I'm a geographical vegetarian, meaning I don't eat meat in India (with the exception of a few select restaurants). For some reason this is horrifying to a lot of people. They don't understand and usually loudly exclaim something along the lines of 'You don't eat meat?! How do you live?' No offense but please let me break it down for you.

You see, many of you who read this go to the grocery store to get your meat. You push a cart to the frozen food section and pick up your packaged boneless chicken or grade A beef. When I go to buy meat, however, I see this:



Haha...now you all will probably have nightmares. But I thought I'd try to save myself from any more lectures about how unhealthy it is to eliminate meat from my diet. Clearly I'm choosing the lesser of two evils here. This blog is actually way overdue because I'll soon be pushing my own cart to the frozen food section! Boneless frozen chicken. Mesquite lime marinades. Propane grills. Yum...

Six more days left in India. Two more in my city. We're super busy and I'll do my best to post some more lovely pictures in the near future.

Respect the Tag!

E-Rob recently tagged me and now i'm challenged to list eight random facts about myself. Since I've done this a couple of times it's getting harder to think of random things that meet the criteria I'm looking for. My goal is to list interesting facts and stay away from anything that makes me look like too much of a freak. But I actually enjoy reading other people's lists so much that I'm going to do my best to come up with something good. So, E, I hope I do you justice!

1) I tend to get the dreaded 'Asian face' in photo graphs. It's ok to look Asian if you are, but I'm not. My eyes just get really squinty because they're sensitive to light. If you have a one flash camera don't even try to take a good picture of me.

2) I put purple streaks in my hair in Thailand, but they've mostly faded by now. I was a little bummed about it but then I realized I'll be in America soon meeting a lot of new people. It's probably good I don't have purple hair.

3) My biggest fear in going back to America is that I won't travel again for a really really long time.

4) I've had giardia three times since I came to India from bad water. Americans would save millions on diets if they just came to South Asia and drank tap water.

5) My favorite food is hummus with olive oil and pita bread.

6) I'm not fluent in Hindi, but I randomly substitute Hindi words and phrases for English ones...even when I'm talking to my American friends who live here. I forget English words all the time. No one is going to understand me when I come home.

7) I can never remember what day or time it is. Sometimes I even forget the month. Last year I sent Suzanne a birthday email on July 18th even though her birthday is August 18th. I didn't forget her birthday--I really thought it was August.

8) I'm going to Africa in 11 days

Ok--I actually started this post several days ago (hence the date) and since that time I've almost completely finished packing. If you know me well you realize what a feat this is. I usually pack the night before I go anywhere. Sometimes I wait until the morning I leave. But not this time!

Summer Travels

I'm back. Wow, I am tired. So much traveling. So much fun. So little sleep. I've posted some pictures to highlight my last couple weeks, but let me tell you a little about all that happened. First I went to Chiang Mai, Thailand for our regional meeting. This was my fourth trip to Thailand and, as usual, it was a great time. After being in the mountains for so long I felt physically, emotionally, and spiritually refreshed. It was so good hanging out with old friends and making new ones. We were in meetings all day long, but we hit the streets at night--eating burgers, shopping, getting pedicures and massages, going to movies, etc... all the normal things that I've come to appreciate once they weren't so 'normal' in my life anymore.

AGM was a good time of closure. I said goodbye to a lot of the people, and after a hectic last day, many of them floated out of my life. It reminded me a little of college graduation actually. Then my gals and I caught a flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where we ate at Chili's (AMAZING) and walked around the Petronas Towers (even more AMAZING). Our final, destination, however was Bali, Indonesia. Bali is like the Hawaii of Asia only less expensive. And, well, it's still Asia so not quite as ritzy but that was ok with us. We were pretty much beach bums most of the time, but we did go see a volcano and do a little shopping. We also stayed in the most amazing villa ever. It had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a loft, and a private pool...all for a ridiculously cheap Asian price. It was splendid.




























In fifteen days I leave India. There is so much to do and so many people to see. Today I started sorting through my clothes and other various things. I came across my passport and started flipping through it. It's full of India stamps and it makes me sad that after this last stamp I'm not sure when I'll get another one. No more cows on the streets, no more rickshaws, no more crazy Punjabi music, no more men in stone washed jeans with greased back hair, no more eating with my hands, no more listening to Bryan Adams in every restaurant, no more speaking Hindi and broken English, no more pushing and cutting in line, no more power outages, no more chai in people's homes, no more saris and bindis, no more freezing showers...

I guess I'll be thankful to get back to a place where things actually work properly, but there's a fascination and richness about India that you can't find anywhere else. I know I'll miss it. But God willing I'll come back one day, at least to visit. I'm going to leave a blank spot in my passport just in case that day comes sooner rather than later.

Now to give you a taste of how fun it can be to talk to Indians. I went to the post office today to pick up a package from Jared and the post office man made me sign a piece of paper.
Him: Julie, be sure and tell Ronald hello from all of us (my last name is Reagan in case any of you didn't know that).
Me: Well, um, you know he's expired right? (they say expired instead of dead)
Him: Oh no! Oh no! I'm so so very sorry.
Me: Um, thanks. It's ok.
Him: Well, be sure and tell Nancy hello from all of us then.
Me: Ok, ji. I sure will.

HA! I cracked up as I walked out of the office. It was too funny. The poor guy actually thought I was a close relative of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. It was too funny. I'm really going to miss stuff like this.