On the last two days of my trip to India, I visited Pune. In my undergrad years I studied here and I couldn’t imagine coming all the way to India without stopping by to visit friends and see my old favorite sights. It’s incredible to me how much of the city I remember from 5 … Continue reading
It has been an ongoing lesson for me to be in India during monsoon. It rains nearly every day, the laundry never fully dries, and on more than one occasion I’ve been fully drenched from head to toe walking just a few feet between buildings; but I wouldn’t have it any other way. The monsoon … Continue reading
It’s been over a week now since I arrived in Rishikesh: the holy city on the banks of the Ganga and a central source of vinyasa yoga. Last Tuesday I joined a circle of strangers for a fire ceremony to mark the beginning of our 200 hour yoga teacher training journey. Together we threw pieces … Continue reading
Early this morning as the sun filled my room with light, I rolled over in bed and scrolled through the emails in my phone. One immediately caught my eye–from my baba (host dad) in India. He had received the letter I sent to him and was writing to let me know that both he and aai … Continue reading
I spent four months in India last fall. That’s over 100 days and over 300 meals. I ate at dozens of restaurants in a few different regions of the country and found a place at the table in several family homes. Of all of the warm, spicy, flavorful dishes I ate, a few nestled their … Continue reading
“In a sense it’s the coming back, the return, which gives meaning to the going forth. We really don’t know where we’ve been until we come back to where we were. Only where we were may not be as it was because of who we’ve become, which, after all, is why we left…” –Bernard Stevens, … Continue reading
I’ve been given a challenge. We’ll not so much a challenge as an insightful suggestion. After spending nearly 4 months in India, writing about some of my most meaningful experiences several times a week, I’ve now slipped back into the sometimes-comfortable, sometimes-overwhelming pattern of my final semester at college. Still grappling with reverse culture shock, … Continue reading
This will likely be one of several nostalgic 2013 posts as the new year approaches. Today, I was looking through some of the photos I’ve taken this year and realized that I spent most of the big holidays and celebrations of 2013 outside of the country. Some of my favorite holiday/celebration photos are below. I … Continue reading
As the semester came to an end our conversations naturally centered around our excitement about going home: What’s the first thing you’ll eat when you get back? Who are you most excited to see? What will your pets do when you walk in the door? How nice is it going to be … Continue reading
This one took me a little while to catch on to, but in India (at least in Pune) most people eat their meals with their hands–specifically their right hand. You serve food with your left. Most nights this means using your roti to pick up cooked vegetables and spoon them into your mouth, mixing warm … Continue reading
Home&Away 