Goodbye Happy Days...Hello GOA!

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Hello everyone!
So rather a lot of time has passed once again since my last entry! I'm not very good at this keeping in touch thing especially as now i am on the move....or stuck to a sunbed in goa! So i guess i should rewind and recap our last month at Happy Days and then move on to my current whereabouts!

So our last month at Happy Days consisted of singing, dancing, painting, packing and preparing to say goodbye 😞 We celebrated our three month anniversary and went to see our first Bollywood movie, which unfortunately was a bit crap and all in hindi so kinda hard to follow...but we did have the whole cinema to ourselves which was kinda cool!!:P

We spent some time going into the local villages to help with the community work Priya was doing to get the kids to clear up some of the rubbish and Sally and I started our own projects in school. We created and painted a mural with help from some of the kids and we also taught some grade 4's how to sing and dance to Jackson 5's "ABC" and grade 5 did a superb rendition of "Blame it on the boogie" which they performed at the fete on the last day of school. It was so nice seeing how much the kids enjoyed performing and their enthusiasm, although on hot days trying to rehearse was slightly overwhelming it was also infectious.

At the beginning of April one of the teachers at school got married and the wedding was held in the school grounds! It was an incredible experience to see the whole process and another chance for us to parade around in our Saris! We also got to go the "sangeet?!" (unsure of spelling there!?) which is where all the women get together before the wedding and perform songs and dances for the bride. It was a lovely atmosphere and a great experience to be part of.

Our last few weeks were a blur of getting the kids ready to perform and sorting ourselves out for our departure! We found it pretty hard to convice ourselves that we were actually leaving but were also very excited to get to goa! We had some lovely meals with our principal and Nitu ma'am...our neighbour in school before we left and it was these occasions which made us realise how hard it was going to be to leave such a welcoming community that we now felt so at home in.

Our last day and departure from school was done in typical happy Days style, i.e chaotic! We had planned to leave at around 4pm to catch our 9pm train to goa. However we were informed that there was a political rally going on that day in shivpuri, so we were advised that it would probably be wise to leave asap! We were sent lunch and told that they'd let us know when the bus would be ready to take us into town. We had barely finished eating when Gita ma'am came to our room to tell us that the bus would be here in 5minutes!! Luckily Sally and I had both already packed up so we were ready to ship ourselves off. We were driven into town in a Happy Days bus, a very apt send off.

It was definately strange and sad saying goodbye to Happy Days and i didn't think i would find it quite as hard as i did. It was sad saying goodbye to the kids but nice having them asking us when we would return and would we be bringing our husbands...!!! Looking back, teaching at Happy Days was one of the most intense and emotionally taxing experiences i think i've put myself through, but at the same time i think it's probably one of the best ones. I'm not sure how much the kids learnt from me but they definately taught me a lot through their crazy, testing behaviour. Although difficult at times, i have to admire their desire to learn and achieve although often i think some were confused between achiving in the academic sense and achieving in pushing me to breaking point. But the good with the bad, in the most cliche way i wouldn't have changed a thing, apart from maybe wishing i could have done more!

Our early departure meant we had plenty of time to get our train which was an hour delayed anyway. Unfortunately when we checked our status we were still waitlisted 1 and 2, but with no other choice we had to risk it and get on the train. Goa was calling and we were determined to get there! When we got on the train it was pretty packed out but we found one side lower berth free and so plonked ourselves down and waited for the ticket collector to come so we could start fluttering our eyelashes!! When he came he unsurprisingly told us the obivious that we were waitlisted and that there were no seats and walked off. Sally and i were slightly confused but also slightly relieved that we were still on the train! One of the people sitting opposite us told us that the seat was probably for someone who worked on the train, but that we could sit there. So we did. I must say it wasn't the most comfortable sleep. Top and tailing on a very narrow bed with no sheets in an extremely air conditioned train, proved an experience i'd rather not repeat. Luckily by the next night (this was a 40hr train journey!) the train had emptied out a bit and we were allocated beds!! Hooray! So considering we managed to pull off that stunt off i reckon we're going to try and play it a bit safer from now on!!!
After our crazy journey i couldn't have thought of a better place to arrive in than Goa! We met up with Tess and the next day headed up to Anjuna to be reunited with the other gappers and hit the beach.
We chilled on the beach with the many dogs and occasional cow and shopped at the wednesday flea market before moving on up to Arambol.

We found some gorgeous beach front tree huts to stay in and fell in love. You could hear the sea in your room at night and fall onto the beach in the morning! It was pretty much paradise and the perfect way to relax and unwind. We spent our time being very accomlished beach bums, lying on the beach, eating good food and having awesome bonfires and sing alongs on the beach at night....slipping easily into the hippy vibe.

I was joined by my sister on the 3rd and it was lovely to share some of this India experience with her! We spent a few more days in Arambol before prying ourselves away to head down to the next beach called Mandrem. We stayed in some beautiful beach huts and the beach itself was idyllic. There was no one there and everything was pretty much closing up for the monsoon so after a night we couldn't quite resist the urge to head back to Arambol.
We've had some stressful train situations planning our travel around India and although we had planned to leave Goa on the 9th it seems something else had other ideas as we still had no seat on the train we had booked out so had to extend our stay in goa!(oh what a tragedy!! :P) It worked out really well as it meant i got to stay with my sister until she left and we moved down to the south of Goa to Palolem beach which was really nice...all lined with palm trees.

We finally made it out of Goa on the 13th and headed down to Kerala for our backwater expereince. i was sad to leave the sea and sand but excited to be on the move again and once again venture out into the 'real india'. When we got to Kerala we headed to our houseboat and spent the day sailing through the beautiful backwaters being served yummy food. It was a wonderful experience and the perfect way to relax after our train journey. We spent the next day in Kochi wandering round seeing the massive fishing nets and generally being super tourists! we saw a cool dance performance in the evening and then headed back to allepey to catch our train the next morning down to chennai, which is where i have finally managed to get my arse onto a computer to make myself write this!

I'm loving being 'on the road' or i guess on trains a lot of the time and seeing and experiencing more of India. Goa was the perfect break and refuge, but it's very true that it sort of felt like a bubble outside of India. I've now hit the half way mark of my 8months away and i can't belive how quickly it's going! We have one more month left in India and i'm preparing to pack as much into it as possible as i really am going to miss the country and culture that has become a 2nd home for me these past few months.

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