India Photos!

1. Monks protesting for Tibetan independence on Losar, the day of the Tibetan new year.
2. Jembe, the demon child
3. Dharamsala in the morning.
4. Same.
5. Me at some famous temple or something
6. A Tibetan Buddhist monastery near the one where we stayed. That´s a monk in the bottom right corner.
7. Marlene and a Monk on a Motorcycle.
8. Ancient ruins of Hampi at sunrise.

Tibet, or not Tibet? That is the question..

Hi again! Today I am in Dharamsala, which is sort of the Little Tibet of India. Tucked away in the craggy mountains of Northern India, Dharamsala looks and feels like a cute little ski town minus the skiing but with all the tourists. (¨But Norah, Miss SoCal, you´ve never been skiing..¨ you say.) You´re right. But this is how I imagine a little ski town would look. Do you even call them ski towns..?

Anyway, it is fun here because I am staying with a Tibetan family! I live with a mom and her little boy at the very tip top of a hill of houses (that really is the only way to describe the way these houses are built into the hill..) and you get there by climbing many many twisty narrow steps. At the top is a little patio with an iron balustrade and a couple apartments. Our apartment is one room with two beds covered in rich persian carpets, which are covered with wool blankets at night and made into beds. There is a dinky kitchen and a dinky bathroom for all the residents, and we spent lots of time outside drinking tea. It is basically like camping in a really nice tent with walls!

So, the little boy is adorable BUT is an absolute holy terror and is fed a constant stream of sugar that keeps him energized beyond normal human capacity. It was hard to play with him the first day (lots of screaming), but yesterday was much better because we found games that he likes to play. Such as, Throw The Ping Pong Ball Down The Entire Flight of Stairs and When You Finally Get To The Bottom Kick It Into the Street So Norah Can´t Find It. Another favorite of Jembe´s (that´s his name) is to cover his eyes, at which point I say ¨Where´s Jembe? Where´s Jembe?¨ and then he uncovers his eyes and I say ¨There he is!¨ and I tickle him and he screams in delight. This is a good game because it forces him to be completely silent 50% of the time. On the upside, my grasp of Tibetan has expanded to include the vocabulary of a two year old. So now I can say ¨Come here,¨ ¨Candy,¨ and ¨NOW!!!!!¨

The mom is friends with a Tibetan man named Sonum (Jembe calls him ¨Sally¨) who married a Spanish woman named Elsa. They are so sweet! Elsa speaks terrific English and we had a lot of fun hanging out yesterday. She had a boyfriend, a nice job, a nice dog, and a nice house in Barcelona when one day she decided she wasn´t happy. So, she left everything, went to Dharamsala, met Sonum, and they got married! She is beautiful and looks just like a Spanish princess. She doesn´t understand much Tibetan or Hindi so we bonded last night watching reruns of Tibetan New Year celebrations (the New Year was yesterday). At one point Sonum and his friend Lhamo clapped after a song and said ¨That was so beautiful!¨ and Elsa said what was it about? And Sonum sighed and said, ¨Yak´s milk.¨ Of course Elsa and I erupted in laughter. Sonum and his friend had no idea why we thought this was hilarious. Who gets teary over yak´s milk? Only Tibetans, I guess! Maybe Mongolians, too..

So yesterday was Tibetan New Year but there were no celebrations in honor of the martyrs who died in the March uprisings against China. They hate the Chinese government here...they seem to acknowledge that Chinese people don´t know any better, though...it is mostly just political. I took lots of pictures, but forgot to bring my camera to the wifi coffee shop so I will have to do that tomorrow. Looks like battery is dying so I better sign off...I will do pictures tomorrow, really!!!

Miss you all.

India

Namaste! In my defense, there were about 5 electricity blackouts a day at the place I was last week so it was not very practical for me to try to go online and risk frying my computer. That being said, I am in the doghouse for not writing more. (slaps own wrist.)

So, India! Well, let me tell you about where I was last week. Last week I was in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Mungod, India. The director of our program is married to a old Tibetan man ("Nima") whose friends live at this monastery, so they were super excited to see us. They were even more excited to see 68-year-old Nima, whose Tibetan is apparently much more comprehensible than his English ("now now it is time want to look at rocks" is a typical sentence). But he has become our mascot on this trip and it was fun to see him in his element, with other old Tibetan men who laugh and mumble the exact same way.

Not all the monks were older, however. One monk was about 29 and named Tommy, and he was a Taiwanese-American from--get this-- IRVINE, CA! So he basically sounded like all of my high school friends. He is the antithesis of what I thought a monk would be...young, funny, with So-Cal slang, and a cellphone that plays uncensored versions of top 40 hip hop songs. We got on really well, you can imagine. Basically his mom tricked him when he was a sophomore in high school into spending some time at a monastery, knowing that he would get sucked in and end up being a monk (in a nutshell--that is his explanation). But he really likes it and can't imagine doing anything else....so, all's well that ends well!

The monastery was dusty and under construction, but very beautiful with dirt paths grazed by bouganvillas leading to different buildings. There was a family of cute dogs, the youngest of which would immediately roll onto her back when you approached and wait for a tummy rub. She was young enough to be teething, so she would like to chew on your finger while your other hand rubbed her tummy. She lived quite royally, as we all seemed to be in need of a puppy-petting.

The food was delicious and served by an impossibly skinny Indian man named Suresh, with big glasses and Charlie Chaplin hair. One night we even had spaghetti, which was absolutely DELICIOUS. Oh, I am excited to have American food again....

Sadly we had to leave and go on a four day trek of bus rides and mosque tours...which were beautiful, but when you've been on a bus for 6 hours it's hard to walk around and make sense of your surroundings regardless of where you are. So, luckily we have two days in Delhi to recover!!!

Delhi of course is a madhouse and you can't wait anywhere alone, but fortunately there are usually enough people around to go with you that this hasn't been a problem. We are all excited because we have homestays coming up in Dharamsala, with Tibetan families. Oh, Tibetans! They are so fun. I should have some good stories about that later.

I've been reading the Hobbit, and it is my first time. I love it! To think it took me this long to read it. Better late than never! Can't wait to start on LOTR afterwards.

I hope all is well! I apologize for the brevity, photos will come once I can find Wifi...har har!