Reunion Day One at Woodstock

Via email from Esther:

REUNION DAY ONE--Nov 5

We're all at Woodstock now. Yesterday morning Larry Smith and his friend Martin, Betsy Woodman, Mary Pollock, and Joy Rice Grover and John Grover all came up from Dharamsala (none too happy about the overnight train ride to Haridwar).  In the evening the Bhutan contingent--Ted and Jackie, Karen H, Esther, and Will (who got to see Everest from the plane) and Sue and Paul Hanifl, and Meherjee and Annie Cassinath rode up to Mussoorie. We're all staying at the Golden Palms near Picture Palace. The doorman greeted us by putting red tikkas on our foreheads.

More soon. We're touring the school today. Oh, so familiar! The worn floor stones, the staircases marked with UP on the left and DOWN on the right, the room shapes, and Covered Passage, the poles outside the dining room where we used to line up--some of us tear-up, seeing it all again.

-Esther

50th Reunion Trip to Woodstock

I have just received a number of pictures and a “post” from Esther and Karen Holden, sent from Bhutan which they are visiting before moving on to Woodstock.  I’ll update this as I get more.
Esther says:

GNID CONTINGENT IN BHUTAN EXPERIENCING GROSS GROUP HAPPINESS

We've seen the Bhutanese king, we were blessed by a reincarnated saint, we saw the Number Two Prince shoot arrows at a target 140 meters away and hit it, and we've laughed hard at most of Ted's bad jokes.

Bhutan is an incredible experience, unlike anything we've done before. There are five of us here: Ted and Jackie Chitambar, Karen Holden, Esther Jantzen, and Will Manton. To our surprise we are getting along marvelously, but whether that is due to our boarding-school-trained personalities or because we're in a Buddhist country, we're not sure.

The weather has not cooperated in allowing us to see the Himalayas much, but today we caught a glimpse of second highest mountain in Bhutan for about five seconds. We have an incredible guide--a story-teller, a joke-maker, and a man very well informed about Bhutanese history, culture, and religion. It's required for tourists to have a guide here, and we feel very fortunate to have this one. In addition, our accommodations have ranged from good to excellent. We have buffet meals morning, noon, and night, and the vegetarians/vegan in our group are satisfied. We think Rajiv Mehra has done an exceptional job in planning and travel arrangements, and his representatives at each place have taken tender care of us.

We're looking forward to meeting up in a few days with our GNID comrades who've been in Dharmsala, and trekking Tehri road together our old stomping grounds.

Note:  photo comments are mine (Hank's), for the most part.

Ted, Karen, and Esther aboard the GoFlight to Bagdogara, on the way to Darjeeling and Bhutan.


Having met up with Ted and Jackie, the group bonds (or so they say).



Tiger’s Nest Monastery above Bhutan’s international airport in  Paro.  I’m not sure if they flew into Paro or drove, but if you’re interested in seeing a video of the tricky approach and landing of a Druk Air flight into the Paro airport, click here.



The Darjeeling hotel room looks a bit cold.
 

The Ghoom Railway station is the highest in the world and now a World Heritage Site.

Esther and Karen make peace at Darjeeling’s Peace Pagoda.




















The world’s tallest sitting Buddha, Bhutan.  This temple complex is still under construction and will, reportedly, include 100,000 small statuettes of Buddha when it is complete with an estimated total cost of over $100 million.


















Ted, needing all the help he can get, spins prayer wheels.


























Ted, still looking for help, opens the “world’s largest book.”





















Ted and Jackie out for a Bhutan stroll.

















And then there is Will, always looking for a fitting fashion, tries on a Bhutanese gho.

WOSA 2013; Maryville, TN

Sue, Vivia, Will, Ed and his wife Karen, Louisa and her husband Paul, and I showed our class spirit and colors at the super WOSA gathering in Maryville, TN this past weekend and had a great time.  But, we missed those of you who couldn’t make it.  As you know by now, because it was our 50th year since graduation, we were asked to do a 30 minute class presentation.  More about that below.
One of the highlights, at least for me, was catching up with Eva and Bob Forsgren who are the same wonderful people we knew so well as students.  Eva is the same witty, irreverent and “tell it as it is,, lovely lady, and Bob is still, well, Bob.
   
The weather during the reunion cooperated very well and we felt in sync with a monsoon weekend in Mussoorie. We saw a few spots of blue in the sky as we closed things up on Sunday night, but other than that it was heavy white clouds rolling through the mountains with rain coming and going.  The Sunday service’s offering, which totaled over $1,200, was tagged for the victims of Uttarakhand’s horrendous flooding and landslides this season.  (And Sue’s silent auction netted another $3,000+ for WOSA.)
For our class presentation, Sue had us decked out in class colors.  

We had a slide for each class member who sent pictures to me (and a few who I had pictures for) and talked briefly about what that classmate had done since Woodstock.  It seemed to go over fairly well, and thanks to Sue starting off with some laughing yoga, everyone was awake (9 PM after a good khana).  If you’re interested in seeing the slide show and all of the pictures you sent in to me, click here to go to the SkyDrive folder that contains them.  (You – or other prying eyes – cannot get to this folder without this link, and you will NOT need to open a SkyDrive account to follow this link.)  Each of you who sent pictures in has a separate folder identified by your name that contains them.  (Laurie's folder contains another that has a bunch of neat photos in it.) Also, when you open the WOSA 2013 folder the link takes you to, you’ll find two files named _Class Presentation.  The one with the .key appended to it is an Apple Keynote version, and you will need Keynote to view it.  The one with nothing appended is a Microsoft PowerPoint version and will run when you open it, whether or not you have PowerPoint installed on your computer.  Unfortunately, the slide show won’t be too exciting without our absolutely brilliant and witty, totally ad libbed narrative that went with it.
Next year’s reunion will be at Notre Dame University of Maryland, located very close to Baltimore’s Inner Harbour.  Block out July 11-14, 2014 for that event!
GNID!

Daily Border Closing Ceremony Between India and Pakistan

I don't remember hearing that the India-Pakistan border is closed each day with a ceremony done "baadi smartness kisaath." Here's a great video of the event:

http://m.wimp.com/indiapakistan

An Itsy-Bitsy Chota GNID Reunion

Where just two or three are gathered, does that qualify to be called a GNID reunion?

On a cold, crisp, clear Sunday afternoon in January, three of us GNIDers gathered at Sue and Paul Hanifl’s near Chicago to gossip about all the rest of you who weren’t lucky enough to join us.

Just kidding. We really gathered to weep into our whine glasses about the suffering we experienced in our years at Woodstock.

Just kidding. We really gathered just because we could! Because we’re friends, we’re retired and can do what we want!

And, although we gathered at Sue’s because she had ankle replacement surgery in mid-December and is sitting captive in a wheelchair for a few weeks rather than traveling the world in a private plane, what we really talked about is how excited we are about our upcoming 50^th Reunion and our trip to India.

Who’s we? Karen Anderson Holden, who’s now an avid GNIDer and reunion attendee (even though she was at Woodstock in 1956 for less than the blink of an eye); and Sue, whom we all know as our beloved Class Secretary Extraordinaire; and me, Esther, now a happily homeless global nomad (I’m helping with care-taking for Sue for a few weeks; she's been a very good friend to me).

So the big question we have for you, dear classmate, is will you join us in India this fall? So far there are about 25 people seriously interested in attending. These include (in no particular order):

Bill and Marcia Tammeus
David and Gretchen Bonham
Karen (Eskildsen) and David Wilcock
Suzanne (Turner) and Paul Hanifl
Ted and Jackie Chitambar
Will and Gina Manton
Mary (Shannon) and Rich Murray
Joy (Rice) and John Grover
Larry Smith (and Rykken??)
Carol (McDearmid) Houghton (and Graham??)
Betsy Woodman
Esther Jantzen
Mary Pollock
Karen (Anderson) Holden 

Hank Lacy

The tour that’s being planned (you can choose what components of it you want to do) may well include a side trip to Darjeeling/Bhutan or Agra/Jaipur/Dharmsala prior to the trip to Woodstock. Then there would be the gathering in Mussoorie and Woodstock for several days. Finally there is the option to return to USA or go to South India (several places) and then possibly to Sri Lanka or back to other places in India.  

The dates are in the range of the last two weeks in October and first two of November, 2013. (We’re awaiting Woodstock calendar info before confirming dates.)

Larry Smith (our esteemed Class President) and Sue H, and Ted C (our esteemed, well, let’s call him our Supreme Communicator) are the masterminds behind the tour. Larry made a nice flow-chart to capture the ideas so far. If you want to input ideas or to put your name on the “probably-will-go” list or the “keep-me-informed,” please email Sue.

And as for our three-person + one spouse gathering in the cold of January, a good time was had by all. (Didn't our class party reports in the class minutes always end that way? :-))

Oh, almost forgot:  One more picture, this of Sue with her new ankle and in her cast in class colors!