I am a bag lady...

I am a bag lady. I live out of plastic bags, paper bags, backpacks, and hippie bags. For the last five months I have not unpacked for more than two weeks at a time. I have my whole life organized into little compartments. Clothes, books, pens, paints, and hair products (cause you all know that shit takes up most of the room in my bags); these are the few things that I am left with, and that I have carried everywhere with me. I have completely forgotten what it feels like to unpack all of my things and put them in there respective places. I am a little overly obsessed with organizing things too, so this has been interesting. All in all, yes it is true I am now officially a bag lady living out of her bags. I'm glad I have accomplished such a feat before I have even turned 24. haha.

bombay

I am deeply saddened and shocked about the recent events taking place in Bombay (Mumbai). I was just there. I was just sitting in Leopold's having drinks and curry. I was just looking out across the water hiding in the shade of the Taj Mahal hotel. Millions of people from all over the globe live there, travel there, love it there, build lives there. Maybe it has really hit home being over in this region of world, and having spent the last couple of months travelling in India. It is just so hard for me to imagine the logic that goes into a terrorist attack of that nature. I have felt empowered and inspired in living abroad, being absorbed in a life so far from my own back at home; but tragedies like these leave me feeling powerless and confused. What kind of attention are they looking to gain, and how do so many people resort of violence in order to gain the spotlight?
What is terrifying is that nobody can predict this, and now it is being coined the 9/11 of India. Over 180 people were killed, and for what? Complete terror...

strikes and burning tires...wtf.

First things first. I am officially moving to Nepal the first week of January! While I have had my reservations working for a travel company, it's pretty much the best option for me at this point...and it will be a great way to explore the rest of Nepal and try to learn just exactly what is going on this land locked country. In case you are wondering WTF I will be doing in this internship, I basically get paid to write another blog all about Nepal, explore the country a bit more, and possibly do some trekking/outdoor adventures. unreal.
Aside from that, sometimes it's really easy to forget you are in a completely foreign country when you create a little routine for yourself, a bubble if you will. Well I definitely had a wake up call from this little dream state I have been living in.
After spending the night at a friends house down the road from my hotel, I had to escape in the morning to make the walk back. First of all I had to jump over a wall surrounding their house because the gate was locked, and I did not want to wake them up. So not only having a hangover from drinking one beer, I also looked like a complete stalker to any neighbor that may have seen me scale a wall spider man style. Great way to begin a day.
Anyway, as I'm walking back on the main road through Lazimpat, people all around just stop. Standing in the middle of the street, the sidewalk, people hanging out windows. A huge mob of adolescent Nepali boys begin rushing by in the middle of road, yelling in Nepali, and in their hands holding crumbling red bricks, some smashing them on the road.
Since I had no idea what was happening, and this was the first real disturbance I had witnessed, I thought there was about to be a "riot on an empty street." I managed to sneak my way through the shadows and make it a bit farther, only to find a giant green school bus sitting smashed up. Green shards of glass lay in millions all around on the road, and a halo of thick black smoke could be seen swiveling around in the distance. There were tires in the middle of the road, ablaze and burning. A massive crew of Nepali men stood in a circle at the intersection, for all I knew plotting their next move.
Well I made it home, and soon found out there had been two murders, by the Maoist's, a few weeks back and the bodies were just found. The events of the day were in protest of the Maoists, and what I later learned is what they call a strike in Nepal. As I was having breakfast later that morning, the same group of rambunctious running Nepali boys made there way through Thamel, the touristy destination of Kathmandu. As soon as they had passed, it was literally a symphony of slamming doors and sliding garage doors. The strike had begun, and nearly ever single shop, restaurant, bakery was closed for the day. Kathmandu became a zombie town. Streets were quieter and slower than any day before, and everything was at a stand still. Shattered glass spread on concrete.
Supposedly these strikes happen quite frequently, and this was just one of many to come..So I have come to realize that I really don't know or understand what is going on in this country yet. There are so many things I cannot possibly understand, and I'm not sure that I ever will. Maybe that's why we need to travel..who knows.

current crazy events...

Just a few things that have happened in the past two weeks in Nepal...

1. I fainted today, AGAIN!! Beginning to feel like this is a pattern and I have no idea why. I was literally sitting at my breakfast spot reading, just so happened to be in a really gruesome part of the Life of Pi, and starting feeling very nauseous. Sitting in a tiny little cafe, I put my head in my hands. Started sweating seriously abnormal amounts, and when all I could think about was how I was going to get from there to my bed, I decided I could brave the streets and try to walk home. I made it about five yards, my vision was gone and I grabbed onto the nearest thing I could find, a sign with flashing lights...and I was out for the count. If anyone has ever fainted, the scariest part is losing vision. I started seeing spots, and then fell into a sort of dream like trance.Woke up on a foreign dirt road once again, though this time surrounded by Nepali faces, and a sweet Aussie man who helped me to my feet. Just a bit frightening, especially because I was FINE two minutes before. Does anyone know why this keeps happening to me?? So now I find myself stuck at ANOTHER internet cafe looking up fainting symptoms. WTF.

2. Walking "home" one night, I literally bumped into a friend from San Francisco who I went to college with. Had no idea she was in Nepal, and had not seen her in at least three years, talk about a small world!

3. Seeing the new James Bond film in Nepal, surrounded by Nepalis and being given a 20 minute intermission in the middle of the movie. Oh, and arriving literally James Bond style on the back of a motorcycle, and the cargo (being me obviously) was not given a helmet, really safe. Just speeding through the narrow streets of Kathmandu on the back of a motorcycle, typical day you know.

4. Just the simple fact that I am still miraculously in Nepal. I hit day 103 of being abroad yesterday. Unbelievable that I could potentially not even have made it half way through this journey...whaattt??

5. Being offered any number of drugs at all hours of the day, nearly every ten feet I walk in Thamel. You want to smoke something, come to Thamel and you will be set for life. I'm not sure what it is about me, or if I have just mastered the whole look of lost, hippy, hobo traveller, stoner, hmmm, uh oh.

6. The wonderful ability to spend hours upon hours reading, drawing, writing, sitting. Something I will always cherish and understand will probably never again happen, once I have to reassociate myself with society and life in the states.

7. Thats all for now....For anyone who actually reads this. Well I am missing home A LOT these days. It feels so far far away.

endless possibilities

oh and I got offered an internship yesterday to write about Nepal, go to festivals and events, eat at restaurants..and just write. Seriously. I might be living in a 2 bedroom apartment in Nepal come January, so if anyone is sick of working or school or life in general...please come visit me!

It is crazy, for lack of a better word, how swiftly our lives change from one direction to the next..mine has done a complete 180 in less than four months, and that is pretty amazing.

thinking...

I just finished reading The Poisonwood Bible. One of those books I bought at least three years ago, tried to read countless times, and gave up...then I put it in a bag, brought it on three planes, and it landed in my hands in Nepal. It has become one of those books that will not leave my head, and I find myself walking around recounting passages as if it were part of my own history. Basically, if you have not read it yet...you must. Brilliant writing.

Aside from having my head in a book for most hours of the day, my feet are also carrying me along winding roads in Kathmandu. This is a much easier task when you are unemployed and alone in a foreign country thousands of miles from home. I jump from cafes, to restaurants, to shops, to bars and I spend hours upon hours walking, and walking: discovering the hidden stupas in dark corners, brightly robed holy Sadhu men; sitting aside shiny bowls fingers adorned with jewels; babies in bonnets toddling on cobblestones; monkeys being monkeys, flirting with traffic and anything with a scent; and most of all I have discovered the ease at which I am able to roam around Nepal. Free from staring hollering men (for the most part, although someone did punch my boob yesterday, ha) free from lumbering cows at every turn of the corner, and free from the hot, sweaty, sticky, humid heat of India. This may be why I am beginning to love this country. I am free to roam, and no one bothers me! As much as I never will ever be anything but a foreigner in this country, or anywhere I wind up, this is the closest I have ever felt to just being another person walking. A pedestrian, a woman, a nomad. Not a white skinned tourist who stands out as if there were a bright spotlight chasing me around.

Nepal is turning colder with every day. I bought a yak wool shawl the other day which I wear proudly, wrapping my shoulders in it's woolly embrace. I never thought I would say that, believe me. BUT, through all the cynicism you may have caught onto from India, I am excited to be back there in the big old mess of things in a few weeks. I will be meeting up with a friend in Delhi, and a few other wandering travelers like me, to cruise to the magical cities of Rajasthan, eat curries until our bellies pop, and sit once again under a scorching Indian sun..possibly on the back of a Camel in the desert.

This is my life these days. What can I say?

obamanos in nepal

I saw the most wonderful woman..ever. After spending my day wandering the alleys again, I spotted her around the corner from my favorite cafe. Standing no more than four feet tall, her face engraved by wrinkles carved deep, her tiny little body bundled up in a colorful wool shawl, and her eyes set intently on the screen in front of her. When she spotted me smiling at her, her face immediately lit up in a Cheshire grin, cheek to cheek, and she just pointed at the screen and smiled back at me. She was watching a rafting video outside a trekking store..just standing, watching, smiling. We just stared at each other for a minute before I continued along my way, looking back to see her still standing and watching, completely enthralled by this video. This is Nepal!

So for all that are interested, I made it to Nepal! It's been about a week so far, and I could not be happier. What a wonderful and much needed break from the craziness that is India.

Although the journey here was a bit tumultuous; from getting harassed by a drunk Indian on the overnight bus ride, bouncing along a road that is not even a road, to spending ten hours sitting upright without a backrest surrounded by Nepali men and women asking me "madame why are you alone?"

Well...Kathmandu is another busy, polluted, and honking city, but in comparison to the Indian cities I have spent my last two months in, it is a mecca of lush green hills, marvelously golden stupas adorned with Tibetan prayer flags, and charming Nepali people. I have been charmed once again.

On a last note...all I can say is hell yes for OBAMA. I spent an hour searching for the US embassy party that would be showing the final polls. I finally found it in just as the polls were closing and people were chanting 10, 9,8....A room filled with Americans, crying, cheering, chanting, hugging, and jumping up and down. Although I am sad to have missed the outrageous street dancing parties in the states, it was wonderful to feel the support on a global scale. All the Nepali people want to talk about Obama as well. I am utterly overjoyed, and anxiously anticipating being back in the states at some point to feel overwhelming energy surrounding me.

cheers.