Time flies...

It has been a while since I last wrote, I'm sorry. The end of the semester was crazy - but what else should I have expected? Massive flooding in Tamil Nadu, almost preventing students from getting out of Madurai and therefore India; another student med-evaced to the USA; a 170-person Farewell Tea just hours before boarding vans to depart...chaos. But everything worked out, everyone got where they were suppossed to be, and I moved on to traveling before the sadness of goodbyes could sink in...

It hasn't yet, I know. Cause if it had I would be all nostalgic, already, for one of the most fantastic 3 months of my life, filled with laughter and stories and stresses and incredible people and new experiences and new friends that will no doubt at some point be "very old friends." But I moved on, rapidly, to my current trip - North India, South India, back North again. With some SITA students, then with Hana, then with my family, then just with my dad. As we say in Tamil Nadu, "Aye yo." [heavy sigh.]

But so far, traveling has been fantastic. As it always seems to be, for me, even when it is horrible. Does that make sense? Something about the magic of it, something about living out of your backpack, something about seeing new places with new eyes and meeting countless new people, living countless stories that will be retold for years around kitchen tables and campfires...something about it makes even the overnight trains that don't show up until 2 am and then you only have 3 beds for 4 people and you and Mary spoon together on the top 2 1/2 ft wide train berth for the duration of the freezing cold ride through the desert in a train so packed you aren't sure it actually will be able to move....something makes even those moments precious in a way that most moments are not.

No summary can possibly do it justice, but here goes: took in the blue skyline of jodhpur; wandered around the golden fort of jaisalmer; spent 2 days on a camel riding through the thar desert on the indian border with pakistan; lay out under the most brilliant blanket of stars i have ever seen, warmed by a fire, floating on a bhang haze and listening to the camel driver's songs; descended into what appeared to be a lost, deserted city on a afternoon hike through the craggy hills around jaipur...

and this is only the beginning.

i'm moving on again, have a train to catch.

wanted to tell you where i am, in the hope that you'll tell me where you are in return.