Why pasta is really rice in disguise

An old woman came to my house today and she saw the angel hair pasta I brought to make the family in the next few days. They told her what it was. They've had pasta before, they know what it is, they've even learned to prepare a rather decent chicken primavera like dish. Yet, this woman insisted on educating them. They were wrong she said, and so were the ingrediants listed on the bag... it was in fact.. chamal... and she had me search for the "english word rice" on the bag. I assured her it was not there, i had bought it and made it before and it was not rice... yet she insisted... and she said she didn't like these different shaped rice in disguise things. They tasted like crap and my family shouldn't allow me to feed them such guck. There was nothing to do but slightly chuckle inwardly.

KPG is great! It is nice to have nothing really to do for a few days. I am going on some long walk tomorrow to picnic with my daaju and all his friends. This should be an interesting adventure... I'm not sure I'm mentally prepared for what's in store. It should be tons of fun though. Its warm all day.. hot even.. but once it gets to be 5 or 6 pmits cold again and i dont have the sweet heating tricks I did at the hotel so last night i just kinda rubbed myself against myself to sleep. Its really harder than you think to sleep with your hands in your pockets.

I didn't bring my sandals which I should've guessed was a bad idea. Now i have to go buy some. But they are like a 100 RPS so its not a big deal.

As for the other families. Mark's family is great, but they are by far the angriest I think since he has made no effort whatsoever to contact them. They are pissed as far as i can tell since almost everyone I have met has gone, "When's Sukdew coming?... His family is really angry." Though, if I were him I would call or write but ot show my face round here for a long time. The way his baauju acted the once time I went over was scaaaaary. She pulled me aside at least 3 times to ask me the same questions :Where's mark, hows mark, whens he coming, why doesnt he call me.. on and on and on. She got her carpet all shaken up by Mr. Marklepants and it wouldnt surprise me if he spent any more time in that house it wouldn't be alittle too obvious and he'd leave with a khukuri smashed halfway down his face. As I can remember, that family doesn't take well to wife stealers.

I tried to go see the Molly's but they weren't around. And I havn't gone to visit anyone else. Ariel's family always half jokes about her never writing or calling. I think they did actually really really like her, it just didn't come across very well. So I try to play it off as much as I can.. which leads to some presciously awkward moments.
Other than that not much has gone on. I'll make sure to post more interesting stuff when it happens.

I am, though, on a final note, really sick of tea, and tea farms, and hwo tea grows, and hwo tehy make tea and dry it and pick it and shake it and mash it and seperate it and where its from and aghhhhh! though drinking it is still nice. I'm gonna bring a ton back.

last morning by the sea

I have little to say but I am excited to go to the house in Kalimpong again. I am very excited. I am gonna run and pack up my stuff and head down to the jeep stand pretty soon. It will be sad when the american guy from japan Jon and the irish guy jeremy head off to Mirik cuz I'll never see 'em again. They were pretty cool. Ah well, I hope they have great journeys and if i ever run into them in ireland or smalltown japan it'll be a funny and cool moment.

I sat and watched through meet the friedmans with and without commentary last night and have some good documentary ideas. I'll do the same with American Splendor soon. And I've still got alot to read.

I think I'm gonna make sure and set up some mornign and late afternoon time lapse shots that should be cool and play with the focus a bit.

I am also looking for appropriate music. I think i'll use as much Darjeling pop as I can but I also think i'll record lots of live Buzz music and use that. I've already fgot some good stuff.

I want to make sure to paint a good picture of darjeeling before i go into tea issues. Also planned out a good history of area/tea in animation I'm excited about. I still have no idea how to end it though. We'lls ee where the interviews and stuff take us next week.

For the next 4 or 5 days though.. no more research really just busty (village) fun! I am very excited. I have got some darj pics on my laptop now and ill try putting 2 or 3 on this site from nethut or odessey this weekend. For now HAPPY NEW YEARS! and bye bye frozen hills.

monkeys

I find peace in quiet thoughts and lingering silences.

I love fried rice more than I should.

I leave tomorrow, I feel satisfied with that accomplished thus far.

Food for thought:

do taxes need to be so complicated?

Is it strange that the legitimate reason given for the impeachment of president Clinton was the simple fact, beyond the context, that he lied to the public. Hasn't Bush now, with a very similar body of proof done exactly that same exact thing? Will he get impeached... no. Does america make much sense... even less so.

Why are people with accents so hot? and yet we make fun of their bad english?
Plus, isn't American english generally as grammatically subpar as most ESL speakers? And in and case... they know at least two languages while most Americans now less than one...hmmm.

Why can dogs understand when we tell them to sit but we don't understand them when they tell us to?

If it turned out that it was scientifically proven without any shoadow of a doubt that Jesus was just the LSD trip of a bunch of ancient jews... would anyone except teh midwest's lives really change? And therefore, would anyone notice?

how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

What if it turned out, when you died, that the mormons or the scientologists or someone else you don't like was right? Wouldn't you feel like an asshole if you treated them like dirt in life? On the other hand, if the Jehova's Witnesses were right... wouldn't you be happy to be in hell?

One Dollar beer

I missed the last Jug night this week. 'Tis indeed sad. I usually rather look forward to seeing the guys from High school again. It was cool seeing them bakc during Thanksgiving. Would've sucked to have gone all year without seeing them at all. I should find some time to hit the west coast before the end of college. Mostly sad I missed the existance of $1 beer night bar. Sounds like I probaby would have died though, and I'm not easy to carry.

Here: still cold. getting colder. Can't wait until tomorrow when I hit the warm airs of lower altitude kalimpong.

i woke up to see the sunrise this morning. Its much better from Andy's rooftop than from Tiger Hill.. same view, no people. It was pretty wild and amazing.

The Canadian guy is gone. So I have one more day of theTexas guy from japan and the irish guy. they are pretty cool I have to say. And its nice to have someone to eat dinner and have a few pre-bed beers with.

ok off to tea plantations and finishing off the script. last day of non-interview footage... next week... all people! somewhat yay!

I heart monkey's pants

I got hit on by a big scary military guy with an AK47... I feel like it took a lot of courage for me to say, "No thank you, sir, I would not like to have sex with you because that I would i find it disgusting, not that there is anything wrong with you or having sex with you, its really my problem and I would not like it and I would puke on you which would also not be a turn on." I don't think he completely understood what I said, but he laughed and poked me in the side with his big gun (no pun intended) and he walked away. I feel like I can stand in the way of anyone with an AK47 now... Maoists, Guerilla, Charlton Heston, Kids 9-14 in the creepy Midwest....bring it!

I went to Dali Gumba today. I got some cool pics and talked for a long time with this cool monk who had good english...well sort of. He was real nice and it was a nice little adventure. Sadly the little old laamaa with the key was no where to be found so I couldn't go inside but I told him I'd come back tomorrow and next week and adventure some more in the depths of the monastery. It has nothing to do with the documentary, but I'll put some shots in there 'cuz i feel like it. That's what most of this adventure is like.

Sonam offered to cook me dhaal bhaat even in her chaos... she must have been given extra niceness when they were handing it out before being born.

I'm so excited for Friday and the re-re-re return to KPG! sweetness and warmth... mmm warmth! and that lovely cow/goat smell... yowzaa!

i heard the children sing

So I am rather proud of myself as I did in fact aquire a small time's worth of heating of the german persuasion. It was a nice late afternoon romparu, and it made me miss an interview.

Don't judge me.
You would be looking at me with those bearing into one's soul and calling one icky eyes, but no. I don't care.

Unfortuantely for me Lucy is now gone off on some wild trekk to the foot of Khangchenjunga. I saw her off wee early in the morn, we got tikka at mahakal baba and she set sail. She said to come with, but I have work to do... plus been there, done that. 16,000 feet... pah! easy cake!

Thank goodness it is India, and if you are late for something or miss it ocmpletely it doesn't really matter. You just do it again and no one really cares. Its just not that big a deal becasue everyone is late to everything and everyone misses stuff. So I did it this morning way too early for my own good.

Last night though, I ate some great Tibetan food since Sonam's is no more. I went with this canadian guy, and this texan that lives in Japan and this Irish guy who are all staying on my floor. It was a lot of fun and pretty interesting. They seem to all have cool and exciting lives and adventures.

As shall my life be someday.

Alright I think I'll walk to the HUGE Gumba today. I went to the mandir yesterday.

spanish and tea

I met this couple from Spain last night, they were rather fat and funny looking but hell of a nice bunch of people. They also bitched about the Bengali tourists and told me to head to Rajastan... a land of palaces and color as, according to them, thats where the gitanos are originally from.

They gave me some good travel pointers too. But speaking spanish, english and nepali all in the same place drove my head into a vaccuum of confusion and dumb.

This morning I had to poop and I forgot to turn on the hot water heater. Another great wake up call of arcticly cold water up your ass.

Sonam is expanding her restaurant, which means cool shiny glass windowed place for her... less food for me. It is gonna look sweet though.

I'm almost done planning this damn film. I've gotten tons of good panoramas and random shots. Now I have to get into the details.

I'm doing research on tea online and writing one of these every few minuts when i get bored.

people are wierd. There's this ridiculous obsession with hair gel everywhere i've been for th last month.

Norms are a funny thing. People tell me all the time that things are not "normal" but who decided what was normal? and for whom? People are so blind to think the world is so black and white, that there is some univrsal acceptance of certain things that has existed everywhere and for all time. WRONG. biznatch! lets take some examples: women in subserviant positions... well, there have been noted cultures that were matriarchal, meaning led by women, where men were the subserviant, submissive tenders and women were rulers and the fighters. Before a certain period in england, it was very common for women to have jobs... then it wasn't, now it is again. hmm Normal? which one? how about christianity: guess what, lots of christians love to talk about the "early days of the church" when the followers of jesus were "persecuted and martyred" why? because they were a CULT, a wierd abnormal cult they thought was going to destroy their culture. Now its normal. Homosexuals? not natural? actually it has been frequently documentd among animals other than humans, but only those that have sex for pleasure (which ar like 3 or 4) and it has been pretty much scientifically demonstrated as a biological normality. Even if it were a choice, it is only curcial to point to ancient greece and rome, or especially macedonia... alex the great, like him? well he probably fucked aristotle and this other guy who was basically his life long partner but has a ridiculously wierd name. Yea it was common practice, normal in many senses for young men who liked it to enjoy it. In fact, if you didn't it was a little wierd. So even if it were a choice... not always been abnormal. Hmm.. eating lobster? not even 150 years ago was that as disgusting as eating a cockroach.. which is also normal in places like Thailand. How about clothing and loving your dog or cat as if it were a person becasue you are a lonely and pathertic human being who is scared to have real relationships. I still find that abnormal but I am not lobbying to make that creepy behavior uncostitutional. How about the fact that for about 80 percent of America's very short history it was normal for pople to think of black people as not human, as well as to enslave them. Or while everyone in america is like abortion this and that, fetus rights and yadda yadda, plenty of places in the world and people don't have a moral or dramatic issue with it. It simply just is. It has also been considered normal: for men and warriors to wear skirts, ie kilts; for men to not cut their hair unless they mean to disown their family; to kill one's child if it is female; to drink one's own piss every morning as medicine; to give ber to your children; to hav orgies as religious ceremonies; to dance naked outside; to only have sex for reproduction and nver for pleasure; to not choose your spouse; to get married at 13; etc.etc.etc.

Point? be careful when you want to say somthing is wrong because it is no normal or natural... probably is actually, in fact almost everything is both normal and natural. Find some good facts to base your criticisms on and then we can have a good debate.

pink is the new black andgerman is the new HOT SHIT

So this german girl lives at Andy's in the room next to mine. She's traveling alone and she's really nice, plus she finds my Nepali skills rather helpful. I emailed Bhim so he would give me the numbers I need for the NGO people... but I also added on a request for the zoo guy. Take german girl to see snow leopards defianately increases chances of a better friendship in my mind. Hey.. its cold and she's not dirty like Mark's girl.

Don't judge me.

Yea. I'm gonna go get some panoramic shots before I spend another afternoon locked in my room planning shots and calling people. Today: Dali Gumba and Himal shots. Sweet.

i like that it is clear all the time now.

xmas nightcap and mobbery

So, to cap off the wonderfulness that was Xmas day, I went to Joey's pub after I finished writing the needed emails and stuff and I ran into that nice American woman that is married to the nepali journalist guy. I ahd a few small beers and we talked for hours. She has led a really cool life and has a great point of view. We also made fun of Mark... which was funny... sorry Mark.

Then, Joey was a bit drunk and he treated us to an amazing Xmas dinner with all teh works, rice, fish soup, chiyapati... and tons of other food. It was delicious. It was the latest I have been up since I have been here, I stayed up until almost midnight and I was exhausted.

I go back to Andy's and lo and behold they have left this nice piece of cake for me by my bed as a little Xmas present. It was so nice. The sake was kinda gross but I ate it anyway and was very thankful for the nice Gurung couple.

Today was uneventful. I worked all day. I think it will be a pretty cool dosumentary if it works out well.

One thing though. I don't know if there was some sort of crazy cheap group tourist special for Bengali tourists, but they are everywhere!!!! In large masses of 10-like 4 and ahalf billion! They are loud, annoying, and I don't understand what they are saying. Plus alot of the nepalis keep complaining about them. Its a bit of a pain in the ass getting around because when in a crowd they decide the best thing to do is PUSH HARD... Its defiantely one of those small cultural differences I have to put aside and think of them as people, but when you're getting shoved around all you can really think is I hate you... with the burning passion of a thousand flaming macrocosmic suns. Just let me walk goddamit!!!!

Pheww... yea, its also hard when all the locals you do understand are bitching about them too.
Anyway, its really sin't that big a deal, but since its the only annoyance I have had so far, it does seem that way.

there's a fine line between huh and what the fuck are you talking about

Merry Christmas world of World...

I sit back in Darjeeling after a rather amazing and surreal day. I woke up at 5:30 am as is usual here, so I am currently falling asleep all over myself. I took a nice hot shower and I boarded the backed to the brim jeep to Kalimpong.. the town of sweetness and utter refuckulously coll awsomeness.. aka where my nepali psuedofamily and friends live. I went as santa clause with a bag full of xmas presents and a xmas cake! it was maraipan and not chocolate though, which disappointed nearly everyone (including me). IN case you havn't been here, by the way, and you don't understand what a packed jeep means: it means there are 3 people in the front seat AND the driver, four in the middle seat, four in the back, and at least 4 on the sides and top! plus everyone's stuff strapped on with strings. If you'r really lucky, you get a chicken or two. AND on some rare special occasions... there's a goat.

It was so great... well until after the first hour of 2 and a half.. then it was just crammed and get me the hell out of here like. But I go there fine and immediately went into incognito mode. I went through allies and side streets to make sure i wasn't seen. Lucky for me, in the Mella Grounds... translation Fair Grounds, there was a HUGE Mella going on... its going on all month long! (If you can't translate Mella by yourself at this point I psychologically smack you upside the head and in the balls if you have them... if you don't i probably only playfull slap you cuz you don't hit girls.. well I don't cuz most of the one's I know could kick my ass) Anyway, It was HUGE.. it had tatto artists, and crazy food people, and a FERRIS WHEEL... yes kids, when I go back on friday I am taking apicture... a FERRIS WHEEL in the mella grounds... now don't have your water burst yet, its not like a disney ferris wheel. or a london, or even a coney island... no it is miniature... but still WIERD.

So i took a taxi to Barbot and hid under my jacket (which i did not need cuz it is not like hell fozen over in KPG.. just DARJ) and I walked down from mounatin hut to the house on the usual school road. It was so amazing! I get to my house and my family is like NO EFFING WAY! They all flip a nut in a very demure and no-emotion deomonstration sort of Nepali way, but my aamaa immidaitely cam eup and grabbed my arm to lead me into the house, and they were all liek they told us you were coming, so we aren't really surprised, but we didn't really belive it so we kind of are. Thanks Sarah for spreading the gossip BTW. My house is a little different as Basant Daaju bow has a bedroom and the living room is a living room, and the floor is all shiny shiny ass linoleum and the furniture is all fancy like. and my bahini has a cell phone! I was liek whatchamawhata!

So I explained Christmas and the gift and I gave tham all gifts and it was alot of fun. Then, as I had bought some chocolates for some of the other families, I went down to Sukdew's house adn saw his baauju and daaju and Iuse! who was spoiled and adorable as ever, and his house is a little different, there are THREE KITCHENS! One for Aamaa, and one for each baauju... don't ask me why, they didn't really explain so much as were exicted... the problem is that means triple the chiyaa! because you have to drink tea that each of them makes in their own damn kitchen... crazy!

Then I headed o'er to visit Andy's family and I spent a good hour talking to them, especially Navin and Subaas. It was a ton of fun, and fo rthem it was s urprise cuz they had not heard anything.. so that was wild!

I planned to go to Aarati's last on the way to the bazaar to head back to Darj, but time ran out. So I hung out with my familly and ate Yuca.. which they have a wierd name for but it is in fact just normal Yuca, adn it was DELISH. I get to the jeep stand at 4pm and they are like last jeep was a 3, but this really cool guy named Aambar brought me in for cheap and we talked in Nepali all the way here and it was alot of fun. He was the coolest guy! We talked about america, and money, and taxi driving, and learning languages, and having sex with women behind your wife or gf's back... really! and we bought gas and pissed on the road and had a little tomba, and it was crazy fun! then he headed back to KPG in the middle of the night, dude was a fucking lifesaver. and here I am, gonna have dinner in Glenary's and a beer and head to pass out.

In the end, it was a wonderful Christmas! I was blessed with the greatest gift of all.. to be the corniest man alive next to the dude in charge of hallmark greetings... love. They were really wonderful, plus I got a ton of Merry Christmas emails from everyone (Thanks aloT!) even though its not christmas yet in America.. wierd. OK, I think I'm gonna "Suvaa Raatri"f or tonight.

Over and out.

first full day in india

Alright, so somehow or other I have ended up in Darjeeling yet one more time... I assume if you are reading this then you know me and you know why.. if not... well tough luck. I'm not too sure why you'd be reading this either way.

So... I ate a great porridge and banana breakfast at Sonam's to start off the day and then I spent most of it either wandering around doing Xmas shooping for the folks in KPG tomorrow when I go there, or in the bedroom at Andy's guest house reading filmmaker's books and how to make a documentary books, and trying to brainstorm ideas. I got so screwed in Bangkok cuz s bunch of my stuff got drenched and I lost tons of phone numbers and things I needed.. even my family's so it'll be a crazy ass surprise!

I am so effing lost as to why I am here right now. And I totally understand the whole concept of nostalgia more than I ever have. It makes me really dread old age when everything and anything I see is just gonna send memories through my head I can never relive. I sat in Sonam's kitchen and talked to her about her cats and envisioned being surrounded by Nisha, Mark, Michelle and Tenders... and it happened pretty much all day... I passed by some dude with a tattoo, I went to Joey's puba nd though of wrinkles and giggled to myself, I see laamaas and I think of Andy, I saw a guy getting his head shaved... I could really go on forever...
I was so happy this morning when I woke up to emails from Molly and Nisha and other people, and I hope I'll get more along the way, but I know people are busy.

I am making sure I take as many pictures as possible. My video camera has a memory card for stills and though it only holds 45 pics I plan on emptying it out when it gets full... we'll see how dutiful I am on that.

I am in a wierd state where I want to go out and do things but I don't want to leave my bed. It is so wierd. I am really glad i didn't get the Watson.. traveling alone is so effing HARD. I am enjoying some of it but wish so many times I had someone to tell stuff to, someone to laugh and have fun with. I have not been completely lonely talking to the locals who still remember me, and meeting some random tourist folk, and it will be really different when I am in Kalimpong with the family, but right now I am just trying to ground myself and get up.

I think the best thing to do is probably to suck it up and bottle it all and let all the feelings happen on the plane ride back when I don't actually have to be productive any more.

I told myself I wouldn't bring my Ipod but the thought of 3 days on planes without it scared me too much, and I am really glad I did. This experience is very different from the program, where seeking comfort then with home stuff was utterly unneccessary because I had great people around me for support and I was there to support them, now all I have is my fmailiar music for company...

On a positive note I am getting alot done, I am being the most prodcutive I have ever been.

it is freezing adn I am already sick, I think I ate something sketchy, but who knows. I am ill prepared, and tired. But I am really excited. I know it will all turn out to be amazing, but today is the first day and the hardest day probably.

I am off to have dinner and then do a little more shopping and then I wil either work until I go to sleep or go to the Buzz where there is live music. Darjeeling is FULL of christmas celebrations and Wierd Jesus/Xmas pop 80's versions of Xmas carrols and the like. THeres santa and snowmen and a wierd HUGE bulb version of xmas lights... i guess since there are xmas lights used for so much else it had to be something different.

OK. I'll report back tomorrow after the fated day in KPG.