Goodbye, September

Anyone who works in education - at any level - knows that one does not ease into a new school year. Instead, our year starts at the very top of the roller coaster (that last week of summer vacation is when we hear the click-click-click, going up the steep incline in the tracks) and September a really, really crazy month. It is always an important milestone in the year to flip the calendar to October. And when schools begins August 8th, September is a particularly looong month.

But October is just about here. The weather has recently changed for the better in Delhi. The monsoon rains have stopped, the humidity has decreased, morning temperatures are a bit cooler, and the sun shines all day. Soon the social calendar and travels will pick up again. We have a lot planned over the next three months.
 
So, what have we been up to during Delhi-bound August and September?
 
The boys have made a smooth transition into new classes with new teachers. Asa is loving first grade and has sixteen really nice classmates from all over the world (a few of them he knew from kindergarten). He is taking off in reading and also very excited about math and art. Jonah and I take turns picking him up from school each day (and then returning back to work) which is one of the wonderful benefits of living on campus. As a first grader Asa now has many options for after school activities and he chose the digital camera class on Tuesdays and karate on Thursdays. On Monday evenings, he is part of a soccer clinic across the street at the British School that is run by a Brit who used to play professionally. It's really fun for the kids - drills and a scrimmage, not too intense or competitive. He finishes the hour dirty, sweaty, and exhausted.

Liam is in the Early Childhood class at AES which runs from 8:30-11:30am each day. It's great to have him attending school on campus this year. His favorite class activities are the costumes and science experiments while afternoons are filled with play dates, running around outside, and the very occasional nap. We try to make it home for lunch with Liam once a week and most of that time is spent listening to him try to persuade us to stay home for the rest of the day.

On Saturday mornings, we spend some time at the elementary school library before Swim School lessons at 10:30. The classes are taught by high school students and it is really nice to see them interacting with our kids. It is also a great place to recruit babysitters.

As far as the adults in our family, we quickly got settled back into the work routine and are already into the eighth week of classes. Outside the school day, Jonah has been running or biking a few mornings a week with a devoted group of early risers. I joined the group last Wednesday for the first time and hope to make it a weekly outing (once my very sore muscles recover). Jogging through the surrounding neighborhoods at 6:00am is truly a unique experience (and the makings for a future blog post).
 
This year, under the leadership and guidance of a colleague and fellow campus dweller, AES has its first community garden.

Our plot is not much at the moment (but it's actually better than the photo indicates), but now that the rains have stopped, we will soon be ready to plant the seeds we bought in Maine over the summer. We are excited for this project but it feels very, very strange to be planting a garden in the fall.
 
And finally, the four of us have been cast in this year's faculty production of Beauty and the Beast. Rehearsals are once or twice a week and the show goes up at the end of January.

So that's life in India right now. It is full and it is fun. In so many ways, it's a lot like life in any American town (except that we do all of these activities without getting into a car!). And now that we are just about through the screaming rush of (August and) September, it's time to get into the groove and enjoy the rest of the ride that is the school year.