catching up

i'm over a week behind... i'm sorry!

back in pokhara. after hiking down from the peace pagoda we stumbled upon a group of people celebrating the hindu equivalent to a bar mitzvah. i got a dancing lesson from the women after being dragged to the middle of the crowd. lots of spinning and wrist flicking. we were fed. they insisted we continue to dance and dance and dance. dizziness. done. next day-- rice festival. i learned about the back breaking labor of rice harvesting with nepali women in a mud-filled pati at the bottom of a mountain. i will never understand how rice is so inexpensive! cody earns NATIONAL celebrity when he wins the festival's running race through the mud. he was on the evening news and in the newspaper!

next day we went to a tibetan refugee settlement to listen to the monks chant in the evening. what i liked best was that they seemed to be having a lot of fun. dressed in maroon and gold robes, heads shaved, in a beautiful temple, and mid-chant the boys threw rice at each other, giggled when they forgot the words, made faces at each other across the room, and snuck mouthfulls of bread and tea.

back to kathmandu. other 5 americans have arrived!! the organized sight seeing began to three former kingdoms of nepal. 1) bhaktapur. "cofftea" with the army, 5 story pagoda. 2)changu nayaran. 1700 year old temples! (chia. not chai in nepal. chia.) 3)kasthamandup. former palace museum. (chia.) swayambunath --the monkey temple. bright and haunting buddha's eyes. a monkey stole my coconut! (more chia.) world cup, world cup, world cup! (chia.) army museum, hanging out w/ general and colonel. colonel sings folk song and teaches us to play songs on a leaf. i'm still working at it... (chia.) hike to small hindu/buddhist temple on the day people make sacrifices to kali. yikes. (more chia. they believe that if you drink hot liquids in 90F weather, it will cause you to sweat and actually cool you down. agree to disagree.)

and then the 7 day wedding began. day one: mehendi, or henna, party. sulava's took over 4 hours to complete! almost women only. we danced ourselves silly! i don't know how these women dance in saris! next day was the official engagement, and we met Atul. lots of religious ceremonies in sanskrit that NOBODY understands except Sulava's grandfather. he is currently writing a nepali-sanskrit dictionary. his personal library is one the most beautiful and fascinating things i've seen in nepal. have i mentioned that already?

every one of us has gotten sick for at least a day.

then our rest day. allen, heeral, and i went to the bhote kosi river, two hours from the border with china, to try the world's 2nd highest bungee jump and the world's highest canyon swing. jumped off a 162m suspension bridge! so ridiculously fun!!!!

will write about the 19 hr wedding next time.

i'm not very inclined to do the descriptive kind of writing, but as it was requested, i'll give it a try... so, soon i'll try to mix in entries that each focus on my experience through one of my five senses. miss and love you guys. will have more time to write when the wedding is over!