in dehra dun, home on thursday

hello! since i last posted we have been to varanassi and then up to nepal, and now we are back in india for a few days and then we fly home on thursday night. the trip has been awesome, but i'm definitely at the point where i'm ready to be home. yesterday was my dad's 61st bday, and so that was fun. we spent most of the day travelling (plane from nepal to delhi, train from delhi to dehra dun up more north) but it was fun celebrating his birthday in two different countries. we had a little time in between our plane and train and so took a cab over to some people we know in delhi that we stayed with earlier and will also stay with the night before we leave, and they immediately snuck out and  got him a cake so we celebrated with them a little before heading off. 

anyways, varanassi was amazing. i'll do a better job describing it in person, so ill wait for more details on that. after that we took an overnight train again to delhi where we flew to kathmandu. nepal was cool, but a lot of stuff went wrong so it wasnt quite the trip we were expecting. the main thing that went wrong was that we were supposed to drive to pokera (maybe spelling that wrong) where resham and sita (i think many of you have met them) have their ministry, and it sits at the base of the himalayas. but the gov't is having lots of issues and there was a bandh (like a strike/riot) and so all the streets out of the city were closed. so we ended up staying in kathmandu the whole time. but that's a really cool city and we got to see a lot of sites there and also hang out with resham and sita a lot who are awesome. i was bummed about not getting closer to the mountains, but we had a few good views from kathmandu, and my dad said he'd never seen them from there before, so i consider myself fortunate. the mountains are incredible, prob the most beautiful things ive ever seen, and i have resolved to come back at some point (when political things are settled down) and take a trek in the mountains.

anyways, we are now in dehra dun for a few days. we drive back to delhi wed. again i cant post pictures, but dont worry i have plenty.

i love you all very much, i havent had time to read any of your blogs but i promise to catch up on all of them when im back!

oh also, me and dad have a bet going on if they will serve thanksgiving food on the flight back to america. i think yes, he thinks no. thoughts?