Mussoorie!

[The pictures I put up of Mussoorie are old ones, simply because I got in today, but I will take more pictures of course, and will get them to you shortly.]

Yo yo,

So Mussoorie has welcomed me with cold rain and cold winds, as if to say; "Go back, we don't want you here!" And I had heard that it has been beautiful weather for the past month...

I have arrived in Mussoorie, wearing two sweatpants, a shirt, fleece, and jacket, and it's probably colder in my room right now than outside. I think that's just the way it is going to be, the days will be warm and beautiful, but as soon as the sun goes down...

I don't know how I'm going to take it, but in the interests of education (learning Hindi), I have got to do it. I'm here instead of beautiful Kerala in southern India because the well-known "Landour Language School" is located here. It is an institution that has been teaching Hindi as well as other Northern Indian languages for many years. So this is the place to be for intense studying, and I'm here to get my game on.

I think I travel too much. Every time I come to the Himalayas, nature conquers mind and rationality, and I simply stand stupefied at the wonders in the natural world that lie beyond my ability to imagine. The Himalayas: this is the stuff that poetry is made of, the type of stuff that Robert Frost sublimed over, the perfect beauty that (must have - I think) helped give birth to the haiku. It's inexplicable and hard to capture in words; to put it simply, seeing is believing. I still feel that way, but the childlike wonder has definitely reduced. I'm not sure exactly why that is, but it was with me last year, and is much less now especially since I'm so preoccupied with achieving my goal of learning Hindi and ending my current career as a bum that likes to travel. When people in India ask me what I do for work, I go through this complicated explanation of how I am learning Hindi to help further my career, and I wish I could just say "I do so and so for work." I feel like some rich American that refuses to earn his way like the rest of the world's people. I am not, I tell you, I am not! But anyways, back to sublimation; I want the wonder back, I feel like I am missing out on the necessary human experience of being able to lose yourself in something bigger than you. For me, that thing is the Himalayas, and I don't think there's much in the world that is bigger than the Himalayas.

It's wonderful to be back, but I do wish I had some friends to share the experience with, simply because secrets are the most fun when shared with a few people, and Mussoorie, though well known and visited by Indian tourists - with bazaars and a hotel industry that seems to double in size every year, still feels like a well kept secret. Maybe it feels this way because of the lonely backdrop of the mountains, or maybe it's just that a town with one main road can never really contain that many permanent residents. Also, there is not the noise pollution of other places in India; cars are not allowed once you get into the main part of the city, and so a mysterious quietness that does not feel like India blankets the city. And Mussoorie seems ever conscious of it's spectacular natural beauty: on the road up into it I saw multiple signs promoting the planting of trees and references to Mussoorie's age old appellation "The Queen of the Hills." I have a feeling the British had something to do with that.

Please wish me luck in focusing on getting this Hindi done - it's way to easy to get caught up in the experience of another culture and forget your here to achieve some goal. Hope all is well with everyone!