Namaste Nepal!

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According to a friend who speaks Hindi, Namaste means "I bow to the god in you." As Hindus believe that Brahma is in everything, I bow to the god in you all!

In case we haven't been in touch in a while, my teaching contract ended in the middle of June and Cody and I went off on our grand summer adventure for Sulava's wedding in Nepal. We flew to Kathmandu on June 25 and JoJo and I are planning on spending about two weeks in India after the wedding.

We're up in Pokhara at the moment, at the base of the Himalayas in Nepal, about 6 hours from Kathmandu. It's really laid back and beautiful here...it's supposed to be monsoon season so the clouds tend to obscure the view of the Annapurna mountain range but the hills and the valley in the foreground are incredible on their own. We hiked up to the World Peace Pagoda and its amazing views, but we got lost and two little boys hiked us up about a mile, almost vertically, in flip flops...they were so cute. At the top they were like...now you give us monies? We were like, "Of course! You just did more work than I usually do in a day!" At one point, JoJo pointed at something and Cody got a scared look on his face. He was like, "Jo, I'm so sorry." She was like, "What?!" He walked over to her and pulled a leech out of her armpit! It was the most disgusting and hilarious thing ever. They're like big slugs that jump over like inchworms...from then on we kept finding them on our shoes and crawling around our ankles...ewwwww. They release an anesthesia so you can't feel it when they bite you so they can keep right on sucking...ugh I still get shivers!

On the way down the mountain we were invited to a bar mitzvah like celebration where we danced with the women in front of nearly the whole village and then went to eat with them...they were so warm and welcoming! That's been typical-- yesterday was the Ashar festival for the harvest and planting of the summer rice crop, so we went to a huge celebration where the locals have mud fights and races while turning over the rice paddies. Cody won first place in the mud race! He won a free meal and a case of beer and got to hang out with all the villagers while they bbqed a giant catfish they had caught in the stream with their hands (also part of the races). It was so much fun! It's crazy how the people here really want us to be a part of their lives rather than just buy things from them like in most of the other places in southeast Asia-- the shop keepers will invite you in for a meal and people you meet will tell you the best places to go swimming or the short cut trails up the mountains...it's much more comfortable than I've felt traveling in a long time.

The wedding is next week. We've met most of Sulava's family and had sari's and salwaar kameezes made so we'll be looking fly! Tomorrow we go back to Kathmandu to meet the other five people coming from America (mostly people I knew from college) for two days of sightseeing organized by Sulava's brigadier general uncle and then there's the engagement party, the women's only henna party the next day, a day of rest where Cody, JoJo and I think we'll go bungee jumping a few hours from KTM, then the day and night long wedding. That's not it though-- the next day is the reception for Sulava's side of the family and the day after that is the reception for Atul's side of the family. Whew!!

After all the wedding stuff JoJo and I are going to India to hit all the highlights around the Golden Triangle, so I'll probably write again from there. Hope you're all well and having a good time wherever you are this summer. Keep in touch! Love yous!

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