Blue-cheeked Bee-eater: India, Harbin Hot Springs, traveling, global university, Internet, hippies, modernity, culture

Hi M,

Nice to get your email, and greetings from Bhubaneswar (with its many beautiful, ancient temples from around 800-2200 years ago), state of Orisha, India, where I arrived yesterday on an overnight train, from Ranchi, capital of the state of Jharkhand, north of here. Jharkhand is one of the most beautiful, and natural and agricultural states in India I've seen. But I haven't had internet access in about 5 days. India is slowly developing, and its cities are still chaotic and congested, but I'm once again enjoying the ancient song of India - its religiosity and connected openness of people here, the integrity, mostly, of Indians and even their being kind of first-hippies, in my interpretations, even as modernity grows here - while also enjoying thinking about all this mind-expanding life (including especially Hinduism and Buddhism ) in terms of culture and comparatively (esp. vis-a-vis America and also Harbin Hot Springs).

Glad choir was very enjoyable.

Tomorrow I head to Puri for the night, then back to Bhubaneswar for a second night, then take an overnight train again to Chennai (and stay with the Vs) for about 3 nights, then home.

More later, but this small internet shop is hot and I need to cancel WUaS's monthly business meeting today due to poor internet access.

Love,
Scott

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