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solbeam Equipped with backpack, blog and her sense of Wonder, a perpetual pilgrim wanders aimfully on....

sol statistical update: Darjeeling, India March 2005

INDIA | Saturday, 5 March 2005 | Views [2054] | Comments [1]

Cost of my incredible lunch this afternoon of dahl baht, garlic naan, gohbi paratha and palak panner: 80 Rupees

US dollar equivalent of 80 Rupees: $1.84

US dollar value of eating lunch with your fingers: priceless

What never gets burned when you eat with your hands: your tongue

Average # of hours I study Nepali each day: 2.1

My dated goal for being fluent: 2006

How much easier it is to learn your 3rd language than your 1st and 2nd: considerably

How much easier it is to say that than do it: considerably

An extremely ambiguous adverb: considerably

Tenses I’ve learned in Nepali: past tense, present tense, future tense, command & formal/informal tenses

State of my mind: plain ol’ tense

How often bad puns have to happen: sometimes

When they should really be reserved for: old age, and more specifically, Dad-dom

Categories above to which I belong: neither

# of bad puns to come: 0

What you can do: sigh

One of the subjects we are currently studying with the students: karma

What I’ve decided I must have been in a past life to possibly deserve this one: a saint

Who, for me, currently holds saint status in THIS life, and is responsible for the lovely redesign of solbeam.com: Merc

To whom I send my gratitude, admiration, support and love: Merc

Status of chin on how I’ll ever be able to adequately repay such altruistic favors: still scratching

# of pairs of socks I’m currently wearing: 3

# of pairs of socks I brought with me: 4

# of days it takes for socks to dry on a clothesline without sun: 3

Who likes to believe that cold weather kills funk: me

Who might beg to disagree: my 2 co-leaders and 9 students

How many times I’ve explained the squat toilet procedure to our students: 3

My favorite “think-of-it-this-way” description: “it’s like a little bath for your butt”

Percentage that have actually converted from TP to water: 10%

Who you can’t win: them all

What time we all got up to watch the sunrise over Kachenjunga from Tiger Hill: 4:00am

# of Indian tourists taking pictures of the funny looking white travelers: > greater than the # of Indian tourists taking pictures of the sunrise

# of Indian family photo albums that have my smiling and random white face in them: numerous

Our group record (held by Suren) for our “momo” (delicious Tibetan treats) marathon competition: 56

My personal momo-muching record: 9

My current status: last and losing pathetically

But who came through last year and took first place in a Chai Challenge: the author of this update

Who, I’d like to remind, wins the raise in the end: the tortoise

# of cups of Darjeeling tea drunken during the composure of this update: 4

How to say, “where is the bathroom” in Nepali: “Toilet kahaa cha?”

What I’m currently studying and trying to incorporate into my daily living: The Buddhist Noble 8-Fold Path

What I’m stumbling on: Right Speech & Right Action

Specifically what I need to stop: Lying (harmlessly?) to my students and stealing their pens.

What one group of my students believed was my middle name for a month: “Jellybean”

Who my current group of students sang “Happy Birthday” to today: my co-leader

My co-leader’s birthday: December 28th.

Who has issues with abusing the trust of her students: Um. Me.

# of waiters looking over my shoulder reading my journal right now: 1

# of days our group will be trekking up the Eastern Nepal-India border ("Singalila Ridge") this week: 9

# of days I’ll be without internet access during that time: 9

The last time I had 9 days without internet access: the last time I went trekking for 9 days in the Himalayas

# of snake charmers I ran into on the street today: 2

# of opportunities one usually has to say that in a life time: not enough!

A story from my travels in India last year that I recently broke down crying about while recounting: “At Her Feet

How much shame I have for crying these days: none

What I’ve realized is worth being embarrassed about in life: nothing

What I think is the biggest key to self-love: self-forgiveness

# of sol statistical updates posted since 2000: 6

In what countries and where you can click to read them: Ecuador, Thailand, Guatemala, Honduras and even my first (and so embrassing and thus self-forgiving/loving) statistical update from Costa Rica from five years ago!

# of new pictures in the India Album: 15

What I just realized was a hint that the café is now closing and not an attempt to read my journal: the waiter standing over my shoulder!

Tags: india, solbeam, the stats

Comments

1

I am going to Orissa for a wedding in June - no idea what,in practical terms the exchange rate will do to my savings and what it will mean in cost terms - you mentioned a fairly substantial meal for 80 rupees - would you have any idea what that might mean in Aussie $$$$ - also things like taxi fare - overnight in a three or four star hotel (the wedding is in a hotel - no choice there)- bottled water.... survival stuff ( I'm a bit over back packer age!).
Any advice,goodsites,much appreciated.
Have enjoyed reading your thoughts!

  Jennifer May 1, 2006 12:00 PM

 

 

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