Dharamsala update

hello all,
we are still teaching away here in "little lhasa" as they call it. i'm loving it so much that we decided to stay a week longer than we thought. our super beginner class is pretty funny. we are teaching them dates, parts of the body, how to conjugate sit, have, be. they love to say "i am happy." they are of such mixed levels that it's difficult to tailor the classes to suit everyone, especially without any guidance from the school, but i think we are doing a good job. the funniest part of the class is taking attendance. we call out the names and we are probably pronouncing the names completely wrong so that if there are 30 people sitting in the room, only 10 will raise their hands when their names are called, and sometimes they raise their hands for two names.

we do conversation class in the afternoon which is just a room full of tibetans and the volunteers come in and just have any random conversation with a group. it's a little uncomfortable to just try to make conversation and the usual boring topics of where are you from, how long have you been here, how did you learn english....they also inevitably want to talk about politics and the tibetan situation. i was really into it at first but it's getting old and it's usually the monks that want to talk about it and the others seem bored. when i say i have been to china they are really curious and ask me about it and what the people are like. they want to know if we have seen any of "their people" and i tell them about our overnight stay with the nomads. they usually aren't too impressed with that, it's like a foreigner being really excited to come to america and going to a restaurant and seeing a football game. not too exciting for us but very different for them.

so jon and i decided to do word games with groups that have more advanced english skills. i did it yesterday with two monks and they liked it so much that i am meeting with them today just to talk and help them with their english. but we can't do the games all the time because there are always people of different abilities and they don't have a large vocabulary. we also found another conversation class that happens right after the first, and that one has so many people but so much spirit as well. after the discussion everyone comes together and we talk as a big group and it is so much more lively and they are so appreciative of the volunteers. many tibetans go to both conversation classes. i even had another girl ask if i would tutor her every day and jon had a monk ask to meet with him today. it just seems to be a matter of talking to people here and finding so many volunteer opportunities. just in this small town there are 6 or 7 organizations always looking for volunteers.

anyway, it's nice to have a bit of a routine for a month, get up, go to class, have lunch, hang out and read or tutor, go to conversation class, go to next conversation class, go to dinner, go home. in between trying not to get completely drenched by the constant rain.

if you are interested here is the website of the organization where we are teaching: lhaindia.org


that's all on our life for now. hope everyone is well.
Gay

Work as a Holiday

Hi All,

So not only does August 4th mark 3 months of us travelling we also happened to leave China on that day and have thus visited 5 countries in our 3 months.

Our current situation
I'm exhausted. I'm homesick; I miss my family, I miss my friends, I've lost any sense of adventure and exploration. I dont want to put my pack on and take a 12 hour bus ride or another overnight train jounrey. I dont want to see another temple or monastery or go back to some big city and get in another taxi or get trampled by touts selling thier crap.
Gay is feeling it too. One morning I woke up and caught Gay hovering over my bed with a knife; she said she was just cutting up a mango but I saw evil thoughts in her eyes. We may have to seek out a Couples-Counseling-wallah here in India before it's too late!

So to combat this growing lethargy we have decided to stay put in the Dharmsala area for about 2 weeks. This will not be idle time mind you. We are volunteering for a local agency that helps Tibetan refugees and we are tag team teaching a "Super Beginner" English class aimed at recently arrived refugees. We had our first class today and had a lot of fun. Luckily for me, Gay is a natural teacher and has a gift for it.

Hopefully by the end of 2 weeks we'll have the desire to get back on the trains and start to do some exploring. But for now we're just content to hang out and try something new for awhile.

Another Video
This video is from our horse trek in Langmusi. As Gay described in an earlier post we had the fortunate oppurtunity to stay with a nomadic Tibetan family. Here the matriarch of the tent, who is 34, is weaving yak hair to use for ropes and giving us a Tibetan language lesson. Enjoy...

Just got into India and boy I'm tired + more China pics

Hello all,

If you've taken a look at our trip map you'll notice that we're now in India. If you've bothered to read the blurb on Delhi you notice that we had some drama upon arriving. If you haven't bothered with either I'll give a quick breakdown. First, we've made it to India. Secondly, our bags didn't get to India when we did, and after about 2 hours of filling out papers and talking to people we finally got in our cab to get to our hotel. Then our cab driver rear-ended someone and unfortunately for him his pretty damaged. Fortunately for us he was still able to drive off and get us to our hotel.
Cab rides, especially in China, were hair raising events and I had learned to remove myself completely from the situation. Looking at it more like a video game, or one of those IMAX movies where you really feel like you're apart of it. That was, of course, until we actually got into an accident and then it got a little too real. Cabs are going to be a lot tougher from here on out.

Re: the bags; for a good 30 hours we didn't hear anything about there whereabouts nor could we get in touch with anyone from Thai Airlines. So we were stressing for awhile and feared the worst, but all is OK. Our 24kg bundles of necessities are back in our hands.

We stayed a couple of days in Delhi and that was enough as it's absolutley insane there. China is proving to be an excellent primer for India as we have already been fully culture shocked. But India, specifically Delhi, is an all together different story. Now we're relaxing in Tibetan Buddhist refugee colony located at the foothills of the Himilayas so all is well.


Pictures
Here are some pictures from China, specifically Xiahe and Langmusi, which includes our horse treking adventure which Gay blogged about a little while ago.

Video
Below is a video of a Buddhist Nun who befriended Gay and I. She was sitting with her friends by a river and she wanted to talk some English with us. She is pictured in the photo set above becuase she liked to have her picture taken. Most monks and nuns we've met do. So this is a short clip of her putting on her robes becuase she wanted Gay to take a picture of her in full gear.



Enjoy,
Jon

China PIctures

Hi all,

As today is our last day in China I thought I would get my act together and put some pictures on the blog. These aren't all the pictures and there will be more to come soon.

This set is from Bejing, Hangsho and Shanghai:

This set is from Putushan and Xian:

We have more especially some really nice ones from our horse trek which Gay wrote about in her last post. And some videos!

Enjoy,
Jon