Well, this may very well be my last post from Sri Lanka. It's sort of a mixed feeling. On one hand:

1. I won't be eating rice twice a day, everyday

2. There's a 0% chance there will be a giant spider in my bathroom

3. I get to see all of my friends and family

On the other hand:

1. I won't get delicious roti, tender jak curry, and delectable fresh fruits

2. I won't see so many elephants and monkeys

3. I have to leave my friends and family here

The list could be longer on both accounts. Basically though, I'm really looking forward to being home, but I've had so many amazing, life-altering experiences here that I'm really going to regret leaving. As I told my Amma, it's like going to a big city that's far away in order to see an amazing performance. It's full of thrills and chills, music and flashing lights, and other amazing, wonderful things. At the end of the day you're so glad you went, but when you fall into your own bed that night...you're also really glad to be home. That's how I feel.

And now, as promised: Pictures!

Sri Pada (AKA Adam's Peak)

The Nuwara Eliya area

And thanks to Paige for this one

I'd post more, but really, these images can only give a glimpse of life here. I'm really, really grateful for being able to come. Thanks for reading everyone!

Adam's Peak

There's a famous pilgrimage spot about 3 hours drive from Kandy, and we decided we had to go before we went back to the States. As tradition dictates, we hiked up the mountain in the middle of the night, watched the sunrise from the top, and went back down. Now, I'm bone tired from having written my final independent study paper, then staying up all night last night hiking the mountain. It was really worth it though. It's a difficult hike, and you don't see much on the way up. On the way down though...it's indescribable (at least in my present state). I'll post pictures when I can. Wow.

Well, I had a very interesting weekend. I met a new angampora master, and stayed with his business partner. Let me say, I'm used to censoring myself around Sri Lankans so they don't think I'm a sleazeball (because I don't always abstain from alcohol, and I have a girlfriend before I'm married). That's how conservative Sri Lankan culture is. The guy I stayed with sketched me out. Anyway, ask me about the weekend when I get home. It'll be worth your time. I don't really want to talk about it here though.

Well, this weeked will be busy busy busy. Probably the next week too. I'll probably leave for Maharagama tomorrow, stay the night, interview the master there (some angampora guy who's issued an open challenge to fight to the death with any supposed practitioner of angampora, to prove he's the genuine article). Then, I'll spend the night there, wake up for a 6 am class, then book it to Dewalegama, hopefully arriving just in time to take lessons with my regular master. After class, back to Kegalle and then to Kandy that night.
So, I'll be taking two classes Sunday, and I'm going to try not to let on to either master that I've even been meeting with the other, because I'm not really sure how they would take it. There's a lot of contention about who's got the "real" angampora.
Not really sure what to think of this master in Maharagama. He seems like a really nice guy over the phone. But newspaper articles on him and this open challenge thing make him seem like a reckless egomaniac. I guess I'll just have to meet him and see.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting to hear back from the lab on whether or not I have parasites. I guess that's the third world for 'ya. I'm sure I'll be fine though. I've got pills.

Going back to the angampora thing (cause that's a happier topic), angampora is a geek's dream. I'm learning to dual wield swords, yo! Spinning, and jumping, and slashing like I'm some sort of Star Wars Kid (for those of you familiar with that video. Anyway, I'm sure you can find it online.) On the other hand, damn is it tiring! I'm getting in good shape though.

Hard to believe I'm leaving soon, eh?

On Gods

On the bus ride home from Dewalegama, I was thinking about God, and Gods. I hope I don’t offend anyone with this post, and I hope no one thinks less of me for this, but… I believe Gods to be fictions. And yet they are fictions with such a powerful hold on the human psyche, and they recur in almost every culture (albeit with different names, faces, and biographies. Why? Because every God and Goddess is the embodiment of something transcendent in the human experience. LOVE. WAR. DESTRUCTION. PROTECTION. EARTH. DEATH. These are the things that scare us, sustain us, and above all mystify and amaze us. What is Divine, what is Power, what is Transcendent if the love of a mother for her child is not? What is miraculous if not life itself? What do we fear more than the ending of that life, this turning of animate and thinking to completely and irrevocably inert? This is the thing which animates the Gods, and what gives them power (in our minds). Their divinity comes from transcendental human experience. And that, I think is why Gods have such prevalence in societies, and persistence in our minds.

Waking Life

For those of you who have a philosophical bent, but haven’t seen the movie called “Waking Life,” I highly recommend it. In any case, one part of that movie is that the main character is never really sure if he is awake or dreaming. Regardless, he often encounters a stranger quite randomly, they connect and discuss some interesting philosophical topic, and then they part ways just as suddenly. I feel like I’ve had my own Waking Life encounters here. Especially when it comes to a certain young man I met last week. Coming back from Angampora class one evening, I was waiting on the bench for the train to come. When I look up, there are these two individuals sitting there next to me, and before I know it we’re engaged in conversation. The quieter of the two is the one that interested me most. He speaks very good English (as well as Tamil and Sinhala), and he has this way of speaking: clearly, simply, and without any tension in his voice. He seems just as likely to speak about ethnic tensions and politicians as about the age of the railway system or Sri Lanka’s rural areas. When my train came, I got on but he remained sitting. When I looked for him out the window, he was gone.

Friday I had another encounter with the same person. I got off the train at Polgahawala, and he was there sitting on the bench again. Again, we met randomly and suddenly, had intermittent conversation about this and that, and parted ways just as suddenly when my train came.

Royal Botanical Gardens

I finally visited the Royal Botanical Gardens here in Kandy, and I’m totally amazed. I’ll go back soon, perhaps today, and take my camera this time!