This is a big one...

Hello everyone,

Many apologies for not posting recently. We've had a bit of an issue with internet (the 4000m of internet that was linked to this house was reently stolen and it'll take awhile for the wire to get replaced). So below is a post from each day that I hadn't been able to upload before...enjoy! There are also new pictures in the slideshow for you to enjoy :)

Wednesday, Sept 7th-- So this morning, we flew to Bangore (left at 11 from New Delhi) and arrived at approximately 1pm. We had lunch at a restaurant in the airport (supposed to be a very good/favorite restaurant actually). I had Alu Matar, which means potatoes and peas. It was delish :) Then we drove for an ungodly amount of time to get to Gangtok. We left Bangora around 1.45/2ish, and arrived here around 8ish. Part of that is because the roads are terrible, so it takes much longer to get anywhere, despite the crazy driving and zigzagging the drivers do. Part of that was an hour+ spent getting more forms filled out so we could be in Gangtok (do you see a theme here?) though which was yet another frustrating process hahah.

Finally we arrived at the house. We are living in the bottom part of a family home (so the family lives upstairs). We are two to a bedroom (4 bedrooms total) and they provide our meals. We have a very interesting shower contraption that I've never seen before...not quite sure how we'll be showering yet but I guess we'll figure it out. The one major problem we're running into right now is internet. A few weeks ago, someone stole the 4000m internet cable that runs to this house...unforutnatley, it will be very costly and take about a month to fix so until then, there is no WiFi. We're going to try and get little plug in things so that we can email, but no Skype/video chatting for the time being. Just email. So that really sucks and is somewhat contributing to some homesickness on my part :/ But, so it goes.

A quick drive through Gangtok in the dark revealed that it is definitely a bigger city than I imagined. It is at least a medium sized city (it's the capital of Sikkim actually) and there seem to be quite a few people. There's even a mall! Woohoo! I think...

Tomorrow we will explore Gangtok and I will report back.

Thursday, Sept 8th-- Hello, hello everyone :) Today was a very chill day. For the first time since arrival, we were allowed to sleep in as late as we wanted. We woke up and had breakfast here. The house is sort of like a bed and breakfast that we've taken over..we live in the bottom half of the house. It's two people to a room and there is a bathroom per room. There's a common room (where we do yoga, read, play cards etc) and  little dining room where they provide meals for us :) They have the CUTEST little kid who loves to come and talk to us :)

Anyways, today was quite a full day! I'll do my best to hit everything we did, although definitely not necessarily in the right order. We ventured out along the "shortcut"...a hellish adventure along incredibly wet and mossy stairs that make you think you'll fall for sure. It lands you in the outskirts of town, so we walk in from there. If it's nighttime and raining, we (kids) tend to opt for a taxi because at that time of night it's pitch black and incredibly steep and slippery...and we're lazy! :) Plus, a taxi here is approximately $2-3 to get home so it's worth it.

So, we were walking up the path, heading for the orphanage (Lepchu cottage, run by Ms. Keepu) to say hello, when we realized we'd be incredibly late for our appointment with Ms. Keepu if we didn't take a taxi, so we taxi-ed up. Ms. Keepu is the cutest old lady you have ever seen. She was a teacher and she started taking in kids. Eventually, she received funding from an NGO in Sweden so that she could take in over 200 kids. The kids were at school when we went so we couldn't see them :( Afterwards, we went and had a cup of tea down the street. An interesting note on the tea here- after travelling in China and Vietnam, I expected tea to be herbal (maybe similar to green tea as we are only 51km from China), but due to British influences, the tea is black tea, served with milk and sugar...quite disappointing! We've all starting asking for it without milk as we prefer it that way to be honest.

After the tea, we went to lunch at a Tibetian restaurant that was DELICIOUS :) We were able to try Sikkim wine, which is incredibly sweet. Then we wandered around the market. We all bought umbrellas (apprx. R200 a piece...$4), and got set up with phones. In case anyone would like to call or text me, dial 091.834.817.4068. If that doesn't work, call Mom and have her tell you how to do it! We all got the cheapest phone possible, so we get confused because we all have the exact same phone. Then we just wandered around the mall, doing nothing in particular. It was, unfortunately, on this day that I received the worst blisters of my entire life (later, I'd have to take a taxi home because I couldn't walk). The shops were nice, but there's nothing particularly "thrilling". I later asked the housekeeper about places to get jewelery and such, and she said not to waste our time here but to get it in Nepal where there will be a much better (and cheaper) selection). We met our Hindi teacher in a coffee shop and chatted for awhile. He's very nice and VERY passionate about teaching (you can tell). Then we walked to the home of our Thangka painting teacher. He is very well known around the world and incredibly kind and friendly. After that, we went home and rested :)

A few quick observations-

1) The stark difference between native Tibetian/Bhutanese and the Indians is incredibly obvious. Although all are "Asian", the Indians are much darker and have completely different facial features. You can even tell when someone is the product of a mixed marriage due to their facial features. Apparently, much of the Indians are only here due to Business, hence why the majority of people are Bhutanese/Tibetian.

2) The streets are covered in tiny little shops that all sell the exact same thing. We're all wondering how it's possible that all of these shops can survive when they literally have the EXACT same things.

Nighty night ;)

Friday September 9th-- Each day, we patiently await the arrival of the internet...Rajiv had his friend order little plug ins from Kalimpoong (about 2.5 hrs driving away). Anu's cousin may bring them...we're not sure yet.

Anyways, we had our first Hindi lesson today...T.H.R.E.E H.O.U.R.S. Oh.my.god. Remember how I said he was passionate? Oh, he's passionate! He showed up 30 minutes early andhe wouldn't  stop talking. Also, Hindi is the most ridiculousy impossible language to learn. The first step is to just learn the letters-- I have bad news...my vocal chords literally cannot make half of those noises. Not really sure what to do...Plus, nobody in this area speaks Hindi anyways...they speak Nepalese or Bengali or Lepchu, the language of the local peoples. So what's the point? Not sure. Then the Thankga teacher came over to give us a picture of a lotus that we're supposed to sketch by Monday...I believe that anyone reading this probably already knows that I lack all artistic talent. All. So we'll see...

After that, some people went into town, but as it was raining and a lazy day and my feet were not happy (see: blisters) I stayed here with Steven and we just played cards for hours :) A very nice and relaxing day to be honest.

Saturday September 10th- Today was probably one of the best days so far. We had Hindi in the morning, but luckily today it only lasted for 1.5 hours...thank GOD. But still...boring. It's just incredibly difficult to learn and I can't remember anything two minutes after we learn it. Alas. Then we did our first yoga lesson :) Anu is a certified yoga teacher and led us through a very, VERY basic yoga and meditation session in our living room :)

Afterwards, we had lunch and then set off for Lepchu cottage. Let me tell you, I am IN LOVE with these children . I'm trying to get pictures up for everyone, but Mom can send you pictures if you want them. We started off just with the youngest ones, who weren't at school yet. We were playing on the beds, making them fortune tellers out of paper running around...it was great. These kids are just SO CUTE. Then the older kids came and they were just in love with us. It felt like we'd only been there an hour but Anu and Rajiv informed us that we'd been there over 3 hours. The kids were climbing all over us and when we started to make origami cranes, boxes, and fortune tellers (my specialty) the kids were lining up, tearing pages out of their books so we would make it for them. I can't tell you how many homework pages I folded into fortune tellers.

Once we were finally torn away, we went into town for "Ladies Night" at "Gangtalk Bar and Restaurant". For the record, "Ladies Night" started at noon...it definitely was not a very exciting scene. Afterwards, we made our way home (but not before finally finding ice cream! We'd been craving true western desserts). Again, we sat around, played cards etc :)

Sunday September 11th- Starting on the semi-somber note of it being Sept. 11th (one of the few reasons I really wish I was in the States right now), half of our group has fallen ill. Yesterday Rebecca fell incredibly ill, followed by Alex today, Laura, myself and Claudia a little as well. It's not pretty :( But, it's to be expected as we all knew we'd have to get sick at some point! Hopefully I can' use my spaghetti soon...for those of you who don't know, everyone made fun of me for my insane overpacking (2 lbs of spaghetti, 5 boxes of protein bars, the most insane medical kits ever). However, my insane overpacking has been to my advantage as I have been able to provide everyone with something thus far on this trip. They're all coming to appreciate it more than they'll even admit. Anyways, off of my rant.

We went to see the orphans again today. Oh goodness. I cannot express my feelings for them adequately. I'll ty to fill in a few details I failed to mention yesterday...so today we arrived and they were in "song" session upstairs. As soon as we walked in, you could see them light up and get excited and no longer pay attention to their music session. After a little while we sat down with them, officially ending song session. Laura had brought stuff to make friendship bracelets, assuming that they would make them for themseves...nope. They refused to take them, demanding that we take them. I came in at a meager total of 6. Steven came in at a grand total of 15 rings, 3 bracelets and 1 proposal. One of the girls came up to him, took all of the rings off his left hand ring finger, and put one on there saying "I want a June wedding." CUTEST THING EVER!! :)  He was quite loved by the little girls. Then we ran around and played with them. Laura and Claudia got some stylish hair styling from the girls- I escaped thanks to my incredibly frizzy hair. Later I went down to work with some of the older girls on their English. I've found its a little difficult to explain an unknown word in English if I don't know Lepchu or Nepalese, as I just continue to add unknown words. But then, the little boys I'd been playing with slowly started creeping into the room. First I could just see their heads around the door, then they slowly crept towards me, then ran back outside. Then they'd come and hurriedly tie a bracelet around my wrist, and dart back out. Finally, they just came and settled next to me and let me read to them. Seriously, the kids are SO CUTE. Unfortunately, due to sanitation etc, a lot of them have sores on their arms because they've picked at scabs etc and they've been infected. We're trying to figure out what causes a of it to see if we can do anything about it, but so far we dont know. Also, compared to yesterday they smelled much better (yesterday there was a pervasive scent of pee lingering) so I assume they showered for Sunday.

Today, one of the girls told me a joke. She said, "A man came to India and threw a watch in the lake. Everyone around him said 'What are you doing?! That was R200!' and he said 'I come from China, we have too many of these.'. Another man came and threw a hat in the lake. Everyone said "What are you dong?! That was R250" and he said 'I'm from Japan! We have too many of these'. Then an Indian man came and threw a child in the lake. They said 'What are you doing?! That's a child' and he said 'I'm from India...we have too many of these"' I definitely wasn't sure what to say in this situation. I just pretended to half laugh while secretlyl freaking out. The same girl also showed me the most provacative dance I've ever seen a child that young do (it was based on Bollywood dancing). Shocking to be sure.

We wrapped up the day with a nice Indian movie ("Three Idiots") which was really funny and cute.

Monday Sept 12th- What a beautiful day! For the first time in QUITE awhile, we had sunshine! We all did our 'undergarment' laundry (having sent our laundry off the day before to be washed...it takes apprx. 3 days give or take due to the rain/humidity) and laid it out in the sun. Our porches were quite the site to be had. Before breakfast, we did a quick yoga class...and then our Hindi teacher arrived in the middle of the class. Anu had misread the schedule she made for us and told us we didn't have Hindi, but he had read it properly and came. So we quickly finished yoga and had breakfast and then started our Hindi. I seriously wonder sometimes if we'll ever get the hang of it. My vocal chords CANNOT make the sounds that he so desperately wants me to make. Additionally, all of the script looks the same...hopefully we'll get the hang of it soon, but to be honest I'm not so positive. After Hindi, we had lunch and then we all set off. Anu, Rajiv, Laura and Rebecca went to the Thankgu painter's house for lessons, Alex and I went to the orphanage (not sure if I mentioned this earlier but we decided that considering our utter lack of artistic skills, our time would be better spent with the children), and Claudia and Steven stayed behind because they were sick. This has become an unfortunate theme this week, with at least one person staying behind each day because they're not feeling well. It's a mixture of stomach issues and fevers and such..not pretty! 

So we set off for the orphanage. We walked about halfway (all uphill) but we were running pretty late and we didn't want to make the kids wait so we wound up taking a cab (that cost us a grand total of R50...apprx $1.10) and walking the very last little bit. The kids were THRILLED to see us. We played tag for awhile in their upstairs play room, and then read to them. We were exhausted from all of the playing...those kids have WAY too much energy for us! It's crazy! The only problem we're running into is that it's difficult to organize them all (especially when there's just two of us) and it's hard to get them to understand the rules of something because they are so young and speak such little English and we speak NO Nepalese/Lepchu/Bengali. But we still had a great time :) The older kids came back by around 4, but we were too exhausted (and they definitely weren't interested) to do English tutoring with them. We talked to Ms. Keepu who has asked us to work with the older kids on English and essentially just play with the young-uns. We decided to try and organize a play (Beauty and the Beast) for the kids to help teach them English and have something constructive for them to do. (Although anyone reading this...if you have suggestions for what to do with a bunch of energetic, Kindergarten age children PLEASE TELL ME!!)

So Alex and I walked down to the village because we were all planning on going to the festival there. Everyone was supposed to be done with their lesson by 4, but they didn't end up coming down until closer to 6. Unfortunately, it didn't matter as the festival was being broken down when we got there at 4. So Alex and I spent some time at the internet cafe and then went up to "Gangtalk" (our new favorite place hahah) and got something to nibble on and some cool drinks. Then we came home and reveled in the newest toy...INTERNET! Thank god! Unfortunately, it seems Skype-ing won't be an option and my tablet doesn't work with the type of internet we have...all negatives. But everyone is being very kind and allowing me access to their computers! 

Tuesday Sept 13th- This will be the shortest post ever as it has been an incredibly boring day and you have already read SO much if you've reached this point. Essentially, none of us are feeling well so we just sat around all day. My overpacking came in handy because we used my spaghetti for lunch! Delicious.

Lots of love and apologies for the incredibly long post!!

Sara :)

XOXOs