The Final Post?

I've been back for one week as of today. I'm suffering a lack of stimulation, as well as residual jetlag and maybe some traces of Delhi belly issues. Still, it's good to be home among my family and friends, and where there are hot showers. As of now I am not working, nor am I residing anywhere in particular. The last two nights were spent at my sister's house in Towson, and the next two somewhere else. I've come home to overcast skies much of the time, and I'm told it's been like this a lot lately. In a way it's nice to see, as overcast means there could actually be rain, unlike in Ladakh where clouds are just clouds. I've been to two of my nephews' little league baseball/t-ball games, met my brand new tiny niece, and saw my newest nephew (8.5 months) who, since I left, has learned to prop himself up and has a clear gaze and a funny smile.

There are India pictures to go up, maybe on this blog, maybe some on the facebook/myspace, but my computer is getting fixed now so check back for those in a week.

The title of this blog reflects my indecision over returning to Ladakh in the fall. Considering the harder aspects I now understand about Ladakh (especially the isolation factor) this will be a difficult decision to make. I do want to return in the spring of '09 if possible, but it would be great to experience Ladakh during the harvest season, during a different time of year altogether. The fall is a gap-year program for high school graduates, so I wouldn't be so much a teacher as a resource person and advisor. The drawbacks of returning to Ladakh are obvious ones. Leaving my family and social circle is the biggest. When I consider that I would be gone for another three months, and then back (possibly in time for Thanksgiving) then I believe I could do it. I love it there, I love the program. I would miss my friends and family deeply, which is why they...ahem...you...need to visit me there. Then travel south Asia. Anyway, I have a few weeks to think about it and the whole summer here in the U.S.A.

Well, the Ladakh spring '08 semester has ended. What an experience. I am more at peace, I have checked a number of my own bad habits and tried to advance some of the good ones. I have had the great fortune of teaching eleven of New England's most promising scholars and artists, philosophers...people. I have learned more about teaching...in one of earth's highest and most remote regions. Right now, I fear, this when I could fall into some kind of rut. Idle hands are the devil's playground. Something like that. Got to stay busy...What to do...

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