Landour Language School

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It’s been about three weeks since I arrived in Mussourie, in Uttarakhand State. I’ve been studying Hindi at the Landour Language School, an almost-100 year old institution housed in a church and old monastery complex. This is just about the busiest time of the year for the school; about 50-60 students of all different nationalities are to learn Hindi for a whole variety of reasons, from personal interest, to study abroad programs, to professional development. The classes are fairly intense – one-on-one for four, one hour sessions a day. That combined with 3-4 hours of homework and self-study makes for a decently full workday

Life up here in the cloud bank is persistently misty and rainy. September is the tail-end of the monsoon, but locals claim that this year’s monsoon is lasting weeks longer than usual. This week much of Uttarakhand State has been plagued by flooding and landslides. Many locals I've talked to claim that this is the longest and most intense monsoon in recent memory, and have cited climate change. Anecdotal evidence of climate change in action.

Fulbright to India

In late April 2010 I received word that my application for a Fulbright research grant to India for the 2010-2011 grant cycle had been accepted. I submitted the application way back in October 2009, and had almost (but not quite) succeeded in forgetting about it, so being awarded the grant was extremely exciting! In August 2010 I will travel to India to spend the next 12 months learning about the national context for climate change adaptation, specifically focusing on ecosystem-based adaptation, it's connection to human health and well-being, and stakeholder processes for investigating locally appropriate adaptation measures. I hope to also conduct a number of case studies to identify climate change vulnerabilities and possible adaptation measures in a variety of landscapes and livelihood types.

I've never kept a blog before, but wanted to share my experiences with friends, family, and collaborators. Please comment and keep in touch, and let me know if I'm doing this wrong...