verd up

hi miss,

thanks for the posts. perhaps i need to vacation in india to find people who appreciate me for who i am, a bright, intellectual, dashing, handsome, and witty young man. your blog is making me want to visit there some time.

OCS is winding down swimmingly. We graduate next Friday, by the powers vested in me I have authorized the Radio to be turned on when taps is sounded in the evening. That is the OCS term for singing the Marine's Hymn at the position of attention while laying in the rack. It's motivating and may even bring a tear to my eye. The country is in some good hands with these young kids putting aside their summers to be physically broken down, deprived of sleep, yelled at, cursed at, spit at, made to swim through snake infested swamps, hump 12 miles with a 35 pound pack in the middle of the night and live off of one mre per day. It's rather inspirational in a spartan kind of way.

i'm looking forward to getting back to Minneapolis for a few weeks before heading out to Vienna for my "intensive" International Business Class. I'm looking forward to learning as little as possible about international business, but checking out the local bars and finding out what Austrian Beer tastes like, and maybe even what Jack Daniels tastes like in Austria too, who knows?

after that, i'm going to visit Geoffrey in Paris for a few days before heading back to MPLS for the start of the school year, work, and grad school classes.....it's like my summer started and ended already. oh well, life will slow down sometime i reckon.

have you seen esther marie again? i miss you much and hope this finds you safe.

love and prayers,
Amen Pookatalka

look at me go, 2 posts in one day!

so on a local bus a few weeks ago a nice indian man named pawan said i was welcome in his village anytime. most people would not have taken him up on this offer, but i love me some real india, so my buddy nat and i took a bus to this little place called malan a couple days ago....

we were the first westerners in their town and therefore the guests of honor. we slept in pawan and his wife's bed (in india, guests are considered gods in your home). the entire family lives in this house that's just amazing: 3 bedrooms and a kitchen made entirely of clay. the stove is a tiny firepit with a slit in the roof for the smoke to go out. we ate on the floor and peed in the communal, uh, hole in the ground outside - loving it! best dinner i've had in a looong time (and i've been eating pretty well!). the next morning, we were woken up with cups of chai, taken around the neighborhood where we proceeded to have 4 more cups of chai in different people's homes. people kept inviting us to stay in their house for 2 weeks or a month so that we could learn to speak hindi.

as i was leaving, they pretty much bribed me to come back: they're making me an indian outfit (the grandparents are both tailors). sweet sweet india. i'm so excited to come back in august.

"lacking hard facts"

so, i have gotten a couple of e-mails asking for more concrete details in my travel plans....so here's the game plan:

i leave dharamsala on saturday, spend the day in delhi (which might be a day too long as far as i'm concerned), fly to chiang mai in north thailand where i plan on studying thai massage in the monsoon. i'm not meeting up with anyone there, but i am pretty sure i'll run into some people from the india circuit. after being really really social here in dharamsala, i'm looking forward to some shanti (peaceful) time in thailand to do my own thing.

so then i'm flying BACK to delhi on august 18 (unless i change my plane ticket;) and heading south to kerala for the onam festival, which is like thanksgiving. i'll also study more ayurvedic massage there. cousin amy will be meeting me after that and we'll jaunt around the south for a bit, and then i'll leave india in late september.

now i know why i don't write about these things: pretty dry. but there you have it, and inquiring minds wanted to know.

as for boys (juicy details requested by kate shaw), the details have been lacking because there are no juicy boy stories in my life at the moment. however, the women that i've made friends with are amazing and inspiring, so boys are on the back burner...but, if prince charming matierializes in front of me, i guess i'll take it...!!

poor heather, has to go to thailand

yep, one more week in india. i'm not super excited to go to thailand, but a gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do aey? (<--have been hanging out with canadians as of late;)

i have just gotten so comfortable here in mccleod ganj, teaching my friends yoga, practicing the massage i learned. the dalai lama just started public teachings...i've been here for well over a month and the place is just feeling like home! plus my apartment, or 'nest' as i like to call it, is amazing. this place is full of tourists, but really cool tourists. i've been tutoring the nicest tibetan monk as well. volunteering is so rewarding, i walk out of there on a cloud every time.

however, i am excited to go to thailand in many ways. my friend sarah and i were talking about a comfortable bed with clean sheets and a duvet last night. i had literally forgotten that such things existed and immediately wanted the cleanliness and comforts of home. thailand is meant to be much easier for travel so it should be gravy.

also the monsoon started yesterday. the stairs turned into waterfalls. and they say it gets worse and steadier...so that might indicate that it's time for thailand too...although i don't know what the weather is in chiang mai either!

that's it for now, hope all's well stateside!

signed, sealed, delivered

hey miss,

how goes it? sounds like things are grand over yonder. remember that drum you sent me in february? the one we assumed some indian postal worker had stolen and was jamming on? well, it arrived last week. the wrapping was pretty outstanding, i esp like the wax seal at the top. also, there was a nice sunset that night so i put the wrapped drum on my balcony and snapped:



poops was supervising his daddy and the picture-taking operation. he's doing well, i released him from my bathroom after 3 weeks of captivity. he seems to have regained his sanity after his low-intensity turf war with cousin, handsome harry.



unfortunately, the wrapping wasn't robust enough and the drum didn't survive the onslaught of the injun postal system :( its still real purdy lookin but some of the wood got knocked out so, unless nick can work some of his drummer voodoo, its days as a viable musical instrument are done .

things are grand here. spring in DC is quack-tastic. cath and i are training full-time for the marathon - 4 days of running and 2 days of cross-training. the longest run has been 6 miles but we'll be up to 10+ in a few weeks. good times. whenever i'm struggling, i just think back to the past year when i was injured and couldn't run at all. and i count my blessings. this lasts for about 20 seconds and then i'm struggling again. as amy wrote earlier, cath and i hosted a bbq last weekend in DC's rock creek park. it was grand. ma and pa came down. dad did the first jello shot of his life (see pic) ...



other than that, i start my new job next monday. looking fwd to leaving the boredom of the House. i shouldn't complain too much as i've been able to watch all the world cup matches on the TV in our office.

i'm off to a happy hour :) much love, pie.

Better than a shot in the arm

oh wait, it's not better than . . . it just is a shot in the arm, well actually is three shots in the arms, two on the left and one on the right. good thing i have two arms and not one (no one except heather will find that amusing, apologies to the rest of the world)! my left arm is rather tender, but the right side is a trooper. i shouldn't be so hard on leftie, it bore the brunt of the shots. but now i am well on my way to being immune to hepatitis a, polio and tetanus. i get to start my typhoid regimen tomorrow and i have to sample the malaria pills to see if there are any narsty side effects.

my weekend was pretty radical. on saturday there was world cup (and heck yes, t&t!!! i wanted to do a cartwheel for them) and a nice bbq arranged by matt and cath, where i got to see the hosts, tommy and tanner and the fenwicks. the fenwicks graciously returned my vehicle to me and it looks as good as new!!! big ups to nick's body shop and uncle bill, who are my heroes of the week, possibly the month. the bbq was super duper, lots of good food and good folk. sunday was more world cup and the final kickball game of the regular season and the last for me. my team got me a going away cake and we had a hands free cake eating contest. i was the first girl to finish and i was right proud.

i am off to travel the southern u.s. in 10 days. it should be spectabulous!!! we are coming up w/ aliases for each stop we make. there will be plenty more shennanigans to report as well. i will keep you posted.

i am glad to hear that all is well there and that you continue to make stupendous friends. as for long term plans, you will know what you want/need to do when the time comes. i love you and i will see you very soon.

what to do, what to do...

if there's anything that this country has taught me, it's not to make plans. sometimes it's necessary, like booking a flight to thailand or reserving a train ticket. but that's about it. nothing can be counted on.

and as i tossed and turned before going to sleep last night, i re-evaluated my "long-term plan" which is a much more dangerous dealing than a short-term plan. my "long-term plan" had been to come home via paris and dublin at the end of september, stay with mom and dad in good old pa, and visit lots of people, spend the holidays. (this is where the changes happen): i had thought i should come back to india and thailand next year as well so i could study more ayurveda and thai massage...but man, i'm in the middle of a long trip right now and it's tiring work, this traveling! and daunting to think of coming away again next year. so now, i don't know what i'll do. i expect to be back in san diego sometime in the next 2 years...but other than that i just can't say. i'm hoping it's sooner than later, but the basic gist is that it's all up in the air.

i'm having a wonderful time in mccleod ganj though!! the dalai lama will be giving public teachings starting 15 june. i just finished a 5 day intensive yoga course and i'm going to start giving free yoga lessons (i threaten to, anyway). just started a 10 day ayurveda course yesterday and i'm learning new things already! also there's a yoga dance class and a contact dance class that i'm going to be taking. and i'm volunteering for a tibetan organization too! it's so refreshing to keep busy. all this fun stuff too!

social network is kind of inevitable too, after being here for a month! last night i went to this place that has an open mike night and ran into about a dozen friends from different places. i'm meeting such cool people here - australians, israelis, americans, canadians, japanese people...

i have a lot of fun with my japanese friend. i ask her these loaded questions, trying to get her to say, "that sucks" or "that's terrible" but it's considered so rude in their culture, so she'll sit there for a few minutes, trying to think of the nicest thing she can. and i crack up laughing. good to amuse oneself.

ah well i hope this finds you bloggers happy in the middle of the summer. happy to hear about pea plants, babies, life in general - keep in touch!

much love and namaste,
h

World Cup Fever and Pea Plants

Trinidad and Tobago is apparently the smallest country to ever reach the world cup and just earned a huge upset by tying Sweden 0-0 in the World Cup for soccer. Thought you would enjoy that little tidbit. I imagine you don't get much World Cup news as you are traveling on buses and using a hankie for TP! Or do you? The Cup is such a crazy-big deal in so many countries.

LA is still great, I just started a new job making it much more enjoyable. I even have--you won't believe it--my own office! Very exciting. I've included a pic of my beloved pea-thingy plant that you started for me last year. It's grown A TON in the past year, huh? I though you'd be proud. Does anyone know the actual name of this plant? Heather has one too and we've never been able to find out the name. H--how did you start this plant for me? I'd like to start one for my office from the one that I have.

That's all the random news for now. :)
Congrats on reaching the half-way mark in your journey.

Love, Jen

one (5 month period) down, one to go

hellllo bloggers,

last week marked my halfway point in india...i just took a step back to examine my trip so far. one could say that my life is different these days.

*i haven't used toilet paper in....uh....a really long time. in fact, i generate maybe less than 5% of the waste that i used to. i use a handkerchief (dadz hanky at that, so it's good to have something with sentimental value on hand). what else...oh, litter ain't what it used to be. i don't even bat an eye before chucking fruit peels out of bus windows or on the ground. the other day i had a paper plate with 'fast food' on it and i went out of my way to bring it back to the vendor so that he could properly dispose of it. in the bus station parking lot. ahh, india.

*i no longer bat an eye at men pissing on the side of the road but the other day we were in a new city and my german friend exclaimed, "oh! there's a rubbish bin!" it's all relative.

*i haven't had any refrigerated food in...i'm not sure...over a month?

*things i miss:
1. my wonderful family
2. friends, of course
3. clean streets
probably a lot of other things but i'm generally very happy where i am right now. i'm hanging out with a good crew of people, especially my friend natalie who's become like a family since we started traveling together a month ago.

i didn't get into my meditation course, but i did go on a little india adventure to spice things up. which included many bus rides. on one i was sleeping as rain fell through the empty screw holes in the roof. we arrived at our destination at 2 am and slept in a DIR-TY place. and my standards of dirty are a little different now.

the other night we heard a mouse on the floor in our room. it was making a lot of noise so we decided to see what the heck it was doing. it was actually a cockroach that was the size of a mouse, on its back, wiggling around. yummy.

that's all the news that's fit to print for now but much love to all and namaste!