Ooty, how I love thee! (Pt. 1)

So we're back from Ooty and the ride back was quite something but that story is for another day!

We reached Ooty early Friday morning after an extremely bumpy and sleepless night on the bus. We unfortunately got seats at the back of the bus and for some reason that I will someday find out, it's really much bumpier at the back. Anyway, we reached Ooty and took an auto to the guest house where we were staying - Mountaban - and freshened up and then left at around 10am to get something to eat at Cafe Coffee Day.

After that we headed over to Hebron so I could show D around and meet the Georges (vice-principal of Hebron and also one of the Hebron families that I am really close to). School was closed for the mid-term break unfortunately but I still got to meet a few teachers so that was good. Once again I surprised Mr. Reid (principal) who got a little suspicious seeing D (a stranger to him) intently taking photos of school!

After we had our fill of photographing (D went a little crazy with the flowers!!) around school, we headed up to the Georges flat where we met Mrs. George and her son, Stephen, and his wife, Nisha, who are both lovely people. And then we all headed (with a few more teachers) to St. Stephen's Church for the Good Friday service which went on for 3 long hours which seemed even longer for D and I who were seriously sleep-deprived but we managed to stay awake with the help of popping some mints ;). The sermon was on the seven last words spoken by Jesus on the cross and each word was taken care of by a different speaker which really added some variety to the service and it was very interesting.
Anyway, so after that we all gathered around for some hot cross buns (seriously! I thought you only got those in kiddies books!) and coffee and caught up with some more Hebron people and made up a plan to meet for lunch the next day... It was almost 4pm and we hadn't had lunch so John Vaz (another ex-student of Hebron, seven years senior to me!), Don Foster (teacher from America), D and I headed to Nahar Garden restaurant for some dosa.

...which we really enjoyed! (the bigger one, which is called a Cheese Paper Dosa was D's :P)

In the evening D and I hit the town! :) Well, we went and bought a lot of that delicious home-made chocolate from Modern Stores (favourite store in Ooty!) and also to a book sale where I actually found two books that I wanted to read just for Rs. 95 each! And I bought a little something to eat; D was still full from above mentioned dosa, and then headed back for some sound sleep at the guesthouse. The next morning we went to the Rose Garden that Ooty is famous for but it was quite a disappointment because Ooty hasn't had any rain yet so the garden wasn't blooming as yet. Anyway, we did see some roses and were amused by some of the funny names and also a funny quote!

After that we headed to Selborne which is the girls' boarding campus of Hebron (the boys live on the main campus) and we caught up with Miss Smith (who is the most awesome maths teacher in the world!) and she showed us her famous map of India which she has cross-stitched and updates with a record (a cross-stitched record!) every time she travels to a new place and she's travelled a LOT!! From Leh to Shillong to Mumbai to Kanyakumari - everywhere! I wish I had taken a photo but I figured that's hers' to share with the world. But if you ever go up to Ooty and meet Miss Smith ask her to show you her map! :) We also chatted with the Azariahs who were my first dorm parents (think warden, but much nicer!) when I joined Hebron in Std. 9.

and then... lunch with a bunch of Hebronites and the Bee Museum which I'm too tired to continue now so that's all for now!