Ev Star

I am currently sitting at Coffee.com, an internet cafe in Pondicherry.  5 volunteers, 1 teacher and maddy and I decided to rent a van for the weekend and come visit this French seaside town.  The ride was not the most comfortable (there were 3 of us squished in the very back seat with no leg room whatsoever, there were HUGE potholes all over the place that caused the VAN to bottom out a number of times, and there were buses driving in the wrong lane (aka head-on crash pending at all times).  We made it none-the-less.  We first dropped off the retired couple from Montreal (Jacques and Micheline) at their place and then the next stop was the place mad and I were to stay at.  Unfortunately, though we had reserved a room a week in advance and then called to confirm before embarking on our drive to Pondicherry, there was no room for us.  It was 10pm.  Our van had left, we were hot, tired and had all our stuff with us.  We argued for a while and finally got a single room and did not have to pay the extra fee they wanted to charge us to put a spare mattress on the floor (with no pillow or blanket).  It was stressful and irritating, so we think that next time we make a reservation we will ask what our room number is and maybe also ask for the name of the person who we are speaking with.  It’s really not fun to arrive in a new place at night time and not have a room to stay in.   

Anyway, today has been nice, we walked from our hostel to a restaurant for breakfast, then we walked through a few of the streets of Pondicherry and found this internet place and now we are about to embark on a heritage walk of the city.  I’m excited to walk on the beach!!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention.  At school I am co-teaching the 3rd grade with Bernadette (or Miss Berni as she is called).  The kids are super cute and VERY eager to learn!  They call mad and I Miss Maddy and Miss Evy.  It’s kind of funny!  Maddy is teaching classes in the 6th, 7th and 8th grades.  I have also been reading bedtime stories to the preschool kids.  They are very very cute! 

A funny story from my classroom, Miss Berni was teaching the students about renewable and non-renewable resources and how the school uses solar energy and that if we use up non-renewable resources there won’t be any left.  The kids thought about it for a while and then were like “but it’s ok, god will make more!”.  They were pretty pleased with their realization.  Ms. Berni, slightly flustered, told them, “well yes, god will make more, but it will still take him millions and millions of years”.  It was pretty funny.

That’s about it for now!

xo Ev