Until It's Gone, Or, How I Learned of My Intense Love of Philadelphia Cream Cheese

Something that has greatly improved the quality of life in my little one-room apartment is the presence of a toaster, some brown bread, and some Philadelphia Cream Cheese. It's amazing how these little things can make a space more comforting and more inclined to hosting. Here's a photo of my first official "partay" in my studio:

Despite the fact that there are no people in this picture,
please know that I didn't just have a "partay" alone with my cream cheese.
I had a friend over, I promise.

Now, I will freely admit that I thought I didn't need Philadelphia Cream Cheese. In fact, I hadn't even thought of Philly CC for the past 6 weeks, what with all the teaching and living and Indian eating that I was doing. It was only last weekend, when I was cooking at a friend's house, that I realized my devotion to this spreadable cheese.

I was invited to a friend's house to make some dinner. We decided to do something pretty simple, but, as it happens in India, something simple turns into a full afternoon of realizing we didn't have the proper utensils, the appropriate vessels for our food, and feverishly googling recipes to try and throw something together. My friend calls it "gorilla cooking". It went marvelously in the end; I was the primary orchestrater of a 6-person meal consisting of chicken chili (with tomatoes boiled and skinned from scratch), a brownie/lava cake dessert with feta cheese on top (sounds weird, but I'll explain it later), and chai.

So this brownie/lava cake. Earlier in the afternoon, my friend and I were planning on making a cucumber salad with feta crumbled on top. Sounds delicious. We eagerly opened the feta packaging to find, not crumbly, salty, tangy cheese from the Mediterranean, but a soft, spreadable, intensely salty cheese without clear origin. Confused, we read the label and it did indeed proclaim that this cheese was feta. We knew better, however, and set about devising a new plan for it. We couldn't just spread the cheese on top of something; my friend's children are notoriously finicky eaters and would spit it out as soon as look at it. We had to somehow combine it with something. But what?

Thinking of her last grocery delivery, my friend realized that she had a large bag of chocolate chips and some baking supplies. We could put the salty cheese in a brownie! It would be like a super fancy dessert that combines chocolate and salt in a really sophisticated way, and couldn't possibly go wrong. We ran over to her laptop and googled from-scratch brownie recipes. Alas, they all seemed to require cocoa. Finally, we found one that used chocolate chips! It was perfect. We raced back to the kitchen to see what we could do.

At that point, one of my friend's children was waking up from a nap and needed her full attention. Shortly after that, two neighbors came by to join us for dinner. Overwhelmed with hosting and childcare, I was left to my own devices in the kitchen. Using only 3 pots and a dwindling supply of utensils, I mixed the chili, whipped up the brownie batter, poured it into a round cake pan, spooned the cheese into the batter, and used a knife to create swirls of salty goodness in the oh-so-chocolately batter. I popped it in the oven (right after taking out the toasted bread to go with the chilli), and waited.

Dinner was a success! A dinner for six, prepared and delivered with (relative) panache. I found I was totally exhilarated with my ability to create delicious things from such difficult conditions, and my cooking confidence has gone through the roof. After dinner, I made up my first unaided batch of chai, and it wasn't terrible!

That was a couple weekends ago. Just this last weekend, I made eggplant parmesan and green bean pasta with two friends, and then made mushroom risotto and gluten free brownies at someone else's house the next day! It was a beautiful 24 hours of good food, good friends, and much wine. I've had a wonderful time in the kitchens of Mussoorie, and I know that, if I can do it here, I can do it anywhere.

Gearing up!

The monsoon is over. The air is no longer murky with clouds (most of the time), and the rain comes only in nighttime thunderstorms or in occasional afternoon shower. I'm not sure how everyone else feels, but I know that a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. The sun is out consistently, especially in the morning, and if it stays out in the afternoon, I can watch the sun go down from my balcony. I feel like I have the best spot on the mountain to watch the sunset.

In other exciting news, a second student teacher has arrived! Faith arrived a couple weeks ago, most recently from Vancouver. She spent the summer working for Missoula Children's Theatre, which I was totally excited about, because I participated in MCT for many of my elementary and middle school years. She arrived just in time to work the auditions for the spring musical, Urinetown. The auditions were great fun, and there's a wonderful cast ready to go for the spring semester.

It's hard to believe that I've been here at Woodstock for 9 weeks already! My student teaching has been going quite well; my supervising teacher is incredibly supportive of my growth, and I'm just itching to get into my own classroom next year. I'm already starting to look at international schools in a variety of countries, and I'm sending in applications and registering for recruiting fairs. I'm exhilarated by the possibilities ahead of me, but I'm also terrified.

In the nearer future (i.e., a week and a half from now), I'll be heading out for Activity Week. Activity Week at Woodstock means different things for different grades, but for me, and for the 10th grade, it means a 5-day trek in the Himalaya! I know that many of the students on the trip- well, mostly the girls- are less than enthused about the lack of showering and the bathroom situation, but I can't wait! I've been waiting to see the snow peaks of the Himalaya, and I've heard that our particular trip is beautiful.

Then, if it could get anymore exciting, I'll be taking my first solo trip in India the week afterwards! Quarter break falls immediately after Activity Week, so, after a return bus ride, a quick shower, and a repack, I'll head down the mountain and hop on a train to Varanasi! Varanasi is one of the oldest and holiest cities in India, and I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to visit a place where, as Geoffrey Moorhouse says, "superlatives are as much in order as adjectives anywhere else." I'll be there for four days before heading back to campus for parent teacher conferences. I'll post more details about my itinerary as the date gets a little closer, but suffice to to say that I have train tickets and I'm booking my hotel tomorrow! I am so excited to explore India on my own for a little while, and I'm thinking of this trip as my "test drive" for my month of traveling November.

So this life thing. Pretty crazy, no?

Sunshine in the Monsoon

Clouds roll across the sky, many and varied. A troupe of them rush up the mountain, swift and unwelcome. They chill my exposed skin as they settle on the mountain, isolating me from the rest of the world. Julia and I put our sunglasses up on our foreheads and frown at the sudden change in weather. We were out on our balcony to soak up the rare monsoon sun, armed with living room chairs, a bowl of cornflakes, and a book. Soon enough, though, the settled clouds fade as capriciously as they came, and the sun once again shines.

As I scan the skyline, I can see mountains of potential precipitation, gliding smoothly across the sky like giants, solid-seeming monoliths that, in their moving, blot out the sun with their mass of moisture. The weather here is as hard to anticipate as a teenager's mood. Below me, I hear the traffic of the mountain, the honks and screeches of vehicles and the squeals of school children walking home. Slowly, the sky brightens and the light intensifies as the sun makes a welcome, worshipped appearance from the shade of a cloud giant. I sit in my chair and sip chai from a ceramic cup. Warmed internally by the spicy beverage and externally by the sunlight, I am reminded of how easy it is to feel betrayed by the clouds, and again, how easy it is to feel brightened and warmed by the sun. I am reminded of how blessed I am. These miraculous opportunities and beautiful experiences can sometimes be overshadowed by clouds. I must remember that the sun is always present and ready to warm me with a reminder.

Happy Teacher's Day!

It's Teacher's Day here in India! Apparently it's quite a big deal in the Junior School. I didn't know it existed until this morning at assembly when the Head of Junior School called all the teachers up to the front and we got a resounding round of applause from the students. Super cute. I even got a couple cards! It made me feel great that the students consider me as much of a teacher as the permanent teachers on staff.

Speaking of student gifts: yesterday, as I was warming up in the choir classroom and preparing for the upcoming rehearsal, three brothers in the Junior School came in, wondering what I was doing. They hung out for a little bit, chatting, while I casually played some piano. The youngest of the three, a bespectacled kindergartener with shorts pulled up a little too high on his waist, suddenly remembered that he had something for me! He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of white rock, which he proudly handed to me. I thanked him for his gift and he grinned and ran out the door. Upon closer examination, the rock was actually quite pretty (although it was pretty dirty as well). At first, I didn't know what I was going to do with a rock, but then I realized that it was the first gift I had ever received as a teacher. It now has a place on my desk next to my calendar, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep it for good.

It's been a pretty wonderful week.