Or not!
As I write this post, I do have the Bangles song, "Manic Monday" running through my head but today, Monsoon Monday is a much, much better chorus to the song.
Living in India, I thought I'd never have a day off of school due to weather. In Brazil I was always jealous of friends in Chicago who had snow days. Today I learned that even in warmer climates, the weather can still interfere with school. Today was a monsoon day. ASB ended classes at 10:30 for students and 11:30 for faculty.
At 6 a.m. the wind picked up this morning. The rain pounded my windows. It sounded loud but being dark still I didn't actually see how rainy it was until I caught the bus at 7 a.m.
When I got downstairs, I was met by Morris, an ASB driver. He told me my housekeeper, Espe had called him to share that she was stuck on a train and didn't think she'd be able to make it. I sent her a text and told her to turn around and return home for safety. We spoke a little later on the phone and she again shared she was on the train and that it wasn't moving. We agreed it was best for her to return home. Some people spent 5 hours at the train station today due to tracks being covered. I hope she wasn't one of those.
On the drive to school, it rained hard the entire way. Streets were flooded and waterlogged as they had been yesterday. Manholes bubbled as water poured out of them. But when we crossed the river in the Bandra Kurla complex, the river showed the true amount of rain. It was much, much higher. This river is also right next to several slums whose residents had/have to be suffering greatly due to the over 50 hours of rain.
I started my day in third grade and taught an introductory lesson to using readers' notebooks. I noticed the rain had continued during our lesson, but hadn't thought much of it. Before I left the room, Erica shared an email that had arrived while we were working with students. ASB was getting out early.
The dismissal, as others have shared on their blogs, went smoothly. Truly impressed at how 600+ kids and parents were able to get out the door so easily. One ironic thing many of us noticed was that just before the kids were dismissed, the rain stopped. It was dry for our ride home from school too. On the way, my van companions and I noticed the high river levels and that the lake on SV Road had risen significantly as well but the streets were noticeably drier. Definitely good news for sure.
So, how'd I spend my monsoon day? It took about 30 minutes to get home. I decided to take a short nap. When I woke up, I ventured out into the break from the storm. I went shopping at a favorite store with Andrea called Good Earth. We made it to the shop without any problems from the weather or taxi directions and found some treasures to bring back across the Sea Link. As we rode home, I definitely felt fortunate in several different ways.
The video which is on this link, was shared by TyAnne, a former Mumbaiker and new friend, on Facebook earlier today. It gives you a good perspective of what some people had to combat today and why we had our first, and hopefully only, monsoon day.
As I write this post, I do have the Bangles song, "Manic Monday" running through my head but today, Monsoon Monday is a much, much better chorus to the song.
Living in India, I thought I'd never have a day off of school due to weather. In Brazil I was always jealous of friends in Chicago who had snow days. Today I learned that even in warmer climates, the weather can still interfere with school. Today was a monsoon day. ASB ended classes at 10:30 for students and 11:30 for faculty.
At 6 a.m. the wind picked up this morning. The rain pounded my windows. It sounded loud but being dark still I didn't actually see how rainy it was until I caught the bus at 7 a.m.
When I got downstairs, I was met by Morris, an ASB driver. He told me my housekeeper, Espe had called him to share that she was stuck on a train and didn't think she'd be able to make it. I sent her a text and told her to turn around and return home for safety. We spoke a little later on the phone and she again shared she was on the train and that it wasn't moving. We agreed it was best for her to return home. Some people spent 5 hours at the train station today due to tracks being covered. I hope she wasn't one of those.
On the drive to school, it rained hard the entire way. Streets were flooded and waterlogged as they had been yesterday. Manholes bubbled as water poured out of them. But when we crossed the river in the Bandra Kurla complex, the river showed the true amount of rain. It was much, much higher. This river is also right next to several slums whose residents had/have to be suffering greatly due to the over 50 hours of rain.
I started my day in third grade and taught an introductory lesson to using readers' notebooks. I noticed the rain had continued during our lesson, but hadn't thought much of it. Before I left the room, Erica shared an email that had arrived while we were working with students. ASB was getting out early.
The dismissal, as others have shared on their blogs, went smoothly. Truly impressed at how 600+ kids and parents were able to get out the door so easily. One ironic thing many of us noticed was that just before the kids were dismissed, the rain stopped. It was dry for our ride home from school too. On the way, my van companions and I noticed the high river levels and that the lake on SV Road had risen significantly as well but the streets were noticeably drier. Definitely good news for sure.
So, how'd I spend my monsoon day? It took about 30 minutes to get home. I decided to take a short nap. When I woke up, I ventured out into the break from the storm. I went shopping at a favorite store with Andrea called Good Earth. We made it to the shop without any problems from the weather or taxi directions and found some treasures to bring back across the Sea Link. As we rode home, I definitely felt fortunate in several different ways.
The video which is on this link, was shared by TyAnne, a former Mumbaiker and new friend, on Facebook earlier today. It gives you a good perspective of what some people had to combat today and why we had our first, and hopefully only, monsoon day.
Wish I was there!!! Great post! xxx
ReplyDeleteWish you were here too. Missing your smile and positive attitude. And dude, now I'm beyond busy. Thanks for helping with that. :)
ReplyDelete