Hello! It's Saturday morning, and the start of our second day in Varanasi. We got in yesterday after a 20 hour train ride, and had pizza and delicious apple pie at a riverside restaurant. In the evening, we walked along the Ganges River to see the Puja worship at sundown - truly a surreal and epic experience. People of all kinds were everywhere, pilgrims, sadhus & holy men, tourists, and local merchants selling peanuts, flowers, boat rides, massages, and palm readings. Boats lined the river to watch the ceremony. Bells and singing and drums and incense and flowers and food made for an experience that reached all of my senses at once. I found myself closing my eyes and trying just to listen for a while, just to smell, then opening them and just seeing, and then combining everything into one powerful sensation.

Today we made a joyous daytrip to Sarnath and Deer Park, the place where the Buddha gave his first teachings. All was well, but I was suffering from an itchy eye that I assumed had something to do with my contacts that I have been wearing for far too long, as I left my extras in a bag at Delhi, thinking I would have an earlier chance to pick them up. An Indian man witnessed me rubbing me eye, and apparentely could not stand idly by since it was obvious I was suffering. He grabbed my face in between both his hands and using his thumbs, he pulled apart my eyelids and went in very close to look for that rogue eyelash or piece of dust that ailed me. It seemed he couldn't find it because after looking for a couple of seconds he figured a full on cleansing was in order. He told me not to close my eyes as he worked up a large breath and blew into my eye with a very powerful, quick puff. Then he started to brush my eyelashes with his index fingers, holding my entire head in between his two large hands the entire time. He finished and said, "Now you are good... Okay?" I didn't really know how to respond to this so I said, "Yes. Good,"
and walked away.
After a superb cleaning that only a stranger in India would ever do to another stranger and not have that person think he was being assaulted, I noticed that whatever made my eye itch, hadn't left me yet. I decided to take my contact out and rinse it off with water. I looked down at it expecting to find a tiny piece of dust or some hair or who knows what in this country. To my horror the only thing I found was a tiny little rip right in the center... A worthless lens.
My glasses were thirty minutes and too many ruppies away, so I had to persue some other solution. After a good three mintues of bumming I found a nice bandana to use for an eye patch... walking around with both eyes open, one nearly blind and one with perfect sight would have given me a headache. There was no other choice than to pose as a pirate. I spent the entire rest of the day almost getting hit by cars, falling down stairs, walking into trees, and looking completely insane as my depth perception and equilibrium tried to adjust to using one eye.
I would have despaired.....
But I just looked so damn cool with that eye patch.

My story is a little anti-climactic I know.
Yarrr...
Dread Pirate Roy (my last name is Royal)

If it says anything to you loyal blog readers, one of us is sound asleep at 3 pm and the other two are sitting in a cushy cafe catching up on work (Photo Posting -- go check them out! and budget things) and drinking a luscious pot of coffee as we listen to the sounds on the streets of Assi Ghat in Varanasi.

Both of us feel so fortunate to be here again in Banaras, the City of Light, abode of Shiva, but mostly fortunate for being able to hand over much of the logistical planning to the amazingly capable young people with whom we've been lucky enough to share the last three months or so. We can't say enough about how smoothly this student-led portion of the program is going and how much we are enjoying being true members of the team.

Our last few days have been filled with laughter, deeper connections, and sharing significant moments in our council process. We've visited Sarnath yesterday, as Nathan describes, and of course, ate too much gulab jamun (Tracy's favorite Indian sweet)... albeit the best gulab jamun in India! This morning we shook ourselves out of bed at 5:30 am in order to take turns rowing our small wooden boat in circles down Ganga-ji while taking in the morning Hindu bathing rituals and some sunrise views.

As we are heading for our student-planned celebration of the penultimate night of Hanukkah, we just wanted to share our thoughts and our gratitude with the bloggosphere about how proud we are of each of the students as our minds begin to turn toward travel back to the U.S. and our friends and families.

That said, we are thrilled we have a few days left with the group and will be savoring every moment!

Wishing all of you well,
T&E

get ready alaska, im on my way home!
xoxo
ole

I can't think of anything else so that's it.

Sean

I had a really busy time in Jaipur every day. Not only is it a larger city so one has to budget travel time and rely on cycle and bike rickshaws, but it is also less tourist-friendly than Leh or Dharamsala. There were touristy places but also a number of areas that were mostly just Indians. It's a wonderful city, though! I spent most of my time in the Old City, which is all painted pink and it's historical and pretty and jam-packed with little shops and stall and tourists and Indians and temples and things like that. My family was a nice, laid-back Indian family with two adult children and we spent our evenings after dinner watching American movies on HBO or Indian soaps, which I couldn't follow, really, but it was fun to see what all the actresses were wearing.

My two ISPs were shoemaking and kathak dancing and I loved them both, even if time was a little tight. During the first three of us learned how to make shoes, and I made a nice little pair of red slip ons with a fun pattern in front, out of camel leather. Yay! We spent maybe an hour and a half each day at a little factory (really just a house with a sunny, colorful yard and a canopy to keep the sun off) with a husband and wife shoemaking team--he did the leather, she the beadwork. We cut the leather and glued it and stitched it (hardest part) and attempted to speak some Hindi and listened to their attempts at English. Our translator was the shopowner's son, who was nice enough to spend his afternoons with us and our shoes-in-progress.

My second ISP was kathak dancing, and I went out to an incredible Indian mall on the outskirts of the city and walked to the studio and house of my guru-ji (and here I will touch my earlobes in respect) to have my lessons. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I joined the regular classes to practice with the girls who were taking long-term lessons (with live music! tablas and harmonium), and the rest of our days (well, not Sundays) I spent in her living room practicing on her hard stone floor and watching her and her three daughters rehearse and explain things to me. Kathak dancing is a lot of slapping your feet on the ground for good noise, with bells on your ankles. There are a lot of spins and crazy finger positions and eye motions. There are two parts--the technical routines and the expressive story dances. Both are really hard. The dances are about a lot of things but I think many of the stories are about Krishna. I learned a little Krishna description poem and also a poem/prayer to Ganesha that is really fun. I've taken to practicing the mudras as I walk or just whenever, because they're fun. None of the other dancing I've done focuses at all on the hands beyond flexed/soft/fist/straight--stuff like that. I was fortunate enough to be able to organize a kathak peformance for some of us in Varanasi on our last night and got a taste of real kathak, with live music and costume and everything!

Ah, yes, Varanasi. I only have a little time left until I have to rejoin the group and take Zach to the train, or whatever our insane last day schedule is, but: Varanasi. Wow! Okay, so a large number of our remaining group was struck down with some strange gulab-jamun-Ganga-water-ice-cube-India-dirt sickness and so spent the majority of their time in this amazing city in bed or recovering, but I had an excellent time. Although it was sad to go out for breakfast in the morning and see our sadly reduced numbers. Since we had so few days there I tried to pack in as much as possible--aarti puja on our first night, sunrise boat trip, walking in the markets, visiting temples temples temples (and a mosque) going to Sarnath to see Deer Park and Ashok's Lion Pillar (Yes my favorite!) as well as a Jain temple, doing some late shopping, aaaaand celebrating my birthday! I'm so old!

I had the best birthday in Varanasi and spent the day in a lazy long breakfast, then going to what we thought was a widow's ashram but actually housed men and women waiting to die in Varanasi, mahatmas/sadhus, and students learning Sanskrit. Then Nathan and I walked to a Nepali temple and at at the big cremation ghat for more than an hour, watching the Indians there burn bodies by the sacred river. It was an incredible experience (What a birthday reminder, eh? The impermanence of life?). After that we went for Chinese food and then went back to the hotel for cake, masks, and kind words. And a really cool candle. And then Harrison and I had a dance party.

Okay, by this time I'm going to be late but how could I stop in the middle of my reminiscing? And if this is my last blog entry I wouldn't want to rush it, after all. Today we had our last meeting and last council, and I am filled with all these concluding/beginning thoughts of India home home India.

If any of you Spring 2008 students are reading this, get ready for an awesome semester!

John

xoxo
ole

India has changed my perspective so vastly. I only fully realize it now being home. Everything feels very light now and it feels like there's so much potential for everything in my life. I found out from my mom in the BWI airport that she doesn't have the money to loan me money for the trip I was planning to south america. After a few minutes of anger and distress, I slowly settled into the idea of staying home and working for the next nine months. Before the trip to India, I would have just become hopeless but now I see everything as having so many possibilities. I know everything will be fine although the whole situation is not as romantic and adventurous.

I've actually come home to a lot of change. My mother got married and moved away while I was gone so I'm now living with my grandparents. Right now I'm sitting cozied up in my new room here. I've spent the last two days unpacking my boxes and making the room my own. As I was unpacking, I was listening to Om Shanti Om and other music which reminded me of India and feeling very sentimental and nostalgic missing everyone. It struck me how incredible and rare my experience was and how much it has changed me. I did a lot of thinking about it all and also about this new beginning I have for my life. It was really clearing.

While I was unpacking, I came upon a journal which I was keeping over the summer. I found a small entry where I was talking about my upcoming trip to India. I I was taken aback by how prophetic it was. I'll include it in this blog because I think it's a good note to end on in summing up this whole wild and beautiful journey ...

Today at work, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the idea that I would be in India in 3 months, that my place wasn't here but far,far away, that I would know how the sun rises halfway around the world and smell the dew in the air, that I would fall violently in love with others who didn't see or love the way I did but knew the same truths I did, that I would become scared and shamed and beome stronger, that I would not feel the same restlessness, that I would see a hurricane of sights, smells, and colors and not know how to process it all at once, that it's a new beginning, that my life will be full of unexpected adventure and divine love, that i would awaken to the sacred dawn of day and know the fledgling earth awaits me.

I am back in Delhi after traveling a bit in Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim,
for a month weeks. Bhutan is a beautiful small kingdom of only seven
hundred thousand people. It is a country with many forests, deep
valleys, and high mountains peaks. It has good water resources, which
are sold to India for electricity. The people produce red rice, fruits
and quality handicrafts. It is mandatory for the Bhutanese to wear
their traditional dress --gho for men and kera for women -- when
entering official buildings and monasteries. People seem religious,
very calm, and 80% eat Pan betel nuts,which turn their mouthes very
red but make them calm inside. The
traditional architecture is strictly maintained, so that almost all
the houses are painted on the outside, and with a great many wood
carvings .

I hope you will visit Bhutan someday. It is a bit expensive, as the
government charges each tourist a fee, but worth it for three or four
days, or to combine with Nepal or Sikkim. The Bhutanese National
carrier flies from Delhi, Kathmandu and Bangkok four times a week.
I am happy to say that Yama Adventures will have small tours in Bhutan
and Nepal in the near future deal on affordable price.

So this is all for now! Please stay in touch, and I hope to see you in
again someday, I miss you all wishing you luck and happiness in your
life. it was so nice to meet you all in Ladakh and then Delhi.
please stay in touch and i love to hear news of your well being.
if you ever plan to come back to Asia do not forget to knock .

With warmest wishes
Namgial
www.yamatreks.com

I'm sitting in an internet cafe at the moment not so far away from a gorgeous Raj building called the Victoria Terminus (Natalie, this would be your sort of place) and it's incredibly strange to think that everyone arrived back in America three weeks ago while I have been in India and experiencing what we know can only happen here...

I hope you are well and shared happy and peaceful times with your family and friends as the holidays passed us by so quickly. I’m having a wonderful time with the clan back here in the land of the malls - I've enjoyed every minute so far of my family reunions. Though, often, thoughts turn to you all and our amazing three months we just shared.

How are you all adjusting to being back in the states - or to new places that you are just starting to explore? What's new?

I continue to think about you all and your adjustment back to the states, and the constant adjustments we make in every new/old place we go… the expectations we carry, the memories and fondness we feel for a place or a group of people that no longer exist in “real time”…

I’d like to pass on these internet resources to you just to read or digest in your own time if you feel the need. I’ve used the first two before with student groups and found them a while back just by searching “reverse culture shock” or “reentry shock” on any search engine. The third link I just found today, and the last link is from SIT.

Enjoy them… I hope that you’re all happy and healthy these days. I miss you all very much.

Much Love to you,

Tracy

http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/overseas/faq/culture_shock/culture_shock.html

http://international.missouri.edu/studyabroad/after/cominghome.shtml

This is an interesting website I came across while searching… (Seems Jennifer has an interesting perspective on her travels in India. Makes me think about what you all would put on a list like this…)
http://members.tripod.com/~jennifer_polan/india/backtousa.html

Check out this resource, from the School for International Training, written to parents of students who study abroad. Sometimes reading material written for another audience gives you a different perspective on your own experience:
http://www.sit.edu/studyabroad/parents/docs/parent_reentry_handbook.pdf