This morning I woke up with a strange desire to go out and do something exciting. The past few days have been slow, comfortable ones in my grandma's house. After much fuss this morning, I finally managed to break loose of my lethargy and get out.
With an uncle and cousin of mine I visited a few surrounding villages (I hadn't ever heard of either my uncle or cousin before a week ago. Nepalese families are massive. So massive in fact that a considerable amount of the people I randomly see on the street end up being relatives. I have so many distant and near aunts, uncles, and cousins. The frequency with which this happens does not make it any less absurd to me.) We drove along the hilly countryside, terraced rice paddies reaching as far back as I could see. The streets were lined with colorful vegetables, corn husks, and chilly peppers drying in the heat. The sounds of Buddhist chants from temples mixed with the sharp barks of street dogs, ambient chit-chat from tea houses, and honking on the busy streets. Women wrapped in beautiful red saris were walking along the streets in celebration of Teej, the Hindu festival honoring women. Later on in the day I went to a scenic lookout at the top of one of the villages and met a wonderfully calm goat there. I only half-joke that he is one of my first friends here.
Afterwards, I went zip-lining.
That's something I did not expect myself to do when I woke up this morning. Standing on the platform looking down at the green valley below I asked myself what the hell I was doing... my fear of heights is pretty intense. The cool scent of the Monsoon rains was wafting in the humid air. I told myself if I could do this I can do anything... it sounds horribly cheesy but it worked for me. Suddenly, I was soaring above the leafy green jungle below, scared out of my mind and yet oddly calm. It was the most peaceful I've felt in a long time.
Later in the evening, after I had changed into pajamas (that part is key to this story) I went to run a few errands. Along the way, I ended up accidentally crashing a Teej party. I was just curious about what it looked like inside so I stepped in... I had completely forgotten I was wearing pajamas. Before I knew it everyone was staring at me.... my sweatpants and old t shirt are no match to their expensive red Saris and shiny heels. It was pretty awkward. Alas, I did get plenty of free food and I even happened to meet a great uncle's daughter there... weirdly this makes her my great aunt or something... Either way we had a blast calling each other "aunty".... since she is younger than me she gives me an arbitrary respectful "aunty" but because she quite literally is my aunt I also technically had to call her that... really an absurd evening.
From this spontaneous road trip through the Nepali countryside, to zip-lining, and then party crashing a traditional festival only to find another relative of mine, I learned today that leaning into awkward, terrifying situations can end up making your day.