Sitting with Sweets

This week at school we have shortened periods in order for a "zero period" to be at the end of the day. My school is starting preparations for Annual Day, which is at the end of November, but the Principal and Correspondent take this program very seriously and give the students plenty of time to come up with good acts for the show. This year the theme is "Follow in the Footsteps of the Great Souls." Yesterday during the zero period, all of the students who wanted to participate came into the main hall of the school and sat on the floor, waiting to give their names to the Principal and Correspondent who will put together groups of students for dances, dramas, singing, etc. I sat on the floor for the full hour waiting to be called up, but it didn't happen. There were so many kids waiting that only about half of them were put on the list. I spent most of the time talking with a young girl about India- she's originally from Canada and moved back two years ago, so we had a lot in common to talk about!
Today I gave the Principal and Correspondent gifts for Diwali- some T-shirts and pencils and a pin. I also told the Principal that I wanted to participate in a dance for Annual Day. She said I could! During zero period I got a lesson from my friend Lavanya on Tamil writing. We were sitting in the class, bored, and so I pulled out a sheet of paper and asked her to show me how to write my name. She wrote it down for me and I copied the letters about ten times until I could draw the shapes a little easier.I also learned how to write "mom, dad, Olivia, I love you, beautiful, peace, and happy." The Tamil script is really cool! There are so many curves and circles and shapes that are so different from ANY of the English letters. The sounds and meanings of many words and letters are still very much a mystery to me, but I'm glad to report that I learn at least one thing new every day!
After school when the second bell rang signaling all of the students who ride in a vans to go out to the traffic circle, I went to my class to get my backpack and then headed out with a surge of kids- looking for some of the little girls who ride in my van to stand and talk to while we're waiting. I found three of them and we all stood together in the shade and talked about Indian food. The girls are always curious to know what I eat! We waited...and waited...the van FINALLY showed up at 3:00 p.m.! Forty minutes late! We all piled in and drove a little ways down the street where the driver pulled over and brought out plates of sweets and soda for us! He told us all "Happy Diwali" and we all sat and ate and drank and talked for a few minutes. When everyone had finished (or mostly finished at least!) we continued on, only to be caught up in traffic at the train tracks where we had to wait for about ten minutes for two trains to pass by. All of the kids were starting to complain of being late home when the gates finally went up and we drove slowly through with all of the other traffic. Then there was a bus backing up, but luckily that only took about a minute. I got home today at 3:45 p.m. which is an hour and a half later than usual. Everyone was waiting for me when I got back- the little girls next door and a few friends, Naresh (my host mother's nephew), Pati, and Raji (the maid). Mahesh got home a few minutes later and we had lunch. Now we're off to get some sweets for Diwali, and there is a Diwali party for Rotary tonight that we're going to attend!