Connexus Activity Day - May 20

Yesterday there was a "Photo Challenge" at Connexus (fun Fridays are part of the regular routine). Students were tasked to take pictures worth different points:

Take a picture "sleeping." 1 Point.

Make Maxim (instant coffee) and give it to a teacher. 2 Points.

Make a card tower. Take a picture. 3 Points.

Take a picture with umbrellas. 1 Point.

Take a picture reading. 1 Point.

Take a picture jumping. 2 Points.

Make a rock tower. Take a picture. 1 Point.

Other fun challenges included changing shoes, teaching your teacher a new Korean word, lining up in order of birthdays, looking for something with 6 or more legs, finding three flowers, etc. It was a fun, but tiring, way to spend a Friday.

It was also Misook's last day and one of Yoonseo and Minji's first days at Connexus (both of them came to Connexus from KOPI this month, but have been my housemates since December. Now it's 9 for 10. Nine of the ten people who live in my apartment also work at Connexus! Good thing? Bad thing? Hard to say…but it's a small world).

Vice President Yoonseo (back left).

Front desk / office manager Minji (back right).

Mussoorie Week: What we did (more or less).

Took a car from Delhi to Mussoorie. (Sad to not have the train experience,
but we arrived relatively on time and not too worse for wear).

Dad in teaching / storytelling mode. Talking about stinging nettle and "Doc plant."

Forest fires and switchbacks / "Hair pin turns." Driving up wasn't fun.

Walking. Dad on the "Eyebrow" trail.

Got some shirts tailor made :)

Our guest house at the school. Dad busy with work emails.

Top of Flag Hill (Part of Jabarkhet Nature Reserve). Short-ish hike.

Cup of chai at a hole-in-the-wall shop near Batagad.

Char Dukan - some signs / inside another tea shop.

Walking through Sister's Bazaar. Learned later that the man in the background is
from Thunder Bay!

Reading from Steve Altar's memoirs (famous local author
who went to Woodstock around the same time as Dad). 

Tibetan prayer wheels in Happy Valley.

Caught in a downpour while eating supper just past "the mall."
Exciting to have a taste of monsoon season.

Took goofy pictures while walking around Landour. Just because.

India - Bazaar (Market) People

India - More Plants & Animals

Pine cones the size of my foot!

Rhododendron. Fading blooms.

Tiny pink mountain daisies!

Colourful bug. Cicada? Surprised that I didn't see more beetles (not much
decaying underbrush because of efforts to stop people cutting down trees.
Somewhat ironically, this means fewer beetles / less biodiversity).

Butterfly / Moth - two of many!

And, of course, the sacred cow... 

…and not so sacred guard dog / stray dogs.

Mussoorie / Landour - Landmarks

Dad in front of his old school (Kindergarten + Grades 5-9, I think,…Oops!).

"The Quad" -- upper floor is where my Aunties lived while in boarding.

Lyre Tree (Chir Pine) - School's logo inspiration.

Kellogg's Church in Landour.

Ellengowan (where Grandma used to live with dad/aunties for part of the year)

Sister's Bazaar (named after some nuns).

Lal Tibba Outlook (better views on a clear day --lots of forest fires recently).

Landour Cemetery - sat and read for a bit :)

Back side of the "Chukkar" - peaceful!

St. Paul's Church beside Char Dukan ("four shops").

View form Mullingar Hill.

One of Dad's old boarding residences.

Picture Palace - now an arcade (old movie theatre).

Prayer flags in Happy Valley (Tibetan part of Moussourie).