landed.

greetings bloggers -

i made it to thailand after an eventful journey. yes, eventful.

leaving on the bus from dharamsala i said good bye to some good good friends - my sister-cousin nataliana sent me off with some of the finest sweetie sweeties that dharamsala has to offer. and my monk friend, thupten, also came to the bus stand, and rehearsed a line that he had to have memorized and practiced: 'i wish you...i wish you well-be, joy, happiness, and luck.' i took like 2 minutes for him to say it before he draped a traditional good-luck tibetan scarf around my neck. i wish i could take him home with me. tutoring this monk was definitely one of the highlights of my entire trip to india. thanks to nat for sharing your student with me;)

once we (my aussie friend sarah and i) got on the bus, we were informed that while our 500 rupee ticket was valid, our names were not on the seating chart. (500rs is what i paid for 10 nights accommodation - this was the deluxe bus.) after much delusion, we were relegated to the floor of the deluxe bus. it wasn't so bad at times, and at other times it was so bad - like when the old man stepped on my face and kicked both of my shins in. sarah had indian men snuggling up against her legs so i'm not sure who had it worse - but we had a good laugh, and it made the a/c room in delhi all that much more rewarding. very few showers could have topped that one as well.

so whiled the day away in hot humid delhi, shopping, sleeping, chillin'...and then off to the airport. sat down on the plane, next to my (other) friend sarah from the u.s. - who is a nantucketer and i met in kerala 6 months ago! amazing! it was great to catch up with her and made me think that this world is the tiniest ever...

so now i'm in thailand...after the overnight bus ride and the overnight plane ride, i'm chilllling. reading a novel and lazing around. actually they forgot to forward my bag to chiang mai, but it was good because i got to look for a guest house without my backpack! next on the list is finding a thai massage school! thailand is beautiful, a little more expensive than india...the people are really really lovely. i am planning on purchasing a new wardrobe - the pants that i've been wearing for the last 6 months are completely shot.

sooo, thatz all i gotz for now...but i hope this finds you all happy and well.

and oh yeah: happy 4th of july! one of my favorite holidays because the only planning involved is picking up a case of beer, and then drinking it in the sun with your buddies - knock one back for me!