Planes, Trains, Automobiles and Buses

Well, yesterday was a nutty day.  We were up at the crack of dawn so we could catch a flight up to Shimla in northern India.  Shimla is located in the lower 1/3 of the Himalayan Mountain Range.  Although it’s practically at 7,000 feet, these mountains are considered the foothills of the Himalayas.  Anyway, our flight got cancelled.  We had to fly into Chandigarh, which is 100 km. away and then take a bus up to Shimla.  The bus ride was an additional 4 hours, but it was worth it because we got to see the climb up toward the mountains.  The bottomline is that we didn’t get into Shimla until 8:30 p.m.  I was EXHAUSTED.    Our reward was seeing this beautiful sunset over the mountains.

Shimla has an interesting history. It was founded by the British during the 1800’s as a getaway retreat from the heat of Delhi.  If you want to know more I’ve attached a link.  Shimla Link: Click here  It is one of the four most densely populated areas in the world, as you can see from the picture below.  It can also boast of having a beautiful, giant cedar population.  You can probably spot some in the picture.  They sort of looked like pines to me.

On the 8^th of July, we visited two boarding schools.  The first was an all boys boarding school named Bishop Cotton School.  It was founded in 1859.  It is expensive as you can well imagine, comparable to those in the states.  The headmaster was quite an interesting fellow.  He had a very grand voice and a commanding presence.  You may spot him on some of the pictures I’ve uploaded to my flicker photostream.  Their mess hall was like seeing a Harry Potter mess hall, but on a smaller scale.

 The other boarding school was a public all girls school, Government Senior Secondary School-Portmore.  Although not all of their students sleep there, the ones that do come from remote villages higher up in the Himalayas that don’t have easy access to a local school. Their staff reminded me of the staff at our school.  They were we welcoming, full of questions and eager to show off their students.  The picture below was taken on their gym court.  Their girls also performed a traditional Himachal Pradesh dance and song.  I will also upload pictures on the flicker photostream.

Today, the 9^th, we also visited another government (public) school.  I almost don’t want to say anything because I think the pictures say it all.  I will say that the spirit of teachers is the same.  They give all they have under all kinds of conditions.  The first two pictures below are of a preschool we visited.  This concept of "preschool" is new to the Indian educational system.  

These were the older kids from the same school checking themselves out on Andi's camera.  Some things are universal.