We are so excited to be at the ISH Writers Retreat at Indian Summer House. Day 1 was action-packed. Caroline Van De Pol talked about framing a story and how to use location to do this. We did an exercise using our arrival in Cochin as a starting point and returned to it as we meandered in and out of the story. We read some paragraphs from "Dear Friend from my Life I Write to you in your Life" by Yiyun Li, a memoir about the author's time in a mental hospital and the healing p...ower of reading. Must remember to get a copy. In the afternoon we took a little boat ride through the backwater. I hadn't realized how lush this part of India is ... truly stunning. We headed down to Mohanan's Tea Shop, that has been around 100 years. In all the years I've been coming to India I would never have come to a place like this. The banana fritters fried in coconut oil were glorious and my trepidation about eating here completely unjustified. Another first time for me was taking the local bus. It may look like we are smiling but that's fear on our face. The evening ended with a rickety rickshaw ride and we got new nicknames from the driver, "Australia", "England" and "Hong Kong". Finally drinks by the pool and a delicious dinner from Chef Raj. Only day 1 and we've definitely settled in. Caroline Van De Pol, Don Vande Pol, Jacq Burns, Shonee M Mirchandani 展开
