Age of Aquarius

I am writing from my posh hostel in Sweden, complete with free internet access and sauna! I can't stop asking myself the question, where am I? I am suffering major culture shock after my 4 month stint in India and SE Asia. To make up for it, and as part of my cultural assimilation I had to get my hair done, for the first time in 9 months! Its a fantastic feeling! But before I go into my Swedish escapades let me finish telling you about the last days of India. I think last time I left off Tony and decided to get out of the heat and head inland to the hill station of Munnar, which is famous for its tea plantations. Driving through these rolling hills was stunning, the tea plants fill the hills as far as the eye can see, so green it looks electric. The plantations are planted in the pattern of a giraffe but have the consistency of shag carpet, and it went on for miles and miles and miles!



Tony and I got a private tour from our trusty rickshaw driver Valu. He drove us all around in his little rickshaw through the winding hills. We saw elephants, ate amazing homemade chocolate from a street bazaar, and drove past cute houses that were so extravagantly painted they could have been the frosting on a cupcake. While in Munnar we met these Israeli girls and had a rooftop party at our guesthouse making faces and a fruit posse of people out of fruit we had bought from the local market, Mr Potato Head style, haha. This lasted for hours and I am not ashamed to admit it, it was fun.



After Munnar we headed to Goa, the real vacation spot of India with pristine beaches and a huge party scene...well, Huge in Indian terms, and it only took us 2 days to cross 3 states in 6 different buses, 4 rickshaws and 1 train. In the 23 solid hours of traveling we saw 2 cockroaches (in our rooms), ate 11 samosas, and 12 bananas. Afterward we were so glad to finally have our feet on a floor that wasn't moving underneath us. The first night staying in our beach side bungalow we met the cutest little Italian couple who actually said "Mama Mia" in the context of conversation. It was adorable! I smoked Rose flavored hookah for the first time in my life and I would have to say it actually tasted more like a potpourri grandma. Tony and I hit up a silent head phones party where we danced our faces off and didn't go to bed until wayyyyyyy too late, waking up wayyyyyy too hung-over for our flight to Delhi. It was brutal carrying our huge packs across the sinking sand with the scalding heat and hangovers. I think the best part though were the cows that wandered on the beach, such a strange juxtaposition.



In Delhi we mostly just shopped, well, I shopped at the main bazaar which is this crazy congested street with rickshaws, cows, people, and scarf shops all rubbing shoulders. Tony and I also went to a Bollywood movie called Aloo Chat, which was a strange mix of Hindi, English, and the strangest sound effects. We were very disappointed that it only had one short dance scene, but at intermission we ate veg burgers that tasted like spring rolls, so that was interesting. Liz and Julia met us in Delhi for a day and I got to see them before Liz took off for vapassana and Julia left for the states.

As an assertion of my independence I decided to travel to Pushkar by myself, like I was going to stay in crazy Delhi. I was a little nervous at first to be on my own in India, but I stayed safe, and took a posh overnight bus with my own sleeping cabin. Legend says that the God Brahma dropped a lotus flower to the earth and Pushkar floated to the surface, which is a very nice tale indeed. Pushkar is a very colorful little city, a holy city with sacred water which people bathe in for cleansing, but sometimes fake priests will try to swindle money out of you by giving you a "Blessing" then asking for 1,000 or more rupees donation. I said screw that and gave 50 Rs which equals 1US dollar, that's enough for a blessing right?



After a few days in Pushkar I had a quick trip to the Agra to see the Taj. These 2 days were so interesting, first I spent the night on a packed to the brim overnight sleeper bus, laying all night on a moist pad that smelled like someone had barfed up their samosa, ruining my sarong which I put down to protect me from the gross wet spot and effectively freaking me out of sleeping the entire night, but at least when I arrived in Agra at 6am I was ready to run as fast as I could to the Taj. I planned it so I would just spend the morning at the Taj and leave the same afternoon since I heard Agra was a shithole, so I saw the beautiful intricate carvings of the Taj, made friends with a huge Indian posse of women, got my picture taken by a bunch of Indian tourists for their collection of white tourists and passed out on a bench snoring my ass off Indian style in the gardens.


Before the train back to Delhi I decided to grab lunch at this rooftop restaurant, where the waiter happened to be a palm reader, so being curious I let him read my palm. This was an extremely interesting and intense experience, although the best parts were my life line and my luck line are very strong and long he said, and Mom you will be happy to know he predicted I would birth little beer fetchers of my own in the future.

One night in Delhi to prepare for my future Europe trip and I had the opportunity to tink about my time spent in India, what I would miss and what I definitely wouldn't, pack up my things and get ready for civilization again. Some things I decided I would miss about India: The rickshaw drivers that pass out in the middle of the day sprawled out in their vehicles napping, head bobbling, erratic balls out driving, turbans, vibrant colored saris, iridescent fabrics, elephants, the everyday inclusion and belief in horoscopes, karma, and superstition, levels of trust among complete strangers especially regarding money, henna, horns that play the tequila song, bargaining, bomb ass thali, crazy mustached men huge elaborate processions for weddings, awesome workout video dance moves, cows goats and chickens roaming around free in the streets munching on garbage, trains, Indian Marie Claire magazine, Bollywood movies and music videos, eating with my hands, not washing my hair for weeks and not even caring about it, crazy colorful Hindu gods on everything from the bathroom stalls to busses, bindis, chai, gypsies with huge mirrors sewn onto their clothes and completely comfoortable conversations about body functions.

Some things I won't miss about India: Public farting and burping, men ogling, non-stop honking, beggar children who follow relentlessly, staring contests, dust and pollution, dowry's that could wipe out a family income, the caste system, hand washing my own laundry, lack of toilet paper and squat toilets, neglected, sick, and rabid dogs that travel in huge intimidating teeth snarling packs, the treatment of women as inferior, rickshaw drivers that take you to a certain guesthouse for a commission, line crowding and cutting, the weird foot fetish/ obsession/ repulsion, lack of soap, fear of infections, the horrible condition of my skin and the mystery dirt under my fingernails, shop keepers laying on the guilt trips, sweating balls, electricity shortages, explosive diarrhea, never getting a direct answer, and someone taking the longest time to analyze anything.

So that is that for India, for now. Im sorry to say though Mom, I REALLY want to go back someday. I feel like I have only scratched the spicy surface and I have fallen in love with the outlooks on life I have discovered while I was traveling. Part of this newly discovered outlook on life may be due to Tony, but regardless of all the bad things I definitely feel a second trip coming.

So now I have made it safely to Sweden. It is so incredibly strange to be in a hostel again, able to cook my own food and do my own laundry. I in a room with 4 bunk beds, sharing my space with two Americans, one who is on military leave from Afghanistan (who coincidentally enough went to high school with my friend Erika from UO, small world), one Brit and a guy from Turkey. The pillows are SO amazingly squishy it is unbelievable, Last night I just rolled around in the comfort of my bed and caressed my face against the supple softness. Unreal. Other things that have been absolutely blowing my mind include having toilet paper in every bathroom stall, actually multiple rolls of toilet paper, and zero rubbish on the impeccably and evenly paved streets. I had forgotten showers have a huge variance in choices of water temperature ranging from scalding to freezing, when driving everyone stays within their designated lines, obeying all rules of the road including buckling seat belts, it's so strange. We have free internet access at the hostel, oh and did I already mention there is a sauna here! Where am I? Yesterday I chewed gum for the first time in four months, drank water out of the tap without fear of explosive diarrhea, and realized I need to buy a jacket because it is FREEZING! My blood is way too thin, my feet are way too dirty, along with every article of clothing I own and my poor long suffering backpack/purse that has been exposed to any and all of the elements SE Asia and India has to offer, that is some SERIOUS dirt and who knows what else.

Tomorrow I am headed to Germany to hang out with Kate and Lisa and their hot military boyfriends... and the 5,000 other strapping young military men on base. I have been informed there will be a block party where mass amounts of alcohol will be consumed along with sided of beef and someone usually ends up either lit on fire or thrown out a window. GOD IM EXCITED!! Watch out Germany, here I come!

More pics:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2236006&id=11505717&l=991b484f6e

A shout out to Tony, my wonderfully optimistic and fun loving travel companion. From the moment our feet have hit the travelers trail there hasn't been one dull moment. As I write this tony is laying on the bunk above me in our swanky A/C sleeper cabin on the train reading The White Tiger. We are on rout either to Hampi to do some rock climbing or to Goa to check out the beach scene. We really can't decide though and have zero plans. It is so wonderful! Our train brings us to the state of Karnataka tonight, and from there we will see which way the Indian wind blows us. Each new state has completely different tastes, sounds, scenery, cultural and language oddities. We are leaving the state orf Kerala, famous for it's Kathakali traditional theater dances, backwaters, aurvedic massages, and tea plantations. They can also throw a pretty wicked Elephant festival. After our slip n' slide session with the ayurvedic massage place in Varkala we headed to Alappuzha to check out the famous backwaters often referred to as the Venice of the East. The train ride up was a blast. We got seats in the local low class section, meaning we literally rubbed shoulders with the locals. It was intimidating initially but we taught one Indian Vegetable Vendor to play crazy 8's and we were in with the rest of the group in no time, laughing at the Bollywood movies playing and sipping chai.

Alappuzha (which is just so much fun to say) knows it's own lure, houseboats will line up by the hundreds waiting to take you on an overnight tour of the canals. We peeked at a few of the houseboats and tried to bargain them down in the price, but no one was budging. So in the end Tony and I ended up renting a small canoe paddle boat with a frail but bad ass old Indian guy helmsman to push us around the canals for $4 US an hour. This actually turned out to be better because we floated into some of the smaller channels where you could feel the stillness and tranquility of the water sliding beneath you.

The reflections were gorgeous, colorful and vibrant. It was like we were floating on a mirror for 4 hours. It was such a perfect day, unfortunately I was sick as a dog with food poisoning that night from the sketchy lunch we had. So that was not so much fun.

After Alappuzha we headed North to the town of Fort Kochin, famous for Kathakali, an Indian traditional theater dance. We arrived at the theater early to watch the dancers put on their makeup. The performance revolves around the actors hand gestures and intricate eye movements so you need to pay close attention to get the storyline. We also got a quick demonstration before the actual show began. Every part of the face was utilized to communicate the intricate emotions of an elephant. The dancers arms would swing in huge circles up and down as his feet stomped the ground and I swear even his ears grew bigger. Sop after the demonstration came the real show which was a battle between Baka, a violent murderous forest-dwelling demon wearing a red mask and the most powerful and noble green faced hero Bhima.

Since this is an ancient art form it is usually an all night event with the final crescendo coming only before the dawn of an alluring festival. We just cut to the case though in a two hour performance show for tourists. Fort Kochin also has this old tradition of fishing with huge Chinese fishing nets which at sunset are gorgeous to behold, although there is the slight tinge of sea lion in the air.

One day while in Fort Kochin we rented bikes and accidentally-on-purpose got lost in the locals neighborhood. This was an amazingly crazy fun time because it was elections that day, so the entire town was gathered around this bridge shouting and chanting and verbally willing their candidate to win. Tony and I being very devout Americans decided to take the communist side, and scored some awesome paper commie visors and highfived so many Indian people. It was nuts. During elections the government restricts the alcohol and the entire state is dry for 3 days. I'm thinking this is the best possible solution after the thick rally we participated in. If those Indians were drunk it would have been shenanigans to the extreme.

I wanted to upload more pictures to facebook but Foxfire is being a royal twat, so you will have to eagerly await the photos from our debauchery until tomorrow!

Tony and I have been causing a ruckus with major debautcherific shenanigans on the coastal town of Varkala in the district of Kerala. "We own this town" is what Tony says to me as we walk down the street stopping at every other restaurant to say hi and have a quick chat with our new travel friends. Before I tell you about the shenanigans we have been getting into I want to give a little shout out to Tony.

He is a funny one. When he eats he makes these MMMMmmmmmmm noises of contentment Hooper from She Devil style that are just so adorable. He is a very mellow guy in conversations and decisions, except when we have to go somewhere and he goes into turbo mode and usually ends up hurting himself or reopening one of his battle wounds from the motorbike incident. So our new moto is SLOW DOWN, especially for Turbo. Traveling with Tony has been going really well, he is a wonderful travel companion who is very caring and genuine. We are leaving for Alapuzzha tonight to check out the backwaters on a houseboat. So now that you know a little bit more about my awesome new travel buddy it will make more sense when I tell you about the shenanigans we have been causing. There have been massive thunder and lightening storms almost every night here where the water pours down so hard you can barely see 5 feet in front of you. So of course we have to play in the rain. This is the cause for our nightly splash fights. It is so much fun just to run wround in the rain jumping in puddles and laughing so hard that I almost pee my dress, but it is raining so hard no one would even notice... not that Ive done that or anything :/ During these amazing rain storms we have also gone skinny dipping at 4am with two hot Spaniards and a Portuguese Bollywood star/ former Aladdin character at Disney world paris, but I didn't discover this little tid bit of info until the morning after I had kissed him. One more for the books.

Varkala is the number one spot for Ayurvedic healing. This is awesome and something we totally needed to take advantage of so we decided to both get massages. This was definitely an experience. First I stripped completely naked and sat upright in a chair while she massaged my head. Okay, a little weird sitting in this room with my muff hanging out for this Indian woman to check out, but alright im fine with it. Then after vigorously rubbing my head and doing a karate chop move similar to Thai massage she asked me to lay down on my back on the pleather table with no sheet to cover my lady bits. So im laying there completely naked as she pours warm oil all over my body, an abnormally large amount of oil. She is basting me like a turkey and there I can feel a pool forming in my belly button. She started slow, with circular and long oval motions, then slowly moved up to a speed which made all surrounding body parts jiggle, and it was during one of these hyper speed moves she was making going from my arm around to my shoulder that oil came flying off in little drips from the tips of her fingers and hit me smack in the face. It was like like when you wash your hands but don't have a towel around to dry off so you air dry by doing that flick at the wrists motion and water comes flying off in little droplets, well it was like that... except with oil... coming off my naked body... and landing on my face. So now that you understand the amount of oil flying all around this room at top speed im sure you won't be surprised when I tell you about the highly dangerous slip n' slide situation I encountered when she asked me to roll over on the already slick table so she could grease the other side of my body and work up to super jiggle speeds of rubbing. The entire time all I could think about was "Thank God I have travelers insurance" because I could picture myself slipping off that table at any moment and hitting the hard and cold Indian ground. Two days later I was still finding oil behind my ears. After that we decided we didn't need any more healing help via ayurvedic tradition medicine.

We have been staying in a really nice guesthouse for $5 dollars US a night for the two of us. It has nice black and white marbled tiled floors, a big bed with mosquito net, our own bathroom with western toilet and shower, and a veranda where we can lounge in our hammocks and chat with our neighbors Teal and Thomas, two German guys on holiday. Teal and Thomas are our German pseudo-Dads. They are the kind of European former hippie cool guys that have Burning Man written all over them. They both have kids our age and have saved our butts a couple times by giving us iodine to clean out Tony's wounds and mosquito coils. They also told us this funny little fact about the purple iodine that they were using at Sadhana to clean wounds. Apparently this tinted iodine is used by farmers on cows. It is tinted with purple ink so the farmer can see which cow they treated, haha. Whoops! Some nights we will sit on the veranda with them drinking beers and having awesome conversations about life. They are funny too, when Tony told them he is from Salt Lake City they got so excited because they are both armature kite making enthusiasts and box car racers and apparently SLC is the number one spot to fly a kite. We will talk about wine, Indian, European, and American culture, hobbies and books. Teal and Thomas have also introduced us to the best Mexican food IN THE WORLD! Im serious right now, the best burrito IN THE WORLD is at this restaurant called Clafouti. This burrito is better than anywhere in Mexico. They must put crack in with their Indian spices because we have eaten this delicious morsel every singe day since it was discovered. Snaps to Teal and Thomas.

SHOW ME PICS!!!

SHOW ME THE FESTIVAL OF ELEPHANTS AND CRAZY COSTUMES!!!

Rickshaw drivers are NUTS! I have always had the impression that if you are going to be in the transportation business via taxi, tuk-tuk, rickshaw, or even those guys who are on foot pulling a little cart behind them you need to maintain a little bit of an edge. Anyway last night Tony and I experienced the crem de la crem of crazy drivers, and the best part is it wasn't his driving that was hilarious or weird, it was HIM! This particularly saucy individual was named Stalin, like the communist dictator. That should have been the first sign.

Something about Tony that I was not aware of before we started traveling together but absolutely adore is that he can speak gibberish. It's legit! I have a feeling that this pig latin-esque sounding language will come in handy during our travels together since everyone speaks English and having private conversations in public places aren't really possible. So my next task is to learn gibberish. It would have come in handy had I known this secret language invented by kids so we could express our fears of impeding doom to each other without upsetting Stalin. This is something I feel I need to work on.

So back to the rickshaw ride of insanity. We peer pressured ourselves into getting into this rickshaw just as it was getting dark so we wouldn't have to walk around the city at night. Little did we know though that the parts of town Stalin took us speeding through would be partly like slums, with families living in cardboard box houses that were about 5 feet tall and 7 feet wide. Women were cooking dinner on a small bon fire from blackened pots. The fires were aflame in the middle of the street so as not to light the cardboard house on fire. We had to dodge and weave around these on our ride down this slummy street. Laundry was drying hanging on power lines and neighbors shouted at each other in harsh Tamil. We went speeding through though never stopping. I wasn't scared, it is just another part of town down this back alley, some kids even waved and started screaming Hello! Hello! in English. It was probably the first time though that I have seen someone up close who made their home out of cardboard. Very surreal experience for me.

After we busted out of the slums we went careening around a corner of 8 lanes of traffic at a terrifying speed that made the images of twisted metal, torn flesh, and road rash instantly leap to mind. It probably didn't help matters that Stalin was letting out what sounded like a battle cry as he thrust his arm through the window and punched the air like he was a gladiator getting ready to charge the traffic. Once we reached a minimal terror cruising speed on the straight road Stalin declared his love for us.

Stalin: I like you (points to Tony). I like you (points to me). We good friend!
Juli and Tony: We like you too Stalin
Stalin: You give me kiss (points to me then to his cheek)
Juli: Hahahah (nervous laughter)

Then we joke around about kissing for a while (this whole time im wearing my faux wedding ring and holding Tony's hand) and finally Tony leans over and gives Stalin a big fatty kiss on the cheek. He seemed to like that, but he still want some lovin' from me.

Stalin: Now you (points to me then to his cheek)
Juli: Stalin that would be cheating (I point to Tony)
Tony: She only kiss me
Stalin: But it's French
Juli: Well it may be French to kiss on the cheek but I'm not French, and you aren't French... so no French!
Stalin: But it's French
Juli: No French Stalin!

Tricky devil. Then because this whole situation is just so ridiculous and also because I am on India sensory overload I start to laugh. I don't hold anything back, I laugh full force out loud. Stalin laughs back, some crazy contorted throat laugh that is the beginning of our laugh-a-thon. What proceeded over the next 2-3 minutes was a series of crazy laughs going back and forth from driver to passenger. Stalin would throw out a titter and I would come back with a high pitched laugh ending in a snort, the beginning of our crazy laugh competition. we would go back and forth with any and all crazy laughs and any strange laugh related sounds we could think of. There was snarling, whooping, giggles, small chuckles, big chuckles, stifled laughter, snickering, cackling, guffawing, HO HO HO-ing Santa style, and there was even a coyote howl at some point, I think that was Tony's ingenious contribution to our non-verbal communication game. It was nuts! Then Stalin points to me again,

Stalin: Now you (points to his cheek)
Juli: No Stalin
Tony: I'll kiss you again (Tony kisses Stalin again on his other cheek. Stalin likes)
Stalin: Now you (points to me then his cheek)
Juli: I only kiss him (I point to Tony and my faux wedding ring)
Stalin: But it's French
Juli: (sigh) Stalin we have already been through this. NO FRENCH STALIN!

Maybe he was trying to to try to impress me into giving him a kiss, but next thing we know Stalin busts out a boogie. He starts to do these funkadelic dance moves with arms flailing in all directions but mostly they stick out the sides of the open air vehicle in a sort of wave/convulsing motion which could be misconstrued as awkward traffic signalling to any unknowing innocent driver behind us. He even added in a little shoulder roll for some extra pizzaz. There were spirit fingers too. Lots of spirit fingers! And lest I forget the boobie shaking, let me tell you Stalin is a master of the moob shake.

This whole time we are still careening out of control mostly because his arms are jutting in all directions instead of hanging on to the steering wheel. But we finally made it back to our guest house safe and in one piece. Stalin gave us his phone number and said that if we needed anymore rides to call him up, then after one more attempt to squeeze a kiss out of me and being rejected he took off, blocking 3 lanes of traffic during his Austin Powers turn and sped away. Tony and I just stared at each other with that dumbfounded "Did that really just happen?" look for hours after our Stalin encounter. Seriously unreal.

I am laying sprawled on a pile of the circular red and orange pillows which I have come to know so well over the past month. In the main hut on my last night at Sadhana Forest I am feeling some conflicting emotions. Mike from New Mexico is playing Sublime "What I Got" and "Santaria" on the guitar which is awesome since this music makes me feel totally blissed out. I feel like its time to move on, and I am very happy to be traveling to Kerala with Tony tomorrow. We plan to explore back waterways on a houseboat and visit tea plantations, beaches, and wildlife sanctuaries which will be absolutely magical. I am so excited to start traveling again and actually see India. I am finally, after a month of drinking the Kool-aid ready to see, smell, and taste real India! However, I am conflicted because im sad to be leaving Liz. Things between us have never been better actually, and I have been thinking that it will be fabulous for both of us to part (for now) on such good terms. So Liz is going to stay in Sadhana Forest for at least another week, maybe two and we might meet up before she does her vapassana. Only time will tell.

March 26: I think I pulled a muscle in my back yesterday in my intense digging sessions with Belgium Bakery loving Nicolas. I have been slathering on Tiger Balm and trying to take it easy. For first work today Stacy let me sit with her in the office and I "Helped answer emails" but really we just had a little chat session and eavesdropped on people who are digging the banana pits outside the main hut. It's actually really funny to listen to everyone chatting without their knowledge of our eavesdropping. I have been here long enough now to recognize every ones voices and let me tell you it is quite a relief to know that im not the only one breaking Rule Number 2! In the afternoon Julia and I rode down to the beach on her motorbike and we had amazing egg and cheese omelet sandwiches and fresh grape juice. I also took my first shower in oh about 5ish days, although I have really lost count by this point. Since it is Thursday that means it is NIGHT OUT and we got the whole crew together at New Creation pizzeria. There were probably 30 people all squished into these tiny little tables ordering the chewy and gooey delicious pizzas. I split the Italian pizza, which had 3 different kinds of cheese, olives, and basil with my friend Chelsea. I have been working with this cool chicka on the eco-dome lately and (this is the best part) she is actually going to UO next year! GO DUCKS!!! I love being able to say that, haha. I have been having pretty regular nightly movie sessions with Nicolas. He ripped a ton of awesome movies from Kerri and Greg and tonight we watched Pineapple Express, which was really just a perfect way to end the evening.

Belgium Bakery loving Nicolas at the beach with us today. Check out the hot chick in the background.

March 27: CRAZY day today! I started first work raking leaves with Tony and British Seb.

We carried all these bags back to the compound, look at Tony getting his grunt on!

We saw the BIGGEST spider I have ever seen in my life! It was metallic silver and had fangs, fo reals! Check it,

I made Seb get the picture because I was running away at full speed, probably peeing my pants a little along the way. It was so freaking scary!


This is Seb, and he is a BAMF for getting the pic of Goliath!

After working hard in the forest I hopped on the back of Seb's bike to go to a Satay making workshop. Satay is a meat flavored tofu alternative. Unfortunately we ended up getting lost along the way, running out of gas, and missing the workshop. So after walking around the back alley ways of Auroville for about an hour chatting about skydiving, bungee jumping, and other ballsy shenanigans Seb has done we finally found a gas station and got some gas, which I have started calling petrol since that is the cool thing to do. Once we refueled we took one of the back roads home through the rice patties, it was the gorgeous time of day when light filters through the grass in a surreal orange mist. We sped through a palm tree lined road stopping only once to watch some Indian kids playing cricket in an open field. We were only impeded once by a huge truck filled with sticks blocking the entire motorway. Only in India. We got back only to learn that Liz and Tony had a little incident on their motorbike...

March 28- April 3: Over the past week I have been sitting in a guesthouse taking care of Liz and Tony who were in a near motorbike collision with a cow, which would be really funny if they weren't bashed up. Tony is bandaged from neck to toe, It's not pretty, but the perks of playing nurse include getting to watch movies all day, eating some really tasty food and making some very creative pain killer concoctions with the prescriptions from the Indian hospital. The drugs they gave us are hilarious knock off names of the popular brands. For example, Indian Vicodin is called Vi-cold-ine. So basically Liz and Tony have been hopped up on pain killers for the past four days and I think are actually quite enjoying being so gimpy. So that is whats going on in my part of the world.

One more thing I want to address before signing off, and that is the many diverse options I have been informed about for uses of your urine. It seems like everyday some Sadhanite comes up with a new way to utilize their urine. Got a cut? Pee on it! Ran out of facewash? Apparently piss is a great anti-wrinkle angent. Have we run out of fertilizer? Well don't worry we will spray our piss all over the garden dousing everything from the tomatoes to the herb spiral. Does the spiralina pool need some more water and the well has run dry? Let's just get everyone to piss in it until it is filled to the brim. Seriously unreal urine fasinations, it borders on kinky. As I said earlier Tony and I are leaving tomorrow for Kerala. So I will let you know the phone number of the next place we land. Lots of love!

Hey, guess what? I STILL have a phone at my disposal where you guys can call me! It's amazing I know, especially since all the phone calls I have been making to you guys over the past 6 months have been dependant on my schedule, now you can choose the most convenient time to call me, kinda like going to Baskin Robbins, there are just so many good options. Now I know what you are thinking, it's a though decision since there are just so many time options to choose from. And I bet everyone's fingers are probably sore from all the finger push ups you guys have been doing in preparation for dialing this long hard Indian phone number, but your going to have to push through the pain and give me a ring because every time there is a phone call I get this wonderful little jolt thinking someone is going to yell out "Juli! You have a phone call from your wonderful friends and family who love you enough to call you in India!" But alas, this scenario is never played out and I am left feeling dejected and sad... So again the numbers are:

00-91-413-2677682
or
00-91-413-2902655


To figure out the time difference you add 10 and a half hours, so when it is 10:30pm your time it is 12pm my time. I am at work by 6:30 every morning and don't go to bed till late, but the best time to call is between 10pm and 12am your time, and you can in the morning my time during work/volunteer hours that's fine.

Now I don't remember if I have mentioned this yet but there are certain rules Sadhana Forest volunteers are asked to abide by. A couple of the important ones are:
1. No drinking or drugs during your ENTIRE stay at the forest, both inside and outside the community
2. No gossiping about other people, if you have something to say say it to their face.
3. No competitive games such as cards or chess because it breaks the working together community atmosphere.
4. No bringing in food that is either processed or non-vegan.
These rules will be important for an understanding of the following post.

March 20: I spent the morning working in the forest passing buckets back and forth in a chain from the mud pool up to the trees we are watering. Since two hours of passing heavy buckets can be quite boring my new victim Tom and I decided to spice it up a bit by playing a little game. I was already receiving each bucket from the mud pool from a frenchie named Silvahn and I would ask him a word in french every time we did a bucket pass and then pass both the bucket and the word on down the line of about 20 volunteers, thus Tom and I learned how to count to 10, the colors, and some useful swear words and pillow talk in French. It was pretty funny toward the end because people at the top of the line would start passing words back down, so we were hearing words and phrases in Japanese, German, Swedish, and Tamil (which is the native Indian language of the region we are in). So that made the time go a lot quicker. Every Friday night it is a ritual to watch an eco movie and have a huge bonfire. All the Sadhana boys bring their drums and guitars and harmonicas and we have a bon fire jam session party. Since it is my wonderful roommate/ chauffeur/ gay boyfriend Tony's birthday tomorrow the guys all stripped down into their little skivies and jumped nearly naked into the mud pool at midnight. It was a good night :)

March 21: It is Tony's birthday today!!! We went out to this AMAZING french restaurant and ate until it hurt. I had a pesto pasta, garlic bread, molten chocolate cake for dessert and Tony and I also had 2 glasses of wine each (thus breaking rule #1), whoops! But you know what, it was his birthday, and we have been here for three weeks already without breaking any of the rules... well I snuck some cheese in once, but I ate it the next day and disposed of all the evidence.

March 22: Lazy lazy lazy Sunday. I found the Douglass Adams book Goodbye and Thanks for All the Fish in the library this morning which made me sooo incredibly happy because it is the fourth in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series and it is exactly where I left off reading the series. So I spent most of the day just lounging around and reading. Oh yeah, we left once to go down the road to buy fresh grape juice smoothies blended with ice and sugar. It seems all our conversations now revolve around food. Some of the important conversation topics include how fantastical our last meal was, what we are currently eating and the non-vegan sauces we wish would be on our Sadhana food, where we are going to eat second dinner while we are still eating our first dinner, the ice cream we get from Richie Rich almost daily, where we can get the best cheese and peanut butter to sneak back into Sadhana (breaking rule number 4), and the fresh pesto and cheddar sandwich from the deli. Another popular topic of conversation at Sadhana is talking about what is going on with your body when you go to the bathroom. How many times a day you have gone today, what color it is, which bathroom is your favorite and for what reasons? Personally I choose the one with the post holding up the roof so I have something to hold on to while I am squatting it out, although others prefer the outside toilets because they enjoy the breeze filtering through. And the best part about this bathroom sharing is that there is absolutely no shame whatsoever to talk about this topic when you are traveling. You can have a bathroom conversation with the cutest guy in the room upon your first meeting and there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. Strange... yes. Do I like it... maybe a little bit.

March 23: I don't know if I have talked about the Swedish girls yet. They are adorable and always have the cutest little braided hairdos which I have also been trying out on my long hair in preparation for Swedish cultural assimilation. Their names are Louiza and Freya and I have been quizzing them all about Sweden for the past week. We have been doing some language exchanges everyday, similar to Friday's bucket exchange. So far I have learned how to say "cheers" and "Im just joking" in Swedish. I count these as among some of the most important phrases, next lesson we are working on pick-up lines and pillow talk, haha.

March 24: I got to work on the Eco-Dome all day today with Tony and Belgium Bakery loving Nicolas. The Eco-Dome was modeled after a project created by NASA in the 70's in preparation for future possibilities of living on the moon. So what we are doing at the moment is making a lime/sand/clay/mud pool water concoction and covering it over this little igloo shaped dome which is about 8 feet tall and 7 feet in diameter. So that has been my job lately in the morning work sessions, do a little slap with the mixture, spread it around evenly, and smooth the surface until it looks polished. Slap, spread, smooth, mix more lime. Slap, spread, smooth, mix more lime. Slap, spread, smooth, mix more lime. If you say it in various tones and volumes you can make quite a few entertaining songs and dances, we only have to resort to that though when no one has a charged Ipod, otherwise we bust out my mini-speakers and have a jam sesh.

March 25: Wednesday is Hummus for dinner night! Everyone gets so excited about this night because all the Israeli guys team up and spend a whole day preparing the hummus. Everyone fights over who is going to be in the kitchen to help cook for the night, and tonight it was me! I was accompanied by the adorable Swedish girls, Belgium Bakery Nicolas, my Tony, and this cute new guy from New Mexico named Mike who is shaping up to be quite a feisty little victim. Since everyone has been well informed about my amazing ability to start fires in the kitchen even if I am just standing still I was assigned to chopping garlic, roll out the pitas, and squeeze lemon juice. The boys worked on pita flipping at the grill while I got to gossip with the Swedish girls (rule number 2 down the drain). It was amazingly fun though, it was really the first time in a while I have gotten in some good girl chat. We have weekly women's circles, but those are more about issues facing women and the concerns we have for the society we live in, not "OMG Mike is soooo cute!" So it was nice for a little change of pace.

I have been thinking about my plans for the rest of my time in India, and since I have met so many amazing people I think I am going to hook up with some of them and travel up to the Rainbow Festival in the North, or maybe ill continue on with Tony for a while more down South. I really have to spend this week working on my plans, but I will keep you guys updated.

Love you everyone and I hope to talk to you soon!

Since I have been having crazy awesome days almost every single day since arriving in India I feel like it would be cheating my faithful readers if I tried to describe just one or two stories in detail. So instead I have decided to give some short descriptions of highlights from a few key days I have been in India since arriving in Auroville, hope you enjoy :)

March 7: Liz and Stacy and I slid right into the commune way of living by playing the game "7 degrees of Morgan Freeman" with the amazing American couple Greg and Kerri, also our new buddy Nicholas from Belgium used a David Bowie reference AND the midget from the movie Willow to get to Star Wars. We also binged on as much chocolate, sugar, coffee, and cheese as humanly possible in town when we busted out illegal eating activities, this community is completely vegan so I have been having many drool infused dreams about cheese. We are staying in a palm leaved thatched hut with 6 people sleeping downstairs and 5 on the upstairs level. The main hut is the biggest building and also the only one with electricity. All the volunteers hang out in the afternoons and either play guitar, or drums or read and relax and just chill.


March 8: I just participated in a proactive non-violence workshop at the commune and learned the most effective way to block a bull dozer by laying in the street with 5 peoples arms linked in a star formation until police pull someone out of the star. Also if you are doing a sit-in just go limp, like a sac of potatoes so the police dragging your lifeless body out will have a harder time, if you struggle it will look bad when your picture is printed in the media. I also learned effective ways of jamming locks on any facility that goes against your beliefs by putting superglue in the locks to the main building or the supervisors office. I think this is illegal, but somehow it is still a non-violent protest method... When are they passing out the cool-aid? Im feeling kinda thirsty.

March 9: Monday morning, first time probably ever I have been excited to wake up at 6am. Today we worked on bunding dirt paths around the commune. I hate beets. We have had beet stew, beet salad, and even some form of beet dessert with sugar and nuts every day since I have come on the 5th. We were so sick of all the beet concoctions today that we motorbiked it into town and I ate my first real Indian meal with my hands. It was parotta which is kinda like a flaky pita bread dipped in spicy veggie curry and served on a banana leaf. It was so cool to eat only using my hands.


March 10: It is POURING down rain! Making this day energetic, thrilling, and terrifying all at the same time. It is reminding me of Oregon rain, but warmer. Since the whole place is powered by solar panels We had to jump on some work out bikes today that are attached to the generators and peddle our asses off to get enough power to run the blender in the kitchen, haha. I busted out my mini speakers and we hooked up Liz's Ipod and we had a jam sesh while biking for power. Kerri and I switched off between biking and leading the arm workouts which consisted of punching, push ups on the handlebars, and tricep dips. Unfortunately this means that all our dirt path building and bunding efforts have just been washed away, but after second work we had a huge mud slip and slide party, so it kinda made it a little bit better.

March 11: Today was Holi festival! Which is also called the Festival of Colours because it is celebrated by hundreds of people throwing coloured powder and coloured water at each other. The awesome American couple Keri and Greg and I went into town and got to throw around a little bit of pink powder and got our hands dyed bright fuchsia. It was awesome.


March 12: The Mud pools are still filled to the brim since it has been raining for the past 2 days. Kerri, my new American friend is a bad ass and proposed we play a little water polo game in the mud pools. I love this idea, and technically it isnt even going against the "no competitive games" rule since the mud pool is outside the Sadhana Forest fence. A new Frenchie just arrived yesterday and he is the smitten image of Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, and to top it off he has a skull and cross bones tram stamp tattooed on his lower back. I am smitten!

March 13: I bonded with this Belgian guy named Nicholas tonight who works for Xerox in Ireland. He is hilarious because he has this obsession with chocolate and bakeries and has to have his sugar fix every day. This guy also has the most motorbike troubles out of anyone I have ever met...seriously, anyone ever. So far he has had 2 flat tires, his front light has gone out while driving at night, his back light has gone out in the day, he has run out of gas, and has just broken down completely. And due to this bad motobike luck he has been through about 5 different bikes. He never crashes though, which is very good for his passengers.

March 15: I have a goal for India which I seriously hope I can achieve. This goal is to NOT shit my pants in my entire stay here. There have definitely been some close calls I must admit, and Liz and Tony are thinking about starting a facebook group, haha. But just in case you were curious here is the oven our food is cooked in. Which I think is pretty rad!


Since I am running out of Internet time that is all I have time for right now, but I will wright more updates soon...

I have also decided to stay for another 3 weeks, so if you want to send me something wonderful via fed-ex I have an address where I will definitely receive it, and it goes a little something like this:

Juli Greenwald
Sadhana Forest
Auroville
Tamil Nadu
605101
India