I'm watching my breath. Listening to it enter and exit my body. It is quiet. There is a bit of tension in my sinuses and my jaw is slightly tightened as well. my mind is quiet. Now I am back in pennebaker's class on Wednesday. I'm sitting in this incredibly crowded room with over five hundred students in it. Someone is sitting on the floor. Pennebaker has a microphone! The feelings of being back at school again. It is nice for this to be semester number two at UT. It's easier to get around. But still a shock to be back on campus with fifty thousand other humans after spending a month hiking in the mountains on the other side of the world. All of the traffic: cars, bikes, pedestrians, are such a foreign scene after the solitude of the mountains. Although this scene is not so different from the crowded streets of Delhi, India. My memories of the mountains in nepal continue to surface. Different parts of the trip. I remember so much so vividly. The day that ramesh and I left kag beni for jomsom and walked along the river. It was wide and roaring. The wind blew hard. At times the river bed was so wide that we could walk along the dry part of it. I hummed "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas feeling the immensity of this land and the tiny insignificance of my small person as I walked through it. A little bit frightening, a little bit mystifying, a little bit liberating. Now we're in Jomsom, waiting for a plane that will come and leave again without taking us back to Pokhara. We are sitting with a bunch of old Nepali men who are chatting about the dangers of the planeor so I figured, they spoke only in Nepali. I feel an odd bond with these old men that I cannot understand. They are part of me. There's a monk waiting for the plane as well and when it comes, takes some passengers and leaves us behind, he, along with ramesh and I decide to walk back to Pokhara. The stress of traveling in a foreign country that has a different perception of time is difficult to adjust to. Ramesh and I are driving on his motorbike toward Kathmandu from Pokhara. Monsoon rains have caused landslides along the road and we cannot pass. There are many people waiting to pass, including many distraught westerners. The urge to become stressed out is very strong, but I have to smile. What am I worried about? Things will work out. Now I am home, back to the fast paced society where I have spent most of my life. In the airport in Detroit, the first thing I notice is how fastpaced everything is. People all seem to be in a hurry. I practice Buddhist meditation and this helps me to focus my mind and not run off with all of the stresses and worries that are present each day. But what makes us live in this way? We move so fast that often we are not able to enjoy the life that is right in front of us. I return to the mountains. Now I am on Poon Hill. The first morning that I have seen the Annapurnas. It's really early and the sun is rising over the mountains. We're sitting on a picnic table that looks out on an immense valley that meets the grand peaks. I can sit here all day. I feel so open and expansive. Now we're in Tatopani. Ramesh, Dhundup and I are staying at a lodge right next to the hot springs which we enjoyed earlier. Now it's dinnertime and we're sitting on the patio, drinking hot tea and cold Fanta. Ramesh and I are playing chess. I don't know how to play, but am excited about surrendering my fear and trying something new. As I walked up to the table, Ramesh's smile lit up his entire face and my entire insides. As we play chess, we continue to exchange looks that are full of energy. Three weeks later, when I finally depart Pokhara, I blow him a kiss as I get on the plane. So many incredible new experiences that have molded and shaped my life in amazing new ways. When thinking about this trip, I feel open and expansive in a new way. I feel incredibly happy. I deserve to feel happy after the struggles of the spring of this year. Oh, and my time was up. Until next time!