but we only just got here!

So our summer of teaching has come to an end. We taught at our last school yesterday (I don't know about the other teaching groups, but Abeshiek and I went our with a bang...I don't think that class will ever forget us...)

On Friday we had a day of closing ceremony stuff. It was really just a chance to start saying goodbyes to our counterparts and in-country staff. We met for lunch at a small byraini place near the beach and then went to go play cricket.

[Just to give you an idea about cricket: it is a near-obsession here in India and people take their cricket very seriously and watch it religiously. It's like watching European football, or... Ohio State fans.

Us Americans thought we were just going to play a few rounds, hit the wicket and call it a day. But Alwin and Louis had other plans...which included teams, bowler rotation and score keeping. It was a little complicated to pick up at first (apparently official games can last many hours because teams can play to 60 points or more), but eventually I think we understood the gist of the game. It reminded me of my high school fastpitch softball days. However my team stuck me in left field...or the equivalent of left field. Do they even have fielding positions in cricket? All the kids whose families are from India (or the UK for that matter) seemed to know what they were doing. It took the rest of us a little longer to figure it out.

We had two teams; Brown Town and The Lilly White Crew. I'll give you two guesses as to which team I was on. :) [Alwin teaching Jason to swing. Harder than it looks...]

After we were comfortable with bowling, wicket hitting and swinging the paddle (it is called a paddle? Clearly I wasn't paying enough attention) we had a lot of fun. Like most things we have done in India, we drew a small crowd of locals who wanted to watch us play. I imagine it would be something like sitting at a park and watching a bunch of Indians and foreign white people trying to teach each other how to play basketball.

After cricket lessons, we went back to CSI for the viewing of the summer slide show. A compilation of pictures from the entire summer covering everything we had done; teaching, partying, traveling. It was then, that I started to get emotional about leaving. I know that I want to go home to see my family (I haven't seen them since Christmas) but I know I don't want to leave this incredible place. This place full of anomalies and adventure and new best friends. It feels like we only just got here!! I really can't write any more on that topic for now...too early to get emotional.

Anyway, after slideshow we got ready to go out for dinner with the whole group. This would be our last dinner with all the students, counterparts, and Indian staff. Us girls were stoked about going to a nice restaurant, this means we actually have a legit chance to wear our fancy Indian clothes!

We went to a very special place for dinner that was picked out by Sanjay in advance - A Barbecue place. That's right. Our last formal meal in Chennai and we go get BBQ. It was actually pretty cool, the servers put meat and fish and veggies on little kebabs at your tables. Plus there was a buffet. Like most other buffet places here in Chennai, Indians can grossly underestimate how much us American college students can eat.

During dinner, some final speeches were made and we gave gifts to our in-country staff who has worked so hard this summer. This includes Seema, our adopted mother, Louis, who makes sure we get places on time yet can never be on time himself, and Alwin, who spends countless hours in the IAPA office taking care of all those details with the schools.

After dinner, the group decided to end the evening by hitting up a nightclub. We chose to be sentimental for our last night of partying. GRT Grand is where we went out the very first weekend we were in Chennai, and now it's the final place we went out.

About nightlife in Chennai; well, it's not great. This isn't Bombay after all. Alcohol here is strictly regulated by the government. I heard someone say that by law, any place that serves booze must have rooms for people to sleep on the premises. This is why most bars/nightclubs are in the big fancy hotels. Also, the nicer bars only permit couples to enter, groups of men cannot come in unless there are women with them. There are only about five decent clubs in town and we saw them all.
Our group has "experienced the nightlife" so frequently over the course of the summer that our picture is actually on the wall at a bar near our end of town.

[The picture that will forever be on the wall of Zaras. IT'S LAMINATED!]

Our final night of clubbin' was a very sentimental one. Like I said, we went to GRT's (no one knows what it stands for) and many of our counterparts and staff came with us. Louis and Seema actually made it out to the dance floor and boogied with us a couple times.

We had an amazing time, and the evening prepared us to start saying our goodbyes. It also prompted me to start a list of all the things I am going to miss about India when I get back to the states.

1. first of all, everything is cheaper here. if i didn't explain it earlier, we get 42 rupees to the dollar and have the power to bargain for just about anything and everything you purchase

2. mangoes 24/7

3. walking in to a nightclub/restaurant/elementary school/bus station/market and getting every ones attention based solely on my skin color

4. rooming with Deepa and Lila (those two are the best:)

5. train rides

6. cows all over the streets (which reminds me to add something to my list of things I won't miss...cow s**! all over the streets)

7. tea breaks

8. Kingfisher

9. DOOM MACHALE! (google it)

10. And finally, I am going to miss all the students who are now
my new best friends and all the staff who worked so hard to make sure that we had the time of our lives this summer. Which we did.

more later (tear)

-S