(no subject)
Hey all!
I figured it’s about time for an other update… a month down the line. I apologize for how long it took to send this out, but I’ve been pretty busy, and combine that with the trouble finding an internet connection that survives for more than 30 minutes, and you get a long time without an email. SO since I emailed you last:
We went on northern tour, which essentially consisted of us going to Anurandpurah, Sigirya, Dambulla, and Polonarua (spelling questionable on all) on an 8 day trip at a death march pace. We’d wake up around 6:30 in the morning and go until about 7 at night. We had a couple of hours of rest in between… but that time was usually filled with swimming in reservoirs, eating great food, and failed attempts to talk to people.
The theme of this tour was, “let’s see how much Chris can be dwarfed” We were able to see some pretty impressive monuments. Sri Lanka is famous for their stone statues of Buddhas carved into walls that usually are 30 or 40 feet high. There were also stupas which were at one point some of the biggest structures in the world. One brick stupa we went to used to be the 3rd largest structure in the world only after the 1st and 2nd pyramids of Giza.
My best story of the northern tour doesn’t come from the monuments, but from the hotel. During one long day I was resting and my friend left the top half of the room door open. When he left, a monkey jumped through the door and looked at me briefly, then scurried quickly up a chair, onto the top of the TV to the minibar, then stole a bag of nuts, then sprinted out again. He clearly had done this before, and knew exactly where the nuts were. It was a pretty funny progression in my head of “whoa, cool, a monkey in the room! To, “oh crud… how the heck do I get this monkey out of my room” to “that’s awesome! He stole a bag of nuts!” and then finally to… dang… I’m out 400 rupees!
The next weekend the ISLE group had a free weekend so we went up to tea country to Nurelia. This is close to where a lot of American cloths factories are, so there were many vendors hocking cheap clothes. I ended up coming away with a nice polartech for about 12 dollars. The next day we went on a tour of a tea plantation, and had some very good tea. It’s official, I am addicted to tea. The other day I didn’t have my afternoon tea, and developed a headache an hour later. I drank some tea, and the headache was gone soon after. I don’t think I’ll be able to find tea as strong or as fresh in America, so I think I’m setting myself up for disappointment when I come home.
Last weekend, we went to Nilambe meditation center, a retreat place where people go to meditate (as the name indicates). It’s a nice spot as far as the view goes… on the side of a mountain with good places to see both sunrise and sunset, and I meditated, which was a nice relaxation… for the first hour. We spent the night, and in total the people have about 6 hours of meditation… I can only take so much sitting in silence, doing absolutely nothing. Many of the group members shared the same feeling… especially when they had us wake up at 4:45 for yet another meditation session.
Everything is going well here, and I’m still enjoying it a lot. Our regular class schedule just started last week, so I’ve begun my politics course. It’s really interesting, because I’ve never studied much about politics in a 3rd world country. It’s much different… I never thought I’d actually look forward to getting back to the comforts of the American government system. The government here works entirely based on cronyism (even more than the US) and the heads of parties have all of the power, and the members of parliament are forced to vote how the party says, or else they won’t be allowed to run in the next election. I’m setting myself up for a huge digression into the politics of Sri Lanka… but I’m already over my page limit here.
This weekend we go on a trip to the south to Kataragamma and Galle, then swing up back through Colombo on Sunday for dinner. We leave at about 545 Friday morning and get back Sunday night around 9. I’m more concerned about the getting back at 9… that’s seriously infringing on my normal bedtime here (930 or 10 usually)
Take care all, and I’ll try to send another one in a shorter period of time,
I figured it’s about time for an other update… a month down the line. I apologize for how long it took to send this out, but I’ve been pretty busy, and combine that with the trouble finding an internet connection that survives for more than 30 minutes, and you get a long time without an email. SO since I emailed you last:
We went on northern tour, which essentially consisted of us going to Anurandpurah, Sigirya, Dambulla, and Polonarua (spelling questionable on all) on an 8 day trip at a death march pace. We’d wake up around 6:30 in the morning and go until about 7 at night. We had a couple of hours of rest in between… but that time was usually filled with swimming in reservoirs, eating great food, and failed attempts to talk to people.
The theme of this tour was, “let’s see how much Chris can be dwarfed” We were able to see some pretty impressive monuments. Sri Lanka is famous for their stone statues of Buddhas carved into walls that usually are 30 or 40 feet high. There were also stupas which were at one point some of the biggest structures in the world. One brick stupa we went to used to be the 3rd largest structure in the world only after the 1st and 2nd pyramids of Giza.
My best story of the northern tour doesn’t come from the monuments, but from the hotel. During one long day I was resting and my friend left the top half of the room door open. When he left, a monkey jumped through the door and looked at me briefly, then scurried quickly up a chair, onto the top of the TV to the minibar, then stole a bag of nuts, then sprinted out again. He clearly had done this before, and knew exactly where the nuts were. It was a pretty funny progression in my head of “whoa, cool, a monkey in the room! To, “oh crud… how the heck do I get this monkey out of my room” to “that’s awesome! He stole a bag of nuts!” and then finally to… dang… I’m out 400 rupees!
The next weekend the ISLE group had a free weekend so we went up to tea country to Nurelia. This is close to where a lot of American cloths factories are, so there were many vendors hocking cheap clothes. I ended up coming away with a nice polartech for about 12 dollars. The next day we went on a tour of a tea plantation, and had some very good tea. It’s official, I am addicted to tea. The other day I didn’t have my afternoon tea, and developed a headache an hour later. I drank some tea, and the headache was gone soon after. I don’t think I’ll be able to find tea as strong or as fresh in America, so I think I’m setting myself up for disappointment when I come home.
Last weekend, we went to Nilambe meditation center, a retreat place where people go to meditate (as the name indicates). It’s a nice spot as far as the view goes… on the side of a mountain with good places to see both sunrise and sunset, and I meditated, which was a nice relaxation… for the first hour. We spent the night, and in total the people have about 6 hours of meditation… I can only take so much sitting in silence, doing absolutely nothing. Many of the group members shared the same feeling… especially when they had us wake up at 4:45 for yet another meditation session.
Everything is going well here, and I’m still enjoying it a lot. Our regular class schedule just started last week, so I’ve begun my politics course. It’s really interesting, because I’ve never studied much about politics in a 3rd world country. It’s much different… I never thought I’d actually look forward to getting back to the comforts of the American government system. The government here works entirely based on cronyism (even more than the US) and the heads of parties have all of the power, and the members of parliament are forced to vote how the party says, or else they won’t be allowed to run in the next election. I’m setting myself up for a huge digression into the politics of Sri Lanka… but I’m already over my page limit here.
This weekend we go on a trip to the south to Kataragamma and Galle, then swing up back through Colombo on Sunday for dinner. We leave at about 545 Friday morning and get back Sunday night around 9. I’m more concerned about the getting back at 9… that’s seriously infringing on my normal bedtime here (930 or 10 usually)
Take care all, and I’ll try to send another one in a shorter period of time,