At the Monolith Park. This one is 27-feet tall.
(Monoliths are stone memorials…in this case to Jaintia kings.)
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PS: I’m leaving the state! I’ll be traveling to one of the neighboring states for the rest of the week. I’ll be staying in a state capital, so there *should* be Internet easily accessible. But if I’m MIA for a few days, that’s why…hopefully, though, that won’t be the case.
Because most people dress in traditional or local clothing for the workshops, I too, wore my new salwar suit…
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For lucky #13 gratuitious-photo post, I was at (as I’m sure you can read) Cherrapunjee, the old “Rainiest Place on Earth.” For years now, the actual rainiest-place has been in another nearby city, but that city hasn’t seemed as eager to claim the title, so Cherapunjee still touts itself as said place.
I went on a tour of the “city”…which is gorgeous even in the dry season. Lots of mountains, a few waterfalls (of course there are way more during the monsoon season), and plenty of goats. And on a clear day, you can even see Bangladesh (in the picture of the bridge, it’s the flat area past the treeline).
Hopefully, I’ll get to see more places around Shillong as the weeks go on…
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Malaysia. Malaysia.
After having a day layover there six years ago and sleeping the whole time, I figured on this layover I should give the country a bit more time…a week to be exact. So here are some pics from my time there, first in Melaka, a city two hours from Kuala Lumpur then on a hike outside KL, which was a bit more strenuous than I was led to believe the night before…wanna see where it was? The slightly misleading hiker has this GPS map on his blog…
Thanks to Vincent for these last two pics…
A month (or so) ago, I posted 9 Reasons Why Every American College Student Should Study Abroad. Now that my time in my study abroad land is over, I thought it appropriate to give a new list, one that relates the nine reasons why every American ex-college student should re-visit her study abroad land, or more accurately nine reasons Jayna’s glad she came back to Australia.
Why the new self-indulgent list? Because I’m self-indulgent. And because according to my drunk ex-roommate, “That’s great, Jayna! *drunk pause* You’re having self-realizations!” (Yeah, remind me not to call the LA roomies after The Office on Thursday nights.)
And now, said list…
1. You can think about how much you have/haven’t changed when it comes to the guys you date and what you’re like to date. And feel pretty bad for them.
2. Regardless of cultures or time, nothing beats the feeling of sitting down with an old friend and feeling like you did last time you saw him/her half a decade ago.
3. You’ll still be bagged on for being a Yank.
4. Now that you’ve already done all the fun sports stuff, you can sound like you know what’s going on. And be truly heartbroken that one of the country’s best (and hottest) athletes didn’t have such a successful stint at an LA rehab clinic and was busted again for drugs (Really, has any LA rehab clinic had success with a celeb’s drug problem? Why send him there? But if Lindsay or Paris winds up dating an Aussie named Ben soon, I have a pretty good idea where they met…)
5. You can use your language skills you picked up last time. OK, so even if Australians speak English, it is a whole different language sometimes. And your translation skills will come in handy when playing wing woman for your Aussie pal while the US Navy and Marines are in town.
6. It’s cheap! Oh, wait. Nevermind.
7. When you eat at the Hare Krishna restaurant, you can flash back to the time you visited a Hare Krishna temple for your social movements class and remember getting reprimanded for putting the scriptures on the floor.
8. At The Deen, you can have flashbacks to the second (and last) drink you had in Australia. Then while walking through the rest of the bar, you can have more flashbacks related to No. 1.
9. All the cool kids are doing it.
Last time I was in Australia, I’d convinced myself I didn’t care to see Sydney. From Americans and Australians alike, I’d heard it was much more Americanized than my study abroad city of Perth…and really, who travels half way around the world to be in a place that’s just like what’s outside my USA door?
Well, on my return to Oz, I figured — Americanized or not — I should visit the famed Aussie city…and see the Opera House from more than just the window of an airplane. So glad I did. I love this city! And its two most famous landmarks, the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, have provided two awesome (and not American at all) activities here: I climbed to the top of the bridge (134 meters! photos below), and took a tour of the house.*
Really, I love this city. Good times.
*Helpful hint for Americans touring the Opera House (and as my friendly guide, Nick told me today there are many Americans who take the tour…): Book online for one of the early-bird tours. Not only do you save $10 off the cost of the tour, but you’re much more likely to get to see more…as concerts/operas prepare for the night’s events, access often becomes more limited after noon.
The ruined temples at Angkor may just be the coolest thing I’ve seen on this trip (thanks to all who pushed me to go see them when I was just going to pass them up!). I even got up at 4 a.m. one day just to make sure I was there for sunrise. And if you know me at all, you know I’m definitely NOT a 4 a.m.-kind-of-girl. But, in retrospect, I admit, it was worth it.
And while spending three days there, I even had time to snap a couple of “senior picture” shots…
The biggest attraction in Hoi An is the tailors. They are everywhere. And they’re addictive. And unlike other Asian cities I’ve been to where there are a load of tailors, the ones in Hoi An really seem to do a lot more women’s clothing.
That’s good news for me whose body rarely fits into off-the-rack dresses. Earlier this year, I went into every store in L.A.’s South Bay looking for a brown shirt dress. I tried on probably 30 million (just a rough estimate), and they all made me look like I’d thrown on a shirt from a big & tall men’s shop. When I put on this dress at one of the three tailors I used, I nearly jumped up to hug the girl who brought it out…I couldn’t believe it actually fit. Yeah for tailor-made dresses!
PS: If you’re ever going to Hoi An, I’d definitely recommend Cloth Shop: Friendly at 14B Cua Dai St. or Cay Me (Tamarind Tree) at 2/6 Le Loi St. Not so much Y Anh at 99 Tran Hung Dao St. But that’s just me and my super-sleuthing 4H sewing skills talking.
Finally I am in Laos. Getting here was quite the adventure but actually pretty fun because I got to meet loads of people. Saturday spent five hours on a bus. And Sunday and Monday about 8 hours each day on a “slow boat” putting along the Mekong River. Interestingly, though, on the over-crowded boat, I didn’t meet one American. There were at least 10 Canadians out of the about 100 people on board, yet not one Yank.
At a temple last week, I was walking toward BB when three novice monks (ones who are studying at the monk university) asked me where I was from. I talked with them a bit but felt a bit awkward. I couldn’t help but feel they were definitely flirting when they kept trying to convince me I should help them with their English the next day. Why did I feel awkward? They were 17. Seventeen! Oh yeah…and they’re monks!
But, talking with them, I did realize that them thinking about girls/women isn’t as far-fetched for them as I thought; they weren’t all planning on being monks for life (but they are still 17). They’re there to learn about the religion, and as one of them said, “to make my parents happy,” and like quite a few other novice monks, they’re also there because this is one of the few ways they could get higher education.
The monk I met a few days ago [above] told me, “You’re lucky you’re American.” He then went on to talk about how great it is that we have such broad access to higher education in the States. After working with Teach For America for two years where we were constantly reminded how access to education isn’t equal in the US, his off-the-cuff comment was a reminder that although our education system has some problems, others may still envy it.
PS: I also asked him about bargaining. Monks sometimes do it too. Whew!
