Snow days are movie days

You know how I'd said it was kind of interesting that most of the time I've spent in Canada has been warm and sunny? Well the weather gods must have had a change of heart because this morning we woke up to snow. It's been coming down all day, though it doesn't seem that much of it is sticking. The flakes are big and soft and wet. It's pretty, and arguably more Canadian than the balmy upper-40s we've been experiencing lately.

Last night a bunch of us went out dancing at a local bar. I think the last time I did that was the night before Verity left McLeod Ganj, so I was well overdue. You know it's been a good night when you get home with your feet aching and your ears ringing. The DJ was so-so; I did hear some Nine Inch Nails, but other than that it wasn't anything I was familiar with. The rest of our party seemed to be more up on the hip-hop scene, so I think they enjoyed it. Regardless, a fun time was had by all. Brij definitely stole the show with his sweet moves and leopard-print shirt he'd had made back in Dharamsala. I mean really... how do you top that?

This morning Brij's mom invited me out to see a movie. It sounded like fun and I average about one movie in the theater per year, so off we went...

... to the local Rialto Theatre.

We saw the movie Philomena, which I'd never heard of but stars Judi Dench and Mita said all of her friends who'd seen it gave it rave reviews. I actually love watching movies where I have no idea what to expect; you can really get lost in the story (assuming it's well-made), and you don't go in with expectations. I also have a weakness for true stories -- there's something inherently moving about watching a film and pausing for a moment to think "wow... this really happened." It makes some movies, like Blood Diamond or Django Unchained (I know, I know.. not entirely historically accurate, but enough of it was that I had to turn it off halfway through), more difficult to watch, but in general I dig it.

That being said, if you also like story-driven movies based on true events and high regard for Dame Judi Dench and/or a dubious view of the Catholic church on top of it, you'll probably enjoy this one.

As for the rest of the evening, I think I'll stay in and knit.

A proper send-off

Class Friday closed with a speech from one of my students, Phaivong, a Thai monk. He is heading back to Thailand and asked if he could say a few words before he went; in his speech he thanked, me, his classmates, and HH the Dalai Lama for his time in India and in English class. He has a tough time with listening (which I appreciate more now that I've got people speaking to me in Hindi and expecting answers), but when he reads he does pretty well. It was really sweet.

Gusti and me with my Elementary class.

Good luck, Phaivong! We'll miss you!

Before that happened, though -- before I left my room in the morning -- I noticed some bumps on my forearms. It wasn't so bad at first, just annoying, so I figured I'd keep an eye on it and go from there. By lunchtime it had spread a bit and I noticed some spots on the tops of my feet.

Wth?

I went down to the clinic at Tibet Charity where one of the nurses wiped me down with iodine and applied some Tibetan medicine; it itches a little but it's not so terrible. It looks worse than it feels. Today I think I'll hit up a clinic or one of the local hospitals and see if they can tell me what's going on. The theories I've gotten from my friends so far include: poison ivy, chickenpox, smallpox, cowpox, ringworm, allergic reaction, bed bugs, mosquito bites, spider bites, leprosy, fungal infection, and that flesh eating virus. It's definitely not mosquito bites or spider bites. All I had for breakfast yesterday was an orange and a cup of coffee (Starbucks Via > Nescafe... thanks, Mom and Dad!), so I thought maybe the acidity was messing with me... My other thought is maybe that Tibetan medicine isn't agreeing with me. I avoided accidents etc, but I didn't drink the saffron concoction... maybe this is what I get for not following directions?

Tibet Charity hosted a dinner for the volunteers yesterday evening at which we said goodbye to Gill and Verity, as they are both heading back to their respective homes this week. We also welcomed a couple of veterinarian volunteers and a couple of doctors from Denmark who will help out in the clinic. These dinners are a little more upscale than the average lunch we get at TC; we usually get rice, boiled potatoes with mutton (I don't eat that part) and herbs, cauliflower in garlic or something similar, and yogurt. Yummm... I do love potatoes. They're so simple but so delicious.

Dinner complete, a bunch of us headed up to McLeod Ganj to play table tennis. We wound up staying two hours and ordering some beers (I did not have any... it's not my thing), playing a whole lot of ping pong -- including a 4-person version that involved running laps around the table -- and afterward Brij, Verity, Kalden, Van, and I hit up one of the local Tibetan clubs. A few more drinks, some really hilarious photos I can't post here, a couple plates of French fries, and a bunch of dance music and sweet moves later (once we all started dancing everyone else joined us), we finally headed home, concluding what was easily my latest night out since I've been here (most places here close by 10). Brij and I rounded out the night with some sitting on the balcony eating sunflower seeds as we have taken to doing. In another few days we'll be on our way to Rajasthan and after that he's heading off to visit family and then out of India, so our nights on the balcony are limited; gotta enjoy it while we can.

The rest of today will consist of spending our last few hours we can with Verity before we see her off to the bus station this evening. After that I'll go study some Hindi, maybe get in an impromptu lesson with Kuldeep, and just chill. I've also been working on my end of a collaborative art project with my good friend Brandi, so I may do some brainstorming for that as well.

Adventure!

The way I tend to be

Last night as I made my way up the steps of Pause Dwelling, I heard a familiar "namaste, ma'am" from just above and to my left. It was promptly followed by a short string of Hindi, of which I was able to make out just enough to stumble through a response of "I'm going to my room" (मै मेरा कमरा जा रहीं हूँ ). ... Or at least that's what I said, it might not quite be right.

He said something else so I hopped up the last couple of steps and around onto the balcony where he was sitting, and I took the empty seat next to him. Long story short, by the time I actually made it to my room I had a basic understanding of how to write Hindi -- not just try to mimic the typewritten text in books -- and I had also been assigned homework:

Who gives "Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today" as a first translation assignment??

I also installed a Hindi keyboard and a flashcard app on my phone so I can study when I don't have internet. Brij gave me a couple of movies in Hindi to watch, as well as some music. The language itself really is, I think, relatively easy... it's just the fact that I'm learning a new language at all that's tricky. The grammar seems to be pretty consistent and now that I can read the script, I'm finding that most words are phonetic.

As far as English class at Tibet Charity, today we were studying possessive pronouns and rhyming words. Naturally, the book suggested I give them songs as examples. The ones it provided were Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman and Every Breath You Take by The Police (Every breath you take/Every move you make... boom, rhyming words). I took the liberty of adding my own personal touch and gave them "I was her love, she was my queen/And now a thousand years between" and "Then I remember you/And the way you shine like truth in all you do"... I couldn't help myself. Hearing them read the lyrics off the board was a trip, too.

At the break, Gusti suggested I give them some nursery rhymes to further illustrate the point. Neither of us could recall much, but I did give them "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star." They really seemed to enjoy it, and they understood rhyming well enough by the end of it that I was able to leave "sky" blank and they figured it out (rhymes with high, judging from the meaning, etc).

Then the book had an activity for us that involved filling in missing words from song lyrics. The song it chose, due to its high content of possessive pronouns, was this. I felt like I was either at a wedding reception or a high school dance. Imagine me teaching this to a bunch of monks and nuns. Pretty hilarious, right? Now I've got it stuck in my head.

So it goes. There are worse things in the world.

Manali, city of dance music!

Ah, it's nice to be someplace new. As much as I like McLeod Ganj in general, after spending two months there I was ready for a change. It's a nice little town but it's exactly that: a little town. I live in a little town in the US, I don't need to spend my entire time in India in a little town as well.

I know I've only been here a few hours, but my first impression of Manali is a positive one. We are staying in “Old Manali” because apparently it's nicer than “the rest of Manali.” We walk down the street and hear dance music playing in various clubs and cafes, there are all new items in the shops lining the roads, and the overall vibe is fresh and somewhat younger. McLeod Ganj has that sort of traditional Indo-Tibetan/dirty hippie vibe. It's not bad, but like I said... I was ready for a change. I danced my way through Old Manali this evening on our short little excursion and again as we came back from dinner. I made a couple of new friends already, too, so that's cool. I'd only been in town for about 3 hours and someone asked me out to lunch... all I have to say is lol. It's fun.

So anyway, the trip began this morning in Rewalsar, since that's where we wound up at the end of the first leg of the trip. We ate at one of the local cafes where I opted to drink my coffee sans sugar because it looked like this:

Oh look, a friend!

We trekked up to the temple (sort of... we drove most of the way and hiked the last couple of kilometers).

My snow lion impression.

There's a footprint that was supposedly left by Pema-whats-his-name himself. We had to do a bit of hiking to get there. You can always tell when you enter a Tibetan area by the sudden profusion of prayer flags.

This old Tibetan monk was asking for donations to offset his medical costs, because he has diabetes. I gave him a few rupees.

In return he gave me this bracelet and a hearty thank you.

Now THAT's a cave. I did not go in.

Nom nom nom...

There are so many red dahlias here... <3

Yup, I guess the foot print's that way.

Oh, there it is. On the wall.

We checked out the cave he did some meditating in, which now contains a number of statues and altars. It was cool without being too claustrophobic.

Gill trying to decipher the Tibetan sign.

Just for reference, that photo of HH is an 8x10.

Then it was back into the taxi for a few more hours. We stopped at a shawl emporium in Kullu (there are signs for shawl places every fifteen feet for miles on either side of the town... I would have taken more photos but we were moving too fast) where we could watch the weavers work. Obviously I had a good time there.

And then, at last... Manali!

The hotel we decided to stay in reminds me of the Timber Wolf Inn where I once stayed in Wisconsin Dells, which is a fond memory so the association is not unwelcome. The scenery's a little different, though...

No mountains like this in Wisconsin that I'm aware of!

It's colder here. You can tell by the way the doggles are snuggled up.

Oh yeah. We saw a yak.

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.

T-9hrs

Well, my friends, this is it. According to the clock on my computer, it's exactly nine hours from my scheduled departure time from O'Hare Airport in Chicago.

No, I'm not done packing yet.

Mostly, but not quite. I've got a load of laundry going, I'm filling up my iPod with 4 months worth of music (including the obligatory Sweet Home Chicago), and I'm double-checking that I've got all the essentials for what feels like the millionth time. Passport? Check. Visa? Check. ID? Check. Delicious snacks? Check. Gameboy, charged, with Harvest Moon and Phantasy Star Collection? Check and double check. Half a dozen books (all given to me by you, my friends)? Check x6. I feel like I ought to be able to finish at least three of them by the end of my 15-hour flight from Newark to Delhi.

Also tonight, I counted the cash I've received from friends and family in the last couple of weeks and am looking at my fundraiser page and am pretty much floored at how generous you all have been to me.... I am truly and deeply touched by your philanthropy, and I sincerely hope that my trip lives up to all our expectations!

Much love to you all! <3