Goodbye Bangladesh

And good riddance. My India visa application was rejected. I'm a tourist! I'm not looking for a job in India! What a douche. I tried calling the foreign visa officer personally and he hangs up on me, not willing to hear me out. The US embassy can't help me because they have a week holiday until Sunday. I'm not waiting anymore.

I could have gone to the Banderbans, the border of Burma, which sounds amazing where there are Burmese tribes. But I couldn't go because of this stupid visa issue. It was either apply for the India visa and wait 3 days to get it and bone out to India right away, or buy a tour package to the Banderbans and wait for my permit (required) in 4 days, and then I'm allowed to enter the Banderbans for an extra few days. But the India visa was more important so I waited out for the visa. Bada Bing Bada Boom, no visa. But no time to go to Banderbans.

I'm going back to Nepal to get my India visa, find a bus/train to Varanasi and that's that.

Bangladesh...okay maybe I should say - Dhaka, the capital. What did I learn in Dhaka? This country has 89.8% Muslims. The people of Bangladesh are called Bangladeshis (Bandladesheeze) and the language is called Bangla. The Bengal Tigers are widely known around the world because they are from the Sunderbans, south of Bangladesh. And the currency is called Taka, US.68 to their 100.

This was a tough city to get around. Primarily because there are no women. I walked down a busy street full of hotels, restaurants, businesses, and a college! I saw an guess-timate of 200 men outside for lunch and a total of 5 women. 2 of them were beggars and the 3 were probably someone's wife and sisters. Even the florist has male employees! So imagine an intersection with 600 men, and 15 women. That is how I saw it.

I can actually count the times that someone was nice to me; The old man fruit seller that gave me 2 extra oranges, and was cool that I didn't have 30 more taka on me to pay for all of my food and water. One rickshaw biker actually watched the road and tried his best to not scare me when crossing the middle of the highway. My hotel manager gave me a new towel and toilet paper without me asking. The representative that helped me get my air ticket back to Nepal, he gave me my first Bangladeshi red tea. And the female security guard at the India embassy, telling me that I was beautiful.

So, I wish I went to the Banderbans and then I could say that Bangladesh ISN'T the worst country I've been to. But it is indeed memorable. I bought a can of Bavaria, non-alcoholic beer, and I will crack it open midnight tonight. Cheers to a dry country!

Family in Nepal?

Receiving an email from my mom telling me that I have a cousin in Nepal was a shock. I was in Nepal for 5 months...how could I not know this?

For real, I found out a few days ago. My first-cousin is 17 years old. My youngest aunt from my mother's side, married a Tibetan and their son grew up in Nepal. His name is Tashi and I was surprised to know that he lives 25 minutes away from me. So it was quite odd for me to call him, tell him who I was and to tell him that I can come visit. He likes basketball, art, and soccer. He wants to be a stock broker, because he's really good in math. I feel so bad, he's in way more shock than I was. He grew up thinking that he was the only child from his mother's side of the family, I told him that he had 5 other cousins living in the US. We got really close and I wish I knew this earlier, I had so much time in Nepal, and he and I could have hung out more often. At least I got to meet him. He calls me sister.
tashi and me.

Nepal Part 2

So it's been 3 weeks already in Nepal and it's been great. I have become closer to the boys than I did when I was here. I'm just here to hang out with the boys, I have no desire to go back to teaching anytime soon. Considering how intense my last months in McLeod Ganj was, I deserve a break, and this is a great place to do nothing and chill out.

few of my boys and his sisters family

Some problems, my main reason coming back to Nepal was that I needed to renew my India visa but my last one expired November 25th. Problem is that I didn't know I had to wait exactly 30 days to get a new one, that means...I can get my India visa December 25th, but that's a holiday, the Indian embassy re-opens the 29th, my Nepal visa ends 23rd. So I can't get the visa! Now guess what? I'm going to Bangladesh, I don't know too much about what's there, but I know it's similar to India. YES DAD, I WILL TRY TO STAY SAFE. I'm only going there so I can get my damn Indian visa. It's so funny to me, I'm so free...to do what I want, but it's not that easy because I don't have any other options to choose from.

Anyways, I have a week to enjoy Nepal, next blog in Bangladesh!

Yoga & Thoughts

I am in Rishikesh. Yoga capital of the world. I left Dharamsala last week and am taking a couple weeks off before I go back to Nepal to renew my Indian visa. Yeah! I'll admit, I'm excited to go back to Nepal. Many things I missed.

Yes yoga, I might as well get into it. It's like going to Saddle Ranch and not riding the mechanical bull...okay that was kind of dumb. I start a Hatha course tomorrow and will do it for one week. Auuuuuuuuuuuum.

What else, some thoughts...I guess I can say I'm lucky, beacuse I'm not working anymore! Many people have told me that I'm lucky. But I see it as me working hard getting what I want, and that's what I did. I worked very hard to be where I am now, plenty of patience added. However that doesn't make me lucky. I'm just like everyone else, with debt to pay, and future career goals. And I left it. Gone. There are moments collected during my trip where I had felt lucky. For example, yesterday I sat on my balcony during sunset and peeled an apple (still can't peel an apple with one long strip) and I was looking at the river flowing. I was just sitting there eating my apple and looking around. That moment, made me feel lucky. To see this, this beauty. It's hard to explain how I feel when I see beauty. The smallest things move me. Which was why I had it tattooed. Take out all the famine, war, and hate...everything man-made. Look at the world, it's so beautiful...and I know I will never see it again.

27th B-day in India

I'm 27. Fucking shit. 27. I'm on the border of mid-late twenties!! Oy! My birthday, day, was great. When I came to McLeod Ganj, I wasn't expecting to meet anyone that I would be close with and celebrate, considering how many people just come and go within a few days. But, I feel really lucky to have met these 4 people. My time here is almost to an end and I will miss them A LOT.

Let me flash back to the past on my 22nd birthday-my first bday away from home- I was in Prague, Czech Republic. (Karl, can you believe it was 5 years ago!?) I remember not remembering anything. Just woke up on my bed with all my clothes on and oblivious to how many drinks I had consumed the night before. Here's a sample of my bday drunkness; there was a free-use computer at the hostel I stayed in Prague, and I must of had time to write an email to ALL my friends in black-out mode.

"its my birhtday... i'm soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo drunk that i have free intermet and i have no idea what i'm doing...but though....l i have free intenet. i fridcking miss all you guys and having the ball o fmy life."

Some of you may remember this and I'm sure it is still in your email archives, October 29, 2004. Checking my email the next morning was quite interesting, cause I couldn't figure out why I had so many replies with the same subject line. Anyways, good times.

Okay, back to present time. My birthday, day, was great. It started with breakfast on our balcony (I share a double bedroom with my co-worker Jay, we are FRIENDS, that's it. Stop laughing Przemek) with a candle next to my eggs. Jay and the guesthouse owner was singing me Happy Birthday. Spent the entire morning waiting for the internet connection from all over McLeod Ganj to come back so I could Skype my parents. After the Skype conversation with my parents I relaxed at home, enjoyed the view, and read my book. Drinking/Dinner started at 6pm, at a nice roof-top restaurant Carpe Diem. It felt nice to laugh the whole entire time, have bday hugs with people coming in and out to see me, my tattooist, and ex-neighbor.

Erica, Przemek, Jay, me.

Also, adding to the celebration, we finished the website! LOOK . After a few miserable weeks, we are finally done. We all feel good about it. Jay (England), Przemek (Poland) , and I were working on the website, and Erica (Ireland) was the assistant at the organization. We are all completely different people, but we click so well together. When we're in the same room, it is non-stop laughing, there hasn't been a day where we don't talk about balls and Bruno. I'm really going to miss them. At the end of the night, I had a few beers, a powerful flashlight as a gift from Erica and Przemek, and a paper-mache notebook gift from Jay, and a beaded bracelet from my student Pema. -sigh- good times.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes everyone!

Some new things...

Dad...you can't be mad at me. It's done, it's pretty, and forrrrrehhhverrrrrr. I've wanted this a couple years before, so I was very well prepared. It didn't hurt, I enjoyed it. My tattooist is bad ass, his name is Tamding. If you ever come to McLeod Ganj and curious about getting a tattoo, go to Tamding's Studio. There are 3 studios here and I think he's the best.


My right arm: Follow Your Heart, my left arm: Beautiful World. In Tibetan script. Yes, it's red.

I started to do a 2.5 hour Power Yoga class. It isn't like the power yoga back in Cali, which was extremely intense and physical. The one I went to was slow yet challenging. My instructor was great, however he reminded me of someone...remember Dhalsim from Street Fighter? Yeah, my instructor was like that, instead doing crazy knotted yoga poses, he's bendy.

The past few weeks I have been working on Volunteer Tibet's (non-profit organization) website; designing the layout, filling in new information and content, which takes me all day and all week. It also seems that I'm doing other office work as well, such as finding placements for new volunteers arriving everyday. I'm still tutoring in the morning and every now and then I'll attend the conversation classes. I gave my teaching class to another volunteer because I had to spend more time on the website. Which is good, it's beneficial for me and the new volunteer. I don't know when we'll finish the website, hopefully by November.

All in all, I'm fine and loving life. Miss you all.

High Fidelity

(disclaimer: this has nothing to do with volunteering) I saw the movie ages ago and I didn't GET it. I knew it was a guy movie, had guy issues, with guy jokes, which is probably why I didn't understand at the age of 18 maybe. But now I am reading the book and I GET it. It makes me feel so happy that I'm a woman and not a man, and I feel sorry for you guys! I'm so sorry!

I decided to make an ode of this post for the BOOK, High Fidelity. I had encountered a little squabble (I have no idea how I got that word) a couple nights ago and it made me think that I shouldn't entirely bag on men but also on my fellow female race. One night, I had dinner at a small restaurant that consisted only 5 tables, fitting 2 people in each. I sat in the very back and was facing the wall and reading my book, High Fidelity. Anyhow, an Indian couple walks in and decide where to sit, the man immediately sat next to my table, facing me diagonally, the woman snapped something in Hindi, and the man gets up from the chair, then moves to the chair across of him and was sitting next to me and facing the same direction. I resume reading and in my peripheral vision I could see the man's head turn to face me, I don't look. I could tell by the sounds of the woman that she was frustrated with something, I pretend I don't know what's going on. A few times I could still see him turn his head to me and then the woman abruptly said something that translates into the English word 'enough,' (I know Hindi!). In my head I thought 'Dude, you better turn away before she kills you, turn away! Turn away you Idiot!'

She started to mutter something and then got louder and louder, the dude just sat there and was taking every bit of word. I couldn't help but look because it was amusing, and how could I not look! I looked at her first so she knew that I didn't care about him at ALL!! We looked at each other and she had a normal blank stare, we both glanced at him, and he was staring at me, the woman and I looked back at each other and she had the worst Stink-Eye look I have ever seen. She grabbed her cup of water and threw it in his face, who was still looking at me. She looked at me again with frustration and grabbed for his cup of water, she attempted to throw it at my face but the guy pushed her arm and the water flew onto the empty chair across of me. All 3 of us stared at the water dripping from the table. I remained in my seat, calm, not upset or annoyed, but calm. I stood up so I could address the issue that I was there minding my own business and should not be bothered at all - the woman looked like she wanted to punch me in the face - that was BEFORE I stood up from my chair. I stood up and was clearly bigger (even though I'm skinny) and taller than her...and him. She gasped before I could say anything and she turned and stormed out of the restaurant. The man said he was sorry and ran after her. I looked around the tiny restaurant and no one was there to see this! What the hell just happened?!

This is what happened...the guy was being a boy, a stupid boy to look at a girl with his woman in front of him. The woman was being a woman; jealous, dramatic, whiny, throw-her-drink-at-another-person-because-that's-all-she-can-do-to-make-herself-feel-better- type of girl. It's interesting how basic we can be. From reading this book, I've been able to 'read' guys just by looking at them, I never tried because I never cared, it's so simple! I can flag guys down the street and announce their flaws towards women:

Hey you! - a muscle guy wearing a muscle shirt - You have a small wiener!

And you! - a nerdy guy with highlights in his hair - I bet you still don't know where IT is.

Ah Hah! You! - a skinny guy wearing hippie clothes, with brand new short dreads and a hemp headband- YOU...POSER! Stop telling women that you've always been a hippie and was a hippie before it became hip. I feel good...saying those in my head.

Okay now, I will start bagging on the female gender. I was buying momos as a snack and I was waiting by the food stall for it to be ready. This American white girl came next to me and waited to buy some too...her voice was so annoying. Everything she said sounded like a question; I would like to have 3 momos please?? I want the vegetable kind?? and no hot sauce?? it's too hot for me?? hee?? hee?? Jesus, I had to look at her, fucking shit...she LOOKED more annoying than she SOUNDED. She was wearing suspenders, suspenders! SUSPENDERS! With skinny jeans and a belt! I even catch a glimpse of one of her 'flares' - a freaking flare - it said 'ROCKSTAR.' This girl deserves a kick in the ass. I bet this girl is from Salt Lake City, Utah. Studying graphic design because it's 'cool' now, loves The Doors when I know she was probably born in 1990, and traveling here because she wants to 'find herself.' The momo Lady asked Suspenders "Where are you from?" Suspenders replied "Ohio, USA??" Close enough.

So if, I said my thoughts out loud; there is a possibility she could be a witty keen girl herself and reply back to me "Why are you wearing that skinny scarf then???? It's quite warm, you don't even need it!???"
"Au Contrare honey, it is warm and my hair gets frizzy! When I put it in a ponytail, I use the scarf as a headband to keep my fly-aways from sticking up! I hate using the plastic headbands because they're too tight. It's a personal-comfortable issue, not trying to be TRENDY! Big difference Suspenders!" And then there, I would stick my fingers underneath one of her suspenders and whip it back onto her shoulder, a flick. That would be the finisher.

I LOVE McLeod Ganj, D-Shala

I love it here, I love it, I love it, I love it. I feel like a little bouncy girl that had just received a pretty pony with pink ribbons all over. *squeel*



Okay I'll stop that, anyways I had a long Gmail Chat with my brother and I told him about Mcleod Ganj, it's not far from Dharamsala, and it's the home of The Dalai Lama (but I already saw him in Leh so I'm not here for that). Anyways, I arrived around 5:30 am from Manali -not Manila you Filipinos- and it was barely sunrise. I was walking around the narrow streets and I had a glimpse of the infamous landscape. It was beautiful. More beautiful than Manali, but of course...I've seen places similar to this; Taormina-Sicily, Switzlerland, and maybe a little bit of Nepal. But the FEELING that this place gave me, is rare, and difficult to explain. I feel comfortable here. I could stay here for a long time and not be bored. I also like the fact that there are MORE Tibetans than Indians and Kashmiri.

Recently, I sent my parents an email that I won't be coming home next year. Pretty hard, for them mostly. They're going to be in China end of this year and asked if I could visit. I checked flights and it would cost less than $800 for a week trip. I can live at least 3 months here in India spending that much! It would be best if I was in Southeast Asia, then it would be cheaper to visit if they were in China. It's hurting them pretty bad, mainly my father, knowing that their daughter is crazy. But they should know that they're not losing me to Asia. I will come home, only when I'm ready, but it won't be soon. I'm happy here, let me be in my happy place!

Currently I am tutoring a Tibetan girl -Pema- English, I meet with her every morning. Then I have 2 conversation classes in the afternoon. I think that's good enough. The past 6 months was just teaching-teaching-teaching, that's all my mind was about. In Dharamsala, I feel that I can 'let go.' Not be so adamant in finding a teaching job. Doing small work here and there and just ENJOY where I am. I learned a lot in my conversation classes and heard many horror stories about refugees fleeing from Tibet. Most of them WALKED to Nepal from Tibet in the freezing snow, they say it takes a month to reach Nepal. The hardest while traveling was climbing the icy mountains without ice picks or proper shoes. One monk told me that he had to pull his jacket sleeves over his hands, breathe hot air onto the end of his sleeve, and that will immediately freeze when he rests his hand on the icy ground, to pull himself up. Also, sometimes they would walk and walk without food for at least 4 days, and a few of them lost a lot of people on the way. So sad. They all want to go home and visit their families.

I trashed my sneakers -not my chucks- I stepped in a major soft pile of cow shit...quite normal in India. I will finish my post...here.

Jule, leavin' Ladakh

Jule (pronounced joo-lay, written in the Lonely Planet’s India) means Hello, Goodbye, Thank You, and Please in the Ladakhi language. All I learned in the past 7 weeks is Sit! Stop! No! Come! Write! Speak! Do you understand me or not? That’s all you need to know when you teach Ladakhi kids. When I meet locals from Choglamsar and tell them I teach at the primary school, they think and ask ‘they’re naughty aren’t they?’ I roll my eyes and give them a look that read ‘uh…yeah.’ They understand me.

I met 3 Ladakhi men, Ompo, Dorjai, and Tsewang (I call him Sam). I feel really lucky that I met them. They helped me in so many ways, they treated me as their younger sister. Dorjai helped me find the teaching job, there was no way I would have taught at the school if it wasn’t for him. Ompo gave me good laughs and forced me a lot of times to drink and smoke. Sam is just funny, just funny to look at sometimes. Anyways, lots of thanks to them for making my Ladakh trip memorable. I don’t know if I will come back to Ladakh during this trip, but if I do I will travel more. I barely visited any famous sights. I was too focused (and chose to be) on teaching. But to me, I’m glad I was; I painted an entire classroom, bought a mini first-aid kit, created a math system for the older kids by painting small stones in different colors, and drew extra learning charts and flashcards. Most of all, I got the kids to LIKE me. On my last day, they were running after the car I rode off in, screaming “Goodbye! See you tomorrow! I love you!” Mmph.



A Muslim man asked me out, on a date. I didn’t realize this until later on. You see, first off he asked me to lunch and I didn’t get any vibe that he was interested, so I said Yes, after all he was also Dorjai’s childhood friend, so I knew if the guy did anything, my psuedo big brother would come and hunt him down. So anyways, I never spoke to that guy again cause I was busy teaching, then after one month, he came to the school. He came to the freakin school! And asked me out again to reassure that we had a lunch to go to. I felt a little annoyed because he did this in front of the kids, but I brushed it off cause it was my own irritants. He said he’ll come on another day and we’ll go to lunch, I was like Yeah Ok Whatever. I was very clear that I wasn’t interested. 2 days later, he came to my school and said “Hi, so when are we going to dinner?”
“Dinner? What happened to lunch?”
“I’m Muslim, and during this time we fast in the day and eat at night.” SLICK, I thought.
“Well, I guess so.” He then told me he would come the next day to my hotel at 7:15. Ok Whatever. The next day came around and I dreaded my ‘date’ that was going to happen, everyone was making fun of me, Dorjai, the teachers, they were all saying that he might propose to me, lavish me with all the expensive food and compliments. Ugh. Anyway, I wanted to upload some photos online and didn’t want to wait around at the hotel, so I told reception if they see a Muslim guy walk in looking for me, tell him I would be across the street at the Traveller’s Paradise (Dorjai’s tourist agency that I hang out at everyday). 7:15 comes around and I didn’t feel like going to the hotel to see if he was there, if he was there, reception would definitely had seen him and told him that I was across the street. 7:20, 7:30, 7:45, 8:00 pm. YES! No one came to the office for me.

I came to a conclusion that…he didn’t come at all. But EVERYONE KNEW he did come, but not all the way to the reception, and saw that I wasn’t waiting anywhere and he left. So…I stood him up. My first date in India…and I stood him up. He didn’t come to the school the past 3 days, and everyone was disappointed because they wanted to hear juicy details of the things he might have said to me to persuade a marriage. Ew.

When this day passes, I will be on a 16-ish hour bus ride to Manali, then a 10 hour bus ride to Dharamsala, we’ll see what awaits me there. New morning, new night, new place.

Currently in Ladakh...

My Ladakhi students are insane. Probably the naughtiest kids I had ever taken care of. When they stand up and walk around during my teaching, I tell them to sit back down (with my “I’m serious” face expression). Instead of obeying, they smile at me and shake their heads ‘no,’ and start to run out the classroom, and when they see me chasing them, they run faster! Our school property is big, so imagine me chasing a little kid in circles, not to mention that I’m pissed off and the other kids are laughing at me through the window. I know they’re chanting his name “Stenzin! Stenzin!” I am officially the teacher they like to mess around with.

Ah hah! Not anymore! I figured out a way for them to listen to me without hitting them with a stick (very normal here), like the other teachers. By the way, I am completely against the idea of abusing children in school, especially someone else's kid. Anyways, I use an empty water bottle. Sometimes when I play with the kids, I use the empty water bottle and bop their heads for fun. But when they’re being rude, or hitting other kids, I bop their heads just a bit harder. The look on their faces is priceless, a confused expression like “hmm...that kind of hurt.” Now, they do their work, less screaming, less violence with other kids, but still…they’re untameable. I only use the water bottle method when they punch their classmates, which I have grown to not tolerate at all. Also, their farts smell horrible.

I saw the Dalai Lama 4 times. I went to one of his teachings not too far from Leh. The rest of the sightings were of him walking out of mosques, or drive-bys. I carpooled with some people to his teaching session and got to sit in the front of the stage, which is reserved for foreigners. I know…it doesn’t make sense. But anyhow, it was a great view and learned a lot. It was freakin cold in the morning, even raining, then around 8:30am, it got HOT. All in all, it was an interesting experience seeing the Dalai Lama, I saw a living God, I SAW GOD!

he's so adorable.

Just to add something little to this post, and a shout-out to my homie Sal (send me a scan of those polaroids) , is a mini-feed of our gmail chat.

Sal: HOT WINGS! i passed by it yesterday and thougth of you

haha

me: oh god, i'm having great food here, but i miss it so much

Sal: i was like...when steph gets back, we're going straight to hot wings from the airport

me: i'm eating REAL indian food, kinda cool

DalaiLamaSightingFoundWorkTemporarilyRacist

There were 3 people in my life that I always wanted to see: Michael Jackson, Oprah Winfrey, and the Dalai Lama. Guess who I saw yesterday? Come on, take a wild guess. YEAH! I know, THE DALAI LAMA! The Dalai-freakin-Lama. I'm in Leh, the Ladakh region in northern India. It's a close resemblance of Tibet. I didn't go to Tibet because it is completely closed off and the only way to get there is if you book a tour (not my style) and pay over $100 a day. I decided to go to 'Little Tibet,' instead.

I found out a week ago that he will be here to do teachings and I thought 'how lucky' I was. By chance I woke up early yesterday morning, walked to the markets and noticed a big crowd along the streets. I knew he was going to drive by. I waited for another 15 minutes in the crowd and there he was...in the passenger seat of a car driving by, slowly. I couldn't believe it, the Dalai Lama was literally 3 ft away from me, I waved, and he waved back.

Leh.

I've been here for a week, pretty much resting because it's so peaceful here. A while ago in Srinagar I met up with another volunteer from Nepal, Ingar face (Dutch). We've been hanging out this whole time. It took 2 days to travel by bus to Leh.

Ingar face.

A few days ago I started researching for volunteer opportunities. I went into one travel agency and they helped me find a teaching job in a village called Choglamsar, 15 minutes from Leh. This school has 4 rooms, extremely small with 20 or so children. There's only one table in 2 of the rooms and the other rooms are completely empty, and we sit on the floor. I teach nursery and Class 2, age 5-8. In a week or so I will live with a Ladakhi family, I have to experience living in a village. I plan to be here for 5 weeks. By the end, I hope to paint inside at least one of the rooms. Most of these childrens parents are farmers.

They only look sweet.

Okay, what I'm about to say might be offensive, if you are offended...fuck off. There are sooooooo many French and Isrealis. I mean...A LOT, to the point where I can't stand them anymore. It's like being in a club full of mentally challenged people with whistles and bag pipes, you don't want to hate them but you just can't stand hearing them.

Crazy night in Delhi

Okay so, for my going away party in Nepal I had one hour of sleep prior to my departure to India. It was a great night, good times. Oh yeah...Delhi. I got in around 11ish am and took a taxi to Connaught Place. Good thing the taxi driver took me to a tourist agency without telling me, cause there I met Ranbir the boss, that made my first impression of Delhi 'not so bad.'

I wanted to get out of Delhi fast and get to Northern India and find volunteer work. Found out that it would take 4 days to travel by bus to Leh (Ladakh region). Fuck that, I was hungover and had one hour of sleep the night before and I wanted something quick. So he recommended me to take a flight to Srinagar and take a bus from there to Leh, which is cheaper and shorter. I took it.

That night I couldn't sleep, it was so fucking hot. HOT I tell you, I probably had 3 hours of sleep that night. Next morning I went on a day trip to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is. Got there, took my tourist picture, and then left back to Delhi. Now...I know you're waiting for me to talk about it...here's where the craziness starts...

I'm in my room watching the Discovery Channel (in Hindi) and the assistant from the tour agency knocks on my door to tell me that Ranbir wants to see me. (the agency is across from the guesthouse) I walked inside and Ranbir goes "Hiiiii, how was your trip to Agra?! Good yeah?" Let me tell you that Ranbir is about 5"5, mid-30's (but looks older), nice belly, really long chest hair, and has a big smile.
"Yeah it was nice, it looked like a postcard."
"Good Good, want a beer? I work late and I don't like work."
"Um nah, I'm really tired."
"Okay, juice!" he tells the boy to get juice from the market. Ranbir gets on his computer and he turns the monitor to face me, I see a list of women's names and age and what they look for in a man. He tells me, "I'm on Yahoo Personals, I have many girls, see? 30 matches out of 50, very good."
"You're on Yahoo Personals?!! Have you met any of these girls yet?"
"Only on the phone, but one time, I called and her mother says hello, then she ask who I am, what job, this, that. Then I say 'oh okay thank you' and I hang up, just like that! Ha!" We get our juice and I gulp it down immediately because I'm not sure how long I wanted to stay at the office.
"Have you seen this Arch yet?" Pointing to one of the over-size posters on the wall, was an arch with the word INDIA etched on the front.
"No, I haven't seen it, only the fort."
"Let's go! Around this time, what time now?" he looks at his watch, "9 o'clock is now, is when couples, families, and friends go to this arch to drink, eat, and just have fun. I'm alone here and I don't want to work, why work? Let's go, for one hour yeah?" After a long thought, I said "Sure, why not?" His assistant had already started Ranbir's car to get the AC goin. We got in and went to a liquor store to buy a couple of beers. We started drinking and he showed me around Delhi, I saw the largest temples, and the business sections.

During our ride, he plays around with his stereo, Hindi was mostly played. Then he was looking through his CD collection and told me he had a very good English CD with great songs. He found it and put it in. First song, was "Singh is King," a Hindi rap song featuring Snoop Doggy Dogg. No joke.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dpQJPvplTk

I knew this song when I was in Nepal, they would play this video all the time on tv. Just to make Ranbir feel more comfortable, I sang with him, and did the Arsenio whoop whoop arm movement. The next song I knew right away just from the first 3 seconds. I laughed so hard. The Macarena. The CD kept skipping and Ranbir was tapping on his stereo with his fingers to make it work, as if he was punishing a toy poodle on the head when it peed on his Kashmir carpet.

Second round of beers, we go to another liquor store, and this time he got peanuts! We drank while driving, and every now and then he would grab my beer and hide it whenever he would cross a toll or if he saw a police car. He got phone calls coming from the agency saying that there were people at the office wanting to do business, so we had to go back. At the agency, the assistant told him that he took care of everything and his customers left. Ranbir said,"OK, everything is fine, we can still party yeah? He then reaches in his pocket and takes out a baggie. I asked what it was, and he said it was charras, natural hash leaves.

"Ooh, I want to try it!"
"Yeah, okay then!" He calls his assistant to make us one out of a cigarette. The assistant came back with the cig and we smoke it. We talked for almost an hour about NOTHING, I can't remember what we talked about. The only thing I remember was telling him that I couldn't feel anything from the charra, but then 20 minutes later, I told him that my face started to tickle. Then he started talking about nothing and mid-way, he said his face was tickling and we started laughing hysterically.
"Want to go see tree?"
"What?"
"Tree, of what we smoke now." I look at the clock and it's about 1am, and next to it shows the temperature. 39C (102 F). "It will only be 15 minutes, we go get, and come back."
"Sure, why not?" We drive about 15 minutes to a deserted area, he finds the plants and grabs them, all of a sudden it was raining hard. He opens my side of the door and screams, "It's raining! MONSOOOON! Come out! Much cooler!"
"No!"
"Why?"
"Mosquitos!!"
"Aiiiyah, mosquitos everywhere!" He closes my door and comes back to the driver seat, he puts the plants in the back seat, and the aroma of charras bloomed.


that's his hand playing with the stereo.

He said he lived near by and asked if I wanted to check out his house, I say 'sure, why not?' Another couple of minutes and we approach a driveway, I see this old man laying down on a cot inside the opened gate garage.
"Opp, that my father." Ranbir says, he immediately goes into reverse very quickly, "I am drinking and smoking, can't let my father see me, nope nope nope. Let's go eat, I hungry now. I know a good Indian restaurant."
"Okay yeah, let's go." We went to the liquor store again to get more beers, and listen to more cheesy music. This time we bumped Venga Boys We like to Party. The CD was skipping again and he says "play play play play play play, pleeeeease play play play, ha...he's sleeping...come on..come on...play play play, play baby." The song resumes and we continue to sing and dance to the restaurant.

When we got there, I was wasted. We eat and went back to the guesthouse and I look at the temperature, and it was 34 (93 F) at 3AM!!! I spent 6 HOURS with this man. 6 hours. We said goodnight and I went to sleep. Results the next morning: hung over and sick, I am not smoking dried leaf hash again.

Namaste Nepal Namaste

I can't believe it...I still can't believe it. I'm leaving tomorrow. It feels so weird. The past 4 months flew by like it was nothing. I'm very proud of myself of what I've done here. I can say though, that I am ready to leave Nepal. I did everything I wanted to do. I taught monks, helped out keeping street kids in school, and shared my life with orphans.

Last weekend I went rafting with a few volunteers, that was the last touristy thing I am going to do. Great fun! Then, I had a momo (nepali dumplings) party with my boys at the house. I was really surprised how all the boys participated. I bought all the ingredients to make the dough and the meat, they mix it up at the butcher shop, and then we started folding the momos. We made small momos, big momos, chinese momos, nepali momos, and different shaped momos. I was really impressed how they came out, I think it's the best momos I tasted here.



I love what I'm doing now. I waited for so long for this trip to start and now I'm going to my 2nd destination. This is why I like traveling; staying in one country for months, learning the language, building friendships; with the bakery shop owner, the restaurant busboys, the bar keeper, the cooks and didi's at all the houses, and my neighbors. What I will miss the MOST, are my boys, my monks, Daryan (kaaraazzzyy bitch), Caroline (miss you!), Conor (you're such a DICK), Indu Didi, and the rain in the late afternoon.

I'm going to miss Nepal. The only thing special about Nepal that will make me want to come back is the people. I will miss my boys and will be hard to say goodbye to them tonight. But we all know that there has to be an end. It was hard to say goodbye to my monks, but I know I will visit them in India the next few months. India is very close to Nepal, I can't see why I couldn't visit, even as a holiday. I'm making a promise to myself that I will come back.

This is only the beginning. It really is...my first stop and the beginning of something extravagant. I feel like something is waiting for me in India, something big. How long will I stay in India? The answer is I Don't Know (sorry dad). I am absolutely free.

By the way, Namaste is a respectful way of saying Hi, Hello, and sometimes...as a goodbye.

Good times with my monks

Last thursday was my last day of teaching the Tibetan monks. They went back to India yesterday. I have been teaching them for 7 weeks. I will miss them.

It took me by surprise when they told me the last day of teaching would be a week earlier. I only had 2 nights to prepare for their exams. On the day of the exam, it was hot, muggy, and tense. The kids were really nervous taking the exams. I saw some of them PRAYING before class started. They did very well on their exams and I was extremely proud of them. During lunch, I walked around the school and one child came up to me, and handed me a folded piece of paper. I opened it and it was a letter, thanking me. So CUTE! Then more kids ran in and gave me their letters, it was so great to read, I will save these letters forever.



After the exams it was playtime. Yay! No more class! Few of them were playing football (soccer) and most of us talked on the porch. The younger boys sang and danced for me. For dinner, we had Thukpa, which is a thick flat noodle soup with vegetables. After dinner, all the kids gathered in the big classroom. Tashi, the owner of the school, told me the kids had something to say in English, they all said "Thank you Miss for teaching us!" Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Then, Tashi gave a speech, appreciating me for volunteering and going through the awful transportation to teach his monks. He pulled out a Mala sash and put it over my neck. Then presented a Buddha statue as a gift (definitely sending it home cause I cannot travel that heavy thing in my backpack), a gray pashmina (to wear when I visit northern India), a DVD about Limi (a town where the monks are from), and a thank you letter with all the monks signatures and a photo of all them. I wasn't emotional, there were smiles everywhere. As I was leaving on a motorbike back to home, all the kids were screaming on the top of their little lungs "GOODBYE MISS!!!! GOODBYEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

Mala Ceremony, any type of thank you gift always includes a sash (called a mala).

Sunday morning, Tashi called me and invited me to a pilgrimage. They picked me up at my bus stop and traveled for 40 minutes up north into the mountains. We went to a monastery that once belonged to Pema Simbawa, from the 7th century. In history, it was said that Simbawa was an Indian monk that brought Buddhism into Tibet. We walked up a long flight of stairs and reached to the top of the hill. All the monks gathered in a circle and started chanting.



Myself and a few others went further up the hill to hang prayer flags. After an hour we had a picnic and did more rituals. One of the rituals, each of us grabbed a finger-full of flour, lined up in a circle, and looked at each other. Tashi raised his arm slowly and said "ohhhh," then everyone else copied, after 3 more times all the older monks released their flour and went "Aiiiiiiiiii!" and then the rest of us screamed "Aiiiiiiiii!" and released the flour, the flour was blown away onto the people facing east and was covered with flour. Everyone was laughing hysterically, I will not forget that moment.

monsoontoenailsfallingoff4monthslovingit

I finished the book "Everything is Illuminated," by Jonathan Safran Foer, I deeply enjoyed it and was fond of his eccentric writing style. The title of this post is inspired by him. Anyways...

So yeah the monsoon is here, it's no longer friggin hot, humid, muggy, sticky, annoying, sweaty, polluted, and dusty. It is now overcast, rainy, muddy, cloudy, sticky, humid, muggy, annoying, polluted, but cooler. I don't know which I would rather deal with. Either way I am dirty and have to take a shower in the late afternoon. Okay wait...I made up my mind, I prefer the hot days, the reason for this sudden decision is because I take an hour bus ride at least 8 times a week to teach in Bouddha, the rain slows down the roads, which makes my ride sometimes almost 2 hours. 2 hours in a microbus (minivan) filled with 15-20 people (sometimes people sitting on your lap, or the other way around), hot, sticky, damp, stuffy, annoying, cramped, and sweaty. But hey, I'm paying 20 cents for this bus ride.

Teaching is great, the monks are actually learning from me! But they're learning so well that it is hard for me to prepare each day for a new lesson. The past month I was working on a major photo album that took a lot of my time, I had to have EVERY child in this album (325 kids). However, it was a fun project to do because I was able to take artsy photographs and the chance to meet every single child of Umbrella for them to sign their name in it. So it was quite difficult to balance teaching and my work here at Umbrella organization. But I finished the album! I was proud of myself, I even finished it right when Jacky (creator of Umbrella) of the organization said 'goodbye' to everyone. I couldn't have finished it without some help from other volunteers, but still...I was so relieved. When I handed the album to him he said he would look at it when he gets home, him and his wife (both created Umbrella) have been very emotional the past week. I left shortly after to have dinner with my boys and found out that night that Jacky called a few minutes after I left to say 'thank you from the bottom of his heart,' and he was emotional on the phone. Exactly what I was aiming for.

3 of my toenails are dead and I ripped them off. This is what trekking in rented shoes will do to your toe nails. I painted over the healthy ones and left the others un-painted...primarily to disgust people when they look at them because it somewhat pleases me when they are disgusted, and besides it's their fault for looking at them in the first place.

I extended my visa for one more month and currently looking for flights to China. I have nothing to go home for...I can stay anywhere as long as I want. There is a high possibility, which I am positive, that I will come home a lot later than I said I would. Who knows...I may come home in a year, 2 years, fuck...5 years, I may even be a volunteer for life, we will see. I am not ready to leave in a few days (my original plan), it would be too weird. Plain and simple: I am not ready. I just began teaching and it would be too short of an experience, and I also feel like my boys at Umbrella really like me now.

The past few weeks has been the most busiest. Past couple of days I needed a retreat to the mountains. I went to Nagarkot with a couple of other volunteers, Daryan (American) and Doc (Irish), a few hours above Kathmandu, it was rainy and cloudy, but I didn't care, I just had to get out of the city. I spent the whole day napping, listening to music, played Irish Monopoly, didn't even finish Monopoly, reading, sitting outside of the balcony watching the clouds hover the mountains as if I was living in slow-motion, smoking (sorry people...everyone here smokes, can't help it) talking about nonsense, talking to the dog, played home-made Scategories, sipping milk coffee, and looking through photos in our cameras. Now I am back in the city, writing this late blog, and I'm about to see my boys and have dinner with them. Cheerio.

I got another piercing

My nose. It's a Nepali thing, almost every little girl or woman has one. Divya took me to get it done. $3 fools.





Sorry Dad.

Hello Miss!

I have been teaching young Tibetan monks English for over a week in a district called Bouddha. I was really nervous on my first day. To get there, I take an hour bus ride, then a 20-minute walk. By the time I get there I'm either sweating when the sun is out or wet from the rain. But the frustration is immediately gone when I see the young monks greeting me "Hello Miss!" The monks are extremely respectful, obedient, and shy.



I had a chance to meet the owner of the organization, Tashi. He called me the day he arrived in Kathmandu, we arranged a meeting to plan my opportunities on teaching 20 newly arrived young monks from India. So here's how it is; all of the new monks are Tibetan but live in India. There are 17 monks that live at the Lama Center permanently, from Nepal. I teach 37 young monks from age 5-18, and 5 older monks from age 19-30ish.

I met up with Tashi at the orphanage and we walk to the Lama Center, 12 minutes away. His English is very good and he seemed glad that I wanted to volunteer to teach his monks that are visiting for 6 weeks. We talk about America, Tibet, India, the monks, and my time table. We agreed on this respective schedule: come to the center 4 times a week, 4 classes a day, 45 minutes - 1 hour each class. Afterwards I ride back home to see my boys for Tiffon (tea & bread). I stay at the boy's house for a few hours and come back home to work on a photo project for the organization. The owner of Umbrella Foundation is leaving Nepal back to Ireland, so I am creating the photo album and getting all the children and volunteers involved. Basically I work 8:30 am-7:00 pm, 2 different locations, sometimes 3.

The monks are so cute! Sometimes you can't take it on how stupidly cute children are and you want to hug them, hold them, or pinch their cheeks. But with monks...they're not allowed to be touched by females. Okay that's fine, I gush and make funny faces at them to get a laugh.



Bad news on my third day of class, I found out that the secretary of the organization, Pachung, mother passed away. When there is no power, there will be no gas to cook. Pachung's mother used Petrol to light a fire and continue cooking. They decided to get a lot of Petrol just in case and put it in a bucket. There was an accident and an explosion occurred. Fire burned bottom half of her body, but then a random woman that was around the area grabbed the bucket of Petrol, when she thought it was WATER, poured it over her. Her body was completely burned and was taken to the hospital. Bad luck. Two days later she died. Hospitals in Nepal are not great and they think she would've been alive if she had proper care. Half of the monks are gone because they are mourning, praying, and chanting at Pachung's house. During lunch I spoke with one of the teachers. His name is Kunchok Mingyur, we were talking about death. He believes that if you do bad in your life, then you will go to hell, if you do good, you go to heaven. He isn't Christian, but this way of thinking is similar to Buddhism.

"Everyone dies at some point! This was her destiny, so sad...everyone was crying. I am not going to worry about death because I have done good in my life, I am not afraid to die," He says.

"Me too." I responded.

God isn't in me today

I was in Kalimati (the slums) to help out at another orphanage and found out that the neighbor was a fortune teller. One of the teachers (Divya) from the orphanage said she'll take me that day and was curious what her fortune was too. When she asked the Spirit Lady if we can see her that day, the Spirit Lady responded "No, God isn't in me today."

Since the Annapurna trek I was able to finish my website and logo designs for the organization. So I've been filling my time at another orphanage that's about 15 minutes from where I live. I get there by tuk tuk and most of the kids have already gotten dressed and waiting to walk to school. I see the other volunteers and we talk about work that needs to be done that day. Around 9:30 we start walking, holding hands, dodging cars through traffic. I drop off the kids and see Divya so we can get our fortunes told.

Before visiting the Spirit Lady we had to buy a bag of dried rice, when we do, we put any amount of money in it to pay the lady. I put in 25 rupees, 25 cents, Divya says that is enough. We walk into her home and there is a woman inside getting her fortune told. We were allowed to come in and sit next to them on a mat. Spirit Lady's room was very interesting. It was hot, dark, and tons of ants. One side of the room is trash; empty water bottles, rags, and plastic bags. On the other side were 2 mats (for her and her client), candles, incense, rice, and goblets. I realized that the 3 volunteers and I were sitting on her bed. Sorry for no photos, I wasn't allowed to take any.

First off, I'm not sure if I believe in this stuff, and I never visited a fortune teller, but this lady was creepy and for real, we were freaked out. We were watching her as she was doing the woman ahead of us. She had her eyes closed and was jerking her body around like she had Tourettes. She opened her eyes wide and told her to turn around. The woman turned around and the Spirit Lady grabbed a huge bundle of weeds like a brush, sprinkled rice on it, and mixed it with smoke of incense. She then dabbed the woman with the bundle and mumbled words that Divya couldn't understand. The woman turned back around the other direction and I was able to see her face, she looked sad and sick. Spirit Lady grabbed a few incense, lit it, and gave it to the woman to hold awhile. They pray together and Spirit Lady tells her that she had evil spirits in her, after this meeting, she should pray all the time. 1 volunteer (Sushil) went first, she closes her eyes for a calm 15 seconds and started telling him who he was in the past, who he is now, and what he wants in the future. Sushil kept nodding his head in agreement and kept looking at us like "oh shit." To me, Sushil seemed like he wouldn't believe in this stuff and was only doing it because of us. Afterwards his opinion was completely different.

My turn, I was kind of skeptic but we'll see yeah? I sat down, gave her my bag of rice, and told her my first name. While she was preparing, pouring rice around us and into a plate, lighting new candles, collecting her money and putting it away. I was thinking that she wouldn't be able to read me, I'm a private person, and I think it's difficult for people to know what's going on in my head. She fills my rice into the palm of her hand, webs incense into her fingers, and closes her eyes trying to read me. It took her 2 minutes, lots of jerking and heavy breathing. I sat so close to her face to face that I thought she was going to slap me and shout "There are EVIL spirits in you, get OUT of her body!" in Nepali. Instead, she calmed down, opened her eyes and started speaking. Divya translated for me and said that I have been having lower back aches for a very long time (since I was 14). I've been thinking a lot of things lately and unable to sleep (yes, true). I have so many things to do, I have to do work at this place, work at another place, work here, work there (so true). Another 15 seconds, she looks into my eyes and says that I'm a good person, my reason to come to Nepal is good. What I chose as my career back at home is the right path and I will stay along that path for the rest of my life, and be successful. I have no major obstacles and will be happy, and said that I had no bad energy in the future. She asked if I had any questions, I went ahead and asked it...what about my love life? (you would ask the same question too, so shut up) IMMEDIATELY she responded "I can't tell you anything about your love life, because you had never fallen in love." Whoaaaaaaaaaa...haha...heavy shit.

She then takes another half a minute to read me and asks if I was a Christian. I said no and she looked confused, she asked if maybe a Buddhist, I said no. She tells Divya that she feels there is something about me that is religious, she sees a pastor, priest, or some sort in my life. I tell her that I don't see either of those kind of people. Then she asked "Are you sure there is no one in your life that is like a priest? Ancestors?" Then I told her "Wait yeah, my grandmother is a main nun in South of China, she has her own temple." Spirit Lady said that I was thinking of visiting her since I'm so close to her, and that I should. She said to follow my grandmother, anything my grandmother says, I should listen, visit her and take her advice with me when I continue traveling. I won't know what it's about until I get there.

There are more things she said that I will not mention, things are just meant to stay quiet. At the end she tears a piece of newspaper, puts a dab of rice inside, and wraps it into a square. She wraps it again with a torn piece of black plastic, and wraps that again with a string. It looked like a piece of crack. She tells me to carry it with me all the time and I will get good karma, and if I change as a person, it will change for the better. After the fortune reading, I felt refreshed. To have someone you JUST MET tell you everything about you and your past is trippy. I'll admit that while she was telling me who I was as a person now, almost made me cry. Everything she told me was what I needed to hear, to help me stay motivated with this volunteer trip. That I had a reason to be here in this world and this is what I am suppose to do in my life. I pretended the incense was burning my eyes.

Annapurna Trek almost killed me

Literally. The longest I had ever hiked was one day in Yosemite. It took me 6 days to get to the Annapurna Base Camp, 4130 meters high, 10th highest mountain in the world. The main reason to get to Annapurna is the sunrise view. The basecamp is located in the middle of all the mountains on the Himilaya's. I was on the fucking Himilaya's.

1st day Caroline (Holland) and I met up with our guide Pradip, he's the most adorable Nepali guy ever, he's about 5 ft and the biggest smile ever. We took a short bus to Phedi and started our trek. It was a steep staircase uphill that took us an hour to reach Dhampus. From Dhampus there is a view point of the Annapurna mountain. Caroline and I knew that it was going to be tough. But we made a goal, that when we reach the Base Camp, we will have a beer.

Behind those clouds is the Annapurna mountain.

We trekked 6 hours that day to the village Tolka. I ran out of bottled water and bought a chlorine filter water droplets. I took 2 swigs and felt my stomach stir. I ignored it and went to bed. About an hour later during my sleep I felt there was something wrong. I walked out for fresh air and that's when my fried noodles decided to come out for fresh air too. I vomited ALL NIGHT. I ran to the bathroom (located outside of our bedroom) more than 10 times during the night, a few times I just stayed outside. The next day was hell, I couldn't move, I couldn't eat, if I did, I would throw it back out again. Found out that the chlorine filter water droplets makes some people sick, luckily there was a health clinic near Tolka, Caroline went to get me medicine. I tried to walk for 5 minutes to keep my blood circulating, but that just made my body worse. I slept the entire day and was paralyzed. I couldn't even move my arm over if I wanted to sleep on my side.

Third day, I had to start walking. I didn't want to waste another day. I couldn't believe that I climbed 7 hours in the mountains, UP HILL, that day with no nutrients (other than water) in my body. I only ate 1 apple and drank 1 bottle of flat coke. That day, confirmed that trekking to Annapurna is the most physically challenged activity I ever done in my life.

That night...Caroline got sick. She had food poisoning. We knew then not to eat anything fried. She wasn't as sick as I was the night before, but she was weak. We had to split our schedule and make our destinations each day shorter, I wish they did that for me! Anyways, it's in the past, glad I did it, not going to complain.

6th day, the day we reached Annapurna Base Camp. Probably the best feeling ever. It was snowing really hard and it took us 4.5 hours to get to. It was so cloudy that you couldn't see 20 ft ahead of you and the back of you. Everytime I thought I saw the Base Camp I would get excited, but then I realized that it's just a huge rock. But when I really did see the Base Camp Lodge, I started yelling "I think I see it!! I think I seeeeee IT!" so Caroline (20 ft back of me) would know. I started walking faster and was just too excited. I even did a little victory dance when I got to the lodge.

Base Camp

It was fucking freezing. -5 degrees. Caroline and I stayed in the dining hall with layers of blankets, our cold beers, and our books. Awaiting for tomorrow morning. We woke up at the scheduled sunrise, at 5:23 am. CLOUDY! We couldn't see a thing. We accepted the fact that it's the weather and there's nothing we can do about it, we would have to go back down without seeing the mountains, but still proud. About 10 minutes later we heard squeeling that the sky was clearing. Our guide Pradip is knocking on our door telling us to come outside and that the sun was coming out. We ran out in our flipflops, 30 in. of snow, and starting taking pictures.



It was beautiful. I never thought I would get to a place like this. To be in the center of the top ten highest mountains in the world. It was a beautiful day and we were so lucky that the sky cleared up. It took 2 days to get back down. I think it's cause we were so happy, we were practically running down the mountains. The trek is over, we got to our lodge, and I laid my torn up body down, like a pancake.

Sundance Music Festival

I was almost done with this blog entry and it didn't save when the power cut off for 10 minutes. So I'm going to make this short and sweet without cussing too much in the middle.

What a great weekend with the girls, Zara (Ireland) Caroline (Holland) and I went to The Last Resort to attend a music festival that is located on the border of Tibet and Nepal. People from all over Nepal travel for hours to attend this event. The bands are from India and Nepal, kind of folk/rock type of music. BADASS.

hanging out

The Resort is also well-known for it's Bungee Jumping, Canyon Swing, and Rafting. But FIRST...drinking. It took 3 hours to get there by bus, the girls and I rode on top of the bus because it was packed inside. When we got to the resort we immediately got our drink on before the music started. All day was eating, drinking, listening to good music, and at night it started to rain. Life is so much better when you are drunk and dancing in the rain. That is until you smoke some bad weed and throw up. Yup, that's what I did. I was walking to the bathroom and some Nepali guys were sitting on a bench smoking, they offered me a hit and I took one...no ramro (no good).

I went to sleep in our tent (yay for camping!) and Caroline came in a little after. Around 4 am I think, we heard some fighting and running NEXT to our tent. Then one of the guys was yelling hysterically "Patrick!!! Come back here so I can fuck you up!" for an hour. Yeah okay...like Patrick is going to come back after running his ass off and say "Hey man, I'm here, come fuck me up." He kept yelling and crying for so long, some other people came out of their tents and started threatening him to shut up. All night Patrick was in my dreams.

Next morning, no one was at the tent next to us. EVICTED. Too bad for them, time for Bungee Jumping and Canyon Swing! This bridge is 160 meters high and ranked the 2nd highest bridge to Bungee Jump in the world. The Canyon Swing came first, the bungee is attached to your waist and you just fall off the bridge, when the rope ends you swing across the river to see the views of the waterfalls. The jump master wouldn't let me jump whatever style I wanted because I was a first-timer, so I had to jump forward instead of a flip...fucker. Oh man, I jumped off a fucking bridge, it was AWESOME! What was not awesome is that I had to hike up that mountain back to the bridge hungover. I was so tired. Yippee, bungee was next. The jump master let me do it backwards because I had bungee jumped before, so excited. It was great however backwards wasn't as thrilling than forward style but still intense. The fall is 7 seconds long.

They filmed both jumps and put it on a DVD for me, I have to find a way to scratch it and post it online. I also got 2 free t-shirts. (yay for new shirts!)

Okay so alot has happened the past week and half

I can't believe it's almost a month. I have a hard time figuring out what day it is.

Let's try to re-cap my week:

The children are now back in school, this is their second week. But BEFORE school started I wanted to do an activity with my boys so they have one last day of fun. I created a "Photo Scavenger Hunt." I brought 3 cameras with me (yeah yeah) and had 2 groups of boys participating, 12 boys on each group. I made a list of things that the boys had to take a picture with; monkey, temple entrance, taxi cab, monk, volunteer from Umbrella, 2 dogs, swings, a buddha, Sugar Loaf House, and boys in a tree.

They didn't seem interested in the activity, that is until I told them that I would take the winning team to the cinemas. Their response was like "mmm...nahhh...I'm tired...oh...oh...uh...ohhhh...ahhh, cinemaaaaaa?? ahhh...yeeeees...yeeeees!!!" I got them locked dowwwwwn. So they're getting antsy to leave the house and start this game. I thought it would take them the whole day because a lot of these destinations are far away from each other. So I went back to the volunteer house to do my laundry. I got on the roof to hang dry my clothes and I heard a lot of boys yelling. I looked over and saw some of my boys running to each place, I even saw one of them limping. 20 minutes later, both teams came back to me at the exact same time. The winning team got 6/10 right, and the losing team got 4/10, mainly because they were missing one boy in the picture. So Team 1 triumphly won the activity and were jumping around the volunteer house.

photo with a monk.

Watching a Nepali film with the boys was an adventure. We walked to the bus station and rode for 15 minutes, and another 10 minute walk to the theater. Bought our tickets and waited for another hour till they open the theater. The line was crazy! I mean...these people are aggressive and eager to get good seats. People are pushing and cutting in front of each other to get into one single line. One stupid bitch tried to shove me and cut, and I was like "Oh hell naw," so I shoved her back at the end of the line and she shouted something Nepali to me. I turned to my boys and said "What did she say?" she then noticed that I was a foreigner and not a local and walked away. -sigh- I love my boys, they're so protective over me. After that shove and yell with that lady they formed a circle around me so people wouldn't touch me. It was like having an orphan boy bubble.

I saw a typical Indian film dubbed in Nepalese. The actors can't fight Van Damme style, so when they do an elementary round-house kick, the victim backflips to the ground and agonizes in pain. All of sudden it jumps into a 15-minute bollywood sing & dance segment. They do this sing-a-long 3 times during the movie. All and all, the film sucked, in need of an editor, but the kids loved it and they love me for taking them.

This is the line at the cinemas.

A few days ago I met a Nepalese guy named Sushil. He was an orphan since he was 6. He is now 19 years old and creates films, music videos, and helps street children stay out of trouble. He invited me to his little school located in Kalimati, 15 minutes from Swoyambhu. We walked into a square and he unlocks 2 rooms, inside was a classroom and a rack of clothes and shoes. He told me that it took him almost 2 years to get this organization happening; he wants to help street kids that live in slums to have an education. There are 22 rescued children, before they were picking plastic bottles in the slums, where all the city trash is. Now they spend half the day picking bottles and the rest at the learning center. All this is paid by Sushil. I also met Divia, she is a Nepali school teacher that is donating her time to this organization.

I didn't get to meet all the children but I was able to help the organization prepare for the 2nd week of school. We moved furniture, brainstormed how to paint the walls, and hand-washed their school clothes. Sushil is a very interesting Nepali country boy. I mean, the way his mind works and his goals are so not Nepali style. I think he is the only Nepali in Nepal that is independent and follows his own dreams. Hopefully I can visit this orphanage again.

Past weekend most of the volunteers and I went on a retreat to Begnas Lake, Pokhara. It took 5 hours to get there by bus. I paid $15 for 2 nights of camping accommodation, dinner, lunch, snacks, BEER, and transportation. Score. A great relaxing weekend. Appreciating beauty each second.

Begnas Lake.

Between those days I work at the volunteer house, creating a new logo, and layouts for the new website for the organization. Also I visited another orphanage in Bouddha that my family friend's own. If you can remember my second post, I visited a Tibetan temple in San Francisco, and the monks there told me about their friend Takaihashi that owns a Lama learning center in Nepal. I phoned the secretary Pachung and I met up with him in Bouddha. He took me to one of their orphanages that had 17 children, 8 boys, 9 girls. He leaves me there for 20 minutes so he can grab his motor bike and take me to the Lama learning center. These children speak Nepali, Tibetan, and good enough English. We played a game of tag and they seemed to enjoy my presence.

Pachung picked me up and we rode to the Lama learning center. Currently there are about 20 young monks in the school with 2 teachers. In May they will have 40 more monks attending and will need more teachers. I'M GOING TO TEACH TIBETAN MONKS! This is what I want to do. I'm already living my dream, and now this is a dream on top of another. I will start in 2 weeks.

I would like to blog more often and upload my videos, but electricity here SUCKS. 8 hours a day we don't have electricity. So it has been technically difficult. But please check out my flickr, I've been uploading low-res files.

love you guys.

Nepali New Year Week

Okay this week went by quick. Last Monday was Nepal's New Year.

The other volunteers and I were working hard. We had to set up a festival and party for the new kids that were arriving from another orphanage in the city called Gongabu. These kids used to be in a orphanage that was in poor condition. The country director of my NGO visited Gongabu and was shocked on how these kids were living, so he paid the owner to take the kids here in Soyambhu. So anyways, it took weeks to build another orphanage for 20 new kids, it's called Sugar Loaf. All of us were running around buying supplies and setting up drawing competitions, talking to sponsors, and playing with the children. All that hard work deserved a night of drinking, but we were so tired we decided to stay home and drink.

We bought bottles of Vodka, Gin, Whiskey, Juice, and Soda. We started playing drinking games such as Kings. It was annoying because I made up a rule that everytime you say the words 'yes' or 'no,' it had to be in Nepalese, which is 'chha' and 'chha-na.' But I kept getting it wrong. Results: Piss drunk. We even made the kitchen room the new dance floor.

The next morning was unbearable. Nobody went to their children's houses cause we couldn't afford them seeing us half-awake, and dizzy. Didi the house keeper ran out and bought a bundle of cilantro and she showed me how to make 'miracle' tea. She boiled water and rinsed the cilantro. She then takes a sifter and pours the mixture through it. She poured one cup and tried to run away, I brought her back to make her and the other volunteer Benji to take one too. Benji told me to down it, so I started to drink and I thought to myself "oh, this isn't so bad," then I got to the bottom and I thought I was going to throw up. I downed it and I just sat there with my eyes closed trying to keep it down.



Later that night most of the volunteers came back from work and walked around the Soyambhu Monkey Temple. A volunteer named Doc from Ireland has been here for over a year and told us that the temple was lit up with candles and we should go and check it out. We walked around the opposite direction so we would hit the entrance at the very end. Immediately we felt a warm energy and knew we were close to the entrance. Candles were lit everywhere! I must have stared at one monk catching each melting candle drop on the palm of his hand for 20 minutes.



It was so beautiful it could make you cry.

Are you smarter than a Nepali 5th grader?

I am not smarter than a Nepali 5th grader.

Yup, I said it, and I'm suppose to tutor these kids. I couldn't answer more than half of their science exam. I'm very impressed with the education system here in Kathmandu. I'm also very proud of my boys that recently got their exam results, they're all over 80%. Here are some examples that were on their exams:

What is crystallization? Next question please.
True or False: Vitamin A improves Night Vision. Can I cheat?
Is irrigation important in Nepal? Irrigation...irrigation...what the hell does that mean?

I'd like to share more examples but I'm already embarrassed in front of my boys.

First week felt like 2 weeks

I arrived in Kathmandu about 11 pm. It was raining and a guy name Gwenvaal picked me up. This whole time I thought Gwen was a chick. Anyways he gets me a taxi and meets me at the monastery, we stayed the night there and I woke up to roosters cock-a-doodling, dogs barking, and children playing. (My favorite part arriving in a new place at night is opening the curtains the next morning). I see prayer flags hung around the monastery, young monks tending the garden, and miles and miles of houses.
Kathmandu is a BIG city. It's not a good city, the pollution here is horrible, that's why everyone here is always sick because there isn't any clean air to breathe. Electricity comes and goes as it pleases, 4 hours in the day and night it's off. There are candles and mini flashlights everywhere in the house. Dogs and monkeys everywhere.


I walk down to the garden and that's where I ate breakfast. As soon as I sat down, I sneezed 5 times. (Not a good sign) During my breakfast I meet JuJu (Jullian) from France. He introduced me to the organization and the city Soyambhu and told me everything there is about Umbrella organization. Later that day I met the other volunteers. There's about 20 of them from Ireland, France, Holland, and Italy. I move my stuff into the volunteer house that is situated in between all the children houses (8 houses that hold 50 children) I am currently living in a room with 2 guys and one girl, thank goodness they don't snore. But the dogs bark constantly throughout the night....I think I would rather hear snoring.

I am assigned to a house of 48 boys age 12-20. I'm glad that I am in this house because not only is it a challenge to take care of older boys, but they also teach me Nepalese language, now I don't have to take classes. They call me Sister May, or Bimlee (nepalese actress). It's so cute, they have crushes on me; they make me bracelets, they get all shy when I say Hi to them. The boys teach me to play Marbles (I suck) and Futbol (I rule). They even have a game where they play dodgeball with hackeysacks, so when I have more time, the boys and I can make hackeysacks and play. The boys love Akon...I know right?! I told them Akon is not a great musician in America and they think I'm crazy. Everyday they watch tv for a good hour of Indian drama, Tom & Jerry, and Indian music videos (I laugh my ass off whenever I see Indian Hip Hop music videos) Beyonce, Shakira, Chris Brown, and Akon is HUGE in Nepal.

Few days ago, some of the boys took me to a monastery on top of a hill that took over 2 hours to walk up and down. I taught them how to use my camera, I think they have an interest in art and photo taking. Soon I will print out the photos they took and give it to them. Hopefully this will attract interest to the other boys that are private and would want to come out of their bedrooms (I'm not allowed in) and talk to me.

imagine them screaming Garden State Style


It's been 1 week and it felt like 2 weeks. I do so much in one day. I already know where the supermarkets are, how to bargain with cab drivers, using the tuk-tuks into town, and I pretty much know everyone that walks pass by me and we say "Namaste" all the time. This is why I LOVE traveling, staying in one place long enough to fully adapt to the culture, living the life of a Nepalese person.

My normal day goes like this:
5am- Roosters cock-a-doodle-doo, try to go back to sleep.
7:30 am- I wake up and drink coffee or tea with the other sleepy volunteers.
8-8:30 am- walk to the boys house and have breakfast with them. We eat Dahlbaat, a dish with rice, lentil, and potatoes. It's really really good. On some days they add chicken or buffalo.
9:00 am-Walk the boys to school, I alternate on some days because the boys go to different schools and they all want me to walk them.
FREE TIME until 3:00 pm. On my free time, I will work in the office, creating a new look for their website or preparing a photo book for the organization. I think I will be working at the office 2 times a week. When I'm not in the office I can shop at Thamel which is a 20 minute walk from Soyambhu. Or take day trips to other sights around Kathmandu.
Soon I will visit another orphanage that my friends from Tibet own. I already spoke to the owner and he said that he needs someone to teach Tibetan monks English that will be here in Nepal for holiday. I will start next week when the kids go back to school because now they are on Nepalese New Year Holiday.
3:00 pm- Pick up boys from school and play.
5:30-6:00 pm-Dahlbaat.
7:00 pm- Back to the Volunteer house. Sometimes we hang in the kitchen and talk, play card games, listen to music, smoke, drink beer or tea in the dark with one candle. Sleep around 11 pm-12 am.

I met Tibetans...in SF

It was semi-emotional leaving my parents at the airport. I tried really hard NOT to cry, cause I have been majorly emo the past couple weeks and the day I left. Happy, sad, excited, nervous, family drama all mixed in. So...I'm there, about to walk through security and I hug my dad. I know my dad isn't going to cry so we hug, when I pull back there are tears in his eyes, and he's doing that weird thing with his mouth that babies do when they're about to wail. GREAT! So he's about to cry and now I'm going to cry, my mom sees me about to cry, and she starts to cry. Dammit! You know what happens.

I am now in San Francisco staying with my brother Brian for one night. Recently, Brian has started pro-bono work for a Tibetan Temple located in SF, there is a nun named Taoroung there who is my Grandmothers God Daughter. My grandmother is a nun in South China, she has her own temple. My brother told them that I was traveling in Nepal, Tibet, and India, also finding volunteer work. They said I can come visit them while I'm in SF, and they can tell me what I need to know about those countries. When I got there Taoroung was waiting on the porch, with her robe, and shaved head. I walk into their home and take off my shoes. She lifts a door curtain and inside is a tea room with a low table, sitting pillows, and 2 Tibetans internet surfing. We introduce ourselves and they recognize that I am the little sister that wants to volunteer in Asia. I am fed strawberries and Indian Tea. One of the Tibetans, Rinchen (a real Lama), tells me that this is probably my first Indian Tea at the beginning of my journey, and that we should toast.



On and on they tell me where to go, who to talk to, how to be safe, Tibetan phrases (they gave me an old phrasebook). They changed my whole entire outlook in Nepal. One of the Tibetans told me that they have an orphanage in Kathmandu, poor kids, no parents, and no volunteers. Just like the film "Slumdog Millionare." Now I feel that I should visit their orphanage and compare to the program that I already joined. But, it's best if I go there and see how it is. Get use to my surroundings. Understand what's going on and make a rational decision to switch.

I am so grateful that I met these wonderful people. They helped me so much and gave me A LOT of information that is overwhelming for me to take notes. Gondo, the main monk, asked what is my motivation to volunteer. I just froze, my mind went blank for a second, everything that I had told my friends/family prior to this trip on why I want to do this couldn't come out. Instead I said "this is my calling, I don't know why it is, but it is, and I have to do it." Gondo said my motivation is beautiful. This makes me humble. On my way out, I take a quick group photo, and bow to Buddha. There is no word to say 'goodbye' in Tibetan, so I say 'thugje che' (tu-gia-chay) which means Thank You, and a bow.




I am leaving tomorrow at 12:30 pm to Hong Kong. Can't wait.

5 days left

So...yeah...5 days left. I've been counting down when it was 20 days. I never expected those 20 days to go by this quick. There is nothing else to describe the way I feel other than being overly excited. I was planning this for 4 years. 4 YEARS! it feels unreal that I'm going to be gone in a few days. It's hitting me hard.

My last day of work was yesterday, kind of sad and kind of happy. I've been there for 3 years...I've never even been with a guy for that long. So anyways, at the end of the night I had a going away bar night, lets just say I had a great nap at the bar and didn't get kicked out, AND no hangover the next day! 1 pt Stephanie/8,581 pts booze.

Million little things to do in short amount of time.