Jumping off a mountain in Manali

Coming to the mountains this weekend was therapeutic. Once I was out of the heat, tucked away in Old Manali- a wonderful little town in the foothills of the Himalayas, I was able to relax and take in my whole trip here. We've been staying in an adorable guest house situated at the top of a steep hill with an incredible view of the surrounding mountains. Despite the steep climb, it's a great place to stay that we're getting for 200 rupees a night (around $4.50). I love India. It's going to be so hard to come back to the U.S. and pay 10 dollars for a meal. Today my lunch cost around $1.50. And the pace of life here is so relaxed and content- if I were to live abroad for an extended period of time, I could actually see myself coming here.

I head back to my village Monday night on an overnight bus and when I get back I really start working on my waste management project. I'm looking forward to getting started but I'm dreading returning to the exhausting heat. Maybe I'll just hide out in the mountains on the weekends until it starts cooling down.

Today I had an experience that I think is representative of my trip to India. I went Paragliding. We had to hike up a painfully steep trail for about 45 minutes before reaching our take off point. On the nerve racking car ride up to the area where we did it, the driver (one of the paragliding pilots) admitted how dangerous paragliding was, that around 100 people broke their legs here a year and even occasionally there was a fatality. Though it's still statistically much safer than driving a car, I was still terrified. But when we got to the take off point and I got all strapped in there was no going back. Then the scariest part- running full speed and jumping off the side of a mountain. My trip in the sky was beautiful and thankfully the landing was very easy. One of my friends didn't have that luck though. Landing depends on the wind, and right as they were getting ready to touch down, the wind dropped off and she crashed into the ground. Thankfully she folded her legs underneath her or else she probably would've broken one. But looking back, jumping off that mountain reminds me of how I approached my trip here- I just had to bite back my fear and forget all of the unknowns and do it. And like with my trip, I'm glad I did. I'm going to take this to a disgustingly corny finish, using a quote I just came across when I was looking at Ms. Samantha Hiner's facebook- The world may be falling out from under my feet, but at least I'm getting a chance to fly. Thanks Sam. :)