R.E.LEE-India

Evan's Tenth Birthday!

2012-01-28T14:39:00.002+05:30

by HouseBoy

Evan celebrated his birthday this past weekend - it was BIG number ten, and was the fourth time we organized birthday festivities for him here in India! We managed to pull together a whole weekend of activities with some of his best friends. Audrey and two of her good friends helped out with some of the activities.

Everything kicked off with a big sleepover. Two of Evan's buddies, Louis and Dylan came over for the night. Audrey and her friend Emma joined in the fun as well. The girls were a huge help - they baked a cake, wrapped gifts, made cards and went on several trips to our local market for snacks and supplies! Our local rickshaw driver was a very happy guy, because the girls used him several times throughout the day to haul their many bags of goodies. The evening ended with a movie and the new FIFA 12 game on the Wii.

Day two took us to a Sports Restaurant called Underdoggs in one of the swanky malls located in Visant Kunj. The party kicked off before noon. Nine kids had the place to themselves until the lunch crowd started rolling in. Underdoggs is full of games - table tennis, pool, darts, foosball, shuffleboard, carem, video games (wii, ps3 and xbox) and, the unforgettable "sumo" wrestling.

As with many things in India, safety is not always the first consideration - Sumo wrestling was conveniently set up next to the dart boards, alongside a floor-to-ceiling length plate-glass divider. To compensate, we strategically placed parents to keep kids from smashing into walls and getting poked by flying darts.

There were no injuries, and the kids looked hilarious, in their foam, latex and Velcro suits. Think "Michelin Man meets Sumo Wrestler" costumes. There was more bouncing, flopping and tumbling than actual wrestling. But everyone had wide smiles!

The party ended with double chocolate cake from our favorite bakery - Red Moon and plenty of snacks (some of which were accidentally raided by boys from an adjacent birthday party...)

It was Monday morning, after the dust had settled. The kids were getting ready to head off to the morning bus and school. Evan's face got very serious and then he smiled: "I had a really good weekend. I think that was the best birthday party I've ever had!"

The Killing Fields

2012-01-13T11:09:00.001+05:30

by Audrey Sayer

In Cambodia, "the Killing Fields" are a sad, but special place. Lots of people go there every day. Some to pray, some to honor the people who died, and some just to learn about it.

There are many killing fields in Cambodia, but the biggest one is outside of Phnom Penh. This is its story:
In the 1970's the leader of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, killed over 70,0000 people in this place because they were smart enough to know what he was doing was wrong. His soldiers dug pits to put the dead or almost-dead people in. The killed men, women and children - even babies. Across the country over 2,000,000 people died like this.

Today there is a memorial filled with human skulls to remind people that killing your own kind for no reason is inhuman, and unforgivable. Now the Killing Fields are peaceful and sad places. The ground there still remembers...

Cambodia is not the only country where this happened... it is all over the world. We must not kill for power.

The Land Mine Museum

2012-01-11T17:59:00.001+05:30

by Evan Sayer

We went to the Land Mine museum in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It is near Angkor Wat, which is a famous Temple complex.

Here's the history of the museum:

In 1999 a man named, Aki Ra founded the museum on a small dirt road near Angkor Wat. He had been a child soldier with the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. He created the museum out of straw huts to protect the deactivated explosives from war. Aki Ra started de-mining in 1995. He has dug up thousands of these. He opened a new museum in April, 2007.

Aki Ra did this because he said "I want to make my country safe for my people."

This is very important because many people are hurt each year by old land mines. There are now 100,000,000 unexploded land mines in the world! 5,000,000 of them are still in the ground in Cambodia.

The museum tells people that life is hard (especially when there are land mines in the ground!)

Music Class

2011-12-16T23:06:00.000+05:30

by HouseBoy

I got the chance to visit Evan and Audrey in their music class recently... It was great fun. Evan is working with Taiko Drums and learning about rhythms and beats and drumming styles.

Audrey is working with different percussion instruments including a xylophone and a glockenspiel.

Her teacher is great... she manages to incorporate Indian elements into each of her lessons. Audrey has been learning the Gujarati dance called, Dandiya Raas. The dance uses sticks and two opposing circles (one of men and one of women). Very fun and very animated and goes great with Bollywood music!

Both of the kids gave the parents a little performance and then we were brought into the music as well. I tried out my skills playing the bass xylophone while the kids sang and played conga drums...

Me & My Grandma Watching TV Together

2011-12-03T10:43:00.000+05:30

Non-Fiction
by Evan Sayer

We started at my Grandma's house. We were driving to my Aunt's house.

Later...

I looked around. We were still on the highway.
"How many more hours?" I moaned.
"About two and a half," answered my Dad.

Two and a half hours later...

Finally I opened the car door and took a deep breath: "Aaahhh!" Fresh afternoon air I thought as I walked up the stars to the front porch.
"Don't forget your backpack!" my Dad yelled after me.
"I won't!" I yelled back.

Three hours later...

Later that night as I walked down the stairs I smelled the smell of juicy roast turkey.
"Mmmm!" I said smiling. Then I saw it, a large juicy roast turkey.
"How long until we watch our show?" I asked.
"Oh yeah!" remembered my sister.
"Twenty minutes," answered my Grandma.

Fifteen minutes later...

As I walk into the living room I smell the carrot cake. "Mmmm!" I say.
"It's time!" my Grandma says.
"For what?" I ask.
"For AGT," answers my Grandma.
"What's AGT?" I ask.
"America's Got Talent!" answers my Grandma.

Five minutes later...

I sit down on the couch with a plate and a fork. My mouth waters as I look at the cake. "BLING!" The TV turns on. My Grandma flips through the channels.
"Where is it?" asks my sister.
"Don't ask me," I say.

Thirty seconds later...

"We're never going to find it!" my sister cries.
"There!" I say.
"Yes!" shouts my sister.
"Shhh!" whispers my aunt.
"Sorry," my sister says.
"Shut up and watch the show!" I say.
"Watch your mouth, Honey!" says my Mom as the TV blared.
"Shush!" says my sister.
"WAAAAA!" cries baby Che.
"Argh!" I moan.

"Bom! Bom! Bom! Bom! Bom! Bom! Bom!!!!!!!" blared the AGT music.

Grandma Rides Bareback

2011-11-21T12:16:00.001+05:30

Our Grandma rode Champa the elephant bareback! Early one morning our Dad took her down to where the elephants and their Mahouts live by the Yamuna River. She was a little nervous, because one of her legs is injured, but Grandma wanted to give it a try.

The mahouts helped Grandma up on Champa's back. They made her step up into a wedding carriage so she would be higher off the ground. Then one of them used his hands to give her a boost. Grandma had a big grin on her face when she landed with a "plop" way up on top of Champa! Riding bareback is nothing like riding an elephant in a passenger box. You feel the elephant's spine and ribs move as she ambles along from side to side. The elephant's skin is warm and rough.You can feel her breathing.

Of course, the Mahout had to take an important cell-phone call while he was driving Champa. Grandma thought that was pretty funny.

The best part was the ending. Grandma held on tight when Champa knelt to let her down... Grandma said she thought she was going to slide right off the elephant's rump!

It was a special ride for our special grandmother!

The Return

2011-11-04T10:34:00.000+05:30

A little Non-fiction from Audrey...

Just before Tiger ran away I rubbed him behind the ear, walked out the door and into my Mom's silver Volkswagen. I didn't know I wouldn't see him for a while, I didn't know that might be the last time I touched him. I couldn't even guess.

"Audrey," called my Mom as I stepped into the house. "Is that you?"
"Yeah," I replied.
"Come here and quick!" she called again. I put my backpack down and ran to my parents room. When I got to my parents room my mother said, "While your Dad was working outside, Tiger escaped out the back door."
"What!" I yelled. "He's not here?" I said to my Mom.

We had been looking in the house behind ours which was being build. We thought it would be a good place for him to hide.
"Maybe he will pop up somewhere," My mom said as she tried to comfort me. Of course to no avail.
"Maybe," I replied. Life had seemed so hard lately.

"Tiger?" I called to the empty hallway.
"Meow," he replied as he crept out of his hiding spot.
"I've, missed you," I told him. He didn't reply.
"Where were you?" I asked him, thinking this would only be a one-sided conversation, but still it meant something to me at least.
Suddenly I shook from head to toe and awoke with a start.
"Finally you woke up," said my Mom. Then she walked out of my room.
"Oh," I thought. "No Tiger, just a dream."

"What's for breakfast?" I asked as I entered the kitchen.
"Pancakes," answered my Dad.
"Yum, yum, yummy," said my seven year old brother named, Evan. I rolled my eyes.
"Can't we have Pop-tarts, or donuts ever?" I asked.
"No," answered my Dad.
"Hhmmf.," I grumbled.

As I ate softly I spoke saying: "I wish Tiger would come back." It was a simple wish, but still it was a wish.

"Goodnight," I told my parents as I walked into my room and laid down on my bed. I tried to count sheep, but my thoughts obviously had other ideas because all I could think about was Tiger. Tiger this and Tiger that. I hoped he was okay. Hope, hope, hope. It was easy to hope, but hard to forget, hard to forget Tiger.

"Meow, meow." I woke up and thought I was mistaken. But then it was there again:
"Meow, meow."
I ran into the hall, turned left and ran into the living room. I ran to the door, but my Dad had reached there before me.

"Tiger!" I cried as I picked him up and hugged him, his soft fur against my body. My wish had come true. Tiger had come back and on his own. The hoping was over.

by Audrey Sayer (Grade 5)

Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage

2011-11-01T14:01:00.001+05:30

by HouseBoy

Audrey and Evan spent nine days traveling in Sri Lanka with Mom, Dad and their Grandma. It is an easy flight from New Delhi - only three hours away to Colombo. And it is in the same time zone! One of the kids' favorite stops happened early in this trip. We ventured to a place called Pinnawela. It is a large elephant orphanage near the small city of Kegalle.
The orphanage has over 60 elephants within its walls. They are brought here for many different reasons. Most have lost their parents, or have been injured, either through mistreatment or mishap.

Evan got to meet a blind elephant, named Raja. He was blind at birth, but has been taken care of at Pinnawela most of his life. Raja is a "tusker." This means he is a male with tusks. Unlike African elephants, only 5% of male Asian elephants have tusks, so they are treated as being very special!

Audrey and her Grandma really enjoyed seeing so many elephants up close. In most of the Orphanage there are no fences between visitors and the herd. Most of the time the males are kept in one area and the females and young elephants stay together as a group.

A rather naughty, young elephant named, Jumbo, is bottle fed several times a day. Visitors are allowed to help feed him... Jumbo didn't hesitate to take Evan up when he offered him a fresh palm frond!

Two times each day the elephant herd actually leaves the compound gates and crosses the main village road to travel down to the river. We followed them down to the river's edge to watch them play and bathe amid the rocks and water below. The elephants were visibly excited when they made the 1/2 kilometre journey to the river!

Audrey, Evan and I all agreed that it was quite a sight for us to see eighty elephants march down a narrow village street to the river! Definitely one of the highlights on our second visit to the small but beautiful country of Sri Lanka...

Audrey's 11th Birthday!

2011-10-18T09:43:00.000+05:30

by HouseBoy

Audrey shared another milestone (a few days early) with some friends at the American Embassy School on Saturday. She and good friend, Emma both turn eleven this week, so the girls decided to have a joint-birthday bash!

With sixteen classmates and friends gathered, the kids swam in the pool, tossed water balloons, and ate snacks provided by the wonderful AES kitchen staff. Of course there was plenty of cake - Audrey and Emma supplied the recipes.

The celebration ended with a bit of Indian culture for everyone. A local potter brought his wheel and guests learned about throwing and shaping pots. Everyone was able to have a little hands-on experience with the wheel. Emma's mom also arranged to have a Mehendi (Henna) artist available for the kids to try. Mehendi, of course is a very traditional craft here in India.

Hands and feet are decorated as a way to celebrate weddings and special occasions. I think everyone enjoyed celebrating Audrey and Emma's special day!

WW2 Jeeps in Haryana!

2011-09-27T16:31:00.001+05:30

by HouseBoy

Evan and his Cub Scout Den had another interesting experience last Saturday. The boys had an opportunity to go four-wheel driving in vintage Jeeps. Seven Boys and some of their parents (not sure who had more fun, the Dad's or the kids?) drove about an hour outside of Delhi into the countryside in the neighboring state of Haryana. A friend of our Den Leader assembled an odd assortment of classic SUVs for us to learn about and drive.

Three World War Two era Willys Jeep MBs, a 1950's era Nissan Patrol (called a Jonga by the Indian Army) a Russian Gaz 69, and a rare 1960's era Jeep CJ-6. The parents each got to try driving in the mud, water and the sand. The boys had their pick of vehicles to bounce around in.

We drove up steep hills, across streams and muddy sections of trail. We got pointers to improve our off-roading skills and even learned how to drive in sand.

After a couple of hours we enjoyed breakfast up on the top of a hill overlooking the skylines of Delhi and Gurgaon.

Then off we drove for another hour of four-wheeling. We ended the outing with a tour of the workshop where these vintage vehicles are restored and refurbished.

Evan said it was "one of the best scout outings yet!"

Afterschool Activities

2011-09-16T10:53:00.000+05:30

by HouseBoy

The school year kicked off early for Audrey and Evan (8 Aug)... New classes, new teachers, new friends from around the world. Now that the dust has settled and the weather is a tad bit cooler their after school programs have started.

Audrey's back taking riding lessons at the Delhi Riding Club with her good friend, Mariam. She does this two times a week - usually in the mornings to help avoid the steamy heat of mid-day. Audrey is in rehearsals twice each week. She is practicing for her first solo-singing part in the Elementary School's next Musical, The Princess and the Pea. She's pretty excited about this because one of her goals this year has been to learn more about acting and performing!

Evan's schedule has kicked into high gear just this week. He's now a Webelos 1 in the Cub Scouts.(Dad continues as Assistant Den Leader again this year). The boys meet about twice a month after school or on weekends. There are some exciting scout activities coming up... more to follow on this in future posts!

Evan's also taking Table Tennis and Chess after school once day each week. To quote, Evan: "TT is pretty lame, but I'm getting good at chess."

His favorite after school activity by far is Football (Soccer). Evan continues to work on his technique and has short games each session at the nearby British School...

Legoland in Delhi

2011-08-26T10:19:00.002+05:30

by HouseBoy

No... its not a new amusement park opening here in India... but there's been a whole lot of Lego activity here in our apartment recently. Evan's always been a huge fan, since long before we ever moved to Asia. He started building intricate contraptions out of them from a pretty early age. But now Audrey's really gotten into the swing of a Lego lifestyle.

Since watching all 4 of the Pirates of the Caribbean over the summer the themes have definitely changed... Gone are the space ships, and blaster battles of yesteryear. Legos are now all about swashbuckling, sailing vessels and cannon fodder, With even a little romance thrown in...It seems girls are most definitely just as good as boys when it comes to handling swords and flintlock pistols. And, of course, they make great ship-captains for a stolen Man 'O War.

This past weekend the kids built a little village complete with houses, shops and a dock. Audrey and Evan have always played well together (although they will each be the first to deny this fact). But thanks to the mega billion dollar Disney franchise... our boxes of Legos now have a new lease on life!

We haven't purchased any Disney merchandise, or new (and really expensive) Pirate Lego sets... But thanks to a little dose of Jack Sparrow, the juices of imagination are flowing freely. The little buggers are painful to step on in the middle of night, but Audrey and Evan really know how to extract a boatload of fun out of tiny plastic building blocks.

Seven Weeks of Fun

2011-08-04T13:40:00.001+05:30

We had a whirlwind summer. Evan and Audrey traveled up and down the east coast...over 4,000 miles with Mom and Dad. From Atlanta to Buffalo and back again. The trip included visits to grandparents,

swimming in Georgia lakes and streams and fishing in Canada. We went to Mystic Seaport and learned about rope-making, we learned what a "cooper" does (they make wooden barrels)

and got to pretend to captain 19th Century Sailing ships with our Aunt Heidi and cousin Che.

For the first time ever we went cherry picking at a farm in New York state. We used tall ladders and metal buckets to pick 10 pounds of Bing and Queen Anne cherries!

Our Grandma went with us to an amusement park where we ate yummy food, saw a western gunfight and got to go on some wild rides. In Philadelphia we marched in formation with Colonial troops. We got to ride on an ATV, paddle a canoe and see black bears in the wild!

Evan caught some fish and learned home to use an outboard motor and an electric trolling motor. We ate Pretzels and pies made by Pennsylvania Amish families, and got to spend time with our cousins Sarina and Isabel,

our Aunt Melanie, great Aunt Jane and her daughter and grand children. We saw fireworks on the 4th of July and visited with our cousins in Buffalo. We watched "Gone With the Wind" (our Grandma's favorite movie) and we saw the worlds largest granite rock (Stone Mountain)

We found an ancient American Native burial mound and we went hiking in an old-growth forest - the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest where some of the trees are 100 feet tall and are 400 years old!
We even went to see the house where Dad grew up and the town where our Mom and Dad met...

Our Mom and Dad say we're pretty fortunate... We do miss our house and cat (Tiger) in Austin, but we have a nice friends, new teachers and unusual adventures to return to in India.
Yeah, it was a pretty good summer.

Taking our Cousin Site-seeing

2011-05-24T10:56:00.002+05:30

Our cousin Hannah visited us for 2 weeks here in India. She came all the way from Detroit, Michigan to see us! It was very hot when she got here. It took her a few days to get used to the climate. Delhi can also be dusty and dirty. We think that took her a while to get used to as well!
Mom and Dad didn't waste any time. The first morning Hannah was here we rented a bigger car and drove east to Agra.

The road is dirty and crowded, but we stopped at McDonald's on the way for a snack and to use the toilet.
We stayed at a budget hotel called the "Sheela." We don't think Hannah will every forget the Hotel Sheela.

But she got to see the beautiful Taj Mahal, and the Agra Fort and then the next morning we took her to Akbar's Fatehpur Sikri... the 500 year old ghost city. She liked that a lot.
During the week Dad took Hannah all over New Delhi. They went on a Rickshaw in Old Delhi,

ate in the Sikh Temple on Chandni Chowk (the Sikh volunteers gave her a tour of the giant kitchen there), walked in Humayan's Tomb and went shopping in different markets and got to see the Rajghat - the National Memorial for Mahatma Gandhi.
Then we all boarded the train to Dehradun. It's five hours on the Shatabdi Express. Then we got in an old, white Ambassador Cab and took the mountain road up to 6,000ft to the Hill Station of Mussoorie. Hannah liked it there. It was cool and sunny. We ate Tibetan food and walked on the outdoor Mall. Hannah got to see the snow peaks of the Himalayas in the distance and visit a Buddhist Temple.

She took lots of pictures. We even had our lunch stolen by a monkey one day. He just came up to our table by the patio and grabbed some of our sandwiches and french fries. He was pretty naughty. Then we had to come back to hot New Delhi.
Our Dad took Hannah for some more sight-seeing. She got to see the Qutab Minar, and Mom took her to a fashion show at the Kuwaiti Embassy! Hannah's last few days were filled with a live Bollywood Musical. This was at a new place called, "Kingdom of Dreams." The show had lots of singing, dancing, and even a sword fight.
On her last morning, Dad took Hannah to a place he found where elephants live.

Hannah got to ride on an elephant bare-back and she met some of the Mahouts who take care of them. It was like an urban-safari.
We think she was always a little tired, but Hannah never got sick and was always ready to go out for the next day's adventure! We think she had a good visit to the "Sayer Ranch."

Audrey the Poet

2011-05-05T11:49:00.000+05:30

From a collection of Poems called "Shadow & Light"
by Audrey Sayer
Grade 4, AES New Delhi

Prom Dance

We Dance together all night long.
In the deepest depths of the forest
But we still can't get along.
For we are one river that flows apart

Floating Away

We whirl and swirl together,
As one but still we are different,
We try to get along
But we are town things not one,
We just don't know what to do
Because we are different.

Run Away

Run! Before it reaches you.
Run! Before it takes you away.
Run! Before it captures you in it's cage.
Run Away, run away, run away
Darkness...

Born To

I was born to run free
And to go through life like a river running down a mountain
to always be on the top not the bottom
To be a wanderer and a walker of the world
to taste life on my tongue
And to run forever in a field of life.

2011 AES Science Fair!

2011-04-26T10:00:00.001+05:30

by HouseBoy

Audrey and Evan both participated in the elementary school's Science Fair this year. The Fair is sponsored by Lockheed and is in the memory of one of the mom's from Evan's Cub Scout pack who passed away unexpectedly last fall.

The fair had over 180 participants and over 100 elementary school science projects.

Audrey worked on a project with her friend Emma. The project included research on food groups, and healthy eating and involved collected and analyzing data on people's eating preferences. At the fair, the girls had people do a taste test using 2 recipes for banana bread - one made with butter the other with apple sauce. This was correlated with the healthy eating habits survey.

The results were inconclusive, but the girls had fun and learned a lot about the foods we choose to eat. The also learned about the difficulty of writing and completing a survey.
Evan chose water as the focus of his project. He researched facts about water and decided to try two experiments.

One to demonstrate water pressure and one to illustrate water surface tension. For water pressure, he used a large container that we cut 3 holes in, each deeper than the other. When the container was filled with water, it proved the presence of increased water pressure at the bottom of the container (the water jetted out of the hole much farther than the top hole). Water surface tension used a small plastic boat and a tray of water and a drop of dish washing liquid. Both tests were a success and he learned some unique facts about water, and conservation. We learned that still, in 2011, 1.5 Billion people are without access to clean water each and every day.

Fun in Vietnam

2011-04-18T13:29:00.001+05:30

By HouseBoy

Audrey and Evan had quite a blast during our recent 11 days in Vietnam. Too many temples and too much sight-seeing tend to be a little dull when you're 9 and 10, so I'll give you their version of our trip...
The Indira Gandhi Airport was all about stumbling onto the world's largest cricket bat and ball.

(Of course it helped that India had just defeated Pakistan and Sri Lanka to win the 2011 Cricket World Cup...)

The best moment during our unexpected 24 stop-over in Bangkok was finding a stash of baby kittens in a tree on the grounds of Wat Arun..

In Hanoi, for Evan it was trying to coax noise from a giant drum at the ancient Temple of Literature. The drum and the Temple are about 1,000 years old. Audrey had an ear-ache at the time, so you can guess what she'd say about her time in Hanoi's Temple of Literature.
Our 14 hour night train from Hanoi to Danang was all about getting the top berths in the cabin. And, of course the can of Pringles and package of Oreos we ate for breakfast.

The central Vietnam town of Hoi An was all about the shopping. Trying on hats, checking out the souvenirs, and having custom clothing made were definitely some of the highlights. Oh, and riding bikes to the beach in busy Vietnamese traffic. The BIG waves and sandcastles we made at the beach were also pretty good.
Vietnam, by the way, was not about exploring local food. The noodles and fresh spring rolls were okay.

It was really the pizza that made it all worth while. A slice of pizza and a cold bottle of orange Fanta - definitely Nirvana.

We spent a morning exploring the 4th century Hindu ruins of My Son. Evan's burning question? These all centered around B-52's, shell casings and bomb craters left over from 1968.

The highlight for Audrey in Hue was definitely her horse ride. She spent 20 minutes solo riding within the 200 year old walls of the Forbidden City from the Imperial Nguyen family.

And for Evan it was riding on a Dragon boat up the Perfume River.,, Pagodas, Schmagodas.

And our last stop - Halong Bay? The Beautiful UNESCO site made up of over 2,000 towering limestone islands? That was all about the kite flying on the top deck of our house boat...

Vietnam was cool.

India's Where the Wild Things Are

2011-03-21T13:16:00.001+05:30

by HouseBoy

Audrey and Evan both participated in the elementary school production of "Where the Wild Things Are." They each got to play musical instruments, dance and sing in this unique and very colorful musical. All of the kids in the AES 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades helped with its production.

Evan started out in Scene 1 as one of a dancing chorus of Max's. The kids each helped to make their own costumes and learned about choreography and even about writing song lyrics.

Audrey was part of scene 2 where the jungle grows in Max's bedroom. Evan and Audrey both had a chance to accompany a song on the xylophone.

A curtain and back lighting were used to show the sailing voyage of Max across the sea. I thought it was very well done. But I think, for me, the best part was the portrayal all of the "Wild Things."

The kids - mainly 5th graders, made large, crazy creature-heads out of foam material and helped create the dance moves and chants that were used during the "wild rompus."
Audrey and Evan and almost all of the kids (except the stage hands) were in the huge finale.

I think it was the biggest finale I've ever seen in a school musical! It was a fun evening for the children and, of course, for all of their proud parents.

Speaking Spanish in India

2011-03-05T14:26:00.000+05:30

by HouseBoy

Audrey and Evan have switched from taking Hindi to learning Spanish since being enrolled at the American Embassy School. Although Spanish is probably the more practical of the two languages for our eventujal return to Texas, Mom and Dad miss learning the weekly Hindi vocabulary...
This week both Audrey and Evan had presentations in Spanish Class. Each of them had to learn lines of dialog, lyrics to music and present some of their projects to parents.

Audrey's class was the first to present. Their teacher, Mrs.Shrivastava, had the kids work as a team of "International" weather reporters, researching a presenting facts about the weather all over the globe in Spanish speaking countries. The video was set up like an evening news report.

Audrey was one of the "on-location" reporters detailing the weather from high atop famous Machu Picchu in Peru. Audrey had a great idea for her spot. She brought in a couple of hats from Nepal that actually look a lot like the traditional hats worn in the Andes Mountains. The video shots on video looked pretty convincing!

Audrey's class then shared computer projects with parents - these included a written report about the Incas and a description of a monster the kids each designed. The report and descriptions were recorded so we could listen in on how well words were pronounced!
The following day we attended Evan's class.

His group sang a series of songs in Spanish as a large part of their project. Then each child also presented some dialog. After Evan's class entertained us with words and song, we again got to see and hear some of the children's work on computers. This time the subjects included a report on he Mayan civilization, and a description of the kids' monster creations.
The kids had a great time being creative and having an opportunity to use some of their developing Spanish-language skills - all right here in the heart of New Delhi!

Taking Care of the Horses

2011-02-23T12:05:00.001+05:30

By HouseBoy

Audrey and her friend Mariam had the opportunity to take care of some of the horses they ride at the Delhi Riding Club this week.

Ms. Beeru, the Club's proprietor, gave them a nice long list of chores to accomplish early Monday morning.

The girls helped clean the stables. They worked on grooming the horses, braiding the animals manes and tails. They also made sure each animal had water.

The most interesting chore involved learning how to prepare and mix the horses' morning feed. The feed is a combination of cut grasses, oats and barley, graham, corn and rock salt.

The girls had to mound these ingredients up in one of the stables and thoroughly blend the mixture by hand. Then Mariam and Audrey had to carry large galvanized bins of the feed to each of the nine horses. Great job!

Many thanks to Ms. Beeru for letting them learn more about the horses they ride.

Only in India

2011-02-07T11:16:00.000+05:30

by HouseBoy

Evan was invited to a friend's 9th birthday party over the weekend. The weather was beautiful - February is by far the best month to be in India with temperatures between 60F and 85F degrees. There were seven or eight kids attending the party. Of course pizza, sweets and birthday presents were all a part of the agenda. Evan told me the boys spent time playing soccer in a neighborhood green space and later had a "treasure hunt" in his friend's yard.

But the highlight was definitely the elephant. Only in India is it so easy to hire a Mahout and his Elephant for almost any occasion.

First the kids fed this giant, gentle, girl a big bunch of bananas as a snack. Then they all climbed aboard for a ride through the neighborhood...

On "Safari" in Jor-Bagh Enclave. Very cool!

My Trip to Buffalo, Part 2

2011-01-28T08:43:00.001+05:30

By Evan Sayer

The “Great Wolf Lodge” is a partially expensive hotel with an inside water park(exciting!). We went to the water park and did some fun things there for example: water slides (there was a big giant orange one, a roller coaster one, and a toilet bowl one.), wave pool etc.. After that we took our dinner (as the Indians say). We ate at a buffet that had goldfish snacks, chocolate pudding and much, much more! We went back up to our room which was on the third floor to go to bed. I slept pretty good through the night, of course I had a little jet lag.

When I woke up it was about six in the morning, that's when I got up and started to read a book called “Ripley's Believe It Or Not,” which is a book like “The Guinness Book of World Records.” Eventually my whole family joined in reading the book while we all waited for my grandma to wake up. After a little while we snacked on some rolls and went to the water park to swim a little bit, then checked out.
On the way back we had fun looking for gazebos and singing songs like “We are Cookies.” (There seem to be a lot of gazebos in Canada.)
When we got home my mom and my dad unpacked the stuff that we packed up to go to the “Great Wolf Lodge.” Then we got ready for Christmas.

My Aunt Heidi was supposed to come the next day but she surprised us and got there that night!

The last thing I did when I was in Buffalo that was fun was sledding on a big hill called, Chestnut Ridge. Even my Mom and Dad went down the hill with us! It was very fast and icy.

THE END well, not really...

Three Birthdays in India

2011-01-24T12:22:00.000+05:30

by HouseBoy

Evan turned nine on Saturday. This was the third birthday of Evan's we have celebrated while living in India. We had a festive weekend planned, and the weather was perfect! We spent the day on Saturday exploring a nearby neighborhood called, Hauz Khas (see related post at Swimming-in-India).

Evan and Audrey enjoyed wandering in the 13th Century stone stairs and corridors of this Mogul college, reservoir and ancient Mosque. We ate lunch in a wonderful South Indian Bistro called, "Gun Powder."

This is located in the neighboring Hauz Khas Village and is up high on a third floor, overlooking the pond and park of the Mogul reservoir.
In the late afternoon we walked off our big lunch in Hauz Khas Deer Park. We watched the small herd of spotted deer that lives there, walked shaded paths and even stumbled across the "Delhi Drum Circle..."

... an all-ages group of local musicians that gathers every other Saturday there to make music together.
We ended the day back our home by turning the flat into a Nerf-gun warzone. It was Mom and Dad...
vs. Evan and Audrey.

The battle ended in Armistice (mainly because it was bedtime)...
On Sunday morning we had chai and sat in the sunshine at the Delhi Riding Club while Audrey enjoyed her riding lesson, and then prepared for Evan's party! He decided to just have a few of his best friends over, so invited three buddies from his AES third grade class. It was quite an international gathering.

The boys came from families representing Germany, South Korea, England, Brazil and the US. The first half of the party was held outside in our neighborhood park. The boys played a soccer match with 5 local Tibetan kids (the AES kids lost to Tibet, 7-2) and had a great time in the sunshine!

Then the party moved inside for a few games, Dominos pizza, cake from our favorite Canadian Bakery (Red Moon) and a few presents... I think we all had a great weekend - especially Evan!

My Trip to Buffalo, Part 1

2011-01-20T11:14:00.002+05:30

by Evan Sayer

I took a fourteen hour plane ride from New Delhi India to New York, then we had to take another flight to Buffalo which was about one hour. There were TVs on board the first aircraft we took because it was such a long flight. When we finally got there it was very very cold because there was snow on the ground, but for some reason I noticed the snow was blackish. “GROSS!” I thought. Then my dad told me that it was probably from car exhaust fumes and mud.

When we got to my grandma's house my mom and dad started unpacking our stuff while we tried on some new clothes that our grandmother bought us for playing in the snow. We came to my grandma's for Christmas and here is my Christmas list:
Lego kits, an ipod touch, Playmobile.

Unfortunately I didn’t get all the stuff I asked for, which is normal because I don't think anyone ever gets all of their presents on their list.
The next day I played in the snow. My grandma had some sleds for example: a circle sled and a straight sled. She had these big dirty snow hills in her front yard that we sledded on.

Then we had a snowball fight and made snow angels with our friends from across the street named Josh, Katie, and Stephanie.
The day after that we baked cookies like snicker doodles,dark chocolate craisin cookies, peanut-butter
cookies, peanut-butter oatmeal cookies, Mexican wedding cakes, and chocolate chip cookies! And we went Christmas shopping. After that we went to the “Great Wolf Lodge” which is in Niagara falls Canada.

To be continued...

Shopping in Kathmandu

2010-12-06T12:02:00.000+05:30

by Audrey and Evan Sayer

We had a nice time shopping in Nepal. We went there for Thanksgiving. We flew there on Spice Jet. We didn't fly over Mt. Everest, but we saw lots of tall mountains! When we got there the air smelled clean, but as soon as we got into the city the air smelled like petrol. We stayed in a hotel called, "Blue Horizon Hotel." Our Hotel room was average. The beds were comfortable and warm, but the carpet had pitch black iron-burn marks that were crispy and flaky. In our room there was a matchbox that had Tin Tin on the front.
We ate at the Northfield Cafe for dinner then walked back to our hotel and went to bed.
In the morning we had breakfast at the Pumpernickel Cafe. After breakfast we hired a taxi-cab to a temple or a site.

Then in the afternoon we went shopping. Audrey bought a Nepali hat with braids on the sides. Evan and Audrey both bought these mittens that can transform into fingerless gloves! They also found some socks or slippers or whatever they are. Our mom calls them "booties," but I call them slippers. They are handmade.

I also bought a traditional Nepali knife called a "Gorka Knife" as a souvenir. It has a bone handle and lots of decorations. Don't worry, it's not sharp! And last but not least, Evan bought an incense holder that can hold incense or a small candle. There were lots of things to see and try on!

On the last day Audrey went in the markets to look for earrings, but didn't get any. That last night we ate at a restaurant called, "K-Too." It is named after the famous mountain. Audrey and Evan met a man from Florida and chatted away while watching English Soccer. We talked about movies, travelling and football. Then we all walked back to our hotel and went to bed.
In the morning we caught our plane and were swept away! (Back here to Delhi)

Camping in Hariyana

2010-11-22T11:09:00.002+05:30

By Evan and Audrey Sayer

We took a two hour bus ride with Evan's Cub Scout Pack to a place called, "Camp Wild!" (The camp was not "wild" but we had fun.) Our bus was a big orange one. We got chips and some juice on the bus. We talked and stared out the windows during the ride. When the pack got to the camp the Boy Scouts were also there. Someone helped us find our tents and cabins. Mom Dad and Audrey slept in a cabin because only the scouts were supposed to have the tents.
There was a ropes course that had a Tarzan rope, a rope bridge, a rock-climbing wall, a wooden balance beam and a tunnel. Evan was just about to get on the Tarzan rope when the pack had to go on a hike.

The hike was about one hour. It went up on a ridge. A couple of kids got hurt from some thorns. When we got back Evan did the Tarzan swing and the rock wall! The wall was kind of hard, but he made it to the top. It was 25 feet tall.

Later, one of the Webelos organized a game called "War," while we waited for dinner. It was sort of the Cub Scouts against the Boy Scouts. Everyone just sort of ran around. Audrey had the most popular team called "the Neutrals."
Then we had dinner. The food was pretty good. After that we had a bonfire. We sang songs, our Cub Master told jokes, the boys did skits (Evan's was about a dog that was in a bag.), and we roasted marshmallows on sticks.
Then it was time for bed. Unfortunately Evan was stuck in a tent. He was sad about it and the boys were loud. Dad came and moved him to the cabin. Then we all went to sleep.

In the morning we all brushed our teeth and went outside to play soccer with some of the other boys. Then Audrey and Evan went to sit with the Boy Scouts by their campfire until breakfast. We came and got mom and dad. Evan had three pancakes for breakfast which were pretty good. Audrey had one pancake and some apple slices.

After breakfast Audrey went off with Mom to do some real rock climbing and rappelling. Mom did it too. They both went up and came down a rock face that was probably 40 feet high!

The pack had some skills tests. A skills test is when you do an obstacle course, or you get taught how to build a fire - we made one using only a single match! We also learned about first aid and how to use a compass. Then we learned how to play Kickball and Ultimate Frisbee which we will get belt loops for.

After that we we planted seven trees, washed our hands and had lunch. Evan had three grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches! Dad helped us pack up the sleeping bags and our gear and we headed home, back on our big orange bus.

Swimming Really Fast!

2010-11-12T10:38:00.000+05:30

by HouseBoy

Audrey and Evan have been going to swim practice after school a couple of times a week this fall. They celebrated the end of the season on Wednesday (Nov 10) with their schoolmates and coaches. This special swim-practice included time trials, yummy snacks and plenty of cheering! The kids were all 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students.

Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun even though the weather is now getting a little chilly in Delhi for swimming... Evan participated in the 50 meter freestyle and the 50 meter breast-stroke - always his favorite!

Evan was very proud when he easily won his heat for the breast stroke with a time of 1:05:07! He went on to place a very close second in his timed-heat for the 50 meter freestyle (53:45 seconds).

Audrey jumped in with both feet and competed in five of the six trials!

She was very proud of easily winning the time trial for the 200 meter IM (this is a four stroke race - butterfly, back, breast and freestyle). Her time was 1:57:69, besting both the boys and girls in the group. Audrey obviously enjoys racing and having fun with her swimming buddies as well.

She went on to place in the timed-heats for the 50 meter breast, 50 and 100 meter freestyle, and the 25 meter butterfly.

Evan and Audrey are both becoming fast and very graceful swimmers!

Speaking French in India

2010-10-25T19:33:00.000+05:30

By Audrey and Evan Sayer

We flew to Chennai on Indigo Air. We drove two hours to get to our hotel in Pondicherry. Pondicherry is a state south of Chennai. It is very tropical like Kerala. The hotel was called, "Hotel du Parc." When we got there we noticed it was cleaner than Delhi. Some people still speak French there (but with an Indian accent). When we got our hotel we watched T.V. and went bed. In the morning we ate breakfast. Evan felt sick, so Mom gave him something called, "Pepto-Bismal." She also let me play on the hotel computer until I felt better. I played a game called "Moshi Monsters" on the Internet.

That day we went down along the beach to walk on the rocks by the Bay of Bengal. We took the "Heritage Walk" (Boring French Colonial walk thingie). We went in some shops and saw lots of old buildings. We went to a Ganesha Temple. He is the god of prosperity and the remover of obstacles. At the Temple there was a very big elephant. Her name was Lakshmi. When you put a coin in Lakshmi's trunk, she gives you a blessing and a pat on the head. We also saw a colourful Catholic church, but we did not go in. The gates were locked.

We ate lunch at a Pizzeria. The pizza was made in a wood burning oven. Then we continued on our walk and went to more shops. We even bought some gifts for friends - and for ourselves!

Evan chose an elephant key chain and Audrey chose a purple and green cow passport holder. After that we went to the hotel to rest, we finally ate dinner at a place called, "Madame Shanti." On our way back to our hotel we met three people who were staying at our hotel. We told them to go to "Madame Shant's" or the pizzeria. Then we made it to our hotel in the dark and went to bed.

In the morning we packed up and went to the front desk to get a cab (taxi) to our next destination... a place called Mahabalipuram, in the state of Tamil Nadu.

Audrey's 10th Birthday!

2010-10-20T10:03:00.001+05:30

by House Boy

Today Audrey turns ten years old! Dad says he can't believe it. Her celebration started early this morning with a special breakfast of pancakes and fresh fruit. Audrey opened a gift from her Grandma (new purple Crocs!) and a gift from Evan... an action figure of bad girl, "Aurra Sing" from Star Wars.

She chose a special outfit today for school and she received a call from Mom (who is working in Chennai this week). Mom sang "Happy Birthday" to Audrey over the speaker-phone and got all the details of the day so far.

In the evening after swim-coaching, Audrey and Dad made a special dinner - homemade pizza and tossed salad. There was Vanilla birthday cake from our favorite bakery in New Delhi, "Red Moon."

And, of course, more gifts... It was a great day!

Movies and TV in India

2010-09-17T11:14:00.002+05:30

by Audrey Sayer

First I want to tell you about Indian movie theatres. They are basically the same as theatres in the US, except for a few interesting differences!
You can buy a ticket for $1, $2, and $3 dollars. If you go to a really fancy theatre it might cost $5! These have really big comfy seats and someone comes by to take your food order. When you get your ticket you reserve your seat... just like when you are on an airplane. Every ticket has a row letter and a seat number on it! The seating is called "stadium seating" just like at home.
In the middle of a movie there is ALWAYS an intermission. They just stop the movie and turn on the lights. That's when we run to get some snacks or go to the bathroom. We all wish they did this at home.
You can get many kinds of snacks. You can get Indian snacks and western snacks. They sell popcorn too, but sometimes they don't have butter. Just dry popcorn.
My favorite movie I have seen in Indian is, "Avatar." But we just saw a really funny one. Dad, Evan and I all liked it. (Mom was working) It was called, "Despicable Me." Our favorite Indian movie is "3 Idiots." We think Aamir Khan is funny!

In India TV is different too. Here are some of the reasons. It costs only about $7 a month here and $70 at home in Austin. Our TV is called "TataSky." We like to watch cartoon sometimes. The animation for Indian cartoon shows is sometimes pretty bad.

And the acting on regular shows is awful. Dad says they act kind of like they do in US "soap operas." Everyone has wide eyes and open mouths when something happens. And they look that way for a
r e a l l y long time!

Our favorite Indian cartoon is called, "Chota Bheem." (Chota means, "little" in Hindi). It is about a little boy who is very strong and does good things for people.

Mom and Dad say we always have to read first, but we watch western shows here too sometimes. Evan likes "Kick Buttowski, and the cartoon "Mr Bean." We both watch "Phineas and Ferb" and "Ben 10." I sometimes watch "Aaron Stone," "Hannah Montana" and the "Wizards of Waverly Place." Dad downloads "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," from iTunes for us because we all like that!
I hoped you like my explanations of movies and TV here in India!

Mumbai

2010-09-06T19:28:00.002+05:30

We went to Mumbai last weekend for our Dad's birthday on Indigo Air. We got to the hotel in an A/C cab. We checked in and went up the super-duper fast elevator to the eleventh floor where our room was. We had a sea view room and a butler! He was pretty nice. Once all of the luggage was in the room and we had our "welcome drink," we took a boat to Elephanta Island.

That is where we saw the old Temple Caves. These are dedicated to the god, Shiva.
Boom!!! Bang!! Crack!!! A storm was starting. We had to walk up about 1,000 stairs (not really, but it felt like 1000) It was raining when we got to the caves.

We saw statues of Shiva and Ganesha, and thought we saw some bats! On the way back down we bought some "Kukare" - Audrey's favorite Indian snack. The boat was a little rocky on the way back, but nobody got sick.

When we got back to the hotel we had "high tea." This was actually like a big lunch with hot drinks and lots of desserts. Then Mom and Dad called for a baby sitter. The hotel brought Dad a birthday cake and champagne! When our babysitter came, Mom and Dad went to dinner. The sitter turned out to be pretty old, so she fell asleep before we had to go to bed. In the morning we went to the breakfast buffet and ate the yummy food!

After that we took a old non-A/C cab to go sight-seeing. Evan wanted to take one of these because it was an old Indian-Fiat "Premiere." They are pretty cool, old-fashioned taxis that you mostly only find in Mumbai. We saw a Temple and a famous old Mosque that looks like it is floating at high tide. It was a little boring since we have seen so many Temples in India. We went swimming in the Taj's pool in the afternoon.

After tea-time, we took a walk. A man took our picture in front of the Gateway of India. This is a memorial for King George V and Queen Mary. It was next to our hotel! There was a cool police armoured car outside by our hotel too! Then Mom and Dad walked with us to some shops nearby.

After that we took a horse-carriage ride around the city. When we got back to the hotel, our Mom and Dad went out to eat, so they got us a another babysitter. She was younger and watched TV with us. This one didn't fall asleep before she put us to bed.

Our New Apartment

2010-08-24T19:36:00.001+05:30

Photos by Evan Sayer.

We thought we'd better show you some photos of our new apartment in Nizamuddin, New Delhi. It is a little bigger and nicer than our apartment in Noida. And the ceilings are a taller. We really like it here.

Here is our kitchen. You can see the new microwave and our new oven. We never had an oven before in India! The kitchen looks small, but it is bigger than our old one.

Our dining room and our living room make up one big place. This is where we spend most of our time when it is really hot because it has a big A/C. There is enough room for two couches, two chairs and our TV. We have a balcony and French doors that look out onto our street.

Our room has its own bathroom and our bunk beds. Dad let us keep our keyboard in here too. We have our own door to the utility balcony. That's where Dad does the laundry.

Mom and Dad's room is the same size as ours. They have their own bathroom and a big window that looks out onto our neighborhood park. Our bedrooms have big closets too!
The last room is made into an office. Mom uses that at night when she is on her calls. It has a desk, our shoe bench and the ironing board in it. Savita, our housekeeper uses that mostly. There's a little bathroom and a little balcony too!

Goa

2010-08-10T21:54:00.002+05:30

We went to Goa for a long weekend. We flew there on "Spice Jet." It was very fun, but it was the rainy season there so we thought it would rain every day. But it did not! We were very lucky.
A cab driver named, "Raj" picked us up at the airport. He had a Maruti "DZire," it was just like our car in Delhi! Then we went sight-seeing in old Goa for three hours that first day. We saw two very famous churches. They were the Cathedral of St Francis of Assisi (1660) and the Cathedral Bom Jesus (1590). This second church is where St Francis Xavier's body is kept. He is a famous Portuguese Saint.

We also visited a small church that was built in 1510. It is called St Catherine's. It is exactly 500 years old this year!
Then we drove two hours to our hotel in South Goa. It was in the town of Palolem and is called, "Oceanic." Evan was afraid the room might be moldy because of all the rain, but it wasn't. It was very nice. They have 2 cats a dog, a swimming pool and A/C! We had dinner and went to sleep.
The next day we went to the beach. We could walk there from our hotel.

We played in the sand and tried to go swimming, but the life guards would only let us swim when the tide was going out because the water was very rough. We jumped in the waves with Mom and Dad.
We found lots of shells and baby clams in the sand. One day we took a hike down the beach and found some rocks in a cliff that looked like a face. We climbed up them to get a closer look.

Mom found a really cool restaurant called, "Cheeky Chapati." It was our favourite. We ate there almost every day because the food was very good. They made yummy western and Indian food. The restaurant was run by an English family who have lived in Goa for six years!
On Tuesday we left for Delhi in the pouring rain. Raj, our driver from the first day drove us back to the airport. We found out what "Monsoon" really means because it rained a lot that last morning! We flew back to Delhi a different airline called, "IndiGo".

Even though it rained a bit, we still got to swim and play on the beach. Our trip to Goa was a lot of fun!

The Last Tour

2010-07-21T15:36:00.000+05:30

Evan wanted to give you a tour of our ATS apartment before we move from Noida to New Delhi... so here we go!

Our apartment is quite big. Here are some pictures I took with Dad's camera:

Our living room has a sofa and some chairs and our television. This is the room we watch movies in. That door leads to our balcony. We can watch everybody from the balcony.

This is the dining room. This is the room we eat in. It's right next to the living room.

My room. This is the room Audrey and I sleep in. Audrey has the top bunk. We play a lot of games in here. Audrey and I like to play with our friends in here.

The bathrooms. We have three of them. These are the rooms we wash our hands in. We wash our hands a lot here in India!

This is my Mom and Dad's room. It is a little bigger. Thought the door is a small balcony. We hang our clothes out to dry on the balcony.

The Guest Room. This is were people have slept when they came to visit. Mom works at night in this room when she is on her calls to the U.S.

And last but not least, our kitchen. Our cook, or my Dad usually make dinner. We don't have a regular oven, but we can cook on the stove and in our microwave. Dad says we will have an oven when we move into our new apartment in Delhi.

Hope you enjoyed the tour. We have lived in this apartment since January, 2009!

Evan Sayer July, 2010

Traveling the US - Summer 2010!

2010-07-05T16:47:00.000+05:30

We went to the USA for six weeks and this is what we did...

First we flew from India to Atlanta, Georgia. Our Grandpa picked us up from the airport and we drove to Blairsville, GA. It's in the mountains. We stayed there for ten days.

While we were with our Grandpa and Nana we got to eat really good food, explore the woods with Georgia the dog and listen to some live "bluegrass" music. We even got to go hiking with our Aunt Melanie and cousin, Sarina!

While we were there we visited our great Aunt Jane in North Carolina. Aunt Sue and Uncle Bob lets us feed the chickens and collect eggs, we learned how to ride the four wheeler, shoot a rifle and play on the Wii! It was a very fun three days!

Then our Dad found out someone knocked down our backyard fence in Austin, so we had to drive to Texas...

On our way to Texas we stopped at some famous Native American mounds in Alabama at a place called, "Moundsville." The mounds are 1,000 years old. They are sort of like pyramids.

In Austin we stayed in our house on Avenue C for four days. Evan and Audrey both had play-dates and we had a party with some of our friends.

Then we had a long drive from Austin to Buffalo to see our Grandma and our JaJa. That part of our trip was 1,700 miles long! First we stopped in Shreveport, Louisanna to see our Aunt Faye. We stayed for one night. She fed us some BBQ! Then we drove through Arkansas, Missouri and then into Illinois. We stayed at a motel in Marion, Illinois. The last day was really long. We drove on across Indiana, through Ohio and finally went across a little corner of Pennsylvania to Grandma's house in Buffalo, NY. Nine states in all!

We had lots of fun at Grandma's house.

We went fishing with our JaJa and took a trip to Niagara Falls. At the falls we got to walk BEHIND where the water falls!

Evan's favorite fact about Niagara Falls: "you can fill one million bathtubs every minute with the water that goes over the falls...." Before we had to start home we also had had fun at a baby shower for our Aunt Heidi and Uncle Sujal. All of the ladies wore big hats and drank tea.

After visiting Grandma's we drove back to Georgia.

We stayed a few more days with our Grandpa and Nana there in Blairsville. Dad says our summer "road trip" was over 4,000 miles long!

We are excited to be back in India this time because we are going to a new school - the American Embassy School AND we will be moving to an apartment in New Delhi soon!

Water in India

2010-05-01T16:24:00.002+05:30

by Evan Sayer

There are three different kinds of water in India. The kind that we should drink is in the bottled water that comes in a huge bottle (25 litres).

It is 100% pure water from "Aquafina." There is also the water from the kitchen RO filter. R.O. stands for, "reverse osmosis."

We use this water for cooking and for things that need boiled water like vegetables and tea. And then there is the tap water which you should never drink!

It sometimes smells like rotten eggs. We use the tap water for washing our hands, doing dishes, laundry and taking a shower.

When you take a shower, if you want hot water you need to turn on the "Geyser" (pronounced "geezer").

It takes 20 minutes for the water to heat up in this. You have to remember to turn it off BEFORE you get in the shower because the geyser is electric!

And of course, last but not least, there is the ice in the freezer. We use the bottled water to make our ice cubes.

Adventures in Malaysia Part 2

2010-04-19T11:10:00.001+05:30

After a few days in Kuala Lumpur, we took a "VIP" bus to the Cameron Highlands. This is 2000 metres high in the mountains, so it cooler and very pretty there.
We got to go on a sight-seeing tour. We saw a rose farm (the roses were beautiful).

Then we saw a strawberry farm. They had a bakery there so we had strawberry tarts! Then we went to a tea plantation and factory. We got to see the tea bushes. (They turn into trees if you don't cut off the leaves!) This was our Grandma's first time to see a Tea Plantation, so we took a tour of the Boh Tea factory. Then we had a cup of tea in the cafe. We had a great view!
Last but not least we saw a butterfly farm.

They had some really strange insects. Evan and Audrey got to hold some! The butterfly farm was the best.
Before we flew back to India we stayed for one more night in KL.
That last day we went to a bird park. They say it is the worlds largest. We saw many birds we had never seen before.

A red ibis, and a "victorian-crowned pidgeon." That one looks like a giant pidgeon with a very fancy hat!

Then we went a saw a bird show. The first bird unicycled across a tightrope, the a lady came out and said, "Welcome to our Bird Show!"

Some birds were in bicycle races and also slid down a slide! But the best part was when Audrey got to feed a hawk. She held a stick up in the air with some meat on it. Then the bird swooped down and grabbed the meat right off of the stick!

We went back to our hotel for one last night. That was a good last day and a fun trip!

Adventures in Malaysia! Part 1

2010-04-09T18:25:00.000+05:30

First we had to fly two hours to a city called, Columbo in Sri Lanka. Then it was a three hour aeroplane ride to Singapore. Then we took a taxi to our hotel which was beautiful!

It rained while we were there. Every day. We walked and walked to go to a Botanical Garden and an Orchid Garden where we saw lots of plants and trees.

There was a lake in the gardens with big swans in it, and turtles too!
Then we walked along some pretty canals to the Merlion. It is a famous statue the spouts water into the sea. "Singapore" means "City of Lions."

The merlion is half fish and half lion - kind of like a mermaid. Our last day in Singapore, Mom took us to McDonalds to get a hamburger! You can't get beef burgers in India when you go to McDonalds...
We took a "VIP" bus to the city of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. We got there late at night, but dropped us off right at our hotel. The hotel was fancy. It was called the "Sunway Pyramid."

Sunway has a water park so we spent all the first day at the water park! Grandma and Dad went with us while Mom worked. The water park was cool!

The next day we went to see the Petronas Towers. The Petronas Towers are the 4th tallest towers in the WORLD!!

We also went up in the Menara Tower which has an observation deck. You can see the whole city of KL from there! The we went to a market called, "China Town." It had many different shops like toy shops, tourist shops and local shops. Some of the days we were there we went swimming in the Sunway Lagoon swimming pool which was very very fun too!

Finally... The Taj

2010-03-30T09:31:00.001+05:30

One day we went to Agra with our Cousin Brandi and our Grandma. We left at 10 am. It was almost six hours long. When we got there we had to ride to the monument.

Everyone wanted to give us a ride. Drivers with camel carts, horse carts (tonga), and even bicycle rickshaws. We chose the tonga. There was a man standing in front of the horse shouting. The tonga driver almost got in a fist fight with him! We think they were yelling about money.

This was the first time we saw the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is the most famous monument in India.

The Taj was beautiful! It is made of white marble. A king (Maharaja) built it to remember his wife after she died. There was going to be black Taj for the king, but it was never made. The King's son kidnapped him. The son thought his father was spending too much money. We stayed at the Taj for two full, long hours.

Then we went to our hotel to see our room. After we put all of our stuff in our room we went out to a rooftop restaurant to have dinner. (Audrey had a chicken burger). Then we went back to our hotel and went to bed..

The next morning we went back to the same rooftop restaurant for breakfast.

We could see the Taj Mahal again right there in front of us!

On the way home we stopped at a palace called Fatehpur Sikri. It was built by a man named, Akbar over 400 years ago. It is very big and very fancy.

Emporer Akbar even had a giant Parchesi Board! But there was no water at Fatehpur Sikri so he left it after 15 years. Now people call it the "Ghost City." It was almost as beautiful as the Taj.

Holi Hill Stations!

2010-03-10T15:31:00.001+05:30

Instead of being in Noida for the Holi Festival this year, we went to Nainital and to the Jim Corbett National Park. In Nainital (a hill station) we rode on a cable car (called a "rope-car") up to an amusement park.

We could see the pretty lake below and the mountains all around us. There were lots of rides at the park.

Our favorites were the bumper cars and the Go Carts.

This was Evan's first time driving a Go cart. There was also a zip line, but we didn't do that. Evan drove the go cart with his grandma and rode in a bumper car with Mom. He wiped out a few times! They were going very fast.

We drove to Jim Corbett Park on Monday. That was the day of Holi Festival. Holi is the Hindu spring festival of colours. It was about two hours drive to our hotel near the park.

Our driver was worried about his car because it was white and there were lots of people throwing colors and "playing holi" in each of the villages on the way.

When we got to our hotel (Tiger Camp) we had snacks of samosas and namkeen. Then we walked to the river. We saw there were two elephants taking a bath. (We saw these same elephants bathing back in November).

We got changed to go swimming, but the pool was not very clean so we ate popcorn instead. We ended the day with an elephant safari.

We walked to our elephants and had to climb up tall stairs to get on. The elephant walked across the river and into the forest! We didn't see tigers, but we saw deer and monkeys and langurs. We had a great safari! It was a good way to spend our Holi Weekend!

Our Trip to Jodhpur

2010-02-20T16:49:00.003+05:30

First we went by sleeper train to Jodhpur. It was about ten hours long. When we got to Jodhpur it was in the morning. We took an auto (rickshaw) to our hotel. We stayed at Hotel Haveli (with a rooftop restaurant). It was 10am so we ate breakfast at the rooftop restaurant.

When we were done with breakfast we went to the big fort in Jodhpur, called Meherangarh. It is a huge fort built by Maharaja Mann Singh in 1806. They gave us audio-guides at the fort. We also walked to the Jarwant Thada (a large white marble tomb). A Maharani built it after her husband's death.

After sight-seeing we ate dinner back at our hotel. When we woke up he next day we rode in a jeep to the desert. We went to a famous (Jain) Temple in the town of Osiyan. Then we got on 2 camels and rode to a villager's house. We ate lunch there. We also swung on a swing and played with the village children. Then we rode on the camels to our tents. The stars are very bright in Rajasthan!

In the morning we rode in a jeep to see a potter and a weaver on our way back to Jodhpur. It was a good trip.

Evan thinks his favorite part of the trip was the train, because the beds were so high up off the floor!

Annual Sports Day 2010

2010-02-16T16:54:00.005+05:30

Our annual "Sports Day" at Lotus Valley was on Feb 6. First they hoisted the flag when Sports Day started. Then a torch was lit (like at the Olympics) and everyone cheered. After that everyone stood for the champion of the year and an "inspirational" song. Then came the march past the viewing stand. The senior kids do this. There was a lot of other things that happened, but we will tell you just the things that we need to tell you. Audrey was in gymnastics and Evan was in Tae Kwon Do. We only practiced for four weeks!
Evan performed first. All of the Tae kwon Do boys and girls lined up. We were dressed in special, white "regulation" Tae Kwon Do costumes. Evan did punches and kicks. We all yelled out "Tae," then "Kwon," the "Do" with each punch or kick. Some of the older kids even broke bricks and boards with their hands and feet!

The gymnastics students were the last to perform. Audrey's costume was blue and white. First there were pyramids (where people climb on each other to make a pyramid). Then flips and cartwheels, tumbles and handstands. Then there was vaulting when we jumped over a special brown beam! The last thing the group did was jumping through the FIRE hoop. Audrey didn't do this, but her friend Alexis did! Nobody got burnt.

The last thing that happened was the awards ceremony. Evan won the gold medal for the Class II boys foot race! He had to run this race while carrying an oily potato without dropping it! And Audrey won three gold medals for Class III/IV girls swimming - she won these for the 50 metre breast stroke, freestyle and backstrokes. We had a fun, cool time at Sports Day!

Evan's Eight Birthday

2010-01-27T16:36:00.004+05:30

We celebrated Evan’s 8th birthday in several ways this year. First he passed out chocolates to all his classmates and teachers at school. It is customary for you to pass out sweets on your birthday here. After school, Evan and his friend, Pulkesh, went to the local mall to play games at the arcade and have some pizza. At home, we invited our neighbors over to sing and have some cake. Evan opened his presents and then spoke to his grandparents on Skype.The next day we took Evan out for the meal of his choice. He chose a ham sandwich. This is not an easy thing to find in Delhi. Evan said that the best place to go for a ham sandwich is the Imperial hotel. He was right -- they do serve ham sandwiches – and the Imperial Hotel is just about the nicest hotel in Delhi. Our friends Jane and Kate joined us there. Jane also was celebrating her birthday, so we had a lively time, gulping down ham sandwiches and real beef burgers! After lunch, we walked to the Jantar Mantar, which has 300 year old astronomical instruments. Evan enjoyed exploring the large scale instruments.

Adventures of Thailand Part 3

2010-01-21T11:35:00.003+05:30

We took an eleven hour bus ride from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. It was at night so we got there very early in the morning! Then we took a cab to the airport. We think the cab driver was a little crazy. He sang to us most of the way. We flew in a jet to Krabi. This is a city down south. When we got to Krabi we had to ride in a mini-bus and on two ferries to get to Koh Lanta. That is the island where our hotel was. It was a very long day.

Our hotel was called, Narima. There were a lot of kids staying there. They were from England, Sweden, France and Australia. We watched TV every night with them in the lobby!

There was a beach at our hotel. We went to it every day and played in the water, but it was a bit rocky. One day we went to another beach. The water was very, very clear. The next day we went to another beach too. We like to jump in the waves!

We rented a car one day and Dad drove us around the island. We saw an old town, and walked down a pier. And we went shopping. After we went shopping my Mom got her nails painted. When she was done we picked her up and drove back. The rest of our stay we rested and ate some some good food and played! Thailand was a good trip.

Adventures of Thailand Part 2

2010-01-14T09:06:00.006+05:30

By Audrey & Evan Sayer

After Bangkok we went to Sukhathai. (Dad says this is a "World Heritage Site") It is north. We stayed at a place called Ruean. They had rabbits and a pool!
We took a bus to a bike shop called, "K-Shop." We got three bikes and one bike lock (never used the bike lock). I rode with Dad on a back seat. Mom and Audrey each had their own.
The first monument we rode to was three kilometres away. We had to show a guard the tickets so we could go to the monument. A policeman watched our bikes while we walked up to get to the monument.
On the way to the next monument I saw a recycled trash can made out of truck tires. After that Audrey wiped out! But she was fine...
Then we had to catch a bus to Chiang Mai. It was 6 hours long. Once we got to the bus station we got a taxi to our hotel. It did not have a pool because it was a tiny bit cold there.

Every day in Chiang Mai we went shopping. Shopping, shopping, shopping all day long. We got books for me (Audrey) but I read them so quickly we had to get more. I got a fancy umbrella that keeps sun off and I got a fan. My brother got Bionicles. There were different markets like the day market, the night market and Sunday market. I saw this necklace that I wanted but Dad would not let me have it and I regret it till this day...

Part 3 coming soon!

Buddha Temples in Thailand

2010-01-08T15:30:00.001+05:30

by Evan Sayer (mostly)

We went to many different Buddha Temples during our trip in Thailand. First we went to the reclining Buddha in Bangkok. It's pretty famous. It's called the "Wat Pho." We also saw a big (fat) Buddha. He is the happy Buddha. I guess food makes him happy.

Up in Sukhothai we saw many, meditating Buddhas. We also went to see the "diamond-eyed" Buddha. I think he had plastic diamonds in his eyes. That was lame. The priest there was nice though. He taught us how to pray the Buddhist way. You bend down five times in front of the Buddha. One for each of the five senses (seeing, smelling, tasting, hearing and feeling.) That was the best part of that Temple. We saw a really old Temple too! This one is even in our Thailand Guidebook. He is a mediating Buddha called, "Wat Si Chum." His is very big and his fingers are very long and thin.
Most of these temples are in Sukothai or Bangkok. It was neat and cool to explore them and the ruins around them!

The Adventures of Thailand: Part 1

2010-01-08T15:27:00.003+05:30

by Audrey Sayer

First we had to catch a plane from New Delhi, India to Bangkok, Thailand. It took us three hours to get to Bangkok. When we got to Bangkok it was night. (Bangkok is the capital of Thailand). We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel. Our hotel had a pool on the roof. Cool! We could see the city all around us! There were other fun things at the hotel too. There were fish downstairs in the hotel lobby. I tried to touch them!There were also water taxis because there is a big river that cuts Bangkok in half. The name of it is Chao Phraya.

We walked a lot in Bangkok! We walked to many Buddhist temples. My favorite (and my Dad's) is the Wat Pho (pronounced "po"). It is of the reclining Buddha. The statue of Buddha is SO big its fingernail was as big as my head. The word "Wat" means "temple" in Thai.

Stayed tuned for Part 2... Its about the ancient city of Sukhothai!

No Tigers at Tiger Camp

2009-11-30T09:14:00.003+05:30

When we went to Jim Corbett Park we did many things. We played by a river. It was a river with very rough water. It was like a rocky beach. We played on sandstone and with the water with our toy horses. The water was so cold. We had lots of fun.

The meals were good at the hotel we stayed in. It was called, "Tiger Camp." We loved it!

We saw elephants in the river with their mahouts (owners). When the elephants didn't listen, their mahouts threw rocks at them. When it hit their head it sounded like a drum!

We went on a Safari and we saw some animals. We almost got to see a tiger, but their were too many jeeps! But we saw deer, monkeys, something shaped like a rooster and lots of birds.

One night we played Tambola (bingo) by the campfire. We both won money! There is a man who sings by the campfire. We also watched a movie about man-eating tigers. One tiger tore off the skin on someones head and it showed his bare skull! Eek! He is okay now. It said he shows his scars to everyone he sees!

Their were lots of trails in Tiger Camp so we had a lot of fun exploring them. The bath rooms were nice on the outside because their were flowers lining them. We went next door to another hotel with our mom and dad. It was called "Tarangi." We found a swimming pool at the other hotel, but our Dad did not pack our bathing suits! We want to take our Grandma to Tiger Camp next time!

Garden of the Five Senses

2009-11-16T09:51:00.004+05:30

We visited the "Garden of the Five Senses" in New Delhi. And we got to use all of our senses there! We bought our tickets for only 15 rupees each and we went through the gate. First we went along a spiral path to awaken our senses. Evan said he got dizzy. Then we saw big elephant statues.

We then went through a big maze of bushes on each side of us. We went up a spiral staircase made out of stones. There were lots of couples there sitting everywhere. (some were kissing!) The path went to the top of a hill with some statues on it. We saw an orchard of yellow diamonds and there was a large metal tree with bronze bells all over it. The bells jingle in the wind.

We found little playground. It had a slide that was like a conveyor belt and a big wheel that was like the wheels hampsters like to run in. There were sculptures of watermelon (Evan's mouth was watering) and a lady diving high in the air. In one part, the garden even had solar panels for making electricity. We ate some good pizza in the garden too - next to a sculture of giant eyes that were looking at us.

We would definitely go to the Garden of the Five Senses again!

Halloween!

2009-11-01T09:30:00.010+05:30

We had fun celebrating Halloween. Dad went to a special market in old Delhi called, the "Kinari Bazaar" to find us some black capes for our costumes.Evan dressed up as Darth Sidious and Audrey was a Vampire! Our friends Esha and Shreyus dressed up too.

We carved pumpkins. There are green not orange! (We drew the faces and Dad did the cutting). We used little diwali oil lamps instead of candles to light them up. The Jack-o-lanterns looked pretty scary!

Evan lost his first baby tooth today (Halloween). He wanted to show everyone how his smile looks kind of like our jack-o-lantern's smile!

We all went to the American Embassy School on Halloween night. There were games and prizes. Two of our other school mates from Lotus Valley met us there. They are from South Africa. There were kids from all over the world at the festival. We liked the food. It was from KFC and Pizza Hut and there were gingerbread cookies. They had orange icing and were shaped like pumpkins. They looked like the cookies we sometimes get at Quacks Bakery back home in Austin.

The night ended with fireworks over the Embassy school. We didn't get to go trick or treating, but we had a really good Halloween!

Diwali Crackers!

2009-10-18T14:21:00.003+05:30

These are not the kind you eat! In India fireworks are called "crackers." You light them on Diwali, so we bought some and lit them off with our friends. Diwali crackers are very loud. And they have smoke. Lots of smoke! Our Dad said we could only get small ones, so that's what we did. We had some that were small (chakkar - spinning fireworks) and some that were big (flower pots - shoot a shower of sparks in the air!) A lot of boys were lighting crackers and throwing them.One of our friends is only nine. Our Dad helped us with our crackers. One of the boys took dry leaves and lit them on fire with a cracker which made a big mess.

We were out in front of ATS and almost got blown up! It was like World War 2 out there. There were millions of fireworks. They were flying and spraying and crashing. Our Mom was a little scared. When we were coming back we had to watch out for fireworks coming down from the balconies. People were shooting bottle rockets and pistols that shoot out fireworks! IT was CRAZY. We were tired and it was hard to got to sleep because of all the noise, but we did. Our Mom stayed up until midnight. We had a lot of fun on Diwali.

Visiting Darjeeling!

2009-10-12T10:04:00.005+05:30

We got to visit the town of Darjeeling. It is very famous for the tea they grow nearby. There is lots to do in this mountain town!

We went to several monasteries. Our favorites are the ones with the BIG prayer wheels... you spin the wheel to send the prayer up to heaven. Some of them are very colourful. There are monks in the monasteries. We got to talk with some of them. Some have been there for 30 years. One told Evan he was his age when he first became a Buddhist Monk. The boys (and sometimes girls) learn their lessons, chant and sing prayers every day. Evan likes Monasteries because they are very peaceful.

In Darjeeling there is a very famous toy train. The train was very nice, but it was slow and a little dirty. We got to ride it to the town of Ghoom. The sky is very Gloomy in Ghoom. We stopped at garden on the way called Batasia Loop. We had to go through many traffic jams! Then we went to the Train Museum in the Ghoom Train station. There was a model of the train and and tracks and pictures about the history of the toy train.

The funniest place we went to was Tiger hill. (It did not have tigers). We got up very early in the morning (3:30am - Ed.) and road a jeep up to the top of the hill. We had to wear jackets because it was cold. We stood in the dark and saw the sunrise. It was very crowded.We had some tea and got some Postcards in the shop there. This is where you see the best view of Mount Kanchenjunga!

New Friends in Kalimpong

2009-10-05T16:16:00.005+05:30

We went on a trip to Darjeeling District. It is pretty far away in the Northeast corner of India in the Himalayan Mountains. We stayed at a hotel, Holumba Haven, that was very fun. This place had gardens and swings and a cage with rabbits and guinea pigs. They even had four dogs. A family owned the hotel and they had kids too! A boy and a girl named Robdin and Dwenka. We made friends with them in a short time.

There are two games we played. They are called "Police and Thieves" and "Water and Ice."

In Police and Thieves some kids are police and some are thieves. The police try and catch the thieves and put them in jail. Then they guard the door. In Ice and Water one person tries to tag the others. If they do they yell "Ice!" Another player has to come and say, "Water!" Then the frozen person can run again. The tagger has to catch all of the people to win the game.

We got to stay in a cabin called, "Magnolia" and we saw the third tallest mountain in the world right from our porch! Mount Kanchenjunga... It is 28,167 feet tall!

Riding the Metro!

2009-09-22T09:10:00.004+05:30

We went on an adventure to ride the Metro in New Delhi. Audrey needed to do this for her Environmental Studies class (EVS). We drove to Connaught Place (CP) in the center of Delhi. The Metro is an electric train that runs above the ground and in tunnels. It is very new and clean! Getting on the Metro was fun because you have to use a token to get to the train.There were special sliding turnstiles. When you drop the token in the slot the little doors open. The tokens cost 9 rupees each ($.18) to go 5 stops. Chauhan our driver went with us. It was his first time on the Metro too! We only waited a few minutes for the train.

On the Metro it is always crowded. There are millions of people! People are smashed like crazy and we felt like we couldn't breathe. Mom and Dad helped us move to a spot that was less crowded.

It took us ten minutes to get to Patel Nagar - our Metro stop. We went there to look for a special toy shop. We took a bicycle rickshaw to the toy shop but it was closed! We found another one, but it wasn't very good so we walked back to the station. Chauhan helped us get more tokens. The train was still crowded.

When we got back to our car we drove to eat lunch at the Turtle Cafe. Then we went shopping for a little while. Audrey bought a magic trick and Evan got a little Lego kit. Then we drove home! We had a good day.

Greater Noida Swimming Competition!

2009-09-15T12:09:00.005+05:30

Evan and Audrey spent their summer in swimming training at Lotus Valley. They got their first chance to be in a swimming competition here in India! The competition was held at the Jaypee Greens Sports complex in Greater Noida. It was in an Olympic-sized pool! Our friends from Austin (and our driver) got to watch the races with us!

Audrey competed in the freestyle (50 and 100 metres) and breast stroke (50 metres). Evan was in his first ever races in the freestyle and breast stroke (50 metres)!

The pool was 20 feet deep (Evan found this out) and was 50 metres long. There were about 7 kids in each race (heat). You have to jump off a block when your start the race.

We had to wait a while for our races. All of the big kids went first. It was pretty hot in the bleachers, but there were fans. The fans were big and loud. They could cut your fingers off if you weren't careful! The bleachers were covered with banners to help shade us.

They both did a great job with the races. Evan got 4th place in his very first one! He had a really good dive off of the blocks.

This was Audrey's 3rd competition (1st in India). She won three medals: bronze for 50 metre breast stroke and bronze for 50 metre freestyle. She also won a silver medal in the 100 metre freestyle!

We met some new friends and had some free food. It was a long, hot day, but we had a fun time...

Riding on Roads in India

2009-09-07T16:52:00.004+05:30

Driving in India is like swimming in water. It flows like a river. There are many objects on the road, like cars and buses (sometimes even elephants). The most unusual thing we have seen on the road is a cow. The farmers let them roam around and let them graze. This is why you see them everywhere. There are lots of funny vehicles on the road. There are three-wheeled Auto rickshaws. The driver has a pullcord he uses to start the engine. It reminds us of Dad's old lawnmower. There are also bicycle rickshaws. The last funny thing are the bullock carts. These are two-wheeled wagons pulled by water-buffalo. You sometimes have to drive around all of these things to get where you are going... There aren't many rules when you drive: Just don't hit anyone and just keep going.

Our Dad started driving us recently. He usually doesn't drive because we have a driver named, Chauhan. Chauhan is a very good driver. Now Dad can drive us to the mall when Chauhan is off.

On the roads here everything is opposite. The steering wheel on our car is on the right side instead of the left. And the cars on the road travel on the left side instead of on the right like back in the USA. Riding in a car can be very exciting here because everything is so different and you never know what you are going to see next!

Austin Friends!

2009-09-01T10:29:00.004+05:30

Our friends from Austin, Mazzy and Artie have been visiting us here in India for 2 weeks! They came with their Mom, Miss Jennifer, and her friend, Miss Nikki. We got to show them a lot of the things we like here! The railroad museum and the Qtab Minar. They got to visit Jaipur and went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal (We haven't even been to see the Taj Mahal yet!) Our friends got to try some good Indian food (although we did enjoy some pizza and macaroni and cheese while they were here too!). Miss Jennifer and Miss Nikki brought us lots and lots of Macaroni and Cheese and Peanut butter from the US. Now we won't run out!

This last weekend we took a trip to Mussoorie on the train. It is high in the mountains so the weather was cool. Mazzy and Audrey got to take a horse ride and we went to see local Buddist and Hindu Temples. Artie and Evan learned some magic tricks! We had fun with our friends! We will miss them when they go back to Austin, Texas. : (

Tea Plantation

2009-08-17T08:51:00.005+05:30

We got to visit a Tea Plantation while we were traveling in Kerala (South India). The Plantation is near Kumily in the mountains known as the Western Ghats.The plantation was very large. We saw lots of tea plants, but the first thing we learned was there is only one kind of tea plant! How we get many kinds of tea is because of where it is grown. The tea is in different climates so we get many different flavors.
This is how tea is made: First the tea leaves are trimmed off the tea plants. Then workers take the fresh leaves and suck the moisture out of the leaf. The factory uses big fans and trays for this. Next the dried leaves are roasted on a moving belt over a wood fire. Then machines separate and grind the leaves. Another machine sifts the tea into full leaves, bits of leaves and powder. This is a big pile of roasted tea! Tea powder is what goes inside a tea bag. Loose leaves are what we use for masala chai (spiced tea).

Our favorite tea is hot milk-tea with a lot of sugar!

Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary

2009-08-12T14:30:00.009+05:30

We went to the Periyar Wildlife Preserve near Kumily, Kerala. The Preserve is in a mountain forest. It was way, way colder than where we live near New Delhi!First we went on a jeep ride through the forest. On the way we saw lots of animals: giant black squirrels, wild elephants (even a baby elephant), bison, Sanbars and two kinds of macaques (monkeys). We also saw what we thought was an inchworm... it was really a leech! A leech sucks your blood and looks like a little inchworm. Our dad had 6 or 7 on his ankles at one time. Gross! We found out that if leeches suck too much blood they die.

After the jeep ride we ate breakfast. We had fruit, idli, sambar, fried eggs and chai. Then we went trekking for 3 1/2 hours. We were way up on the top of mountains - sometimes in the clouds! We hiked across a river and got our feet very wet. There were lots and lots of leeches on the trail. Leeches hate salt so we used some on our feet and special leech-socks to keep them away. The socks go up to your knees to help keep the leeches from biting you!

We had lunch after our trek and then went on a rowboat ride and climbed a waterfall. The boat ride was very short. I wanted it to be longer. Before we left the park we saw a small museum full of animal bones. The had all of the bones from a female elephant! Then we went back home through the jungle to the hotel in our safari jeep. It was a long day, but very fun!

Kerala

2009-08-05T18:28:00.004+05:30

We just got back from our trip to Kerala. We traveled there by plane. It was a four hour ride and had one stop in Mumbai before we landed in Cochin, Kerala. When we got there it was very late so we looked around and then we ate dinner. Do you know that Kerala is the coolest place we have been to in India? The temperature there is in the 80's during the day. We even went up into the mountains were we all had to wear jackets!

Kerala looks very different than Delhi. It is green, clean and developed. Kerala has less people so it is easier to keep clean. There are HUGE fishing nets and coconut trees. We stayed in a 3 star hotel in Fort Cochin. It has a pool and we stayed upstairs. The color of the hotel is white, green and light red.

Another thing that is different about Kerala is that there are lots of Christian churches there. We went to a beautiful, old, large one that was built by the Portuguese and the Dutch.

The Hottest Day Ever...

2009-07-15T21:15:00.014+05:30

The hottest day ever was when we went to the India-Pakistan border. This was near the town of Amritsar in the state of Punjab. We thought we would be in the shade, but NO! The sun was pointing directly at the bleachers. Everyone was melting in the sun!

We went to the border to see Army men march and shout at each other. They were kicking so high they were touching the sky! The soldiers had very fancy uniforms.

The temperature finally got better around 5pm when the sun started to go down. Our shirts were soaked, but we felt better.
At the end of the ceremony it was very busy. There were people all over. We walked back through the special gates to meet our driver and went back to our hotel in Amritsar.

Back to School

2009-07-01T12:24:00.002+05:30

We went back to school today. We needed to get up extra-early this morning to make sure we had our backpacks together and all of our summer projects ready to take to school. Grandpa and Nana helped us with some of these while we were on vacation in the US!

Dad got up early to make our lunches and he made us special pancakes to celebrate going back to school. Mom helped us get dressed and get our room tidy.

Here we are in our track uniforms (we wear these every Wednesday instead of our regular grey uniforms). Our school-backpacks are really loaded down! They can get pretty HEAVY some days.

Back From Vacation!

2009-06-29T10:17:00.009+05:30

We spent the last 6 weeks visiting our grandparents and seeing lots of sights in the USA! We started out visiting our Grandpa and Nana in the mountains of Georgia. Grandpa likes to go hiking in the woods! We went on some really good trails and we took the dog with us. Her name is "Georgia."

Then we took a road trip (that's what Dad calls it) to visit relatives and sight-see. We visited some cousins in North Carolina and Virginia. We got to see our Great Aunt Jane and learned how to shoot a rifle!

Then we drove on to Washington D.C. It is the capital city of the US. We got to see the Lincoln and Washington Memorials, the Vietnam Memorial, and had a private tour of the White House (although President Obama was busy working so we didn't get to meet him.) One of our favorite things was visiting the Air and Space Museum. Very cool. It is one of the museums in the movie, "Night at the Museum 2."

The next place we visited was Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This is the city were the United States began. We got to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall - where the "Declaration of Independence" was signed! Our Uncle Joe is a Park Ranger there. He explained to us some of the history in Philadelphia.Then we went on to see our Grandma and JaJa in Buffalo, New York. We got to do all sorts of things with themincluding seeing Niagara Falls in Canada,and going to Detroit, Michigan. We also got to eat good local foods like Pizza and Chicken Wings.

We are back in India now. It is really hot here! Our summer vacation is almost over! We go back to Lotus Valley School on the 1st of July. We will post more pictures of some of the things we saw during our trip soon!

Summer Break

2009-06-02T17:41:00.004+05:30

Summer break in India started on 9 May and lasts until 1 July. Schools are closed now because it is the hottest time of the year in India. We are off 8 weeks -- no school and no Hindi lessons! Yeah! It is so hot here, after a few days of heat we get a dust storm and then some rain to cool it off. Dust storms are really bad - very windy and dust gets in your eyes and mouth.

This is how people stay cool in India: take lots of cold baths, eat ice cream and popsicles, swim, drink alot of water, drink nimboo-pani (lemon-water), stay in the shade, go to the movies, go to the mall, go to a water park called THUNDER!, go to the mountains. The largest mountains in the world, the Himalyas, are in North India. We want to go see them too.

Boring Turned Fun

2009-05-09T21:17:00.004+05:30

We had a hot, boring afternoon the other day. Dad said we couldn't turn on the A/C because it wasn't quite hot enough. We were finished with our homework AND our reading. The pool was closed. It was too early to watch our favorite show, "Ben 10." There was just nothing exciting going on.

Then we went out on to our balcony. Hooray! The gardeners turned on the sprinklers!
We quickly grabed our umbrellas and ran out into the "blast zone!" The umbrellas make great shields and the sprinklers shoot water everywhere! It really cooled us off! Boring really turned into fun fast!

Swimming!

2009-05-03T12:52:00.004+05:30

Its now really hot here in India. Yesterday it was 43 degrees Celsius (about 110 Fahrenheit). So that's why we always go swimming here. Since April we have been taking swimming lessons everyday after school. Our coach is very nice. He has us practicing the front crawl, backstroke, the breaststroke. On Friday we even did some underwater somersaults!

We have a really nice pool here where we live. On weekends and in the evenings we swim with Mom, Dad and some of our friends. The pool here even has a water and palm trees. These are some of the best things about India!

Turtles at Mahendra Prakash

2009-04-23T14:36:00.005+05:30

While we were in Udaipur we stayed at the Mahendra Prakash Hotel. There were three reasons why we really liked this hotel. Reason number one was that they served us really good banana lassies and Evan got fresh chocolate milkshakes (although the first one he got had banana in it!).

The second reason was the pool. It was pretty big, blue and had cool water in it. It was hot in Rajasthan so Mom and Dad liked swimming in the pool too!

The best reason was the turtles! There were three of them living in the hotel's yard. We think they were a Mama turtle and her 2 babies. We had fun playing with them and even had some our stuffed animals, Newt and Nibbles riding them!

The turtles were a nice break from walking around and looking at temples and palaces. There are lots of temples and palaces in India!

Indian Block Printing

2009-04-17T12:23:00.003+05:30

We learned about Indian Block printing in a town called, Sanganer, near Jaipur. The block printing man at the company, Sakshi is very famous. His picture is in the "Lonely Planet" travel book!

Block printing is how colourful fabric has been made in India for a very long time. The fabric-makers use cotton and silk. The dye colours they use are natural. Colours are made from things like: buttermilk (yellow), banana leaves (green), sugarcane (red) and metal rust (black).

The artists carve pictures and designs in wooden blocks. There are many different designs! Evan chose 2 elephants, and Audrey chose a peacock. You dip the block in a pad of ink, and then press it on the cloth. You can do this several times with different blocks on the same spot to add differnent colors. The fabric can then be dyed any color as well!

Check out our finished artwork. These are now framed and hanging in our bedroom here in Noida! Pretty cool, huh?

Easter at the Embassy

2009-04-13T09:38:00.007+05:30

We got to go to the US Embassy in New Delhi for an Easter Egg Hunt! The Embassy is part of America so while we were there it was almost like being back home. There was even an American flag flying. Evan and Audrey each had a basket for collecting eggs. We saw kids there from all over the US. We got to play games with them all morning. In the Easter Egg hunt we even found a special golden egg so we got a special prize (a calico bunny rabbit!). We each ran in an egg carry race, a sack race and a three legged race. Mom and Dad had to run in the three-legged races with us. One of the best parts was the frosted sugar cookies... they reminded us of Quack's bakery back in Austin. We like those cookies. Mmm.

Happy Easter!

April Fools?

2009-04-02T08:12:00.003+05:30

It may be April Fools Day in the United States, but in India it's just the first day of the new school year. Audrey is now starting Class III (3rd Grade) and Evan is starting Class II (2nd Grade). Woo-Hoo!

The school year in India runs from April - March.

Riding an Elephant!

2009-03-31T20:37:00.004+05:30

We just got back from a ten day trip in Rajasthan. Rajasthan is one of the largest states in India, so we will have lots of things to share with everyone in the next few weeks! We went to the capital city of Rajasthan called, Jaipur. Jaipur is a very old city and has a big wall and many gates around the oldest part. Many of the buildings are painted pink there, so they call it the "Pink City" of India!

One of the favorite parts of our visit to Jaipur were all of the elephants. They are everywhere. You can see them here because people like to ride them and they are used by workers to carry things.We got to ride one into the giant Amber Fort. Even mom and dad got to go on top with us. This elephant was a girl and her name is Lakshmi. Evan and I got to pet Laskshmi's trunk. Her trunk was very warm and fuzzy! She is a very gentle elephant.

We even got to see an elephant carrying his own lunch! A big bunch of grass. This same elephant was very funny. We saw him pick up his driver's stick with his trunk. Then he handed it up to his driver! Elephants are very very smart animals.

Flat Stanley

2009-03-20T10:26:00.004+05:30

Flat Stanley flew all the way from Austin, Texas to stay with us for a few days! Our friend Mazzy sent him here. He had quite a trip - its a long way here from there! We let Stanley try on some traditional clothing so he would feel more comfortable. He's wearing a kurta pajama and a Rajasthani turban.

He got to ride on his first three-wheeler - an auto rickshaw. I think the drivers thought he was a little crazy. We gave Stanley a tour of our apartment and we got to play in our room for a little while. Then we took him around Noida to see the markets.

Stanley met the vegetable seller and the fruit seller. We also gave him a ride in a bicycle rickshaw. And finally - much to our surprise, some boys agreed to give Stanley a ride in their cart - pulled by a Water Buffalo! That's a really BIG animal.

Stanley's headed home today - back to Austin to share his experiences with Mazzy and Mrs Stanfield's kindergarten class at Robert E. Lee Elementary School! Thank you, Stanley. We had fun with you!

Happy Holi!

2009-03-12T16:03:00.006+05:30

This year, March 11th was Holi Festival here in India. It is a holiday for celebrating the end of the Hindu year. Everyone gets ready to 'play" by buying different colors. Some colors are made of powder and others you mix with water. We mixed ours in the kitchen. Then everyone goes out side and gets very crazy. Powdered colors and water-colors are flying everywhere!I ran around with one of our neighbors. We got soaking wet with color! Evan guarded our balcony with his "pichkari." Thats a special water pump that shoots really far. The best thing about Holi is that your clothes can get completely soaked and stained - and no one gets in trouble! Pretty cool, huh?

Basketball

2009-03-05T10:06:00.005+05:30

We started taking classes to learn how to play basketball here at ATS!Our coach is an Indian woman who lived in Australia for a long time. She is really good at basketball. She offers the classes to kids here on our Basketball court.

There are about 12 of us between 6-9 years old. We practice running up and down the court. We are learning how to shoot, pass and do lay-ups. And we are meeting new friends too! It's really a lot of fun.

Here is a little video of Audrey trying to make a shot!

Sariska National Park

2009-02-24T17:39:00.007+05:30

This weekend we took a trip to the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is a very large state south of New Delhi. We travelled to a 15th Century fort, called Neemrana. Part of it is now a hotel! Then we drove on to a National park where there are Tigers! We didn't see any tigers, but we saw their paw prints in the sand and many other unusual and beautiful animals.During our safari we saw many wild peacocks, The largest member of the deer family in India, called Sambers. (The are very big and are the tiger's favorite food!)

A spotted owl who was asleep in a tree.

And beautiful brown birds (Magpies?) who land in your hand! We hope to go to another wildlife park in a few months that is up in the mountains called, Jim Corbett! We had fun on our safari!

Pedal boating!

2009-02-20T09:05:00.007+05:30

We went boating in the moat (now a pond) of an old fort called, Purana Quila, the other day.

http://www.shubhyatra.com/delhi/old-fort.html We had a red boat. It was a little shabby, but we had fun exploring the pond.

Evan and Audrey each had a turn pedaling and steering with the boat tiller.
The funniest part was when a man and his son decided to rent one of the little speed boats and race around the moat right past us! Our boat rocked back and forth from all of the waves.

Commando Monkey

2009-02-16T18:44:00.005+05:30

We had a problem at ATS Village where we live recently. Some local monkeys got into the compound here. The monkeys are a problem because they will eat your plants and throw things from your balcony. And for sure, please don't let them into your apartment! Boy, will they make a mess!Because the monkeys showed up, the management call in the commando monkey! He is a special breed called a "Langur."

The Langur's job is to come in and look for all of the other monkeys. Then he scares them all away! He is much larger and has a black face. The Langur also has a long tail like a lion. He looks alot different than the Rhesus monkeys who are much more common and are the ones who steal ice cream cones from little kids.

Medicine... yuck!

2009-02-09T11:31:00.005+05:30

We have been sick for about the last week! Evan had an upset stomach, runny nose and cough. Audrey had congestion, ear ache and an upset tummy. Not fun. We went to the doctor at one of the local hospitals. She is very nice. She is a children's doctor (pediatrician). One thing is for sure - they give you a lot of medicines in India when you get sick! We almost had one medicine for all the colors of the rainbow. It doesn't taste very good, and Dad says the bottles don't have "safety caps" on them. Icky.

The good thing is that we are now feeling alot better. We got to walk to the store to get some treats to eat. Mom and Dad let us do this once a week for fun. We can spend 20 rupees. (That's about $.50). Evan got a small bag of chips and a juice box. Audrey got a BIG bag of chips!

Adventures in the 14th Century

2009-02-02T09:07:00.006+05:30

We went to two really neat places in New Delhi over the weekend. The first is called Tughlakabad. It is a huge fort that was finished in 1324 - a very long time ago! It was built by an India Sultan named, Ghiyasuddin Tughlak. Sultan is another word for "king." The walls of the fort are 6.4 kilometers long so it is a very big place! Our favorite part of the fort is the secret tunnel the supposedly goes to another fort nearby. The tunnel is 1 kilometer long and is full of cobra snakes during the day! Don't worry, we didn't go down there.

The second place we visited was a very old Mosque called Qutb Minar. It is very famous because it has a very tall, beautiful "minar." A minar is like a tall tower. Mom and Dad say this is a "World Heritage" site because it is very unique. The minar was built by another sultan named, Qutbuddin Aibak. It is 72 meters tall and was built between 1202 and 1210 A.D. Qutb Minar is even older than Tughlakabad! It have many beautiful carvings and inscriptions on it all the way to the top.
The minar was built to show how strong the Sultan was, but there is a great story that says the Sultan built it for his daughter. His daughter loved the water. The tower was tall enough so she could climb to the top and see the Yumana River from far, far away!

Broken Specs!

2009-01-28T11:16:00.004+05:30

Audrey's famous red glasses, admired by all, broke last week! We took them around to some shops, but no one was able to repair them. But don't worry, we bought a nice new pair from a local eyewear shop! So now Audrey has a new pair of bright, blue "specs" to enjoy!

We miss the hearts made out of rhinestones, but we really like the new pair Audrey chose!

Birthday Celebration!

2009-01-23T10:11:00.007+05:30

Evan had a very fun seventh birthday today! We invited our good friends from upstairs to join us. We had cheese pizza and chocolate cake (Evan's favorite!)
Evan had a big pile of gifts. Most of them traveled a long way to get here in time for the party. Some of our favorites were an indoor bowling set and a cool skateboard that we can ride here in the apartment complex. Of course Evan got a Lego kit (he still loves Legos). And Audrey even got a cute little plush puppy from her Aunt. We had a lot of fun! We wish everyone at home could have been here too!

Indian National Zoo

2009-01-18T19:29:00.003+05:30

Today we went to the National Zoo in Delhi. We had a great time. We saw several white tigers, a jaguar, elephants, giraffes with a baby, a hippo family with a baby, and lots of monkeys. The thing about the monkeys in the zoo in India is that they are not in cages! Another thing about monkeys is that they love ice cream! There was a bunch of monkeys stealing ice cream cones at the zoo. One was eating 2 cones at once. The monekys were trying to steal cones from little kids. Some people were just throwing their cones at the monkeys to get them to stay away. We had some chips for a snack (instead of ice cream). We threw the empty bag in a can marked "Use Me - Dustbin." But the bag just fell through to the ground. There was no bottom to the dustbin. We are surprised everyday by things in India!
Audrey took this great photo of a Jaguar.

Friends!

2009-01-12T18:25:00.002+05:30

See some of our new friends in our neighborhood.
These friend live right upstairs from us and go to our school. They are a brother and sister who were born in Ohio and now live here in India too!

New Delhi's INA Market

2009-01-07T18:50:00.005+05:30

Today we went to a very large market in New Delhi. Our new housekeeper/cook, Indomathi, said it would be a good place to go -- and she was right! There were so many things there: food, flowers, clothes, shoes, fabric, stuff for kitchens, electronics, toys, snacks, live animals (see rooster in photo), bags, drinks and naan. Naan is a type of bread in India. We saw men making it. They put a flat piece of dough in a very very very very hot clay oven. Then they pull it out using 2 pointy sticks. We had warm fresh naan for lunch and ate the rest at dinner. Yum!
Good thing we have the week off from school. Our school has been closed for the week due to cold weather. The low this week is 43F and the high is 62F.

Surprise!

2009-01-04T20:08:00.003+05:30

Our driver S.K surprised us on New Year's day with a car seat full of balloons! He is a really special driver!

We are now in our apartment. We opened some of our toys today that have been packed since we left Texas. Evan played with some of his Legos and Audrey played with her Barbie dolls.

We also finished our school work assignments. Audrey had to make a chart tracking the weather in Noida. Most days it was very foggy with a high of around 2o degrees Celsius and a low of about 7 degrees Celsius. (See if you can do the conversion to Fahrenheit - ed.) Evan had to draw a picture of his best friend and write 5 sentences describing him. He also read 6 stories from the Panchatantra. (India Fables). When we finished all of our work we watched Ben 10!

Uglydolls - especially for Kate!

2008-12-30T18:47:00.006+05:30

These are the Uglydolls we got for Christmas. Audrey's favorite one is Moxy. Moxy is the pink one.

The reason why we like them is that they are cute. They're called uglydolls but I think they should be call cute dolls.

We have been spending a lot of time this week at our apartment. We are getting ready to move in!

Indian Birthday

2008-12-29T18:40:00.003+05:30

Evan got invited to his first Birthday party here in India! His classmate, Pulkesh turned 7 on the 28th of December. The party was at Pizza Hut!We had cake, pizza and garlic bread.
We also played games at Pulkesh's party including musical chairs and a game called "statue." I got a "Ben 10" notebook, eraser, ruler and pencil sharpener. Audrey got a Power Puff Girls notebook, eraser, ruler and pencil sharpener.

It was a very fun party.
We are on our holiday break from school. We start back at Lotus Valley on the 5th of January.

2008-12-25T15:01:00.002+05:30

Evan wants you to know that Santa lands in India 12 hours before he visits Texas on Christmas Eve.
We were tracking him through the NORAD website. http://www.noradsanta.org/ When we saw that Santa was over Indonesia we thought we'd better get to bed!
Santa ate all of our cookies and drank some water (and he left some crumbs).
Santa brought Evan some Legos, Audrey some Ugly Dolls and each of us got a tiffin. This is an Indian school lunch box.
We all rode on a bicycle rickshaw today to bring some Christmas cake to our American friends here, the Smiths. The rest of the day we spent playing with our new toys and talking to our family on Skype. We have a small Christmas tree. Evan and Audrey made most of the ornaments. Merry Christmas!

Lotus Valley International School

2008-12-16T17:18:00.002+05:30

Today was our first day of school at the Lotus Valley International School! All of the kids wear a uniform. Daddy took a picture of us before we went to school so you could see it. The two ladies below helped us get started in our new school. They are very nice. You can see that the school behind them is decorated for Christmas. Christmas is a national holiday here in India.

In Evan's class all of the kids stand up when an adult comes in the room. They say: "Good morning ma'am or sir." In Audrey's class they call the teacher "Ma'am." Kids don't call their teachers by name. Just "Sir" or "Ma'am."

Evan got to go to Horse Riding Class today (Equestrian - ed) and also Music class. He played the drums. Audrey had her first day of P.E. She played "hoopla." It is just like what we call "hula-hooping." We had a good day today.

The Guesthouse

2008-12-13T10:04:00.004+05:30

The Guesthouse is fun! We can play in the yard.

We made a slide for our cars and had a good time. Laxman is the caretaker and a good cook. We eat Indian lunches and dinners here at the Guesthouse. Breakfast is American here. We still have jet lag. We are still not adjusted to the time difference. Cartoon Network is in Hindi, but we still watch it!

We made it!

2008-12-11T20:02:00.003+05:30

We had a very long flight on Monday, but had fun watching TV on the airplane. We landed very late at night. The city (New Delhi - ed.) was very foggy and dark. The hotel we are in is very nice, though. Mommy says it is the nicest one here (in Noida -ed).

Today we went to our new school and met the Headmaster. He is in charge of the school, like our principal Mrs. Smith. The school is called "Lotus Valley." We also looked at a lot of dusty apartments and got some photographs taken at a photo store. We took a picture of the photo store. There were cows walking by this store in the street! We will try to take some pictures of animals so you can see them.

We're finally going to India

2008-12-04T05:38:00.000+05:30

We have been waiting for days to get our visas. A visa is a piece of paper that helps you get into another country. We finally got our visas today. We need to get new tickets for our plane ride. Maybe we can go by the end of the week!

We've been at home from school, but are learning a lot about India. This is a picture of us with the India flag.

Saying "Good-bye"

2008-12-01T10:24:00.000+05:30

We had a fun time today with our friends from Robert E. Lee Elementary. Thanks for coming to play with us at Shipe Park. We will miss everybody.

Packing for India

2008-11-30T08:16:00.000+05:30

Packing for India is the first thing you have to do. It is not very easy! We have 2 suitcases to fill and we each have a backpack to take on the airplane. Mom and Daddy packed 14 boxes that we can also take. We took a photo of these so you could see them.