We are home!

Our time in India at Hebron School has come to an end! More of that later.
The week following the Leaver's Ceremony and Dinner was a very busy week with all the last minute details which had to be taken care of so that we could leave and not have to worry about leaving something important undone! 
Following the church service at St. Stephens, at which I played the piano - again, we had a Farewell service and luncheon for Rev. Nigel Hinton. Nigel and I were at Hebron without our wives in 2007 and it was great to renew our friendship and also introduce each other to our wives. Also on Sunday the students started leaving school. some had already finished their exams and there was really little point in them hanging around with much to do. Of course they had to pack away their belongings before leaving and any dirty clothes had to be put in the dhobi box! What a pile there was. Also the new Standard 12 boys started arriving with their trunks and cases. The dorm common room quickly became a storage depot. By Thursday everything was in order and following the Closing Assembly, school was over  and the mass exodus began. Gigi and I used the time to say ''Good bye'' to many of the students and also for a last walk around Ooty. On Friday night we dined at King's Cliff to celebrate Nigel's birthday and on Saturday, June 23 we started our journey which lasted, door-to-door,  about 31 hours.
We started our trip with an 8-hour taxi ride from Ooty to Bangalore, a distance of approximately 300 km. The first stage was to Mysore and we had to go down the Western Ghat with its 36 hair-pin bends. Both Gigi and I wore our motion sickness wrist bands and did not feel sick. The road has not improved during our 10 month stay. We had to ask our driver to take us to Pizza Corner for something to eat when we reached Mysore! (Our other drivers had stopped without being asked) We had obviously interrupted his plans as our driver had to ask for direction to Bangalore! This was not a good sign!!! The condition of the road greatly improved once we were out of the animal sanctuary.
When we arrived in Bangalore, the driver had to continually ask for directions to the airport. Finally we were on the right road. However, when we reached the airport he was all set to turn into the freight section of the airport and Bill had to direct him to the terminal. It would seem the driver had never been to Bangalore airport before! (Can you imagine hiring a taxi to take you to the airport and then having a driver who does not know where the airport is and has to continually ask for directions - at least he did ask!)
We arrived early enough to check in and to go through immigration. As we had employment visas we had to have a police check before leaving the country! All the paper-work was taken care of by the school travel office. We had to submit the requisite passport sized photos and fill out the forms in black ink. The school arranged for the police officer to come on site and to interview all who were leaving the country at the end of the school term. That was much appreciated as the travel officer was able to communicate on our behalf.
The Lufthansa agent checked us in for our flight and asked if we would mind sitting apart in the emergency exit row. As there would be more leg room for Bill, we agreed. We were grossly disappointed when we were both seated in the middle seat in the row behind the emergency exit without any greater leg room!!
The flight from Bangalore to Frankfurt was smooth and we both managed to nap for a while.We had 2 hours in Frankfurt to go through security and find our way to the gate before our flight to Montreal.
We landed 20 minutes early in Montreal. Thank you Air-Canada!! The Canadian border Services Agency is trying a new passport verification in Montreal (and Vancouver). Canadian citizens are now separated from everyone else when we reach the customs hall and are fast tracked through a system consisting of swiping your passport in a reader before going on to the customs officer. Unfortunately Gigi's Citizenship card, which she got new last year, did not have the requisite bar-code on it and that delayed us slightly. In any case we still made it down to the baggage claim area before our baggage arrived inside. We quickly collected our belongings - my suitcase weighed in at 22.9 kg for a 23 kg allowance. Gigi's suitcase was just a bit over 20 kg and so there were no problems. We were on our way down the corridor at 12:30 and by 1:15 after meeting Stephanie and walking to the parking lot we were in the house. A total of 31 hours had elapsed!

Stef had prepared a light lunch and we enjoyed the afternoon sharing stories before Eric arrived and we had a meal together around the table. Marc and Valery were there when we arrived and Marc helped install the ceiling fan in the bedroom so we could enjoy a good sleep. By the time we went to bed Sunday night in Montreal it was already Monday morning in India. We had been up for a total of 48 hours. No wonder we were tired!
Due to the June 24 holiday in Quebec, Stephanie had Monday off work and took us to Costco to spend over 27,000 rupees on our first grocery order. We went to visit my 97 year-old mother in the afternoon and then Skyped Nick, Sue and Darcy and Wesley in the evening.
We are adjusting to the 9 hour 30 minute time difference as well as the warmer climate. It was quite cool up in Ooty these last few weeks as the monsoon was coming.
Thanks for reading and for your comments.
The site will be update monthly from this point on.