Hey everyone, how's it going out there???
Well, after Deer Park we took a taxi to McLeod Ganj, right by Dharamsala, which I touched on a little bit in the last post. A lot of people in my group are loving it and loving the homestays, I am definitely not. It's just stress central on soooo many levels. I decided not to stay on longer - for a lot of reasons, and so I'll be going home on the regularly scheduled group flight, which should be fun. It's kind of a bummer not to be staying but I am also so ready to be home, to not be around zillions of people all the time (that's one of the things that bugs me most about the homestays, barely a moment of privacy or time to myself at all, ever, it's making me crazy), and to chill out.
And then there is the college deal - I've heard from and been accepted at all the schools I applied to, except there is one more I have yet to hear from, and they all want deposits in like, ten days. YIKES! There are a lot of things complicating that, like one school hasn't told me if I got into my program (and that is really the only reason I want to go there, it'd be a definite deal-breaker), and I'm having a lot of trouble accessing financial aid package info from all of them. That is obviously a key factor in my decision and so I've just been spending hours each day emailing with schools and trying to see how I can get my fin aid info, but a lot of it is leading to dead ends and is just super frustrating. I feel like so much of my time and my energy this past month has been geared towards trying to figure this all out and work something out before these deposits are due, and it's just been an endless ring fo frustration that feels like it is really detracting, more and more, from my time here in India, and is a big part of why I decided not to stay longer. I don't want to lose my spot at any of these schools and it is hard to do any sort of ranking (like say, mail in deposits to a few top choices) b/c I just have no idea what the aid looks like! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! It makes me want to scream most days.
It sucks too b/c I worked my ass off so hard to get everything done before I left, get every freakin' form and piece of paperwork done. Tons of forms and photocopies and scholarship applications and essays, so I guess it feels like I worked like hell to get all my ducks in a row so I wouldn't have to worry about this in India, and now it's like I'm spending hours every day in front of a computer screen, trying to find ways to access info and running in circles! I am goign to ask the schools for an extension so I can look at everything once I get home, and call during normal hours and all of that, so we'll see how that goes!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Deer Park - Graham's post on the group blog
Check it out:
Deer Park
We're now in McLeod Ganj, home of the Dalai Llama and tibetans in exile from CHina, staying with individual families. It's a trip. The family I'm staying with is pretty much all men except for my homestay Amala (mom). There is the Pala (dad) and three of his brothers and two of his sons, one of whom is now twenty days old!
We're doing internships here, in all kinds of stuff. This place is sort of hippie town central. I'm doing my internship in Reiki - a bunch of us tried to do one in astrology but we just aren't here long enough, and we are all at really different levels. It's pretty open-ended here.
Deer Park
We're now in McLeod Ganj, home of the Dalai Llama and tibetans in exile from CHina, staying with individual families. It's a trip. The family I'm staying with is pretty much all men except for my homestay Amala (mom). There is the Pala (dad) and three of his brothers and two of his sons, one of whom is now twenty days old!
We're doing internships here, in all kinds of stuff. This place is sort of hippie town central. I'm doing my internship in Reiki - a bunch of us tried to do one in astrology but we just aren't here long enough, and we are all at really different levels. It's pretty open-ended here.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Amritsar and the Border
Another quickie blog here from Amritsar, not far from the Golden Temple.
Gotta talk about the border first b/c that was one wild adventure. Our group went to the India-Pakistan border yesterday to watch the closing ceremony they have every day (there is also an opening ceremony every morning). I forget wh at the exact place is called but it is the only place where people can actually cross the border from one country to another (we couldn't do that, you need Visas and all that, we were just there for the show). It was wild. First off, we saw tons of marijuana growing along the road on the way there, just humungous pot plants. I tried to get pictures but failed. The other thing we saw lots of were trucks full of sacks of potatoes.
So at the actual border, the gates weren't even open until 4pm. Before that we hung out at this little rest stop sort of area where people kept trying to sell us CDs, DVDs and Indian flags, as well as tried to get us to buy shnhacks, drins and beer (which we couldn't, this trip is alcohol and drug free), so then the gates to go to the border opened and it was like a total stampede moshpit. At one point I pulled WIlla Rose out of the way of a moving car. It was mayhem. We got separated by gender and searched twice. Ben got us somehow to be able to go in to sections of bleachers closer to the border. There was recorded Indian music playing and on our way to the bleachers, passing super super close to the border we got good earshot of the music playing on the Pakistani side as well. So basically for awhile it felt like a huge outdoor concert with people in bleachers, music blaring on both sides, kids dancing down at the bottom of bleachers near the border, people walking by our section with huge Indian flags, etc. At other points, more as the cermeony got underway, it felt like a national rally, with chanting and call and repeats about India (Hindustan) that I mostly couldn't understand. I also couldn't see a lot of what went on, and my camera's zoom feature was how I caught what I did catch. Took lots of video and my camera battery died midway through. Anyway there was a lowering of flags on both sides, and I was told there were handshakes between people of the two countries. I definitely saw lots of guys in army uniform down by the border, and throughout the procession to the bleachers, as well as guys in fatigues. it was wild. On one hand, for a pretty hostile border in the world, it felt way more festive than I would have imagined, and on the other hand, there was lots and lots of India pride going on, and the chanting stuff was a little intimidating. It was so wild to think the whole process happens twice a day. We were on the bleachers for a good two and a half hours. It was a pretty unique and memorable experience.
On the way out we were again accosted by people trying to sell us stuff, and the smell of jasmine flowers. It was so overpowering, and is one of my favorite smells in the world. It felt like, on the way back out to the taxi, I was walking th rough fields of jasmine tea, the smell was so strong and delicious.
After that we went to the Golden Temple -- we went the evening before as well -- which was awesome. That place is amazing. It's pretty open, and we ate dinner there in mass feeding, which was awesome to experience, and delicious. THen we slept there. We were part of a handlful of westerners (at both places that day), so we had a lot of people staring at us, taking pics of us, taking pictures with us, asking us questions. I had a lot of guys come up to me and tell me my pink hair is beautiful, which was cool. One guy was like, "I have seen everything in my life, but not hair like that." We talked to a lot of cool people. THen we slept in the temple, outside under the moon, with chanting at all hours. It was incredible. At one point I was asleep and some guys came by and picked up two water bottles of group membrs that were near me (I was watching a lot of stuff as others were wandering around) and I was immediately awake and alert, thinking they were trying to steal our stuff. Instead they put the water bottles under an unoccupied sleeping bag, so as to hide them, told me to be careful of our luggage, and asked me to put my hand through a loop on my backpack to make sure it'd be secure. It was wild how many helpful and cool people we met.
Also gotta say that the per capita amount of hot dudes in Amritsar is awesome, there are beautiful men everywhere (but none I'm quite as fond of as Snoop the driver from Sikkim), which is just one of the many reasons I am really liking Amritsar and the state of Punjab.
Today went to the Silver Temple, a Hindu temple with a lot of silver amazing doors, and a small shrine to Durga, as well as statues and paintings of other Hindu deities. It was cool, I am developing a stronger and stronger affinity for Durga all the time, but it was also in the pouring rain. Half of our group went on to the next location, but I stayed with a few others in order to experience the temple, sri Durgiana, and also to experience the Golden Temple some more, eat there again, maybe hlep out with the feeding. FOr those that don't know, the GT is the holy place for Sikhs, and it has a pool of holy water in the middle, which is awesome, and also does mass feeding of anyone. It's all systematic, you go in and get plates and spoons and sit on the floor in rows (in a huge hall with mass amounts of people), and people come by with rice pudding, some curried stuff, dhal and chipatti bread) and then you eat and clean up and then go get chai in same fashion. ASpparently the GT feeds anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000 people a day! It is really incredible to see in operation! Feeding and inclusiveness of all peoples are supposed to be features of all Sikh temples.
Oh, I cannot forget, I have to talk about Delhi! TO get to Amritsar, we had to take a long ride from Darjeeling to fly to Delhi, where we stayed overnight to get up early and catch a train to Amritsar. So we stayed at the same hotel we originally stayed at when we first got to India, almost two months ago. SO this was like Delhi: Revisited, and it was a compltetely different expereince. The driving and traffic from the airport didn't phase me at all, or anyone else in the group. We barely got approached by beggars in Pahar Ganj (the area where the h otel is), I think partly b/c we're accostomed to the country by now, and with time here, our postures and b ody language have changed. I felt like a different person that I did when I firt arrived in Delhi. It didn't feel overwhelming at all, and it actually flet good to be in more typi8cal India with crazy traffic, lots of noise and activities, massive people, etc. I was loving it! It felt like a good measuring stick in a way, to see how far we've come in the last almost two months. I even walked around by myself at night for a short while (when we first arrived, I was terrified walking around in a group in broad daylight), so it felt awesome. THere was also a massive parade going on, which was cool to see.
I have been going back and forth about this for awhile now, and thought up until recently that I would end up going home with the group on May 5th, but as of a few days ago, after the trek and after the experience in Delhi, I've decided I want to stay longer, just by about two and a half weeks or so, probably with another girl in my group and travel around. We aren't sure yet what we want to do, but the airline allows one free change on the return flight so it feels like it'd be a crime not to take advantage of that and be in the country a bit longer. So that'll be early to late May. And as of now, it's wide open as far as where to go and w hat to do. We've got lots of ideas running around. My friend wants to visit Amma, a guru I don't know much about, I'm thinking about meditation courses, but mostly just feeling open and wanting to travel and experience the world more. We are going to party though, since we kinda can't now. So....suggestions? Story Teller? I'm up for an adventure! I feel like my thrill seeking side has dfeinitely been ignited a bit as of late.
Gotta talk about the border first b/c that was one wild adventure. Our group went to the India-Pakistan border yesterday to watch the closing ceremony they have every day (there is also an opening ceremony every morning). I forget wh at the exact place is called but it is the only place where people can actually cross the border from one country to another (we couldn't do that, you need Visas and all that, we were just there for the show). It was wild. First off, we saw tons of marijuana growing along the road on the way there, just humungous pot plants. I tried to get pictures but failed. The other thing we saw lots of were trucks full of sacks of potatoes.
So at the actual border, the gates weren't even open until 4pm. Before that we hung out at this little rest stop sort of area where people kept trying to sell us CDs, DVDs and Indian flags, as well as tried to get us to buy shnhacks, drins and beer (which we couldn't, this trip is alcohol and drug free), so then the gates to go to the border opened and it was like a total stampede moshpit. At one point I pulled WIlla Rose out of the way of a moving car. It was mayhem. We got separated by gender and searched twice. Ben got us somehow to be able to go in to sections of bleachers closer to the border. There was recorded Indian music playing and on our way to the bleachers, passing super super close to the border we got good earshot of the music playing on the Pakistani side as well. So basically for awhile it felt like a huge outdoor concert with people in bleachers, music blaring on both sides, kids dancing down at the bottom of bleachers near the border, people walking by our section with huge Indian flags, etc. At other points, more as the cermeony got underway, it felt like a national rally, with chanting and call and repeats about India (Hindustan) that I mostly couldn't understand. I also couldn't see a lot of what went on, and my camera's zoom feature was how I caught what I did catch. Took lots of video and my camera battery died midway through. Anyway there was a lowering of flags on both sides, and I was told there were handshakes between people of the two countries. I definitely saw lots of guys in army uniform down by the border, and throughout the procession to the bleachers, as well as guys in fatigues. it was wild. On one hand, for a pretty hostile border in the world, it felt way more festive than I would have imagined, and on the other hand, there was lots and lots of India pride going on, and the chanting stuff was a little intimidating. It was so wild to think the whole process happens twice a day. We were on the bleachers for a good two and a half hours. It was a pretty unique and memorable experience.
On the way out we were again accosted by people trying to sell us stuff, and the smell of jasmine flowers. It was so overpowering, and is one of my favorite smells in the world. It felt like, on the way back out to the taxi, I was walking th rough fields of jasmine tea, the smell was so strong and delicious.
After that we went to the Golden Temple -- we went the evening before as well -- which was awesome. That place is amazing. It's pretty open, and we ate dinner there in mass feeding, which was awesome to experience, and delicious. THen we slept there. We were part of a handlful of westerners (at both places that day), so we had a lot of people staring at us, taking pics of us, taking pictures with us, asking us questions. I had a lot of guys come up to me and tell me my pink hair is beautiful, which was cool. One guy was like, "I have seen everything in my life, but not hair like that." We talked to a lot of cool people. THen we slept in the temple, outside under the moon, with chanting at all hours. It was incredible. At one point I was asleep and some guys came by and picked up two water bottles of group membrs that were near me (I was watching a lot of stuff as others were wandering around) and I was immediately awake and alert, thinking they were trying to steal our stuff. Instead they put the water bottles under an unoccupied sleeping bag, so as to hide them, told me to be careful of our luggage, and asked me to put my hand through a loop on my backpack to make sure it'd be secure. It was wild how many helpful and cool people we met.
Also gotta say that the per capita amount of hot dudes in Amritsar is awesome, there are beautiful men everywhere (but none I'm quite as fond of as Snoop the driver from Sikkim), which is just one of the many reasons I am really liking Amritsar and the state of Punjab.
Today went to the Silver Temple, a Hindu temple with a lot of silver amazing doors, and a small shrine to Durga, as well as statues and paintings of other Hindu deities. It was cool, I am developing a stronger and stronger affinity for Durga all the time, but it was also in the pouring rain. Half of our group went on to the next location, but I stayed with a few others in order to experience the temple, sri Durgiana, and also to experience the Golden Temple some more, eat there again, maybe hlep out with the feeding. FOr those that don't know, the GT is the holy place for Sikhs, and it has a pool of holy water in the middle, which is awesome, and also does mass feeding of anyone. It's all systematic, you go in and get plates and spoons and sit on the floor in rows (in a huge hall with mass amounts of people), and people come by with rice pudding, some curried stuff, dhal and chipatti bread) and then you eat and clean up and then go get chai in same fashion. ASpparently the GT feeds anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000 people a day! It is really incredible to see in operation! Feeding and inclusiveness of all peoples are supposed to be features of all Sikh temples.
Oh, I cannot forget, I have to talk about Delhi! TO get to Amritsar, we had to take a long ride from Darjeeling to fly to Delhi, where we stayed overnight to get up early and catch a train to Amritsar. So we stayed at the same hotel we originally stayed at when we first got to India, almost two months ago. SO this was like Delhi: Revisited, and it was a compltetely different expereince. The driving and traffic from the airport didn't phase me at all, or anyone else in the group. We barely got approached by beggars in Pahar Ganj (the area where the h otel is), I think partly b/c we're accostomed to the country by now, and with time here, our postures and b ody language have changed. I felt like a different person that I did when I firt arrived in Delhi. It didn't feel overwhelming at all, and it actually flet good to be in more typi8cal India with crazy traffic, lots of noise and activities, massive people, etc. I was loving it! It felt like a good measuring stick in a way, to see how far we've come in the last almost two months. I even walked around by myself at night for a short while (when we first arrived, I was terrified walking around in a group in broad daylight), so it felt awesome. THere was also a massive parade going on, which was cool to see.
I have been going back and forth about this for awhile now, and thought up until recently that I would end up going home with the group on May 5th, but as of a few days ago, after the trek and after the experience in Delhi, I've decided I want to stay longer, just by about two and a half weeks or so, probably with another girl in my group and travel around. We aren't sure yet what we want to do, but the airline allows one free change on the return flight so it feels like it'd be a crime not to take advantage of that and be in the country a bit longer. So that'll be early to late May. And as of now, it's wide open as far as where to go and w hat to do. We've got lots of ideas running around. My friend wants to visit Amma, a guru I don't know much about, I'm thinking about meditation courses, but mostly just feeling open and wanting to travel and experience the world more. We are going to party though, since we kinda can't now. So....suggestions? Story Teller? I'm up for an adventure! I feel like my thrill seeking side has dfeinitely been ignited a bit as of late.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Further Itinerary
This was originally a reply I wrote to Story Teller on the last post, but it got kind of lengthy and seemed more like a post, so here it is:
Hey story teller, where in India are you located exactly???
It seems the droughts have been a pretty big problem in Sikkim.
So, not on my way home yet. In Darjeeling now, and tomorrow flying to Delhi so we can take a train to Amritsar (and I think we'll also visit Lahore, right on the Pakistani border while in Amritsar, I'm certainly hoping to. From there we go to Bir and McLeod Ganj, and after that, our group has two weeks of free travel, and we're pretty sure that what we'll do with our free travel time is go to Ladakh, it was a pretty clear consensus.
It's interesting because, seven years ago when I was in school, taking a class called Environmental Humanities, we watched a movie called Learning from Ladakh (which is also a book, which I was psyched to see cited in my good friend Janet Thomas' bibliography to her book The Battle in Seattle, about the WTO Demonstrations). The video was about how Ladakh was for a long time untouched by western civilization, partly because of how remote and how high altitude it is.
The movie went on to show how drastically the place changed once they were in touch with modern civilization, and how it had a devastating effect (despite some advanced medicine and other more positive things) on cultural tradition and preservation, and how disrupted and polluted it got. I brought this up during our free travel talk, and someone else mentioned that yeah, tourism can have pretty bad side effects in that region, so we're looking into low impact ecologically sound travel.
It sounds like there'll be some really cool things to do there, it's a spiritually rich place, and there's also some trekking and rafting, and camel trips that involve camping under the stars, way high in the Himalayas. I'm interested in all of the above. THere's supposed to be one intense 6,000 meter (I think?) hike that goes to really high altitude, but is supposed to be a pretty easy hike. If there is ANY way I can do it, I'm all fucking for it! It'd be such an amazing and rare experience to be there and experience that.
After that we're going back to Delhi for our flight home, but getting back there a day or two before our flight so we can go to Agra and see the Taj Mahal before leaving the country.
So there's still over a month left!
Current Music:
Well, via others' iPods I have recently heard Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, Tool, Damien Rice and a few others to feed my need for music I love. It struck me the other day, and struck me as symbolic, that I haven't thought of the song "Scratch" that I mentioned in the very beginning of my India journey. It was stuck in my head immediately upon landing in Delhi, mainly the lines, "I have ended up in India, with no lamp to guide me home, the strangest place I think I've ever been..." but I haven't really thought of it since sometime in Varanasi, and that seemed so fitting. I don't know if there's anything in particular I'm craving at the moment, but I will be happy to be reunited with my music soemtime next month!
Hey story teller, where in India are you located exactly???
It seems the droughts have been a pretty big problem in Sikkim.
So, not on my way home yet. In Darjeeling now, and tomorrow flying to Delhi so we can take a train to Amritsar (and I think we'll also visit Lahore, right on the Pakistani border while in Amritsar, I'm certainly hoping to. From there we go to Bir and McLeod Ganj, and after that, our group has two weeks of free travel, and we're pretty sure that what we'll do with our free travel time is go to Ladakh, it was a pretty clear consensus.
It's interesting because, seven years ago when I was in school, taking a class called Environmental Humanities, we watched a movie called Learning from Ladakh (which is also a book, which I was psyched to see cited in my good friend Janet Thomas' bibliography to her book The Battle in Seattle, about the WTO Demonstrations). The video was about how Ladakh was for a long time untouched by western civilization, partly because of how remote and how high altitude it is.
The movie went on to show how drastically the place changed once they were in touch with modern civilization, and how it had a devastating effect (despite some advanced medicine and other more positive things) on cultural tradition and preservation, and how disrupted and polluted it got. I brought this up during our free travel talk, and someone else mentioned that yeah, tourism can have pretty bad side effects in that region, so we're looking into low impact ecologically sound travel.
It sounds like there'll be some really cool things to do there, it's a spiritually rich place, and there's also some trekking and rafting, and camel trips that involve camping under the stars, way high in the Himalayas. I'm interested in all of the above. THere's supposed to be one intense 6,000 meter (I think?) hike that goes to really high altitude, but is supposed to be a pretty easy hike. If there is ANY way I can do it, I'm all fucking for it! It'd be such an amazing and rare experience to be there and experience that.
After that we're going back to Delhi for our flight home, but getting back there a day or two before our flight so we can go to Agra and see the Taj Mahal before leaving the country.
So there's still over a month left!
Current Music:
Well, via others' iPods I have recently heard Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, Tool, Damien Rice and a few others to feed my need for music I love. It struck me the other day, and struck me as symbolic, that I haven't thought of the song "Scratch" that I mentioned in the very beginning of my India journey. It was stuck in my head immediately upon landing in Delhi, mainly the lines, "I have ended up in India, with no lamp to guide me home, the strangest place I think I've ever been..." but I haven't really thought of it since sometime in Varanasi, and that seemed so fitting. I don't know if there's anything in particular I'm craving at the moment, but I will be happy to be reunited with my music soemtime next month!
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