For now, here’s a short anecdote, which happened a few days ago on my last day in Nepal:

“Went to a HiLaRious “yoga session” this morning, which was also at the same time quite magical. We set out walking from Manuka’s home at 5am in the dark to the temple, which was on top of a big hill/mountain as many pagodas/buddhist/Tibetan temples are wont to do. There are hundreds of steps to climb get to the top, out of breath, to pay our respects, and get a view of Kathmandu city pre-dawn – twinkling lights on a backdrop of mountains. Beautiful. The temple itself (Buddhist-Tibetan) is also quite nice and old, complete with prayer wheels and bells. We climb back down, hang out in a square at the bottom of the hill, and wait for the yoga class to start. Slowly a bunch of “mats” are put on the ground (too thin to be called a mat as my spine tells me during a curl-in-a-ball-exercise and my backbones dig in to the cement), a speaker and microphone system are set up, and a woman begins the program. First, the Nepalese National Anthem (so pretty!), but everyone stands stock still, staring straight ahead until the end (weird – they don’t sing). Then, we sit, and our caller/instructor begins, via microphone in Nepalese (so I don’t understand anything), to instruct us. We do a few stretches, and then she curls up with her hands in a prayer position. Everyone does the same, and then I hear the whole group burst out in this BIG, forced, loud laughter…and burst their bodies open in imitation, arms splayed open. Like, it was on Purpose. It was part of the routine. Then everyone stops, curls up again, then bursts out in laughter again… and its like this perfectly imitated laughter that might come ricaning out of an old man in a movie – a loud perfect belly laugh. It was so funny that I couldn’t stop ACTUALLY laughing (which no one was doing) at them and unable to actually do the exercise. But the spirit is awesome. Laughing is one of the best healing activities on this planet in any case so it makes perfect sense to include it in yoga.  After about another 45 minutes of weird breathing exercises that I didn’t jive with, stretches I longed for more, we got up and did a western-style cardio routine out of nowhere, jumping jacks and all. Then, behind the instructor, two monkeys come out and scurry around eating something….I get poked by my hosts’ dad into the jumping jacks again but the whole situation strikes me as so funny and weird and magical all at once all over again. Jumping jacks, Nepal, base of a beautiful old temple, outside in nature, weird “western” music, old people doing western cardio routines, monkeys. And no one pays attention to the monkeys except me, of course. Then the music turns off and we’re asked to lie down and… relax. This completes my experience and I fall in love with a little bit of Nepal forever. I look up above me and layers of rich green leaves frame the sky, which was still a hue of gold from dawn. I let my head fall to my left, and see a tiny ant crawling about. My heart lifts in a moment of pure bliss.