tea, darjeeling, and all that jazz

i survived the longest bus ride in history and made my way to beautiful darjeeling!

this place is unlike anywhere i have ever been before. . . it is nothing like the india i am used to, a little like nepal, and a good bit like england! i only wish i could share a photo. . . it will just have to wait friends.

the tea is all that it is cracked up to be. i'm all cracked up on caffeine everyday thanks to all the tea. i just cannot resist it with every meal. although i still have lots to learn about tea, i got a good introductory lesson about tea today from a nice darjeeling local today.

tomorrow i have an appointment on a train. i cannot wait. its a tad touristy, but it is the cutest thing ever. feeling like a kid again in darjeeling!

xoxo

p.s. i miss my family. i miss snuggling with the sister shasties and the mother one, playing frisbee and other sports with the dudes, and my mother's amazing food . . . they are awesome and i cannot believe i have been away from them for this long.

hey friends!

so. . .

tomorrow afternoon i leave for this place. {abby linked to this man's blog and i am now obsessed}

i have to apologize for my blogging absence these past few weeks. my laptop has officially died and i am afraid from here on out you won't be seeing many of my photos. i have seen some remarkable things these past few days and i would love to share them with you all {and will. . . when i get home in july!}

i just keep hoping it will be just like this. {i have to admit, wes anderson is one of the reasons darjeeling has been on my list of places to see before i die. him and tea. those are my reasons for going. it makes no sense, me going the distance to darjeeling, but i feel good about this decision and cannot wait to see some tea plantations!}

p.s. abby also posted the pic of me on an elephant that i sent to the fam. on her flickr. . . just one of the things i've been up to these past few weeks!

back in chitwan!

i love this place.

possessive me

+ my momma. happy mother's day again to my favorite person in the world

+ my song of the week

+ my next plan - n. africa

{photo of me in my room here in kathmandu. everyone here knows 103 is "grace's room" and no one elses!}

que sera. . .

. . . whatever will be. . . will be. . .

i feel a tad bit overwhelmed by all this unc stuff. doing all of this abroad is a little tricky. i just feel so out of touch with that side of the world/ that side of my life right now.

i'm fully here and not at all there.

in just a few days i need to:

- find a roommate

- make a list and apply for housing

- send in medical forms

- apply for a laptop grant {i actually already missed this deadline}

- apply for ctops

- and a whole lot more. . .

plus my unc onyen/account hates me and won't let me change what i need to. . .

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in nepali there is an expression - ke garne!

it can be translated as - what to do!

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and:

*que sera by wax tailor {whoa! weird sauce}

*i couldn't live without tea {i'm downing a big mug of masala tea as i write this. . . i think my favorite of all time is hot ginger, lemon, and honey. . . it's heavenly}

*off to chitwan {again} in the morning!

{i found this hat in a tiny trekking shop in pokhara. this little gem was in the middle of a pile of knockoff northface and adidas baseball caps. i was tempted to buy it just because it was so unexpected - who would have thought i'd find a unc hat in the middle of nepal! - but i opted for this outrageously orange northface one. }

annapurna circuit - day one

pokhara and other things

+ walking around town +

+ the view from the hotel balcony +

+ eating like kings and queens for only a few dollars +

+ beautiful lakeside in the morning +

+ all the bright blue boats +

+ phewa lake +

+ brad reading some ayn rand & drinking his nepali tea +

i liked this place a whole lot.

pokhara is the place to go before any trek in the annapurnas. it is beautiful {surrounded by that glorious mountain range!} and a lake, still touristy, but not to the same degree as kathmandu.

we went there two days before the trek- just to check it out, get our gear {trekking poles, "northface" fleece jumpsuits, gloves, you name it!}, and get all our permits and registrations in order.

other things:

+ this song is lovely {love her style, love the color, and love her fabulously decorated fingers}

+ this was posted a while back but you check out mandy's final post over at psi's healthy lives blog {some of my photos were used}

+ my trekking journal that i love a little too much

+ friends are all finishing up the school year back home . . . crazy for me to think that i could have been finishing up my freshman year. . . but. . . i choose a bit of a different path in the end. i always loved this time of year back home - so much excitement about the summer months, being done, and getting geared up to do it all over again!

+ my google reader is out of control

+ like, sarah, there are just too many things i want to do with my life {i've had too much time to think on le futur these past few months. . . remember this, this, and this? those weren't to be laughed at. . . when i think of the thing i really, really want to do though, this comes to mind. [short, sweet, and with purpose] ultimately i just want to make beautiful short films, take photos, and make art all the days of my life}

+ this brief article on india's gender inequality is so shocking. it is hard to believe that this is still so prevalent in one of the world's rising powers

+ i've been asked so many times "aren't you so excited now that osama bin laden is dead?" by the people here and i don't know how to respond to that question. sure, but i don't know enough about it and i don't feel comfortable talking with a complete stranger all about it. being away from home when something like this happens is very strange.

+ shantaram was my choice. it is every bit as epic as i thought it would be

+ just when you think you're starting to figure out a lot, you realize once again. . . you've got lots to learn about life. . . and, i'm okay with that.

three photos from that little walk of ours. . .