From Brahma to Buddha, Spring 2008

Today I started my ISP. I am doing jewelry making. It being my major i am hoping to learn and see the differences between the techniques i have already learned. It will also be very helpful because the jewler i am working with does not have a big workshop with all these expensive tools and such, so i will learn how to do more with less tools. He has the biggest supply of stones i have ever seen, he said pick a stone and i thought wow how should i pick just one. But i already finished one pendent and moved on to making a ring all within the 2 hour class today. So i think i will be able to pick more then one stone. But i am going to have to think and sketch and design something different and more technically advanced to make so i don't use up his whole stock (which would be impossible), and to give me a challenge.

My home stay is very nice. They are Tibetan temporarily in India. They have 4 girls but only one of them is living with them and the others are at a boarding school. They have a 3 year old cousin who lives there too and he is fun to play with. They have 2 white fluffy dogs. The room i am staying in is what apears to be the alter room. there are 2 beds (which in india are also couches) and the largest collection on Dalai Lama pictures i have ever seen, along with different Buddhist images, and figures, and offering bowls, and candles, and everything else that might be on a Buddhist alter that you might think of. The view from their porch is wonderful. I can see all the houses in the valley and all their colors, and to the side the snow covered mountains. I will take yoga also. My home stay mother is funny becaus she does not understand the whole gender thing when she speaks English, so to her every one is a boy , an he or a son. I was confused ar first when she was talking about her children calling then he and son, and i am looking at a picture of 4 girls.

Tootles for now

Allie