A Few of My Favorite Things

The following are a few samples of what I love about Kathmandu and Nepal.

Manju, the Firebreather

Carrie, Manju and Kim in traditional Tamang dress

This past weekend we went to Manegaun. It was amazing to get out of the city and the smog and be in a place much stiller, harder, and vibrant than my normal routine. The lushness of the landscape, the way trees have the ability to grow on a seemingly vertical slope, the rushing rivers and the unmanicured farms, all of these things make me feel part of an ecosystem, rather than part of a rat race. The only other places in the world where I have felt something similar are Guatemala and Ireland.

Change it up!

I have been in Kathmandu for over a week now. I’ve started walking around, and so far I have been able to get myself where I need to go with very little confusion about where to go. I am now living with my homestay. We are figuring each other out and how we live together, but it is good so far! I predict that my biggest, practical issue over the next few weeks is going to be dealing with money. It won’t be an issue of having enough money. It won’t be an issue of knowing what bills I have in my wallet. These things are easy, and the latter issue is just a matter of paying attention. This issue I am going to have is change.

Beijing – Day Two

Yesterday was a lot of walking. After discovering that breakfast was available in our hostel (yay, quick coffee), we headed out to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Beijing is very wide, in terms of streets and sidewalks. There is very little shade, at least where we were (and yes, I got a sunburn, a small one).

There were so many people at both of those locations. MK kept commenting on the number of East Asian tourists and how that made her feel good about being a tourist. Everything is big. The buildings, the streets, the open spaces.

Once we were ready for lunch, I figured out that there was vegetarian restaurant relatively close by (walking distance). However, we probably should have called, because it definitely was not there. We walked back to this touristy area (there is a Starbucks touristy; Tip: Starbucks = Western style bathrooms). As we are starting to get a little grumpy from the plummeting blood sugar levels, we walk one block west into an entire different world. This is what I expected Beijing to be like. Smaller streets, lots of vendors, noise, color, and smells, mostly yummy food ones.

We jumped into the first restaurant on the corner. They had an English-ish menu. We ordered Mapo Tofu and Noodles with Soy Sauce. FYI – Mapo Tofu is not vegetarian, but the Noodles are. After eating we headed down the street, where AW got a Communist Obama tshirt, MK took a picture of an “I <3 BJ” shirt (Editor: I am pretty sure that BJ was meant to mean Beijing), and we saw a restaurant that offers Noodles with Sog Sauce. We of course have now dubbed ourselves as Team Sog Sauce, and Commie ‘Bamie is our mascot.

Once we got back to the hostel (which involved a miscommunication about what the goal of our walk was that had us walk nearly all the way around the Forbidden City – oops), we all just sort of crashed. I decided to take a nap. This nap lasted for 12 hours! I’d wake up everyone once in awhile and just think “nope” and go back to sleep. Sunburns are exhausting.

Traveling, traveling

I am currently in Beijing, China. This summer I am literally traveling around the world. Yesterday, I flew from NYC to Beijing. The car picked up me and a friend at 5:20AM and we arrived at our hostel in Beijing at 6:30PM. If you can do the math on how long we traveled, do tell. I do not have the brain for it, though I think it’s more than 24 hours.

piddiddle, piddaddle

Crossposted at Insanemonade. Bringing in some of my creative writing into this blog

Characters:

LS – Little Sis

BS – Big Sis

Living room of a Brooklyn apartment. Like way out there Brooklyn. Like Bay Ridge or something. So you know, more space than normal.

BS is folding laundry on the couch. She is listening to the radio. The house is that “messy organized” that 20-somethings do. Or at least I do.

LS bursts through the door and lets it slam behind her.

LS

Oh my god, BS, I cannot believe what just happened. I just had probably the most amazing experience of my life. I don’t know what made me do it, but ahhh I’m so glad I did… I just… Oh my god, it was so fucking amazing. Amazing.

BS

(bored) What did you do?

LS

Do you want to know?

BS

Yes.

LS

Do you really?

BS

Yes.

LS

You aren’t just humoring me?

BS

No.

LS

Okay. … Ask me once more. With feeling.

BS

(fake smile, still bored) What did you do?

LS

I masturbated on the subway.

BS

(not so bored) You…

LS

I masturbated on the subway! During rush hour! I feel so free, so unconquerable. You know? Nobody even noticed! I mean, I know NYers are self-centered and jaded, but really I expected someone to think something was off and, you know, ruin the moment. But no one did. I just masturbated right there on the subway and totally got away with it! How fucking awesome is that? That was seriously the best commute I’ve had since I moved here. So relaxing. I think I’m going to do it again tomorrow. And you know what else? Towards the end, I’m pretty sure I saw god. Yeah. Oh my god!!! I can’t believe I did it! I’m so alive right now. I want to run a marathon or leap off a building! Oh. I’m definitely doing it tomorrow. Definitely. Maybe both ways. That way I’ll be nice and energetic [for work].

BS

You can’t masturbate on the subway!

LS

… Yes, I can.

BS

No. You can’t.

LS

Yes. I can. I just did.

BS

Well, you can’t do it again.

LS

Yes. I. Can. And you can’t stop me.

BS

Are you fucking insane?! Only crazy people and assholes do shit like that.

LS

And what does that make you?

BS

I do not masturbate on the subway! I wouldn’t even think of masturbating on the subway. How does someone even come up with something like that?

LS

I forgot my book.

BS

I … don’t even know what to say to that.

LS

Seriously, BS, I think you are making way too big a deal of this. I just closed my eyes and got to it. It was easy. No one got hurt. No one saw. And I had a great time. You know, I came straight home to tell you, because I thought you’d be happy for me.

BS

Really?

LS

You’re the one always going on and on and on and on and on about how masturbation is good for the soul. How it can clear out a lot of tension and stress.

BS

Yeah, but I never said you should [do it in public.]

LS

If you aren’t going to be happy for me, fine!

She pulls out her mobile and hits a speed dial.

BS

Who are you calling?

LS

Mom?

Throughout the call, BS tries to take the phone away from LS.

It’s me. Is Dad there? Yeah? Can you put me on speaker? BS, stop it!

Mom, Dad, I had the most amazing experience today. … I masturbated on the subway, and I’m pretty sure I saw god. Now, I know you think stuff like this is weird. But you always said you wanted me to be happy, and this made me extremely happy. Are you happy for me? …. Well? Good. Thank you. I’m glad to know that some people care about my personal happiness. Well, that’s all I wanted to tell you. Yeah, we’ll still talk this weekend. Love you. And BS sends her love too. Yes, I’ll tell her to call. Love you. Bye!

See? Not so big a deal, is it? You need to calm down.

BS

I can’t believe you just told our parents that you masturbated in public.

LS

Well, I did. Get over it. You know, you really should trust them more, tell them more about your life. You’d have a better, more open relationship with them the way I do.

BS

I am not calling our parents every time I masturbate somewhere new.

LS

Okay. But really you should call them more. They’d feel better. You’d feel better. You’d probably save yourself some hours in therapy.

BS

I … I can’t deal with you right now.

LS

You looked stressed.

BS

I am a little.

LS

Where’re you going?

BS

To my room.

LS

Are you going to masturbate?

BS

No. I am going to go to my room, lock you out, and meditate until I’m sure that this whole episode is a very, very, very distant memory. Like I don’t even want to remember [that you were ever born.]

LS

Meditate.

BS

Yes.

LS

… Oh my god what did I just tell our parents?!!!

BLACKOUT

Self Care Is Hard Work

Continuing the previous post and comments and conversations about self-care and managing it

I worry about burnout. I don’t worry about it a lot, but I can usually tell when I’m feeling it because that’s when the worry starts to creep in. It’s the preview before the full-on exhaustion. It’s the days/weeks/months of denial that I haven’t been putting myself first in my work. It, positively, usually ends in a vacation, in all senses of the word. Last time I went to Guatemala for two weeks. No technology at hand. Just air and sky and people and a really good friend at my side to laugh and share with. Feeling deeply that this is what life should be. Understanding that my own privilege allows me this escape. But that’s another conversation.

Getting Everything Done

Winter break in Texas. The weather (though rainy) is high-50s, low 60s (and sometimes in the 70s/80s) F. Next semester is going to be a challenging one, though hopefully only academically. While I sit here, I have a list (somewhat written but mostly in my head) of all the things I want to accomplish before heading back to New York, and it’s causing me to frantically relax! My brain is buzzing with what seems like a ridiculous amount of stuff to do, and when I work on one thing it thinks about the other things I could/should be doing.

I’m sitting here, working on things that I need to do for work and for class but also trying to shove in some relaxation. Figuring out how to read another (or a few) books. How to watch more T.V. How to just sit and do nothing. Shoving and relaxing do not mix well.

Anybody else have this issue? What do you do to calm yourself? I’m going to try repeating “It will all get done” just get myself to slow down a bit. I would like the rest of the break not to be full of stress! Leave your suggestions in the comments.

Newsolutions

The last New Year’s resolution I made was never to make another resolution. It’s been pretty easy to keep that one. I do tend to start new things on January 1, but that has more to do with the cleanness and easiness of starting on that date. For instance, today is 2 years sober for me.

I was thinking last night about resolutions and about how to reconfigure them to be positive, fun and silly. Something more akin to a dare than a weight-loss goal. In 2011, I am going to attempt to use the phrase “Cheese it, the fuzz!” in a conversation. It has to make at least a little bit of sense in the context.

It’s not a resolution, it’s a newsolution! Or something else. I’m not committed to the name. Leave your own ideas in the comments. Let’s dare each other a silly new year.

Winter Break Update

It’s been awhile. School and life got in the way of blogging. I suppose that’s okay. So what’s been going on…