Heading Home

Ugh, what a day! All I've got to say is I wish I had a few more days in BC, and also that Imodium is my new best friend. I seriously thought I was going to have to postpone my flight out. I was that miserable yesterday.

Now I'm at Seatac though, chilling at my gate, and in another 5ish hours I'll be back in IL. Then it's back to blanketing the internet with job apps and resumes....

Future Travel Plans in the Making

Hello there, friends!

I think I'm pretty much all settled in back here in Illinois. I've managed to only drive on the correct side of the road, order in English at restaurants, and still take quick showers even though now I have the resources to drag them out a little.

I got home just in time to pick up a bunch of Xmas party hours at Duke's Catering (call them if you ever have a party, wedding reception, luncheon, etc to cater; they'll take good care of ya), which is awesome considering I hadn't made a dime in the previous 4+ months. I love my job. Unfortunately, I am of the generation that has been hosed by the American higher education system, and thus I find myself with a retardedly large amount of student debt. I love my job, but I've been keeping my eyes open for additional work that will help pay the bills. (If you know of anything good, help a sister out.)

People have asked if I'd like to travel again, to teach English again. My answer is absolutely -- the question is where? And when, I'm not sure. I had planned on staying here in the US for at least a year and paying off some of the aforementioned debt, but lately I find myself wondering if I should just scamper off to some other corner of the world and teach for a while. I had a great time in India; as many people pointed out, if you can travel in India you can travel anywhere. My confidence has gotten a boost and thanks to the magic of The Internets, I can keep in touch with all of you. Four months really didn't seem all that long. I think I could do a year-long contract now, especially if I were getting paid decently.

I'd still love to see Europe, but my sources indicate that the opportunity to make a profit there is limited. Japan might be a better option for me, at least for the near future. At some point I'd like to make my way to Hungary, where my grandparents are from. I've always felt that if you're going to live in a country then you have an obligation to learn at least a few basic phrases in the local language; for this reason, there are places I'm just not all that interested in traveling to. Chinese and Thai intimidate me: China, Taiwan, and Thailand are not at the top of my must-see list. (Well, China I don't particularly want to visit for plenty of other reasons... I DID just get back from teaching a bunch of Tibetans, after all.)

In other travel news, I actually will be leaving the States again in a mere 2 months. This time I'm staying much closer to home, though -- I'll finally get to see Vancouver! It's a place I've wanted to visit for years now and just never seemed to get around to it. After spending a third of a year on the other side of the world, hopping a plane to the west coast doesn't seem like such a big deal. I hear there's also snowboarding to be done out there.

Adventure ho!

Post-India sushi!

P.S.: The short amount of time it takes to upload and post photos here, as compared to the last few months, is practically obscene.

Mind. Blown.

Home at Last

Well, I'm home.

Delhi wasn't so bad after all, and thanks to the very kind, very helpful people running AMA Guest House in Majnu ka Tilla, I got to the airport with time to spare. Indian airport security is, in my opinion, quite a bit more lax than American. I'm not complaining; let's just say I'm not a fan of the TSA. Maybe it's statements like this that get me singled out all the time at the airport? Regardless, Indian security is, in my opinion, sufficient without being invasive.

I got to my gate early and decided to take a walk to the end of the terminal since I'd be sitting for quite a while in the near future. When I came back, there were a couple members of airport personnel setting up a queue in front of the gate for additional security screening, and a western woman who had just finished speaking with them was making her way toward seats out in the terminal. I followed her and sat down in the same area; she complimented the chupa I was wearing and we got to talking. As it turns out, she's a fiber artist! She lives in Texas and, over the course of the next hour and a half or so, we had a nice little talk about our adventures in India and in fabric artistry back home. She even has a friend named Magda, so she had no trouble pronouncing (or remembering) my name.

It got closer to boarding time and we made our way through the second security screen of the evening. I guess it was supposed to be stricter because we were headed into the US, but they didn't give either of us any trouble.

Long story short, I had a 15-hour flight from Delhi to Newark. On it I sat by the window; seated next to me was a very friendly Canadian couple who were impressed at my choice of first destination outside the States.

I slept for much of it, just as I'd done the last time I traveled between countries. Just as I'd done before, I woke up as we were flying over Greenland. Since the plane left around midnight and we were flying west, the entire trip was made in darkness. I lifted the shade on the window hoping there might be some moonlight on the ice or something, because the sight of Greenland had been so striking the first time I saw it. Instead I was greeted by a cloudless sky and, incredibly, by stars. Orion floated just outside my window, crisp and clear. It was as though I could reach out and touch him. I've flown more than a few times in my life, but never before have I seen anything like I saw the other night up there. I sat and stared at my celestial companion and let myself get lost in the feeling of oneness with the sky.

I alternated between napping, chatting with the Canadians, and watching a few episodes of Twin Peaks on my laptop (I haven't finished it yet! Don't tell me what happens!!). Eventually we touched down in Newark.

Now, I was not aware that I was going to have to go through customs between my connecting flights. I thought I'd have to do that at O'Hare, when my trip ended. Nope. I had to sit and wait at baggage for my suitcase, recheck it so it would follow me to Chicago, make my way through customs, go through security again, figure out which gate my plane was at, and then race there (it's kind of a big airport) all in an hour.

I just missed it; they had just closed the door. The lady told me "the flight is closed" or some such nonsense and even though I pleaded with her, saying that I'd just gotten off my other flight and got there as fast as I possibly could, she was unsympathetic and directed me toward the customer service desk 3 gates down.

At this point I'd been basically traveling for two days straight. I was sweaty from rushing around and I was so close to being able to just chill at home, and now I was stuck.

I was also, however, in the US and so I could text message from my phone again. I got in touch with my parents and also started mentally making a contingency plan if I had to stay in the general area for more than a couple of hours.

The line was long and so tortuously slow it was like I was being made to watch a Will Ferrell movie or something -- I thought it would never end. Eventually I did get to the front and I did my best to be polite even though I just wanted to kick and whine and slap somebody. I was sure my bag was on its way to Chicago and, with my luck, it'd be lost or buried in a closet or something by the time I got there.

To my surprise, the lady handed me a boarding pass and told me I'd better hurry, because my new flight was leaving in fifteen minutes and it was a few gates down. Stunned, I stared at it a moment before uttering a thank you and racing off back down the hall.

So basically, everything turned out alright. My dad even told me later that his alarm hadn't woken him up on time so it was really no problem at all that I arrived an hour later than I originally should have. I thought for sure for a while there that I was going to be stranded "so close and yet so far" for at least a day.

I got home, though, and spent the day with family. Today some friends who may as well be family came to visit, I hung out with my dad, and I plotted and planned all the things I'm going to do now that I'm back here. I should be getting my sewing machine back from being tuned up (thanks, Mom!) any day now, so I can start sewing again. My Etsy store is open again, and I plan on adding quite a bit to it in the coming weeks. If you are in need of any kind of vinyl decals or wall art, let me know! I did go to art school, you know, and custom orders are always fun. Plus, as I was reminded as soon as I stepped off the plane in the States... Xmas is on its way. Support your local independent artists!

Where has the time gone?

Bus ticket has been booked. Flight has been confirmed. Pretty much all the other foreign volunteers have gone...

And in less than 24 hours, I'll be on my way out of Dharamsala. It's so nuts to think about... Four months ago it seemed like I'd be here forever, and now my bags are packed and I've spent the last three days meeting with friends and students, saying goodbyes. I've met some really fantastic people during my stay in Himachal; I hope I can keep in touch with at least a few of them.

My aunt and uncle told me years ago that college would be the best years of my life, that I'd make the friendships there that would last the rest of my years. It didn't really happen that way. Sure, I made a handful of great friends, most of whom I keep in touch with thanks to the magic of Facebook, but for the most part college just wasn't for me.

This, though... I think this is what they meant. It's on this trip that I feel like I've grown and come into my own. I'm ready to tackle some new directions in life; I've got a bunch of great new people who have earned places in my heart. It's a great feeling.

That being said, I'm full of a mix of emotions. I'm glad to be getting home to see friends and family, but I'll definitely miss this place and the people here. I was offered a job, invited back for a wedding, and asked by at least a dozen different people if I'd be back next year. I don't know, guys. Maybe the year after. I've got to earn some money before I can afford to do the volunteer thing again, and get some things sorted out in my "real" life. I'm ready for it, though. I needed a break, I needed something totally different -- and I got it, and now I think I'm refreshed and ready to take care of business.

Bring it on, Life.

For those of you in the States, my plan is to reactivate my phone # on Thursday so I can turn off airplane mode once I land. I'll do my best to answer your messages in a timely fashion. ;)

It's been fun, McLeod. Maybe we'll meet again someday.

What did you do over the holiday?

Oh my goodness... my students are great.

I have them write a reflection after every test, and every time we have any days off from class I have them write about what happens during the holiday. Last week we had the entire week off; HH the Dalai Lama was teaching Monday-Thursday, and so Tibet Charity decided to just close for the whole week since it didn't make much sense to have class only on Friday.

This evening I was procrastinating, whining internally about having to grade so many tests (not that many, really.. it was definitely whining) – I studied Hindi, I graded a little at a time and rewarded myself with other activities like rewinding the yarn I bought or doing push-ups, or making a list of reasons to stay until December and another list of reasons to leave a few weeks early. Eventually I decided to just buckle down and finish grading. After I got through the tests – which wasn't that bad – I remembered I still had to correct the papers on what they'd done last week.

Once I actually started doing it it went so quickly... lol... Their writing is a bit dry and predictable (usually) when they have to write about “your daily routine” or when they are asked to answer specific questions. When I let them write about what they want, though, some of them get really creative. I have a few students who must be getting pretty comfortable with me and/or with the English language, because they express these colorful, lively stories.

As it turns out, a few of my students went out to the Rewalsar/Manali area last week as well. One told me about how he and his friend got sick on the bus and threw up on the way to Rewalsar. He said that when he got there he “saw lake and statue so strong faith, but in the lake lot of fish so a little compassion.” Only Buddhists! He also worked in some of the vocabulary words we'd been using in conversation class. He did not vomit on the way back.

Another student, one of the monks, told me about how he and a friend went down to Lower Dharamsala to shop, and how they stopped for sweets and sweet tea. They met another friend on the way back who suggested they all go get some more sweets – and how they had a fun little discussion about how they couldn't keep eating like that because they'd get sick, and it's a good thing he bought new shoes to exercise!

Part of the test was to answer questions like “What do you always do?” and “What do you sometimes do?” Many of them answered that they always study English, but one said she always dances at home. I gave all of those answers smiley faces. Maybe they'll get stickers, too.

A few of my students begin nearly every writing assignment with “Hi dear teacher, how are you?” or “Dear teacher Magda...” I think it's cute. It's stuff like this that makes me want to stay. Regardless of when I leave, I'm going to miss them. I have a few of their email addresses; I'll have to get more of them. Maybe I can connect with some of them on Google+ (where you can filter who sees what much more easily than you can on Facebook). I have a few who ask if I'm teaching conversation class or if another teacher is; I suspect that they play favorites, and I know at least one of them comes to my class and not the others. I admit it makes me feel a little warm and fuzzy inside.

As far as the coming-home plans, it looks like financially it'll be pretty much a wash between staying until December or coming home a few weeks early. I'll see how I feel after the trip to Rajasthan, I guess. There are plenty of teachers here and I spoke to the boss, who said it would be fine to go whenever I wanted, so that's nice to know.

On an unrelated note, it looks like my room threw up on my bed. I'm an artist, I tell ya... that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Organized chaos: it's how I work best. I like having things neat and clean, but somehow I can never keep them that way for long. It just seems to futile to constantly be putting things away when you know they're just going to get taken out again... right? Plus when it's as humid as it is here, you almost have to leave your clothes out in an attempt to let them dry, unless you aren't concerned about that pesky mildew smell.

And now, since I did manage to finish grading all of these tests, I think I am going to reward myself with a bit of knitting before I get back to studying Hindi, or designing some kind of grammar drills for class. I think they need a little more structure in their writing assignments, and it's my job to provide that. Giving them sentences on the board to correct as a class has also gone over well in the past; I should come up with some more of those to give them. Hmmm......

Suggestions?

A lack of beggars

One of the differences we'd noticed in Manali was a lack of beggars roaming the streets. In Dharamsala there are days when you can't walk fifteen feet without having someone call out "Sister, hello! Hello! Namaste!" or a woman with a baby on her hip come up, tap you on the shoulder and say "No money, milk. Hungry baby." You feel bad, but you also can't save everyone. Apparently the ones who ask for things other than money, like milk, take these items and sell them back to the shopkeepers. I've heard stories that the children don't even always belong to the women holding them; one of my students told me the beggars go to daycare centers, borrow the kids, and return them along with a share of the day's profits in the evening.

Anyway, we're back in D'sala and that means our reprieve from the begging has come to an end. Manali was also a lot cleaner. Oh well.

Something else I first noticed in Manali but that has also carried over in other areas of the mountainous Himachal Pradesh is a profusion of sweater vests. This makes me happy. Well, their presence in general makes me happy, being a knitter... the fact that they are all made out of what is obviously cheap acrylic makes me sad. There are sheep and goats around here, you'd think they'd have some woolen goodies to wear. I guess all the good stuff gets exported. I've been working on a pair of fingerless gloves lately, because I forgot to bring some from home and I have a feeling I'll need them before too much longer. I'm a little bummed that I'm missing fall at home, but oh well. You can't have everything. I guess I'll just have to settle for spring when it rolls around.

In English teacher news, my students took their Unit 3 test today. This means that they'll probably get through 6 or 7 chapters total by the end of the semester, out of the 9 in the book. I guess that's not too bad, right? According to the veteran teachers, it's next to impossible to actually finish the book in the amount of time we have, so I'm not worrying too much about it. It looks like I'll be spending the evening grading.......

Oh yeah, don't send me any more stuff please. I am kicking around the idea of cutting my trip a little short and coming home earlier than originally planned... I don't want anything showing up here after I've left, because it'll be a real pain to get back! India's great, but I have things I want to work on at home. We also have had a big influx of teachers at Tibet Charity, so it's not like I'll be leaving them hanging if I take off a little early. I was actually the only teacher who was scheduled to be here the entire semester anyway, which I didn't realize until I got here; everyone else signed up for one to three month stints. I guess I'll see how the next couple of weeks go and go from there. Even if nothing changes, I'll be back in Chi-town on December 6th -- less than 2 months away!

Just because I think this post needs a picture:

This one's for my runner friends.

No, I didn't go. I didn't even bring my running shoes to India, which is probably for the best... the roads are really dirty here and I'd be really sad if I ruined the only comfortable pair of shoes I've ever owned (Reebok RealFlex for the win).

Catch you guys later!

More Manali

One more way India differs from the US: if you want a cup of coffee in the morning – at least one that isn't the instant powdered kind – you're going to have to wait. You know how most cafes, Starbuckses, etc are open by 5 or 6 in the morning? Yeah, here they chill until 9. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the locals all drink tea.... I suppose it's a really nice thing if you work in one of these cafes, but if you are a visitor looking for that morning caffeine fix, you might want to seek alternatives.

So, dear readers, while I am waiting for 9am to roll around I will be a good little blogger and tell you about the last couple of days, since as you may have noticed I was slacking a little bit on that front.

We've arrived in Manali on Tuesday evening. The first couple of days were spent exploring, sightseeing, and generally wandering around.

Yep, real life snake charmer.

We did fun things like visit one of the old local Hindu temples.

There is some really intricate wood carving on some of the old buildings in Manali, unlike I've seen in other places. Oh, and skulls.

Gill and I sat on a yak. It was very soft, but not quite as big as I expected. Maybe smaller yaks are easier to maintain here at relatively low altitudes (around 2000 meters).

We took some photos..

This is a Tata Nano. I see more cars like this here than any other... doesn't it kinda look like my Yaris at home?

The marigolds (and roses, and everything else) get really tall here, presumably from all the monsoon rain.

It's apple season in Himachal Pradesh.

If you look closely you can see both English and Tibetan writing on this wall under the painting. I found it to be a nice change from English overtaking everything it contacts; here the English has been covered up by Buddhist art.

Oh yeah, the hotels have cool names. Ours is called "The Dragon."

Yesterday for breakfast we decided to check out a little place we'd passed earlier called “Dylan's.” It, like the few other cafes that carry the stuff, advertises that you can get real brewed coffee there.

It was pretty darn good.

Verity finally found a good soy cappuccino!

What's that, you say? Fresh pineapple mint juice? Don't mind if I do...

There was a cast & crew running around Manali all day shooting some film, so we watched that for a while. They did not ask us to be extras (inconsiderate jerks).

After our nice relaxing morning we wandered down toward New Manali to purchase some gifts (and maybe a couple of things for ourselves, too).

Not the greenest city park I've ever seen...

No, I did not try one.

Later, Marie, Verity, and I took a detour through the woods near the river:

and found this cool tree:

and then on the way back into town we wandered down a side street filled with dhabas. They were impressed that I could decipher this sign:

In case you're wondering, it's: Chai - Coffee - Omelet in the red, and the blue reads: Veg momo, Chicken momo, Fried momo... (I'm actually not sure what the first word on the second line of blue says), then Soup, Chowmein, Dal, Chavel (which means rice). Cool, eh?

The three of us decided to try some dessert at the little place across the main road from our hotel, The Bee's Knees. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but in Dharamsala most of the businesses that provide wi-fi to their customers have passwords that reflect the spiritual, heavily Tibetan makeup of the town: “compassion,” “thankyousomuch,” “ilovemandala,” or sometimes more food-oriented ones like “bananacake” or “mochaccino.” It's cute. You get used to expecting a sweet, New-Age-y answer when you ask for the password after ordering your ginger lemon honey tea. That being said, you may be able to imagine our reaction when we asked for the password at The Bee's Knees and was told...

are you ready for this?...

“1nightstand69.”

Bahahahahaha.... well played, Bee's Knees cafe.

As I was telling my sister last night, I'd be alright with coming home any time now. I like it here, and I have actually been feeling a surprisingly low level of homesickness (maybe it's because I know I'll be back soon), but what I have been feeling lately is a sense that I have things to do – and I have to be home to do them. I miss my job and the paycheck it brings. Money certainly isn't everything, not by a long shot, but when you've spent two straight months spending your savings and not making much back, if any, then it gets a little tiring. Life in India is cheap, but it isn't free.

In closing, I leave you with photos of some of the local doggies:

In which I pretend to be an electrician

I apologize for my rushed account of the TIPA show last night, but I was out having coffee with some friends afterward and didn't want to be on my computer and antisocial for too long, but I knew once we left I wouldn't be able to upload my post. The show was fun, even if there were moments that reminded me of one of those bizarre “hip” Christian church services with the full band and the personality cult. During one musical number, on the curtain behind the musicians there was a big picture of HH the Dalai Lama superimposed over a space scene with stars and galaxies, and stuffed doves on wires bobbed with the motion of a multicolored wheel off to the side. Kinda weird. Generally speaking, though, it was a good time and I had fun.

After some surprisingly decent cheesecake and a bit of dancing at the coffee shop, Alex and Rico walked me back to my place – a thoughtful offer, since it is a bit of a trip and I don't like doing it alone in the dark if I don't have to. It's just as well, too, because we also encountered a barking dog lurking down an alleyway, a first since I've been here. You'll be happy to know we made it back to Pause Dwelling without further incident.

I had only been in my room for about 5 minutes when the power went out. I waited a bit to see what would happen, because sometimes it's only a few minutes before everything starts up again. It didn't, so I went to sleep. Alex wanted to meet before HH's teachings began this morning anyway, so I needed some rest. To my surprise and annoyance, my lights still wouldn't turn on and the fan wouldn't spin when I got up this morning. I washed my hair in the sink because I'd really been hoping for a shower, but you do what you can with what you have. It's India.

At HH's teachings I basically tuned in and out the entire 4 hours we were there. He spoke more of compassion and secular morality, but this teaching had more religiosity in it than the one last week. He said things that seemed mildly condescending to non-believers, but I reminded myself that he is, after all, the leader of a major world religion, and so I can't really fault him too much for it. At least he said we all have the same goal in mind with regard to the avoidance of suffering and attainment of happiness, and that we all deserve respect regardless of our beliefs (or lack thereof).

I spent much of the time mulling over ideas for a sewing business I could start when I get back home. I really love my job at Duke's Catering (hi Mo! I miss you!), but unfortunately I've got bills to pay and part time work doesn't always cut it. I want to maintain a flexible schedule, and I do alright with a sewing machine, so I thought maybe I could make something work there with an online or perhaps consignment sort of thing. Regardless of whether it works out in the end, I had a good morning being creative and scribbling down notes and ideas.

On a related note, Dad, I want to go to DragonCon with you next year. DragonCon or whatever other Cons you may be planning to attend.... I've got some pretty kickass cosplay ideas.

The rest of you: go ahead and make fun of my geekery. We all know you're just jealous. ;)

Anyway, upon returning home from the temple, I found that my power still wasn't on. Wtf, right? As I headed downstairs to get someone to fix it, I flipped some switches in the other rooms (they keep the doors open if no one is renting them. I'm doing the same with mine right now in hopes that it'll air out and the sheets will dry... monsoon season is almost over but we aren't quite there yet. Damp sheets kinda suck). Sure enough, the lights worked in the other rooms. I went back and checked mine again. Still nothing.

The guys came up and after a minute of fiddling with the breaker they got it to work. I had to turn everything off, then we had to flip a tired little switch outside, and then I could go about getting that shower I wanted so badly. I plugged in my phone, set some water to boil in the kettle, turned on the water heater in the bathroom, and put the fan on to try to dry the few articles of laundry I'd hung in my room.

Everything turned off.

Well shit, I thought. I tried flipping the switch myself and couldn't get it to stick, so I had to go bother the guys again. I decided I'd have to do a little experimentation to see how many things I could have running at one time without tripping the breaker; I got it up to a light in the main room, the light in the bathroom, the kettle, the water heater, and I think I also had my phone plugged in, and it was no problem. I think that might be the limit, though.

Yup, India. It's not so bad, but I have started to get a few pangs of homesickness. I'm sure in the end I'll be glad I decided to stay until December, but if I had an open ended ticket home, I'd be tempted to use it in another month or so. I think when I get back I'll try to save some money and plan to check out Europe, or maybe Canada. Anybody want to be a travel buddy?

New Friends All Around

This morning I woke up in my new room and decided it was cozy. I did some laundry because it was gloriously sunny outside; I think the monsoon season is in fact on its way out. This is exciting news indeed -- the promise of dry clothing and bedding is near!



My new residence, Pause Dwelling, has these great big communal balconies on each floor that also have clotheslines that we can use. Since Brij and I are currently the only occupants on the 3rd floor, we get to spread out basically as much as we'll allow each other. This is especially fantastic because I am still trying to get out of the mindset of not doing laundry until I have a full load -- a great idea back home so I save water, but completely irrelevant here since washing machines exist only at the fanciest of laundry service places, and it's much cheaper to buy some powdered detergent and use the bucket that's provided with the room -- and so at any given time I've got a fair amount of clothing that needs to be cleaned. I managed to wash a few of my favorite items and find spots for them in the sun. As I was doing this Ricky, one of the guys who seems to be in charge around here, told me that we still needed to do my check-in paperwork and could I bring a copy of my passport sometime soon, please?



I told him I'd see if I had one in my room, as I had made a few copies earlier in the trip because I was informed by others who had traveled abroad that this would be a good idea (thanks, Jillian and Cory). Sure enough I had one and so I followed Ricky downstairs to the office where he took out a huge ledger and invited me to have a seat at the nearby padded bench. I had forgotten that everything in India takes a while; it's not just a matter of "let me look at your license, how will you be paying for that? *click click click* Here's your room key" like it is in the US. In India things are done by hand. Here it isn't uncommon for shop proprietors and the like to invite their customers to have a seat, and I've found that it's usually a good idea to take them up on the offer because it's their way of telling you you'll be there a while.



Ricky, an Indian guy who looks to be more or less my age, set to writing my information in the book. After a while one of the older men who works here came out and offered me some tea -- it's all called "chai" here, and none of it tastes like the chai we have in the States; I'm pretty sure it's black tea with milk and sugar in it -- which I accepted since by this point I'd been hanging around for a good fifteen minutes longer than I'd anticipated and I figured why not? Ricky finished getting me in the system, as it were, and asked me about home. Do I have family in the United States? Yes, my parents and one sister. Do I live with them? I live with my dad. Is my sister older or younger? She's a few years younger. She lives with her boyfriend... actually, her fiance, they're getting married.



This led to a discussion about weddings in which we found that people tend to spend an awful lot of money on them both in the US and in India, but in India everything is of course cheaper by default. He suggested with a wry smile that maybe they should have their wedding in India to save some money -- nevermind the fact that plane tickets are not cheap by any means. (But hey Lon and Dan, maybe it's worth looking into...?) ;)



He asked me if Obama was popular in the United States and I told him what I have objectively noticed, that his popularity has been falling the last few years. We talked about how politics in general doesn't benefit the average person and how we'd just as soon have nothing to do with it. I told him how life is not easy in the US even though the standard of living is very high. He told me that in India there are many people who don't have much, but they also don't owe much. It's not like in the west where there is always someone -- a bank, the government -- coming after you for money. He told me that people who live in villages don't have as much access to education, for example, but they also are largely farmers and craftsmen who support themselves and each other, and they don't need to rely on the government for as much. This in and of itself appeals to me. Obviously there are drawbacks to this lifestyle, such as the relinquishment of certain comforts and luxuries (like education, unless you find a way to tackle that point), but it's certainly something that might be worth considering.



An hour and a cup of chai later, and after a cheerful promise to trade English practice for Hindi lessons, I told Ricky I was going to let him get to his work and I'd hit up the ATM so I could pay him for the room. "It's no problem," he said in the easy way that most Indians tend to. No one ever seems to be in a rush here. He had asked if I'd been to Dharamkot for pizza yet; I have not, but everyone keeps telling me I have to go because it's amazing. When I suggested that we go sometime he asked my schedule; when I asked for his to see what times might coincide he smiled and said that he could go pretty much whenever. Around here if you want to leave for a while you leave for a while, as long as there is someone to cover for you. It's not like other places where you must stay at your post until your shift is over, there is no one micromanaging, and as long as everything gets done, everyone is happy. It's much more laid back, according to him, and I must say that my observations support this.



Thankfully, Brij was home when it started to rain early this afternoon, and he moved my laundry to a dry area since I wasn't back yet. Later, as I sat here on the balcony enjoying the rain, typing up this post, Ricky happened by and struck up a conversation, and then offered me tea. I already feel like I'm becoming part of a small community in my new Dwelling. I think I'm going to enjoy living here.

I went out for lunch today and ran into a few friends: Tashi, Tashi, Alexandra from London, Rico from Colorado, Sonam, and Sertso; you might remember them from sushi a few posts back. Tashi the monk mentioned that there was going to be a show of traditional Tibetan song, dance, and drama at TIPA tonight, the Tibetan Institute for the Performing Arts. The Tashis, Alex, and I were the only ones who wound up going.



It was pretty awesome.



The dances involved a lot of stomping, brightly colored costumes, and cool hats, and the content revolved largely around the everyday lives of the average Tibetan: farming. One dance even had people dressed up in yak costumes. The guy sitting next to me asked if I could understand the Tibetan. Of course I said no, but I was enjoying it anyway. He proceeded to translate much of the rest of the show for me, which was a big help during the two acting pieces at the end. They both revolved around the prompt “the importance of preserving the Tibetan language.”



The first was a drama that included a surprisingly convincing depiction of both a fight between Chinese police and students, and later a self-immolation.



The second was a comedy that opened with a great scene of modern McLeod Ganj. I felt like an insider since I actually recognized what was going on even if I couldn't understand the language.



Now we're sitting back at the Clay Oven where Alex couldn't believe they were actually playing Blink-182. I informed her of the amazing music selection this place has, and now we are having some cheesecake, and Diamonds by Rihanna is on the radio and I really, really wish I had a hula hoop.

Fish biscuits

This morning Yesterday morning Brij and I met a group of students and we all went for a hike to Dal Lake and then Naddi, a smallish village further up the mountain. Most of the students were from the Pre-Intermediate class, the one that I'd just recently handed over to Brij. Yesterday I wasn't feeling well at all and wound up sleeping for the majority of the day; luckily I was doing much better this morning and the weather was absolutely beautiful, so I was happy to get out for a little exercise.

We decided to go toward Naddi because it's only a 4km walk and mostly level. There are other places to see in the area but they involve more climbing, and some of us weren't really feeling up to that. As it was, we wound up taking a shortcut through the forest that proved more tiring than they led me to believe it would be, but we all survived.

It was a lot of fun hanging out with the students outside of class. We passed TCV, the Tibetan Children's Village, which is a boarding school for orphans. There were quite a few of them playing soccer (football) in the muddy courtyard. We joked that TCV stands for Tingmo Chilly Vegetable, three of the most common foods around here.

One of the students asked me what the name was for an insect that sucks your blood. “Mosquito,” I told her. “No,” she said, “not mosquito.” She and a couple of the others tried to figure it out in Tibetan, they told me the Tibetan name for it (which of course didn't help) and that they occur in tall grass, and I suggested that maybe what they meant was a tick. “Maybe...” they said, and kept discussing it. Eventually one of them told me it was a leech. I explained that leeches are more like worms, and that as far as I knew, they lived in the water. I was skeptical that “leech” was the word they were looking for but then again, I'm in India – what do I know? I still find it amazing that there are real live monkeys just wandering around.

That's a dog taking a nap in the grass. Somehow we managed to not drop the hackey sack on it the whole time.

We eventually made it to Naddi and played some hackey sack:

It only rolled down the hill a few times. The guys managed to get it back, though.

We had sandwiches, chips, and fruit for lunch:

A veritable feast! L to R: Ngodup (in the cool hat), Lobsang, KG, Dorjee, and you can just barely see Brij in the bottom right corner.

Lobsang -- not the one in the picture, another Lobsang -- even went out and bought us all ice cream and chocolate for dessert. We wound up with more bread and cookies than we could eat, and so it was decided that on the way back we'd feed the fish at the lake.

Naddi, not unlike the other places I've visited in India, exhibits a striking dichotomy in its architecture. You'll have fancy buildings like this one:

and then up the street there are hovels and half-built structures of concrete and exposed re-bar:

Some buildings, like this one, have both:

Check out the difference between the second and third floors!

The view of the Dhualadhar mountains is pretty darn scenic from up there.

After a delightful couple of hours near Sunset Point (during which time we did in fact encounter a couple of tiny little leeches, not ticks after all) we headed back. As we neared the lake, Lobsang said “Fish biscuits!” in the way that you do when your brain is working faster than your mouth. We all had a good laugh and busted out the bread and cookies, and fed what must have been hundreds of small fish.

Nom nom nom...

We decided to take the long, easy road back from there. On the way back we passed Tibet Charity's veterinary clinic and said hi to the doggies:

Once we got back to the main square in McLeod Ganj everyone went their separate ways. I returned to my room to pack, and then Brij came over and helped me move my stuff next door to my new place. I think I'll like it here. It's small and nice, but not fancy. It feels like a legitimately Indian place to stay; the room I'd been in the past month was quite comfortable but a little too touristy for my liking.

For all the comforts of home I'm missing in India, I think I'm adapting pretty well. I'll tell you what, though: one thing I'll be glad to have back come December is a nice, soft MATTRESS. As far as I can tell, they just don't exist here.

Universal Yoga

I do yoga once in a while. Julie says she has done yoga basically every day for the last year. We are in India. If one is going to do yoga, this is the place to do it.

Yesterday, two weeks in to our stay here, we finally made it to a yoga class. Julie and Kalden found it; a little studio called Universal Yoga that involves following a series of handwritten signs down a few flights of steps and through a dark hallway or two into a seedy-looking residential building. If I had been in the US in a place like this, I would have turned around and gone home. But this is India. It's just the way places look here.

We got there a little early and there was a Vinyasa class still in session. We were asked to remove our shoes outside the studio room, and then we were allowed to sit quietly while the other class finished up, since there was no electricity in the hallway outside and it was a little dark and scary.

The Vinyasa class was taught by a tall, dark yogi who spoke as though he, too, was right from the States. He seemed like a good teacher, but I admit I was a little bit disappointed; where were the Indian yogis? Seriously, I travel to the other side of the globe and attend a yoga class in the country that invented the practice, and I find an American instructor?

Their class ended and the students for the next class started trickling in. Julie and I rolled out our mats near the front of the room; it was a good thing we got there early, because we ran out of space. There must have been about 15 or 20 of us; there were a few people who couldn't fit their mats into the room and didn't get to do the class.

A lanky, dark Indian man who looked to be in his mid-twenties took a spot at one of the mats at the front of the room and started leading us in a warm-up. It took me a few minutes, but I eventually decided that his very unexpected, just-thick-enough-to-be-distracting accent was Scottish. It was... well ok, it was just plain weird. Kind of cool, though, too.

He finished with the warm-up and a different instructor stepped in. Let me tell you, THIS guy was the sort of person you'd expect to find teaching yoga in India. Super thin and all muscle, you could tell he'd been doing this for a while. Periodically he would instruct us to do “comfortable Vinyasa” -- which Julie later informed me means a sequence of moves that involves being up, down, and eventually coming to rest – and he himself would do this elaborate series of handstands and the splits and other such feats of balance and strength, and all I could think was “I'm in India... doing yoga... with Dhalsim from Street Fighter.”

Accurate representation of my first yoga instructor in India.

There were a handful of young (in their 20s) Indians assisting in the class, adjusting us students when we weren't doing an asana quite correctly. They had clearly been doing this for some time, because they nudged just enough to put you in the right spot and then deftly moved down the line to the next students.

At the end of class, during the relaxation period, Dhalsim began chanting in this slow, deliberate way that reverberated through the room and my body, and it really was extremely relaxing. I've never been to a yoga class where that was done before. It became so easy to really let go of the distractions and chill for a while. When we came out of Shavasana, he bowed to each of us in turn and thanked us for coming to class.

I dunno, I thought it was pretty cool. Apparently it's one of the best yoga studios in the area as far as cost/quality ratio.

On our way out we met Rico, one of the many hipster-ish Caucasians in the class. Almost everyone there was western, or at least they looked western. Tattooed, unshaven, and muscular, Rico had the look of a wanderer, which he later confirmed in his answer to my question of where he was from (“I don't even know anymore. I spent a while in Boulder...”). He seemed like a nice enough guy. He and Julie discussed tattoos for a bit, he asked what we were doing in Dharamsala, and he invited us out for dinner. We declined because we already had plans, but told him we'd be at the Green Hotel tomorrow afternoon giving English lessons to our monk friend, Palsang. I'll also be Skyping with my parents and hopefully my sister. We'll see if our new yoga buddy shows up.

In other news, a few of you have been asking what you can send me to make my stay in India more homey. I have begun compiling a list, though I want to stress that NONE OF THIS IS NECESSARY – we are surviving just fine (and more or less comfortably, really) on what we can get here. These are simply things that would be nice to have, should you feel the urge to send them our way:

Protein bars. I like Lara bars, especially the chocolate and/or peanut butter ones (obviously). Some Luna bars are good too (Nutz Over Chocolate... I'm sensing a theme here...). If you find a different brand I'm down for trying something new, please just make sure it doesn't have any high-fructose corn syrup in it. Some of 'em will surprise you, like GeniSoy. :(

Oskri also makes delicious coconut bars... they come in a few different flavors, all of which are great, and look like this:

I would like to have more of these plzthx.

Dried papaya, pineapple, and/or apples. In that order.

Seeds, like pumpkin or sunflower seeds. Nuts are easy to find here but I don't see many seeds. They make for good snackletons.

Licorice. Panda makes “sticks” that would be perfect. Any flavor is welcome, but especially the regular black kind.

Turkey, veg, or ostrich jerky (pepper Ostrim is pretty tasty). I can't remember what the turkey jerky I had on the plane was, but I got it at Fruitful Yield in Joliet and it comes in packs of 2 sticks. I think it was on the top shelf.

Good Q-tips. Here I've only seen the crappy ones that have hardly any cotton on the ends and cause you to always poke the inside if your ears up. You have to take small victories where you can get them.

GameBoy Advance games. I brought my system and three games: the original Super Mario Bros, Phantasy Star Collection (which includes I, II, and III), and Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town. Some Zelda would be cool, or Phantasy Star IV. Or whatever else, we'll take it all. Don't spend a lot of $$ on 'em, though.. only send them if a) they are mine to begin with (lol... this means you, Dad and Lonnie), b) they are yours and you won't play them anyway, or c) you get them super cheap, like on eBay or at a garage sale.

Drawing pencils, chalk pastels, or charcoal. I have access to sketchbooks.

Those small packages of Kleenex, the travel size ones that have like 20 in each thing. I found a 3-pack at Target for a couple bucks (at home... there are no Targets here).

A size 3 circular knitting needle, preferably 40” long but I can work with shorter if I need to. I'm already roughing it so I would even appreciate a 16” metal circular, or DPNs... Lindsey and Casey will probably be the only ones who (might) get the humor in this; it's hilarious, I promise. (Seriously though, wooden 29” or 36” would be awesome. Knit Picks will hook you up.)

Photos of you! Facebook is slow here, so send me a couple of real photos for me to decorate my room. I brought a small collection with me but I can always use more.

Flash cards or greeting cards that have art on them. The Art Institute usually sells sets of them, and I'm sure Amazon does, too. They are good for passing out to students and having them describe the painting/picture/photo to each other.

Books of exercises for ESL classes. I can't remember the titles of any of them off the top of my head (and the internet is too slow to do a good search), but look for ones involving phrases like “5-minute warm-ups.”

A USB stick filled with movies that use simple English. It's good for students to have a variety of sources to listen to. Specifically, I'd like to request Toy Story.

An emergency phone backup battery thing. It holds a charge so when your phone dies right before you need to make a Very Important Call you can hook it up and take care of business, like a boss. This is also by no means necessary, but if you can find one that's not expensive and feel like passing it along I will totally make use of it.

And finally, plastic bags. I cannot stress enough that I do not want a lot of them, but if you have space to fill in a package and want to throw a few intact plastic bags in for cushioning, we could use them for trash bags. Plastic bags were outlawed in Dharamsala (which is awesome for the most part) which means you don't find them floating around in the street, but it also makes it a little tricky finding something to put your garbage in.

My address is:

Magda Ksiazak

c/o Tibet Charity

Below Temple Road

McLeod Ganj, 176219

Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India

Please only nice presents. :)

Thanks everybody! <3