My dinner

I'm waiting for my roommate to finish getting ready before heading out for a drink, so why not time for a quick post?

This is a picture of my courtyard from outside my front door. It is also where I bought my dinner tonight. Can you see where?




I had two delicious sticks of satay (meat on a stick, one mutton, one chicken) that was cooked ON A BIKE. The guy said he's here once a week. Mmmmmmm...

Oh yeah, Disney world...

I almost forgot the point of my post! Here's a pic of where I am
right now, enjoying a giant, heavily taxed, hoegaarden...

I made it to Disney World!

Oh wait, I mean Singapore! Enough people have told me to update this
thing so I guess I stop procrastinating. Like the natural
procrastinator I am, I hve an excuse. I don't have a laptop yet and
why would I want to stay in my office longer when there is so much of
Singapore (and se Asia) to explore?

The singapore govt has given me the green light to work in this
city... er... country! Even though i was an hour early for my appt,
after 5 minutes of hanging out at the ministry of manpower (MoM, great
name) office that masquerades as a posh hotel lobby <insert pic which
I would do if I knew how my iPhone worked>, voilà, come back on
Saturday for your employment pass card!

Ok the process wasn't really that painless because at my first appt
last week, I forgot my white embarkment card. You know, that stub
they hand you back from the customs form you hand in when you enter a
country. . And by forgot i mean lost (ok really prob threw away). Who
knew you had to keep those things? Alright, I'm just a dumb American.
Whatevs. The woman at MoM was completely shocked that I didn't have
it.
Mom: "you need to give me your white card. I don't know what to do
without your white card."
Me: "oh, oops. Hmmm. Ok well what do i do if I don't have my white card?"
Mom: "you need your white card, la. They gave you a white card when
they gave you this stamp" points to visa stamp in my passport "I need
your white card"
Me: "yeah I know that what card you are talking about. But I don't
have it. What are the next steps I need to do?

She looked at me as if I just asked her if I Was allowed to traffic drugs.

Mom, completely agitated: "i need your white card. I can't do anything
with your white card."

Me, trying desperately to fight the urge to flip the table: "yeah. I
don't got it. What am I suppose to do?"

Mom: "maybe your boss can write you a letter?" shrugs.

Ergh...

My work admin person had no idea what such a letter should say, nor
did I. She suggested I go to Malaysia and reenter to get a new white
card. Oh wait only problem, I can't leve the country without a white
card. Can't stay in the country and can't leave. I was beginning to
feel like Tom hanks in that really awful airport movie.

In the end, getting a replacement white card was spending two minutes
in line and having a woman write down a random number on a piece of
paper. No bigs. But I man do these singaporeans love their rules!

The shortest update ever...

... blogging in a city were internet is absurdly slow (stupid natural disaster!) is next to impossible.

A mini-mini update:

- lots of bugs have been going around my group of volunteers. I got a crazy fever the day i was suppose to leave for likir and was laid up in bed all day. Luckily my friend Lucy was also feeling under the weather and was there to throw water down my throat any time my eyes opened

- Stayed with a great family in Likir, the aba-le (father) was the amchi (tibetan doctor), the ama-le was a squirrelly woman who talked A LOT of ladakhi to me which left me saying hamago (i dont understand) every 10 minutes. Daughter in law Nilza who spoke pretty great english and generally was fantastic, and lastly tyhere was nono-Singhe, her 4 year old son who is a GIANT drama queen but wants to be a monk when he grows up.

- found out whats its like to be a human donkey. carried massive amounts of barley on my back for 5 hours

- met a crazy monk named monlam who showed us around the gompas (monasteries). amazing

- got a private tour of the dalai lamas HOUSE outside of leh. WTF?!?!

- got blessed by the head lama of ladakh, Bakula Rinpoche, the recently found 4 year old reincarnate!

- went to pangong lake -- GORGEOUS

- leaving for a mini trek tomorrow.

catch ya on the fliup side

much love

new place for pics

oops forgot to include a link to some pics. i want to upload more, but i got yelled up for hogging bandwidth...

http://picasaweb.google.com/jenchunn/AFewPicturesFromIndia#

behind again!

Keeping a blog is hard and expensive -- ok well expensive by Indian standards, Rs 90 per hour here in Leh and thats for using a computer run off a diesel generator. Speaking of, a couple days ago when I was at an internet cafe, an older german couple started complaining about how it was ridiculous to be charging so much for such slow internet. Bitch Jen couldnt handle their complete ignorance. Me: You do realize there was a GIANT natural disaster that just struck Leh 7 days ago leaving almost 200 people dead, hundreds still missing, and Leh with electricity for only a few hours at night. This poor man's (pointing at the shop owner) entire tourist season is COMPLETELY ruined. So instead of being unappreciative brats, you should be thanking the man for keeping his shop open and providing you spoiled lot with some connection to the outside world. \rant Then when my friend Laurel came in, I in fine Seattle-ite passive aggressive fashion, said loudly, "Laurel, the internet is very slow today, but I know you are a compassionate person who appreciates any internet connection that could be provided to you." Stupid tourists...

I didnt get around to writing more about Takmachik (chik means 1 and I think takma means standing/place/medal or something). All I've written about is the worry. We ended up staying in T-chik for extra days as 5+ bridges were out between Takmachik and Leh. Plus, we had no way of communicating with anyone outside of the village. It was a bit scary to 1 feel so isolated and 2 realize im completely dependent on technology.

Im glad we ended up staying there longer. It helped me deal with the trauma of having run for my life. We also got to help them in the recovery process by digging canals. I did the canal digging for one day and helped to get water running back into the village! The rest of my time was spent pumping water, doing dishes for my ama-le, helping cook, chuli, pumping water, chuli, chuli, falling in love with the villagers, and pumping water. Did I mention I pumped gallons and gallons and gallons of water. When it takes all your energy to pump a couple gallons of water, it really makes you realize how precious it is. I learned to "shower" using about a gallon of water.

I have so much more to say about Takmachik, the people, the landscape, what I learned there, and how incredibly fortunate I feel. But, alas, I have to go pick up the salwar kameez I had made(it costs Rs150 to be made -- $3!) then off to our final dinner in Leh. Tomorrow we are off to Likir for 9+ days, where Ill be at a homestay by myself!

Next adventure, here i come! Lets just leave out the near death experiences, k? Thx!

Jullay!

21 days...

... and 5 times of actively trying not to think about dying is apparently my breaking point when I cry my eyes out followed by hysterical laughter.

So I'm guessing by my lack of email that the news about Ladakh didn't really spread to America. Either that or my "friends" don't actually care about me ;)

Here are a couple links to news stories:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hbxycoePbsWRicJVprMmKclkmvSQ
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2010/08/06/lehs-flash-floods-how-much-did-it-rain/

And heres a link where posts of our well-being are updated:
http://www.isec.org.uk/pages/urgent-leh-flood.html

phew! what a crazy few weeks. I cant believe Ive only been gone for 25 days. It feels like a lifetime and a half. I dont even know where to start to describe the last 12 days.

Ok to start, Takmachik is just absurdly breath-taking. Here's the view from the village. The journey to Takmachik was a fun bus ride (the other participants in the programme are hilarious, brilliant, and mostly British, which means I get lots of shit for "butchering their language"). Helen and I stayed with the mayor of the town, where there are about 71 households and around 500 villagers. The mayor, Nurbu, has a deep burly raspy voice and knows some English (but translating Nurbu-ese is a whole other art) . His wife, Diskit, is an amazing woman. She doesnt speak English and my Ladakhi is for shit, but by the end we were having a jolly ol time. They have 5 kids, the youngest, Rigzin (18-19), lives at home and is really shy. One son lives in Khaltse (JCB worker), one daughter is a cop (who they said I look like), another is married in a nearby village, and the last works in Leh.

My first day is spent wondering what I got myself into with the compost toilet, struggle to communicate, electricity only at night from 730-11, and butter tea (yep, thats tea with butter in it).

The first full day we get at chuli-ing (apricots). Chuli mangpo mangpo!

Worry of the day: can my legs manage squatting for 20+ days...

The second night is when the torrential downpours started. It rained buckets for a few nights and some during the day. Our house just had a new room built onto the second floor that was still missing glass in the windows and a roof was being put on over the 2nd floor hallway. Oh, did I mention that ITS NOT SUPPOSE TO RAIN IN LADAKH! Apparently its only started raining in the summers over the last 4 years. The houses are all built out of mud. The roofs have a layer of willow wood then a layer of mud. So the rain = not good news. My ama-le (mom) and aba-le (father) were up all night tending to the storm.

Worry of these days: People who say global warming isnt real are completely full of horse shit. I feel guilty for being such a mass consumer and not doing anything about mass consumption in the US. But, I will admit, the statistician in me wanted to see the numbers and see if these rains are really an anomaly and whether or not it really was that much more water. I mean, really, its not **that** much water.

Well, thats when I was up for a rude awakening. Our group of 17 were up on the top of the town playing with the local kids -- frisbee, catch, baseball. Lamo (local 20 yr old who is wonderfully friendly and loud) comes over with a worried look and just keeps saying chu mangpo mangpo, many many more water coming. Me: oh yeah, it looks like its going to rain. and I continue playing and talking with others. Then I look up to see only foreigners in the parking lot. EEEP! WTF?!?! not a good sign. I go to investigate. There are a load of kids on top of the mountain screaming down at the village. No idea what they were saying, but I assumed they were just playing. THats when I started to see the shear terror on everyones face. What I ascertained was that there had been something holding up a bunch of water and that it was breaking. The water would be coming towards town any minute and no one had any idea which way it was going to go. You could hear trees start to snap and fall out of the way. Then I heard this deafening sound of water crushing. I looked around again and saw all the locals running for the top of the hill/mountain. I ran for my life and made it up the mountain in 5 seconds flat. I didnt see the actual wave of water, but my friend , Felipe, has footage of the entire scary event. Up on the mountain top, all I could see was a giant path being cleared from the water. It kept coming in waves and the sound made me sick to my stomach. People were crying and with each wave of water, we fled higher and higher. Luckily the water didnt hit and houses. It did take out the bridge into town and created a GIANT gorge, ruining a lot of fields. All of that brown in the picture to the right use to be greenery.


The story of how word of the water flood goes like this. Sonam was up at the drok, a meadow about an hours walk from town where people take their cows etc. He saw a giant pool of water, which had formed from all the rain, break a bunch of trees and cascade to form a bigger pool of water that was also about to give way. Thats when he took off running and made the trip back to Takmachik in 15 minutes. He saw lots of kids playing on the bridge into town, which was ultimately destroyed, and thankfully screamed loud enough for them to hear. He said that if he had waited 10 more minutes, he wouldnt have made it back before the water.

That night was full of fear and terror. Most of the village slept up in a community hall called Panchayat Gar. The villagers are amazing and saved one of the three rooms just for us foreigners and brought us lots of food. No one had any idea if there was going to be more flooding. There was definitely a lot more rain, which meant the really strong potential for landslides.

The next few days were full of worry about our safety, about being stranded in Takmachik, and the fear of running out of supplies. With the catastrophies that hit Leh, we had no idea what was going to happen. More on the rest of my stay in another post. Right now I'm off to dinner!

Oh wait, before that. Anyone know how I can set up a fundraising website where we can raise money for this little village 20 miles from the border of Pakistan that Ive completely fallen in love? Their irrigation canals were completely wiped out by the flash flood and they could also use some flashlights (battery-free of course because they have no waste management, more on this later).

Much love!

Last post for a month!

So I leave tomorrow morning!

I cant believe its really happening. I'll be away from the internet for the next month.

First Ill be in Takmachik (6 hours drive from Leh) for 7 days where I'll stay at a home with another participant, Helen. Then, for the other 3 weeks, I'll be in Likir (2 hours from Leh).

I have a bit of a sore throat today and want to get back to my guest house, so sadly, my last post for a long time is going to be pretty borning and empty. sorry!

but im safe and sound. Visited an amchi (tibetan doctor) this morning and got some little brown magic pills. Lets see how that makes me feel :)

Check ya on the flip side!

I'm curvaceous, go steady

The title of this post is my new motto/phrase/whatever. Its also a sign on the way from Manali to Leh! The signs were FANTASTIC!

cutting mountains, but joining hearts
If youre married, divorce speed
Better to be mr late, than late mr
stop gossiping, let him drive
dont be a gama in the land of the llamma (<-- whatas a gama??)

The jeep ride from Manali to Leh was quite an adventure. All the things i had read about it described as a long, curvy, bumpy journey but breathtaking. Boy were they right!

First off, our driver, Nihal, was ABSOLUTELY amazing. I trusted him with my life -- LITERALLY. So if anyone needs a jeep ride from Manali to whereever, or a trekking guide, let me know and I'll send along his info.

Heres a map showing the journey -- AND ALTITUDE! Point of reference, Mt Rainier summit is 14,411ft/4,392.5 m.


Some highlights of the trip:
-- suppose to leave Manali at 9am, but instead we had to leave at 630am! (only found out by Matt coming to find me in the hallway of my hotel in my PJs (couldnt sleep). gotta love cell phone free time). The early departure was because the army closes the road to clear all the rocks from the avalanches -- WAIT what??
-- Main road is backed up so Nihal takes another way which entails going over a TINY bridge
-- A giant boulder rock came tumbling down and almost hit a guy
-- rest of the drive was VERY bumpy and windy.
-- But absolutely fantastic company. I feel really fortunate that it all worked out getting a jeep with this group
-- Brits love finding out about growlers...
-- Left Keylong at 530am!
-- Soon thereafter, traffic is stopped because of what is basically a GIANT STREAM in the middle of the road (stupid rain). We have to get out of the jeep and hobble over rocks and jump over the water to safety. phew! There was another larger ravine thing later in the trip. I stayed in the jeep (i trusted the driver more than me! The 3 women who werent in the jeep just barely made the leap)

-- Saw a couple over turned gas tankers. Really puts things into perspective. makes me wonder if me being able to go up to Leh is really worth the harm it causes
-- People actually make the trip on foot cycles. WTF?!?!?!
-- High altitude has the same effects as laughing gas. I laughed for hours which when the air is so thin, also means you borderline faint
-- Passed over the 2nd highest pass in the world! The first highest is on the other side of Leh. I think im going to go over there in September
-- Altitude sickness aint anything to f with
-- the small villages/bay of tents along the way are wonderful

The journey really was really full of the most beautiful scenery Ill ever see. That said, I'm never making that jeep journey again :)

Trying to figure out what to do in September. Thinking Leh -> Shrinigar (houseboat -- WOHOO! Kashmir? hmm... ) --> Dharmsala --> Delhi. But not sure if i can fit it all in. it might involve flying.

ok im out... More on Leh later. But let me tell you. wow. i might never leave.

What a journey...

Made it to Leh late last night. What a journey! I'll write more details later. For all the struggles it entailed, the views were worth it times a million.



And heres the amazingly wonderful Brits + Scot that I made the trip with.

My first India life lesson

I made it to Manali! Phew what an adventure this last couple days have been. Like I said in my previous post, I met up with Rachel in Delhi. We had a nice dinner in Delhi at a revolving restaurant. After a solid nights sleep (that means only waking up 4 times), Rachel and I checked out of our hotel and made our way to Jantar Mantar http://www.shubhyatra.com/delhi/jantar-mantar.html, the old Indian observatory. I will admit that the inner math nerd was a bit excited. Afterwards we headed over to Red Fort for more tourist stuff. It is indeed an impressive sight which included an open-aired marble emperors palace that had a small waterway running from each building and into the various rooms. Wish it had been on, but yeah yeah yeah waste of water, whatever.

This is when things started to deteriorate. The heat, humidity, jet lag, and I think my altitude sickness medicine that I started to take made for one CRANKY Jen. We were scheduled to meet two other women, Luciana and Emma, at the swanky Shangri-La Hotel at 3pm. We left Red Fort at about 2 (or a little later). I realized i was a cranky wanker, but was trying my best to achieve my goal of not being a control freak. Rachel needed to go to the ATM, which when added with a tuk tuk driver who dropped us off at the wrong place, made for a long journey. Then by the time we got our bags from the hotel, it was 3:45!

Control freak Me: We shouldve hired a car like I wanted. Now cranky + irritated.

We make it to the meeting spot with no sight of two brit girls. Rachel had the amazing idea to sit and have a pepsi. That combined with AC, beautiful 5-star lobby, and women wearing amazing saris lifted my spirits a bit. Plus 5-star concierge service helping us figure out how to get a bus to Manali. As we leave, a random guy asked if we were looking for 2 british women. Agh we JUST missed them! They left at 4!

We lug our stuff a few blocks to the bus terminal place. Random guy out front pesters us and says the bus from the official tourist agency is full. I think its a crappy tout. Wait. nope. bus full. Traipse to another private bus down the road. Loads of talk in Hindi. Tout? Me: raging bitch about to bust out.

All buses full.

Control freak me: Shouldve prebooked our friggin tickets. Now we have to spend another night in this hot, sticky, dusty, crazy place called Delhi and miss meeting other people in Manali. Want to scream/cry/go home/smack the smiling/laughing potentially scheisty men.

Oh wait! There is light! Theres seats that arent together. thats ok right? Wait, you want us to pay for the jump seat that folds down over the stairs onto the bus while we go up and down a mountain? Umm.....

Deep breath (many).... Ok, we'll just get tickets for the next day. Stay the night somewhere...

Then voila! Two seats together in the last row (no idea how they booted someone but whatevs). Ah, India, ok I get it. Patience.

Control Freak me: We still missed Luci and Emma. Irritated. (and worried theyre ok and got on a bus)

The bus ride is surprisingly comfy and pleasant. It drove all night up and down some crazy steep mountains and very narrow roads -- with absurd drops off the "side" of the road. Rachel is also pretty sure she saw 3 people get out of the luggage boot under the bus midway (how we got our seats?). And we think we witnessed some bribing and drug trafficking in the cover of the night. Here's a lovely sign from one of the rest stops. Perhaps not a good choice of toilet to use?




The break of light brought breathtaking views. I only wish I knew how to properly take pictures to show you how lush, green, and steep the mountains were. But heres a pic anyways.



Ok, ok India, I get it. Let the irritation go.

We finally role into Manali. Trying to figure out where to stay and theres lots of men trying to get us to stay at their hotels. We end up just going with this one guy who of course lied about the room having two beds and being nice. He takes us around to find another place and keeps bringing us to dumps. Tout? Yes, me thinks. We end up just taking a room at a pricey room (well pricey for manali, but really at Rs1600 thats ~$27/night). While waiting for our room, Rachel gets a call from Matt! HOORAY! UGH phone died...

Me: still irritated and cranky and thinking we wont meet up with Matt. Oh and did I mention I hadnt had an actual meal since breakfast the previous day? Irritated+cranky+low-blood sugar. blargh.

I shower, etc. As I'm packing my purse to go explore, Rachels phone rings again. Matt! He's met up with two others (hooray!). We're staying at Hotel Kanishka. Lets meet at ___ call dropped.

UGH. Want to scream from being frustrated.

I get a spare key from reception (after asking twice --A-hole) Then I forgot something in the room. As Im leaving the room again, I run smack dab into Matt. He made it to our hotel! SUCCESS!

He's going to come to the main shopping area with me. He had also emailed us and Luci about meeting up at 2 in Old Manali so we head p there instead on the off chance that Luci is there. We wait by the bridge at a cafe (and have YUMMY veg Momos= dumplings). We wait outside with (sugary) chais as it pours. Hmmm 2om, no Luci and no email. DOH. We chat away, then, wait, who is that across the way.... Luci? YEP! She didnt even know to meet there, Totally wonderful twist of fate that she was staying up there and heading into town at that exact moment.

Now, private jeep is booked for a 2 day drive up windy (and scary?) roads to Leh, Ladakh.

Ok India, I get it. Let the control freakness go =D

Much love!

PS -- I checked in. I bet I'm Mayor of Manali

Check out my dinner from the airplane...

... it tasted a lot better than it looked.

I'm off to start my journey up to Ladakh!

I havent had time/access to update my blog. Maybe tonight?

A new blogger!

Here's a blog of a woman I'm traveling with, Rachel. She's from a small island in Scotland! Shouldve made her bring me some drink to warm my tummy.

http://wildandmagic.blogspot.com/

I'm showing her how to make posts...

Here's a picture of the Lotus Temple, its made out of white marble!

photo dump

here are a few (unfiltered) photos from yesterday. Took way too long to upload so looks like ill have to control my picture trigger finger....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23855148@N05/sets/72157624438538543/

real life frogger

Survived the 16 hour flight to Delhi! I'm on day 2/3 of Delhi.

I just checked into the Corus hotel where I'll be staying for the next two nights. Can't say I'm all that impressed so far. Its by no means bad, but after the last couple nights at Yogi's, this doesnt feel as comfy.

Yogi is a woman from couchsurfing.com who let me stay at her place for my first two nights. She was incredibly hospitable and welcoming. She lives in a southern suburb of Delhi in a 3BR/3 bath flat she owns with her 3 (fat and sometimes ferocious) dogs. I was welcomed with open arms, delicious food, and my own room. From what I can tell, she does quite well for herself (owns a small company, brand new jeep, huge flat, a few people who tend to the cleaning, cooking, security, etc). It was interesting to stay at this nice place where in the mornings I'd stand out on the balcony and watch men and women do construction without shoes (or flip flops) and little more equipment than a piece of plastic used as a shovel. Heres a pic (or i at least hope that it uploads.) I cant really tell why she is doing what shes doing. Sure, the dirt needs to be sifted. By why thrown through the screen? why is it vertical? why not have it horizontal from the ground and speed up the process? I was going to try and use my hindi phrasebook to ask the young cleaning woman (who i dont think has ever seen a chinese chick before because she was quite fascinated by me), but there was lots lost in translation.

Alrighty, its lunch time and I'm in Delhi, so lets get to speed recapping...

- Breakfast with Yogi of juice and grilled sandwich with this spiced cheese with onions
- just so i remember, Yogi lives by Prahlud Pur and Lalkuan
- Got dropped off down the hill from the Bahai Lotus Temple. walked right by the entrance but a tuk tuk driver walked me to the entrance
- Temple architecture was awe inspiring. the inside, while serene was a bit more austere than i was expected. after walking through the info center, aside from knowing there are lovely Bahai temples throughout the world, i still had no idea what the Bahai faith is all about aside from worshipping a god and believing that men and women are completely equal.
- Next the tuk tuk driver that showed me the way waited for me at the gate. I negotiated a price (70 Rs) for a ride over to Lodi Garden, which was what Yogi told me would be the max. oops perhaps i should work on my negotiating skillz.
- The tuk tuk driver "kindly" offered to take me to Delhi Haat so I could shop. Walk in and realize its a tourist trap and am instantly bombarded with people trying to help me. I initially pretended I was part of a group of Thai women, but they were loving seeing all the stuff, so I ran away from the land of overstimulation
- i loved Lodi Garden. beautiful park in the middle of the city with an old tomb in the center. lots of cute happy couples in love strolling (and necking:0). As i was journaling by the water, i was attacked by two women. ok not attacked, but before i could even understand what was going on they were putting "henna" (pretty sure it was just mud) on my arms. saying no didnt do anything. Then they demanded 100 Rs, actually this little 2 year old asked for money. it was a bit much for me. I gave them 5 rupees and ran off. Gotta get my city thinking back.

yikes... this is not speed updating... hyperupdating
- from there walked over to Khan Market -- upscale shopping
- made the stupid decision to walk to Humanyuns Tomb. it was far. and involved walked under a giant overpass.
- but i did get to be the frog in frogger. at the beginners level. Delhi-ites are at in the pros
- Humanyuns Tomb was truly spectacular. Id def go again on another trip.
- Exhausted, but decided to check out Qutb Minar. tallest tower in india (i think). was nice but at that point i was completely overstimulated, jetlagged and needed a shower.
- got a tuk tuk back to Yogis place (with another stopover at a "great shopping mall"). Im positive I gave the tuk tuk driver way too much money. I did this mornining as well even though Yogi arranged it so that the driver actually used the meter. But I decided yesterday that i dont mind over paying for the tuk tuk. i was in those things for 30 minutes and i would "overpay" at 100 rs -- $2.21! i know it just perpetuates the fleecing of tourists, but really, I cant haggle over 50 cents when Im already getting a huge deal.
- I have no idea how I found Yogis place, as she told me to get dropped off a few blocks away to save lots of rupees. I hope the travel gods stay with me!
- after returning from work, Yogi made dinner of rice, chole (chick peas with cinnamon and i think cumin?), some potatoes and green peppers. delicious with a nice kick of spice
- Jet lag sleeping sucks
- this morning was fairly uneventful, aside from two of Yogis dogs almost attacking me. i was coming back inside and they started growling. me = run fast to the porch and shut them in. Phew. it was a bit scary.

ok enough sitting in front of a computer (although the email addict in me was a bit bummed to have so few emails to read ;) ). Off to find lunch!

Chi-town

Entering hour 3 of my 4 hour layover at ohare. I'm really happy I
caught the CNN breaking news of the hour before I leave the states for
a lil while. Seems miss Lindsay is in jail! GASP! TMZ must be going
nuts.

So I think I'm supposed to take a moment for reflection and think
about what I want to get out of this interlude.

I think my main goal is to explore the wonders of being content in the
immediate. This means giving up some of my controlling tendencies,
being fully aware of my surroundings and not needing constant
stimulation for entertainment. Well, I guess really I mean replacing
technology w mountainscapes.

Ok being deep isn't working for me right now. Oh, but I did start
crying this morning on the drive to seatac w my sister when a song
about sisters came on. Stupid sister

I'm off to do some laps around the airport for an hour. I ended up
checking my pack (23 pounds! I think I overpacked).

Check ya in India.

My last night in Seattle

My flight leaves in 8 hours! Wow, I guess this is really going to happen...

I'm pretty exhausted from the scurrying around all day today and the
crazy late night last night of final emails and treating my clothes
with permethin. It is suppose to deter mosquitoes, gnats, chiggers,
ticks, etc. it was only after i probably inhaled half of the stuff I
was spraying on my clothes that I realized that this stuff is pretty
noxious. Shouldve sprayed that stuff weeks ago so my brain cells
couldve recuperated.

ANYWAYS.... I'm tired. But trying to do the blog thing....

True story: I'm an idiot and forgot that when you put everything you
own in storage and try to sleep on the couch, things like "blankets"
dont exist. Last night I used a towel and a sweatshirt to keep
"warm". Ghetto-fabulous til the end!

People keep asking me how I feel. Really how I feel is sort of
completely devoid of emotion right now, perhaps living in the
Himalayas will make me less cold-hearted.

I think I should take bets of when I will lose my marbles completely
and the tidal wave of emotions come out. I'm thinking itll be the
first time I have to milk a yak. No, just kidding. Thats one of the
things Im looking forward to doing. That and
slaughtering/skinning/cooking an animal and eating all the random
meals that come from random animal parts (not Andrew Zimmern crazy
though, I have (some) limits). Too macabre?

Oh wait, this blog post is suppose to have some sort of theme or
something. Or be remotely coherent. Instead its a bit ADD. Oh well.
I am what I am and I ams tired.

Sleep tight Seattle!

The institute organizing my stay in Ladakh

Here's a link... www.isec.org.uk

Really this is just a post to see if I can really post via iPhone on wireless:)

JC

My announcement (via email 7/6)

It's probably time I give everyone an update on my going ons. I've been losing track of who I've already talked about my next few months and year, which is basically because I'm an idiot :)

Although grad school has been filled with such joys of endless problem sets, exams, long nights, and much frustration, I've decided to take my Masters and run, meaning I'm on a potentially indefinite sabbatical from my phd program.

That means its time for fun!

I leave Seattle on July 20th for a 2 month trip to India. For the first few days, I'll be in Dehli (recommendations for places to stay, things to see etc, much appreciated). Then, I'm traveling up to Ladakh via Manali, where I'll be at a homestay for the month of August. Plans in September are completely up in the air, just like me since I'll be in the middle of the Himalayas.

Even though I have a return ticket to Seattle on September 20th, I'm skipping out on it. Instead, I'm taking door number 2 and going to...

Singapore!

I'll be in Singapore for a whole year working with a professor (and friend who graduated from UW a couple years ago) at the National University of Singapore on a project with the United Nations to project city urbanization.

My current address and cell number will be obsolete in a couple weeks.
Relevant contact info:

1.234.CHUNN55 (1.234.248.6655) -- Google voice number that I will be checking regularly. My 206 number will disappear at the end of July

Skype ID: jenchunn

US address:
c/o Jeanie Chunn (kick-ass-sister and soon-to-be-mail-trafficker)
XXXXX
Seattle, WA 98122

So. yep, thats what I'm up to these days. Come visit Singapore or anywhere else in SE Asia!

Cheers,

Jen