The closer I get to my birthday, the more I realize I am in no way ready to be 19. I'm really enjoying being 18, in fact, I think it's fair to say that this has been the best year of my life. I'm pretty sure I was born to be 18. 19 is a weird age. You don't get any special privileges, you're just one year closer to being the all-important age of 21, plus being 19 means you've been an adult for a whole year and adult-like behavior is even more expected. I'm quite happy with being 18, it affords me the privilege of excusing any inappropriate behavior. All the silliness, the occasional ignorance and lack of respect, I just crap it up to being 18, and I've been getting away with it. In less than two weeks, I don't get to be 18 anymore, and as if this trip hasn't made me grow up quickly, I have to grow up a little bit more.
In other news, I just got back from our temple stay. It actually wasn't as fun as I had planned, but we still had a good time. The temple was in the middle of the jungle (my idea of a jungle is slightly different than most people's - there were a lot of trees around), which made me a little uncomfortable. Before we did anything, we had to change into these ridiculous white outfits, and then we went into the Ordination hall for a bit of meditation and chanting. After that, we went walking through the town (still wearing those horrible outfits), and stopped at 7-11 for snacks. The monks aren't allowed to eat after noon, and some of us tried to follow suit. I'm pretty sure no one actually made it through the whole day without eating, though. When we came back, we listened to some more chanting and the monks taught us the four types of meditation; sitting, standing, walking, and reclining. Lights out was at 9, and surprisingly everyone went to bed when they were supposed to. We woke up at 5:30 to walk through the village and collect the food offerings for the monk's breakfast. Women aren't allowed to hand anything to or take anything from the monks (we're not even allowed to touch them), so the boys did most of the work during the food-collection while we just followed along behind. When we got back, Iris, our tour guide, handed us brooms and we had to sweep up the temple area before going inside for more chanting and meditation and an offering of daily necessities for the monks. After this, we ate the lunch that the monks cooked for us, changed out of the horrible white outfits, and got on the bus to go back to the eco-house.
I have to say, as jungle-y as it is here, I'm actually starting to like it. I don't mind living with geckos and frogs, and I'm even putting up with the mosquitoes. It's been raining a lot, so the heat is starting to go away, and the temperatures are actually quite livable now. The rain is definitely the best part of this place. I sat outside during a storm for about 15 minutes, and was so cold I actually started to shiver. It was the best feeling to be cold here for once!
Tomorrow we're going on a 3 hour bike ride around the town, and as long as it isn't too hot, it should be really fun.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Love, Actually
"Timi lai maya gadsum, timi lai maya gadsum!"
I'm standing on the ground yelling up to the boys on the balcony in between sobs. It means I love you in Nepali, and it's my favorite phrase in the whole language because maya means love. It was my last day in Nepal and I had postponed the goodbyes until the very last moment I could. The night before, the senior class boys had given me a book and their favorite DVD and I had managed to keep myself together despite the fact I was terribly upset about leaving, but I was not so collected the next day. We sat together at lunch as usual, but at the end the younger boys brought me one of the Buddhist scarves from the temple and Toby gave me a bracelet he bought at the market. As soon as I had to hug Tsepel, Rabgye, and Toby (3 of my favorites from the senior class), I burst into tears. I actually cried all the way to the taxi and then all the way to the hotel and I even shed some tears on the flight to Delhi.
I remember thinking how strange it was that I was crying so much, especially since I had hated Nepal so much when I first got there. I didn't even cry when I left home, I just felt excited to start my trip, to see the world for 10 months. But leaving Nepal was heartbreaking, it felt like how I should've felt when I left home, and that feeling is the most important thing I learned in Nepal. Without me even noticing, those 54 boys taught me what love actually is. They love every person they encounter the way they love their families. No one is an outsider, no one deserves to be treated less than anyone else, they would give everything they have to anyone who needed it. It didn't take me but a week to love them, but not how we love our families, our friends, our boyfriends or girlfriends, this was totally new. They're like my best friends and my family all wrapped into one, and I've never felt more at home than I did at that monastery. It's no wonder I spent hours crying about leaving, it felt like I was leaving the home I grew up in for my entire life.
But now I'm in Thailand, and though I'm still sad about leaving Nepal, I'm having a really great time here. We spent 2 nights in Bangkok, which is by far the craziest place I've ever seen. I'd say at least 50% of the women are actually men. There's also no shortage of alcohol there, most of the bars have a 2 for 1 deal on buckets (yes, buckets) of drinks. I avoided the bucket of alcohol route, though. On Sunday, we got on the minibuses to Singburi, which is where the eco-house we're staying in is. Besides the hoardes of mosquitoes and poisonous ants and the unbelievably high temperatures and humidity, it's actually quite nice. We're just across the street from the river, which is unimaginably dirty, but nice to look at at night. During the day we've done a lot of sightseeing at all the important temples and monuments nearby, and we visited the city center which has a department store and a very nice pool. We eat dinner at 5, so we have a lot of free time at night, which we spend sitting at the bar across the street because there really is nothing else to do here. It's actually pretty nice to sit around and talk to everyone. There's people from Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK, and I even met 2 American guys! They're from Ohio, and it was so amazing to talk to someone who has the same accent and understands me even when I talk as fast as I normally do. Sadly, they left today, so I will have to go back to talking impossibly slow again.
This week we'll be visiting more temples, and on Tuesday night we'll be sleeping in one! I'm pretty excited about that, even though I know all about temples and monks since I spent so much time in the monastery in Nepal. Next week I start volunteering in an orphanage, and the week after that we're going to Koh Samet island for beach week! My 19th birthday is the day after we arrive in Koh Samet, and I'm really looking forward to a beach birthday party!
Oh, and I promise not to be so sketch about updating my blog, I've just been really lazy lately.
I'm standing on the ground yelling up to the boys on the balcony in between sobs. It means I love you in Nepali, and it's my favorite phrase in the whole language because maya means love. It was my last day in Nepal and I had postponed the goodbyes until the very last moment I could. The night before, the senior class boys had given me a book and their favorite DVD and I had managed to keep myself together despite the fact I was terribly upset about leaving, but I was not so collected the next day. We sat together at lunch as usual, but at the end the younger boys brought me one of the Buddhist scarves from the temple and Toby gave me a bracelet he bought at the market. As soon as I had to hug Tsepel, Rabgye, and Toby (3 of my favorites from the senior class), I burst into tears. I actually cried all the way to the taxi and then all the way to the hotel and I even shed some tears on the flight to Delhi.
I remember thinking how strange it was that I was crying so much, especially since I had hated Nepal so much when I first got there. I didn't even cry when I left home, I just felt excited to start my trip, to see the world for 10 months. But leaving Nepal was heartbreaking, it felt like how I should've felt when I left home, and that feeling is the most important thing I learned in Nepal. Without me even noticing, those 54 boys taught me what love actually is. They love every person they encounter the way they love their families. No one is an outsider, no one deserves to be treated less than anyone else, they would give everything they have to anyone who needed it. It didn't take me but a week to love them, but not how we love our families, our friends, our boyfriends or girlfriends, this was totally new. They're like my best friends and my family all wrapped into one, and I've never felt more at home than I did at that monastery. It's no wonder I spent hours crying about leaving, it felt like I was leaving the home I grew up in for my entire life.
But now I'm in Thailand, and though I'm still sad about leaving Nepal, I'm having a really great time here. We spent 2 nights in Bangkok, which is by far the craziest place I've ever seen. I'd say at least 50% of the women are actually men. There's also no shortage of alcohol there, most of the bars have a 2 for 1 deal on buckets (yes, buckets) of drinks. I avoided the bucket of alcohol route, though. On Sunday, we got on the minibuses to Singburi, which is where the eco-house we're staying in is. Besides the hoardes of mosquitoes and poisonous ants and the unbelievably high temperatures and humidity, it's actually quite nice. We're just across the street from the river, which is unimaginably dirty, but nice to look at at night. During the day we've done a lot of sightseeing at all the important temples and monuments nearby, and we visited the city center which has a department store and a very nice pool. We eat dinner at 5, so we have a lot of free time at night, which we spend sitting at the bar across the street because there really is nothing else to do here. It's actually pretty nice to sit around and talk to everyone. There's people from Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK, and I even met 2 American guys! They're from Ohio, and it was so amazing to talk to someone who has the same accent and understands me even when I talk as fast as I normally do. Sadly, they left today, so I will have to go back to talking impossibly slow again.
This week we'll be visiting more temples, and on Tuesday night we'll be sleeping in one! I'm pretty excited about that, even though I know all about temples and monks since I spent so much time in the monastery in Nepal. Next week I start volunteering in an orphanage, and the week after that we're going to Koh Samet island for beach week! My 19th birthday is the day after we arrive in Koh Samet, and I'm really looking forward to a beach birthday party!
Oh, and I promise not to be so sketch about updating my blog, I've just been really lazy lately.
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