Merry Christmas, have some Jet Lag

So it's been a week since Charlotte and I got back from our trip. It's been a blur really. It seemed like the first couple days I wasn't going to have any problem with the jet lag. But then it hit me on Thursday and I think I slept for an entire 72 hours. Or at least those hours I was awake I was definitely not someone you wanted to talk to. I think I'm finally back to my normal self...I even joined the gym again and forced myself back on the bike. That was NOT pleasant let me tell you. I probably shouldn't have coupled that workout with lower body exercises...way to ambitious i tell you. I am, or should I say my ass is, paying the price.

The other night I put some of my thai cooking skills to test and managed to make an edible pad thai and papaya salad for my parents, and then last night my mom and I were able to conjure up some spring rolls. Not too shabby! Charlotte and I have our annual christmas potluck with all of our havergal friends and we are going to attempt to create some wonderful thai dishes. Although my pad thai had some kinks, I think we can do it. Wish us luck!

I will be giving this site a bit of a make-over after the new year. I will be heading out to Whistler to volunteer at the Olympics and Paralympics, and have had several requests that the blogs keep coming! So if you're interested in following my mission to find Sidney Crosby...I mean if you're interested in the Olympics and all the shinanigans that accompany them...then please keep reading and I'll try not to disappoint!

Signing off, Santa Hat and all,

J

This is it.

Well everyone. Charlotte and I are currently sitting in the lounge of the Abu Dhabi airport getting our moneys worth of internet, food and tea. I caved and am currently listening to christmas music off of youtube, although we both agree that I don't think there is any place that could feel LESS like christmas. We are both sooooo pumped to come home. I think I can speak for both of us when I say we've had the time of our lives, but we are Canadian girls after all and christmas just wouldn't be christmas without snow, family, and candy cane ice cream. We have 20 hours to kill in the abu dhabi airport (the perks of traveling budget....) so I will probably post several more photos within the next couple hours. For now, I'll tell you about our last couple weeks in Thailand.

First of all...both Charlotte and I failed to realize that November is Monsoon season on the east coast of Thailand....

thankfully we lucked out HARD CORE on the first island we went to. Our week on Koh Tao was unreal! We stayed beachfront, overdosed on fresh pineapple daily, and played in the ocean everyday. Koh Tao is mainly a scuba diving island, which is why we went there in the first place. I did a little intro course and was soooo gung ho to get down there. For anyone who knows me and my dorky love for all things Nemo you can picture the excitment. So we hopped on the boat with a bunch of other divers (taking various courses), geared up, and jumped in. As I started to go down my ears didn't equalize properly and starting feeling like how they feel when you fly with a sinus infection. Ouch. I wanted to dive so badly, but I really didn't like the prospect of a burst ear drum. I was super bummed I couldn't get down...but got to meet some hot dive instructors on the boat while charlotte was down hanging out with nemo. After a visit to the Thai doctor I found out I had an inflamed eardrum and was told I had to sit out for a couple days. We skipped two days of diving, and then after deciding just to pop a whole bunch of decongestant meds...I gave it another try and made it! It was unreal, and I am in love haha. Screw physio...I am going to be a professional ichthyologist.

After our week on Koh Tao we took the ferry over to Koh Phangan to meet up with Maria and Hecks who'd been in Laos for the week. Their journey seemed pretty eventful too. Hecks was covered in bruises from her drunken sports games, and Maria was full of her typical hilarious stories. Katie had booked us into this sweet spot away from the full moon party so that we would not be right in the middle of the madness. The weather could not have been any different from Koh Tao. It was cloudy, rainy and humid and totally not conducive to beach weather. We spent the day of the full moon party stocking our rooms with water and various hangover snacks, that we purchased by renting a scooter (yes Dad, a moped!) and scootering into town. After a near death experience, I was banned from the wheel and Charlotte did an excellent job of steering us to safety. Okay, it wasn't near death...it was just very evident I could not steer.

The full moon party itself was....insane. There is no other word. We met up with Kelli O'Rielly (an acadia girl) who had a place right on the beach. We were able to have a couple drinks at her place before venturing down...and let me tell you...when I first stepped on the beach it was like I was experience culture shock or something. First of all, there were stands spanning the ENTIRE beach that sold "buckets" of alcohol...there were people dancing, sitting, singing, crying, sleeping, swimming, peeing...hahah....everrryywherrree. The group of us litterally danced through the crowd holding hands so we wouldn't lose each other. Nine hours later...at 7am...we made it back.

Never. Again. I am too old to party like that. Give me my keiths and my fiddle player and I'm set. Well...thats about all I've got for now. The pics above are all from Koh Tao, except the last one, which is a pic of the shirts we made for the full moon party. The famous saying in Thailand is "Same Same, but Different".... so we made shirts that said "Same Same, But Canadian"

Witty eh?

Ho Ho Ho from the Middle East (i'm getting strange looks for blasting ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOUUUUUU)

J&C

This is my life??

Okay...so I have seriously been slacking on the whole blog thing but I totally have an excuse. Charlotte and I just spent a week...A WEEK...on the beautiful island of Koh Tao. It was unreal. We were like, "as if we are on the beach, and Mike and Caroline are writing exams" (haha suckers. ps. caroline - call your sister). Koh Tao is a scuba diving haven. Everyone there goes to dive so there isn't much else to the island, but that is what makes in unqiue. I can't go into much detail about the diving because we are on Koh Phangan now and TONIGHT IS THE FULL MOON PARTYYYYYYYYY. Lets just say Charlotte and I had a great time spending our days in the ocean (well, the days I didn't have an inflamed ear drum) and our nights either at cute beach bars or....the Ladyboy show. Charlotte was awesome putting up with an annoying newbie diver like me...even if I did have to keep my head above water for three straight days....
We are now gearing up getting ready for the infamous full moon party. Katie and Maria had a gongshow of a time in Laos, from their crazy tubing adventure (in which katie got injured playing drunk soccer...obvi) to their insane roadside rescue...and are ready to take on the last party plunge.
mom, dad, deb and ted...we will email tomorrow to say we are alive :)

Charlotte and I are really getting pumped to come home. We have had the most amazing two and a half months...but with christmas trees popping up in the 7 11's around town, and the green and red m and m's being sold in the stores, we're really itching to get home. One aussie asked us once, "you guys are canadian?? i heard canadian girls like snow more than men"...we miss our snow...but maybe not that much :)

Gearin' up for a night of Thai Whiskey,
J, C, K and M

I have built a tree house, it's a You and Me house...

Zipping out of our tree house!!

Not too sure whether she should try the bananas in coconut....

Charlotte, at the start of our class...rather overwhelmed.

Our second day in Chiang Mai we went to an organic farm and took a full day, 6-course thai cooking class. It was UNREAL and probably one of my highlights of the entire trip so far (other than everest, of course!). We learned how to cook three types of curry, soup, different types of stir-fry, pad thai, spring rolls...the list goes on! Even our little reject cooks, Maria and Charlotte, managed to cook scrumptous meals! They didn't even burn their noodles!

Well, I can't really remember the last time I blogged...but I'm pretty sure we've been in and out of two countries since my last post. Chiang Mai was a blast. It's such a great city. Kind of reminded me of the Thai version of Kingston, Ontario because it really had a university town feel. We got there on sunday night, which meant we got there just in time to experience the amazingly awesome night market. There were stalls filled with jewelery and more amazing street food, and TONS of cheap massage places. Anywho, the cooking class was UNREAL. So so so much fun and all four of us cannot wait to get home to cook for our friends and fam. Maria and Charlotte are going to need a little guidance, but Hecks and are I proud that they stuck with it and didn't blow up the place.

Charlotte and I are currently sitting in an internet cafe in Koh Phangan while Katie and Maria are off galivanting in Laos. C and I made the decision to come back to Thailand after our tree top excursion so we could get several days of diving in. But before I get into that, let me talk about Laos!

The first picture at the top of this post is from one of our tree houses. The 4 of us spent 3 days and 2 nights essentially living like monkeys. We did something called The Gibbons Experience where we were driven into the Bokeo National Park in the north of Laos, given a harness, gloves, and two guides who looked more like hobbits than humans. We trekked two hours deep into the jungle where we stopped to swim at a water hole with our monkey-men guides. This expedition is so cool because since it's in the national park, there is no human disturbance other than the ziplines and the tree houses. So we zipped for an hour until we finally reached the last zip which lead us RIGHT INTO A TREE HOUSE. It was so cool. That night we went to sleep with the creatures of the forest, witnessed a brutal murder of a mouse right outside our bug net and then woke up at 6am to our hobbit guides zipping into our tree house. The whole experience was so cool. Our guides spoke very poor english so we didn't learn that much about the forest, but it is called the Gibbon Experience because of the Gibbon Monkey that inhabits the forest.

Charlotte and I have now separated from Katie and Maria for a week while they frolick up in Laos. We are starting our diving tomorrow and CAN'T WAIT. We're on Koh Tao for a week and then Koh Phangan for a couple days, one of which includes the infamous FULL MOON PARTY.

Don't worry mommsie, I'll be safe.

We're starting to get excited to come home and see everyone. Charlotte literally has to tell me every time I turn my ipod on that it is indeed still too early to listen to xmas music.

Wish us luck with our diving, apparently the whale sharks around here are the "thing" to see.

xxoo,

J, C, M and K

Street food that puts scot skins and toronto street dogs to shame..

These last few days have been an absolute BLURR. Charlotte and I arrived in Bangkok after our 8 HOUR layover in the Dehli airport and we checked into our classy hostel at 8am. We treated ourselves to one of the nicer "guesthouses" because we figured we'd been living in the shithole of an orphanage, plus freezing our butttttts off on everest. Looking back, it was no grand hotel. But to us, it was paradise! There was a rooftop pool AND the rooms were air conditioned. Our first day in Bangkok was spent sleeping, tanning and swimming...with the odd venture out onto the street to purchase some fresh fruit, pad thai (which they make RIGHT on the street for you) or spring roll. The food here is UNNREALLL. There are all of these little street venders that make everything from pad thai to sticky rice & mango to fried rice to meat kabobs. The fruit here is also....i don't even know how to describe it because most of it i didn't even know existed! Our mornings usually consist of finding some fruit stand that will make us a fresh fruit salad with museli and yoghurt....all for the price of 30-50 (whiichhhh is like a dollar).
SO GOOD.
Charlotte and I had two days in bangkok because maria and katie were arriving at midnight the second day. So, to go with our "just do it" attitude we booked two days of activities. The first day we went to this floating market a couple hours outside of bangkok. We arrived to this little village of houses on stilts (because they're all built along the canal) and we were ushered into this boat, given massive hats, and the rowed along the canals. There were people in and around the canal selling EVERYTHING! You could even order freshly made spring rolls from a woman in a wooded boat.
unreal.
(p.s. i can't remember if i already wrote about this...my bad).
The next day we went on a half-day cycling tour of bangkok with a real tour guide. It was a really great way to see and learn about the city. I only crashed once...and it was into a motorcycle that wasn't really moving. I learned that city cycling is totally not my thing. Put me on a long, open country road and i'm golden. but dodging stray dogs, mopeds and vendors...all while trying NOT to fall into the canal? nope...not for me.

We finally met up with Hecks and Maria, and the 4 travelled 14h on an overnight train from Bangkok to Chaing Mai. The train was SO COOL. I had never been on one and I couldn't really decide if I felt like a refugee in the lower decks of the titanic, or Harry Potter on the hogwarts express...but regardless, it was WAY better than taking a bus. We all got beds, and were able to sleep for most of the ride. We're in chaing mai now for 3 days, and today we had a fun filled adventure that included going on an extremely sketchy elephant ride, a very sweaty, hot hike to a waterfall (where we played like 5 year olds) and then a hilarious white water rafting/bamboo rafting experience. Elephants apparently love maria, and she got snorted on quite a few times. We were deemed the "supermodels" when we were rafting (probably because we were the only raft with all girls)...and the guides were hilarious.
Tomorrow WE ARE DOING A COOKING CLASSS!!! I am so so so excited. It's an all day thing where we start off by going to this market where we pick out all of our ingredients, and then we go back to this organic farm where we cook a 6 course meal!

not exactly the best beach bod prep, but hey...i just ate rice for 5 weeks straight.

hope you're enjoying the LOVELY november weather.

LOVE
J&C...and K&M

BANGKOK BABBBYYYY

We made it! The first part of our journey has come to an end. It was sad saying bye to our little kiddies but we arrived in Bangkok and welcomed the crazy heat with open arms. We've done some cool stuff so far, which I will update on when the internet is less expensive. Katie Heckman and Maria McEachern made it safe and sound and the 4 of us are headed up to the north of Thailand to Chaing Mai on a 14 hour overnight train ride!
Wish us lucccckkkkkkk.

Love
J & C

Finally found some fast enough internet to upload pictures...

On the decent...charlottes lips were so sunburnt she decided to go all Taliban on me....

Mt. Everest BASE CAMP!

From the top of Kala Pathar (5500m). Feeling rather drunk at this point from lack of oxygen....but still able to hold Everest up with one hand. Below you can see Base Camp...or at least the glacier that base camp is on....

Betina (being forced to hold my flag) and Charlotte at 6am in Namche. This was day 3 of our trek where we had our first acclimitization day. We hiked up to this point where we we saw the sun rise and were able to get a glimpse of Everest....sooo far away at this point we were like howwwww are we going to make it there. But we did!

To Everest and Back

We made it! Everest Base Camp and back! The entire trek was pretty unreal. I mean...we were trekking the exact same paths as all those people who summit the mountain have trekked. We were staying in the same teahouses, and passing the same sherpas. The first day of the trek we went from Lukla (where we'd flown in from Kathmandu) to Phakding. This was our first taste of mountain accomodations. The food was pretty good...but it was absolutely FREEZING. Charlotte and i were like hoolllyyyyy crap if it is this cold on day one what are we going to do at 17 000ft?? Charlotte and I decided to continue our orphanage diet and both ordered Dal Bhat (rice, lentils, and vegetables). We figured it was our safest bet, since ALL of the food on the mountain is carried up the mountain by sherpas, and therefore anything that can spoil is really out of the picture. The trek itself was not really what I was expecting, but then again, I didn't really know WHAT to expect. The boggled my mind to see the weight that some of these sherpa people were carrying on their backs. Tiny men carrying cases and cases of beer, or kilos of rice, or even butchered yak meat (so gross...i steered clear of those sherpas). Some of the porters (aka sherpas) were probably still boys and they were carrying twice or three times their own weight...it was insane! It's hard to describe the scenery because it literally was so different each day. I kinda felt like i was "taking thehobbits to isengard" for the first couple days because of the rolling hills, trees, and such strange farm land. But as we got higher, the vegetation changed before our eyes until we reached the point where the trees simply stopped growing. Since we were dealing with altitude, our ascent was slow, and included 2 acclimitization days. The golden rule for acclimitization is to hike high and sleep low. So this is what we did on our days off. the group of us (there were 6 of us in total, all RCDP volunteers) would trek up a couple hundred vertical metres to give our red blood cells a nice little work out, and then we would return back down to a lower elevation to sleep. It wa because of the high elevation that this trek was so difficult. On average, we hiked 4-5 hours a day and some days we could have up to 3 of these hours uphill. The lower altitudes weren't bad, but you could really feel the lack of oxygen as we got higher. It would get to a point where we'd be hiking uphill and my legs would just start burning from the lactic acid simply because there wasn't enough oxygen. Some of the tea houses had ladder-like staircases up to the bedrooms, and I would actually get winded going up the stairs. It made me feel obese haha and i had to remind myself that i was indeed 4000m above the sea.
The other thing that shocked me on the trek was the demographic of people. I had expected that a trek like this...ie a physically demanding 14 day trek...would attract people like myself...the younger, just out of school age. Was I wrong. Joel, the 18 year old from our group, was probably the youngest person we saw on the mountain (youngest tourist i mean) by several decades. Even Mao and Betina (also both from our trek...both aroudn 30) were way younger than most people we saw. The average age of the people trekking was 45-50 years old! It boggled my mind. A week later during our decent, I learned one of the keys to success of getting up the mountain. Trekking poles! Nobody in our group used them because...well...I did it out of pride haha. On the second last day thought I took some out (I'd been given a pair before we left kathmandu by a friend) and they worked WONDERS. They literally made climbing the uphills 30% easier. I was like THIS IS HOW THE OLD PEOPLE DO IT! Now - just to clarify - there were a lot of very fit, middle aged people on the trek so it wasn't these people that shocked me. I saw a lot of people and actually thought I could picture my mom and her crazy group of friends she went kayaking with doing this trek. It was the middle aged people with the massive beer bellies, or the people who looked like they'd been plucked from the palace in Japan...it was THESE people that really made me wonder how they were going to complete the trek. But alas - the trekking poles saved the day apparently.
As we got further and further up the mountain, the amount of people trekking started to dwindle (i guess not everyone goes all the way). We also started to see more people being carried down on horseback or flown out on helicopters. The sound of the helicopter was a bitter reminder that even the fittest of people can get sick from alititude, and the only way to beat it is to stay hydrated and go slow. We actually went to a lecture when we were in Periche about AMS (altitude mountain sickness). There is a clinic there called the Himalayan Rescue Association and doctors from all over the world volunteer their time and dedicate themselves to saving the lives of people on the mountain. Neither charlotte nor i suffered from AMS, but unfortunately Nadine (the girl from england) got sick at 5000m in Gorak Shep and wasn't able to make it to base camp. She was taken back to a lower alititude by one of our porters where she was able to get rid of her symptoms.
It was for this reason that we decided to do something that most base camp expeditions don't recommned haha. There are two goals of the trek. The first is Everest Base Camp, which is 5300m and more of a novelty than a spectacular view. Then there is Kala Pathar (5500m) a peak that looks out onto the glacier that base camp rests upon. We decided that we wanted to do these both on the same day, so that we could get back to nadine and start our decent earlier. Our guide agreed with us, and since he didn't really voice any worry we decided to go. We woke up at 3am so that we would be in Gorak Shep by 6, and so that we'd be able to see the sun rise from Kala Pathar at 8. HOLY CRAP WAS IT COLD. I am no stranger to frostbitten toes, and within half an hour I felt like I was in my ski boots with my toes frozen to my socks. We made it to Gorak Shep, and then pressed on to hike 400 vertical metres up to Kala Pathar. This was probably one of the most exhausting things I've ever done. Panting like a dog it took 2.5hour to hike up. The last 100m felt so surreal because the altitude was starting to hit me. It felt like I'd been drinking for hours. Charlotte was like...I can't stop walking because i might topple over if i do. We finally made it to the top and were able to sit for a bit and enjoy the view. IT was UNREAL. We were looking down onto Base Camp, with the everest peak in the background. it was pretty surreal. I managed to snap a couple pictures (after i thawed my fingers) and i'm hoping to get them uploaded soon. Joel, our 18 year old from Australia, came stumbling up after us looking like death....but as soon as he realized he'd done it he was able to rest and also felt much better! We didn't stay up there for long, because we hadn't eaten breakfast and were freezing. So an ascent that took us 2.5 hours, took us 40 minutes to decend. Nuts eh! That afternoon we made our way to base camp, which wasn't as high btu we did have to trek across a glacier to get there. There were no expeditions (people summit between march-may i believe) but it was still cool to be there. The entire trek was cool because Id just read Into Thin Air and I was able to related to almost everything in his book! There were even some tea houses along the way that had posters and flags signed by people who'd summited everest. Oh, i forgot!! Our guide, Dorjee, actually summitted everest last year so it was really cool hearing his stories.
We made it back down to Lukla in 3 days, where we were able to take our first shower of the trek, and nurse our dry skin and blistered feet back to health. We're back in Kathmandu now, and Charlotte and I are leaving for Bangkok tomorrow. We went to our orphanage to say bye to our kids today and it was really quite sad. I really hope i'll be able to come back and visit. They were such little muffins.
Apparently the Maoists (the opposition party here in Nepal) are holding all of these protests and what not (something to do with re-writing the consititution? i'm not really sure). Anywho, we're hoping they steer clear of the airport, but there are talks that they might hold up international flihts. they've already set up road blockades preventing anyone from leaving the kathmandu valley by car. Charlotte and i are HOPING that we get out tomorrow because we need some sun and BEACHES in our lives!
Im hoping to post pictures soon. So stay tuned!
Ready to thaw & de-freeze,
Jen and Charlotte

Off to Everest, no big deal...

Heeelllooooooooo friends. As I write the last post for two weeks I can't help but think in a British accent. I am sitting here with my friend Nadine who has the cooooolest accent and can get away with calling food "nice" not tasty, and the monks she teaches "very naughty monks". She's awesome. Last night on our way from the RCDP hostel to our hotel in Thamel, the dodgey van we were taking didn't quite make it up this hill and Nadine, who wassitting backwards, went flying forward and let out the most hilarious scream ever. I swear it sounded like the queen was screaming. very regal.
so that has nothing to do with anything, but for any of you who know my obsession with harryp otter will understand my obsession ofnadines accent.
One moreshout out before i start my story - Parch aka roomie aka Sarah: i had a dream last night you showed up in Kathmandu to travel with me. I was so so so excited when I woke up and then realised you weren't here. I guess i miss you!

Okay, so first off C & I have to give a HUGE thank you to Sue Trembley, Tom & Annette, and The Kerns. Of the many things we've used your donations for, probably the most amazing was the birthday party we planned for Rabin on Saturday. You have to understand that these kids are never given special treatment - they all receive the same food and clothes, and don't have moms or dads who come home some nights with a gift that "they just knew so and so would love". So that fact that we made Saturday Rabins very own birthday party just made him feel soooooo special. We started off by purchasing 200 cookies, 2 bags of skittles, a jar of Peanut Butter and a jar ofChocolate Sauce. We then spent an hourbuilding cookie houses which they kids absolutely loved. I mean, thesearen't the type of kids who get an oreo in their lunch box for dessert. they're lucky if their friends share theirsweets with them at school. Needless tosay they were in heaven. However, it wasnt until after they finished building that charlotte and i reailzed just how much sugar we were feeding these sugar deprived children. Shit. They are going to be OFF THE WALL. So after we got them cleaned up we decided to take them to a local park to run off some of that energy. What happened at this park, you ask? You know...all the normal things one does at a park: run, play in dirty water, harass pigeons and....oh yeah...harrass MONKEYS. And what happens when an 8 year old boy teases a monkey?
HE GETS BITTEN. Charlotte and I did not know what to think. On the one hand, we were peeing our pants laughing. Who gets bitten by a monkey!!?? On this other hand, we were like, CRAP, we need to find this kid a rabies shot. As it turns out, the nurse at the school has a whole supply of these so poor little Achut was able to get his shot the nextmorning at school.
When we got home from the park we played pass the parcel. charlotte and i sang O Canada and rigged it so the best gift stopped on the bday boy, Rabin. His face was priceless. He had won something that he did not have toshare and loved it. Of course, the adults inthe house ate half of his Bubble Tape but we'd anticipated this and brought him into our room and gave him another one andtold him to hide it from Isswari & Mahesh. He beamed.
Our next activity was bobbing for apples and this also was extremely pricess. The kids loved it so much that they kept spitting their applesback into the bin so they could bob again. Sudip, the little 5 year old, was the cutest. He just couldn't get his mouth around the apple if his life depended on it and was getting quite discouraged. Charlotte finally slipped her hand in the spitty water and held up the apple so he could get it and I have never seen anyone so proud. The kids played with those chewed up apples and spitty water until it got dark.
Meanwhile, Charlotte and I decided to give Rabin his big present while the other kids were still playing. Kerns, T&A, and Sue....he has you to thank for this! I don't think I can accurately describe how it felt to watch him openit, and how itfelt to see what he did next. He had the same sort of reaction as hedid when we played pass the parcel. You could see that he didn't really believe this wholepresent was for him (when really it was just puzzle, slinky, stickers from Jenn meeker & candy). You know what he did after he opened it? He meticulously wrapped the present back up, walked into his bedroom, and spent 15 minutes hiding it.
"Rabin, don't you want to try the puzzle??"
"No Miss, I love my present and want to hide it so no one will find it and steal it from me"
This broke our hearts, but we realized that by hiding his present, he had the knowledge that he would always have something the other kids didn't. It was very, very cute.

Due to some unusual circumstances involving a disagreement between Charlotte and I and the owners of the orphanage (revolving around the crooked way theyrun the place), C & I left a day earlier than we expected and didn't get a proper good bye with the kids. so we are looking forward to going back after we get back from everest.

Speaking of everest.....WE'RE GOING TOMORROW!! There are 6 of us in our group and we all know each other from our Chitwan expedition last week. Our guide, Doje (pronouced Dodgey?) is only 22 but he's from the everest region. And get this! He actually SUMMITED Everest for the first time this past MAY! I think thats pretty cool that we get a guide who's made it to the top of the world. He didn't beat around the bush with us and told us it's not an easy trek, and that it gets effing cold at night. Charlotte and I told him we were from Canada and since we live in igloos we'd be fine. Forgetting the language barrier, he totally didn't get my sarcasm and now thinks charlotte and i are strange looking canadian inuits. ooops.
We fly into Lukla tomorrow with is approx 2000m above sea level (kathmandu is 0). Fromthere we spend 11 days hiking up to 5600m and only 2 or3 going down. 4000m is where the effects of altitude start to kick in. I'm not nervous, I'm actuallyquite interested to see how my body will react. For the average active, fit, person, the effects of altitude are not determined by the shape you are in, but rather, the physiologic make up of your body. Just how Lance Armstrong was told he has freakishly long quadricep muscles and therefore should take up cycling, maybe i'll find that i have a crazy high red blood cell count and will stay on the mountain and become a sherpa. Maybe.
I don't think I'll get on the internet there, so I have to say Namaste for the time being. In two weeks time I will have stories of mountain people, yaks, donkeys, and how many times a day altitude meds really make you pee.

Until then, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Love,
Jenny and Charlotte

Lessons from Nepal #4: Bed bugs bite.

So it's been a couple days since my last post and as my mother pointed out I don't think I ever explained the "how to run from a rhino" comment. When we were in CHitwan we went on a guided walk through the jungle. As we were starting off the guide gave us the usual instructions of keep quite, follow me, etc etc. He then proceded to stop, turn around, and explain with actions, what to do if we are chased by a rhino. All of us volunteers sorta exchanged looks of "....does this happen often"?. We were told not to worry, and that if a rhino charges us we're simply supposed to a) climb a tree or b) if we suck a climbing trees to run in a zig zag pattern. Thankfully, we were not chased by a rhino but I was secretely practicing my zig zag running in the back of the line.

Today is saturday, the kids only day off school. Yesterday we went shopping with Mahesh (the owner) for new shoes and socks for the kids in the orphanage. THANK YOU TO ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO DONATED MONEY! Part of your money went towards new school shoes and socks :). Yesterday we were also informed that Monday is Rabins birthday. CHarlottes and I were quite sad that we would be missing this birthday so we decided that we would use saturday (their day off school) to celebrate! Using some of the donation money, we went out to the store to buy all sorts of things. We're doing a bob for apples station, pass the parcel, and then we're making "gingerbread" houses using wafercookies & nutella!! We think the kids are going to love it, but i'll keep you posted :)

Charlotte and I were given some interesting news last night. The two older girls came into our room to warn us not to give money to the orphanage owners because they just use the money for themselves. Throughout our time here Charlotte and I have always sort of had our guards up because the people who run the orphanage seem a little off. For example, we are constantly finding the toys and games we brought for the kids upstairs in the owners room. We ask the children, "where are the cards?" and they point up and say "auntie took them". It's all very strange. Of course, I usually march right up there and take them back...but who is going to do that when we leave tomorrow? It makes us not want to leave toys here and it's very sad. THe other day, the second oldest boy complained to charlotte that his eyes were hurting, and through his broken english charlotte figured out that this boy "copied notes from his friends" at school because looking at the board hurt his head. we both put two and two together and realized that this boy needed to see an eye doctor for glasses. I let him try mine on and he said he could see better. BUT, last night the girls came into our room and told us that while we were talking to this boy, the owners (who were in the room at the time) were speaking in Nepali to him and TELLING him to tell us his eye hurt!! The girls say the owners do this so that we'll give them money to get his eyes checked but then they'll just pocket the money. We feel so betrayed because just yesterday I had an intense conversation with the owner about what he does with the money he is given, and he told me it all goes to the children. These girls also say that when volunteers are here, they make Saugot (the same boy with the eye "problem
) wear ripped shoes so that we will go out and buy him shoes. This Saugot character is actually RELATED to the owners - he is not an orphan, he's essentially a pawn in this game. Charlotte and I have already bought new shoes for some of the children who really need them, and we also bought new shoes for Saugot but we aren't going to give them to him.

From the start we knew that the girls did much more work that the average child. Not only do they cook the food, they do ALL the washing and ALL of the cleaning. We realize this isn't exactly how children should live, but we understand that they are being fed, clothed, and sent to school by these people so perhaps doing the cooking and cleaning is how the owners can afford to get by. BUT, the deception and crookery (is that a word?) that they do it in is both shocking and horrifying. The girls also claim that when there are no volunteers around, they are constantly beaten and shouted at. We don't really know what to make of this claim because we have never witnessed it nor have we ever suspected it. THe kids are usually smiling and laughing, and never once have we enountered any sort of bruised, bump or scrape. So that part, we're not really sure. We are sure that the toys we give the kids go missing, and that we sure as hell aren't leaving the owners any money.
We have thought about the fact that the girls might also be making up this story because they see us as a ticket to Canada. But we don't think this is the case for one main reason. Mainly, the girls never once asked anything like "does this happen in Canada" or "we would be better off in Canada". What they did say, is that they are countingdown the days, 365 in fact, until when the oldest boy, Rajindra, turns 18 and he can open up a new orphanage where they all can live.

Who would make up a story like that?
We're very sad because we have one day left with these kids. We don't know what to do. At home, we'd go to Childrens Aid....but do they even have that here? We're going to talk to RCDP about the volunteer deception. We don't think we have the proof to mention the abuse or hitting, because after all, hitting and beating is how children are punished here.

I should go, we have to go buy apples for our bobbing for apples station!
We're off to Everest on Tuesday so I'm hoping I can post some pictures from the party before then!

Love,
J & C

How to tip your elephant trainer

Playing with one of the twin baby elephants! elephant twins are extremely rare and their survival is even more rare! this guy was a cute little bugger

Attempting to stay on our elephant...waaaay more difficult than it looks. The girl in the water s Meng...she struggled...with life.

Lessons from Nepal #2 (a little out of order) - There is No such thing as being On Time in Nepal.

Alright, so lets try this again.

Charlotte and I are back in kathmandu after an amazing 4 days in Chitwan National Park. Chitwan in in the south of nepal so it was sooooo hot there. it honestly felt like we were in cuba (caliente!!). ps sorry for the lack of punctuation and caps, this computer sucks.

The drive to chitwan is beautiful - its a (supposed) 6hr bus ride up over the mountains and through a bunch of hillside towns and villages. However, our bus ride was far from beautiful and far from 6hrs. after our bus broke down with a flat, exploded tired, we were held up for several hours by village protesters. apparently there'd been an accident there earlier that month and the police hadn't punished anyone so these people were holding up the one and only road to chitwan. FML. We finally go through but were 2 hours late for the white water rafting we were supposed to do. we got on the water finally, and the rafting was fun but nothing too intense. HOWEVER, because we'd been late starting our rafting we missed the bus that was supposed to pick us up to take us the rest of the way to chitwan. shoot. thankfully an RCDP guy was with us because we ended up HITCHHIKING (yes dad, hitchhiking) in the pitch black. we were picked up and the 8 of us RCDP volunteers plus two british dudes we'd picked up on the way travelled the rest of the 2.5hours to chitwan in the back of a pickup truck. haha. only in nepal.
we finally made it to our hotel and drowned our day with some delishious everest beer. the rest of our weekend at chitwan consisted of elephant rides, elephant baths, jungle safaris and LOTS of Diwali partying. the weekend we were there was the end of Diwali and so the village was lit up with singing, dancing and decorations (there were xmas lights everywhere! felt like home!)
one night we went out to a local bar with the guy who works at the hotel and learned some sweeeeeeet bollywood dance moves. the next night this same guy took us to his village where his family and 9 other families were doing this house crawl sort of thing where they danced, drank and sang at one house, and then would start all over again when they moved to the next house! it was very fun.

the whole 5 days was a much needed break from the orphanage. I love the kids, they are great, but the conditions are pretty horrible. Charlotte got the flu bfore we left (shes better now) and was also COVERED in bed bug bites. i was fortunate not to get sick, but have some weird hive rash all over my body. going to chitwan, where it didn't smell like piss and the streets were clean, was great. One of the highlights was definitely the elephant bathing. we got up on an elepahnt (with extreme difficulty...took us like 5 tries), and he walked into the water and after he fell off the trainer got him to lie down and we scrubed him with rocks! these creatures are so cute. they had 4 of us on an elephant at once and meng (the girl from taiwan) could not stay on the elephant to save her life. it had youtube written alllllll over it.

two nights ago we were back in Kalanki at the RCDP hostel and we met these two guys from the US. After dinner we decided to go for a walk and ended up stumbling upon what we thought was a rooftop bar with live music. after walking around trying to figure out how to get up Lane finally scaled some rickaty stairs and removed a padlock from a gate, and opened the door. two Nepalise guys walked by us and we asked "bar?", they said Yes yes come with us! so we followed through this gate and up this steep spiral stair case. when we got to the top you can't imagine our shock. this was no rooftop bar - it was a family's private diwali party!!!! i don't think we ever received a look of "who IS that?" though, because we were immediately welcomed with open arms. we were hugged, tikka'd (the red dot on the forehead), fed food and alcohol and were introduced to EVERY family member. everyone wanted pictures with us, and at the end, we were in the whole family shot. this would be like 4 randoms showing up to the Dea Family Xmas, and inviting them into the family portrait. it was INSANE and sooooooo nice. at the end of the night they smeared red paint on our faces (symbolizes protection i believe) and we looked like mel gibson from gladiator.


it was an amazing night and really showed us how lovely nepali people are. we're back at the orphanage now and back to the hives and bedbugs. we're looking forward to everest A LOT.

One final thing, i have to give a shout out to my pops....HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!

Living in an Itch,
J&C

Lessons from Nepal #3: If chased by a one-horned rhino, run in a zig zag or climb a tree

F***

Just spent 20 minutes writing and it deleted. FU internet.
Will try again tomorrow!

Talk about a cliffhanger...

J&C

Don't let the bed bugs bite

It's been an eventful couple days. Charlotte is slowly recovering from a bought of the flu (graciously donated by the children of the orphanage) and I am experiencing my first full body hive break out. Oh yeah, and there is a mouse in our room. Getting for bed one night I saw something fuzzy scurry from the top of my backpack under my bed. Of course I kept my cool and did not freak out. NAAWWTTTT. There was lots of screaming and pointing and jumping on the bed until Rajindra and Saugot (the 2 older boys) came into the room to help us get it out. They were useless, and really I think they were just entertained by our antics. After searching the room Mousey was no where to be found and we decided it has escaped. Oh, BUT NOOOO. Charlotte and I were woken up 2 hours later by the "crinkle crinkle crinkle" sound of mousey going through our stuff. I LEAPED out of my bed and onto charlottes. Both of us stood there like morons in the dark for about 2 minutes because we were too scared to reach down and pick up our flashlights. After 15 minutes of banging things and turning out our bags, we finally got mousey to scamper out of the room into the hall.
Normally, this would cause some discomfort to both of us but we would get over it. It's because we are living in such poor, unhygenic conditions that this lovely mouse encounter was just that much more unwelcomed.
Mousey came back the night after, and not only did he scamper and crinkle, HE SQUEEKED at us. C is convinced he was a small rat. I refuse to believe that because rats are 5000000 times worse. Again, Mousey disappeared and luckily he didn't return last night.

We are off to the RCDP hostel tonight because we leave on a 3 day excursion to Chitwan National Park. This is a much needed break from the orphanage because despite the loveliness and cutiness that is the children, the conditions are getting to us. I was fine up until yesterday when i broke out in this gross chicken-pox like hive thingy.
Chitwan is going to be fun though. We get to go on a safari to see rhinos and tigers and leopards, we get to go white water rafting, and even give an elephant a bath.

OH! Mom, please pass this little bit onto Jenn Meeker. Her toy package has been a HIT! We've slowly been giving everything out and the kids love everything. Yesterday we gave out the dolls and the reaction was priceless. Like good little nepalise children they each sat down with their doll and......search it for lice! hahahahaha. So tell her thank you thank you thank you!

Hoping you all stuffed your faces with thanksgiving food. We celebrated with rice and spinach. Yum.

Will have lots to update in a couple days!


Off to see Dumbo,
J & C

Lessons From Nepal - #1: Never Leave Home Without Your Bike Shorts

Thus far our days look like this: Get up at 7am, play with kids/help cook/help with homework until 930am. Walk kids to school for 10, then entertain yourself from 10-4. So far we've visited Temples, a conserved garden, the Palace Museum, Thamel (the toursit cetntre), and even done laundry. However, both of us were sort of itching to do something active. There are lots of places to rent bikes in Thamel, but if you've been to Nepal (or India...or seen Slumdog Millionaire for that matter) you will know that navigating these streets is impossible and dangerous. We decided the best way to do it would be to go through a company that provided a guide. We'd had our eye on visiting Nagarjun Reserved Forest, but had heard from some that it wasn't the safest place for 2 females to go alone. The bike company we went through had a ride through this forest and since we were with a guide we thought we'd better jump on the chance to visit the forest.
We went to pay our deposit and get fitted to bikes (which were VERY intesne). The guys there all seemed very pro and could speak very good English, so we were confident the place was legit.
"You can ride a bike?" - the guy asked us. We both said duuhhhhh yes we can ride a bike. I attempted to explain that I was big into road biking but I don't think he got it.
"Have you mountain biked before?" - To this, Charlotte answered more confidently than I, but we both said Yes, a little. That was ALL he asked us. We asked about the level of difficulty of the forest ride and he said "so so" or "not that hard".

Charlotte and I went home all excited to g biking the next day. We packed water, a bag of almonds, and one granola bar to split (they provided lunch). We got up the next morning, fueled ourselves with rice (what every good cyclist eats before a big ride....not) and set off.
We had to ride through the busy streets for 5-10 minutes to get to the forest and it was one of the scariest experiences. Thank GOODNESS we know how to handle and balance on a bike thats all I can say.
I'm not going to describe in detail about the ascent because I've chosen to block it from my mind. Keep in mind that I am by NO means a mountain biker. I like my roads smooth and hilly, where I can go fast. Charlotte had a little more experience, but I'm sure she shared a lot of my thoughts as we rode up. The top of the forest was 2000m high, and the 30km loose rock, constant incline ascent took us a gruelling 3.5h. Charlotte was able to stick to the guide. Me...not so much. With about 4km of vertical to go, my tank of rice was emptied and I had next to nothing left. I could feel lactic acid starting to build up in my legs...even though I'd been riding for 3 hours. The last 2km was rocky and steep...so I had to push my bike up to the top where my sugar was waiting for me haha. I met C at the top and she was like...omg, i died, i didn't think I was going to make it. For anyone who knows Charlotte even slighty, for her to admit this, or think she wasn't physically able to do something...it must have been effing hard.
We drank our mango juice which more more like mango syrup and had two bites of our sandwhich. I filledup on juice and cookies and then we decided to head back down.

The decent took us 50 minutes. Less than a third of what it took for us to get up! It was steep at parts coming down but it was tonnnnsss of fun.
Today we are doing fine, minus our bruised asses and hooha's.
So kids, never leave home without the bike shorts.

Missing my road bike,
J (& C)

Durbar square should be nick-named Pigeon Madness square. Charlotte and I entered the square all excited to explore and what do we have to walk through to get into the heart of the square? A MOB OF FAT, UGLY PIGOENS. For those of you who don't know, my idea of hell is being stuck in a room with pigeons. This, was terrifying. It didn't help that there was a massive cow in the way too.

One day to entertain ourselves, C and I sought out the Kathmandu Durbur square. "Durbar" means palace (I think) and so there are a 3 all over the Kathmandu valleys where big palaces used to be. They're pretty cool - TONS of temples and very very old architechture. There are old men dressed as "buddha" who walk around and try to put "tika" (that red paint you see many hindu people sporting). Charlotte and I get our fair share of Tika at the orphanage so we didn't really want to be harassed by this buddha man, plus, he blesses you and then asks for money. Anywho, I really wanted a picture of him because he's really cool looking. I have yet to be successful because he's quite persuasive.

Here I am holding Achut (who is dressed in his sister's princess outfit), with Ramesh and Radha. This is the girls bedroom where the 3 little girls sleep in the bed behind me, and the two older ones sleep in the older bed. Radha is 17 and she splits the cooking and housework with Anila (14). Radha cooks at night, and does her homework in the morning (from 6-9) and Anila cooks in the morning and does her homework at night. Charlotte and I try to help as much as we can with the cooking and cleaning to give the girls some more time to do their work.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...and saves time when you are paying for internet

So there are 11 kids at the orphanage, but there is a lady who lives upstairs who rents one of the rooms. She's very nice (and pretty wealthy by the looks of it) but she's very religious. Yesterday was Saturday, the kids only day off, and C and I decided to take the 3 older kids to the town of Patan on an outing. She came too and got dolled up to the nines. But she wasn't letting herself be the only one dressed up, she put me in a full fledged outfit (I forget the Nepali name now) complete with earrings, necklace AND makeup. The makeup made me look pretty rediculous but it was fun to wear the clothes. However, it got crazy hot. I also am not wearing matching pants because since these women do not work out AT ALL, my massive tree trunk legs could not fit into her pants. Looking at this woman, you would say she is a size or two larger than both C and me, but I couldn't fit the pants and C couldn't fit the top. C blames the rowing and I blame the skiing.

Charlotte and Puja, walking to school. There are schools EVERYWHERE here. The kids at the orphanage are in "private" schools, so they all where uniforms. Of the 11 kids, they go to 3 separate schools, but it seems like most schools go from kindergarden to 12. It's different here because most of the kids aren't in a grade based on their age, but rather, their abilities (ie. when they started school). For example, the youngest girl is 8 years old, but she is in the equivilant of our kindergarden. She is the only one that doesn't speak English. Most of the kids can speak it (albiet brokenly) but are getting better by the day. Yesterday the kids got their exams back and Charlotte and I were surprised by how many of the kids failed certain subjects. We were also shocked that the owners of the orphanage scolded (by yelling) the kids who did poorly, when we haven't seen them help them with their homework once (even the little 5 year old!)

In a bathroom (with my camera, yes), way too excited to use a toilet instead of a hole.

Charlotte at the monkey temple, trying to blend in.

At Swayambhu, aka Monkey Temple. Way back when the entire kathmandu valley was filled with water except for this one piece of land that stuck out in the middle. Apparently it was blessed by Buddha and became known as Swayambhu. Now it's covered in Tibetan prayer flags which you can see in the background), tourists, and TONS of monkeys.

Gongabu, Kathmandu, Nepal

Namaste from the tiny town of Gongabu. Charlotte and I arrived at the Light for Nepal's Children orphanage on Tuesday but I think "thrown into" is a more accurate description. We were taken by Taxi from our hostel in Kalinki through the crazy traffic of Kathmandu to the village of Gongabu. Gongabu is right on the main river that runs through kathmandu and it is sad how polluted it is here. We're definitely in a poorer part of the city, but they people are nice and friendly nonetheless.
Charlotte and I have our own room in the orphanage which is nice. There is one man and one woman, Masess and Isswara (pronounced "mass-ees" and "ees-war-ee", who run the orphanage. The building itself is the epitome of simple. There is one bedroom for the boys (where all 6 of them sleep in 3 beds) and there is one for the girls (where all 5 of them sleep in 2). The boys bedroom actually has 5 beds but I think they only use three because they don't have enough blankets or linens to have each kid have their own bed. Like most of Nepal, the shower and the toilet are in the same room. But here it is evident no cleaning occurs. There is a constant smell to the orphanage that we are VERY VERY gradually getting accustomed to. The kids also wear the same clothes every day AND to bed (although they wear uniforms at school).

The kids were SO excited to see us. We were greeted with so many little "namaste"'s (hands together in a prayer position). There are two 5 year old boys, two 9 year old boys, one 13 year old boy, and one 18 year old boy. The boys are absolutely adorable. The older ones have quite good english and the little ones are catching on. Although, they still insist on calling both Charlotte and I "Miss". Yesterday we were showing them pictures from home, and C had some pictures of her and Colin and they would point to the picture and say "Miss and Colin!". It's also pretty funny because they pronounce miss "meeese". So cute.

It is absolutely incredible how independent these children are. The 5 years olds initiate their own homework, get dressed, play, walk themselves to school, do their own hair...and the two older girls do ALL the cooking and cleaning. One man we met at the Fair Trade clothing store in Thamel explained to us that foreigners in Nepal are considered guests by Nepalis. We are definitely treated like guests in this orphanage. We get served food first, we get huge slices of cucumber (the rare veggie we get) when 6 kids have to split one slice. I've started sharing my portions with the kids.

Our diet? Rice, rice and more rice. OH! ALSO! Nepali people eat with their hands! It's incredible to watch these people mush, scoop and deliver the food into their mouths without spilling anything! Luckily, C and I are given spoons. I can't eat rice with chopsticks let alone fingers.

Charlotte and I spend our mornings (7-10) and afternoons (4-8) playing with the kids and helping them with their homework. The first day we introduced duck duck goose and freeze tag which they LOVED. Although the lack of medical care was very evident because these kids couldn't play 10 minutes of tag without their hacking coughs acting up. We also brought out the crayons and colouring books that C brought. They LOVED THIS. The little boys focused SO MUCH on every detail. We also brought out the Winnie the Pooh puzzle that Jenn Meeker gave me. They LOVE this and can do it over and over again. Although, it's astonishing to watch them try and solve it. They don't really understand the concept, and again, the difference in 3rd world vs western world upbringing becomes clear. Who knew those silly little fischer price games were so pivitol to child development?

There is so so much to write, I'm going to leave it for another day. Lets just say C and I ventured into Kathmandu to visit the "Monkey" temple. MONKEYS EVERYWHERE.

Dutifully clogged with rice,
J & C

p.s. i'm going to try and upload some pictures, lets hope it works!

Kalinki, Kathmandu, Nepal

We are aliiiivvveee! Those homeopathic, organic jet lag pills may have actually worked after all. Although C may or may not have died a little when we first got here, she seems to have regained her strength. It took every ounce of willpower not to go to bed at 6....so we went to bed at 7. The hostel cooked us a pretty good dinner of chicken curry and rice but as we were in the middle of focusing super hard to eat only with our right hands (eating with your left hand is considered gross, because its supposed to be the hand you use to go to the washroom) the power went out. This wasn't like the power went out but you could still see...this was pitch black. Little did we know that this happens every night! something about cutting the power for two hours? Thank goodness for generators.

Today we experienced our first public bus ride. We're slowly becoming accustomed to the third word way of life. Anywho, the bus told us they would stop in Thamel, but really they just stop where they feel like. Thank goodness we were with some girls from the hostel (Anna from Germany and...Shira from Denmark) and they knew how to get to Thamel from where the bus sorta spat us out. We walked through a very non-touristy part of kathmandu which was very eye opening. Shira explained to us that no matter how desperate some people look we should never give beggers money because it just adds to the aready soaring inflation.
We saw more cows (LYING in the middle of the street all high and mighty with their sacred rights), a lot of chidren on the street. One was even going to the bathroom right on the sidewalk. And we don't mean public urination like how Colin (C's bf) likes to write his name in the snow. This was no snowbank. Something to get used to i guess.

We're off to our orphanage in an hour and are super excited to meet the kids and play. We have our iodine tablets so we're ready to kick some Giardia ass.

Honk Honk (the official sound of Kathmandu),

J & C

From Abu Dhabi to....where are we??

We finally made it to Kathmandu after 24h of non-stop travel. The flight from Toronto to Abu Dhabi was pretty much a blur. C stole the isle, I had the middle, and we had this very nice man from Pakistan sitting at the window. We were flying Etihad Airways, which is a branch of Emirates, so it was a pretty comfy ride. Not as comfy as first class though. They get their own beds, and some even have like a whole suite with table, bathroom and sink! We arrived in Abu Dhabi where the 4h layover was relatively painless in the very modern airport. They layover in Dehli was a different story. I ended up befriending this man on the flight who was from Nepal who had been visiting his daughters in Boston (they're in med school there). It was interesting hearing from him his perspective on things. In Nepal, he's a very wealthy business man with a 15 bedroom mansion but he explained that in Boston, he felt poor. It's crazy how cheap things are here!
I'm not going to go into the gongshow that was our experience trying to get from Dehli to Kathmandu...but we FINALLY made it.

Flying into Nepal was unreal. Villages snake through the ENORMOUS mountain valleys and all of the houses look like The Burrow from Harry Potter. So cool. Everything is so green and simple and mountainy and I definitely can't wait to explore.
We were picked up by a nice man who whisked us through the city to our hostel where we stay one night before we head off to the orphanage. That half hour drive was CRAZY. First of all....there are COWS and stray dogs here like we have squirrels. These people drive like maniacs even though you go to JAIL for 20 YEARS if you hit and kill a cow!!! Cows are considered sacrad so these drivers manage to avoid them by the millimetre. Nobody here obeys traffic laws; it's this crazy chorus of honking busses, cars, and mopeds. We could not believe we didn't get in an accident. We passed so many amazing looking shops and restaurants. It's going to be an interesting 3 weeks!

I think this is about all I can write right now. We're both crazy jet lagged and the past 48hr are all mushed together in my brain.
Tomorrow we go to our orphange. So excited to meet the kids and get started!!

Avoiding the cows,
J & C

T- 5 hours

If there is one thing C and I are good at it's achieving our goals. We've always wanted to do something like this, and now we are doing it. Just like how, throughout all of high school, all we wanted to do was try on Laura Stanley's skating dresses. This pic is proof that dreams do come true.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH.
So we're off in 5 hours and I thought I'd post one final note from my trusty lappy before we adventure off into the world of internet cafes. I've been packed for about three days now because...well, thats what you do when you are home for 5 weeks with no job..you pack. I entertained myself today by going to celebration saturday at Havergal (the reunion weekend at my high school). It was an strange blast from the past, but ended up getting some amazing recommendations from some old art teachers! The Gibbon Experience in Laos anyone? Who doesn't want to live in a tree for a week?

The first leg of our trip is a 13h flight to Abu Dhabi. I would appreciate your thoughts as I sit next to ADD...I mean Charlotte. At least we're flying Emirates is all I can say.

I want to give a shout out to my momma and dadda who abandoned me to go to a wedding. I love you even though you deserted me on my first birthday and deserting me now. Kidding! They threw me a nice going away party last night, and I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who's given me something to take to Nepal for the orphanage. I will update you when we know the best way to use your donations!


So, Charlotte and I are off. We don't reeealllyyyy know where we're going or what we're getting ourselves into but....stayed tuned, and you'll find out!!

If you choose "name" or "anonymous" you should be able to post comments! We'd love to hear from you!


Namaste,
J & C

Times a crawlin

Less than two weeks until we jet set off to the other side of the world and time couldn't move any slower. Preparations are going well. The walking drugstore that will be Charlotte and I is almost set to go. Between the two of us we have enough advil, immodium, malerone, diamox and general antibiotics to cure an entire country. I guess that's what you get when you combine the girl who's allergic to every food and the girl who only ate cereal, rice and veggies for 4 years of university. I went to MEC the other day to get some socks for hiking. I figured that...being a relatively experienced camper and outdoorsy person I'd be able to find the right socks. Oh but no. Did you know there are a bajillion different types of hiking socks and that if you don't get the right ones then you're feet with get moldy and your toes will fall off?? That is pretty much the impression I got after 20 minutes of listening to the sock guy talk about the difference between male and female sheep wool.
I didn't buy any socks.
But I did manage to find a sweet camera backpack at Henrys waaahoooooo. I'm still looking into the possibility of taking a course before I go to brush up on my skillllsss before we head out. The course I want to take is a composition course but when I went down to register I found out it wasn't being offered until after I left. The guy helping me was sooo nice though and started giving me tips and suggestions on the spot! He was showing me his own work and how he got each shot. He's pretty amazing and I think he was hitting on me...or trying to sell me something because he gave me a link to his website. Regardless of the motive, the photos are awesome. www.alexnirta.com if you want to check them out.

On another note, we finally booked our hostel in Bangkok for the few nights we'll be staying there as we wait for Maria and Hecks to arrive. It's got a roof top pool! This weekend it's back up to Creemore and Devils Glen to get a few more hikes in...plus it's the GNE...you can't miss pig races, pie contests and sheep sheering.


For everyone, if anyone, reading this who would like some sort of snail mail from us while we're gone you should post your address or send me an email at jennydea171@hotmail.com!

J

First Post!

I've been home from Nova Scotia for a week now and I'm itching for Charlotte to return from the deep helm that is her cottage life so we can plan our trip! Hiking boots have been purchased and arm has been stabbed with immunizations. We plan on taking a couple trips to the "mountains" of Ontario to wear in our boots. The Niagra Escarpment is kinda like hiking to base camp right? Planning for a trip like this is difficult because we have to fit our Nepal & Everest clothing AND our hippy thailand clothing into one pack. For anyone who knows me and my overpacking disease...please...I could use your support on this one.
Well...that was a lame first post if I've ever read one. Why aren't I witty?

'Til next time...
J