IB in India

Four days after returning from the conference in Malaysia, Ann Marie and I boarded another plane – to Mumbai, India. We arrived at about 1:30 am and had an interesting taxi ride to our hotel. Our 1950’s cab broke down in the middle of nowhere and we didn’t get in until about 3am. Oh India.

We were in India for another workshop that ISB sent us to. We are currently teaching in a high school that has the International Baccalaureate curriculum, and needed to take the Level One workshop to gain a deeper understanding of the assessment and the program. I learned a lot from the IB Biology workshop, mostly about the lab requirements and other external assessment. The IB is an intense and rigorous curriculum where the students can get University credit from the courses, and I now feel more prepared to be teaching at this level.

Although we were only in Mumbai from Thursday night until late Sunday night, and spent everyday until 4:30 in the workshops, we tried to see as much of the city as possible. Friday after the conference Ann Marie and I went to the Gateway of India (which was under construction) and checked out the Taj Mahal Hotel that was the location of the November 2008 terrorist attacks. It is beautiful and they had a nice memorial set up to remember the victims. We walked along the water back to our hotel, which was conveniently located next to a slum. Ha. Since we had almost no sleep Thursday night, we had a long night and grabbed some delicious Indian food poolside at our hotel. 

Saturday, we hired a taxi to pick us up after the conference and tour us around the city. It was questionable as to whether the man would show up or not, but at 4:30pm he was there waiting for us. My colleague Dan joined us on the tour, and our driver did not disappoint. He took us to Naimon point, Chowpatty beach and this pretty garden that looked over the city. We drove through the different areas of Mumbai all the way to the Dhobi Ghat – the cement laundry area where all of the cities laundry is done everyday by hand. The colours of the clothing was amazing. We went by the Central (Victoria) train station and the Crawford market – both recently featured in the film Slumdog Millionaire! We drove past a mosque that is built on the ocean so the walkway is covered up during high tide – very cool. After about 3 hours of touring that included seeing Ghandi’s house, we made it safely back to our hotel and decided to treat ourselves to a fancy dinner out. We choose a place called Indigo from our trusted Lonely Planet, a Brad and Angelina fave. We dined on delicious pasta and wine while superbly underdressed. We enjoyed the slightly sketchy but very interesting walk back to our hotel through the Colaba market on the side of the causeway. A really fun night!

 

Sunday was the last day of the workshop and our flight wasn’t until 11pm. We did a bit of shopping in Colaba and went in search of our last Indian food meal. This was after I insisted on a McDonald’s stop so I could try the McVeggie. Mmmm. We decided on Leopold’s Café – a very famous Mumbai institution where travelers and locals alike dine on amazing food and share stories in the open concept seating. We wanted to try everything and ended up with way too much food – but it was amazing. Garlic naan, chicken tikka, butter chicken, aloo gobi – yummy. I wish I could go back to India just for the food. Delicious. It was a brief whirlwind of a trip, but I cannot wait to go back to Northern India to see Goa and the Taj Mahal….someday.