"Do I want to go home? Do I want to give up? A little."

I'm re-reading journal entries from my first month here.  This entry's title comes from an electronic journal entry from Oct 28th, 2010, the day I arrived in India.
 
On that day, I arrived.  My baggage did not.  During those few days I was staying at the Centaur Hotel, making at least a half dozen trips to and from the airport, moving like a ping pong ball between airline offices (American Airlines and Air India) - during that  period of time I was focusing to get my baggage.  During those blessed days at the Centaur my entries had plenty of profanity.

"34 hours to get from MPLS to Delhi.
96hrs (at least) before my fist shower. 
56hrs and counting until I get my bags..." 
Little did I know it would be approximately 350 hours until I would finally receive my baggage :)

Thankfully, I'm not feeling that way anymore.  How could I feel anything but grateful, anticipating the massive T-day feast - apparently there are going to be 6 varieties of potatoes.  'bout 41 hours until the feast begins!

Most Christmas calendars have 25 days on them right?  As my dad recently mentioned in his recent email, I'm only 25 days from MN.  Inspired by X-mas Calendars then, I think I'm going to have a daily entry until I’ve touched down in B-town.  This task seems doable, but we'll see how long I can keep it going :)  

Nigle Tufnel Day

I just skyped with Derek this morning.  Great stuff.  Then about 10 minutes after saying goodbye I was hiking with Tim down to Rajpur for a Hostel weekly meeting.  Just to stir things up a bit, we went to this excellent Tibetan restaurant named after the Tibet's capitol, Lahsa.  The hike was great.  Food was great.  

Yesterday, I found a place to purchase some bold, whole bean coffee in the bazaar.  I guess it comes from Chenni, all non-instant coffee here seems to come from South India.  This part of India seems sooo far away from Mussoorrie - so I did a small celebration the first I was able to try these beans.  I was off last night, so after yoga a friend and I went up to Char Du Khan for dinner.  We finished off the night by going back to his place at Mt. Hermon to try some of the new coffee with some homemade brownies (with homemade caramel on top).  

Yeah, great stuff!  Life's good.  Coming home in a month and a few days, really excited.

Oh, and since its 11/11/11 - it is Nigel Tufnel Day Day (Umm, yeah.  FYI - that is an international holiday) 

So rock on and rock LOUD!

http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2011/11/11/142223402/listener-picks-songs-you-turn-up-to-11

Earthquake in Sikkim: All is well here.  A few of the boys I met up with in Kathmandu last semester break and some boys from North East India, where the epicenter was, were worried about family and friends back home.  As far as I know, none of them were injured or hurt.

The closest I got to feeling the earth move under my feet was listening to Carol King.  

Meanwhile, life is going along well here.  Yesterday was pretty great.  I had a busy day - went up to Zach Conrad's (math teacher from VT) for a pancake breakfast with real maple syrup from VT, then we went on a hike with Jay D. and Zach, we went really far in a short amount of time... and we climbed like 1900 meters.   

I recently purchased airfare to visit for Christmas - I'm home from Dec 15th to Jan 15th.  I feel like one of these people.

 

Lucknow, Rupaidiha, and Kathmandu

A few notes from/on the summer break journey/tour:

Where was/is Devan?

July 5th
Arrived in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (abreev. UP, not to be confused with Upper Peninsula).  From the train station to the taxi stand Tim, the British supervisor-slash-friend, and I didn't have to deal with any taxi or auto rickshaws - THAT WAS AMAZING!  Many thanks to Prateek, fellow dorm parent at Woodstock, who has a car, and was willing to host us while we were in Lucknow, his "hood".

We took a guided tour of the Bara Imambara and chilled (literally-slash-figuratively) in malls, because it was so frickin' hot and humid!  I purchased some Senheisser earbuds, which thus far, have allowed me to enjoy My Morning Jacket - Circuital, The Roots - How I Got Over & a few episodes of MAD MEN.  We also enjoyed amazing food/kebabs with two Woodstock students who live there.

July 7th
After Prateek helped us arrange a taxi, it was off to Rupaidiha, UP (again, not MI) where we stayed with Tim's friends Roy and Jennifer Ramble.  R & J hosted us in their home and shared the story of their ministry - 25 years ago they started a mission school for girls.  Now, in addition to the school, there is also a Girl's Home with around 50 girls living there.  To call them heroes would be an understatement!  Recurring theme: Generosity - hosts more generous than you could ever imagine.

July 10th
After a worship service in the Ramble's living/dinning/multi-purpose room, we drove across the border into Nepalgunj and hopped on a plane (a really small plane) for Kathmandu.  It was cloudy while up in the air, but Tim was able to spot a few peaks from our window - one or more of them were probably among the top 10 tallest mountains in the world - NBD (no big deal/no biggie).

Kathmandu: Dinner at the Funky Buddha, enjoyed beef and beer - Nepal's far superior to India in these areas of culture - "Mint!"  The area in which we're staying should certainly be mentioned on the "Stuff White People Like" website.  Nepalese are certainly a minority here :)

Sounds: Last night Bob Marley's Survival album, the only one I've ever purchased, was playing on random (probably on a 5 disk CD player) at the Funky Buddha.  I laughed at Tim's comment after hearing Bob sing the song, "Af-ri-ca u-nite" - its ironical because on that same day Sudan officially split into two countries... Currently, I can hear a restaurant playing a Tracy Chapman CD (maybe the one and only CD).  And the cafe I'm in was playing some Joni Mitchell at a softer volume.  

Planning to visit some boys/Woodstock students for lunch in a few minutes.  I'll fly back to Delhi on the 22nd.

LOL (lots of love)
D.

PS - Editor wanted.  If you spot grammatical errors please let me know.  Thanks.

Nag Tiba

Tuesday, May 17th 

This was the view from half way up.  The valley in the middle of the photo was our starting point - altitude of about 1350 meters/4429 ft.

Tim taking a business call on the side of the hill. 

 

Tim standing at the base of a cool rock face.  After climbing for about 4 hours, the peak at the top of this photo was still not the peak we were aiming for.  We hiked around this one on the way to the real peak. 

Below the peak, there is plenty of shade from a lush green forest.  It is probably covered in clouds most the time. 

Lunch at last!  About 3019 meters. 

 

  3022 meters/9,915ft

I decided to climb in style: knock-off Ray Bans and Surly Brewing Co. quick-dry shirt.

 "MN represent!"  

 

We got lost for a few hours right below the peak.  I was sent as one of the scouts to find the path again.  Once I found it, I yelled at the others to hike towards me.  While waiting for the others to come, I had some time to nap in the shade of this tree.

I stopped to check out this flower... I could hear Steve Martin singing: My little butter cup... 

 

Aditya (Addy) can always make me laugh.  That is nice when we're an hour or two from our taxi and there is a thunder storm following us. 

The hike was a great success! All 6 of us plan to ascend a peak twice as high in June; it was great training. 

Care/Birthday Package Received

THANKS!!  I'm feeling the love (because I'm 100% materialist).  In the package; titanium French press, two bags of whole bean, light roast, Dunn Bros Coffee, (book) Poor Economics, Cliff bars, long johns & glacier glasses for the expedition.  (Mom, did I forget anything?)  I'll be thinking of my loving family who found/purchased these gifts for me while I'm on the side of a mountain on my 25th birthday.

Benefit for Japan

Friday, May 13th

I did my hair up nice.  I took this auctioneering role seriously.

Live music

 

What could this cream possibly be used for...  ?

This looks like a good use!  The dorm supervisor, Tim was first to be "pied".

Prateek lucked out when his wife set the highest bid.  She lovingly placed it on his face.

  

Here is Iman pie-ing Caleb in a not-so-loving manor :)

The bidding wars for slamming a pie in my face got a bit more intense after I passionately, and somewhat jokingly, told my boys, "If you love me, you'll pie my face!"  

Its not everyday the head of the Senior School willingly allows students to treat him this way.

These 11th grade boys acted as the "boosters" for the night.  After the auction was finished they boasted how  in each bidding war they entered they were able to double the bid and let someone else take the highest bid.  Apparently these risk-takers did not have any cash on them.  

Overall, it was a successful evening.  The students and few staff raised 33,000 rupees or about $730.  Wow. I could not go to sleep that night after so much excitement.  For a few hours, I just lay in bed thinking about how generous this community acted in response to such a devastating event.  It was a good night to work at Woodstock!