After seeing my nasty skin situation, the guys at Pause Dwelling
offered to wash my sheets and blankets for me. I took everything down
the other morning and it was only much later in the evening that I
realized I couldn't find my one jump drive -- the awesome 32GB one that
has all my movies on it. I went downstairs to ask if they'd washed the
bedding yet and if they'd found anything wrapped up in them. They said
they hadn't, and then they invited me to come back down for dinner. Free
homemade dinner not being something I tend to turn down, I hung out in
my room for a bit and then wandered back downstairs.
The guys had the TV on; they flipped the channels between the news (something about a guy called Narayan) and the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (Kaun Banega Crorepati). I still find it amusing how Indian TV combines Hindi and English almost constantly. I was able to read the text on the news (somewhat laboriously) and I caught a few words here and there. For some reason I hadn't even thought to turn on my own TV to listen to Hindi; I guess I'm just so used to not watching TV in general that I don't even consider it an option.
Dinner consisted of handmade chapatti and some kind of soya bean masala -- it was delicious and not too spicy. I'm not exactly sure what "soya" beans are and how they differ from the Illinois soy beans I'm so used to, but when they're cooked up they resemble TVP. I like 'em.
Yesterday in class at Tibet Charity, I was joined by not only Gusti but Neil as well. He was so kind as to shoot some film for a project I'm involved in -- the students were very well-behaved and went about class as usual, not paying any particular attention to him. We spent most of the class time reviewing for the test we were to have today, which I just finished grading... in general they're alright. Most of my students are sitting around an 80% for their overall class grade, which I suppose isn't bad.
Neil offered to pass the video along to me if I swung by his room (downstairs from mine) later on that evening, so that's what I did. A few minutes later Brij joined us, and what I expected to be a five-minute visit turned into three hours. We played "guess where this song is from" -- according to Brij, most music originates in Mali -- ate ramen, and exchanged a whole bunch of music and movies. Neil offered some insight as to why Pause Dwelling has such a funny name -- it involves a thesaurus mishap (think "rest house") and he says it could have just as easily wound up being called "Interval Hovel." Ah, it's fun making new friends.
Oh, and I found my jump drive. Yay!
Just because I feel like this post needs something visual, here's a sketch that Gill did of me at one of HH's teachings.
The guys had the TV on; they flipped the channels between the news (something about a guy called Narayan) and the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (Kaun Banega Crorepati). I still find it amusing how Indian TV combines Hindi and English almost constantly. I was able to read the text on the news (somewhat laboriously) and I caught a few words here and there. For some reason I hadn't even thought to turn on my own TV to listen to Hindi; I guess I'm just so used to not watching TV in general that I don't even consider it an option.
Dinner consisted of handmade chapatti and some kind of soya bean masala -- it was delicious and not too spicy. I'm not exactly sure what "soya" beans are and how they differ from the Illinois soy beans I'm so used to, but when they're cooked up they resemble TVP. I like 'em.
Yesterday in class at Tibet Charity, I was joined by not only Gusti but Neil as well. He was so kind as to shoot some film for a project I'm involved in -- the students were very well-behaved and went about class as usual, not paying any particular attention to him. We spent most of the class time reviewing for the test we were to have today, which I just finished grading... in general they're alright. Most of my students are sitting around an 80% for their overall class grade, which I suppose isn't bad.
Neil offered to pass the video along to me if I swung by his room (downstairs from mine) later on that evening, so that's what I did. A few minutes later Brij joined us, and what I expected to be a five-minute visit turned into three hours. We played "guess where this song is from" -- according to Brij, most music originates in Mali -- ate ramen, and exchanged a whole bunch of music and movies. Neil offered some insight as to why Pause Dwelling has such a funny name -- it involves a thesaurus mishap (think "rest house") and he says it could have just as easily wound up being called "Interval Hovel." Ah, it's fun making new friends.
Oh, and I found my jump drive. Yay!
Just because I feel like this post needs something visual, here's a sketch that Gill did of me at one of HH's teachings.
Can you tell it's me? I think it's pretty darn good! |
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