Seriously Incredible India…

About a week ago, I watched Benjamin Button again and I had to take down a quote that absolutely pertained to my life right now. It goes:
“we're meant to lose the people we love, how else would we know how important they are to us?”
I knew you guys were all important to me but now I really know how important you guys are to me. Not that I’ve lost any of you but a separation of thousands upon thousands of miles of land and sea pretty much equates to losing you guys… sort of. With internet and phone, maybe not so bad but still – they’re inconsistent, especially out here in rural country, and contact isn’t as frequent either. Terribly not awesome…

Anyway! Back to adventures!
Before I get to india, let me finish with the remainder of Nepal. I got to visit bodhanath (sp?) stupa, which I wanted to see. It was beautiful, though if you asked me if I felt more spiritual, I would probably say no. (haha!) it was really cool seeing all the monks and just people walking around and praying.
I would totally move to Nepal if I knew the language. It’s such a beautiful country. Though on the way back, these kids came up to ask for money. Now, this is not an unusual ordeal. Lots of kids will come up to you asking for money all the time. Except this one kid stuck his hand down my pants. Luckily I had nothing in my pockets but I was like “woah!”… ridiculous!

The airport was an adventure as well. So this is Nepal we’re talking about. A little country, nothing very special. Before entering the airport, a security guard must check to see that you have a valid passport and ticket. No ticket, no entry into the building at all. Then the next security checkpoint, our bags went through the machine and we were scanned and groped. After checking in my baggage, I headed toward the terminal. The next security checkpoint involved our bags going through the machine and then us getting scanned again. That’s not all. Then our bags had to be completely opened and searched through. Ok, so then from the terminal, we take a 10 second bus ride to the airplane. In front of the airplane, our bags are opened once more and searched thoroughly. We are groped one last time before getting on the plane. A bit tight on the security don’t you think? Sigh…

Now india. I promised some pictures so here’s their famous mini-taxi as well as cows on the streets.
Everywhere. Like everywhere. So finally I know why im here or rather, what im doing in india. I am going to live a simple life while teaching and helping around the center and I am going to go exploring many places in india. They want me to travel and experience incredible india… but while im living at the center, I’ll be teaching, and helping around. The schedule changes constantly but in the morning, I teach typing and swimming to a couple of kids. In the afternoon, I teach English (and they want me to start teaching dance). And at night, I learn hindi. I have such a terrible accent – they all laugh at me – but it’s ok because their English and Chinese accents are terrible too so it’s all good. BUT im starting to develop an accent! My English is being changed!! Oh boy…

Im starting to relive the simple pleasures in life, like swimming, riding a bike, or walking the dog. I never had the time to sit down and read a book. It was always partying, hanging out with friends, going out, drinking. Now I can sit back and relax. And not just living life has become simple, but doing life is simplistic as well. The mop does not wring itself, it is not automatic. And the bucket cant wring the mop either so I wring the mop with my own hands. We clean the pool ourselves scrubbing the bottom with brushes and clearing the top of bugs. We make pancakes and noodles from scratch. And salt! Literally starting with a rock of black salt and crushing it by hand to get little grains of black salt. Awesome (?) oh and eggplant is white here. Well they have purple eggplant too but they also have white. I’m learning to live without and not depend on technology. We live in the countryside which by the way is amazing!!! I biked down the road the other day and it was like heaven (minus the hellish temperature)… but anyway, so many a times, there’s no internet because the connection is bad. There are also lots of power outages throughout the day, every day so I’m adjusting to inconsistent electricity.

There are flies everywhere. And at first I was like ehh, whatever. Theyre gross but it’s a reality so I have to live with it. Now I’m thinking they are unsanitary because my stomach is hurting lately. The food is delicious but it’s giving me aches so now I eat in moderation. And you can see the effects! The upside = between the sweating, and eating less food, and exercising and swimming and biking, I am getting in shape. Awesome!! Though lesson learned = do not shave. I sweat so much that it stings my pores. The sweat makes me shower so I shower twice a day but 10 minutes after the shower, im all sticky and sweaty again… sigh. My feet are getting real dry too. It’s too hot to wear socks and/or shoes so I wear flip flops but the dry heat is killing my feet. Poor feet…

Random thoughts:
1. There are peacocks in my backyard = awesome!!
2. I am a feeding ground for mosquitoes.
3. The other day I went swimming, there was a snake less than 3 feet away from me. Terrifying!
4. I can text!! (I hope it’s not expensive for you or me)
5. food is sooo good here!!! coke cans are beautiful! milk comes in little baggies! and chips are phenom...



I’m supposed to hang out with vikram (my freshman year roommate) in a few days. He says he’s gonna come pick me up even though he doesn’t have a car – he’s gonna bus it. I don’t think he understands that from his place to mine will be like a 3-4 hour bus ride and from here out to the city, it’s another 2-3 hours. I told him, but he says it’s ok. Oh well…

Word of advice: visit india but visit india in the winter (our winter). It’s too hot unless you like vegas hot but instead of staying in the casino all day, you’re just outside. Bleh.
Oh and remember how I’ve been talking about making a video of my college career? Well I’ve finally done it. And finished! After sifting through 6,422 pictures (and feeling many many heartaches because of missing yall, oh the memories) and 4,699 songs, I finally found 4 songs (though I’m only really happy with 2 of them) and a handful of pictures to recount the last four years. No short clips because I’m not that technologically advanced. But I’m pleased with my video. Now my only problem is showing it to guys. A couple of terribly inconvenient barriers: the internet here obviously wont allow me to post my video because it either sucks or is non-existent or is sporadic so that I’ll never finish loading anything or it’s insanely slow that it’s just not gonna work. Second is its size. The video is 14 minutes long so youtube wont accept it (?) I guess I could do google videos… we shall see. Maybe if I get to go to an internet café I can do it. Or it’ll just have to wait til I get back to the states.
Ok, back to life. I’ll try to post as often as possible but like I said, it’s gonna be heard. Hear from me soon…