End of November Fun

Hello there,

Well life's pretty great. I'm breathing and the sun is shining so it's a great day to be alive. Today Autumn and I and Kuldip went for a ride on Sarbanadah's motorbike. It was fun. Then Autumn drove Becky and me around in a rickshaw (with the help of a few Indian men pushing from behind :) Tomorrow I get to go stay night at Kalipani. I'm really looking forward to making a few more good memories with the Bible school students before they head home for Christmas holidays. (A couple of the ones I got close to will not be coming back) I played a "you don't know english and i don't know assamese" version of "run around tickling/tagging little children who will laugh and run away screaming and smiling" if you understood that you've probably been involved in such a game...if not you are definately missing out on one of life's most satisfying experiences. Yesterday we went to the science center and pizza hut...man life looks so much better from a non cooped up in the house standpoint...it's so much fun being able to go and do things and live again...it's so great! anyways i miss you all - let me put it into a perspective so maybe you can understand how much i miss you.

in the past just about 3 months I have spent about 7ish days with 1person between the ages of 14-35 and whose first language is english...does that help? don't get me wrong...i love india alot and Ray, Ellen, Autumn, Andrew, Becky and all the visitors we've had are wonderful and i enjoy their company a whole lot and I love all the Kalipani people but there's just something about people who share a language and a peer group with ya...so now that you know how much i miss you...i hope you have a wonderful day appreciating your friends and family that you get to see on a regular basis. oh and if you're on facebook i posted some new pics so go check em out

Love always,

Nadine

ya all the babies here tend to have that reaction to me :(
pineapples from our lovely pineapple lady
tea with wonderful friends!
new friends!
i can fully endorse this billboard :)

Manipur

I got sick, I ate pineapples, I met lots of people, I went to a WW II cemetary, a church, a monkey temple, saw lots of the rice harvest, went to one of uncle shyam's schools, watched a funny t.v. show a few times and sat in the imphal airport for a couple hours...it was a pretty wonderful trip. if you want to know more you better comment me :) maybe i'll tell you more later if you're real nice and i'm over my headache...

sorry no pictures..computer is being uncooperative...i've tried 3 times...so maybe next time..until then. take care and have a good day!

Here's hoping...

my life will one day become more exciting. i wrote a nice little post but it all disappeared...just goes to show it really didn't mean anything to anyone..i'm going to manipur in a few days..hopefully i will come back with more exciting stories than the ones i don't have right now...i'm going to the eye doctor tomorrow, we're getting company tonight, we're waking up early on sunday morning to go to manipur...yep...that's about it...i'll report back later. just a post to let you know if you don't hear from me for a week i probably haven't died, i just went to manipur

until then,
love from
nadine

This one's for you Pamela...

well actually it's for all of you that read this blog but Pamela's sure to take a more passionate interest in this one than most of you which is why it's addressed to her...feel free to read and hopefully it will make some sense to you as well. it will probably make just as much sense to you as it does to her considering my talent (or lack thereof) for writing clear and concise and grammatically correct letters/blogs etc.

So without furthur adieu,

My dear Pamela,

I met your Brazilians today. They are the sweetest, most hospitable, and most wonderful people ever. (Man that makes me sound like an optimist huh? I guess there are worse things to be in life :P)

Wilf & Laura, Ray & Ellen, Autumn & Andrew, Kuldip, Becky & I all went over there for supper tonight. The food was amazing. (You're officially inviting me over for a Brazilian meal when I get back to Canada, how bout supper? we can sit and chat about India over a nice leisurly brazilian meal..doesn't that sound lovely, oh and you should invite Raysha too while you're at it :P)

They speak good english and it was soo nice to meet other "foreigners". It's amazing how you can just feel so at home with people you just met but they definately have the gift of hospitality and when you share the "foreigner connection" it's pretty easy to become fast friends.

Anyways just thought I would let you know that I met them, I love them, they say hi, I told them you missed them and that you said hi..they love you alot, I was talking to her about how one of the first stories I heard from you when we went for coffee was about the wonderful brazilians you met and she was like OOhhh you're Pamela's friend, she got pretty excited when she found that out...then later she asked me if I was Wilf & Laura's daughter (probably because I was in Jorhat when they came over here for supper) and I was like um..nope but I can see how you would come to that conclusion...they're about the right age to be my parents and we're all white and they'd never seen any of us before, as you know in india that's pretty much all you need to draw the natural conclusion that we're related. i'm sure it would be the same in canada if we only ever saw indian people together and all that...but anyways now i'm rambling on and my pictures of your little brazilian baby haven't loaded...soo sorry, she's grown quite a bit (a kuldip observation)and was quite shy at first when 9 of us walked into her house but she warmed up and she's quite a cutie...i'll maybe upload them to facebook someday and tag you in them. take care!

love,
Nadine

What I think about

Disclaimer: I've been stuck inside for almost a week. What else do you expect me to write about?

I thought I'd give you a bit of a glimpse to what I think about. I've had alot of time to think lately given my imprisonment. It's voluntary cause I know it's good for me but for those of you who know me you can imagine how much I hate it! Basically I think about one thing but it covers many different ideas. It's one of my favorite things to think about and it presents so many new adventures and possibilities...you guessed it, The Future!!..the unknown, the surprises...the things waiting to happen..here are some of my latest plans/ideas...

Hitch-hiking across the states and canada and visiting friends along the way - if you want me to come visit just let me know...potential stopping points include: texas, california, kansas, and ontario but it would be on my journey trying to visit as many states/provinces of canada...i figure maybe i should explore the homeland first...make my way across North America.

backpacking/working my way across the world - finding friends around the world that i can stay with for a few weeks til i find enough moola to move onto the next interesting destination...i think this idea has pretty good potential..i already have the connections in india, thailand, hong kong, and peru so i'm working on it.

getting a job (uggghh) -ick ick ick...jobs suck...other than roofing and being a cabin leader at camp, work sucks! i'm going to avoid it as long as possible...maybe even my whole life...which brings me to..

maybe i should just be a professional mooch..you know that carefree, adventurous, irresponsible 20 -30 something year old that comes around a couple times a year to tell all the interesting stories of what they did and where they went since they last saw you, the type everyone loves but always thinks should settle down and do something more productive with their life...i think i would make a pretty good storyteller...

going to university in australia and getting a double degree in law and international studies in 5 years. (ugghh to the university part...cool to the australia part)...5 more years of school? um..no thanks..although i'm sure it would be more interesting than high school...but still paying the big bucks to write papers..doesn't sound very appealing but hey...i have been known to change my mind...

get married (Ya right..IT would save me having to make my own decisions about what to do with the rest of my life...who am I kidding... getting married would be a really dumb idea on my part...i love having no clue where my life will take me)

nannying- could be fun..not sure i could hack the commitment part of it but it would be a fun way to earn money and not have to pay expenses..plus i love kids...it has possibilities...

travel buddy/companion/lovable but unprofessional tour guide - i'm working on the charm part but i definately have the potential to convince some poor fool that they should take me along on their next vacation. i'll show them the sites and provide delightful/entertaining company for them. I also come with friends in 6 countries on 3 continents that will give us free food for a couple days,i'll show you a good time in exchange for travel expenses? if it sounds like a deal comment me and let me know where/when we're going.

anyways this is the latest as of 1:00 pm on Monday, November 10th (Indian time).
if you have ideas/suggestions leave comments
if you want to know the latest plan leave comments
if you want to hire me to be your travel companion/buddy/unprofessional tour guide leave me a comment...i'm availabe as of october 2009..cause i gotta enjoy the sweet Canadian summertime of takin it easy, going to camp and get my share of hard core manual labor at 12 bucks an hour right Dad? i figure since i strip shingles now i deserve a raise..what do you think? anyways take it easy and keep in touch...oh and if any of you is offering a free bed, free food and free transportation next fall let me know and i'll be seeing ya...Remember if you're interested in taking advantage of one of these tempting offers they are available after October 1/09 unless it's an offer I can't refuse then I'll be there on May 10/09. let me know where i'm headed..

love,
nadine

Dear: November

Well you've been here for almost a week and so far you're alrite. Today you're bringing visitors from Canada. That should be fun. You have good timing since you missed the bombings. I'm not sure you're going to beat your bro October cause he was pretty amazing but hey I'm open to surprises. You started out with a bang when you taught me a major lesson in trust and doing things spontaneously...now I'm left to insert 50+ eye drops into my eyes each day and be eternally grateful that I never have to wear glasses again! (yay!). You brought America a new president, hopefully they'll stop complaining now. I don' t have much expectations out of you. Hopefully a trip to Manipur and a couple more eye doctor appointments. That's about it. You're kind of a sad month trapped between October and December which are both exciting, eventful and memorable. But hey if Manipur is epic you may have earned your place as more than a filler month. I'll let you know how it turns out. Good luck!

Sincerely,
Nadine