“You want to ride the camel?” Sheetal asked, gesturing towards the tan animal kneeling on the side of the Pune street. I hesitated for a moment, unsure of whether feelings from my first traumatic horse experience would resurface faced with the idea of mounting a new animal. When the feelings remained at bay something else … Continue reading
Tuesday was the holiday of Raksha Bandhan in India. It is a remembrance of an Indian queen who called on a Mongul king not to attack her people and instead to protect them. She sent the Mongul king a bracelet representing her love and prayers and by accepting it he was forever obligated to protect … Continue reading
1. To take a picture with me or of me. This hasn’t happened yet, but every day since we arrived we’ve been told that people will want to take pictures with us because we are Americans. As far as I can tell there’s no harm in it and our Maranthi teacher says they most likely … Continue reading
“Here,” the driver said to us, tipping his head to his shoulder in the Indian version of a nod. The three of us looked out from beneath the black top of the tiny vehicle and quickly searched for the “Pantaloons” sign. Not seeing it immediately, we got out of the rickshaw, paid the fare and … Continue reading
I left Boston on August 16 in the evening for my three flights to Pune, India. Bidding my family goodbye, I dove into the TSA ocean at Logan airport. The flight from Boston to Paris went smoothly–only 5 and a half hours. As we took off from Boston the sun was glowing red, casting reflections … Continue reading
Sitting on the couch, eyes transfixed on the flat-screen television in front of us, my younger sister repeatedly clicked the right arrow on her laptop keyboard–a HDMI cable connecting the laptop to the television screen so we could all see the image. She took us through her school trip to Italy and Croatia: down narrow … Continue reading
Besides the whole breathing-through-your-nose thing, I found there was one other strategy for pacing myself along our trek through the Himalayas. One of the best tips I can give to fellow unprepared, out-of-shape trekkers is to let your mind create a playlist each day for your hike. Some days the song will be the same, … Continue reading
I have hundreds if not thousands of words written out in curly cursive in my diary–filled cover to cover from this twp-week trip to Nepal–and even more words still waiting to find an escape from the confines of my brain through my fingers on the keyboard. But so much of Nepal is visual and you … Continue reading
The Helambu Trek we ultimately ended up climbing would take us one week to complete. Each night after a difficult day of hiking, we were overjoyed when the colorful paint of local mountain villages came into view and we finally came to a halt in front of new lodging. Each tea house was cozy and … Continue reading
After spending two weeks in Nepal, I’ve finally returned to the land of western toilets and electricity–where wifi is everywhere and planned, power, and outages are not words that go together. Before I left, I posted about my what-I-believed-to-be thorough preparations for this school funded trip to Nepal. I wrote about my reading list, my … Continue reading
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