Graduation from Woodstock is a long series of rites, starting with the Senior Music Recital. Then comes the Baccalaureate service, for which all students are requested to wear the formal costumes of their native countries.
For some students, it can be hard to decide what country they’re natives of. Many Woodstockers are culturally and/or ethnically mixed, and may hold multiple citizenships.
^ Benjamin models the traditional costume of his native Bhutan. No, “Benjamin” is not a traditional Bhutanese name; his family is Christian
^ Gonpo (Tibet/Nepal) and Roli (India)
^ Rossella representing for Italy in Dolce & Gabbana, Elisa for Finland
^ Jim Geddes’ advisor group: Kunga (Tibet), Shalvi (India), Shema (Nepal), Alamdar (Afghanistan), Laura (USA), Boris (Russia), Ross (Italy/USA), and Misha (India). Unfortunately, this photo does not do justice to Mr. Geddes’ sexy waxed mustache!
^ the two Japanese girls arrived late, because donning their traditional costumes takes a long time!
Woodstock School held its annual high school awards assembly. I didn’t film every moment of it, but got the highlights for the benefit of parents and other relatives who couldn’t be there.
Those of you who have no connection whatsoever with Woodstock may nonetheless be intrigued by the school’s demographics on display in these videos!
We’re in Delhi now (Dec 15th), but what with everything (including a day without any Internet at all, probably due to the weather in Mussoorie), it’s taken me a week to get this video completed and uploaded.
The last Saturday of the semester, students and staff mellowed out with an evening of performing and static arts. I completely failed to get photos of the paintings, drawings, sculpture, etc. – my apologies to the artists. But I did get video of most of the performances, in spite of technical difficulties…
The weather is cold, damp, and grey – it’s definitely time to leave the Himalayan foothills for warmer climes.
This week saw the last two days of exams Monday and Tuesday, then everyone had a day off to pack on Wednesday. Midlands (the high school girls’ dorm) was a chaos of trunks, clothing drying on racks, and shrieking, giggling girls:
Ross, as a SAGE student, was granted a trunk to put her stuff in, but this wasn’t sufficient. One of the suitcases she arrived with had gone moldy in storage, and I’m using the other one, so by special dispensation she was decreed a second trunk.
All the rooms must be completely emptied during vacations, I presume so that they can be thoroughly cleaned. And many people will be changing roommates. Ross was actually well-matched with her roommate this semester – somebody evidently took notice of her answer to the school questionnaire that she is very messy! Next semester she plans to room with a tidier friend; either Ross will reform, or they’ll drive each other crazy. Such are the lessons of boarding school…
Today was the last day of classes. Tonight there’s a farewell dinner at Alter Ridge, then Midlands and Hostel are having separate parties (why separate? don’t ask me – I’m told the boys are really lame these days…). Late tomorrow morning there’s a final assembly, then the students will walk down to the New Road to climb onto buses for Dehra Dun, to catch the Shatabdi Express to Delhi at 5 pm. Their luggage already left for Delhi by truck today.
Ross and I, since we have to deal with our luggage personally, will be taking a taxi down to join the train. I suspect they might as well call tomorrow’s train “The Woodstock Express”.
Yesterday morning I woke early to make coffee for our guest, out-of-boardingSAGE student Laura, before her 8 am exam. The sun had not yet risen when we came downstairs. I peered out the windows. “What’s that white stuff on the trees?” I wondered. “Frost? Is it that cold?”
We gazed. “It’s snow!”
We opened the door. “It’s snowING!”
We shrieked with delight. Laura, who lives in Paraguay, doesn’t usually get to see snow falling. (I, too, was raised in the tropics, and never saw snow coming out of the sky til I was 11 years old, in Pittsburgh.)
The ground was too warm for it to stick much, and the snow stopped falling after about an hour. Then the temperature plunged; last night was cold, even in Sanjay’s (unusual for Mussoorie) centrally-heated home.
This morning, the snow is back with a vengeance. Still not quite cold enough to stick, but we may be getting there…
It’s almost unheard-of for students to be around when snow begins falling in Mussoorie. Going Down Day – the end of school, when everyone heads down the hill towards home – was traditionally around December 7th, several weeks before the first snowfall was usually expected.
But this year the calendar has been experimentally changed, so school began August 8th (about two weeks later than usual), winter vacation runs December 14th to January 22nd, and the school year ends May 28th. Graduation is after that, on May 30th – ours, in 1981, was on June 25th!
The rationale for this change has not been well explained; I’ve heard that it was intended to allow more time to prepare (or less time to forget) before external exams in the spring, and/or to align better with the American school calendar.
There are historical, practical reasons for the school to have a long winter vacation. The average altitude of the campus is 7000 feet: it gets cold up here! Word on the hillside is that Mussoorie is in for a colder-than-usual winter this year, and, with a looming shortage of propane in the region, the school may have trouble heating itself. Staff usually have bukharis – woodburning stoves – in their living rooms, but in classrooms and offices these have been replaced with gas heaters. Dorm rooms are not heated at all.
Students are allowed to have electric blankets which, along with flannel or fleece sheets, can make getting into bed a far less traumatic experience than it used to be. The only problem is that, eventually, you have to get out again…
Beyond mere physical discomfort, the calendar change has upset the plans of this year’s SAGE (exchange program) families. The Winter Tour, a multi-week gallop all around India, primarily – but not only – for the benefit of SAGE students, has been compressed to 31 days. For some it will be even shorter, as students join or leave the tour at odd times so that the kids also have an opportunity to go home and see their families.
This is undoubtedly a headache for the tour organizers, especially as the tour is moving so fast that it will be hard to catch up with it along the way. Ross wanted to spend some portion of her vacation relaxing in Goa, and the only reasonable solution I could find was to have her join the tour just a week before its end, in Mumbai. It’s a pity she’s missing so much. On the other hand, after a long semester she needs some rest, and this year’s Winter Tour will emphatically not provide that.
The shortened vacation also eats into a beloved staff perk: the opportunity to travel in Asia during the dry (but still warm) season. Woodstock staff don’t get paid much, so these perks count for a lot.
All things considered, I suspect this calendar change is not going to stick, at least not in as drastic a form as we see this year. It’s a pity they had to run this experiment during my daughter’s year here; it would have been nice for her Italian relatives to see her at Christmas.
