jordan...

so, here i am, in the middle east now, and i don't quite know what to say, think, or really do.  i know nothing about the country other than that petra is here and i would like to see that.  and by a series of fortunate events, my mom is coming to meet up with me and so we can go to petra together.  so, for the time being i am at a loss for what to do.  my plan was to couchsurf, from couchsurfing.com, but getting off the plane i met a guy who said i could stay at his place.  what the hell.  the dude is a consultant for bp, that's right, british petroleum.  go figure.  so he works all the time.  he lives in a decent neighborhood, the apartment is super nice; but it's lonely.  i had it all mapped out that i would couchsurf at this persons house and they would be full of ideas of what i should do in amman for the 10 days i'm here waiting for moms.  yesterday, i went and watched two movies, the hunger games and john carter.  the hunger games was done well and it was good to see it as it's one the first books i read starting this trip.  which, let me tell you, seems oh so long ago.  it's almost 6 months now, go figure.  that might not sound like a lot but, let me tell you that's a decent amount of time to be travelling.  and until getting here i would have told you i wasn't in a million years ready to go home.  now... i'm not so sure.  and a month and a half before that, i would have told you that yeah, i sure am ready to go home.  so it's all depending on the day, where i'm at, who i'm with, and what is going on.

leaving india was sad.  leaving elizabeth was sad.  i started out hating india and the ashram, and then i went north to rishikesh and had the time of my life and then it only got better.  i pretty much travelled with elizabeth for 6 weeks, maybe more, no ones counting.  that's like a year in travel time.  we had a lot of great conversations, about life, love, our futures, ourselves as people.  it wasn't all serious though, we shared a lot of elementary jokes and had some uncontrollable laughing sessions together.  we helped each other through yoga school and then through a bout of frost bite in the himalayas, we helped each other with the petty annoyances of travelling.  and by the end, we were pretty much brother and sister.  i told her that too, i says, "you're pretty much my sister."  we told each other, "i love you," at night.  and it was great to have someone, not just anyone either but someone you get along with so well and can say anything too and someone who'll do anything with you.  and i miss that.  such is life.  we made plans to meet up soon and try to do the apalachian trail in the next couple of years.  so it goes.

it's quite here, in this apartment, in this part of town.  a lot of that probably has to do with the lack of honking.  i knew it would happen.  india is so loud, so in your face, and the honking is so ridiculous.  and it's cold here too.  what  a joke.  i give away my cold clothes and i need them more times than i could count on one hand.  it's a good thing i kept my sweatshirts, i almost gave those away.

oh yeah, and i met up with chapati nash and michelle before i left india.  how awesome.  it was truly great to see them and be able to hangout one more time before the next time we meet state side.  i didn't think it would happen.  i thought they would be at the farm and i would spend a day in delhi and then go to agra and then be out; but we ended up being in delhi at the same time and we were doing to some mandated site seeing by our indian host mahek and i'm walking through this neighborhood and i just knew that charlie was in the same neighborhood.  so i called him, sure as shit, he and michelle were staying right down the street.  we went to agra the next day together and saw the taj mahal too.  and then they came back to delhi with me, me to catch a sweet 35 hr train ride to chennai and them to go... where ever the path leads.  turns out it lead to northern india for them, darmsala.  but what an event, a last 24 hours together, and how fun it was too.

so, i'm here and it's different and i'm feeling a little lonely.  i did some good work today though, i went to the dr as i was feeling a little stomach bug left over from india, everyones gotta get sick in india once, right.  turns out i'm fine.  then, i'm walking around and i come up on a gym, i go in cuz i want to see what prices are for a week pass and then on a passing whim, i ask the manager if it's cool if we trade free days for yoga classes.  i said, i'll teach and then in return, i want free use of the gym while i'm here.  he says, "why not."  so, i went and got a jordan sim card and called him and he's calling me back to discuss details later.  so, i'm trying not to get too excited but i think that might be kinda cool.  i went grocery shopping and made some good faux paux's and now, i'm going to see if i can play some pick up soccer across the street from the shopping mall.  not bad, and i'm hopping it'll break me outta this little funk.

one more thing, you can smoke anywhere here.  no shit, there's smoking areas in the hospital and then people smoke all over the mall.  it's weird.  i guess it's what it must have been like in the 70's or something.

reading shantaram now, i was told by everyone to read it while i was in india.  about an australian drug addict and convict who escapes to bombay in the early eighties and works for the indian mafia there.  a must read apparently for anyone who's travelled, travelling, or is planning on travelling to india.

what a trip.  it all changes all the time.  i ain't mad at cha, i ain't got nothing but love for ya.

nick

is this real life

dear friends,

i don't even know where to start, the last month or so has been incredible.  it's been so nice to be in a place that's comfortable and beautiful and full of such great people.

the yoga school wasn't the best, but it was definitely worthwhile.  it's such a great experience, getting to know a group of people and then hanging out with them the whole time was the best part.  i did learn some new things, do some new things, fine-tuned some ideas, read some more material, practiced almost everyday for a month, and in general had a good time.  there were 24 students in our class, 6 from the usa, and the rest from all different countries.  there was one from brasil, croatia, slvokia, czech, netherlands, belgium, austria, panama, england, australia, lavtia, and more.  i had two roommates, joost (netherlands) and manfred (austria).  both were really good dudes; and it was cool getting to know them.

we did some weird things like shatkarmas, which are cleansing techniques under kriya yoga.  we tried jala neti, which is a neti pot and then the next day we did sutra neti, sticking a waxed rope up our noses and then out of our mouths.  it was messed up, i didn't get mine all the way through, and then the day after that we had to chug multiple warm salty lime water and do some asanas til and then chug more until we cleared out digestive system, that was terrible.  but we tried them all.  we did some gazing meditation, where you stare at a candle for a half an hour, we did osho dynamic meditation, we did some yoga nidra, and we did some vipassana meditation, and we sang some kirtans.  we did ashtanga vinyasa every morning and hatha every evening.  we had sundays off.  it was a pleasure.

one sunday we went rafting down the ganga, one sunday i just spent all day at the beach with elizabeth (my friend from georgia), i hiked to a shiva temple one day with my roommate joost and loic (the belgian) this was on holi, a holiday here where everyone throws paint on each other, it was sketch cuz we heard that some of the paint could blind you, but we didn't have a problem.  we went to the osho ashram one sunday, he was a pretty big guru in the 70's i think.  apparently he was poisoned by the cia, or at least the documentary of him claimed this.  and after the program ended we went trekking in the himalayas for four days, but it was really three, with the drive back counting as a day.  but it was the highlight.  i had no clue i would see the himalayas this trip, i had no clue i would do yoga ttc in rishikesh this trip.  but they happened, and the himalayas were the most amazing thing.

i went with elizabeth and dafne, a girl from the basque country in spain, who i'm totally infatuated with cuz she's so cute and sweet and gots this cute little accent; but who also is exactly like the movie, "something about mary."  she's got about 4-5 indians that love her, a few asked her to marry them and then they follow her everywhere she goes, it's a bit crazy.  she's always saying that she doesn't know what they want, i'm like, REALLY.  both were really great though and overcame bouts of frostbite and some stomach sickness.  it was really cool.  and cold.  once again i was kicking myself for getting rid of all my cold weather cloths in cambodia.  our guides were funny, a couple of indian guys who basically just hung out with each other and laughed all the time.  but they showed us a good time.  there was happy and shivam and then a few other groups that had different guides but they kinda melded all of our groups together, so it was cool, actually going with 4 other people one day and then another different 4 the next day.  the first day we hiked over a ridge to this little lake and got our first view of the himalayas.  wow, i can't even begin to describe how majestic it was.  how fortunate i was to see them and hike in them and be there!  we had the choice of staying in a tent or a building with like 4 bedrooms, we choose the building since it was so bone chilling cold.  the next day we hiked about 15 km ridging a bit of the way and then contouring to a like roadside stop, that had a few rooms and then another camping spot.  again we choose the room.  it snowed a bit and i was super happy to see the snow.  i just sat watching it for a while before succombing to the cold.  the next day, we were supposed to climb to the top of a mountain, but only made it to about 1 km away as there was too much snow.  this was at an old temple we sat at and had lunch and chilled for a bit before heading back down.  the temple was the coolest thing ever, exactly like you see in photos of the himalayas.  i still don't believe it.

it's been super good to be here and super nice to get back into yoga again, and take some time off from travelling.  i thought i was pretty much ready to come home and get started on my future, but now i'm rejuvenated and really excited to go to jordan and hangout with my mom for a bit (she's meeting me, what a cool mom).  i'm there for about 10 days before she arrives, so i believe that i'm going to try couchsurfing, this website where you sign up, create a profile, and then either host or stay at peoples houses.  it seems really cool, such a good way to get to know the people who live there and such an insight into different ways of life. i'm pretty excited to try.

god, it seems so short so long that i've been gone.

i hope everyone is great, i keep getting emails/messages, all sorts of things about how everyone is doing good and it makes me so happy.

i love you all.

nick

oh yeah, and yesterday, we went driving around the mountains on a motorbike, just cruising and stopping at little villages and temples and whatever else.  then in the evening we came upon a adventure park with zip lines and a bungie jump.  so, i did the bungie jump, it was pretty crazy, 83 meters (something over 200 ft), about a shallow river and rocks.  it was outta this world!