The Darjeeling Express

Hey!…. So it’s been a little while since I’ve updated my blog (except for the header, which is a photo I took in Hoi An, Vietnam last year) and I figured I’d give you guys a bit of an update of what exactly’s been going on in my universe. So much goodness has been permeating my life these days it’s ridiculous. (I’m thinking that this is going to be a marathon post… so grab a cup a joe and sit in tight for the ride)

I guess the big thing is that I’m six weeks away from my sabbatical. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been planning to take some time off from the 9-5 grind and « do something else ». My original plan was to spend 3-4 months doing coral reef conservation work in Madagascar, but that all went to hell when some idiots decided to stage a coup d’état. I won’t go in to the politics or take sides, although I’ve been following the developments quite closely, I’m in no position to say if what happened was a good thing or a bad thing… all I know is that 100+ people perished in riots and clashes surrounding the events and thus I did not feel safe about going there this summer. I’ve kept in touch with my contacts over there and have volunteered my services to them so that I can stay in the loop, but this is proving to be quite difficult as the people involved are less than great communicators, so we’re still trying to get the first « press release » done. Anyhow… all this to say that I changed my plans, quite drastically and on a whim and a cheap ticket, I’ve decided to go to India. Actually, wasn’t exactly a whim. I had a good friend who was supposed to meet up with me in India sometime in July and then rent some motorcycles and head off to Dharamsala, but just recently he bailed on me. I hate using the word bailed as it makes it seem like his decision was wily nilly, (which it wasn’t) but none the less, it’s sort of left me hanging… so as of now I’m landing in Mumbai on June 2nd and I’m in the planning phase… I feel kind of weird as I’ve been working on my Madagascar project for almost a year now, and then to have it disappear and be replaced with just a plane ticket and a destination is quite the odd feeling…. anyhow, I've been working on getting some sort of project set up for myself over there. Just this weekend I applied to a group called Hands for Help Nepal, where if all goes well, I will either be teaching English to young Buddhist monks or be working in an orphanage in Kathmandu. For those of you who know me personally, you’ll know that I’m hoping that the Buddhist monk project will be the one that pans out. After that, I plan to head back to India for the remaining 4-5 weeks of my time and will be doing a Vippassana meditation retreat. For those of you who do no know what that is, follow this link for more info. http://www.dhamma.org/ . So no matter what transpires over there, no matter what pans out or what random adventures or paths, I find myself on, I’m positive that this summer will be transformative and nothing short of life changing.

On the other fronts in my life… well, this spring I was privy to a very short but incredible romance with a wonderful woman. Things ended way too early for my liking but sometimes, actually it should be always, you have to just appreciate things for the amazing things that they were. Although heart broken at the moment, as I was utterly smitten with A, I have to accept her decision and her reasons :-( Thank you for letting me in to your life, thank you for being in my life… it was short but unforgettable. G’d damn I wish I had a magic wand of lustful persuasion!!!! Lol!!! Hopefully our story is not over, be it in whatever permutation it will take.
"Don't cry because it's over... smile because it happened." - Dr. Seuss

My training for the half triathlon this summer is going… well, it’s going… not as good as I expected but not all that bad either. I’ve yet to break out the bike (probably later today actually) but I’ve been running and keeping up with the capoeira. On Friday I ran my first 8k stint that wasn’t in a race. The run was pretty good, except that somehow, I seem to have buggered up a tendon or something next to my ankle, so walking has been a little painful this weekend. As for the capoeira, well, it was progressing quite well until my broken heart got the best of me and didn’t go for two weeks and now with the ankle thing, I don’t think I’ll make it this week. It’s unfortunate as I was progressing quite well and the « batizado » is coming up. I won’t make the one in June during Capoeira week at my school, but my teacher had wanted me to go down to Plattsburgh to do it with his students there, but, it’s this weekend and well, with 2 weeks of not practising and a sore ankle, I’m going to have to wait for the next batizado in December. I was really looking forward to getting my capoiera appelado (nickname) and finally getting a belt.

So that’s pretty much the gist of what’s been going on… Hope everyone is well and that life is being kind… :-)

Talk to you all soon…
as my trip is ramping up, I’ll try to post more… I was actually thinking of doing an on-line video diary of the prep for the trip and of the trip itself… maybe just audio… anyhow if anyone is interested, let me know and I’ll see if I can make it happen…