Norbulingka

Friday I taught my first real life English class! I'm teaching the elementary level, which means I've got a lot of Kalden's former students. The class is pretty full; there were 27 on the roster and then a few more signed up later on. They all seem eager to learn and were very pleasant to work with. Maybe half of them were wearing Buddhist monk or nun robes. I have a good feeling about the semester.

Yesterday, Saturday, Kalden took Julie and me to a swimming pool outside Dharamsala where he goes a couple of times a week to exercise (as if climbing the roads and steps inside the city isn't enough of a workout).

Big dragonfly!

Julie and I discussed my inspiration to develop a garbage disposal infrastructure to implement in India, because it really is a beautiful country if you get past all the trash in the streets. People just throw their garbage wherever is convenient. It amazes me how most public places don't even seem to have garbage cans available; something I never even considered back in the US. Maybe, she said, in ten years or so after I've done some work on it I'll be on the stage giving a TED talk. I came to India to better the lives of Tibetans, and I find myself inspired to improve the situation of Indians. Any engineer friends want to help me out with this?

Julie and I talked under the overcast sky, and it was only after we got back to our room and took showers that we realized we had both, in fact, sustained some considerable sunburns. (Sorry, no pic.) If I'd have realized it at the time, I would have at least flipped over to even myself out.

After we left the pool, Kalden took us to the Norbulingka Institute for Tibetan Arts. It's preeeeeeeeeetty.

Kalden and Julie on the steps to the Norbulingka Institute.

Tibetan books.

By far the biggest Buddha I've ever seen.

Upstairs in the Buddha shrine.