faux-pine!

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens or maybe your favourite thing is the warm woolen mittens!?  WELL!  One of MY favourite things during this festive season is gingerbread houses.  Love the smell.  Love the creativity they encourage.  Shall we even start with the candy!?!?  I mean it's a Candy Casa for Heaven's Sake!  Does it get any better than that?!  I LOVE IT!  So, you can only imagine the happiness in my heart when we spotted a gingerbread house here recently.   YAY!  And no, not the little ones you bake in your oven.  We are talking a HUGE life size gingerbread joint!!!  The kids were able to walk inside it and it was housing (no pun intended) all sorts of sweets that were available for purchase.  Well!  What do you know!  When we got closer to check it all out - This sucker was actually made of REAL gingerbread!!  HOW NUTS?!  I mean, will it actually survive until Christmas!?  It might?   I mean, when you make a gingerbread house and place it on your kitchen table where everybody nibbles at it and snatches off it's candy cane corners - I mean, if you didn't EAT it...I wonder how long it would survive?!  When we came across this gigantic gingerbread domicile - I resisted my urges and did NOT lick the walls or remove any of the candy creations (David might have...but I didn't!!)  Haha!!

Genuine Gingerbread!

Seriously.  Is that crazy or what?!  Look at the shingles!  Those are individual "pancake" shaped pieces of gingerbread.  I'm in awe - Haha!!  Just goes to show ya - You absolutely NEVER know what you will see in India!

xo   Merry Christmas Everybody!!! xo

Tuesday 6 December 2011

Gobble-Palooza!

In the days leading up to Thanksgiving I was able to attend a cooking demo with a bunch of other ex-pat women at one of the local restaurants.  They showed us how to make Sweet Potato Casserole, Honey Glazed Chicken and Pumpkin Pie.  The Sweet Potato Casserole was the most scrumpdidliumptious thing I've ever eaten.  Very different from a US SPC (United States Sweet Potato Casserole).  No toasty little marshmallows on top (I mean naturally, at home that's the one and ONLY reason I ever take a scoop of SPC.  Other than that - It falls into the "nasty" category and there are too many other tasty treats to squeeze onto my plate than to be bothered with SPC).  The SP you find here in B'lore is also not bright orange on the inside it's yellow in color.  So it's a bit strange when you taste it and it's definitely sweet potato but it doesn't look like a SP at all!  SO!  The SPC's winning ingredient - NUTS!  There was the most amazing nut crumble combination that was sprinkled on top:  butter, brown sugar, walnuts...I don't remember what else, after all, let's face it - I wasn't really there to learn how to cook anything I was just there to EAT IT UP!  Hahah!  In fact, at one point, Chef Jean Michael (from France) called me out in front of the crowd and said, "Ingredients!?"  and I said, "Oh, Shoot!  We're being tested?!"  to which he replied, "FAIL!"  Crap!  I think he officially flunked me out of French cooking class!?  Haha!  His accent made the whole experience even more fun.  I felt like I was on the movie set of Ratatouille!

  Everyone paying close attention

Then he taught us how to make a honey glazed chicken.  Supposedly, we were going to be having some sort of turkey demo but apparently the turkey hadn't arrived yet and so they had to substitute the turkey for his feathered friend the chicken instead.

Man oh man!  I didn't realize how many things in America are either processed, come in a can or are pre-packaged until I moved to India.  In India, if you want something - You have to MAKE it...FRESH!  No poppin' a can and floppin' it into the bowl.  Which brings me to our pumpkin pie demo.  No can of Libby was dumped into the bowl.  He cooked the pumpkin and made it the old fashioned way.

"Visking" the cooked pumpkin and spices!

Voila!  All done!!

Although we weren't in the good 'ole US of A for Thanksgiving - We were certainly counting our blessing and weren't at a loss for enjoying good food and great company.  It was of course, very different from home.  Not all things that are different are bad nor are all things that are different good.  We had a little mix of the good, the bad and the ugly! ;0)  Since Thanksgiving fell on a Thursday this year we ended up not really doing anything on the "official" Thanksgiving Day.  Matt had to work.  The kids had school.  We pretty much went on with life like any other day although the calendar clearly read, "Thanksgiving Day."  Our celebrating took place on the following two days! 

So the GOOD part of our Thanksgiving celebrating is that we were able to get together with some really amazing people.  Most of the people that we were celebrating with were Americans (SHOCKING, I know!  hahaha!)  Or at least one spouse would be American and their counterpart might be a different nationality but we all shared some sort of common American thread.

On Friday evening, our friends, Chuck and Lisa, opened their house to a slew of turkey eating maniacs!  Chuck and Lisa have two children, Calvin and Katie.  I think the final tally at their American Thanksgiving Feast ended up being 17 adults and 20 kids! 

Kids Were Served First

 Rachel and her friends, Gabby and Sofie, from California

 Erica and her friends, Ella and Sacia, from Minnesota!


The Boys hanging out on the couch


Lisa's son, Calvin, playing his ukulele (he's actually REALLY good at it!)

One of my favourite moments of the night was when a bunch of the kids gathered around Lisa's piano and started jamming.  Calvin plays a fantastic version of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin' " I told him once we get our piano he's got to come over and teach me how to play that song!  (I'm not kiddin' Calvin - I WILL learn how to play that song before I leave India...I've got THREE years to master it!  Haha!)

The Hostess with the Mostess, Lisa!


Adults turn to fill their plates


Some of us ladies (and little Daver-Doo) paused to pose!

Desserts! 

While the adults ate, the kids kept busy making some Thanksgiving themed crafts and watching The Grinch That Stole Christmas.


The kids descended like flies when the "Dessert" announcement was made.


Joan and I servin' it up! :0)


Girl after my own heart.  Here's our Erica.  Long after the dust has settled and the other children have moved on to other activities - She continues to eat dessert to her little heart's content!  Alone.  Savouring every last morsel.

Not all of the kids (but most of them) stopped playing "Torch Tag" long enough to line-up for a quick photo.
While the parents were inside scratching their bellies and wondering why they allowed themselves to eat soooo much food the kids wrapped up their night with a game of "torch tag".  In India a "torch" is a flashlight! ;0)  Good thing Chuck and Lisa don't live too far from us because I don't know if the kids would have been able to make the walk home.  They were so tired and although I was feeling tired too - God only knows I NEEDED the exercise!

After a night of gluttony we wake up the next morning and do it all AGAIN!  It's Gobble-Palooza!  This time at our house!  I bought two turkeys.  Partly because the turkeys you can get here are SMALL compared to the US - Only about 10lbs BUT unlike the bargains you can find at the local super markets at home - In B'lore - They know they've got the ex-pat community by the....hmmm...how shall we say it nicely!?!?....By the "turkey feathers" ;0) and so they jack the prices so you end up paying anywhere from $50-$80 for your wimpy 10lb gobbler.  I wasn't sure if I was actually going to be able to find a turkey here in Bangalore so when I saw some frozen turkeys in one of the local markets - I figured I'd better grab one.  I later found the familiar "Butterball" and so that's what led me to buy two turkeys.  In case the local bird turned out to be a buzzard - I had the recognisable Butterball to fall back on!  Thank God I listened to that sweet, small voice inside my head that said, "Buy the Butterball" b/c I had no idea just how "farm fresh" our local bird was until Matt brought it into the kitchen on roasting day.  The local bird - Well, let's just say, when we took him out of the bag - We had a little surprise on our hands....


What a pretty poultry profile! (Ew! Ew! Ew!)


Oh yah.  We got more than we bargained for!  No nice little tidy bag of "treasures" inside the bird like you find stashed in the bird cavity of a Butterball.  Newp.  Those "treasures" are all still ATTACHED!!  Head, neck and all.  I guess I should be thankful there were no disgusting FEET to remove!?

David was very curious.  He kept saying, "Where him heart?!"

I had to "shoo" David out of the kitchen so Matt could get to "work" on the 'ole boy.


Not sure but thinking it might be "Turkey Manhood?!"

Luckily, just days earlier, Claudius was telling me about how years ago he used to work at a chicken/mutton stall.  Which is basically, a place that slaughters chicken and mutton and sells it "fresh" to the locals.  SO!  The Claud was all over this Au Naturel Bird.  He told Matt he knew how to get rid of the left over feather particles that were still attached to the bird....

Claudius and Matt on Feather Removal Detail  :-D


When the outdoor "rolled up-burning newspaper" method didn't reach his Chicken Stall standards - He decided to bring his unconventional ways indoors!!! ....  One last attempt to singe off any remaining feather fibers!

We determined at this point that the "local bird" would be a fried bird and we would cook him outdoors in Matt's big propane operated pot.  We brought that with us from the US but the Indian propane tanks do not use the same fittings as the US tanks so Claudius had to rig that up for us too.  It was SHADY to say the least!  Matt and Claudius were using electrical tape to make sure there were no air bubbles and that there wasn't any gas leaking through the tube.  When the moment of truth came to light the tank - Matt stepped back and said, "Take it Away, Claudius!"  Then we all said a prayer of Thanksgiving that God spared Claudius life as he lit the match and held it to the propane tank!  (I gotta say, "Claudius is the REAL Slim Shady!)  That was some crazy shenanigans but he got it working.  Meanwhile, my Butterball Boy that was starting to make the kitchen smell FAB-U-LOUS came to a grinding HALT!  The power went off and hence....no OVEN!  India.  India.  Always an adventure.  SO!  Instead of just frying the Buzzard - We ended up frying the Butterball too.



Bye-Bye Birdie!  Time for your Bath....Oil Bath, that is!


Michael's Finnish friend, Arttu, after hearing the menu - Decided he'd like to stay for lunch!

So the buzzard bird tasted like buzzard.  Tough.  Dry.  Ghetto.  The Butterball was moist and flavorful and we were very thankful to have the two birds.  David happily ate his Buzzard Leg and thought it was Great!  (hehehe!)  Michael's favourite was the stuffing and Artu's favourite was the mashed potatoes and cheesy bean casserole.  Erica liked the freshly baked rolls, Matt enjoyed the broccoli salad, Mac like the Cranberry Relish, Steve enjoyed Matt's gravy but wasn't a fan of the cheese sauce.  If Rachel had her way she would probably boycott Thanksgiving all together due to the food selections.  She's not much of a turkey or potato person.  I LOVED it all.  A day to eat.  How joyous!?


The girls joined us at the "Adult Table"

After we let our food settle, we retired to the living room to watch the Patriots on the Slingbox as we sipped Wassail and ate toffee bars and Apple Pecan Upside Down Pie.  The kids did not sit idol for long - They were out jumping on the trampoline within minutes of finishing their food.  (Dry heaving just thinking about it!)

It was definitely strange to be so far away from our friends and family in the US over Thanksgiving but as we set time aside and celebrated in India we spent time reflecting on our blessings and the wonderful people God has brought into our lives.  Home and Away - God has been good and We are so very thankful!
xo Jenny from The B'Block xo


Look at that Bird Brain (not the big one - the little one!)