बर्फ़

As much as people talk about how great it would be to live in California and have it be 75 everyday - there is something incredibly beautiful about seasons. I think Aaron himself has lamented about California's lack of seasons. For me, the best part of seasons is winter. I know the cold is terrible, getting your car stuck in snow, shivering, having your hands go numb. I'm not going to pretend I like those things. I don't. I like feeling my hands and wearing t-shirts. But the one thing that winter gives us is the first snow. Every year when winter comes around I remember the hot summer months and times when I knew what sweat felt like, all the while bitterly enduring the cold. But then, there is the first snow. I can say with full confidence that in the past 5 years I can remember the day of the first snow, easily. Every single time I forget what it looks like, what it feels like to see those thousands and thousands of flakes spiraling, twisting, churning down toward the earth. It never fails to restore my faith in winter and justify all the cold days I've already endured. Today was the first snow in Mussoorie. As I walked up to the office on 4 hours of sleep, miserable for being awake, little snow flakes fell one by one slowly and then quickly. And just so you know, as great as the first snow is, by march when there are three feet of snow and I'm freezing it's not enchanting anymore. But neither is 3 months of 90 degree days, so I guess the key, as in the rest of life, is balance and moderation.

Community

Community is one thing that I believe is important to any person's existence.  Community itself can take many forms and serve many different purposes.  You could be involved in community literally around you.  You could be involved in a church community, some sort of sport community, a professional community or really just the network of friends you've built up.  Whatever it is, I think it's an essential aspect of life to cultivate. 

Living here in India, working for EMI, this sense in me has only been heightened.  Our mission here is to serve with our professional knowledge.  Yet if it were limited to that, just our professional knowledge, it wouldn't quite be enough.  I would go as far as to say, it wouldn't be a meaningful experience.  What makes EMI what it is, is the reputation it has developed throughout India.  EMI's reputation is one of true service where we spend time to get to know our clients to care about their needs and then listen to their ideas.  From there we use our knowledge to come up design ideas and then present them to the clients, again, listening to what they have to say.  It's a process that is iterated over and over again, making sure that the client's vision is achieved.  The affect this has on the clients is unmistakeable.  There are already two projects that have lasted over 10 years that EMI has had a part in from the very beginning.  In fact I've already had the privelage of visiting and furthering our involvement with these two projects, a missionary retreat/recovery center in Tamil Nadu and a boarding school in Dehradun.  Walking around, seeing the buildings EMI has designed come to fruition, being used as they were designed and then hearing the directors talk about the effect EMI has had on these projects is all more than enough to quell any doubts I might have about working here.  Even though I might just be another intern among dozens, another cog in the machine, it's good to know that what you're doing is of some significance.    

Also, trying to get back on track, EMI considers the local community extremely important.  They not only heavily, heavily encourage you to get involved in a church but keep strong ties with most locals.  A perfect example of this was Thanksgiving.  We had a gigantic thanksgiving.  In fact I can never remember a Thanksgiving day/dinner that was so frantic.  There were about 20-25 people in all that ended up coming.  That included the 5 interns, 3 staff, and then a bunch of people from the community that came.  There was even one guy that might have been invited off the street.  I'd never seen him before and he showed up 10 minutes into dinner.  There were also several people that didn't show up because of illness....so it could have been bigger.  The dinner itself was set up as a potluck with everyone assigned to their certain tasks.  What made things even better is that instead of everyone cooking their things at home and just showing up with them, everyone spent the whole day at our office, using our kitchens to do their cooking.  It made for an incredibly hectic, but fun environment the whole day.  Even as the dinner was starting, there was something very awe-inspiring about the shear mass of people.  With over 20 people all bringing something, the dinner was gigantic and fantastic.  Dessert, too, was great – chocolate truffles, apple pie, pumpkin pie, and german chocolate cake.  Of course following in the tradition of Thanksgiving, I gorged myself until I didn’t dare take another bite. 

Yet, maybe better than the actual dinner was the spontaneous dance party that erupted as we cleaned up.  Within 20 minutes of finishing dinner, the big table was moved out of the room and the music was blaring.  I also learned that Indians like Outkast, the Gorillaz, and Lady Gaga, but not M.I.A. 

Suffice to say, community has been a large part of my life here.  Without the dozens of people in the area that I’ve gotten to know and spend time with, this experience in India would be significantly shallower.  Really, this is common sense.  Anywhere, anytime, if you don’t put forth the effort to invest in a community of people (no matter what form that may take) you’re really depriving yourself of one of the most life-giving things there is.    

OH. Almost forgot.

I took this picture today too.  I literally walked 5 or 6 steps out of our office hours to take it.  That should give you some perspective on how ridiculous it is up here.  The other side, where you can see Mussoorie and Dehradun is actually a lot greener and "hillier" but this side has those really amazing snow caps which were particularly beautiful today.

QUICKLY

Hey suckas,

Sorry for the lack of updates.  Internet has died in the office.  Many threats to the internet company later, there is little hope that it will return anytime soon.  Therefore I'm forced to make a trek down the mountain to use internet services.  That means I haven't had the quality time to sit behind a computer and pour out my thoughts to all of you. 

Fret not, this weekend I'm going to make some time to write about Thanksgiving here.  It was truly incredible. 

To tide you over, here is a picture of the mustache I grew to celebrate "No Shave November".  It was creepiest face I could imagine making.  Notice the curls on the ends of the mustache?  I was pretty proud of that.  That's also a picture of house I stay in.  Maybe I should take a proper one....