So what’s it like to be living in New York, after a Green Mountain youth and a Heartland of America budding? (and a Middle Kingdom, and some Beantown, but they’re not rhetorically relevant). One answer: you see the people in your neighborhood show up in the New York Times. Which is kind of thrilling in a celebrity-gossip-pages way, and also in a way that confirms that this is indeed the center of the universe.

1. Mika and I just signed a lease on a new place up on 151st st. (ok, getting a little further from the center of the universe). The broker who showed us the place was this wild grinning-eyed woman with nutty hair extensions and all aflutter with enthusiasm that we were looking at this place, and wasn’t it wonderful, and isn’t the building so delightful, and you have to see the roof deck (it was pretty sweet), etc. And when we put down the money, she mentioned that there was an article about her and the building a few months ago. They skip over the whole bit about the gentrification of Harlem as people like us start moving uptown, but fun to read anyways.

2. I buy my veggies from a farm upstate, where they grow the beets sweet and the peas green. We pick up in the community center of a church around the block from me, and the orphaned veggies go to the soup kitchen there. I was curious about helping out some time, so I talked to the guy who runs the place. He was larger than life, full of himself and of satisfaction in his cooking, and immensely proud that he offered four-course meals with little advance preparation — actually, he seemed not that interested in having anyone around to mess up the flow of cooking, so I didn’t bother. The Times somehow found this guy; they got him right on.

I’ll let you know when the Times eventually gets around to me.

The main problem with Nepal is: what to do? To the south, Lumbini the Buddha’s birthplace. Nearby, Chitwan National Park where the rhinoceros and tiger roam, and can be spotted from elephant-back. Rafting, bungee jumping, mountain biking, cooking courses… aaaaaa I didn’t know what to do when I first arrived, which was back on November 28th.

Luckily, I could go to the well and dip into the collective wisdom of several ex-Kathmandoers. The unanimous consensus was that I should go “trekking”, which of course is British for “walking”. The verb “trekking” might qualify as “hiking”, but all of the walks I’ve been on have featured guesthouses, tea, and usually a porter or guide or jeep. This is not, stricklee speaking, hiking.

This is walking. This, is trekking. This is punctuation

After much agonizing over my finances, which is usually a feature of any poorly thought-out trip I make, I decided to suck it up and head for the hills. In the center of Nepal is a range of mountains known as the Annapurna. The tallest, Annapurna I, is one of the um… 10 or so 8,000 meter peaks in the world. A trail wraps around the area admirably set aside by the Nepali government, who have in general been very conscientious and generous conservers of land. I don’t really know the history, but sometime around the late 60s, the overland hippy migration to the orient ended in Kathmandu. Their legacy was the popularization of a certain smokeable vegetable and tea, as well as this Annanpurna Circuit.  This, plus the spectacular scenery, has made the trek one of the most popular in Nepal.  For some reason, the 2nd or 3rd generation hippies all look like clowns to me.

Anyway.  In October, the government or somebody instituted a new rule which requires all trekkers in the popular Annapurna region to be accompanied by at least a porter. I was able to skirt this by paying a nominal fee for the permit tax, and claiming that “my porter is ill and could not be with me, unfortunately, for $9 a day over the minimum of 10 days it might require to complete this walk. trek.”  I started in Besisar, and finished six days later in Beni.  This is kind of a rampage; most people take between 10 and 20 days to take it all in.

Sometime I’ll bore you with the details of the trip.  Suffice it to say I finished in good time, and enjoyed myself immensely.  At the moment, I am shaking off the effects of a 60 hour overland trip to Dharamsala…  I’ll write more about Nepal and my various adventures later.  I have less than a week to size up India before heading home.  Hope to see you America people soon.  North America

(pictures later sorry)