Photos say much more

Hey there everyone!

I am finally breathing easier. It has been simply too hectic for the last couple months and now I am getting back to a more tolerable pace. What have I been up to? Hosting Germans, of course! Oh – but there is much more than that… some students finished their second term (exams and papers stressing them out) and the Urdu students and researchers were settling into the HMI world as well. In addition, our Director just left for 3 more months of sabbatical leave and the Associate Director just had her last days of work at HMI before moving away, so we had to get a lot of things done before the two of them went away. Now, there has been a mass exodus suddenly and I am actually quite relieved!! At the same time, the realization of being short staffed is weighing much heavier and I’m not quite sure how to go about making decisions or getting them approved.

I have been better about balancing my life a bit recently. I got more help with this recent group of Germans, I started getting descent sleep and going to yoga regularly, we played Volleyball a few times again, and I am trying to get back to learning Telugu. I went into the city and played Pictionary with friends one night. Work is still overwhelming and I could be there non-stop, but I am choosing sanity for now! J Of course, I am still not quite able to do as I wish with my time as much as I’d like, but it is getting better. I had wanted to serve pancakes to my neighbors for Fat Tuesday, but didn’t quite get it together. I can’t believe it is LENT already! I went to an Ash Wednesday service, but no ashes, so I was a bit disappointed.

What events can I tell you about in this blog? Well, let’s go with the pictures this time. Above, there is the staff picnic that we had at a resort place outside of the city. I even got to go for a nice swim (in my clothes and with only men, of course)! This gave me a chance to get to know people that I don’t regularly interact with on another level (and even learn some new names – after 4 ½ months, you’d think I’d have it together). I also had a chance to learn some things about the religions of India by attending more sessions with the German group. Usually, I can’t actually attend sessions that I’ve planned for groups because there are so many other needs each day. Here is a picture of a wonderful Sikh woman who recited from their holy book for us, a picture of women praying at a Hindu temple we visited, and finally a picture of the peace candle the Germans brought along with the flowers and candles used at their closing celebration.

I am attaching many more photos of India in another blog. Hope you like them! I wish I could say I took them, but I’ve been letting others be photographers lately and I’m quite happy about that.

Sara