May 21 2008

Day 24 of Month 359

Published by admin at 7:25 pm under 101 Things

I went out for happy hour with three of my oldest and dearest friends.

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From left to right, we have Eric, Margie, me, and Florence.

We met in September 2001 just after the terrifying and crushing events of 9/11. We had all signed up to go abroad for ten months for a Comparative Religion and Culture program. Needless to say, our parents weren’t excited about sending us off, but we still went. We spent three months in Taiwan studying Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, followed by a two-week break in Thailand. Then we went to India for three months to study Jainism, Sikhism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, followed by a two-week break in Nepal (which was aborted early because of a Maoist revolution). We finished up with a three-month term in Turkey where we studied early Christianity, Sufism, and Islam.

Talk about life-changing.

Five of us wound up settling in DC, and I’m so glad. I will love these people forever.

4 Responses to “Day 24 of Month 359”

  1. Kelon 21 May 2008 at 9:51 pm

    Sounds like a pretty ‘eye opening’ experience. Did it lead you to change your beliefs/ideals/perceptions or did it just expand your mind?
    ~K

  2. Cynthiaon 22 May 2008 at 7:51 am

    You have lived such an interesting life. So very inspiring to me!

  3. Aletaon 22 May 2008 at 3:29 pm

    Woah! That sounds like a fascinating trip! I’d love to read more about what you learned!

  4. Zandriaon 22 May 2008 at 9:57 pm

    Wow! I knew you’d studied internationally, but that’s quite a list!

    Very cool how so many of you ended up living in the same area. There must be a lot to be said about the power of DC… :)

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