Contemplation

I'm bundled up. Under a Yak skin cap and a Rajistani woolen blanket. I'm finally warm enough to write. India has changed me, I've been thinking about that lately. I spend most of my days walking around, looking around. And not doing much of anything in particular. If you know me well, you know that I am a driven person. If I want something I work as hard as I can to achieve it. Like this trip to India. Well, now I've achieved what I wanted to do, I'm here... now what. Well that is the question that I answer every day. Maybe it's helping the crippled woman who can't walk, sits on a plank with wheels and pushes herself along the road with flip-flops on her hands, over an open sewer. Or lately, it's been teaching Tibetan refugees English and hiking into the mountains, the peaks are over 15,000 feet tall, and it's one of three ranges leading up to the Himalayas. I can't see over these mountains and their nothing but foothills... All I want to do is walk over their steely-grey knife edge ridges and see what's beyond. But sadly it's cold enough here, without buying fake northface down jackets or columbia fleece sweatshirts I'm not prepared. But there is a side that just wants to prepare myself and to wander away into the mountains. This place reminds me more of home than anywhere else I've been. I can identify plants here! It's comforting to me, seriously :D Anyways, India has changed me. Here I'm not focused or driven towards any goal instead I dip and dabble in everything. Some days I meet people, other days I don't either way I do about the same thing. I have no destination, no place to be, I can hop on a bus tonight even, and wake up in another city. This is what has made India an amazing place and what has changed me, if I may so, I'm much more mellow than I ever have been in my 19 years on this planet. I don't think I've ever described myself as mellow before, but that's a new adjective that can be attached to me. At least while I travel here. It's hard to describe, but, when I get back and you see me again. Let me know what you think. India is a wild place.
I just got back from the ridge above McLeod Ganj, I spent last night up there, to celebrate the solstice. It was beautiful, as the sun was setting I realized that I was watching the Sunset over India, but it seemed like an ocean. The smog lies over India like a blanket. No matter where I've been, except here, you can see the pollution framing the sky. It makes for beautiful sunsets though. As the sun set on the shortest day of the year, I was on a ridge swiveling my head between the sunset itself, colors bursting, and the mountains behind me. The steep rocky slopes were exposed, naked with the waning light. I could see veins of other kinds of rock, snaking their way in and out of the rugged surface. Patches of snow stood out like the monks wandering around in the cities markets. I was seated on the throne of the world. And I haven't even begun to talk about the moon. It was an amazing night. The eclipse wasn't visible on this side of the world though. I spent the night sitting around a fire with 8 countries represented, and I was in the minority. The only one to represent the U.S.A. and i honestly try to be the best ambassador that I can be. It was great sitting around a comforting fire on a cold night with people from all over the world and all walks of life. Goodnight!