Halfway Home!

A couple days ago, we passed the halfway point of our year-long around-the-world trip. Whoa. Well, actually, due to the unpredictability of Meg's upcoming medical residency interviews in December, we're probably more than halfway, but since July 3rd was exactly six months after the day we left Berkeley and boarded a plane, we're going with it! It's hard for us to believe that it's been half a year since we were able to eat burritos in the Mission, run in Golden Gate Park and flip on a cell phone anytime we wanted to talk to the people we love. Time's been moving incredibly fast for us, and we're going to use the next few days to take a deep breath and try to get our heads around the fact that we'll be home soon (okay Mommas Cathy and Madhavi, maybe not THAT soon, but it feels soon to us).

Meg started her medical rotation yesterday in Asmara, Eritrea, and Rahul's got a lot of time on his hands for the next week till he takes off to meet his buddy Zanja in Ethiopia. So while Meg's working, Rahul's gonna try to put up a new blog post every day to catch up on some of the stories that got lost in the spring when we were between internet cafes.

More importantly, we're planning a huge (some might even call it"massive-ass") karaoke bash in New York City, and we're hoping you'll all be there. It's on Saturday, August 27th and we've given the day it's very own blog. If you're anywhere on the Eastern seaboard, or if you're down to fly out to spend a weekend with us in the NYC, please come join us! It's our one chance to see all of you this year as we pass through America on the way from Nairobi to Oaxaca. No singing talent necessary - just enthusiasm and an undying love of Bon Jovi. Head to http://tothekaraoke.blogspot.com/ and let us know if you'll be there!

For now, here's some highlights from the last 6 months. We did these separately, so there may be some overlap (but hopefully not too much, since we're trying to end this trip with mostly separate identities). Hope you like it:

The Top 5 Moments So Far- Rahul:

1. Holi (India's festival of spring) with Meg and Courtney in the Indian Himalayas. We spent the day getting covered head to toe in colored powder by crazy Indian kids and stumbling across festivals and celebrations in a stark, picturesque village named Sangla near the Tibetan border.
2. Day 10 of our trek through the Nepali Himalayas. We awoke and hiked up Gokyo Ri peak, climbing 3000 feet up to 17,500 in under an hour. Once we got down, we hung out for a while, gathered up our things, and tried to hike to the next village, but got turned back after 20 minutes by a blinding snowstorm. Once the clouds cleared, we had a view of the longest glacier in the world covered in snow. Unfreakin'believable.
3. Donkey racing with Meg and her brothers in the shadow of Egypt's Valley of the Kings
4. Celebrating the Nepali New Year with my dad, stepmom, sister and her boyfriend in Kathmandu over apple pie and beer.
5. Feasting on Italian food, red wine, and gelato with the Pearson family at the Old Bear restaurant in Rome.

The Top 5 moments - Meg:

1. Non-stop adventures with my brothers, Dunagan and Philip, in Italy and Egypt: donkey-riding turned donkey-racing (and not being able to stop giggling the entire time) in Luxor, Egypt; spontaneous spelunking, rock-scrambling and skinny-dipping in a hidden grotto in Italy; and galloping through the Giza desert on gorgeous Arabian horses.
2. Evenings in the villa with my family in the Amalfi Coast, eating delicious food and drinking wine on the rooftop, wearing obscene aprons, and going head-to-head in heated Celebrity and Hearts.
3. Hiking with and hanging out with the crazy Israeli boys and Dirk in the breath-taking Nepali Himalayas.
4. The day in Dharamsala, India, (see "The Best Day So Far" blog post sometime in March) where we had nothing planned other than an early-morning jog, and then one fortuitous turn led to another, and we found ourselves eating masala instant noodles and drinking chai at the top of a snow-covered ridge with the tea-hut man who had hiked up only minutes before us to open his shop for the spring . . and then later when we found sushi in India(!) and Rahul's favorite travel-writer happened to be sitting right next to us. Just one of those charmed days.
5. Missing our connecting bus in Turkey and thinking ourselves stranded in a nondescript town, only to be picked up by a friendly Turk passing by and dropped off at the funky and homey Old Bridge House, where we ended up staying up 'til 3 in the morning partying (and reenacting fairy tales) with the uprorious hotel owners and our new Dutch friends who had just gotten engaged that day.

The most embarrassing moment - Meg:

That would have to be my infamous first day of medicine in India. For the full story, see the "My 15 Seconds of Fame" post in the blog sometime in early February. I can only bring myself to put it in writing once.

The most embarrassing moment - Rahul:

Every time I have to show my passport to an immigration official and he looks at me, clearly thinking "Jesus man, how could you possibly allow that photo to represent you for the next 10 years!"

The best food from each country - Rahul:

Balinese mee goreng, Indian chana masala, Nepali banana smoothies, Tibetan momo dumplings, Turkish yogurt(!) and dark Efes beer, Italian everything (but the red wine and nutella gelato were life-changing), and Egyptian baba ghanouj and fresh mango juice.

The best food from each country - Meg:

Bali: red, spiky gummy fruit thingies that we ate after biking in the mid-day sun; India: Tie: chana masala and Veena-mami's chai tea; Nepal: the best banana milkshakes in the world, from a little restaurant that the Israeli's put us onto; Tibet: momos (steamed veggie dumpling-type things); Turkey: mezzes (a mixed plate of spiced yogurt, eggplant salads, etc); Italy: everything, but nothing beats the gelato; Egypt: fresh mango juice from the juice shops that we somehow failed to discover until the end of the trip (but we made up for lost time by drinking it by the liter)

If I was in America for a day, here's what I'd do - Rahul:

1. Eat an everything bagel, fresh out of the oven, covered in double cream cheese and a slice of tomato
2. Go for a long long long bike ride through the Berkeley Hills
3. Recover from the bike ride by taking a long long long hot shower (note to green building colleagues: it goes without saying that the long long long shower is from captured rainwater and solar hot water, duh!) and watch Almost Famous (the Bootleg Cut) on DVD, singing along to the entire soundtrack
4. Invite all my friends over to shoot the shit over many bottles of two-buck Chuck and a home-cooked meal (tofu stirfry with peanut sauce, perhaps?)
5. Give my momma a huge hug and tell her I love her

If I could spend a few days in America right now, here's what I'd do - Meg:

1. Spend an entire evening with each of my girl friends: cooking dinner, eating it on the porch, and talking and drinking wine 'til we can't keep our eyes open.
2. Spend hours upside down and twisted all around at my favorite yoga studio in New Haven.
3. Go for a long, slow run on a trail somewhere beautiful--East Rock Park in New Haven or any Bay Area trail--wearing SHORTS, something I haven't been able to do all year without risking offense.
4. Get behind the wheel of a car for the first time in six months, with the windows down and the sunroof open, sing at the top of my lungs and drive nowhere in particular.
5. Get all my friends and family together in one place, go out for a long dinner and then stay up all night singing badly at a karaoke bar.

When We Turn on the IPod, the First Songs We Listen To Are - Meg:

1. Tori Amos - "Taxi Ride"
2. Tori Amos (yes, I'm obsessed)- "Tear in Your Hand"
3. U2 - "Bad"

When We Turn on the IPod, the First Songs We Listen To Are - Rahul:

1. "Hold On" - Tom Waits
2. "Out of Range" - Ani DiFranco
3. "That Was a Crazy Game of Poker" (16-minute live version) - O.A.R. (Thanks Aden and Dunny)

The Six Things I'm Most Looking Forward to in the Second Half of the Trip--Rahul:

1. Performing Cory's wedding in rural Oregon
2. Walking through the streets of Havana with Meg
3. Climbing Kilimanjaro
4. Writing the Great American Novel and learning how to surf in Honduras while Meg does her medical rotation
5. Reconnecting with all the people coming out to see us in Africa and Latin America (Zanja, Ali Mac and Simon, Erin and Mickey, Kimmy, Jon and hopefully some of the Pearsons....)
6. MASSIVE-ASS KARAOKE RAGER!!!

The Six Things I'm Most Looking Forward to in the Second Half of the Trip-Meg:

1. Safari in Tanzania with my childhood friend Ali-mac and her man, Simon
2. Climbing Kilimanjaro with Rahul
3. Learning enough Spanish to ask my future patients in Honduras intimate questions about their sex lives ("Do you have sex with men, women, or both?")without an interpreter
4. Walking the streets of Zanzibar, which Rahul tells me is one of the most romantic places he's ever seen
5. Sneaking into Cuba, another place Rahul says is romantic beyond belief
6. MASSIVE-ASS KARAOKE RAGER

That's all folks. Hope everyone out there is rockin'. We miss youz. And go to tothekaraoke.blogspot.com and tell us if you're coming to see us!