20-28 December 2008

The past week has been eventful and busy, so I haven't had a chance to write. Last weekend, we went to Al Ain to go to the zoo and to Jebel Hafeet again. The zoo was nice and had a lot of Middle Eastern and African animals. They had at least six cages full of lions which leads me to believe they don't control the breeding too well there. They also had a lot of deer, wild dogs, and monkeys. It was not a particularly special zoo, but it was nice.

Afterwards, we drove to Jebel Hafeet. The cooler temperatures and the fact that we had been walking for hours at the zoo made the hot springs there a welcomed treat. We sat on the water's edge and soaked our feet for about half an hour while basking in the warm sunlight. It was really as nice as it sounds. When we felt ready, we all made the trek up one of the lower hills of Jebel Hafeet and sat up there for awhile enjoying the view. Since we had done this earlier in the semester, we became bored with it rather quickly and decided to drive up to the top of the actual Jebel Hafeet and see what the view was from there.

From the top of the mountain the view was amazing. Unfortunately, it was rather humid and cloudy, so we couldn't see too far, but what we could see was seemingly endless desert. We stayed there for awhile but decided to leave before the sunset since we didn't think it would be that good because of the humidity. Of course, the sun set was we were driving down the mountain, and it was beautiful, but we no longer had the amazing view.

After that, we had four more days of classes, including class on Christmas Eve which was not fun. On Christmas Eve night, Kendal and I, after many phone calls and negotiations, managed to get a cab to go to the St. Michael's Catholic Church in Sharjah for Christmas Eve mass. We had never seen a church any where in the UAE, while mosques are on every corner, so we were interested to see where these elusive churches were hiding. It turns out they are down a back alley way in Sharjah, and all the churches are together.

The mass consisted almost entirely of Indians with maybe four Westerners. For the longest time, Kendal and I feared the mass would be in Urdu or some other language we wouldn't understand, but thankfully it was in English. It was definitely the strangest mass I have ever been to. They only played a few traditional Christmas songs and all had been redone to sound like a Mexican hat dance song. They also randomly played Feliz Navidad. We stood for excessively long periods and no one shook hands when it came to that part of the service. They had a plastic baby Jesus doll which they held up in front of the congregation as if he was Simba in the Lion King. Receiving communion was a fight to the death as no one observed any sort of structural line formation; instead, everyone just pushed and shoved each other in an attempt to get to the front as if they would run out of bread or some other catastrophe would befall them and prevent them from receiving communion. Overall, it was an experience; a strange but good one.

Christmas day had its ups and downs. Of all days for this to happen, the internet went out on Christmas morning for "unknown reasons." It went out around 7:30 and it somehow took the IT people on campus the next six hours to contact Etisalat (provider) and get someone working on the problem. This would have been inconvenient on any other day, but on Christmas, when we all needed Skype to call home, it was completely ridiculous. Also, we entrusted Jeremy to cook the turkey. For some reason, he was under the impression that it would only take two hours to cook. We had planned on eating at four so we could go ice skating afterwards, but since Jeremy didn't get the turkey in the oven until three, we weren't able to eat until 6:30. These to occurrences, and the fact that I wasn't home for Christmas, put me in a pretty bad mood Christmas morning.

But some good things did happen as well. I was able to download A Christmas Story and watch that as a Christmas tradition. I cooked cookies and brownies, both of which came out well. Kay and Kendal adopted a stray kitten for the day, so I got to play with her for awhile. In the end, Christmas dinner turned out to be delicious, though a little late. All the food was great (everyone cooked something) and it was nice to have a Christmas dinner. We exchanged Secret Santa gifts and sung Christmas carols. After dinner, since it was too late to go ice skating, we all stayed in the student center to watch the movie Elf. Overall, it was an untraditional but fun Christmas.

The day after Christmas I spent studying since I had three exams today. It was pretty rough but I felt well-prepared for my test today and feel I did well on them. I had test in Political Economy of the Arab World, International Public Law, and Arabic today, and for the most part they went well. The finals went from 8 AM until 4 PM, so by the time I was done, I was mentally exhausted and my hand hurt immensely from writing so much. I went back to my room and watched some TV and relaxed.

We all went out to dinner tonight as a farewell dinner for Daniel who left tonight. We went to Fudruckers, his favorite restaurant, and then dropped him off at the airport. Afterwards, some of ice went ice skating in the Dubai Mall. It was a lot of fun and not as cold as ice skating rinks are in the States (it was inside). The Dubai Mall just recently opened and is the biggest mall in the Emirates. The ice skating rink was filled with people, including several Arab boys who were rather good and did coordinated hip-hop style dances on the ice. It was interesting to watch, particularly because boys would never be seen doing such things in the United States. I've really come to appreciate the openness and closeness of male relationships here. Anyway, the Dubai Mall also has an aquarium, so after skating we went to look at that. It was decently big with way too many fish in it. It had sharks, sting rays, a few huge fish, and hundreds of smaller fish. Again, another strange but interesting aspect of the Emirates.

Well, that's all for now. I have the next two days off, then one more final, then two days to relax and pack, and then I'm home.

-Lindsay

Mountain Ram at the Zoo:



Really Overweight Jaguar:



Endless Desert:



Our Sad Token Christmas Tree:



Our Christmas Dinner:



Sheikh Maktoum on a Huge TV Screen Above the Skating Rink:



Kendal and Kevin:



Bader and Kevin:

17-19 December 2008

The past few days have been rather eventful ones. I went to Bahrain for the day on Wednesday, which was an experience. I went by myself because no one else wanted to come which proved difficult at times. Since I was only there for the day, I only had time to explore the main section of the city known as Manama. When I arrived in Bahrain, I was immediately shuffled into the "visa transfer" group. This consists of people who flew to Bahrain to immediately turn around and go back to Sharjah so they could reenter the country and renew their visa. Luckily, one other person was also mistakenly put in this group, so we figured it out together and got on our way to passport services.

Once within the actual country, I got a taxi to the Bahrain National Museum. I'm pretty sure my taxi driver was a local, which never happens in the UAE. He asked about what I was doing for the day, suggested some things to do, and then gave me his card in case I got in any trouble. The Museum was nice and had a lot of scale models depicting Bahraini heritage. There were also some old documents and an entire room on graves. Gravesites supposedly occupy five percent of the land in Bahrain.

After the Museum, I walked along the Corniche (waterfront) to the al-Fateh mosque. The walk was relaxing by long and really cold and windy. It was a lot colder in Bahrain than in the UAE. When I got to the mosque, I had to put on an abaya (black cloak) and head scarf in order to go in. The mosque offers free tours, but unfortunately, the only tour going when I got there was in German. So I got to look around but understand nothing of what was being said. After the tour, I stayed in the mosque for awhile, just sitting down and reading my Lonely Planet book trying to figure out where I was going to go next.

At this point, it was time for noon prayer. A security guard came up to me and told me I had to leave. By this, I assumed he meant the mosque since it was prayer time and I'm not Muslim. Actually, he just meant I couldn't be sitting outside the mosque, which I was. He brought me inside, and the people who were conducting the tours found me a chair and put it in the sun, where I would be warm. They also gave me a lot of pamphlets on Islam and let me sit there during prayer time. It was really nice.

Eventually, I had enough energy and was warm enough to move again. I thanked the people at the mosque and then went and got a taxi. I asked him to bring me to the Manama Souq which was on the other side of town. Again, this taxi driver was very nice and talkative. When we arrived at the souq, I was very disoriented and couldn't seem to find it. By this point I was really hungry, so I temporarily gave up on the souq, got some lunch, and relaxed a bit more. I tried to study the map in my Lonely Planet book, but the map was proving more and more incorrect the more I used it.

After lunch, I again tried to find this souq. In the end, I concluded either the map was completely wrong or the souq no longer existed. I ended up walking down a bunch of back alleys and little streets, which was not comforting as I was traveling alone. After that, I did my best to stick to main roads. I eventually found the Bab al-Bahrain (Gate of Bahrain). From there I decided to go to the Pearl Diving Museum, which according to the map was only .2 miles away.

A mile later, I figured once again the map was either completely wrong or the museum no longer existed. Along the walk, however, I had passed a lot of interesting buildings in the financial sector, so being lost wasn't a complete waste of time. Once again, I consulted the map, this time not to get directions but just to see what other sights there were to see. I eventually decided to go see the pearl monument, so I waved down a taxi to go.

He had no idea where the pearl monument was, but according to the map it was near the fish market, so I asked him to bring me there. At this point I was all out of small change, and the driver didn't have change for me, so he very kindly stopped at a market to make change. This took a little while since, in keeping with Arab culture, he had to say hello to everyone he knew and inquire about their health and well-being. Anyway, after paying the taxi, I walked to the Pearl Monument which we had passed on the way.

It was an interesting structure. Nothing too grand but nice. At this point it was about 2:00 PM. I could either go back to the airport or continue to look around for a bit. I still had two hours before I should be back at the airport, so I decided to try and find the water gardens which were listed on the map in the guide book, but there was no description. I tried to use the map for awhile, but a fair amount of the roads on the map were not labeled nor did the roads in Bahrain have street signs, so I was pretty much effectively lost with the map. I ended up using the sun and place markers like the police station to figure out where I was and where I was going. After about a forty five minute walk, I arrived at the water gardens.

The gardens didn't really live up to their name. It was more like a lake with geese and ducks, a roller coaster, and a little carnival-like area. I feed the geese for awhile and tried to take some pictures of the birds flying. Other than that, there really wasn't too much to do there. Once again, I had to make a decision as to whether I should try to see more or should just get a cab back to the airport. I looked at the map, which had on it the Andalus Gardens and the Old Royal Palace, both of which sounded interesting and both of which where in the direction of the airport. So I decided to walk that way and see how far I could get in the time I had left.

It took awhile to get there, and when I finally got to the Andalus Gardens, I discovered they werer closed. I could still see it through the fence, and it looked like it was under construction. The Old Royal Palace was supposed to be in this area. I think I may have seen it, but I didn't have time to find out for sure since it was now 4:15 PM, and I really had to get back to the airport.

Finding a cab in Bahrain is no problem at all, and I was soon on my way back to the airport. We left Manama for another smaller island known as Muharraq. The airport is on this island. We past a lot more monuments on this island, including one of a hawk, which made me wish I had explored it a bit more, but it was too late. Check in at the airport was easy, as it usually is at airports not in the US.

After check-in, I was amazed to find the entire duty-free section was decorated for Christmas. The decorations were very intense and well done. They even had Christmas music playing. It was like I had been transported back to a mall in the US. I went in every store, enjoying the Christmas atmosphere.

My plane ended up being over an hour late, but we managed to land in Sharjah only forty minutes late. From there, I just got a taxi and went back to campus. I found out the following day (yesterday)that on Tuesday Bahraini officials had arrested fifteen people planning on carrying out various attacks on Shi'ite Muslim sights in Bahrain on Wednesday, the day I was there. This was a little unnerving, but I was glad I found out after I went and also that they had managed to prevent the attacks from happening. I had noticed a lot of police presence in Bahrain, but since I had nothing to compare this with, I didn't think much of it.

Yesterday after school, a bunch of us went out and got some pizza and then went to the beach. It has gotten pretty cold here lately, and the beach was no exception. Surprisingly, the water was still really warm, but we didn't go in. There is a jetty at the beach, so we walked out onto that. From there, one can see a great view of the Dubai skyline. I tried to take some pictures, but it is hard to capture the skyline in the dark. One of these days before I leave, I have to get some pictures of these buildings in the day time.

Aside from all of that, I've just been trying to get schoolwork done. I just have one more presentation to give and then finals. I just cannot wait for the semester to be over. AU has been out for almost a week now, and I am extremely jealous. But for good news, the day I get home is no in the long range weather forecast meaning its coming up! This is good and bad. I want to go home, but I also like being here.

-Lindsay

Corniche:



Sail Monument:



Al-Fateh Mosque:



Minarets of Al-Fateh Mosque:



Bahraini Flags from Bahrain National Day:



Bird in the Sun at the Water Gardens:



Pearl Monument:



Building in the Financial District:



Bab al-Bahrain:



Christmas at Bahrain International Airport:

9-16 December 2008

Things have been pretty quiet since I got back from Nepal. I spent most of my first week back sleeping and watching TV. On December 10, I went to see the Maroon 5 concert here in Dubai at Festival Centre. It was an outdoor concert and a little cold, but still pretty enjoyable.

The rest of the group got back from India on the 12. From the stories I've been told, it sounds like it would have been nice to be there but they didn't have the time of their lives. It was dirty, poor, and overcrowded in India and they did a lot more traveling than actual sight seeing. I still would have liked to have been there and am upset that I got so sick, but at least I feel a little better about not being there.

School has started again, which is pretty rough. I don't understand why they would give us a two week vacation and then come back with a week and a half of school and then finals. It makes no sense. I'm pretty much done with school however. I just have one more essay and one more presentation, both of which I'm basically done with, and then finals and then I'm done. Seventeen more days until America!

Tomorrow I'm trying to go to Bahrain for the day. Airarabia, the airlines we flew, would not refund my money for my ticket from Delhi to Sharjah, so I have to do something with it. Round trip to Bahrain is almost the same price as the one way from Delhi to Sharjah, so it makes sense to use the ticket that way. It's too expensive to stay in a hotel in Bahrain, so I'm just planning on a day trip. Well see if I end up going.

Well, thats about all for now. The semester is slowly winding down, but I still have a lot things to get done. I'll write more later.

-Lindsay

More Pictures from Nepal

View of the Mountains from my Plane Ride from Pokhara to Kathmandu:



UN Vehicle:



Loose Cow Walking the Street:



Old Van:



Villagers' Home:



River in the Jungle:



Elephants in the River:



Wild Deer:



Rhinos:



Water in the Jungle:



Villagers Carrying Wood:



Elephant:



Local Market:



Old Royal Palace:



Cow in Durbar Square:

Pictures from Nepal

Me and Some Locals:



Durbar Square:



Monkey Feeding Time:



Adorable Monkey:



Monkey Temple:



View of Kathmandu Valley from the Monkey Temple:



Long Stairway Leading up to the Monkey Temple:




Statue on the Way up to the Monkey Temple:



Alleyway Photo:



A Temple:

30-8 Nov-Dec 2008

So my trip to Nepal and India did not go as planned. I was unfortunately never able to make it out of Nepal due to illness. After my last post, we went river rafting on the Trisuli River outside of Kathmandu. To get there, we had to take a packed bus headed for a town called Chitwan. The mountain roads are very narrow, barely two lanes wide, and have huge drop offs on one side. Many of the drop offs are not barricaded, and I assume occassionally cars fall. The drivers on these roads are crazy and will pass cars by crosing into the wrong lanes. To warn cars around the corner that both lanes are occupied, they use their horn, but it is still a very risky manuveur.

Our rafting place was along the route to Chitwan, so we simply got out when needed. Rafting was a lot of fun. The river isn't particularly difficult, so it was very well suited for our group's ability. About halfway through we stopped for lunch, which wasn't that good. I only ate bread and bananas because everything else was fresh vegetables. After lunch we continued on down the river until the end of the route.

To get back to Kathmandu, we had to take another bus. The tour company we used to book the rafting had given the rafting company some extra money to get us a bus back. So our instructors had to go out on the very narrow mountain road and flag us down a bus, which seemed pretty much standard protocol. They finally were able to flag down a bus, and I got on immediately since I wasn't feeling to well. Unfortunately, no one else got on, and one of the people on the bus started getting into a dispute with one of our rafting guys. The bus started to pull away, with me still on it and the rest of my friends not. Finally, some one on the bus pushed me towards the entrance and thankfully forced me off the bus. Second time around, we all got on the bus and were on our way back to Kathmandu.

On the bus ride back, Kendal, Jeremy, and I all got horribly sick. Kendal had started getting sick before the ride, and I had been sick the previous night, but the bus ride seemed to make it so much worse. We sat in the back, vomiting the entire ride. There was a little boy on the bus, who I assume was the son of the driver, who kept bringing us plastic bags and sat with us, which I have no idea why he would want to do that. We were rather miserable. About half way through the four our bus ride, I stopped throwing up and just wanted to lay down. Due to the lack of space, at some point during the ride I woke up with the little boy sleeping on top of me. He had been sitting next to me, but I think I invaded his space and he just eventually fell asleep on me. According to my friends it was cute, but I didn't really car, I just needed sleep.

We got off the bus as soon as possible, still very sick. We managed to flag down a cab and after sitting in traffic for forever, we got back to the hotel. By now, Kevin was also sick. We would later reason through process of elimination that we had probably had some contaminated fresh squeezed orange juice, but we will never no for sure. Kendal seemed to get better fast, but I spent the entire night sick. Thankfully, Kendal and Max stayed up with me and took care of me. Vomiting for that long was really having its toll on me, mentally and physically, and their support really helped. They eventually got me to listen to my iPod to calm down and I was able to fall asleep.

The next day, we all spent the day pretty much in bed. Max and Daniel left us to go spend a night with a local family Max was connected with. The rest of us were too sick to go. We tried to go out and get lunch and dinner, but none of us were too hungry. We could barely eat dinner and ended up having it boxed up and giving it away to the street kids.

The following day, Max and Daniel returned. Our original plan was to go to Chitwan that day. I didn't want to leave Kathmandu because I still felt pretty miserable, but the group decided to press on. Instead of taking a bus there, we took a van type car, which I liked a lot better, but I was the only one. We had to stop about halfway there because of a protest, but once that was over we were on our way again. I tried to sleep the entire ride. When we got to Chitwan, we tried to get a taxi to our hotel, but they were asking too much money, so we took an incredibly over packed bus to some other location. From there, we had to take a jeep to the area of our hotel. The driver brought us to the wrong hotel first because he had a deal with another to bring them customers, but we eventually got to where we were going. Once we got there and checked in, I just went right to bed because I had had enough.

The next day the group made plans to go on a canoe ride, a hike, and an elephant ride. The first two activities were in the morning, and I passed on them because I still felt sick and wanted to get better, so I could enjoy the rest of the trip. I was able to eat a little lunch and then went on the elephant ride that afternoon. We got to see rhinos, some birds, and two types of deer in the Chitwan National Preserve which was nice, but the elephant ride is incredibly uncomfortable. Instead of riding the elephant, they place a wooden basket-like thing on top of the elephant and four people ride in that. We were constantly bumping into the wood and rocking. It wasn't too enjoyable. We got to see the local village though, which was interesting.

Chitwan is a pretty small town, and we were very far removed from the main section. Basically, we were in the middle of nowhere, which I really didn't like because I felt like I was just getting sicker. I had eaten basically nothing for three days at this point and wasn't drinking either. Chitwan is also very dirty, probably because it floods every year in the wet season, so it smelled bad. It was not the place to get better. Kendal and Max luckily food the only doctor in town, and he made a late afternoon house call to my hotel room. He said it looked like I had a protozoa and bacterial infection in my stomach, probably from food, and he gave me a shot and some medications. I felt relieved after that, and thought I could finally get better. We all went out to dinner after that, where I forced down some food I really didn't want to eat. Afterwards, I took the medication he gave me. Unfortunately, the medicine didn't stay down for long.

By the time we got back to our hotel room, I was vomiting again, so Jeremy went and found the doctor. He said I was probably too dehydrated to eat or drink, so next thing I know I have an IV in my arm. The doctor stayed until one in the morning giving me two IVs and injectable antibiotics. Keep in mind this is all occuring in a room in the "jungle lodge" in the middle of no where. The doctor told me two weeks before he had six New Zealanders hooked up to IVs in the same lodge. I again felt better. Now that I had some helpful IV, I thought, I could finally get better. The doctor advise we stay in Chitwan one more day, so I could get better. We tentatively agreed.

The next morning, the doctor returned to give me one more shot and remove the IV. The whole morning the group had been trying to convince me to leave for Pokhara that day, but I told them I didn't want to go. The doctor, sensing our groups urgency, said I could probably leave today, and I no longer had any reason to stay, so I unwillingly decided to leave for Pokhara. The ride to Pokhara almost rivaled the ride home from river rafting in terms of misery. That morning I had managed to eat and drink a little, but the bus we were on was so bumpy, loud, and uncomfortable, plus the roads are so windy, that I just felt awful. By the time we stopped halfway, I couldn't handle it anymore. I lost it. I was so sick, miserable, hungry and thirsty, and unable to do anything about it. I just wanted to go home. I couldn't do anything about it then, but I knew I couldn't keep moving and get better and it became clear the group wasn't going to slow down. Everyone else who had been sick had gotten better relatively well. I, for whatever reason, wasn't getting better.

Once we got to Pokhara, we got a cab to some restaurant where I threw up again. I just laid down on chairs until everyone ate, and the boys found us a hotel. It took forever, and I was getting increasingly cranky with the situation. Tensions were running high. Finally, they came back with a hotel where I proceeded to crawl into bed and sleep.

Later that evening, Jeremy brought me back some chicken noodle soup because I still wasn't eating or drinking nearly enough. It was the most amazing thing I think I have ever eaten, except it to did not stay down. I was becoming hopeless. We made plans to get me back to Sharjah as it was becoming apparent I wasn't getting better. There are planes from Pokhara to Kathmandu and from there I could fly home. It sounded like a good plan. Everyone went out to explore the city that first night, but Jeremy stayed with me. I was once again having a rough time dealing with what was going on and he sat with me until I fell asleep, for which I am very thankful.

The next day I spent in bed. Luckily, I had brought a very long book and got to read most of it. I ate a little egg and some more soup, but was afraid to eat too much for fear of vomiting. I did manage to get out of bed to make plane reservations and call home. Aside from that, I didn't move much. They tried to keep me included in what was going on, but they also wanted to enjoy their vacation, and I was jealous they could go off and do fun things. I was just too sick.

Finally, the next day I got up at 7:30 to catch my 9:30 flight out of Pokhara. Jeremy went with me to the tiny airport. At this point, I was eating only pretzel since the salt seemed to be all I could handle with liquids. I was very weak and still dehydrated. Jeremy wanted with me until I had to go through security.

My flight got delayed an hour because of fog in Kathmandu, and I was afraid I would miss my connecting flight. When we landed in Kathmandu, they bused us off the tarmac to a place away from the main airport to get our bags. I could have walked to the airport but was so weak I hired a cab from 100 ruppes (about $1.20). The guy wanted 200 rupees, but I got him down. When I went to leave, I decided to give him 120 rupees because I figured he could use it more than me. He looked at it and immediately demanded 150. I was so angry at him. I tried to do a nice thing for him and he was trying to take advantage of it. I just yelled at him and got out.

Then they wouldn't let me in the airport at Kathmandu because I didn't have a physical ticket. I had to argue with security that I did indeed have a ticket, it just wasn't in my hand. They wouldn't believe me for the longest time but finally let me in. Check in went smoothly, and I got a window seat. Customs out of the country cost me 1700 rupees in exit tax which again annoyed me, but I was at the point that I would throw money at anyone if it would just get me home. After all that, I hung out in the main area for as long as I could before going through the last of security. They had a plasma screen with animal planet on, so I had something to watch. Before going through security, I discarded my water bottle from which I had been sipping and was very angry when I say they don't confiscate water bottles in line there.

Anyway, I finally got on the plane; it was a lot bigger than the one we took but completely packed. I was one of the first one's on and hoped my seat would remain empty, but I ended up having two seat mates. Halfway through, one of the stewards approached me and asked if I wanted to change seats. I was really confused because I hadn't made any indication that I wanted to but I said that it would be great if I could. So he checked, and eventually moved me up the the front row. I had the entire row to myself. Every other row was packed with three people each. The stewards also paid more attention to me, brought me water, and helped me out. It was nice, but strange.

I didn't understand why he choose to move me until the end of the flight when we all got off. I was one of only 5 girls out of the 200 people on the plane and the only white person on the whole plane. I couldn't tell if he moved me because I was white, or because I was the only woman obviously traveling alone, or maybe I just looked that sick. All of the explanations made me a little uneasy, and though I'm still glad he moved me, I don't like the special treatment, or at least why I may have recieved it.

When we all got off, all the men were ushered into various groups for companies (I think they were all coming to work here). The recruiters were so confused when I emerged from this group of people. It was very amusing. I exchanged my remaining 6990 rupees and got 250 dirhams. Bader was supposed to pick me up and bring me to the hospital, so I went to call him. As if I didn't have enough problems, cell phone was dead, so I had to find an etisalat (cell phone company) stand to charge my phone and call Bader. My plane had been delayed and by the time I was able to turn my phone on and call, I was an hour late. Luckily, he was in Dubai and came and got me.

We went to McDonalds (never had such a good burger from mcDonalds, even if I couldn't finish it all) and then to the hospital, which was the most tramautizing experience. My doctor was apparently from the land where people don't talk loud enough to be heard, and she had to repeat everything for me to be able to understand her. The nurses gave my so many shots without telling me what the were. I literally had to yell at the nurses to get them to tell me what they were giving me. Then, they couldn't get the IV in my hand. They were scraping the needle under my skin, against my bone and other body things, it hurt so much. I had to yell at them to stop. Bader, who was right outside, said he could year me yelling at them. They were so imcompetent. Then, they finally got the IV in the other hand, but some how missed the vein unknowingly, so all the IV liquid got pumped under my skin instead of in the vein. So then, I had a golf ball sized bump on my wrist. It looked ridiculous. To fix that, they put some sort of magnesium sulfate wrap on my hand which smelled so awful. Yea, I'm never going to that hospital again.

One good thing they did though is that they figured out I couldn't eat and was still throwing up because of stomach ulcers caused by the initial vomiting. So they gave me a ton of ulcer medication, and I've been eating like crazy ever since. It's amazing.

I spent that night in a hotel because it was too late at night to deal with the paperwork and issues I would encounter if I returned to AUS a week before I said I would. I was in shock because the room had a huge bed which was so comfortable, a flat screen TV, A/C, a fridge, and those little bars of soap. I was in heaven and fell asleep immediately. This hotel even served breakfast in the morning. I took a luxurious shower, watched TV, and relaxed. I didn't want to leave, but I got back to campus the next day and after some bickering, they agreed to let my into my dorm (but only for 10 minutes) to get my stuff and I am currently living in another dorm until Dec. 12. The dorm I'm in right now is so much nicer than my other one. I think because its newer, but the rooms are nicer and everything else is to.

Since then I haven't really left my room. My life pretty much consists of sleeping and eating. I tried to get off campus today to get some supplies, but the taxi I called never showed. So I am once again reminded of why the UAE annoys me so much. Nepal may have been smelly, dirty, and I may have gotten horribly sick there, but I didn't meet one mean person. Ever since returning to the UAE, everyone I meet has an attitude and no one is nice. Everyone at the airport was stuffy and aloof and the attitudes in general are unkind. I'm glad to be back to normalcy, but I miss the laid-back and kind attitudes of the Nepalese.

I've been feeling considerably better, but of course, I now also have a cold that some of us had on the trip. I'm all right though. At least I'm not sitting on bouncy bus on long, windy mountain roads. I'm a little annoyed because I think it was the ulcers that must have made me so sick. Since I've been medicating them, I've been feeling great. If only I could have gotten these medications in Nepal, I could still be on the trip. But it's too late now. If I had stayed, I'd still be sick and miserable. The only way to get better was to come home. It's unfortunate, but it's what I had to do.

Since reflecting on this, I realize how lucky I am. I got out. I got to get to better medicine, cleaner places. I just keep thinking about all those who don't have that option. I asked the doctor in Chitwan about the locals and if they get sick. He said the get sick all the time. So here I am, using Western medicine and good food to get better when dozens and hundreds of local villagers in Nepal have to get better off little or no medication, eating the same food that probably made them sick. I feel so lucky and so upset at the same time about this. It really isn't fair. I don't deserve to get better any more than any of them do. I hate to admit it, but like on the plane, the color of my skin and where I come from has once again come to my rescue. It's not fair and it's not right.

On a happier note, its been raining here. We had a huge storm my first night back with thunder and lightning which was amazing. And it's somewhat chilly here. A lot seems to be changing quickly.

Since going through all of this, I miss home more than ever. I can't wait to be back to my family, friends, and animals. Back to where things really make sense and where I feel at home. Twenty five days left!

-Lindsay

I will be posting pictures at a later date.

28-29 November 2008

We arrived safely in Kathmandu, Nepal yesterday. We had to get up before 5 AM to catch our early flight out. The plane was very crowded and smelly. Someone was in my assigned seat, so I ended up sitting in the middle seat next to Kendal, which was nice except the person on the other side of me was obviously sick and I was worried about catching a cold. Anyway, we landed in Nepal on time. The views as we approached were beautiful. We could see the Himilayas and a whole bunch of small housing villages.

We were able to get our visas and our bags quickly and didn't havce to go through cutsoms. A representative from our hotel met us there to bring us back to the hotel. A whole bunch of our people followed us to the car whose apparent purpose was to put our bags in the car. We didn't realize that they weren't associated with the hotel until they started demanding money. We gave a little but managed to then drive away.

Our hotel is ok, but by no means luxury accomodations. The mattress are rock solid, the toliet doesn't work, and there is no heat. The lows last night probably dropped into the 40s, so I slept in my sleeping bag under the covers and in a sweatshirt. I was pretty warm with that.

Anyway, after we checked in to the hotel, we decided to get some lunch and wander. We are staying in the Thamel district of Kathmandu, which is the big tourist center. The majority of the Westerners here are either hippies or mountain trekking, and it is amusing to see them wandering around. I also got to see a UN car, which is the first one I have ever seen in my life. We ate lunch at a little garden restaurant and then decided to go the monkey temple. We didn't know how to get there so we hired a couple rickshaws (carts pulled by bikes) to take us there.

That was a rather scary experience as the rickshaws are not sturdy things and we were driving down steep hills on roads filled with pot holes. Eventually, we got somewhere in the vicinity of the temple, but we had to procede on foot from there. The temple is on top of a huge hill on the outskirts of the city. To get to the top, you have to climb hundreds and hundreds of stairs. By the time we got there, the sun was all ready starting to set and we wanted to be able to see the sun set, so we hurried up the stairs, which was very difficult and exhausting.

The reason the temple is called the monkey temple is because it is overrun with monkeys. They were everywhere. When we got to the top, we were able to watch the sunset a little, but since Kathmandu is in a valley, we could only watch the changing colors of the sky. Afterwards, we wandered around the complex, watching the monkeys and doing other things. In addition to being a Hindu place of worship, people lived there, and there were dozens of sellers trying to sell touristy items, CDs, pictures, and other things.

The monkeys were really entertaining. There were a bunch of little babies. There were also a lot of dogs there (as there is everywhere in Nepal) and at one point during monkey feeding time, a puppy tried to play with the monkeys. Only one monkey seemed remotely interested, but only if he could surprise attack the dog. Once the dog started fighting back, the monkey jumped away. Once it started getting dark, we decided to head back down the hill since the stairs are not lit, and it would be difficult to go down in the pitch black. Before we left though, I noticed how dark the city is. There are not a lot of street lights and no tallk buildings, so for being a big city, Kathmandu is pretty dark.

When we got down, we hired a mini-bus type vehicle to bring us back to Thamel. We then went to supposedly the oldest hotel in Kathmandu for dinner. There were a bunch of people in the lobby there who had apparently been planning on going to Bangkok, but there flight had been diverted due to the civil unrest there. By the way, we have been keeping up on the news in India and it appears the main intended targets were not foreigners. We will continue to watch the news, and as of now, are not sure when or if we will be traveling to India.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel where I took a nap since I have not gotten a lot of sleep lately. We then went out to see the nightlife. A bunch of places had live music and it was a party pretty much everywhere. We went to one place that seemed interesting but was way too over crowded, and we eventually ended up at a much calmer restaurant. We stayed there until 11:00 when they told us they were closing. Apparently, everything closes here at or before eleven. Finally, we went back to the hotel to go to bed.

This morning, we didn't get up and going until 11:00, since we were all pretty tired from the night before. Jeremy had gotten up earlier and gone shopping, and Max had apparentl gone to church, but the rest of us slept in. When we did get up, we got breakfast at this nice rooftop place and then started walking to Durbar Square. Along the way, we stopped at a travel agency to make plans to go river rafting tomorrow. After getting lost a few times, we eventually got to Durbar Square, which is a conglomeration of a bunch of temples and the old royal palace. We went through the museum in the palace, which was pretty boring except for the nine story high tower we could climb to get a nice view of the city.

After the museum, we tried to find an internet cafe to look up directions for yoga for this afternoon. It took us a long time to find one, and we ended up traveling down a whole bunch of different streets in a local market. The market was a lot more crowded than the tourist markets in Thamel. It became quite overwheling as cars, bikes, motorcycles, people, and dogs were everywhere. We eventually found an internet cafe through a back alleyway. This cafe had the slowest internet connection, but we were able to get the info we needed.

We had to hire some rickshaws again since the yoga was happening soon. Unfortunately, the rickshaw drivers got confused and brought us back to Thamel instead of to yoga. At this point, Jeremy, Daniel, and I decided to stay in Thamel to shop and hang out at the hotel. Kevin and Kendal hired a taxi to go to yoga. Shopping was fun; I bought a few things and got to barter for all of them, which I am becoming good at. Afterwards, I went to an internet cafe, and here I am.

So far, Kathmandu has been amazing. The weather is cool, and it is relaxing. However, it is very polluted. Traffic is bad and horns are honking constantly. There is extreme poverty, with people sleeping in the streets, and at least one boy tried to pick-pocket us. The government has signs up saying to not encourage begging by giving handouts. Its a little hard to do sometimes, expecially with the children.

Aside from those few things, everything is going pretty well. I will write more next time I have a chance.

-Lindsay