Random Things I Forgot

Quick bullet points containing forgotten details will be featured in this post.

-- The Internet is a serious problem for me here. In order to use the Internet I have to either wake up early as crap, or stay up in the dark outside of my room with the many many alien bugs. So I am rushing to write and keep service. Don't be offended.

-- I am starting to be good friends with some of the monks. They are so nice just constantly. And hilarious!! And cheerful!! And they always want to teach me about things.

-- One monk from not-our-classes asked me to go get pizza with him (alone) after class the other day. I said yes before I knew he wasn't in our class. Dad said no when I told him later on. We didn't know this monk. It was uncomfortable. Lol our monks told me I needed a bodyguard!!

--we had a birthday dinner/graduation party for the VP of Emory and the graduating monks two days ago. I sat at a table with only monks. This is what happened:
- one monk told me he joined the monastery to become a monk when he was nine because his home life was bad. His parents always fought each other. He said it wasn't a good life... So he left. His parents were sad because he was the only son they had.
- The computer boy from the program (Tibetan) told me that birthdays are not celebrated traditionally. He said that records of birthdays isn't even recorded a lot of the time. He said his parents don't really know how old he is!!!
- Some people provided entertainment at the dinner. One pair of Tibetan boys from the college performed a song they wrote that, translated, means "I dreamt I was in Tibet last night but I woke up in India so now I am sad"... One of the major lines in the song was in English-, "I am in exiiiiiiiiiile!" it was sad.
-my table was last in line for food, so I taught the monks the word 'caboose'. They repeated it for the rest of the meal.
- one monk told me how he used to hop a fence when he was young to go play games outside of his monastery. He described himself as a 'naughty monk' and we all laughed at him!
-many monks have told me how incredibly lucky I am to have been so close to the Dalai Lama. It made me feel shy and sorry that I had shaken his hand before these monks who have served the Buddhist faith and His teachings all their lives.

--in town the other day we were waiting for a taxi when a small girl came up to us carrying her baby brother. Both children were filthy dirty. Dirtier than any of the kids at Kitty's Flea market in Albany. They looked at us and made the same motion of eating with their hands as the child I had seen in Delhi. I nudged dad to give them money. He did.

- McLeodganj is a suburb made up of mostly Tibetans... But there are still many Indians working as sales people. Without going into much detail- Tibetan sales people are so much more pleasant to deal with on average. (that is so blatantly racist, omg. I'm just going to leave it though.)

- the Dalai Lama spoke a lot about Tibetan freedom the other day at his teaching.





And so that's it! A few culture notes and a racist comment for everyone to enjoy.