Journey to the Himalayas: A *Delayed* Update

Hey all! A little *delayed* update on my trip...
My original plan (check out my first blog post on my trip) when heading to the Himalayas was to update everyone on each Sunday with all that I had done for the week. Right?
My professors and teachers say, "India teaches you that nothing may go right and that you need to go with the flow."
And let me tell you: it's true.
Here's the story of my first month in India. I will also be making posts on the individual trips I did, as well. Once those posts are finished, I'll link them at the bottom.

Lesson #1 from India: I am very much okay with long trips.

The rumors are true: the flight to India is LONG. But, it's actually very much okay with me. Since almost exactly one month ago, I was a passenger on:

(1) A 13 hour plane ride,
(2) Two 6-7 hour train rides [we will make that 3 train rides after I leave for a trip tomorrow],
and (3) several hour bus/car rides [ranging from 2-12 hours].
Honestly? It wasn't bad. I cherish the act of traveling; I look at it as time to sit back and really observe the world passing outside my window... which is very different from the usual Pennsylvania countryside that I'm used to.

Jordan, Kate, Linda, Shannon, and I left from Newark International Airport on August 19th and arrived late in the evening on August 20th at Delhi International Airport. There, we met with Stephen and Joe (my professors!) who brought us to the YWCA Hostel in Delhi. We split into rooms, and that's when Linda and I first started rooming together [love this girl, more on her later]*.

*Note: Linda and I could NOT sleep our first night in Delhi, and therefore watched Indian soap operas from around 4:00 AM - 5:45 AM... in Hindi. Which neither of us speak. Guessing what was happening in the show was even funnier at 4:00 AM, I promise.

We then left the YWCA for my first train ride in India.

Disclaimer: The train I was on is NOT AT ALL the common experience in India.

We boarded the train and I ended up next to the lovely Skye [who is also gluten-free!] and Aryssa who I chatted with the entire way to Dehradun, about a 6-7 hour train ride North of Delhi. Aboard the train, we were served several meals, including Spiced Milk... which tastes like American chili mix with sour cream. It's unlike anything I have ever tasted before in my life [but it's surprisingly good].

After our train ride, we arrived in Dehradun. Joe took us to this amazing restaurant [Black Pepper] where I actually had Indian food for the first time. Filled with Southern Indian food and ~lots~ of coffee, we headed on the 3 hour car ride to Mussoorie.
A bumpy ride and everyone nauseous later, we arrived at Woodstock School!

Lesson #2 from India: Things are just things.

I arrive at Woodstock and walk the 0.7 km [0.5 miles] uphill to the Community Center, where I currently stay. Linda and I grabbed a room at the end of the hall, and that's when the trouble started.

Not really, but it's not completely false.

Within the first day of being in India, my computer started acting up.

"Huh," I thought to myself, "that's odd. Probably just needs to be restarted."

I was wrong.

My computer, either through air moisture or through electrical problems, is completely fried**.

I am typing this post on Jordan's computer.

**Note: I came to India during the monsoon season in the Himalayas, so it was raining initially around 50% of each day, every day. Additionally, the electricity here isn't reliable [as I typed this, the power just went out], so it's honestly unsurprising that my computer stopped working. 

I sent my computer to be fixed locally, and after several weeks, they told me there was nothing they can do... so I have been borrowing computers or going to the Hanifl Center library to type my assignments.

About a week after my computer first stopped working, I was walking in the fore mentioned monsoon when my phone, completely unbeknownst to me, became SOAKED in my backpack... by the way, my phone was cracked to begin with.

Luckily, I was able to run the 0.5 mile uphill to our dorms and Samita [our resident assistant here] gave me rice, cheered me up, and helped me revive my phone. It impressively works completely fine now, despite the water damage.

Before I continue on, it's important to note that the one computer available to me here at school is a desktop that frequently cannot connect to a network.

The first time that computer wouldn't load anything properly, I was a WRECK. Shoutout to Linda for talking me down when I was freaking out, claiming that India {as a symbolic, spiritual entity} wanted me to go home! She gentled reminded me it was merely a bump in the road.

This month has taught me that when THINGS break, it's no big deal. You adjust, life goes on. Speaking of which...

Lesson #3 from India: When nothing will go as planned, go with the flow. 

The reason my phone had become water damaged was that I was going on a very long walk to do two things:

(1) Bring money to the front gate of the school to give to the computer company to begin repairs [that ultimately failed...] on my computer,
and (2) go to the health center.

I had spent the last week trying to adjust to my new home, take a Wilderness First Aid course, continue exercising, and fix my computer all at once, therefore neglecting my health.

It was only after seeing that I was developing tonsil stones that I recognized that my fever and severe throat pain probably wasn't just a passing cold.

After getting tested at the health center, I was told that I had TWO SEPARATE STRAINS OF A STAPH INFECTION IN MY THROAT.

So I'm standing at the front gate of the school in the rain, I'm soaked in water, my phone is soaked in water, my computer is still broken, and at that moment, I HAD A STAPH INFECTION FOR A WEEK***.

It was funny at the time and is still funny now how awful that sounds... honestly, those two weeks were so trying for me. But I quickly learned how okay it is for things to go wrong, and how so many things went right if I just ignored [since, I'll admit, I have the privilege to] all the negative things occurring.

Despite it all, I fell in love with Woodstock School, with the mountains, with the people and language. I was invited into the shops of the people in Mussoorie for tea. I tried new foods and regained my interest in medicine during my Wilderness First Aid course. I started running with Linda and saw so many beautiful parts of nature. I live in the middle of the mountains with amazing people. #blessed

***Note: Every situation for the first two weeks here was made worse by the wolf spiders that continually invaded ONLY MY ROOM [initially]. Since Linda and I choose the room closest to an outside door, we continually had visitors: wolf spiders the size of your hand. The first time I cried here was when I saw my first LIVE spider in our room. NOPE. 

Lesson #4 from India: When you start going with the flow, everything goes exactly as unplanned.

After two weeks of adjusting to the altitude in Mussoorie, we left for Leh, Ladakh.

We traveled by car down the mountain to Dehradun, where we took a night train to Delhi, and flew to Leh in Himachal Pradesh (about an hour plane ride). We L O V E D Ladakh. It was beautiful, and I will have a full post [or more] dedicated to Ladakh and my homestays there.

The lesson of my trip to Ladakh, however, is that all good things must be paired with bad things [it's just a part of life!].

We returned on a flight from Leh to Delhi, and then took a 13 hour bus ride to Mussoorie. It was only two days after our return that Linda, my roommate, noticed weird bumps all over her arms...

At this point, I was fine. An allergic reaction, we postulated. Nope! Bed bugs.


Two days later, I began getting the weird bumps - confirmed bed bugs. This was last week, I should mention! While Linda has recovered from bed bugs [thankfully, since she is allergic to the bites], I'm still getting rid of the bites.

Linda and I had slept in our beds back at the Community Center by the time I began displaying symptoms, so we figured we most likely received the bugs ~somewhere~ in Leh.

To be safe, we washed ALL of our clothing in boiling water, put our old mattresses outside in the sun,  showered a billion times, put on bed repellent while sleeping, and changed our rooms.

Me, before leaving for India, would've seen this as a N I G H T M A R E. But I honestly didn't see it as that big of a problem. An inconvenience? Yes. But problem? No.

We washed ourselves, our sheets, and our stuff. Time fixed the rest.

Lesson #5 from India: Learn from the people around you.

Directly after Linda made her full recovery, we decided to go on a run with Xiaoyun [my friend from Yale NUS in Singapore!]. On this run, Xiaoyun [who previously was having problems with her foot] was in a lot of pain. After that run, she decided to take a break. The following day, Linda and I went on a solo run in which a rock came loose from the running path and caused Linda to slip and hurt her [also previously irritated] foot.

After walking back to our dorm, Linda let me accompany her to the hospital... more on the hospitals here in another post. She then was in the infirmary ALL WEEK COMPLETELY ALONE WITH NO WI-FI. She couldn't even do homework, but she literally just was so positive through it all. #goals

On the day after she first left for the infirmary, I realized how many traits I admire from the students who are here with me. This is the mantra that I wrote to remind me of this:

Be strong like Linda,
brave like Xiaoyun.
Dream like Skye,
and stay sincere like Jordan.
Adventure like Shannon,
be honest like Aryssa,
and listen like Liam.
Dance like Caity,
and be caring like Josh.
If you are generous like Kate,
and are as patient as Amiya,
you can't go wrong.
Let the people around you guide you.

When you pay attention to the ways that people bring joy into your life, it unites you to the place you are in and the people you are with, despite your frustrations or discomforts or sadness.

Lesson #6 from India: I don't get home sick... I get comfort-sick.

All those things being said, I was really trying to stay positive. It was difficult, and I genuinely don't know if I actually succeeded.

My recent struggle, and biggest struggle, is not dealing with homesickness. I am comfort-sick: the exact reason I came here.

I have to admit: I glamorized discomfort. It sucks.

Xiaoyun once was telling me about how she spent time in her last study abroad in Bhutan overcoming attachment, which is what I feel like this trip is supposed to teach me. I am extremely attached to always feeling comfortable in the manners that I do at home.

I am realizing, while here, how lucky I am to be living in comfort at home. I miss cereal, I miss my SHOES SO MUCH Western clothes [I barely brought anything but work-out clothes], I miss my job at J.Crew. I miss the familiarity of Pitt's campus.

That being said, I'm so lucky to be here. Being comfort-sick doesn't negate my thankfulness for the opportunities I have, it purely is acknowledging and coming to terms with the joys and struggles that change brings.

What's to Come...

Tomorrow evening, I leave for a village to complete a week-long homestay... EKKK! So excited [but nervous, for gluten reasons].


I am currently doing two-a-day work-outs to train for the Mussoorie Half-Marathon next month. I actually received my first tub of Olena Protein Powder [vegan/gluten-free, made in Delhi!] that I super hype to try tonight post-workout.

Additionally, I'm extremely thrilled to start my ethnographic project on Tibetan Beauty Pageants, on clothing and jewelry in the Northwestern Himalayas, and to pick my two other research topics for my classes.

I ~promise~ to post more soon [this time, I mean it]!

Best til next,

Kel

More from Journey to the Himalayas:

Read about Mussoorie, India, from a traveler's perspective!

Here's more information about Hanifl Center, Woodstock School, and my perspective living in their Community Center!

Read more about my experiences in Ladakh, studying Buddhist iconography featuring pictures of my thangkas [thanks Stephen]!

Check out ~what I wish I had packed~!