So much to say (and see) and so little time...

Guys. Everest. Let's be real...it was just okay. Snow, rock, clouds, getting squeezed into a tin can like sardines, weird masala candies...definitely wasn't worth $160. It was priceless!

The day started off groggy and indifferent (with the exception of Alisa, who was bouncing off the walls with excitement). I think we were all still trying to process the fact that we were all awake at 5 am and actually operating before the fact that we were about to see the top of the world. The drive there was the first surprise of the day; taking a brief 15 minutes, a stark contrast to the hour (?) that it took from the airport to the monastery our first day. We got off the bus, and we realized that the entrance and exit doors basically came from the same room. A number of us commented on this, something we had not noticed the first day, due to the jet-lag and chaos of the airport. Did anyone else notice the oddities of going through two baggage claims? When we finally got our tickets, we said goodbye to our grounding force: Tashi (Tashiiiiiiii!!). After some wait, we finally loaded onto a bus and waited some more. We shared some tunes, and then we were on our way with the arrival of the pilot (kind of important for flying), onto the plane strip thing (#askNick).

The sun was rising, and Shivam dropped his camera (welcome to the group). Only one person was allowed onto the staircase at a time and #sorryNick that plane was TINY.

The best part about being in this quite retro tin can was the view of the cockpit.

When we finally took off, it was such a shock to see the distinction of the smog over the city, and the view of what we left behind.

There was no going back (except the flight was only an hour long so there is that). And then there were mountains.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and we can't find the words to explain the Himalayan majesty, so we'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Tears were shed and hugs were shared. What a karmic connection we created (or is it #askLarry?).

Grumbling stomachs brought our heads out of the clouds in realization that we only had 6 hours of sleep, no food, and unfinished journals. We got back and everyone was glowing. Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs as we over ordered-there were a lot of pancakes in the room (shoutout to Tsewong and his kitchen crew). Class was to start only an hour later than usual.

So meditation felt exceptionally long today, especially with the lack of sleep. For those who saw Emily during the first half of sitting, you obviously weren't meditating either. It seemed that minds were a bit distracted from the Everest excursion (for the record, you can't say that 5 times fast-we tried).

...

As much as I hate small talk, the weather today was beautiful. Most of us stayed at the monastery for lunch, and took a chill (remember, Larry?) under the sun. It was so nice to be able to do our own thing, while still all being together as a group. Some ate, some napped, some Skyped, but we were all still back by 3 for our mysterious community engagement assignment.

Who knew that monks have recess? We stumbled upon a football match (not soccer, sorry guys) and Morgan was quick to start a fiery game of penalty-kick football.

Marching down to the side entrance space, we met our new friend Rigzin, along with a few others. Initially, we still had no idea what we were doing there. A little bit of guidance was all we needed to get started.

Some did compost, some made aprons, some lifted branches, but one was almost killed by a falling tree (c'mon man). Zoe's group of apron-makers started out slow, but picked up the pace (literally) when one of the monks asked if we wanted to play a game. A race. We were cutting the strings that would be the ties on the aprons, which meant it only had to be a straight line. Who could cut the fastest? The initial time to beat was 22 seconds. With each next person, the time got shorter, until we thought that there was no way to beat a 5 second cut, when one of the monks did it in 2 seconds! It was both stressful under the pressure of time, but we had a lot of laughs with people messing up their seemingly simple lines (it's a lot harder than it looks).

Lopen was having time of his life playing us: tourists. (Great camera work!)

At the end we all reflected, like the good little Gaels we are, on the meaning of the mind and the body in community engagement. 

The highlight was Lopen melting our hearts by saying he is comfortable with us like good ole' friends. Our hearts are still melting #howarewegoingtosaygoodbye #Jonwesaidnomorehashtags #sorryguys #fromJon

Let me just say that I had such an amazing time today. Dinner was fabulous and it was such an amazing experience to have people just hand us (Zoe and Jon) the guitar and ask us to play when I haven't even played guitar yet for my boyfriend of 2.5 years. The singing and music along with dinner was the best night that I could have asked for so far. From Wonderwall to JB to Party in the USA to Hey There Delilah, there was something for everyone, and I think we can say the same thing about all that today had to offer (#blessed 😜)
So here's to flights across the world with people you hardly know and far too many hashtags for one blog post (I blame Jon), cheers my friends!