Indus Day

Every year in the Fall, Indus -- the school Grace and Grant go to -- delivers a huge production. Each child in the PYP block (grades 1-5) gets a part and a costume. It would seem that in years passed, the program ran very long and so this year they divided the PYP in half and produced two shows. So instead of going to one really long show, we got to go to two slightly long shows. ( And we will get to do this every year we are here because of how our kiddos are spaced, dash it all!) Grant's group put on The Big Friendly Giant, and Grace's grade was part of Wicked.

There was an hour's worth of ceremony before the curtain went up on both nights. We got to listen to the Principal, the head of PYP and the CEO of the school deliver the same speech two nights in a row. But we were impressed with the performances and the amount of work that was put into these productions. The teachers, particularly in the arts departments, have so much passion.

After the speeches, there was a lighting of a lamp and a traditional dance.

And then it was finally show time! We were amazed by the parade of costumes alone. A lot of work had also been done on sets and they have some impressive lighting and sound equipment. The children were given different parts in the play based on physical build, talent, or by nature of which extra curricular classes/ regular classes they happened to be in. The ballet class had their own scene as a group, as did the modern dance class and the gymnastics class. Grant was cast in one of the lead roll spots. There is only one BFG (big friendly giant) in the play, but the part was shared between 3 boys. They were all chosen because they were the tallest in their age group. Grant had lines, gestures and stage marks that he practiced and practiced. Cori and I were so surprised proud watching him on stage. Grant has zero interest in performing but he spoke clearly and slowly, met all his marks and used large confident body gestures. I was so so grateful to his drama teacher (whom both the G's adore).

The children didn't have regular school on the days of their Indus Day performances. They were taken to the school on a late bus that came around noon. The productions didn't wrap until close to 9. It was a long day for them. But the school provided lunch, snack, and a box dinner. And they spent the whole day playing with their school buddies and in last minute practice. Grant was super happy with the whole shebang.

The next night we went through the same drill with Grace's group. I got a few more pictures throughout. Above and below, the lighting of the lamp and traditional dance.

Grace got casted as the singing voice of Glinda. Just as in Grant's play, there were multiple girls who played Glinda on stage. But every time Glinda sang, it was Gracie's little voice being piped from the choir loft. The actresses on stage would lip synch. Kind of strange. But I guess they had a lot of kids to fit into the evening...

We were sitting near the choir area and got to peek at the music being used. Everything was written out by hand. Those sweet music teachers!

Toki, one of our favorite friends, singing his solo.

The ballet class

Grace and her fancy head mic. She loved every minute of it. There were easily 200 people in the audience and she was completely calm.

Another favorite friend, Raju, at the end of his dance scene.

Grace with all the music 'sirs' (All teachers are addressed as Sir or Miss). Sir Alex, in the grey suit behind her, is also her cello teacher.

The productions were definitely not Broadway bound. Imagine a musical brought down to a high school level and then overlaid with a foreign country. But it was such a great process for the G's to be involved in. We happened to fall instep with the Drama Sir on our walk out to the car after Gracie's big night. I was glad to have the chance to thank him for all his work - we were personally indebted to him for his time spent with Grant especially. He told us about how he had paralyzing stage fright as a child and how his father forced him to sing on stage until it was comfortable for him. He told us how that skill alone had changed his life - Facing down something so terrifying. We are so grateful that the arts are a part of life here for these two lucky kiddos.

back in the saddle

I made a great friend at Eden's bus stop. Martina is from Brazil. Her husband works for Volvo and they and their two daughters had  already lived in India for three years when I met her. Their oldest daughter, Beatrice, is Eden's age. We got the girls together many times - they play super well together. Both of them have just the right amount of diva to balance the other!

Kids are always a good subject to bond over, but Martina and I really hit it off when I told her about our piano delivery. She was so excited - she told me she 'plays the violin' and would love to have an accompanist near by. She was so casual about it I didn't suspect that she is in fact a decorated world class violinist. She was preparing for a big concert in November and wanted to perform some of her pieces at a charity concert. Her concert accompanist was not available for the charity concert and so Martina asked me to join her. I felt a bit daunted, the pieces were challenging. But it was a rebirth for me to spend so much time at the piano. Truly, daily practice is as the wringing of a sponge to my brain and soul. Moreover, Martina and I really enjoyed our time playing together. The afternoon before the charity concert, Martina invited a bunch of friends over to our house to give a little impromptu concert for all our children. (pictured at the top) She gave a really cute explanation about how violins work and we played all our pieces for them. We did two Brazilian pieces, as well as a piece called Souvenir de Sarasate, and a Piazzolla tango. I have audio recordings, but haven't figured out how to get them loaded here. :(

The concert was a success and opened some more musical doors for me. As Martina was getting ready for her big concert, she and the ladies she was performing with needed a place to rehearse that was nearby. Martina asked if they could use our piano and I was so happy to invite them over. Natallia is a renown pianist from Belarus. Pat is an accomplished flutist and music educator from he UK. Along with Martina they formed a beautiful trio and their program was a nicely curated collection of Brazilian, Russian, and English (either by musical theme or composer) music. I got to enjoy the music for hours on end in the comfort of my own home and thoroughly enjoyed hearing the completed program run on the night of their concert. And they played one of my all time favorites as their encore: Sicilienen, by Fauré.

My association with Martina is a gift that keeps giving, even as she and her family have returned to Brazil. After nearly 15 years, I've polished up my flute and have been doing ensembles with Pat and some of her students. She is getting a concert together this spring and has invited me to play with them. I could never have imagined that the place I would finally get so much music performance back into my life would be in Bangalore! We are also super lucky that the Jagriti theatre is literally next door - just a lovely little walk and a $5 ticket away. Natallia gives performances there fairly regularly as well as some other great performers in the area.

happy birthdays

The end of October also brought the end of our family birthday season. Jeffers and I get things going slowly in the summer. But once Eden's birthday rolls around in August, we are celebrating just about every weekend through mid October. The older three kids all had un-birthday parties with their friends in Texas before we left. So each of them got a family outing of their choice. Eden and Grant both opted for a trip to Phoenix Market City where we ate at American restaurants and made a stop at Hamley's toy shop.

(I also found some Mac n Cheese ~ for about $5 a box~ and arranged this little display to welcome Grant home from school on his big day.)

Grace opted for a candlelit night at our favorite Italian restaurant and some money in her wallet. We also finally said yes to the hooverboard rental downstairs in the mall.

Eden, Grant, and Grace are all learning Spanish in school. They love chatting vocab. Cori got Gracie a cake with a Spanish birthday salutation. 

Halloween and the sea freight

We were told not to expect too much for Halloween. It is a very American holiday. We were excited to see what would come of it here. The weekend before the big day, we ate at our favorite Italian restaurant and they had a special menu that really went for the ghoulish gusto. And we knew that there would be trick-or-treating in Palm Meadows. But we didn't know how many people would actually be participating. As the date approached, we were anxiously working out the details of the delivery of our sea freight. We had bid farewell to most of our worldly possessions in the middle of August. And now, at the end of October, we were beyond excited to be reunited. The children were especially so as all our Halloween boxes were in the sea freight and they had a mufti day (non-uniform) where they would be able to wear costumes. 

Cori snapped this photo at the shipping yard. There is a one week process to get the container off the boat and then inspected by customs. Despite our best efforts to hurry things along, the delivery of our goods began the afternoon of the kid's mufti day. So we had to get creative with what clothes and supplies we could find. Grace made a cute strawberry. Grant pulled off a gangly neon skeleton. And Eden wanted to be Elsa (with a braid and straight hair). So we repurposed the Brave dress we had in the toy bin and did what we could with her perfectly hued hair.

We had some time once the big kids were off to school to prepare for the rest of the day. All of the rental furniture was scheduled to be dismantled and removed starting around noon, and the delivery would begin around 3. Selvi and I worked around the house stripping beds and cleaning out desks and drawers. I also had a couple of bags to prepare as we were going to be staying at the hotel at the clubhouse for two or three nights while the house got settled.

The rental furniture guys showed up over an hour late -- after I had made a dozen phone calls -- and the delivery showed up a half an hour early. So the rental furniture was moved to the driveway for dismantling. Once we had signed all the paperwork for that and the house was cleared, we were finally able to give the okay to start unloading the trucks. Jeffery was wandering in and out of the house all afternoon while I was signing papers and directing traffic. The moving guys were so so good with him. They let him watch Tom & Jerry on their phones, they made sure he didn't go into the street, they chased him down the sidewalk, and they kept him to the side when big loads were on the move. We stood with the manager at the front door and as each package came through we crossed it off on the master list and told them where to put it. We did this over the course of a couple days which were followed by a day for assembly and waste removal. We had bought a bunk bed in the States for the boys' room which was still completely unassembled and in its original boxes. They hired someone to spend a day assembling it for us. Cori and I each cried a tear of joy!

Four truck load's worth of paper-wrapped goods makes for A LOT of paper. At one point, I found the kids literally diving into a pile of paper off the back porch while the moving guys cheered them on. I put a hasty kabosh on this little activity, but Eden begged for one more jump. I reluctantly agreed and she proceeded to do a front flip from the patio chair. She and Jeffery do not get their fearlessness from me. I totally blame Cori!

Overall, our stuff made it through in good shape. We had an old cabinet that got crushed and needed to be thrown out. There were a few broken glass things. And when one of our TVs was uncrated, they "found" large scratches down the screen. I am 90% certain that the movers raked it with their box cutters. They were insistent that there was an offending staple in the crate that caused the damage. Fortunately, we get reimbursed for these kinds of things and it wasn't a big deal. 

Unfortunately, our Halloween boxes (and preplanned costumes) were nowhere to be found. I explained before how we had to divide our things into several groups for the move here. We had debated between putting the Halloween stuff into the air shipment pile and putting in into the sea freight. We knew we'd be cutting it close on the calendar for Halloween but I thought we had ultimately decided to put it into the sea freight (space was tight on the air shipment). It also doesn't help that we put half the Halloween stuff into storage. After several years of trunk-or-treats we have more than a few boxes of Halloween fun. I'm thinking (hoping) that there was a mix up in the garage that packing day and that all the Halloween stuff is waiting happily together in storage. I guess we'll find out in a couple of years! (And I'll be trying to stock up on Halloween stuff while we are state-side this summer!)

The kids were good sports. They dug around in the dress up box and got ready for trick-or-treating. Our dear friends here, the Jacksons, invited us over for a chili dinner before hitting the neighborhood. Dinner was delish and the rest of the night was surprisingly festive. Over 1/3 of the houses we wandered through had some decoration up and were participating that night. The streets were alive with families and friends.

Eden fell in the street and wailed loudly enough to draw a good crowd. Cori elbowed his way though to take this photo... She was totally fine, by the way.