Lost and Found

Hello again to all my friends. I’m glad you came to play. Our fun and learning never ends, here’s what we learned today!
Sup, yo? I’m in this place called India, still. I’ve recently returned from an extended weekend trip. Some friends and I took off Saturday morning and journeyed by bus and train to a little town called Warangal, and later Vijayawada. This weekend was a holiday and so all of the tickets to the really cool places in India were sold out by the time we decided we wanted to travel, so we ended up opting for semi-interesting places near by. The holiday was Sankrati, Festival of Color and the Kite Flying Holiday...this is where they have the kite flying competitions with the glass string that you try to cut. Kite Runner, anyone? Anyway, in Warangal we saw the Thousand Pillar temple, were ramasacked by a group of about 40-50 Indian children who all wanted to shake our hands, take our pictures, take pictures with us, gawk at us, etc. This wasn’t just children, mind you, EVERYONE, but most often it was the younger children that actually came up to us. Other people just gawk. (I think they are gawking at Difference. Also, in these little towns there aren’t many tourists and foreigners, so seeing white or different people is rare and fantastical for them, I think.) We enjoyed a nice sunset on a cool evening, we laughed, we went out to dinner at a "fancy" (fancy for India, but cheap when converted to the US dolla’ [holla]. ie $2 a person?!), hoteled it, etc. The elevator in the hotel liked to constantly ding the song "Mary Had a Little Lamb". We were not so happy about that little song situation. Because it went off about every 2 minutes. Exhausted from the strange energy that traveling seems to suck out of you, even if you don’t physically "do" a lot, we hit the hay/hit the bed bugs/didn’t sleep because we heard sounds of dry heaving, gagging, puking, either dying starving cats or rabid babies, loud conversations that sounded like they were taking place right outside of our door, and, of course, Mary and her Little Lamb whose fleece was white as snow. To add to that, one half of us were sleeping in a room with bloodstained walls (I noticed this earlier in the day, but didn’t mention it because I didn’t wanna freak them out if I didn’t have to). We had stories to share when we woke up, and the waking up ocurred at the wee hour of like 5:30 or something. We caught an early train...well, we accidently peeked into a train to see if it was ours and then it started moving, so yeah...we ended up taking a very very early train to Vijayawada. Sophie had a good time hanging out with a squishy bananna, and Jordan had an akward time sitting across from the boy who sat on his friends lap so that Jordan could have a seat (akward most likely because the boy gave up his seat to The American [Jordan is Canadian]). Yeah in Vijaya we did the hotel thing, had a bite to eat, ventured out to the cave temple (Arundavalli?..something like that). Haha our rickshaw ride was hilarious, because our drivers had NO CLUE where we were going (this is not infrequent) so they kept stopping and asking people along the way. They took us across the Krishna river and into the rural areas, through cotton, onion, flower fields, through palm trees, birdies, and prettiness. We were really happy to be getting an accidental tour of the rural area surrounding the city, but really concerned when our driver stopped in the middle of the road, conversed with some farmer in Hindi, proceeded to push our car (engine off), yes PUSH, not drive, BACKWARDS, and then scooted us on down a crazy dirt road. We did, however, end up at the cave temples...Miraculously. And they were phenomenal. The view from the top was gorgeous and far reaching. It was the perfect time of day (like 3 or so, when it had started to cool down, but there was still lots of sunlight) and a wave of peace seemed to have settled itself inside each and every one of us. We probably sat there for hours. We were also, attacked by natives in the same way as before. (Oh, and also, at this point I began to get into the touristy places by paying the Indian price as opposed to the foreigner price. Which was exciting and scandalous) We made a friend who really took to Jordan and they exchanged phone numbers. This dude, Sandeep, proceeded to basically write Jordan love notes for the next 2 days. Also, here a group of school children on a field trip did the usual shake hands take pics thing, but then invited us to ride on their bus with them, which we of course accepted, driving further into rural India, singing songs, laughing, and communicating with kids in a language beyond words. That we REALLY fun. The bus dropped us of at a public bus stop where we caught a bus back into the city (a cleaner air bus! Go India?!<–the question mark is for Jake) where we somehow, by the grace of Krishna, made our way back to our hotel, where we watched funny Indian shows, Animal Planet, some Spartacus thing (we had tv), went on a wild grocery store raid, to avoid the pattern of eating out and eating Indian food for every meal, stuffed, I showered, then went to bed. (Oh, exciting side note: This hotel had WESTERN TOILETS!! No squatters! I literally jumped for J-O-Y). We got up early (again, of course) the next day, hopped on a bus, (at the bus station we almost got killed by crazy close-flying birds), drove 2 hours to some middle-of-nowhere town expecting to find some ancient Buddhist temple, but all we found was no temple, and a museum. And Kai lost his wallet:(. We went to the museum, it was alright (the coolest things were the exbihitions that showed the branching off of the different sects of Buddhism and another showing the development of written Sanskrit?or was it Telugu?). We had lunch on the lawn (we were watched and harrassed, of course). Then we had nothing else to do in that little town and it was pretty hot, so we headed back to the city. When we got back to the bus station we decided to explore the ghats (these huge steps that go into the river where people hang out). Turns out the river was really really dry, so we walked out onto the sand where the river usually is. There was all this red clothing draped all over the stairs which was really wierd. Kai, Caitlin, Jordan, Hilary and I stayed and hung out in the ghats with some Indians fishermen and some kids; the other girls went back to the hotel room. Two little girls seemed to have adopted me as their big sis and held my hands as we walked back out of the ghats, said goodbye, and headed back to the hotel. In the hotel Sophie and I watched some of the New Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, then we all went out to eat, went for icecream (but not me, THE LACKY!!), came back, shower powered, and then Sophie, Isabele, Davita and I wierdly got into A Few Good Men (with T. Cruise and D. Moore) and watched it in bed. We fell asleep thinking of Tom’s little flip in the front of his hair, boyfriends, the wierd bug bites I had gotten in bed the night before, and whatever beginning threads of dreams we happened to fallen into. I dreamt that I wanted to make Jake a present for something and I made him a tea cup and I personalized it and wrote his name on it. When I told Jake about this later, we decided this was the cutest thing I have ever dreamed. The next morning we woke up smokin’ early, hopped on an early train, ate only biscuits all day, made friends, read, were hot, listened to music, talked, some played cards, Kai almost got left behind while hopping off the train to get chai at a stop, listened to someone’s Telugu-pop, reflected silently, slept. A nice doctor woman helped us navigate the train hopping situation (since she was going to the same place), and spoke to us about alternative medicine, and cow maneur and urine, and the cosmos, and metaphysics, and the life force and such. It was an interesting ride. We made it back to campus, fitting all 8 of us in a teeny rickshaw (you have no idea how small this is...think a 3 person bench seat somehow fitting 8 people. It’s like smaller than a clown mobile. We were happy to be back and to see familiar, non-gawking faces. Kai’s wallet was returned, somehow. Phenomenal. That night we went to the auditorium and watched the epic Lagaan, which was, seriously, EPIC. It was maybe the most thrilling experience I’ve ever had watching a film. All of the students were SO into it. They were cheering and hooting and yelling. It was amazing.
The next day we went to the craft villiage, because it was the holiday. I bought my first indian clothing: 3 shirts or salwar camisas. I also picked up a sweet bracelet. We watched some cool dancing. At "home" we tried to fly kites up on the roof, but we were windless, ergo unsuccessful. It was cute to try, though. I tried to write some of my novel later in the evening and had a bit of trouble. I can’t write when I’m not inspired, but I feel like with a novel I have to churn every day or I’ll be at it for years. Literally, YEARS. Like 10. Or 15! Or forever!!!!! This morn I finally had yoga class again, which was nice. I’m pretty into it. And, yes, I’m getting up at 5:40am every morning and I’m still alive. Whatchu gonna do about it? Watch out certified yoga trainer typing!!! Ahh! My ass is asleep from sitting here for so long. So I think I’m gonna head out. I’m getting sick. Throat hurts. Today Sophie and I decided to be each others’ Valentines since someone brought up V-Day and we both said "I can’t talk about it!". We boy have boy toys back home, so instead of being sad on F14, we’re just going to have a really romantic night together. I think we’re going out for Italian. We’re also planning on asking Davita out too, but we’re kind of nervous about it.
Right.
So iz gotta go. I’m going to try to set up Skype soon. I tried tonight, but the signal wasn’t strong enough to DL. This is for YOU, Catherine, and anyone else who is interested in chatting with me for free. It sounds like fun.

I miss you
and oddly I miss California and lately, specifically northern California? Must have to do with Jake.

Still don’t know what I’m doing this summer. There’s talk of WOOLFing in Europe after India. It’s an organic farming working opportunity. I don’t know too much about it yet, but look it up if you’re interested. Also, there’s this apartment deal in Granada that is a possibility and Sophie is also really interested in that. Ademas, there’s Jake and his commitment to the bay with Palantir and all. That’s a consideration and an option. Oh yeah, and the whole rest of the world. I need a paid internship. I unfortunately must make money this summer. Whatchu gon’ do? I’m a prisioner!, I’m a slave!, I’m a whiner! Money sucks, guys. I feel like I’ll always be catching up financially. And I’ll never have a job that gets me anywhere near financially comfortable. Maybe I should care about that. Maybe not.

I’ll leave you with two excerpts of a story I’m working on, just so you’ll be hungry for more:

"It’s strange what has become foreign, contemplated Evelyn out loud on the telephone. She scrunched up her toes, picked the bumps on her socks. She could feel Jonh smoking long and hard on the other end. She could feel the elegant long sticks that he’d worked so diligently to procure. A cigarette conessiour; a collector. Like a professional, despite all of his carcinogenic habits, Jonh never coughed the way smokers do: not often, not heavy, not hazardously. His bad habits, like the rest of his demeanor, were graceful,......."

AND

"...The way the hazy light of the day filtered in between the half-open curtains lit up only Evelyns’ shins and an isoceles triangle on the bed spread. The rest of the room was relatively dim and the air inside felt damp. Evelyn sat leaning on her hands, her legs hanging off the side of the bed, wearing a fitted pink tank top, the boxers of some long lost love, striped socks. Outside, Berlin was snowing. Germans were trudging through slush, birds kept their distance. The world was awake and moving and Evelyn kept her distance. She heard car horns down below. She saw lives being lived across the street in other buildings. She watched smoke rise into the sky..."
Enjoy your lives. My dreams have been so vivid lately and all of you are in them.

Kumbiya (no, it’s not indian...it’s just from that camp song)

Oh, and P.S. I’m sorry if I haven’t talked to you in awhile. I’ve been wierd emotionally this past year (in regards to friends), living very much in the present and the immediate and trying not to worry about this past, and now being away I realize now more than ever that you carry everything in that sack on your back. Love.