Hello, February

I'm so glad it's February and Monday all in one. For one, January seemed to absolutely crawl by. After spending so much time with the other volunteers in December, it made it more difficult to enter back into my sites and reengage. And I'm glad it's Monday because I missed my idli yesterday, as we had to go to a different hotel since our favorite is closed on Sundays. But today, I'll be having my idli and chutney.

This week itself is fairly exciting for a few reasons. The first is I'll be visiting two new schools Tuesday that I may be teaching at from now on. One is an all girls school and the other is a connected all boys school, both of which cater to lower income families. I believe they are Malayalam medium schools - meaning the classes are taught in Malayalam instead of English- so, that's a bit intimidating as I'll have my work cut out for me.

Thursday I have my long-coming seminary interview. Last year, when I finally visited the seminary officially, they offered interviews to all the visitors, but being John, I didn't like not being mentally prepared, so I told them "no thanks". Now they're having to foot the bill to call India... I guess that wasn't very considerate of me. I'm really looking forward to this interview as it is the last of my application requirements; after Thursday night, all I have to do is wait. That should be fun.

As far as seminary in general, I'm so glad that I waited. If I hadn't become a YAV, I would most likely be in seminary right now. It probably wouldn't have been bad for me at all, but I would have been going almost by default; last year I certainly wanted to go to seminary, but not to the same degree that I do now. Right before I came to India, I had a conversation with my Campus Minister about how I thought I didn't want to go to seminary, which I think was a healthy stage to work through. However, since living through the last five months, I'm dying to go to seminary and explore the truck load of questions and spattering of realizations I've picked up along the way. Naturally, I feel the next three years will be much richer on the heels of this year's experience.

In other news, it looks like the only first-year will be moving out of PG Hostel this week, as it is rumored to be closing before next year. I understand that he wants to move sooner than later, but I will miss him. It will also be pretty lonely down here in the forest - it's pretty overgrown - once the second-years complete their courses this summer and go off to their homes. I'll survive and it will provide an opportunity to visit the house he will be living in with four other men.

Finally, I've put a few pictures that actually have me in them, as they were taken by another American that visited my sites with me. So, now you know I'm actually here.