Construction

China is crazy, part two: This post brought to you by China Construction Bank, the one place Bank of America partners with so I can retrieve money sans atm fees! I can't believe they have no partner banks in India. Alright, I'm ending my bitterness.

On my first day in China, we went to a store to pick up a dress Kathryn had tailored. She got it refitted and was told to come back today.

We came back today, and this is what the storefront looked like. (If the picture didn't load, it's because my phone is acting funky, but imagine the inside of a store looking like a construction site, with exposed wires and wooden planks and men sawing and hammering everywhere.)

Two days ago, dresses and fabric filled the whole place, and today it was covered in sawdust. Apparently it will be finished in four days! Then they can move the inventory back. That is the quickest construction I've ever heard about, anywhere.

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Sleeper bus

China is crazy.

I'm currently laying on the top left bunk of an overnight bus to Shangri-La, a Chinese city that decided to rename itself to bring in tourist dollars. Or yuan, as the case may be. It's working.

There are three rows of bunk beds (only the middle is fully visible in the photo), each about the width of a person and approximately 5 feet, 5 inches in length. I put my feet against the end to measure. They're surprisingly comfortable, fully padded and air conditioned. We haven't started moving yet, but so far this is beating the he'll out of the overnight bus from Delhi to Dharamsala.

Thankfully I have a window on one side. At least I have something to snuggle up against. I can't imagine sleeping with metal railings on both sides of a top middle bunk.

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Golden Temple

This morning Kathryn and I biked around Kunming to pick up a dress she had made. Biking in China is an adventure, made more adventurous by the fact that I am wearing a skirt. However, cheap Chinese bikes have locks built in to the back wheel, which makes a lot of sense.

After lunch, Kathryn sent me to visit the Golden Temple, which is really made of bronze. It's a Taoist temple from the 1600s with a 14 ton bell from the 1400s. The bell is huge. I rung it for 2Y, which is about 35 cents. Personally, I found the bell tower more impressive, since it's three stories high and gives good views of the city.

Getting there was an adventure: I gave the cabbie a piece of paper saying, "I want to go to the Golden Temple" in Chinese, which went well until he accidentally drove to the exit and wanted to tell me that. He wrote me a note that I assume says as much, but I told him I couldn't read it. I think he understood that I couldn't speak but couldn't figure out that I hadn't written the characters myself. Oh well. On the way home I tried to say where I wanted to go in Chinese, which utterly failed, but I handed him the paper and he drove me home.

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Breakfast

I took a photo of the noodle soup I had for breakfast at 830 this morning, but my phone lost it somehow. To someone not from China, noodles with veggies, beef, and meat broth looks like lunch or dinner, but all the Western restaurants were closed at that hour, so Kathryn and I ate a real Chinese breakfast. I refused the beef but am pretty sure I got the meat broth anyway. The lady cooked the noodles in a separate broth really quickly, then put a bunch of stuff in a bowl. I asked Kathryn to make mine medium spicy, which meant I could eat it without crying. Success!

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Fruit shop

There is a fruit shop in the airport. There are also shops just called "shop."

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Ni Hao

Mom and I had a great trip. It was an adventure filled with lots of highlights and not much time for blogging. She's now on her way home, and I am officially in the "beyond" part of the trip.

I landed in China about an hour ago, cleared customs, and am standing in another security line. So far Chinese airports are like all other airports except for the fact that everyone speaks Chinese. My flight from Delhi was one of the weirdest flights I've ever taken, since it was mostly Indian businessmen who switched their sim cards upon landing. I think there were eight other women on the flight. One of them was blond, though! And there were a lot more blond people at customs than I've seen all over India.

Hopefully I make my next flight, given that I can't find my gate on the board, but I'm sure it will work out. Highlights so far: being stamped in and having the lady in the bathroom say Ni hao to me. That is the only word in Chinese that I know. This should be fun!

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Dinner!

Mom and I are on vacation from our vacation and eating fresh fish and drinking beer out of horse mugs (aka mugs with pictures of horses on them, not mugs the size of horses). We both stuck our toes in the Arabian Sea, so I have now touched the waters on both sides of India.

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Bangalore bontanicals

After landing in a partial monsoon last night, we eventually made it to the ground and into the bus, since Indigo does not have gate rights anywhere, it seems. Apparently in the 70s there were gate wars at airports in the US, and my favorite Indian airline has not yet found the money to get gate rights anywhere we've been. But they make their flight attendants wear wigs, which is hilarious.

This morning we went to the botanical gardens and saw lots of palm trees and over 700 varieties of cacti. The cacti caretaker offered us seeds, which we might have taken if it weren't illegal to bring plants back to the US. There was a 20 year old cactus inside!

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What part of the chicken looks like a ziti and has a hole in it?

It's still unclear. Mom wants you to know she came up with that title all by herself.

Lunch was good, despite the fact that we have no idea what that was. In mint sauce it was great. As Bex would say, it's all about the sauce.

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TAJ

We will skip the parts of the trip that sucked, like the ten hour car ride from Dharamsala to Delhi over entirely unpaved roads in the middle of the night, and arriving at the Delhi train station at 3 AM for a 5:30 train, and instead tell you that today, we saw the one of the seven wonders of the world. Photo proof.

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Mom in Mcleod

Mom spent just under 24 hours in McLeod Ganj and still managed to see just about everything. That should give you an idea of the size of the town.

After she arrived on the Kingfisher flight, we zipped back up to dinner with Liz and Kylie and their families, then sent them off and had ice cream for dessert, in honor of Mom spending so much of the day in Delhi's heat. She and I slept at the apartment for one final night.

The next morning, after breakfast at Peace Cafe with Sam and Julia, we packed and went to my host family. I hadn't been able to get in touch with Amala on the phone, but she answered the knock, and we joined her for tea and capse! Mom gave her some gifts, Amala gave Mom some gifts, I showed Mom around the apartment, and then we all started talking about jewelry. Women talk about the same thing in every culture, it seems.

After handing over the keys to my apartment, Mom and I headed to the temple, only to find out that it was closed in honor of HHDL's returning to town. We walked Kora and Mom spun the prayer wheels and generally commented on how beautiful, and steep, the walk is.

We got some lunch and coffee, did a lot of shopping, and went back to the temple. Inside, around 30 monks were chanting and participating in a chalachakra tantric ceremony, which meant they wore brocaded collars and hats with antennas and held conch shells and bells to aid their practice. It was the fourth day of a 7 day ceremony, and that day would run for 12 hours. I hadn't seen anything like it my whole time in McLeod, but Mom has pretty good luck!

Sonam, my old roommate, came to meet us at the temple, and I introduced the two of them and said goodbye to her for the final time. It's weird to think that after four months I won't be going back to that part of India any time soon, if at all. But I was so excited to show everything off to my mother, and introduce her to all the people and things that have kept me sane these past few months.

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Mom in Mcleod

Mom spent just under 24 hours in McLeod Ganj and still managed to see just about everything. That should give you an idea of the size of the town.

After she arrived on the Kingfisher flight, we zipped back up to dinner with Liz and Kylie and their families, then sent them off and had ice cream for dessert, in honor of Mom spending so much of the day in Delhi's heat. She and I slept at the apartment for one final night.

The next morning, after breakfast at Peace Cafe with Sam and Julia, we packed and went to my host family. I hadn't been able to get in touch with Amala on the phone, but she answered the knock, and we joined her for tea and capse! Mom gave her some gifts, Amala gave Mom some gifts, I showed Mom around the apartment, and then we all started talking about jewelry. Women talk about the same thing in every culture, it seems.

After handing over the keys to my apartment, Mom and I headed to the temple, only to find out that it was closed in honor of HHDL's returning to town. We walked Kora and Mom spun the prayer wheels and generally commented on how beautiful, and steep, the walk is.

We got some lunch and coffee, did a lot of shopping, and went back to the temple. Inside, around 30 monks were chanting and participating in a chalachakra tantric ceremony, which meant they wore brocaded collars and hats with antennas and held conch shells and bells to aid their practice. It was the fourth day of a 7 day ceremony, and that day would run for 12 hours. I hadn't seen anything like it my whole time in McLeod, but Mom has pretty good luck!

Sonam, my old roommate, came to meet us at the temple, and I introduced the two of them and said goodbye to her for the final time. It's weird to think that after four months I won't be going back to that part of India any time soon, if at all. But I was so excited to show everything off to my mother, and introduce her to all the people and things that have kept me sane these past few months.

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Mom!

After a lot of flying and some time in really hot Delhi, Mom made it to Dharamsala! Kingfisher is a major beer company that also operates an airline. Her flight included the president of Kingfisher and a minister in the Indian government, so a mob of chanting men and flashing cameras greeted her arrival.

We then went to have dinner with Kylie and Liz and their families, then wandered around town a bit. I've already introduced her to the monk who lives upstairs and the guys who served me breakfast every day for three weeks, and it's weird to realize how much a part of my life these people have become and how soon I'm leaving! Tomorrow we will visit the temple, then hop in a cab to get to Agra by Thursday morning.

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Made it!

One of my favorite traditions at the end of each semester (I am horrified of the thought of life refusing to split neatly into semesters) is to listen to "I made it" by Cash Money Heros. While normally this comes after the crush of finals and papers, this time it came after the drama of applying for a Chinese visa and a return visa to India, as well as planning my trip with my mom. Clearly I have programmed myself to operate only with high stress levels each December and May. But it makes listening to the song that much better! Which I did today.

We completed our retreat this morning, which was three days of hiking and watching Glee and chilling out. I was reminded why I came and why I liked all the people on my program, especially after we all spent our last night sleeping on the roof of the hotel. Everyone agreed that the roof made a better bed than the actual bed. That should tell you something about the state of some hotels here.

I cannot believe my study abroad time is over, although thankfully I have two and a half months left in Asia as long as Indian immigration lets me back in the country. It seems so recently that we arrived in Delhi and I marveled at buckets in the YMCA and the traffic on the roads. So many things I thought unthinkable four months ago are normal and expected now. Being away from my friends and family has pushed me to make decisions in a way I didn't before, because there are fewer people here I can ask for help.

Not everything has changed-I'm still loud, I still laugh a lot, I still do ridiculous things like hike in a do-rag and make uncouth jokes. But existing somewhere else brought out other qualities that I wouldn't have necessarily realized elsewhere.

Enough with that stuff: Mom shows up today! Our trip is mostly planned. I am sure we will run into many snafus along the way, but that's what adventure is all about. I'm so excited!

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Retreat

The end of research included much transcription, a little paper writing, a trip to Delhi, a 1000 rupee breakfast, multiple phone calls to multiple embassies and government institutions, and random other things.

I also met up with Julia Starr, who is my first CMC contact in four months! I lent her my apartment to visit.

We are currently on retreat, which means we're living in a hotel all the way up in the mountains, going on hikes and swimming and generally enjoying the end of our time here. But mostly I am super excited to see my mom and start traveling. At that point hopefully the blog will become more exciting.

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Airport?

I am sitting in an airport with a beautiful view of the mountains and the airline workers are literally carrying the bags through security and out to the tarmac. I'm not even sure they're being screened. The waiting area is smaller than a standard movie theater (let alone a megaplex). I am excited to see if the plane just rolls up to the door.

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One pot wonder

Liz and I are going to be great cooks when we get back to the states, if only because the knife I use will not fall apart in my hand and because we will have more than one pot to use. However, we persevered and concocted some delicious fried rice. Bonus: the peppers I picked out did not double as a home for worms!

Also, in case you're interested in an explanation of how worms get inside peppers, apparently worms lay eggs on the flowers that eventually become peppers. Both grow at the same time, so the worms reach maturity around the time you pick the peppers. Thanks, Bev!

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Kidding, this is really dinner

No worms, we think. Anyway, curry take two came out a lot better than the first time. We used flour to thicken up the sauce (as Bex would say, it's all about the sauce). I also rolled out the chapati with a cup, so they cooked more easily since they were much thinner. You can see the bucket of rice on the right. We really do use buckets for everything. Cooking with only bowls, spoons, one pot, and one burner has lead to lots of improvisation. The bucket with a plate as a lid served as a strainer for the rice, while another plate is the griddle for the chapati. And of course the cup is the rolling pin. I'm so excited to cook with real utensils!

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Dinner!

I found a worm whilst cutting open a pepper for dinner. You can just see him hanging out in the middle. Needless to say, that pepper didn't make the pot. I don't even know how they get inside.

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Yum

Doesn't dinner look great? It smells great. And it's so colorful! We're making curry and rice.

Guess how much they cost? 30 rupees. Also known as 75 cents. I know produce is cheap, but really.

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Strange

I just found a spider web inside my sneaker. This is the kind of thing that could happen in America but doesn't.

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Ants

I don't know why this is happening, but I can currently count five ants crawling along the wall right next to my bed. At this point I might have been in India for too long, because it's too much effort to kill them (and definitely not Buddhist) and way too much effort to shoo them outside. I am amazed by their ability to walk sideways and cling to the wall, and I wonder if the previous tenant spread sugar on the plaster or something to attract them.

I am slowly going crazy.

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Phone bill

Dear Dad, this is why we got cut off on the phone this morning. It says that I had .4 rupees left. I have never been that low, ever, because for some reason normally it cuts me off at 3 rupees. Then I can at least send a couple text messages to get myself out of trouble, but this time I only had one text message to my name.

Of course, then I went to the Western Union, which also recharges phones, and am back to being able to talk for multiple hours for approximately $1.50 per hour.

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Chocolate momos

Nellie is holding up a chocolate filled momo in this photo. The dough was also had chocolate in it, but that part wasn't very good. We also had chocolate peanut butter momos for dessert at, of all places, a Korean restaurant. Random. The dough made them taste weird, but if you stick with the normal dough it should be fine.

Momos are easy to make...in theory, because they take a lot of work. But I'm sure my brother won't mind helping with this since chocolate is involved. See, Derek, you might like some Tibetan food! Kathryn, I'll bring these to the Losar party next year.

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Necessities

Today the power went out in the morning, around ten, and came back on at four. Apparently this was a planned power outage that was publicized in the newspapers, but unfortunately I don't read Hindi. It's unclear if people go to their offices and sit or just have a holiday when this happens. Some larger offices might have generators, but the bank was closed today. Power outages have been long when they've occurred, but have been less frequent than I've expected.

The water pipes are quarter-sized in diameter and often leak, leading to the photo above. I didn't see any dogs drinking out of the bowls, but I'm sure this is how all the strays stay hydrated, and why our water sometimes runs out. On our hike to Triund, Anna noticed that a pipe was leaking and creating a mud puddle. Of course, one of the only underground pipes had spurted a hole, letting in dirt and leaving a slippery path in its wake.

I realize electricity isn't a necessity, especially here, but at home I wouldn't know how to survive without lightswitches and tap water. Here, we make do with the sun and bottled water.

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Recording

Liz stole Nellie's voice recorder, so I now have the audio of our audience with HHDL. I am overly excited about this happening. Voice recorders are pretty amazing. If you are interested in his talk, let me know.

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Happy birthday Mom!

I promise I'll get you a hotel in Delhi as a birthday present.

I love you!

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Research

We are in the middle of independent study period, where we pick a project and interview people, translate texts, watch, and generally participate in the Tibetan community to collect data and observations. Eventually we are supposed to create a 30ish page paper on the topic. Typically, I chose the Tibetan government, which is particularly pertinent because the exile population elected a new Kalon Tripa, or prime minister, in March. The results came out last week, and Dr. Lobsang Sanagy of Harvard won the election.

I happen to think my topic is fascinating, because the government in exile calls itself a democracy. In practice, though, the Tibetan people and government look to HHDL for guidance and would (at least in the past) submit to his will without even voting. That is changing, but it's interesting to figure out why.

Since it happened so recently, people are really receptive and open to talking to me about their involvement and experiences, and I've had some enlightening exchanges. Unfortunately, I can't really tell where my paper will go, or even if I'm actually going to have an argument. Sara Stern, I'd like to publicly acknowledge the fact that you may read approximately a bazillion pages of terrible writing on something you don't care about this year (and this is even before I start writing thesis....ouch) and that I also probably owe you something comparable to my firstborn child. Let's make a deal: if/when China releases Tibet from its clutches, we'll go kick it. Tibet is awesome but I don't think even I could persuade you to go back to China.

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The news

As I'm sure you've heard, since even I've heard here, US forces killed Osama bin Laden. Almost every person I communicate with contacted me to inform me about Obama's speech.

I was a little confused by the reaction at home. I don't think there's any reason to celebrate over someone's death. There might not necessarily be reason to mourn either, but apparently people at school set off fireworks and sang the national anthem. I'm genuinely happy I wasn't there.

As you might have guessed, we're fine. There has been almost no reaction, perhaps because we are in the Tibetan community rather than the Indian community at large. Even if we were in India proper, the people might be happy that the US found Osama in Pakistan. We have gotten multiple email warnings not to go to tourist places (oops) and not to go to group gatherings (double oops). I promise to try not to get kidnapped, or if I do to keep the blog going (kidding, kidding).

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Rain

It's currently pouring in India and I'm outside on my computer. When I opened my case today the keyboard was full of dust and dirt. I really hope my computer makes it through the summer. Then I will probably live in Poppa with Diggory and all the other LTAs and use those computers.

But seriously. It's a huge storm. I'm under cover but I'm scared to even pack up and move inside. Or move anywhere. It's ironic that the internet works at a time like this.