Excsqueeze Me?

A lot has happened since you last tuned in.

I was pretty set on staying in Nepal for 60 days (well, 50 technically now) and had even found numerous opportunities for places to stay and things to do and new friends to hang out with. BUT THEN...something amazing happened and guess what, it looks like I'll be able to apply for this Entry Visa and return to India sooner than later after all!

A friend of mine e-mailed me and after talking and praying with some others they have decided to give us enough money for Romel to go to Delhi, come back to Kathmandu so that I can apply for the visa, and then fly both of us back to Mumbai!

Basically when I heard from them I was like

My husband will fly down to Delhi on our already paid for return ticket and go to the Ministry of External Affairs and get the stamp on our marriage license we need, then with the money we received he will fly back to Kathmandu and I will apply for the Entry Visa and then hopefully receive it within just 7-10 days and then we'll be on our way back to India hopefully before the end of June! 

Can I get an AMEN?

So who knows why it didn't work out the first time and so we have to do this, but it's all working out none-the-less and we can all learn a valuable lesson from this:

No matter how much you can research, prepare, and save for something it still doesn't mean it will work out perfectly.

I've definitely learned through this situation that no matter how much effort I put into planning and making sure I know all the information and know where to go and how to get there, in the end it's my strength and my plans and my wisdom that I relied on and not God's. Of course it is so good to be prepared and to know what you're facing, but at the same time I needed to also seek God and rely on His grace in all this. I never included him in planning this trip. 

So I thank everyone who prayed for a resolve of our predicament because God definitely answered those prayers in a most unexpected way.

On a different topic, tomorrow we ride for Pokhara and will be staying in a nice hotel on Lake Phewa surrounded by the Annapurna Mountain range. For this I am SUPER DUPER EXCITED! If you're interested in where we will be staying just visit this website and you will soon be wishing you could hop on a plane to Nepal and join us. 

Blanded Fruite Smoothe.

The water here that comes out of the taps reminds me of lake water. It's comforting. It reminds me of summer in Minnesota.

Yesterday we packed up the computer and planned to walk to a Coffee Shop nearby because they have free Wi-Fi and coffee. What could be better? Unfortunately (and unsurprisingly) we arrived only to find that the one day a week it's closed is the day we decided to go. So we walked around trying to find other Wi-Fi places and ended up just next-door at some Wimpy Burger place but their Wireless didn't work and so we got out and wandered around some more and went to a place called New Orleans Cafe or something like that. Very funny. The only thing on the menu that had any New Orleans flavor was Jambalaya. Their wireless worked nicely so we settled in their beautiful outdoor seating and ate some food and had some drinks.

Here's some pictures of our adventures in Wi-Fi:

Fake Applebees, Blanded lemonade, The New Orleans Cafe, Romel's first heineken ever, my piña colada which was more like cold milk with rum. Thanks Nepal.

We're still figuring out what to do for the next few weeks. Should Romel stay or go...and we've had some good ideas and prayers from our friends and family and we will ponder and pray as well and catch you on the flip-side.

You Kathmandu Anything!

Yeah, okay, enough of the Kathmandu puns.

SO I pretty much love Nepal. It is really peaceful and a nice little oasis after being in Maharashtra for so long. Don't get me wrong, I love India, but it's just so different there. People are more blunt/rude in India (especially Maharashtra) and here in Nepal everyone is so friendly and smiley. I could get used to this.

Can you see the mountains? CAN YOU? It's hard to see them in the city.

The most awesome cell phone holder I have ever seen, and it's now my cell phone holder.

We have not done too much in the past four days, but at least I think tomorrow we will go see a tourist sight and check out some major Hindu and Buddhist temples.

I'm sure many of you have heard that our plan for me to get an Entry Visa which would allow me to go straight back into India and let me stay there for one year without leaving...that plan was crushed when we visited the Indian visa office two days ago. Apparently, in order for me to get that visa our marriage license (which is already stamped by Maharashtra government) needs to be also stamped in Delhi by the Ministry of External Affairs office in order for it to be recognized outside of India. This is something Romel and I did not know about before we arrived here, and now that I've left India I cannot return for 60 days under my tourist visa and so I asked about the re-entry permit which allows a tourist to re-enter India before the 60 days. He told me that along with my return ticket to Delhi, I also need to show a receipt of a ticket that shows I am leaving India again after I re-enter otherwise I cannot get the re-entry permit. I cannot afford to just buy a plane ticket that shows I'm leaving India again in a few months, and so I cannot get that either.

It all boils down to this: I am stuck in Nepal for 60 days. My husband is going back to India on the 5th of June because he has recording to do and I will not be allowed to go with. I can return to India on the 22nd of July.

There are a few options:

1. If we were made of money Romel could fly back to Delhi as scheduled, get the stamp on our marriage license, fly back to Kathmandu, we'd get the visa, then both of us fly back to India again, but that would require us to have extra money to fly him back to Nepal and fly both of us back to India again (not to mention during all this we have to pay our house rent which has recently increased by 3,000 rupees). In order for this option to happen we need an extra 22,000 rupees approximately ($397).

2. Romel stays here for 2 months with me, but again we'd still have to pay rent in India and also don't know who would stay in our house for that long. Plus then Romel and his band would have to reschedule their planned out recording session which they've been really looking forward to and I wouldn't want this to stop that.

3. Romel goes back to India on the 5th as planned and I stay here for 45 more days and fly back down to Mumbai without getting any different visa. This is the cheapest, easiest, yet hardest option because then I'd have to be separated from my husband after only 2 months of marriage! Plus, I have no idea what in the world I would do here for 45 days alone. I'd have to pretty much find somewhere to stay free-of-charge.

We are not letting this ruin our honeymoon, oh no, we are still having fun, going sight-seeing, and plan to go to Pokhara next week for three days staying in a really nice hotel with massages and all that stuff (and a bathtub! I'm so excited for bathtubs!) Romel has never ever in his life taken a bath in a tub, I will remedy that and he will never look back. Unfortunately, there's no way to have a bath in our house in India.

So there you have it. This is how it is, but we are learning a lot from this. We're learning more about each other and more about God. He is teaching us something during this and I am okay with it. We could let this destroy our honeymoon but in spite of this bump in the road we are joyful and not living in despair. As a cross-cultural couple, you have to just get used to these challenges and things not working out. I wish it wasn't that way, but how would we grow and become stronger if we never struggled with anything? We just so happened to choose the path of most struggle. The narrow road indeed.

World Traveler Extraordinaire

So oh oh, tomorrow the journey commences. 24 hours on a train. At least it'll be AC so we won't die. Plus I have a good book to read entitled, Insurgent by Veronica Roth. It is her 2nd book in a trilogy and was just released at the beginning of this month. I finally finished the 4th book of A Song of Ice and Fire: the game of thrones series...not realizing that there's actually a 5th book AND a plan for good ol' George RR Martin to write TWO MORE after the 5th. Ugh. If I knew I'd have to get so involved I don't think I would have committed. Plus, it was $29.99 for the first 4 books on Kindle and the 5th one alone is $14.99, no thanks.

My husband is a hoot. I love the way he says familiar words in such a strange way I don't know what he's saying until he spells it out for me. Today he was dancing like a robot and kept saying what sounded like "rowboat." Oh man it was good.

I'm a little concerned about this Nepal trip. I know we'll have tons-o-fun and all, but I'm worried that I won't get the visa I am applying for either at all or it will take longer than the 2 weeks we have scheduled for it. Please remember me in thoughts and prayers on Thursday as I go and apply for this dang visa. I'll tell you what, marrying someone of a different nationality is complicated when it comes to visas and immigration. Seriously. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I've found that taking the most challenging choices in life have brought me the most difficulty but also the most joy.

I'm excited to see the Himalayan mountains. For REALZ GUYZ. I cannot wait! Plus we get to pamper ourselves a little and that has not been allowed since before the wedding. We get to go SHOPPING (say what??!) and we might get to have a massage (OMG, for reaaal?) AND we get to hopefully stay in a beautiful hotel at the base of the freaking Himalaya mountains for the last few days (I totes just died lolz). So be jealous all you people who think I'm crazy to move to India and give up the American Dream to barely scrape by each month, but I get to vacay in Nepal or Thailand or even Dubai is a quick flight away. Oh and btw, that picture up there is the lake we'll be staying on our last few days in Nepal.

My husband and I have started praying before we go to sleep every night. It's good. It's like the only time I pray these days. I've never really been fond of praying and I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's because I always think it has to be a certain way, but really I don't think it does. It's fun to see the different styles my husband and I pray in. He is more of a formal person and says, "Lord Father" almost every other word during his prayers and instead of saying something in a nice short sentence he will explain it in full detail. I on the other hand make jokes and pray about silly things sometimes (like asking why God had to create mosquitoes, but thank you for them anyway I guess) and I just say things short and sweet instead of going into details or drawn out stories. For example, I'd simply pray for my family and my husband would pray for my Mom then my Dad then my brothers individually and their children if they have any. But I like it. God is interested in the details even though he knows everything already. I'd say me and my husband balance each other out good in the spiritual-side of things.

Well, this is Sarah signing off. I'll at least try to post while I'm in Nepal and add some pictures of the amazing beauty that I'll be surrounded with at all times. I only hope that I don't make you envy my life too bad.

Alice in Kathmanduland.

Traveling: The Story of My Life.

I used to love traveling. I used to love flying in planes or traveling on trains. Today you will find a different story.

I hate traveling. It seems the older I get and the more I fly the more terrified I am of flying. Any tiny turbulence sends me almost to tears and crying out in prayer. Where has this fear come from? So strange.

Oh, the rush of squeezing onto the train. Welcome to Indian train travel. At least the long distance journeys are not like this.

Trains I'm not so afraid of, I just hate them. AC 3 tier is like the sleeper class of the AC compartments. Every time I travel by train I get more and more annoyed by my fellow travelers. Is it like hereditary that all Indian men snore loudly? Is it compulsory for there to be at least one screaming baby nearby? Must I always be in the same as at least two people who have never heard of headphones so they listen to their Hindu Bhajans or Bollywood hits as loud as possible whilst singing along?

On Sunday I get to get on a train once more and travel at least 20 hours north to Delhi, then I must take a plane to Kathmandu and go on what is supposed to be our "honeymoon" however we are poor and it is more of an official trip than fun. I mean, who applies for a visa on their honeymoon? Who stays in a YWAM guest house on their honeymoon? I wish that we had the money to stay in a nice hotel for the two weeks we are there, I mean hotels and resorts in Nepal are so cheap! It would be around $300 for the entire 2 weeks at a nice hotel, just imagine. That is about $22 per night. And we can't even afford that! Oh goodness gracious.

The Husband and I are very excited to go to a new country even if it is just next-door. Nepal is full of beauty and kindness. Even if it is a simple journey full of a little stress (or a lot) it will still be a good place memories will come from. We'll tell our children of the time we went to Nepal so mommy could get her new visa. I just hope there's a swimming pool somewhere. I am dying to go swimming. A girl from the Land of Lakes needs to go swimming once in a while or she might go crazy.