Betwixt and Between

It's been a while since I wrote anything here. Since then I have enjoyed a two-week field break in Ireland, back in Kandy I celebrated my birthday with a monk at a temple and today I am off to Kataragama.

Ireland was a bit of a disappointment in some ways. Thinking of Eire, I have always imagined rolling, grass-covered hills, overcast skies and whipping rain. What greeted me was mile upon mile of flat pastures ("look, Silje! a cow!"), overcast skies and whipping rain. That was before the rain sadly gave away for a blue sky and scorching sun. I enjoyed the greyness while it lasted.

That being said, the holiday couldn't have been better. Hugging Silje again at the airport in Dublin, though wary of kissing because of incorporated Lankan taboos, it hardly felt like we'd been apart a week. Then the two weeks we had in Ireland, hardly felt like two days.

Now I'm in a bit of a limbo. The university is closed down as the non-academics (or "servants" as the monk, also a student, called them) are on strike. The students have gone home to their respective villages.

I have kept my self occupied reading and hanging out with some of the Americans. On Wednesday Stuart and I climbed Hantana, ascending from the campus-side. We were planning to go to Horton's Plains today, but then one of my university friends called me and asked if I wanted to come along to Kataragama. An offer I couldn't refuse.

And that is about as much as I have time to write today. Gotta fly!

/haakon/