Being around just for the food has summed up my experience of Indian weddings. I am not complaining at all – the food is always incredible, and I’ll always have been fed extremely well! In the 2 months I’ve been here, I’ve been able to attend 2 weddings (the second one this being this weekend). Both of them have been completely spontaneous invitations, and through somewhat tenuous connections. And it’s always been about the food. I’ll show up, completely unannounced, be fed enormous quantities of delicious food, have a cursory meeting with the bride, and then make a quick exit. It feels incredibly rude, but appears to be normal here.
This weekend, we went to Kalimpong to meet up with everyone else. As usual, we went up to Darjeeling Friday evening, and then took the first jeep to Kalimpong in the morning, so arrived there at about 10. When we got there, we found that some of the other volunteers were going to a wedding that afternoon, and we were invited as well. Once again, we showed up to a wedding completely unannounced, inappropriately dressed (Alex - our connection to the entire event - looked absolutely incredible in her sari), in time for the meal and nothing else (and without a gift as well). But the wedding was large, and there was tonnes (and tonnes and tonnes) of food, which everyone was happy to share with a few random foreigners. I always feel really bad in these sorts of situations, like I’m taking advantage of others’ hospitality, but then I suppose Indian weddings have a reputation for being large for a reason.
Anyway, as well as enjoying delicious food, I also loved checking out what people were wearing. There were some incredible salwars and saris – I’ve decided I want an Indian wedding just so that everyone shows up dressed in saris. The men mostly wore western clothes, but a few were in traditional Lepcha dress. It had a really nice family feel to it, despite being such a big affair.
The whole weekend was lovely. It’s really good to be able to get out and see the others – as much as I love being here in Ghayabari, it’s important for sanity’s sake to be able to leave. The only negative experience was our journey back, which took us about 8 hours (instead of 4), thanks to our jeep breaking down and having to wait over an hour for another one to come pick us up. The next leg of the journey I spent in mild agony in the back of the jeep (our usual spot), but only half on the seat thanks to them squeezing 3 people in a spot for 2 (the other 2 being rather large men), so that I was rammed right up against a pole (which of course jabbed into my ribs every time we hit a rock or pothole).
- That's all I have time for I'm afraid. In Kurseong trying to figure out courses for next year (panic stations!), and am under a definite time limit (last bus goes in an hour and a half and I have a LOT of other things to do here). Gah!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Last week's post
As much as I love being here, I am very much aware of when I will leave. It’s weird. I do feel "at home" here, but then I know that I am only temporary. Ultimately, I have another home that I will return to, and everyone will continue here as they do now. I didn’t realize that I would think about home so much. I think about it all the time. If I’m not comparing the way things are here to what they are like at home (school system, transportation, health and safety, people), then I’m thinking about what things will be like when I go back to Vancouver. When I think about home in relation to here, it’s just about always in a positive way (there are so many things – foods, stories, pictures – that I can’t wait to share with everyone), but it can almost be distracting, because it’s always in the back of my mind.
Anyway, this was week 10 (counting down – there are 9 weeks left). I’m not counting down in an "Oh, thank goodness, almost over kind of way" – it’s the complete opposite ("Help! Only x# of weeks left and there’s so much that I want to do!)! But then I think everyone finds that.
Last weekend we stayed here at the school, which felt really nice. As much as I love traveling around the area, it’s a lot more relaxing just hanging out here. On Sunday we had our picnic! It was a really nice day. Rosalie & I spent ages making sandwiches (peanut butter and banana, honey, cucumber – without the crusts of course! –, and jam), insisting on doing it all by ourselves (meaning that we had an enormous audience). We’d bought 5 loaves of bread, and had calculated to make about 50 sandwiches. We also had carrot sticks, bags of chips, biscuits, sweets, pop, and 2 cakes. It was a feast, but then we were also feeding about 25 people, and if you could see the amount of rice that they can all put away, you’d understand why we were afraid we didn’t have enough! Anyway, it was all a great success. We walked down to the train loop, which is about 3km down the road, and made all the boarders carry something (the boys got really into that & kept trying to get us to give them more things to carry). Then R & I served them all (some of them were really suspicious of the peanut butter and banana sandwiches and refused to try them), and managed to completely stuff them all out (so much so that none of them were hungry at dinner)! Then they all played cricket for a bit, and we walked back to the school in time for tea.
This week’s event (we’ve managed to get away with having an interruption to regular classes every week so far!) was Earth Day, on April 22nd. One of the teachers had prepared a program, so we were to teach classes I to V a song (actually, they’d wanted us to teach more than one song, I think, and/or a poem or two, and up to class VI but we don’t even have any classes with them). In true Blue Diamond/Indian fashion, they told us about the program less than a week before it was to take place, meaning that we had to scramble to a) find a song that we could sing/teach that was about the earth and b) teach it to them all in time. We settled on All Things Bright and Beautiful (for lack of any other ideas, given that we couldn’t use the internet here*) – not a favourite of either of ours, but at least it is somewhat to do with the earth. Also in true Blue Diamond fashion was how increasingly elaborate the production became as it drew closer to the event. On the actual day, it began with an assembly, then a break because the guests of honour hadn’t arrived (and it was ridiculously hot), then a rally (which was so funny – we walked up and down the main road, the students had placards, and they all shouted slogans like "Save the trees Save the earth!", "Save the water save the life!", and something like "No deforestation Yes aforestation!"), followed by speeches made by the guests of honour (scientists from the gov’t environment department), that were painfully long in the heat. We were also supposed to give a speech (which they only told us about on Monday), but fortunately got cut in the efforts to keep the program as short as possible. Then we finished with the song, gave out a few prizes, and everyone did their best to get out of the heat of the grounds as quickly as possible. The whole program was originally meant to be about an hour, then an hour and a half, but took the entire morning.
The only other noteworthy thing I can think of about this week is how many horrible, creeping, crawling monster-bugs that are making appearances in our room! I guess it will be good for me (I’m already less squeamish about cockroaches, and am now able to suppress my screams when I see them), but they’re not exactly pleasant. However, one of the advantages of sleeping across from the boys is having a ready supply of spider-catchers when needed!
Anyway, this was week 10 (counting down – there are 9 weeks left). I’m not counting down in an "Oh, thank goodness, almost over kind of way" – it’s the complete opposite ("Help! Only x# of weeks left and there’s so much that I want to do!)! But then I think everyone finds that.
Last weekend we stayed here at the school, which felt really nice. As much as I love traveling around the area, it’s a lot more relaxing just hanging out here. On Sunday we had our picnic! It was a really nice day. Rosalie & I spent ages making sandwiches (peanut butter and banana, honey, cucumber – without the crusts of course! –, and jam), insisting on doing it all by ourselves (meaning that we had an enormous audience). We’d bought 5 loaves of bread, and had calculated to make about 50 sandwiches. We also had carrot sticks, bags of chips, biscuits, sweets, pop, and 2 cakes. It was a feast, but then we were also feeding about 25 people, and if you could see the amount of rice that they can all put away, you’d understand why we were afraid we didn’t have enough! Anyway, it was all a great success. We walked down to the train loop, which is about 3km down the road, and made all the boarders carry something (the boys got really into that & kept trying to get us to give them more things to carry). Then R & I served them all (some of them were really suspicious of the peanut butter and banana sandwiches and refused to try them), and managed to completely stuff them all out (so much so that none of them were hungry at dinner)! Then they all played cricket for a bit, and we walked back to the school in time for tea.
This week’s event (we’ve managed to get away with having an interruption to regular classes every week so far!) was Earth Day, on April 22nd. One of the teachers had prepared a program, so we were to teach classes I to V a song (actually, they’d wanted us to teach more than one song, I think, and/or a poem or two, and up to class VI but we don’t even have any classes with them). In true Blue Diamond/Indian fashion, they told us about the program less than a week before it was to take place, meaning that we had to scramble to a) find a song that we could sing/teach that was about the earth and b) teach it to them all in time. We settled on All Things Bright and Beautiful (for lack of any other ideas, given that we couldn’t use the internet here*) – not a favourite of either of ours, but at least it is somewhat to do with the earth. Also in true Blue Diamond fashion was how increasingly elaborate the production became as it drew closer to the event. On the actual day, it began with an assembly, then a break because the guests of honour hadn’t arrived (and it was ridiculously hot), then a rally (which was so funny – we walked up and down the main road, the students had placards, and they all shouted slogans like "Save the trees Save the earth!", "Save the water save the life!", and something like "No deforestation Yes aforestation!"), followed by speeches made by the guests of honour (scientists from the gov’t environment department), that were painfully long in the heat. We were also supposed to give a speech (which they only told us about on Monday), but fortunately got cut in the efforts to keep the program as short as possible. Then we finished with the song, gave out a few prizes, and everyone did their best to get out of the heat of the grounds as quickly as possible. The whole program was originally meant to be about an hour, then an hour and a half, but took the entire morning.
The only other noteworthy thing I can think of about this week is how many horrible, creeping, crawling monster-bugs that are making appearances in our room! I guess it will be good for me (I’m already less squeamish about cockroaches, and am now able to suppress my screams when I see them), but they’re not exactly pleasant. However, one of the advantages of sleeping across from the boys is having a ready supply of spider-catchers when needed!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Quick post
Because I'm an idiot and forgot my memory stick, which had an enormous blog post on it. Will try to get it up asap, but don't know when that will be (of course)! We're in Darjeeling now, going to head off to Kalimpong tomorrow morning. Elephant riding is a no go - even if we did book, we wouldn't be guaranteed an elephant ride (???). Hopefully we'll manage at some other point.
Bit surreal here, in Glenary's, which is a major tourist-magnet cafe (/internet cafe). It's strange hearing so much English (a bit distracting, really). Anyway, I had my first smooth ride up to Darjeeling today, and befriended the sweetest old lady in the share jeep, who shook my hand when she left!
Time is ticking though...can't believe it's almost the end of April! There's an election going on next Thursday (no school - woohoo!), but it doesn't sound like it'll be particularly intense. Things are pretty calm in Ghayabari, but we're planning to stay close to home for then anyway.
Love to all
Bit surreal here, in Glenary's, which is a major tourist-magnet cafe (/internet cafe). It's strange hearing so much English (a bit distracting, really). Anyway, I had my first smooth ride up to Darjeeling today, and befriended the sweetest old lady in the share jeep, who shook my hand when she left!
Time is ticking though...can't believe it's almost the end of April! There's an election going on next Thursday (no school - woohoo!), but it doesn't sound like it'll be particularly intense. Things are pretty calm in Ghayabari, but we're planning to stay close to home for then anyway.
Love to all
Saturday, April 18, 2009
What am I Doing Here?
What am I doing here?
This is a question that I, fortunately, don’t need to ask myself, but perhaps you are interested in the answer. This being a quiet weekend for us (staying at the school, which, after 2 consecutive traveling weekends, actually feels quite nice), I have a little bit more time to go into details about my everyday life. I’m also pre-writing this post at the school, which means I can make this really long (distraction for all of you studying for exams, perhaps?)
So.
Just about every morning I wake up at about 6am or earlier (aka whenever the boarders do – the walls are paper thin). Because I’m lazy, I usually put a pillow over my head and try to go back to sleep. They get up that early to do an hour and a half of studying before school. We have breakfast before they do, and then get ready (one of us has to leave early to go to Tindharay every morning). I go to Tindharay every Tuesday and Wednesday. It’s a nice break from Blue Diamond – we basically just follow along with whatever the teacher tells us to do, and there’s a helper there to keep everyone in line. We sing lots (and LOTS) of songs with them, and then have to wait ages for a bus to get back (but then it’s only a half-day, so we’re usually back in the early afternoon).
At Blue Diamond, school starts with assembly at 9:30 (quite entertaining to watch, & only takes about 10 minutes – they all stand in straight lines in the school grounds and sing the national anthem, and then one of the teachers will usually say something, or they’ll all inspect everyone’s uniforms), and then classes go until 3, with only a 10 minute tea break and half an hour for lunch.
I’m teaching subjects like English (Poetry, Handwriting, Spoken), Games, Entertainment, Dance (funny joke), and Song & Drama. With most of the younger ones, I basically do lots of colouring and worksheets. We sometimes read stories (with mixed success), and the younger ones do some singing as well. The older ones are doing English Poetry, which is a bit of a challenge since most teenagers aren’t really into poetry anyway, let alone in a foreign language. But I’m determined to at least have them not hate poetry, even if they don’t like/get it.
This past week we’ve started up a few after-school activities. Rosalie’s doing a recorder group, and I’m doing an art club, and then we’ll both be doing a ballet class together. The thought of doing something after school had stressed me a bit before coming here, as I really did not have any idea of what I could do, but it’s funny how it all works out in the end. You basically just do whatever you can, even if you don’t think you have a particular talent in what you’re doing. For the art club, we’re going to focus on different artists and try to draw in their style (my inspiration came from realizing that the only thing everyone draws here is their house – this is an attempt to get them to move beyond that, or at least start drawing their house in a different style!). And then the ballet is because Rosalie has many years of ballet under her belt, but hasn’t done it for awhile, and I have only a few months experience but at least it’s somewhat fresh in my mind.
So Monday to Thursday we’re doing our after school activities until about 4pm. Then we either play with the boarders (everyone’s suddenly REALLY into UNO), or try to quickly escape up to the local café, for an extra cup of tea. It’s run by the parents of one of the girls in KG, and it’s actually one of my favourite places here. There’s nothing special about it inside, but the tea is incredible, and being able to get out of the school for 20 minutes is sometimes necessary for the sake of my sanity. I always leave there feeling really happy.
After tea at the school, we usually (weather permitting – it’s the start of the rainy season) go for an evening walk with the boarders. Lately it’s just been walks up to the shops for them to buy snacks, but sometimes we’ll go around the tea estates.
Then the boarders have more studying, from 6-8pm, and we’re left to ourselves to lesson plan (aka think about how hungry we are –we’re right by the kitchen, and the combination of mild boredom, hunger, and delicious smells is torture!). We usually eat around 8pm, and then usually go to bed fairly early. It may not be particularly exciting, but I do enjoy our daily routine.
I have a feeling that this is slightly old news, but I don’t really remember what else I have up on the blog – I haven’t really been checking! Sorry Sorry
Anyway, a couple other random notes:
Tomorrow (weather permitting) we’re going to have a picnic with everyone (inspired by our picnic in Mirik, which was really nice). We’re buying the supplies today, and then making sandwiches and everything tomorrow. I’m quite excited for it! It’s really good having things like this to plan – I’m such a planner, and it gives us something to look forward to.
Did I mention that I got to sleep in NEPAL last weekend? I’m still surprised by it! Last weekend was really fun, I have to say. The hour between making the decision to go on the 3 day trek and actually getting started, I was in a slight internal panic (predicting nothing but disaster) but it all worked perfectly. The fact that it was so spontaneous made the trip that much more special.
Monday, April 13, 2009
I'm alive!!
Just haven't had internet access for over two weeks, that's all. The nice thing about it is that every time I don't update, it means that I'm too busy doing something other than sitting in front of a computer. The past two weeks have been quite busy, as you can imagine.
Last weekend we went to Kalimpong, and met up with everyone else in the group to celebrate someone's birthday. It was good fun, and the area around Kalimpong is stunning. I thought Ghayabari was beautiful, but it pales in comparison. Because it's that much higher up in the Himilayas, Kalimpong and the surrounding areas are much cooler and greener. The tea estates are much more lush and green, and there are more trees everywhere as well. The drive into Kalimpong actually was a bit of a highlight. The town is near a big river called Teesta River, and so you have to drive down these steep switchback roads into the valley and then back up again to get to Kalimpong. Not only is the view incredible, but along the way we passed through tea estates that were so lush you could smell the tea as you drove past. We definitely want to go back.
About an hour away from Kalimpong is a small town called Pedong, where several other volunteers are teaching at a school and a monastery. There was a dance festival going on at the monastery that weekend, so not long after arriving into Kalimpong, we headed off to Pedong to watch. Again, the scenery in the area is incredible - so green and lush. I really enjoyed looking though the monastery, and the dancing was very interesting. It was to go on for 3 days, but we only watched about an hour's worth, before the monks gave us lunch. The dancing was so different from anything I'd seen before. Apparently the monks had been practicing for months for it as well. They had the most incredibly ornate costumes, and did lots of twirling around to the slow beat of drums, cymbals and horns. We never did quite find out exactly what the festival was in celebration for, which was a bit of a shame.
This past week went well at the school. It was short because of Easter holidays, which made it even better! We're starting up a few extra-curricular things this upcoming week, which makes things a bit more exciting as well. We've managed to have a 5 day weekend because of Easter, which was a welcome surprise. Mr Thapa's explanation was that because there are so many Hindu and Buddhist holidays throughout the year, it's only fair to celebrate a few Christian holidays as well - I'm certainly not complaining about that!
This weekend has actually been so much fun. Our plan was to head up to Sikkim for the weekend with a few other people from the group, but when we arrived in Darjeeling on Thursday evening, plans had changed and no-one wanted to go. Instead, we went to Mirik for a day. Mirik is lovely. It's a little town on the edge of a(n artificial, but still very pretty) lake, overlooked by a monastery. It was very quiet, and non-Western touristy (lots of Bengali tourists about). We stayed at a lovely little hotel run by the most adorable old man (with Coke-bottle glasses) and his wife, who had a little boy who ran around offering us tea and making sure our hot water and lights were working. They were all so sweet. There isn't all that much to do in Mirik, but we had a really nice relaxing day, having a picnic lunch by the lake, and then checking out the monastery after. I do hope we'll have a chance to look at a few more, because they're absolutely stunning. We got to watch the monks just as they were finishing up prayers as well, and then went for a quick walk with some of them afterwards.
The next day we weren't exactly sure what to do, so we headed back to Darjeeling, with the vague plan of just seeing where we could go when we got there. At the jeep stand, almost completely on a whim, we decided to go to Manaybanjang (totally not spelt correctly, I still can't even say it properly!). Once we got there, at about 2:30 in the afternoon, we found that just about our only way out was to go on a 3 day trek to Rimbik. So, completely out of the blue, we decided to do it! We hired a guide and a porter (felt really bad about the porter, but having not exactly expected to go on a trek, I didn't pack lightly, and the porter was really cheap, especially split between 3) The first day we walked 11km, and so had to rush to reach our destination, a village called Tomling, before it became dark. It was all uphill, some of it basically steps up a mountain. Our guide was really nice - didn't actually find out his full name, but he was from Nagaland and went to school in Kurseong. It took us about 3 hours, which was an accomplishment to say the least! The best bit of the night, however, was finding that we would be spending the night in Nepal! We literally walked past border markings on our way up, and had to go through a couple of checkposts as well, but it was still a surprise to find a "Welcome to Nepal" sign when we arrived!! Tomling is basically a few houses and trekking lodges - tiny tiny. The place we stayed in was lovely (though anywhere indoors was a welcome sight by the time we were finished), and the food was incredible. Even though it was absolutely FREEZING outside, we were cozy under multiple blankets and a hot water bottle!
The next day we were up at 5:30 to look at the view, which wasn't entirely clear, but still incredible. I also managed to almost fall off a small cliff, which certainly woke me up with a bump (my left thigh is still really sore!). Me not watching where I'm going and tripping was a common theme throughout the weekend. After a delicious (and enormous) breakfast, we headed off for our 19km trek up to Sandakphu, which is 3636m above sea level. It took us just about all day, and again we were exhausted by the end, but it was such an accomplishment and really enjoyable. That night it was even colder, with an icy cold wind, but we spent most of the evening huddled by a stove, drinking tongba (warm beer made from millet - not my favourite!).
We were up at dawn again yesterday, this time for a 21km race down to Rimbik in time to catch the last taxi to Darjeeling at noon. It was really steep (painful on the knees and on the feet), but we made it with about 45mins to spare, just in time for a slightly harrowing 4 hours back to Darjeeling (switchback roads + steep descents + minimal suspension + high speeds = a journey that felt more like something out of an amusement park than a regular jeep drive). I think we all slept really well last night - I know I did! And having a hot shower in the end (after 3 days of nothing!) was the best reward I could have asked for.
Today we're finishing up in Darjeeling before heading back to Ghayabari this afternoon. After such a long break from the school, I have to admit that I'm feeling somewhat reluctant to go back, and would be quite happy to continue travelling around a bit more! But I know that once I get back there I'll get into it.
I'd better finish up now, as I have a few more things to do in Darjeeling, and I'm always on a deadline. Hoping to have a bit of time next weekend, but who knows? I'll try to get pictures done there as well. Hope everyone had a happy Easter!
Last weekend we went to Kalimpong, and met up with everyone else in the group to celebrate someone's birthday. It was good fun, and the area around Kalimpong is stunning. I thought Ghayabari was beautiful, but it pales in comparison. Because it's that much higher up in the Himilayas, Kalimpong and the surrounding areas are much cooler and greener. The tea estates are much more lush and green, and there are more trees everywhere as well. The drive into Kalimpong actually was a bit of a highlight. The town is near a big river called Teesta River, and so you have to drive down these steep switchback roads into the valley and then back up again to get to Kalimpong. Not only is the view incredible, but along the way we passed through tea estates that were so lush you could smell the tea as you drove past. We definitely want to go back.
About an hour away from Kalimpong is a small town called Pedong, where several other volunteers are teaching at a school and a monastery. There was a dance festival going on at the monastery that weekend, so not long after arriving into Kalimpong, we headed off to Pedong to watch. Again, the scenery in the area is incredible - so green and lush. I really enjoyed looking though the monastery, and the dancing was very interesting. It was to go on for 3 days, but we only watched about an hour's worth, before the monks gave us lunch. The dancing was so different from anything I'd seen before. Apparently the monks had been practicing for months for it as well. They had the most incredibly ornate costumes, and did lots of twirling around to the slow beat of drums, cymbals and horns. We never did quite find out exactly what the festival was in celebration for, which was a bit of a shame.
This past week went well at the school. It was short because of Easter holidays, which made it even better! We're starting up a few extra-curricular things this upcoming week, which makes things a bit more exciting as well. We've managed to have a 5 day weekend because of Easter, which was a welcome surprise. Mr Thapa's explanation was that because there are so many Hindu and Buddhist holidays throughout the year, it's only fair to celebrate a few Christian holidays as well - I'm certainly not complaining about that!
This weekend has actually been so much fun. Our plan was to head up to Sikkim for the weekend with a few other people from the group, but when we arrived in Darjeeling on Thursday evening, plans had changed and no-one wanted to go. Instead, we went to Mirik for a day. Mirik is lovely. It's a little town on the edge of a(n artificial, but still very pretty) lake, overlooked by a monastery. It was very quiet, and non-Western touristy (lots of Bengali tourists about). We stayed at a lovely little hotel run by the most adorable old man (with Coke-bottle glasses) and his wife, who had a little boy who ran around offering us tea and making sure our hot water and lights were working. They were all so sweet. There isn't all that much to do in Mirik, but we had a really nice relaxing day, having a picnic lunch by the lake, and then checking out the monastery after. I do hope we'll have a chance to look at a few more, because they're absolutely stunning. We got to watch the monks just as they were finishing up prayers as well, and then went for a quick walk with some of them afterwards.
The next day we weren't exactly sure what to do, so we headed back to Darjeeling, with the vague plan of just seeing where we could go when we got there. At the jeep stand, almost completely on a whim, we decided to go to Manaybanjang (totally not spelt correctly, I still can't even say it properly!). Once we got there, at about 2:30 in the afternoon, we found that just about our only way out was to go on a 3 day trek to Rimbik. So, completely out of the blue, we decided to do it! We hired a guide and a porter (felt really bad about the porter, but having not exactly expected to go on a trek, I didn't pack lightly, and the porter was really cheap, especially split between 3) The first day we walked 11km, and so had to rush to reach our destination, a village called Tomling, before it became dark. It was all uphill, some of it basically steps up a mountain. Our guide was really nice - didn't actually find out his full name, but he was from Nagaland and went to school in Kurseong. It took us about 3 hours, which was an accomplishment to say the least! The best bit of the night, however, was finding that we would be spending the night in Nepal! We literally walked past border markings on our way up, and had to go through a couple of checkposts as well, but it was still a surprise to find a "Welcome to Nepal" sign when we arrived!! Tomling is basically a few houses and trekking lodges - tiny tiny. The place we stayed in was lovely (though anywhere indoors was a welcome sight by the time we were finished), and the food was incredible. Even though it was absolutely FREEZING outside, we were cozy under multiple blankets and a hot water bottle!
The next day we were up at 5:30 to look at the view, which wasn't entirely clear, but still incredible. I also managed to almost fall off a small cliff, which certainly woke me up with a bump (my left thigh is still really sore!). Me not watching where I'm going and tripping was a common theme throughout the weekend. After a delicious (and enormous) breakfast, we headed off for our 19km trek up to Sandakphu, which is 3636m above sea level. It took us just about all day, and again we were exhausted by the end, but it was such an accomplishment and really enjoyable. That night it was even colder, with an icy cold wind, but we spent most of the evening huddled by a stove, drinking tongba (warm beer made from millet - not my favourite!).
We were up at dawn again yesterday, this time for a 21km race down to Rimbik in time to catch the last taxi to Darjeeling at noon. It was really steep (painful on the knees and on the feet), but we made it with about 45mins to spare, just in time for a slightly harrowing 4 hours back to Darjeeling (switchback roads + steep descents + minimal suspension + high speeds = a journey that felt more like something out of an amusement park than a regular jeep drive). I think we all slept really well last night - I know I did! And having a hot shower in the end (after 3 days of nothing!) was the best reward I could have asked for.
Today we're finishing up in Darjeeling before heading back to Ghayabari this afternoon. After such a long break from the school, I have to admit that I'm feeling somewhat reluctant to go back, and would be quite happy to continue travelling around a bit more! But I know that once I get back there I'll get into it.
I'd better finish up now, as I have a few more things to do in Darjeeling, and I'm always on a deadline. Hoping to have a bit of time next weekend, but who knows? I'll try to get pictures done there as well. Hope everyone had a happy Easter!
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