Our Trip to Jodhpur

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

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!