The Hong Kong airport is the happiest place on Earth!
burger king. ben and jerry's. popeyes. (!!!)
also, christmas music. what?
everyone from my group who is on the group flight to LA is currently asleep, while I talk to people in the Hong Kong airport. I can't believe it's over!
So, let's see. I will try to upload my ISP over political prisoners (with Stephen's help, of course) in the near future, in case you have interest in reading it. Click on this link: DARBY%20ISP.pdf
Forgive the brevity, but I have gotten about 9 hours of sleep over the course of 4 nights and it is currently 8 in the morning in Hong Kong (we arrived 2 hours ago) and we don't leave again until 4:30. My brain is a little confused at the moment.
This is ridiculous. People are fashionable (or at least, I don't feel as if I'm in the 90s again), and they are all so clean! Everyone and everything are so clean... i don't even know how to handle it!
Semesters are so short.
Here's a quote that happened in South India that I haven't gotten around to putting up. This is how sad we are: “But, at the end of the tunnel, there’s not a light – there’s only Mexican food!(said in unison)”
Okay, so I am about to go possibly get a massage, so I will be back later. (:
This was a $17,000 thangka that we got to see: This may or may not have been ours...
One day, our cook, with whom we communicate regularly through texts, was very late in bringing our breakfast. A little later he texted his apology, citing intoxication with drowsiness as the reason. (:
view from our roof; Loseling prayer hall
Today, we caught a peeping tom: a spider monkey! The little monks shot pebbles at it, which we expected the big monk to condemn; instead he seemed to condone it!
Written around November 14:
Okay, so: Stephen and I are now at Drepung Monastery, where we have been for about one week (wow!). We are staying in the Drepung Loseling guest house, which is pretty nice, though the shower doesn’t work (but neither of us minds bucket baths, so it’s not a big deal) and the power goes off on a very regular basis (though not regular enough to have a schedule…)
our pet lizard! he comes in the holes around our window and sings to us.
We are both working on our ISPs, which are going pretty well at this point. When we first got here, Geshe Tsundue (a former student of Geshe Dorjee’s who is basically taking care of us under our Geshe’s distant supervision) didn’t really understand my project, so he took Stephen to the Loseling school and didn’t understand why I didn’t go with him every day. Finally, however, we worked out finding a translator for me, who was able to clear up everything with Tsundue la.
with Geshe Tsundue la outside of the Ganden monastery temple.
So now, I have been meeting with political prisoners every day at 4:00, and today will be my fourth. Tomorrow I am interviewing the school’s principal, which was entirely luck!
Stephen, while having tea with him, discovered that he was arrested trying to get back into Tibet from Nepal (despite the fact that the principal speaks only a little English), even going so far as to draw him a map of the prison! Needless to say, Stephen excitedly told me when he got back and I made an appointment to talk to him about it as soon as possible.
cooking french fries!
I have been teaching English classes! I've taught classes 2 (eek), 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 at Loseling. It’s pretty fun, though definitely tricky. Luckily, being bad at remembering names and instead pretty good at remembering faces works pretty well here! Most of their names are too tricky to pick up quickly anyway, but I can remember them easily by their faces.
Class 1B- those who have to start with the Tibetan alphabet.
students trying to ignore the American taking their pictures.
It’s really difficult to know what to do- I think there is a mix of wanting to listen to us talk and wanting to talk with us, partially because they aren’t all very comfortable talking. It’s very easy to spot the good ones from the unpracticed ones, which is helpful. The hard part is getting through to the ones who are in the upper level class and barely speak. So far, it’s mostly Tibetans who have been the quietest.
morning assembly.
I try to get them to ask questions, which some do at first, thenthey stop out of fear, I think, then after a while, they start asking a lot more. I’ve been asked strange things; lots about Obama, I was asked where I was and how I felt when the twin towers hit, why I like Buddhism, why people in the west like the Dalai Lama, what the American flag means, and what I think needs to be done to save Tibetans. I think they warm to me initially because they always ask why I’m here and my answer is that I am doing my project about political prisoners (which was really hard to explain the first time).
Stephen is now a computer teacher for the computer teachers, which is pretty cute.
little monks practicing writing.
So, here’s how the monastery thing works: In Tibet, the biggest monasteries were Sera, Drepung, and Gaden. Because they were so big, each had two monasteries within them. In South India, the biggest are Drepung (4,000ish monks), Sera (2,000ish), and Gaden (1,500ish), and each has two monasteries/colleges within them. In Drepung, there are Drepung Loseling and Drepung Gomang, Loseling being the larger of the two and the one Geshe Dorjee comes from and where Stephen and I are staying.
shoes outside of the Ganden temple.
Oh, we also had a three day train ride to get here, which was no fun. Stephen got what we think was his first migraine and I got a cold (his was much much worse, but needless to say, neither of us was very productive, though I did read a whole book that was incredibly good for my project).
a little Indian girl begging - an unfortunately common site.
Okay, now it’s Sunday. Today we visited Gaden monastery, which was very nice. We arrived as some high lama was awarding those who had done the best in the recent tests, so all of the monks were assembled in the big temple. We were instructed to go in the very front and take pictures, which was scary! My heart was absolutely racing in excitement/fear that we were doing something wrong. Oh, and right outside the door were bees!
Today we also visited Geshe Dorjee la's Amala!
I taught English to class 2 of Loseling school the other day. Usually, I teach 7-10, so it was really difficult. I had them read “Curlylocks and the three bears,” which was entertaining. Oh, and this morning I taught classes 6,7, and 8 at Gomang school, which was interesting. Gomang school only goes up to 8, and they were all pretty good at English. In class 8, it was science hour, so we read their English science book; the chapter they were on was about satellites of various kinds (i.e. planets, artificial). Interesting…
a little monk from class 1 on Children's Day.
We also were lucky enough to witness Children’s Day at Loseling school, during which the students had no real classes, got to play games, and the teachers performed skits and songs for them. It was really cute. The best part was the monk who does morning announcements who told jokes in his announcer voice; we didn’t understand the Tibetan, but it was clearly really funny and his tone was entertaining enough for us. Also, the teachers performed as Tibetan boy bands! They videotaped the whole thing and at one point the guy with the camera started videotaping us from at least 4 different places! Weird weird.
Oh! We made French fries!
mmmmm.
We are still just as unusual a site here as we were, but I think we are both getting more accustomed to it. Power is still just as sketchy (i.e. sometimes we have power, sometimes we don’t, sometimes it comes on for 3 seconds, sometimes for 2 hours in the middle of the night…)
Oh, and it’s the coolest time of year here but it still feels like summer at home. I can’t believe it’s so cold in Arkansas! It’s going to be super weird to get home and be the middle of December after being here.
all of this was just for Stephen and I....
Also, we are being fattened up. I think they realized how skinny Stephen was and decided to make us feast regularly.
feasting with Ngawang Kelsang la. Chive and cabbage momos!
Today, Tuesday, we were photographers. We started out by photographing the Loseling School principal as he visited an important old Geshe and gave an offering. Then we went and took pictures all around the school. Then we went and took pictures of him making offerings in a small temple. Then we went to the main Loseling temple and took pictures of him making offerings to the abbot, deities, and all of the important monks in it, of him and his assistants giving money to all 2,000ish monks, and of the temple itself, inside which the monks were doing a puja. The puja was for him; he recently became a Geshe and this was his ceremony to give offerings and be given offerings by others.
during the puja, little monks ran around with food.
We also got to walk around on top of the Loseling prayer hall, which is huge and was completed in January of this year.
inside the Loseling temple before puja began.
Today, Saturday, we are back to being under house arrest. Apparently the policeman that was around and patrolling for passes was friendly, and has unfortunately left and was replaced by a very unfriendly one. For this reason, we can only go out at night again, which we only do to go use internet when we can or have dinner with one of our monks.
students erecting a tent on the day of the science exhibition at Loseling school.
We have also been very privilidged to receive teachings from Geshe Wangchen, a very important and well-known monk here. We meet with him every three days or so, at which time we are allowed to ask any questions we have and he answers to the best of his ability. He spent 7 or 8 years in England, so his English is very good. He is in his 70s. I don't think either of us realized just how important he is until we were asked to take pictures when he took part in a puja at Minyak Kangtsen:
Geshe Wangchen is the one on the throne at the end. Minyak Kangtsen is the dormitory that Geshe Dorjee la was in charge of and Geshe Tsundue la is in charge of in his stead. Kangtsen is the word for dormitory and Minyak is a place in Kham (a region in Tibet) where most of the monks who live there came from.
cuties.
I said in my short entry that I would comment on the awesome Tibetan fellow (also viewable here, as linked from Stephen's blog.) I interviewed him for my project, though he was not actually ever imprisoned. He has been part of every major hunger strike (as far as I can tell) for the past few decades, including a 36-day hunger strike in Delhi. More pictures later.
As for my project- I have, at this point, interviewed 7 political prisoners, 2 non-prisoners, my advisor, and 2 other monks. I have yet to really start writing, however, but I will start soon. Only about one week left...
We will be here, in Drepung, until December 7, at which time we will take a train to Delhi and arrive the morning of the 9th. Then we fly to Kathmandu on December 10th and stay there until December 15th, when we fly home. We will gain back the day we lost in coming and will have to stay overnight in LA, finally arriving in Tulsa at 10:30pm on the 16th.
Whoo.
skinny! also, mountain man.
We are getting ridiculous, friends and family. On more than one occasion, we have sat and discussed (and argued about stopping) and obsessed about the foods we will eat when we get home. We have lists. They are very very long. Whenever we get hungry, or really just when we allow ourselves to, we start up again. One of us always threatens the other with something if they don't stop and we both always end up listing off foods and drooling.
We are serious when we say we will do nothing but sleep and eat for a while after returning home.
I just wanted to write a quick note (particularly so because the internet place closes in 5 minutes) to let everyone know that I am fine. I am hundreds of miles away from Mumbai, living in a place where there are only a handful of foreigners, all of whom (excluding Stephen and myself) are monks or nuns.
In case you are as unaware as I was until an hour ago, there was a terrorist attack in Mumbai. Click here!
I will post a longer entry as soon as I can - probably in the next few days, power permitting.
So, my apologies for the overly angsty post. Today I spent about 3 hours at my director's house having lunch and chatting. When I left, I felt so much better... I think I just needed another person and I needed to talk for more than 5 minutes to someone who speaks English as well as I do. It was good and it helped. She also bought this hot sauce I discovered at a restaurant and mentioned I liked (but couldn't find in a store), which makes me super happy. It's called Louisiana Hot Sauce and it tastes like the sauce on spicy garlic wings at Buffalo Wild Wings (if you know me, you know I'm obsessed with this stuff). Plus, Stephen and the group return in 4.5 days, which is amazing. And I will rewrite the stupid thing, though I will inwardly rail against it, probably. It won't be very good, as I lost all of my notes, but I will try and also attempt not to hate myself for writing something way below par. I think I just feel better having at least found somewhere with Wifi. Please let me know if you have anything you'd like me to write about/take pictures of.
I am lonely, I am sick still, and I am relocated. I don't know where anything is, there is nowhere to eat less than a 15 minute walk away (which doesn't seem like a big deal until you think about that fact that I am a white female and Nepali men just adore those and I am not fine with being out after dark, which starts around 5. My new hotel has no internet (well, it has it, but it's only for the owner), no restaurant, and no people, and the owner is a jerk. Today, I discovered that the drain in my bathroom doesn't work, so I flooded 2/3 of my room when I showered. I also stayed up most of the night writing my stupid paper and then, when moving it and all of my notes to a flash drive, missed, accidentally deleted all of it. Irretrievably. So then I promptly had meltdown, called my teacher, who can fit me in for coffee tomorrow... Also, I get to write it again, apparently, because they have to have something to grade. I finally get the stupid (insert many many angry words) paper written, even though I already felt horrible last night, got about 3 hours of sleep because of it, and then delete the stupid thing and she has absolutely no sympathy. And I'm lonely. Right now, don't ask me how Nepal is. Because my answer will not be positive, enthusiastic, or any other happy adjective. And Stephen doesn't come back for a week, which isn't terribly long, but right now feels like forever. And I met a girl from the SIT Nepal program who treated me like a leper and didn't want anything to do with me. And I have another paper to write in the next week as well. I feel like giving up. On the plus side, I just had good food.
"Taxi to Thamel? 400 rs." "No. 150." "For you, special price- 300." "150"."...okay 200."
I am officially fairly confident in the value of things here. And I am feeling extremely confident in my ability to barter. The men like me because I'm white, female, and I am nice to them and I think they expect me to be easy to take advantage of, and then they get really confused when I am adamant in my price (and I'm stubborn and never afraid to just not buy something) and very stern. Yay!
Okay, this is what the majority of shops (including pharmacies, phone stores, etc.) look like. The little packets hanging are not condoms, which is what most of us thought in India where they were on every roadside vendor (of which there where many...), but in fact candy.
So, I went back to the doctor. After 9 blood tests, they established that I'm not pregnant, I don't have HIV, and I don't have any of the Heps. So that's good. Basically, I'm getting better, just really really slowly. Oh, my liver is also inflamed, but apparently that's no big deal.
So then PD and I went shopping. While in the taxi, I saw these: Yep. In case you aren't aware, there has been a Maoist group that has been waging guerrilla warfare against the Nepali monarchy for 15 years, which won the popular election last year, I believe, so they are currently the dominant power after forcing the King to step down.
So, we went shopping and I bought more presents. Once again, PD helped prove that one can get much much better prices with a local around. Plus I think he was telling them to help him out with me, because when he would barter with them his voice got kind of soft and the kind of tone you'd expect in such a situation, and he would not towards me sometimes. Hey, whatever works.
I also bought a sari. I was just debating it, but I mentioned it to him and he decided that I had to have one. So we went and got it for pretty cheap, actually. He then decided I absolutely had to wear it then, so I did (mostly because I wanted the girl to help me put it on so that I could see how it was done). I realized a little later that it was a wedding sari, but it's a cheap one, so it's not as elaborate and showy as many are. He, having come from work, was wearing a suit, so everyone we passed on the way back to a taxi (which was many, many people) thought we were getting married and offered congratulations.
Last night the power went out and, being bored, I decided to wrap it myself. I'd say I did well! I even pleated effectively! Of course, it helps that I had softened it up. Being fairly cheap and new, it was pretty rough and stiff. I rinsed it a million times (partially also in order to get out the excess dye, of which there was plenty) and washed it twice and hung it out to dry twice, and it finally worked! I think I got the majority of excess dye and I softened it quite a bit.
I stayed bored, so I then decided to take pictures.
Also, I bought myself a ring! It took forever and many many shops to find, but I finally succeeded with PD's help. It says "om mani padme hum" in Tibetan (which is what made it so hard to find) and is sterling silver. Also, the middle part spins!
Om Mani Padme Hum means "the jewel is in the lotus." It is a mantra that is on all prayer wheels and is the most well-known Buddhist mantra. Oh, and a mantra is like a prayer, which one says, sends out into the universe by spinning an engraved prayer wheel, or by hanging painted prayer flags that are blown by the wind, for the benefit of all sentient beings. The jewel is in the lotus can be interpreted as the idea that the lotus flower, which begins in the muck at the bottom of a pond and grows to be clean and pure above the water, is representative of all sentient beings, as they have the ability to start from any level of life, karma, beliefs, etc. and achieve true understanding of the nature of the universe.
Basically, the idea is that saying the mantra with the true intention of benefiting all sentient beings is like praying for them. It doesn't mean you have to be a Buddhist; it simply means that you are raising your thoughts to all other beings to help them achieve an end to suffering.
My mom asked me whether or not I consider myself a Buddhist, for which I am sure one could make a case, considering my writing. Here's the answer: I am not a Buddhist in the strict sense by which it will be considered by most non-Buddhists. I wondered, before this trip began, if I would go home and expound upon the spiritual revelations I had while abroad and how I found inspiration in Buddhism through the various pilgrimage sites I would visit. Before I came, I followed Buddhist philosophy of compassion, karmic retribution for one's actions, non-violence, and ignorance leading to suffering, and I continue to do so now. However, I have visited a number of pilgrimage sites (though, to be fair, none of the most revered, which are in parts of India I did not visit), and I never felt truly inspired or particularly enthralled with them. However, the most touched I have ever felt, spiritually speaking, was receiving a blessing from a high lama, here in Kathmandu and receiving a blessing from Geshe Dorjee la at home. I think it is simply difficult for a Westerner to conceive the levity of the various myths and deities and images. But the fact is, were I forced to align myself with a faith, I would align claim Buddhism over Christianity without any hesitation. I am not Buddhist, but I have more respect for a faith which excludes no one, is completely non-violent and therefore is never the basis for wars, promotes questioning, researching, and debating the faith itself and everything about it and included in it, and says that every sentient being is in charge of their own fate through their actions and, more importantly, their intentions, without the promise of being saved by an outside entity. Again, if you have questions, please let me know!
To answer a few more questions from my parents: No, I have not had mystery meat. In Nepal and India, there are next to no regulations on meat, so it is generally a very big risk to order any meat. However, there are restaurants that have meat shipped from Europe, most often, which guarantees the safety. For this reason, I am not entirely vegetarian and have had chicken and beef while in Kathmandu.
Toilet paper here is generally very rough and resembles streamers in both texture and form. It is fairly difficult to find in both India and Nepal, though Kathmandu has a reasonably large population of Westerners who refuse the water and hand method.
The most common religions are Buddhism and Hinduism, though there are also many Muslims.
There are many stray dogs here, which I find terribly sad. This is one of the issues that pushes me away from the more devout Buddhists here. It kills me to see them circumambulating the stupa (the path is lined with prayer wheels and they recite mantras as they go) and stepping over or around dogs that are starving. There is also a disease here that I have never seen or heard of; basically, the dog's intestines start coming out, which eventually kills them. I have seen so many dogs that are about to die and some that are dead already, just ignored for a while. I don't understand those who say they have compassion for all sentient beings, yet refuse to help certain forms. This is, of course, not universally true, as I have often seen healthy, happy dogs hanging around monasteries where they are likely to get scraps. In answer to the initial question, they are allowed inside the monastery courtyard, but they never attempt to go into temples as they have curtains hung over doors and dogs here know better.
Kathmandu as fiction is a topic for another entry, I believe. Suffice it to say that, as one of the poorest countries in the world, it is impossible that any city could be as imagined by a Westerner, particularly one with such a great population. Oh, and as for altitude:
I can kill two birds with one stone - I love nicotine and I want glasses!
So, the quote is from Lucy, one of the girls on the trip. She has always wanted glasses and her eyes are just barely too good to get them. She also smokes and, upon discovering that smoking leads to poorer eyesight, made the aforementioned statement.
I've added many more photos to my flickr account (comment!). The following is what I have written over the last week or so.
(this was last week, right after we got to Kathmandu) Yesterday I had a stomach x-ray done. Pretty interesting. It looked cloudy, which I correctly suspected to be a bad thing. So now I'm on medicine, which is good, though I'm not particularly thrilled about the way the next few days are going to go. I'm sorry for waiting so long to write - I've been expecting to be better every day and it just hasn't been happening (though it should now!). Alright, where am I? I am currently in Kathmandu, Nepal. We are staying in the Tibetan sector, which, as far as I can tell, I very much like. There is a lovely monastery in which most of the monks seem to have purpose and many old Tibetans are always making slow circles around the stupa.
It’s weird to order room service here – they tell you it’s completely fine, but the person who brings it always looks quite perplexed and a little put out. Nonetheless, I have enjoyed room service twice (the third is on the way), and I’m not sure if they know why I don’t leave my room.
Here, as with everywhere I’ve been in India, people spread out barley (wheat?) to dry on the rooftops. It’s fun to watch the fat pigeons slowly discover the goldmine before something (and rarely the person in charge of the goods) scares them away.
Oh, there are also roosters and turkeys on the rooftop next to our hotel.
.............
So, on Thursday (I think...), the group left to trek to Mustang. I had gone to the doctor a second and third time in the two days preceding this, and the doctor basically said that there is so much stuff stuck in me that it will take a while before I'm ready for any kind of serious exertion. I was definitely upset, but I managed to ignore it for the most part until after everyone left. It's hard, though - I don't feel exceedingly tired because I've been taking it easy, though I definitely am still stuck in the vicinity of my bathroom. I am glad I didn't go, simply because I would have been miserable. Of course, there is the fact that I am missing the highlight of the trip and the closest environment to pre-invasion Tibet in existence and everyone else is on it. What can you do, though, right?
I bought these to cheer myself. (:
I'm doing pretty well, though. Not much exciting to report, though, while reading by candlelight outside my room the night everyone left (the power went out around 5:45 while I was at dinner), the hotel manager PD (“You can call me PD – like Puff Daddy hahahaha!”) came and offered that, should I get bored, I am welcome to go sit and talk with the employees downstairs. Super nice. I took him up on it a few days later and have since learned 1. how to play one of the most popular Nepali card games and 2. that I should never ever play for money against locals. I was smart enough to refrain and simply watch, but they went through money like crazy!
So, I'm getting pretty good at bartering. I've also bought more jewelry than anything else, and I just keep finding more that I want to give people! It's hard to keep from spending money here, though I'm doing a pretty good job so far.
Oh, so PD is taking me shopping tomorrow, which is exciting. I will get much better deals with him there. Also, we're going to take the hotel scooter/motorcycle, which will save money but be a little terrifying. I've never ridden on one before!
so, here are some pictures that I like. But go look at flickr for more!I think all goats should be spoken to in German. I swear they respond better to it.This was right before leaving D'sala. My Amala didn't come... This is my best picture from the drive down from D'sala. Yeah, this was in Delhi and we were all thrilled. We had Sbarro and Subway and McDonalds. This is the Bah'ai lotus temple. Look, we're cute!
This was taken as I was walking down the stairs from the plane after arriving in Nepal. I found out at the bottom of the stairs that it was a completely illegal thing to do. Whoops.
