Never before had Jess Tetley spent so much time to get dressed.
For a teenager used to slip into her tees and jeans in a matter of seconds, wrapping the seemingly never ending saree around oneself proved to be a 45-minute-long struggle.
Jess was among a 33-member group of 16 girls, 12 boys, and five teachers from the Tunbridge Wells Girls Grammar School and Judd School for boys, Kent, in the United Kingdom, who celebrated the Kerala Foundation Day with their counterparts at Bhavan’s Vidya Mandir, Girinagar, on Saturday.
The group was in the city as part of the Cultural Exchange Programme (PEACE) between the schools in the U.K. and Bhavan’s Schools in the city as part of which groups from these schools visit each other’s place in alternative years.
Apart from the amusing saree, what overwhelmed Jess was the affection of her local hosts, which also gave her the opportunity to interact with new people and assimilate a different culture. The visiting students and teachers are being hosted by their counterparts of the host schools.
Tom Walker, the English literature teacher at Judd School, was no stranger to Kochi as this was his fourth visit to the place making him almost a guide for the rest of the group.
For his disciple David Varster, the experiences during the visit had matched the expectations he had about Kerala before arriving here. Though a lot more spicy than the food he is normally used to, the youngster has fallen for vada pav and masala dosa .
Renu Joshi, a physics teacher originally from Rajasthan who settled down in U.K. more than two decades ago, was won over by the “absolute brilliance’ of the natural charm of the State.
For Kym Ceurvorsk, the German and French teacher, the evenings ever since the arrival had been spent on tasting the different recipes of her hosts.
The team arrived in Thiruvananthapuram on September 20 and has since visited places like Kovalam, Kanyakumari, and Thekkady.
They have dropped in at Lulu Mall in the city and are set to visit the Tripunithura Hill Palace, the synagogue in Mattancherry, and the Dutch Palace to get an insight into the rich cultural heritage of the place.
Clad in traditional sarees and dhoti and kurtas, the students and teachers were treated to traditional art forms like Thiruvathira on the morning of the Kerala Foundation Day before engaging in a session of jewellery making at the school.
The team will return home on November 7.
