I stumbled back here and realized that somehow, in the past week, this blog has had over 50 views! Whoever is still reading my ramblings, I am so humbled by your interest!

And with that, I would like to direct you to my newest endeavour, Bali. I’ve been here for a month working as a interior design/product design/jewerly design/landscape architecture intern (say that ten times fast!) and had quite an adventure already. But it’s not over yet, and you can still follow the adventure that is still to come. You can find that here: http://merebuthari.wordpress.com

And if you didn’t read about India yet, check out last summer’s musings at http://seekingnamaste.wordpress.com

I really should just have one site for all these blogs. It would make it much easier.

Terima Kasihi! (thank you in indonesian)

There’s less stress. Less weight. Fewer concerns. More moments of beauty. Bigger smiles and wiggling toes. The colors are brighter. I appreciate deeper. I feel more joy.

I am surrounded by lightness. Classes seem less challenging and less worthy of my worries. Day trips are easier to justify and shoes are less necessary. My friendships are simple- they are easy to call upon and they are deeply rooted in the spirit of adventure, something quite magical to bring people together. These people don’t weigh me down. They don’t discourage me. We like to go places. We like to do things. We search for happiness.

I think this comes from being abroad, this phenomenon of ‘lightness’… this ability to let go of pretenses and questions. We’re all here for the experience and we support one another in that. There is something special about this attitude.

I see now why I miss the girl I am when I’m in India. I am carefree. I am brave. I am committed only to myself and the experience I can create within. There is a free spirit that gets released when the explorer in onesself is unleashed.

This shouldn’t be something that happens only when I’m abroad. Yet, I know that for all the excitement I have for senior year, I will be busier than I’ve ever been between work and classes and my committments.

Maybe this is why I paint. There is a freedom in the creative process. There is a spirit that can be released when we stop asking questions and let ourselves go. It’s putting your feet in the freezing cold water for so long, you don’t feel the cold anymore, you’re numb to whatever pains there are in this world and it is in that moment that the ocean can speak to you, the clouds can dance for you, the world can become alive again.

I want to be light like that every day. Filled with a belly of smiles, carried on feet that don’t walk but dance.

Ireland likes to dance.

This is a collection of photos from my weekend trip to Newgrange and Trim Castle. Both were really amazing experiences, but I think the best photos are actually from outside my window from the trip betwen the two! Ireland is so beautiful.

“Time, where did you go.. wait, don’t move so fast.. I’m missing the moments as they pass..”

-Chantel Kreviazuk

Time seems to have taken over my life. Somehow March is ending, I’m a year older, I’ve added another country on my list of places been and I’m down to only a little over a month here in Ireland. I’m beginning to think about arriving back in the US.

There is a lot of that bittersweet stuff going on. I feel like since coming back from India and planning my summer in Indonesia, I’m already a little less here and a little more there. I’m thinking about my three weeks at home and beginning to make the doctors appointment checklists and figure out how I’ll spend enough time with my little sister for her to not resent my going away again.

I’m trying to look forward to these next three travel weekends rather than worry about the fact that they are coming and going faster than I’d like.

Next weekend is when I’ll be off to the Aran Islands. I am so looking forward to finally going.. and the weather is much better so it will probably be better off to go now.

The weekend after that I’ll be in Budapest with my high school best friend. I’ve always wanted to explore that part of the world, so I’m really excited to explore it!

Then my family comes in (yay!) and I’m down to less than 3 weeks in Ireland.

Wow. Where did it go?

The two week break I spent in India has changed my mindset, as India always does, and I’m becoming more and more appreciative of the time I have here. Whenever I say bye to people I care about, I’m reminded of the fact that our time is transcient.. and my time here in Ireland seems to be slipping away.

I’m trying to spend more time with people I care about. I’m trying to go out. Drink more beer. (I never used to like beer) Read more books. Work out. Go to the classes I don’t have to go to. Go to bed early and get up early.

I’m looking at my schedule for next semester. It’s going to be overjammed with classes and work again. I won’t have lunch time again. My classes look to be starting before 9am some days.  I will pack myself with work and painting till 5pm+. I tend to do this to myself. So I’m making sure that each morning here I make time to make myself breakfast, two eggs and two rashers, and I eat it, slowly, over the morning Boston.com headlines.

I am trying to let Ireland teach me to slow down in the middle of all the rushing around. I am trying to let Ireland teach me to spend time with myself. I am trying to let Ireland teach me to appreciate the simplicity of the complex.

I’m 21 now. What? I’m going to go home for probably only three weeks and be back on a plane to somewhere else. How will I use this time? I’m going to end this semester and be a senior in college. How will I make it possible to experience all the things I want to with my crazy schedule? Will I ever find the time for a Red Sox game again?

Time, it seems to be ruling my life.

I am trying to put myself in the right place to be away again this summer and back again this fall- and in reality, this, is what is the most overwhelming of all. My life is full of this coming and going, entering and leaving.

The smell of the coriander in the soup reminds me of the kitchen.I hear the sounds of a foreign language swirling around my head, and focus on the coriander. I sit, waiting for the spoon because I can’t eat with my hands.

“Five spoons on your hand, five spoons on your hand” she always says, but I still can’t eat with my hands, not yet.

But alas, I have found the answer.

Early morning, before the few unlucky students wake for their 9am classes, the sun dances in the sky, as if to reward to early birds who wake to meet it.

I have been waking early and sitting with the sun each morning.

It’s changing everything.

The ground here makes my skin grow thicker- layers of soft tissue peel off my toes- revealing a stronger skin below. Yet I talk softer here. Speak more intentionally. Tread lighter. Something about this place makes me soft and strong and a little bit braver.

 

It is strange and wonderful to be back. After the experience of the fellowship stress and requirements to my way of looking at things, it is nice to be here on real holiday.

I have new eyes now and being back here makes sense of a lot of the struggles I had last summer and last fall in trying to put it all together. I think this will really come to fruition when I am back in Bangalore next week. For now, I’m just taking in the beautiful chaos that this city is.

The wedding was beautiful. It was so nice to meet new people here, I spoke with many young people and stayed up late dancing and singing with little girls. There is something so powerful about the laughter of children that made the late night jet lag okay.

Today I am going to be touring the city for a bit, following around Mother Theresa’s story and a few other historical sites.

Anyway, I’m back, so expect a change in the storyline for a bit.

Last we left off, I was disappointed by Waterford but optimistic about the Aran Island trip. The Aran Islands trip was cancelled due to too much wind. Lame, right?  Luckily it has been rescheduled to a weekend when I can go, because that would have been completely devastating as the Aran Islands is somewhere that is high on my Ireland priority list.

Not too long after that I was fortunate enough to be able to head over to one of my favorite cities, Rome, to visit the Brandeis Catholics (and a few select Jews!) It was nice to see a few of my friends and familiar faces… and eat FOOD. I had the lucky encounter of meeting a girl on the plane from Dublin to Zurich who was also headed to Rome. Her and I talked and had lunch during our layover in Zurich and really hit it off. She travels independently often as well, so I really appreciated having a similar go-getter around.

Funny story. On our flight from Zurich to Rome the systems were malfunctioning quite a bit and made some.. “interesting” announcements occur. At first we were told that we were not going to Rome but Budapest (Which, by the way, I am headed to with my high school best friend in April!!!) and upon our final decent we were told to ‘stay calm and brace for impact… the flight attendants will be distributing blankets and pillows to help brace the impact.’ Almost immediately the flight attendants came through the aisles pushing carts hastily through. Someone flagged down an attendant to order.. hand lotion? It was in flight shopping. What was going on!?

In the end it all was just a ‘malfunction’ .. took them 15 minutes to fully announce it.

That next weekend went went up to Belfast and Giant’s Causeway. This was an incredible experience, both seeing the history of conflict and the beauty of nature up the North. I could say a lot about what I saw, but it is impossible to explain the experience of standing in front of the wall between the Catholic and Protestant sides of the city.. it was devestating in a way I have never felt.

I’ve been on a real whirlwind of adventure. Rome was beautiful. So nice to be back in a city I’d been to before. There is something really empowering about knowing your way around a place.

Which is what I am really looking forward to soon. My next post will explain better.

Ps. Photos to come!