in paradise, scouting wild tigers.

I'm not sure how else to start this other than: AHHHHHHH WE WERE STALKED BY A WILD TIGER IT WAS SO SCARY AND THE BEST THING OF MY LIFE AHHH AHH AHHHH IT WAS GROWLING IN THE BUSHES AT US FROM 15 METERS AWAY!!!!! No, but really. We were on a nature walk and were stopped and frantically gestured to silence as this deep ruuummmbblllleeee permeated the forest not once, but two times, warning us that we were on it's territory! Scary stuff. And this is AFTER being about two feet away from one of the 4 top deadly snakes of India standing with its hood/you're-definitely-gonna-die-when-you-see-this thing out as it was released (from a pillowcase, with his BARE HANDS) by the steve erwin of India, Raj Kumar. Yes, unbeknownst to me a "nice fieldtrip to the national park" means a lot more here in India than it does back in the states.

Life otherwise has been comparably low key, but I'm learning a lot and having such a good time. The one maaaajoooorr setback so far has been my stomach, which has made me into the "poooor baby" of the group as I am ALWAYS sick and racing to the bathroom/eating only plain rice and feeling really bad for myself. I bit the bullet and took the killer antibiotic Cipro yesterday, so we'll see how things work out.

This weekend we climbed Chamundi Hill, which is a pilgrimage site with 1100 steps up a big hill leading to a temple for Chamundeshwari, who I'm pretty sure is an incarnation of Kali/Durga. It was amazing! The steps look like something out of a fairytale--they are winding and made of stone, surrounded on either side by this lushhhh rainforest-ey brush and dotted all the way up with little temples and small piles of flowers or other offerings where people have stopped to pray. This of course is a little less inspirational when you are huffing away dripping sweat and thinking your calves are going to give out as any second as I was when I was going up, but I was able to appreciate it some nonetheless. I tried to think of things I wanted to let go of, repeating them again and again and sweating them out--releasing them and leaving them on the steps. When I got higher I started thinking of what I wanted to bring in, and I just kept thinking love, love, love. For myself, for this crazy experience, for everything!
At the top we decided to go into the temple, just seal the deal on the whole Chamundi journey. Waiting in the line was interesting, I was by this group of old worn women in their best saris who first made an attempt to talk to me ("Hindi? Hindu?" "what? wait, what? oh, no i'm not a Hindu." "Ahh... Hindu?") before falling into a silence in which they stared blankly at me for maybe 5 awkward minutes at a distance of about 6 inches from my face. I actually kind of liked it, as it gave me permission to stare back and imagine what these beautiful weathered faces and deep set eyes had seen. I also experienced my first sexism, where this guy was letting all the men pass (including men from our group) and then when it came to me he stepped right in front of me, without even a second glance my way. It was WEIRD, having to just accept the fact that he probably viewed me as a second class citizen. And at a goddess temple! Bah!

Hope everyone is doing well, especially those of you who just started school Monday! Ahh!! I'm not gonna post pictures this time becuase I spent seriously ALL day loading them up onto facebook, which would only load 5 at a time at a rate of about 1hr/5 pictures. So go check them out!

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