the eeeend.

so we are rapidly approaching our last 24 hours on the subcontinent. since leaving darjeeling, we made a fun fun fun jeep/bus ride to jaldapura wildlife preserve, saw some rhinos, and my favorite part, seeing elephant mommas and babies getting baths in the river. we had another day long train ride to get back to delhi, which was infinitely more fun than the first one, we booked an AC train where they feed you almost every hour, you get blankets and pillows, and one of the bathrooms even had toilet paper for the first couple hours! woow! what else have you missed? i let ian cut my hair, its super short. we drink a lot of vegan shakes and eat a lot of snacks. people ask to take our picture a lot, we're pretty famous. tomorrow night we board a plane state bound. life is good in the hood.

so here's the itinerary, call me b/c i want to hang out and i'm making a few cross illinois trips, so i'll be passing your way probably, and probably bearing gifts.

may 28th- june 1st i'll be in chicago

june 1st i'll be headed to u of i for just enough time to eat and get picked up by my momma.

then i'll be in so IL till the 6th. maybe monday or tuesday i'll cook a bunch of foods and you can come consume them and we can chat and stuff.

then the 6th to the 8th prooobably up to u of i, then headed to my permanent summer residence in chicago.

plan your days accordingly, my phone will be turned on wednesday morning, but i will be without text messaging.

can't wait to eat fruit pizza with you all.

loooooooooove,

sarah

we're alive!

sorry for all of you that were worried, but no need to fear any longer, ian and i are healthy and happy in darjeeling, just back from a trek in sikkim near the border of nepal. no where near jaipur, no worries. the hike was pretty intense, my calves are like knots and i think i dropped some serious sweat weight (which i'm right now replenishing with tons of mango fruit juice), but it was the prettiest 5 days of my life, i got a spectacular view of the 3rd highest peak in the world, and ian and i learned to rough it without electricity or running water for a few days. wooo.

so hopefully we still have some white water rafting and one horned rhinoceros viewing in store for us the next few days before we make our journey back to delhi.

only a few more days until we're back in the states! i've been making a mental grocery list, oh the chocolate chip pancakes i will consume.

miss you guys,

loooove,
sarah

mumbai.

so just a quick update to let you all know ian and i are alive and well and kickin and happy and almost healthy. we have had a series of rather hilarious mishaps, including a missed pickup from the airport and some fever/ stomach issues. but we've been having an amazing time exploring delhi and mumbai so far, and tomorrow we hop a plane to calcutta followed by an overnight up to darjeeling. we decided to nix our plans to go further south in lieu of the intense heat and the prospects of longer treks, bird watching, and one horned rhinoceros that the north promises. we've both been adventuring some great local cuisine including fresh squeezed sugar cane juice and bhel puri on the Chowpatty Beach, followed by a nice walk up the coast. Yesterday we took a ferry out to Elephanta Island for a hike up Canon Hill and exploring the cave temples. Ian got his first taste of the local monkeys and goats. Ian has proved to be the best of travel companions, I am so glad he's here, and time for me to get back to our adventures.

i'll try and write more soon,

love you guys,

thanks for the bday cards,

sarah

delhi delight.

so we made it in to delhi yesterday, no hitches on a big spacious bus that finished up the "riding in style" MSID allowed. i'm staying in the YWCA here, way overpriced, but just for the night because they have safe/reliable luggage storage. or so i hope because i'm leaving my computer and all other breakables, so we'll see how they hold up for the last month. my first impressions of delhi when i first got to india are so different than now. I am actually having culture shock here, the sidewalks and big and walkable, the stores airconditioned with set prices, and a good majority of people are in western clothes. teenagers were out in groups last night, and i saw people on dates holding hands. its all very bizarre. we hit up some shopping around connaught place, basically the heart of delhi that divides old and new delhi, and had some dinner with the remainders of the MSID group at a south indian restaurant, banana leaf. today we got up, i had some toast and fried veggie delight for breakfast, and now teresa and i plan on hitting up the national museum and some mugal relics today. maybe hit up delhi night life tonight? we did find a pretty happening jazz bar yesterday, we'll see.

so bad news, my cell phone will now officially be in roaming for the rest of my time in india, which means jacked up call prices and it charges me for incoming calls, so family, keep me posted on e-mail and i'll try to check it whenever i can and keep you all updated.

i just wanted to let you all know i made it here safely and soundly, and i'm excited to the nth degree about getting this travelling show on the road right now.

miss you guys,
see you in a month,
loooove,
sarah

the hill station that saved my sanity and the end of MSID

Time is such a tricky thing. Sometimes minutes are hours but weeks are seconds here. I can't believe my program is over. I just finished my Hindi final, turned in my final internship report, and had a delicious lunch of unidentifiable vegetables that looked kind of like lemon pickles and unidentifiable dal with unidentifiable fried balls that tasted just like french onion soup. so it goes. it's been a weird few days, everyone is getting ready for very different upcoming weeks, some are going straight back to the US, some to Europe, others spending a few weeks in India. Everyone is frantically finalizing travel plans, housing and and jobs internships at home, and planning meet ups over the summer. Its exciting and bizarre, the idea of being finished, of traveling, of returning home. Its been kind of an emotional ride, only made more intense by the extreme heat and insomnia.

So Wednesday Dana and I hopped a train to Mt. Abu, the only hill station in Rajasthan, a cool oasis from the intense desert climate. We spent our days hiking, saw what are considered to be the world's most intricate marble carvings in a Jain temple, and eating crazy amounts of a berry that must have been a close relative to the blackberry, so good.


the Jains know whats up.


on one of our walks around the lake.


at our favorite restaurant. the mysore masala dosa rocked my life, and was animal product free to boot.


Dana and I on one of our day hikes.

After a pretty miserable/long train ride to Jaipur, we made to our hotel and had an amazing reunion with our friends including a feast of fresh pomegranate seeds. The last few days have been spent wrapping up all loose ends, packing, donating, bartering, trading, shopping, and trying to making sense of the last few months of our lives.

Saturday I leave for Delhi, then off for more adventures.

hope all of your own adventures are going well,
love,
sarah

the untourist trail.

these last two days have pretty much rocked my life. yesterday dana, vaneja, this crazy animal lovin produce vendor, and i went out to the kaylana lake on the outskirts of town. he took us to probably one of the most amazing places i've ever been to, it was this cave temple/ashram/animal sanctuary (i even saw wild mongoose!)/ home for pundits. there were tiny caves to crawl in with temples inside, plus this huge amphitheater type area to worship Lord Shiva. it was the most amazing living space i've ever seen. check this out:


and then we took all our friends left over produce and hiked out to the monkey temple, where he literally hollered to the monkeys and they all came running, and we got to feed them right out of our hands. there were dozens of them.


after snacking on some grapes and oranges and chatting with the pundits of the monkey house, we went over to a part of the lake to feed the fish some chickpeas and parle g's, and hand lunch provided courtesy of the temple caretakers. mmm. oh yea, and i saw a tomb where a 200 year old man was buried alive, apparently thats your way to salvation when you've been hanging out on earth for 2 centuries.



followed by a paddleboat ride around the lake, and then back that evening for some fruit, sweets, and sugar cane juice purchasing:







today was a kerelan holiday, so we went over to vaneja's and had the most delicious of south indian dishes until i really thought i was going to pop. they were worried we wouldn't be able to eat all those curries and rice with our hands (because rice is rarely served with north indian dishes), but we definitely showed them how we can pack it away with our well practiced shoveling skills. we hung out with her family all day, how cute are they?



oh yes, i know how completely awkward this picture looks, but vaneja really wanted a picture of us with her family, she is such a sweetheart. don't let the no smiles fool you, indians never smile for pictures, because they were the warmest most adorable pair you could encounter.

life before india.

last night was a lovely lovely night. dana and i had late night sweet craving, and using the things we could find in the guest house attempted to make cookies. the final result, full of crushed up chocolate cereal and leftover peanut butter and other random refrigerator things, grilled on the stove, were a nice substitute for peanutbutter chocolate chip hashbrowns. delicious. we also discovered our basement, and decided that the value of sleeping in a space 10 degrees cooler was worth the cost of sleeping in a creepy space full of boxes and old toilets. today we made an extremely frustrating trip to the train station, but after some help from an equally frustrated woman behind us, we got tickets to go to mt abu next wednesday, its a hill station, which equals beautiful greenery and cool temps and hikes and such, and i booked tickets for mumbai, which i had to push back a day due to full trains, so heres to spending my 21st birthday in a 2nd class sleeper! woo! oh yea, and the highlight of my night was a call from anna, and we had a long talk. things are hard when you are away from everything that is familiar for so long, even more so in anna's case than mine. it is important to know what you value in life, and its even more important to never take those things for granted, and make sure you show all those people and places and things that they are important to you. you only have so many minutes here, so why not spend them always making everything you love happier?
and you want to know what makes everyone happy?

Picture montages!

Here are some of my happiest days with my favorite people.

thanks for being my best friend for the last lifetime sister.


for realz.



and you too brother!



and you too dad and granpa!



ok, well i was going to add more pictures of the rest of the crew that make me happy like hot cocoa and snow days, but it looks like my internet is losing steam. so i'll write more soon.