mountain climbing

Last night I dreamt about Mt. Everest.

I was in Pakistan--because apparently my dream self believes Mt. Everest is in Pakistan--and I was with my family and a couple friends. It was beautiful, and there were sunny fields with wildflowers (my dream-self reinvents geography completely, apparently). I think we rode horses toward the foothills.

The next thing I knew we were on one of the mountains. The incline was so sharp--almost vertically sharp--that it felt entirely perilous. There was some building, a tall building, like an inn, and I was nearly falling out of it. It was almost as if the world was turning backward and I was going to drop off of it.

We were so high, so inconceivably high. We were also right beside the actual Mt. Everest, and it was so overwhelmingly large that my peripheral vision couldn't fit the whole image. Looking at Mt. Everest from my mountain was the most vivid part of the dream--I wish I knew how to describe it. I couldn't keep balanced, I was going to plummet thousands of feet down, and seeing this even larger obstacle was both awe-inspiring and terrifying.

I had another dream like this last summer. In that dream, gravity disappeared and everyone began to float away from the Earth. I can't describe it to be felt in reality, but there's a very gripping terror you feel when even science can't be counted on.

Anyway. We had a dinner party tonight. We made quinoa, tomatoes/onions/wonderfulspices, potatoes, and asparagus. There were nine of us, and wine was had.

I'm so incredibly grateful that this week is over. Two papers, a bio assignment, a nerve-wracking interview and a Hindi exam all done. I did terribly on the Hindi exam, but my interview went really well (one of the interviewees was even a Michigander, and we were chummy about MI rivers and kayaking), with me flaunting my water resource knowledge (THANK YOU,
Water by de Villiers & Prof. Hevia & Contemporary Global Issues.) I even got a "Good Job" at the end.

So maybe, maybe, maybe... I will spend next year in Jaipur. Maybe.

Man, but still. That Mt. Everest dream.