NaNoWriMo 2012

You may or may not have wondered where my NaNo-ness has been this whole month, except for the few snippets I posted on Twitter. With only one win and two epic fails behind me, I thought I would try a different method this year: no forums or blogs at all. That, my dear friends, was  stupid decision. I lugged myself through to just over 20,000 words before I felt like I couldn’t go on anymore, and on Day 27 I finished with 21,026. So I broke my ban on forum posting and shamelessly begged for someone to encourage me (I felt a little bit pathetic, but you have to do what you have to do). Luckily I wasn’t the only one, and also luckily, Wrimos are truly amazing people. With lots of encouragement and posting throughout, I ended up winning again this year with 50,154 words just before midnight, after writing nearly 17k on the 30th to finish.

 

Some highlights about this year:

-the first time I won I pulled through by using dirty word count tricks like breaking the fourth wall; this year I have 50,154 of solid writing that I can actually realistically edit.

-I had a whole bunch of writing breakthroughs once again

-pushing myself to write 17k in one day was insane, especially since I wrote almost that much in the previous two days and was feeling super tired…I know lots of people do way more in a day, but this is the most I’ve ever been able to write all at once in the same story

-my novel isn’t actually finished yet, which surprised me…I didn’t write just to get it done, I actually wrote to get a decent story out

My stats for this month!

All in all I feel really good, and I most definitely will not be making the same mistake again. I should really know this by noww, but two heads are better than one, and 300,000 heads are better than one, too. So thanks to everyone for your amazingness and for supporting each other this month. A huge congrats to everyone who took part, whether you won or not: you now have words written that you didn’t have before. And write on!

For anyone who is interested, go to NaNoWriMo.org to find out more

Holy Freaking Cow

Do you have any idea how quiet South Africa is? I mean, go out on the street. Sure, there are some taxis honking and people shouting and what not, but really, it’s pretty quiet. You can speak at a normal volume and people will hear you. Also, it’s clean. It’s really, really clean. My Converse, which looked perfectly fine in Bangalore, now look horrendously filthy to me. Did I mention it’s quiet? It’s really, really quiet. Yesterday I almost felt claustrophobic. Given, this is a small, seaside town…but still. Even Cape Town is quiet. When we drove out of the airport, all three of us looked at each other and went, “Where’s all the traffic?”

In other news…you know that feeling of absolute and total brokenness when literally all you can do is pass out in God’s arms and give Him the reins? Well…I usually rather dislike what leads up to that feeling, but when it actually comes, I feel such an immense, glorious relief that I find myself wishing it could always be like that. And I wonder…shouldn’t it be? People say you can’t constantly have some deep spiritual experience, but this isn’t the same as an amazing worship time or even as clearly hearing God’s voice. It’s just…rest. Rightness. It’s a literal example of when we are weak, He is strong. Precisely because we’re weak, stripped of all our pretense and pride and knowledge and human wisdom and human strength, He has a clear channel to work through us. Let’s not all turn into reincarnations of Edgar Allen Poe…I just mean that when the brokenness comes, surrender to God. He’s brought you to this place for a reason; now it’s just you and Him, in the secret place, together. It isn’t a place of enmity or danger of harm…it’s a planned, protected, guarded place where He meets with you.

I thought I’d also give a bit of a life update while I’m at it. First, UCT has accepted me on the condition that I qualify for matriculation exemption, which I do, so UCT has accepted me!!! Yes. I’m happy. I don’t know about the res thing yet, but it’s all good. Second, I’m going for my license tomorrow…cross your fingers. Third…oh, yeah, I guess that’s kind of it. Oh wait…yes, I did “fail” NaNo. But what’s the point of NaNo? To get you to write more than you normally would. So even though I didn’t officially win, I still feel good about the words I cranked out, as well as the stories I began. I’m going to have to completely start over on City of Sand, but Spare Me Over is going well and I’ll hopefully finish it before the end of the year.

As a side note, my Twitter sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t, so sorry if you sent me messages or tweets…only the automated blog announcements work 100% of the time. Not sure what’s up with that. Yay technology.

And another thing: one of the things on my List of Things to do Before I Die is to watch the sunrise in India. I never did do that in November…so I guess I’ll just have to go back

(I have been watching a lot of spy-type movies, so I’m sorely tempted to end with something epic, but I won’t do that to you. With great power comes great responsibility. What? Who said that?)

The Return, and Some Updates

I know I was bad at blogging this month, but I was a little distracted by all the amazing India-ness going on Also, it takes a while to absorb everything anyway, and talking about travel while I’m in the middle of it has never been my strong point. So don’t worry; I will, in fact, be telling you much more about the country and the trip as soon as I possibly can. Right now I just have some thoughts that I need to put down in a quite possibly rambling, choppy fashion, so please bear with me.

First, we’re back (bet you couldn’t tell that from the title). We landed in Cape Town in the middle of a lovely Cape day; hot sun and cool breeze. The funny thing is that normally, I feel excited beyond measure to be back home. But today, all I could think was how much I miss the noise and the smells of Bangalore. Of course, by this time I am excited to be home, but my initial reaction was way different.

Being me, I had to try and figure out why, and I think I’ve got it. See, this kind of thing used to be an enormous part of my life; three months a year for seven years, pretty consistently, traveling to usually pretty rural places and experiences cultures way different from my own and seeing things I’d never even heard of. And then, for about four years, almost all of that stopped. I saw other places…I saw parts of Europe. But not like this, and not this kind of country. The ones that have a scent unique to it, like the rusty cement smell in Ethiopia. The ones that crawl under your skin and refuse to leave. The ones that become a part of you.

So actually, this was like getting back a part of myself that I’d either forgotten or lost or some other ridiculous sounding thing…and that’s partly why I didn’t want it to end. Also, the whole month was really one big message from God saying: “There is no ceiling. There is no limit. You can dream, and I made you to dream, but even your biggest dreams are atom-sized compared to what I have planned. No one can put Me in a box…and because you’re My kid, you’re not going in one, either.” And I think all Christians should realize this: There is no limit…the sky isn’t even the limit. We’re talking about GOD here. I’m not saying by any means that your life will be perfect, that you’ll be rich, that you’ll have everything you want. I’m not saying that at all.

I am saying that if you’re a Christian, have a relationship with Jesus, and you’re in His will, then you’ll have joy. Joy is not the same thing as happiness, because it’s deeper. It’s lasting. It’s peace and contentment and freedom and strength. And what I realized then is that joy is not, in fact, limited to the place where God helps you find it or re-find it. So I can truly and honestly say that, despite the fact that I do miss India and several other incredible places, there is no place like home.

As for NaNo…wow. I realized I need more time to do City of Sand, but I still plan on writing 50k in Spare Me Over, most of that today and tonight. I only have about 4k in that one, so hooray for doing 45,000 words in two days! Hahaha…coffee, anyone?

In addition, now that we’re back from India, I have something else you can pray for, if you like: the next trip to the US. There is a very real possibility that I’ll go by myself, and I’d leave on Christmas eve, which kind of sucks, but what can you do. However, there is not, as of yet, money for a return ticket. And since university starts in February, I kind of need to be back by the end of January. I’m not at all stressed: God has a plan. But I would appreciate your prayers. Also, my parents do need to go to the US, even if they go two weeks later than me, but again, they need money to come back. (I do find it slightly fitting/freaking ironic that I might be spending Christmas alone in a pub on the Heathrow airport. I mean, really, how much more typical does this need to get?)

Anyway, I will now end my rambling and leave you with this quote, sent to me by my best friend who is sometimes called Duckie: “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.” We should never, ever lose our ability to find the beauty in the simple, everyday things. And we absolutely should not get to the end of our lives and realize we were still waiting for everything to start…but now it’s over. Live life to the full

And Then Some Stuff Happened

INDIA

Okay, in my defense, I wrote a blog post a few days ago but accidentally lost it, and then I didn’t feel like writing a whole new one. Anyway. So much is happening that it would be hard to cover everything in detail, so I’ll just give you a highlight. First of all, my impressions from day one are, so far, proving to be correct, at least for the parts of Bangalore that I’ve seen.

Over the weekend we went to stay with good friends of ours who have lived here for a while. We saw, among other things, Commercial Street, which is HUGE and AWESOME. You wouldn’t believe how packed it is. I mean, whoa. Go to the mall the day after Christmas and it’s still not even close. In fact, look at the picture I’ve posted. That’s how packed it is. But it’s beautiful and full of life, and it was an amazing experience just to be there; I didn’t even buy anything. There are also side streets, which are apparently themed…we found the shoe street, the cloth street, and the stationery street. But there’s no way you could possibly see it all in a few hours, or even a few days. If there’s one thing I’m learning about India, it’s that there’s so much to explore and see that you kind of need to live here to see it all. It’s an incredibly diverse, interesting, layered country, from what I’ve seen so far. The food continues to be incredible and the clothes aren’t bad, either. I am now the proud owner of two sparkly saris, which I am looking for an excuse to wear. Anyone know of any good fancy restaurants in Bangalore? That aren’t expensive or at least won’t kick you out if you only drink coffee? Speaking of which, I have been addicted to coffee for some time, but now I’m addicted to espresso. More specifically, drinking an espresso really fast, especially if it’s a double. Who needs drugs?

Also, I have bleeding blisters. There is something incredibly satisfying but simultaneously unfortunately pathetic about this. Anywho, I’m way sad that almost two weeks are already gone and I can’t believe time flew by like this…I kind of want to live here. I’ll add it to my already long list of countries I want to live in for a few years

NANO

There’s this thing called BSOYCBOSS, or Being Sick Of Your Computer Because Of School Syndrome, and I have it. I’m barely on facebook, I had to bribe myself with leftover noodles to blog today, and even Word and Scrivener are off limits. This means, in effect, that I have 14,600 words and am approximately 40,400 words behind if I want to stick to my original goal. I’m thinking I might just go for 100k this month. I’m afraid India and good friends are slightly better company than spending hours with Charlie However, I am getting lots of ideas for books…which could be good or bad…

The Beginning

This is the first of the split posts, which the majority will be this month. India first, NaNo second Take your pick or read it all. Oh yeah, this was from the 1^st of November, after midnight, so I have more for you today…I’ll post it tonight or something.

 

INDIA

Well, wow. Where to start. Um…okay, the trip itself was surprisingly smooth. Emirates officially trumps all other airlines I’ve been on. When you have ambient purple and blue light, and a star field in the ceiling of the plane, and good food and amazing service, and over 140 movies, you pretty much rule out all competition in  my book. The only bump we had in the trip isn’t even worthy of being called a bump, especially in comparison with most of our other, rather bumpy trips. Dubai airport is awesome and I’m looking forward to spending more time there on the way back. The thing that hit me there, and that has continued to hit me since then, is how laid back these people are. These are day one impressions, so it’s possible that by some freak accident and coincidence we came into contact with the 5% of people in Asia that are laid back. but anyway. Dubai airport is a big, international, meeting-of-many-cultures place, much like Heathrow in London and Schipol in Amsterdam…and yet, none of the usual cutthroat, dog-eat-dog atmosphere was there. And we had Starbucks! Yay! I feel more like myself already.

 

So. India. When we got here it was nearing the end of dusk, and the sky was dark cerulean. People say that all the time, I know. But really. Picture the deepest, most fantastical shade of blue that you can, and that’s what the sky looked like. It got dark pretty quickly, so I can’t really say much about what Bangalore looks like yet. I will say this: it reminds me a lot of Ethiopia, except less…hostile? I’m not sure what the right word is. But it’s the same thing as at Dubai. I’m used to the ruthlessness of Africa, and I love it because it’s Africa, but this so far, is much different. As I said or at least implied, these are the comments of a slightly jet lagged African chick who has only seen a tiny part of Bangalore at night from inside a speeding minivan. Oh, yeah…so far, I have been able to ascertain one extra traffic rule that the US and SA don’t have. When you get to a turn in the road, a speed bump, a car (whether in your lane or in oncoming traffic), someone on a motorcycle, someone on a bike, a dog, a pedestrian, or basically anything that is not the immovable, straight and narrow road, honk. Honk twice for good measure. It’s just polite.

 

I have had my first real, authentic Asian food. WOW. My tongue is still on fire, but in a good, flavorful way. By the way…in the US when they say egg fried rice, they mean fried rice with little indiscernible scraps of fried egg, just for the flavor. In India (yes, SO FAR, please don’t shoot me because of hasty generalizations), they mean uno fried egg. Which was interesting because the yolk was neon yellow, but tasty all at the same time. Anyway…I’ll have more for you once I actually start seeing things.

 

Also, holy cow, I do not remember vaccinations hurting this much…I got them on Friday and my upper arms still hurt like it’s 2012 (what? I don’t know, go ask Mr. Jetlag over there.) Oh, and I was an ignorant tourist today! I’m not sure if this is cause for celebration or a severe shaking of the head. But…I can’t help it if I’ve never thought about what country Dubai is in. It’s just Dubai. However, apparently there is a “comma, United Arab Emirates” attached to it.

 

NANO

I confess, the excitement of NaNo passed me by a little bit this year because of packing, finishing school, and flying. However, I stayed up until midnight even though we’d been traveling for about 36 hours straight and wrote a grand total of 27 words. I need to get up to 5k by the end of the day, but I just couldn’t get more out tonight. Often I kind of feed on my tiredness when I’m writing, but travel tiredness is a whole other beast. SO how did you all do?? Remember, if you feel like you can keep going past the word count, then do it. You’ll thank yourself later, if you’re not too busy kicking yourself in the shins for signing up for this thing.