India travel preparations

Passport renewed-check, India guidebook-check, airline tickets- check stripen- check, Hindi script- check... Okay so now to get the visa, travel shots, and save the rest of the money for the trip.  Then I am good to go.  
  I keep wanting to make a documentary about my travels.  I have tried to make a few videos but for some reason they just are not turning out the way I would like them to.  This seems to be working out better for me... to blog about it.  I have taken a break from blogging but now is a good time to get the ball rolling again.  
  My friend Rupa and I will be going to India for 3 weeks.  We are pretty excited.  I am still a bit in disblief that we are actually going... The last time I went was in 95! 17 years ago!  I feel that I have grown a lot and that things will be quite different.  We will be mostly traveling to the north.  New Delhi, Agra, Varanasi, Patna (where Rupa is from) Bihar, Bombay.  That is our tentative plan but as I am well aware things can change from the original plans.     
I have a feeling we will meet people that will tell us of places we should go to.  We ideally want to spend a week in each of the major cities to get a good feel for the places we go to.  
   It would be best to start cracking down on learning Hindi.  It's hard when you don't have people to practice with.  I am trying my best and am starting to recognize some of the letters.  Baby steps!  I know that it will also be better when I am in India and get to hear the language on a regular basis.  I am also aware of the fact that most people will want to speak english.  It doesn't hurt to try though.  
   
  

Halloween...

 One of the dinosaurs I made...

 The Dinosaurs...

The halloween party! Peggy from madmen and an elephant! 

Elephant pumpkin w a mustache and tophat

Here is the love pumpkin that my friend and I made on sunday.   

Hiking in Boulder

Indian Peaks 

Hiking Green Man mountain.

Boulder, Co

My Dream to climb in india...

Ganesh [8b+] par Gérôme Pouvreau from Petzl-sport on Vimeo.

Girl Beta

you cant curry love...

Yes! Yosemite...

Park Life - Yosemite Bouldering from Louder Than 11 on Vimeo.

I want to do this someday...

A New Year... Welcome

 Yes, A new year has arrived... Lot's has happened since I last wrote.  My dad passed away in Aug.  My girlfriend's dad passed away in Dec.  What are the chances that two people in relationship would both lose thier father's within 4 months of each other?  Crazy, yes!  It also brings on this really interesting bond for both of us.  A sort of understanding that goes with out saying.  You get why the other may be off that day, week, or month.  
  I had a difficult relationship with my father.  My girlfriend had a very close relationship with her father.  I am 4 months ahead in my grieving and processing.  I know the processing will most likely never end.  There is a difference in our grief and our grieving.  My grief looks like anger and  questioning my relationship with my father.  With my girlfriend there is no doubt the love between father and daughter.  In some ways there is a part of me that has felt like a fraud in losing my dad.  The pain of the loss is there, it just seems so different and foreign.  I see my girlfriends sadness in tears and missing someone you love dearly.  I loved my father, but it was a complex love. A love that I at moments doubt and trust was really there.  It felt, well complicated almost all of the time.  
   It felt hard to digest his words from the will he made out...  I wish he would have said something to the effect of how hard working I was, how independent and self-reliant I have been and will continue to be.  Or even that I have never asked him for anything and will do fine on my own.  Instead he said " Reji has already benefited from the help of her parents and is in a better position for the future that what she would otherwise have."  Hmmm, it sounds like he didn't know what to say about me.  It's hard for me to hear that.  I thought it would have been easier and it wouldn't hurt, but it did and does.  

climbing... oh yeah!