HELLO.

We got back from our meditation retreat in Pharping - 5 days of (nearly complete) silence, meditation, and Buddhist teachings in Tibetan from Khenpo (which means a PhD in Bhuddist philosophy as well as a practicing monk). It was really incredible. There was much learning and much sitting in the lotus position.. I am not sure if my knees will ever be the same. Also, we had a surprise guest teaching from Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche (who is regarded as one of the most enlightened minds of our time), which was the luckiest/most amazing thing ever. His english was very Yoda-esque, and his message was similarly wise: essentially, everybody is just trying to be happy. Everything they do, they do in an attempt to achieve happiness. This, to me, makes it very easy to act with compassion/"loving kindness", because you would never want to intentionally destroy somebody else's attempt at happiness. Buddhism, then, is just one way of attaining happiness (which you do by acting with compassion and loving kindness towards all beings and practicing non-attachment. Also, meditation.) Khenpo's message was very similar in its roots, but much more technical in its wording, due to his PhD status.

Now, we're back in Patan with our host families (which has been really insane recently). The day I got back from the meditation retreat was the rice feeding ceremony for my 6 month old baby brother (when Newari babies turn 6 months, they are fed rice for the first time. Then, a giant party ensues.). There were literally 100 people on the roof of my house singing loudly, dancing wildly, and eating entire fried fish (including the eyeballs and backbone) ALL DAY. It was fabulous! Then, the next day was Rajin's (my host father) 33rd birthday.... so the party never really ended. Soffe and Stacey (two really excellent girls from the program) and I tried to make Rajin brownies for his birthday.. but there was no oven, so we just microwaved them for an hour. Important note: microwaving brownie batter does not equal brownies. IT JUST MAKES HOT BROWNIE BATTER. We were incredibly excited about our soupy concoction.. but Rajin and the fam were a little appalled. They no longer have any desire to try American desserts. Rajin recently told me he would come to America and we could open a momo (meat filled dumpling) shop together. I was like "YEAH. And we can make brownies on the side!" Rajin just shook his head: "Megan, if you are making brownies, I am staying in Nepal." It was sort of the funniest situation ever.

Yesterday, one of our few days without ISP's, we visited Swayambhu Temple in Kathmandu, where hundreds of wild, sacred monkeys roam freely, playing, fighting, and occasionally stealing food from unsuspecting tourists. Here are some pics (finally..)

Andy, Stacey, and I at Swayambhu

The group!: Stuart, Soffe, Emily, Ferrell, Travis, Me, Stacey, Josh, Andy, Chrissy, Saraswati (who cooks us delish food at the program house and is incredibly awesome), Zach, and Maddie. I sort of just named people randomly (going vaguely left to right).. but I guess it doesn't really matter because the picture's so small..

For the next week we are in Patan, hanging out with our families, finishing up our Independent Study Projects, and cramming in as many excellent city activities as possible before we leave to trek to the basecamp of Kanchenjunga (the third highest mountain in the world!) on the 23rd! Then, we'll be living in a rural village in western Nepal farming and milking buffaloes at dawn for the remainder of our trip, so this is one of the last times I'll have internet connection for the next month and a half!

Namaste!

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post.. the last two weeks have been incredibly busy! After a full 48 hours of travel (including a 13 hour layover in the Hong Kong airport, which, let me tell you, is NOT the ideal place to spend a day), we (myself and eleven other American kids taking gap years before college, or just random years off in the middle of college) arrived in Kathmandu extremely jet-lagged and a little nauseated (from the large amounts of airplane food that had been consumed). We headed straight to Dhulikel (a really incredible little town on the outskirts of the Kathmandu valley. You could see the Himalayas from our guest house if you woke up before the fog...), where we spent 5 days becoming best friends, learning basic Nepali, studying cultural do's and dont's, and generally preparing ourselves to be immersed in Nepali culture. We did a lot of hiking, a lot of meditating, and a lot of tea drinking. (Tea here is made in milk and then filled with sugar. IT IS DELICIOUS. Although, I recently learned that there is a Diabetes problem in Nepal, for which my host family blames the dudh chiya, though it has not stopped them from consuming it in enormous quantities)

Then, after becoming thoroughly acquainted with each other and Nepal, we moved to Patan (a small city, famous for it's art, on the outskirts of Kathmandu), where we met our host families and began our daily routine of morning meditation, language class, lectures/discussions on poverty, politics, and religion, and lunch. Afternoons are occupied with our independent study projects (My host father, Rajin, is a prominent precious stone carver, so for my ISP I'm studying with him. So far, though, all I've done is practice drawing straight lines on paper. The first day, after a solid 2 hours of drawing straight lines, Rajin assured me that "the line is the artist's greatest masterpiece!" He says that we will start working in stone later this week. I cannot wait!) Sometimes, there is time to explore Patan before dinner, which is always an amazing experience. (Patan is full of really incredible stupas and monasteries, just scattered throughout the city. Giant golden Buddha statues can often be found at the end of tiny, winding roads barely wide enough to walk down. The lack of space does not stop motorcycles from cruising around at high speeds, dodging pedestrians, stray dogs, and piles of trash. Navigating the city on foot is one of the most exciting/nerve wracking things I've ever done. I literally see my life flash before my eyes so many times a day it is ridiculous.) Dinner is always a family affair, which at my house is extremely overwhelming: there are at least 35 people in my family, and all of them come in and out unannounced. I only know 3 of them by name. Dinner is also always a daal bhat (rice and lentils) affair, which I somehow am not sick of yet. (I don't know how.. SO MUCH DAAL BHAT.)

We are only in Patan with our homestay families for one more week, and then we head to a week-long meditation retreat at a Buddhist monastery in Pharping. I'll try and post again before the meditation retreat (hopefully with pictures... I have a lot, I just haven't figured out how to put them on the computer yet. I keep trying to ask the owner's of the various internet cafe's that I've visited, but my Nepali skills are severely lacking. Much confusion and laughter always follows any attempt to speak.)

I want to hear from everybody, so e-mail me!

Let the adventures begin!

Hi everybody!

As Jihelah has already covered the important stuff (our incredibly vague itinerary), I'll just start off with a brief self-introduction.

I'm Megan! I'm 17, just graduated from high school, and am unbelievably excited to be spending my first year outside of the classroom since I can remember! (Post-travels I will be attending Midlebury College, which I am also incredibly excited about).

I was born in San Francisco, but did most of my growing up in Boise before  moving to Hood River for high school. I live with my two excellent parents (both of whom will be joining Jihelah and I for various segments of our travels, In the Himalayas and Burma respectively), and have two older sisters, Marie and Kathrin (both of whom just completed their own adventures in SE Asia. Actually, that is a lie: Kathrin is still mid-adventure. She is currently in Laos, and is heading to India shortly!) Marie just started medical school at UCSF, and Kathrin is pondering law school. Some people are appalling overachievers; both of my sisters fall into this category. They are also huge badasses.

I spent most of my childhood hanging out with my family, skiing a huge amount, hiking, rafting, kayaking, and just generally doing excellent things in the outdoors. I spent most of high school hanging out with my friends, skiing a huge amount, hiking, rafting, kayaking, and (occasionally) doing school work. And actually, growing up outside is a huge part of why I want to go to Nepal, and even why I wanted to take a gap year in the first place; there are a lot of really incredible adventures to be had, and only a few more years to freely adventure! (After that I'm hoping that I'll have a very well paying and comfortable job. With a lot of vacation time, of course, so the travels (of a tamer and more planned variety) can continue.) Also, spending a tremendous amount of money going to school without any idea of what I want to study seemed like a bad idea to me. Hopefully I'll figure that out sometime soon! A year of aimless and wild traveling will help, I'm sure..

In less than 4 hours I'll be at the Portland airport, waiting (with an UNBELIEVABLY huge pack and a very open/ incredibly excited mind) for the first of our adventures to begin! (Actually, Jihelah's adventures have already begun. She is living it up in Japan as we speak.. Well, as I type...)

Thanks a million to everybody who gave me traveling advice (this basically includes everybody that I've spoken to in the last 3 months), told me exciting and terrifying stories, and lent me their gear (especially Marie. Because of your mosquito net, I will most likely not get Malaria, which I am tremendously grateful for.) I will miss you all an enormous amount, and look forward to hearing about how all of your lives are going. (So e-mail me!)

I'll post again the next time I have internet connection (which should be pretty soon after I arrive in Kathmandu!)

Until then, I will say only what a very wise man (Jeff Wilhelm) once said to me (approximately 10 million times. Actually, he still says it to me. It is basically appropriate for all circumstances, so really his constant use of it is quite reasonable): WOO-HOO!!

Day ONE!

View Asia tour 2012-2013 in a larger map

Hello friends, family, and strangers who know Megan!
Thank you for taking the time to check out our blog; I hope our wacky adventures bring some entertainment into your lives. I would like to start off with a brief introduction of myself, and then I'll post what everyone's actually interested in... our VERY vague itinerary for the next year(ish).

My name is Jihelah. I'm 19, born and raised (for the most part) in Hood River, Oregon. I have two great parents Lee and Feliza Greenwald who started showing me the world outside of our cosy bubble at a young age, first to visit family within the U.S. and soon afterwards (age 5 onward) traveling for months at a time to more diverse places like Mexico, New Zealand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Eastern/Western Europe. Mom and Dad: when you're missing me... remember that it's your fault I'm gone because you made our trips too fun! I also have a 16-year-old sister, Naomi. Lots of traveling= lots of family time= very close siblings. I'm going to miss her the most, but she seems to fare exceedingly well without my immediate involvement in her life.

In high school I spent a majority of my time occupied with school, homework, and sports (running XC, Nordic skiing, and tennis), but in my free time also played piano and hung out with a close group of friends. Hood River was a great place to grow up because I was introduced to so many outdoor activities like skiing, biking, and hiking... all of which I hope to incorporate into the coming year.

In June I finished my freshman year of college at University of Oregon in Eugene.  It was incredible, a year of freedom from parents, from responsibility (besides classes), and from my high school reputation. I quickly realized that the rules my parents instated were for my own good, the awesomeness of not having to cook for myself got old after the 4th night of overcooked spaghetti and steamed cauliflower, and it is hard to pick out new friends when you haven't spent 18 years getting to know each other. But after a couple months I felt comfortable in my new home, had settled in with a great group of girls in my dorm, and was taking classes I really enjoyed. I can't wait to go back to school at UO next year. But I'm not going this year because....

Me and Megan became very close after my senior year of high school. We did virtually everything with each other last summer and decided we should take a GAP year together (although mine would be placed awkwardly between my freshman and sophomore year of college). There was much deliberating on the subject of taking a year off... but we decided it was the thing to do. So tomorrow the trip we've been discussing for over a year will begin.

ITINERARY (AS IT STANDS NOW):
Sept. 3rd-Sept. 7th I will be in Tokyo visiting my great friend from school, Riko Ozawa. It's my first trip to Japan so she's going to give me a whirlwind tour of the capital, explain 2300 years of Japanese history, and (most importantly) help me taste the best of Japanese cuisine.
Sept. 7- Dec. 6th I will fly to Beijing and meet up with a dozen young Americans. I'm exploring China with a program called Where There Be Dragons (no joke... Check it out at wheretherebedragons.com I'm doing the China South of the Clouds Semester). We are traveling, learning, and taking classes (on language/culture/economics/politics) together all over China (Beijing, exploring the Great Wall, Gansu and Qinghai-in the NE part of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, and Kunming). Megan is doing a similar program in Nepal with the same company. She'll be doing a bunch of trekking(!!!!!!), a 10-day intensive meditation course, and taking Nepali culture/history/language classes. We're both going to have a fabulous time and hopefully pick up some travel smarts.
Dec. 6th-Jan. ? Flying to Katmandu where I'll meet up with Megan and we're going to trek in the Himalayas. It will be winter there, so we'll probably end up either buying a ton of wool socks or doing lower elevation treks. Geoff, Megan's dad, is planning on joining us for part of our Nepal leg of the journey.
Jan. ??- ??? India! Probably Northeastern India where there is a lot of great trekking. Or the Northwestern because Rajasthan is suppose to be spectacular.
Sometime in February My mom and Megan's mom, Beth, would like to visit. Probably in Burma... although official dates and locations haven't been decided.

****Disclaimer: We don't exactly know what we're doing or where we're going. We are interested in SE Asia, but New Zealand, Eastern Africa, and the Middle East are also very intriguing. But I think the  lack of direction will add to the general hilarity of our adventures. All in all... we'll cross that bridge when we get there. For the next three months I'll be posting from China, and Megan will be posting from Nepal.

So, wish me luck! Tomorrow I'll fly out of PDX with a 40lb backpack, clouded vision, and an open mind. Thank you to everyone who has told me traveling horror stories, given me contacts, lent me gear, and been supportive... I'm going to miss you all while I'm gone.

Keep checking the blog! I'll do my best to update often.
Until next time...
Zaijian!