himalayan sunrise

10/6 - it was raining soooo monsooningly last night i thought the roof was coming down and was not confident our excursion to tiger hill for sunrise over the himalaya would work out but i hadn't slept a wink (must've been the glass of horrible wine that tasted amazing and the chocolate brownie with ice cream) so when the alarm went off at 3:30 i was set to go regardless! i bundled into all my warm clothes which i actually remembered to pack this time and we hit the stairs for the outside... but suddenly our hopes of himalayan sunrises were dashed as the door was locked from the inside and we had no key! somehow being locked in feels really wrong and we had no idea what to do b/c the hostel thought we had a key from last time since we had forgotten to return it but it actually got lost somewhere along the way and we hadn't told them yet (it actually wasn't me who stole or lost the key believe it or not :) ). i was ready to pack it up but silla bravely rapped on the door of the poor old woman who keeps the place and does the cooking, etc, waking her out of a sound sleep to open the door. we raced down the street following the light of silla's torch... the streets were pretty scary at 4:30 a.m. with stray dogs barking and baring their teeth at us and many homeless wandering drunkenly about but we soon came upon a mass of people all headed for the jeeps to tiger hill. we were crammed into a shared taxi with what felt like 20 people with us being the only foreign tourists and off we went. i was starting to feel nauseas from all the jostling, diesel and body smells (i was in the back sitting basically on the rear tire) and was afraid i would lose my stomach but then we turned a corner and there they were standing starkly white against the dark of the early morning sky!!! ahhh the himalaya!! i suddenly felt much better as tears of joy sprung to my eyes and my breath was lost! the view from tiger hill is amazing but the crowds of people all pushing to get a front row view was crazy chaotic and had the potential to take away from the amazing scene of the sun creeping over kanchengjunga, everest (just the tip was visible), lhotse, etc setting the peaks aglow with a pink and orange hue but i was so enthralled by it all i didn't let the anxiety attack that would normally overcome me in this situation ruin it! i found a spot on some steps leading to a higher viewing point that only people with a special ticket could enter and was trying desperately to get some good shots but so many were ruined by the sudden entry of someones head or someone bumping into my arm, blurring the shot... was getting quite frustrating when the man collecting tix shooshed me in saying "you can go" and he pointed out each mtn to me!! my lucky day! i finally was able to get some space to take it all in and get some fantastic photos that i soooo wish i could share but computer service is ridiculously slow so i'm not sure that's happening :( after returning to darjeeling from our excursion we hunted down some dreamy banana pancakes which we drizzled with honey and which i enjoyed with a glass of hot milk! it was divine!!!
mel's marathon was/is today and i'm hoping her hip didn't keep her from running and that she's having an amazing race!!! MEL!! i was thinking of you my friend staring at the mtns and sending all my positive energy your way!
back to glenburn today with tomorrow being our last day at the school with the kids because the puja festival is this week. we're excited to participate in the festival but sad to be having our last day with the kids! there's a cultural performance on the football field on tues which will be fun and we're planning on pressing for a tea estate tour which we still haven't gotten so hopefully it'll be a fun week! i'm also supposed to be teaching the pharmacist some back exercises to pass on to the laborers who work sooo hard carrying heavy loads every day! the tea pickers baskets hang across their foreheads so their hands are free to pick! all day in the hot sun protected by umbrellas... it's really unbelievable! i'm sure i'll be making a fool out of myself again teaching the exercises but i'm getting quite used to the feeling :)
until next time...