Farewell Asia!

well, i forgot to post to let you know i was departing. we've left india ( :-( <--this is me pouting slightly), and are currently on a layover in singapore (where there is free internet). from here we will fly to tokyo where we will have only a one hour layover (which unfortunately will not count towards my goal of travelling to japan.... but its a good start for now). then its off to LA, where i have a 20+ hour layover and intend to fall asleep in the hotel bathtub and turn myself into a squeaky-clean prune-skinned woman before putting back on dirty india clothes (please forgive my stench if you see me upon my arrival... its my way of bringing a little bit of india home to you). 7am the next morning i am off from LA to cleveland.... wow.

see you soon!

teardrops on the stupa

on the morning of my departure from nepal, i woke to rain drops and a cloudy sky..... here in kathmandu where not a single day i have spent here has been either cloudy or rainy. its just weather, and it certainly happens here (hell, they have a monsoon season every year)... it is just a little interesting that the only day i ever experienced it was on the sad day of my departure. yesterday i walked around and looked at everything like it was the very first time i was seeing it again, soaking it all in... remembering as much as i can.

today i fly to Delhi, and there i will spend 5 days, listen to and give ISP presentations, and say goodbye to asia (for now). friday evening, i begin my long flight back to america....

farewell boudha, farewell kathmandu, farewell nepal..... farewell a place i so contently called home.

on the flip side:
i will see you all very soon!

kristmas in kathmandu

here "ho" means yes... so the "ho ho ho" of good ol' saint nick almost makes it an orgasmic exclamation ("yes yes yes!") ... it's what i think of anyhow; perhaps because i sometimes have a dirty mind.

the weather in Kathmandu this time of year is my favorite: sunshine and clear skies, sweater weather, cool nights, chilly mornings. warm enough for flowers to flourish, cool enough to not need deoderant. spending every november and december of my entire life in cleveland, ohio, this is quite a contrast. no wonder i have forgotten (a true relief!) about snow and christmas. at lunch today, however: i was sipping milk tea at a rooftop cafe (sun warming me, stupa eyes staring at me, familiar waiters chatting with me), when a monk's robe began singing with the loud melody of "jingle bells." he reached into his robe to pull out his cell phone and promptly answer "tashideleg!" and i couldn't help but to laugh out loud -perhaps too out loud...i couldn't help it. it just seemed so bizarre and random and i took so much pleasure in the oddness and humor of the moment.

you all probably have lights and christmas trees, and bags of wrapping paper and scotch tape lurking around your home... scanning through christmas tunes on your car radios... but here i feel so disconnected from the phenomenon of christmas. -and suddenly, it is all so funny to me. not in a "i'm going to make fun of this" way, but rather in the same way that old tibetan women laugh when i try to explain some curious piece of American culture to them... or the same way one might giggle while watching children play make-believe. one might think "oh it doesn't make any sense but its cute and, hell, they're havin' a good time so who cares!"

one of my fondest christmas memories is of my grandpa muttering "merry kiss-my-ass!" ... and now i see it not as cynicism, but as just plain fun. if we can't laugh, we aren't living.

you probably think i'm loony. but try to keep in mind that here, everyone laughs at everything. it's beautiful and free and ego-less. i love it!

the not so fathomable concept of time

one week from this moment, i will be departing kathmandu and entering delhi, india for the third time. in delhi, i will have 4 days during which the group will present their ISPs and we will all prepare to leave.

less than two weeks from today, i will be walking out of the airport in cleveland, ohio.

many westerners have warned me... morbidly... of how intense the culture shock is going back. "no matter how much you think you can handle it" they say. "it is really rough."

this is what i am trying to prepare myself for. i think i am going to need your help...

mango cornflakes

yes, that's right: Mango Cornflakes. what will i do without them?? how many boxes do you think i can fit in my luggage?? If there isn't any other reason to stay in India and Nepal forever, this is reason enough.
ya'll are missing out on pure bliss, i'm serious.

::sigh::

;-)

Life in Boudha

I haven't posted much, as I have admittedly been settling down into my existence here in Boudha, Kathmandu. I thought that since I live around this amazing stupa which I circumambulate every day (whether willingly or not... everyone is bound to be drawn into the whirlpool of energy that moves around it) I should post a picture of it for you all to see. (Since I do not have my digital camera here with me, I pulled this picture off of google images.)

I have been working daily on my ISP (Independent Study Project), which has been evolving into a topic that I could spend years researching... 1 month is simply not enough time. It involves ritual and prayer in Tibetan Buddhism, as a comparison to the Western perspective and practice of Buddhism (as a philosophy or religion of meditation), and a lot of focus is being placed on the power of the spoken word (the Word as creative energy). The topic is nearly impossible to explain and covers so many different angles... I suppose I do always tend to choose the abstract and challenging things, always thinking they are so simple before I immerse myself in them. I am excited to see how my ISP concludes, since everyday I discover some new factor or interpretation to work into it.

Have been socializing a bit with the SIT Nepal group (same study abroad organization, different focus: Nepal instead of Tibetan Studies), but mostly keep to my individual daily routines or try conversing with locals. When I do have a meal with the Nepal students, however, we find ourselves discussing what difficulties we predict we'll face upon returning to America (especially since that time is approaching so soon!). It puts me in an interesting state of mind, as I am sad to leave here, excited to see people I've missed, worried I'll fall under a depression (and thus, preparing myself so that I will face it healthily and assertively), and generally trying to soak in each and every aspect of this existence that I adore so much so that I may carry it with me wherever I go, and never forget.

I have also been taking time out to read novels (something I haven't done for a while, as I have been sucked into the 'literature' of academia). I enjoy the south-asian (particularly Indian and Nepali) style of novel writing... and sometimes ask myself if any of it has a subconscious influence from the prominence of spirituality and meditativeness of these cultures(?). If you are looking for a good novel to read under a dim light at bedtime, I suggest The God of Small Things. I cannot remember the author's name off the top of my head, but know it is an Indian woman. I enjoyed it very much (perhaps better able to since I understood some of the subtle Indian contexts).

Eat some pumpkin pie for me today! It is the only thing associated with Thanksgiving (other than the literal giving of thanks/appreciation, of course) that I am fond of. Even more so: I am VERY fond of the fact that I do not have to be present for the day-after-thanksgiving retail rush of materialistic Americans blindly checking off christmas lists. For your own sake... hide tomorrow, or go to the park, or a homeless shelter to volunteer... we have to counteract such energy in this world.

::(stepping off my soap box now, haha!)::

Be well!

the blogging challenge

despite the magnificence of my current existence and residence, i haven't a clue what to write here. i feel a slight obligation, however, to share the experience with the friends and family that may check the site on occasion for an update.
this is the blogging challenge.... to somehow display a piece of my days here in a way that may satisfy the curiosity of people back home. the challenge exists mostly in the fact that: after being here for an extended period, the shocking and fascinating things become everyday occurrances. they won't seem so noteworthy until i return to the states and realize that i don't live around a giant stupa, that there aren't Nepalese and Tibetans everywhere i look, that monks and nuns don't make up at least 1/3 of the people i observe everyday, that Buddhism is not such a prominent religion in practice, that cows don't bump into me on the streets, that everyone doesn't greet me with a "namaste" everywhere i go. but for now... it is all so normal. it is the mundane of this existence.

damn, i am going to miss this place so much. i wish for you all to see and experience it... in this life or a next.