Back in Sri Lanka

I'm back in Sri Lanka after four years. My mom asked me to accompany her on this trip. She's mainly here to attend the wedding of her good friend's son. She's still really close to her friends from elementary school, and most of them are here, too. There are lots of people to visit and functions to attend. While she is here, I'm pretty much tagging along. Since I was making the trip half way around the world, I decided to go to India as well and get some hands on Ayurveda experience. I had been planning to go India to further my studies at some point this year anyway. I found out after I decided to go that a friend from my Ayurveda class was already signed up for a 3 week course in Chennai and Kerala that started about a week after my mom was planning to leave Sri Lanka. The timing was right, I have family in Chennai, and it seemed like a good program, so I signed up! That's how a trip to Sri Lanka for a wedding turned into a six week journey. With a week to kill between my mom leaving and my program starting, I planned a trip to the Maldives, a destination that is on my list and is disappearing. Speaking of the list of places I want to visit, here it is:

Never been:
Cuba
Brazil
South Africa
Antarctica
Thailand
Singapore
Maldives (gotta be Over Water Bungalow)
Pune, India
Goa, India
Cross-country drive (US)

Events:
Austin for SXSW
New Orleans for Jazz Fest

Always on the list:
Chicago
NYC

Cortona

I arrived in Colombo on the 30th of December. It's been a whirlwind of road trips, lunches, teas and dinners since about the minute I landed.

It's Day 10 and I'm heading out to a dive school this morning to meet the instructors and hopefully sign up for a course that will finish in time for my trip to the Maldives (Jan 17-20). I couldn't find my certification card before I left and I want to make sure I'll be able to dive in the Maldives, so I'm getting re-certified. It's been a while and I need a refresher anyway. The dive school is in Mt. Lavinia which is where my grandfather died saving someone from drowning. I can feel the fear about going into the water there, but it's not mine.