Jennifer spent her mornings learning the art of Swedish & Shiatsu massage from her kind teacher, Mahinder. She also learned some delicious Indian cooking from his wife. Jennifer has been busy in the afternoons with a variety of activities: yoga, English conversation with Tibetan refugees, and volunteering her time taking care of young Tibetan babies! She literally had her hands full with activity!

Jennifer and Mahinder with her "happy" sign

Receiving singing bowl treatment from Mahinder

Cooking class! Making some delicious eggplant curry.

Catherine has been working with her homestay father, a very skilled silversmith, on two pieces of jewelry. She completed a beautiful ring and pendant after many hours of detailed work and patience. Catherine spent her afternoons either attending yoga class or volunteering in English conversation with local Tibetans.

Catherine and her jewelry making teacher (and Pa-la), welding pieces together

Putting small pieces of silver together is getting her ready for surgery!

Check them out! Professional.

Catherine enjoys a cup of chai while Jennifer does all the hard work!

Josephine: Woodcarving, Yoga, and English Conversation

Josephine spent her mornings in a small woodcarving studio working on her piece of art, drinking chai, and hanging out with her woodcarving teacher. She was busy in the afternoons teaching English to local Tibetans or attending yoga class.

Josephine and her woodcarving teacher in the small studio the size of a hallway

Working on a piece similar to the Tibetan flag: a snow lion roaring to the mighty Himalaya

Final product: Josephine is roaring like a lion, FYI.

Amanda: Tabla, Yoga, and English Conversation

Amanda has been busting out some incredible tabla beats over in the village of Bhagsu. She speaks the rhythms of the tabla as she plays and the beats run throughout her head for the rest of the day. Dhati Dhage Tina Kina...

Amanda with her tabla guru, Ashok-ji

Amanda's notebook filled with tabla beats...

Tabla fun!

Note: "Excited" workers and Catherine yawning:)

Stylin'

Catherine showing us how it's done

Our last speaker, Palden Gyatso, a Buddhist monk that was imprisoned for 33 years under the Chinese and has lived to tell his story of unthinkable tortures. He has a strong message for us to fight for human rights. He tells his story in his autobiography and now documentary, Fire Under the Snow.

Farewell Dinner
Our last night farewell dinner to all of our lovely Tibetan homestays! We made sure to have a speech written in Tibetan so that everyone could laugh at our pronunciation. Well done ladies! Jennifer's parents had left a few days earlier to head to Delhi and try their luck at getting a visa back to Tibet.

Amanda with her homestay Ama-la

Josephine and her family

Catherine and her homestay Ama-la and Mango, her little brother

The group with a spectacular view of the whole Golden Temple complex

Deb-sorry i havn't posted squat.

Essentially Amritsar is dirty and busy, not leaving much room to breath-at all. When we first arrive, we are slapped in the face with India once again- it's a bit of a change from little ol' Dharamsala. Once we finally get to the Golden Temple we are surrounded by thousands of people with knifes, silver bracelets, turbans, and more people. The Golden Temple- to get the best idea of what it looks like-look it up on Google. What it feels like (well to me) was oddly peaceful, considering there were so many people there. On the outside it looks like masses of people unorganized throwing various objects too and fro. When you look closer, it's masses of people throwing things too and fro, helping people. The place is a machine of goodwill. To get chai you must walk towards the courtyard (where everyone must cover their heads) where volunteers help clean the marble floor. Once inside the chai complex there is a man or women sitting on the chair handing out bowls for chai-she is also a volunteer. When I got to the giant vats of chai there is someone turning the spiket on and off. Once I sat down and try to chat with the women, men generally swarm trying to hear me speak my broken Hindi. Then the guard with a spear shoos them away. One you're finished with your chai chances are someone who is also done will take your bowl and put it in a giant grocery cart thing that, when full, will go to the dish washing section where more volunteers clean all the dishes. And so on and so forth. This place is completely run by volunteers.

Josephine hanging with the Punjabi ladies making chapatis for the masses

Amanda and Jennifer chopping onions. Amanda is full on crying from this:)

Food for the masses, free food for all classes

A Sikh family enjoying the view

Although this beautiful temple is surrounded by India's streets full of must and deceit there is still a golden heart.

Ps. mom-sorry for the grammar mistakes- but india doesn't care about grammar right now

Waga Border ceremony of lowering the flags of India and Pakistan.

Sikh guards roaming the temple complex

Jennifer enjoying the sunset light

A view of the big family chaos from above

With Sher Singh's family, a guard at the foreigner's quarters in the Golden Temple

The extended family: brothers, sisters, and their respective children

Getting ready to eat a delicious homegrown lunch! Fresh rice and paneer...yum

The neighbors leaning over the wall to check out the white girls:)

Some women check out the scene from above

India never doesnt feel temporary. but i feel IN it. some moments, never more than a moment, i feel like 'this is where i could be me for at least a while' but i never really know. buddhism says that i dont exist. only my mind and my body. so then i feel weird because according to 'them' we exist according to three things; the cause and conditions of our existence, our parts, and our label. at tushita I spent ten days in the mentality that you should always be present in the fact that you are your parents child,

no im not stressed out. really. more than one person in more than one place has told me that i would only be homesick if i wasnt liking india. and i mean homesick like uncomfortable. cus here homesick is missing like toilets. and looking like you own the place. psychologically im reallllllly present but i didnt have to try to feel that way. im out of my element, im not even in an element. i mean its constant learning, right? we had the best speakers in india lined up for us and every person i talk to i learn a fraction more about how the people work. scenery? amazing, but not even a thing. the US has mountains too.

but like and dislike arent even considerations anymore. it just happens and goes. even people. you meet everything and everyone knowing that it moves and ends fast. its weird that way to not be given the time to... analyze. no. even to be drunk with a feeling or really feeel it. uhhh. incoherent commmenntts. i mean its always head up eyes alert, consequences and digging for what you want because im not WORKING towards anything. i mean it gets weird sometimes, when youre in situations where no one is thinking about what theyre doing or why theyre doing it which is always. so for me to think about whats going on really doesnt work.

im empty right now. its not like im going around spilling over. traveling is kind of empty. the girl next to me just said after that when youre traveling around it kind of feels like youre never doing anything. if i really was fully processing the way i normally do i would have damage so, i mean instead of not soaking anything in, its changing the process. this part i havent finali'zed enough to articulate but thats... the window im looking through.

GO LADAKH, GO FORTH AND PROSPER PEOPLE AT HOME

The night train Yahtzee tradition continues....this time Peter takes 1st

This is just a glimpse of how excited they were to be in the mountains

Shiny, happy students

We landed safely in Leh yesterday and have been taking it easy, watching Bollywood movies, and sleeping the rest of the time. Our bodies are slowly getting used to being at 10,000 feet although going up the stairs leaves us quite winded. The group was ecstatic to be up in the mountains with fresh, crisp air to breathe leaving the noise and pollution of Delhi behind. It should be an enjoyable time here in Ladakh. We leave to go to the village of Domkhar tomorrow where we will be staying with Ladakhi homestays for one week. And then off on a week long trek! Communication will be very limited here but we'll try and drop a line when we pass through Leh!

Ellie's homestay family with little Rigzin and his abi-le (grandmother)

I sit in my Domkhar homestay with the TV blaring a Bollywood dance video, girls dancing in hardly any clothes and men wearing expensive watches, driving fast cars, and sunglasses. Such a drastic difference from the setting I'm sitting in. The 3-year old boy, Rigzin, is sitting and watching with innocent eyes while eating processed white bread and drinking butter tea. His mom is sitting on the dirt floor cooking thukpa over a wood-burning stove. The room is sparsely decorated--two posters: one of a beach with palm trees and the other, a herd of wild horses running though a river with the moon rising in the background. In between the two is a prayer wheel that is in constant motion. Constant motion. Is there any way to stop this powerful force of modernization that has seemed to be set into motion reaching even the most remote villages in Ladakh? The ancient colliding with the new? Surrounded by rocky mountains with little contact with the outside world--how could all the dancing, bright lights, money, and music not be appealing to these little innocent 3-year old eyes? If only they could understand my language...they would hear how much our culture is speeding up, so much that we often have little time to sit down as a family to eat dinner or just enjoy the silence of being together. Once the grandparents walked in, the TV was switched off.

Jennifer and Catherine with the students of Domkhar Government School.

Namgial, our Ladakh coordinator, with his home village of Domkhar behind

Jennifer and her Ladakhi homestay family

Josephine and her Ama-le

Entering the beautiful Markha Valley.

We reached our 16,700 ft pass! Where's all the oxygen?

It will be a quiet week or so here on the blog as the group enjoys walking among some of the most spectacular (and youngest) mountain peaks and valleys on earth.

If they are extremely lucky, they may also enjoy a fleeting glimpse of the endangered and exceedingly reclusive Snow Leopard. Although almost never seen in the wild, paw prints and camera trap images such as this one taken in Ladakh prove Panthera uncia is still hanging on out there. More likely will be sightings of resident Blue Sheep, Ibex, Marmots, Golden Eagles, and the giant Lammergeier, with its incredible 10-foot wingspan. And plenty of Yaks.

Hanging prayer flags for our loved ones and for the happiness of all sentient beings!

Kushok and Piu (Jenn, aka "monkey")

Ellie sent word this morning that the group had a great trek, capped off with a Ladakhi dance party, complete with s'mores.

Next up: an early morning flight from the cold Himalaya down to the heat of Delhi before taking an overnight train to Varanasi, located on the banks of the Ganges River.

Pictures and reflections from the trek to come.

A glimpse into train life: Josephine on top, Piu in the middle, and Kushok hidden on the bottom bunk

We have just arrived in Delhi and it is hot! I'm definitely missing the colder weather in Ladakh. When we flew to Ladakh about 3 weeks ago, we were greeted by the incredible sight of the Himalayas poking through the clouds, which we could see from the airplane window. After a few days of adjusting to the altitude (over 10,000 feet), we went to live with Ladakhi families in the village of Domkhar.

Jennifer and Amanda teaching English, "jungle style"

Josephine and her superhero,Tashi, a strong little Ladakhi girl that loved to play soccer with us!

After Domkhar, we spent 2 days at SECMOL, a school that offers an alternative method of education for Ladakhi students who fail their class 10 exams (as about 50% of students do), then we embarked on our 6-day trek. We had quite a crew accompanying us: 11 horses carrying our packs and supplies, a pony-man, an assistent pony-man, a chef, 2 assistent chefs, and a guide. Every night at camp they set up our sleeping tents as well as a cooking tent, a dining tent, and a bathroom tent. We would try to make them let us pitch our own tents, but often when we did, they immediately took them down and re-did them. We had chai every morning in our tents, then again at breakfast, and then again when we finished our hike, and then once again after dinner. The food they prepared for us was so good. We had at least 3 different dishes every night. But now to the treking part of the trek. We started out by slowly making our way up a valley and on the 3rd day we went over a rather steep pass, reaching 16,700 ft in elevation at the top. The second half of that day and the whole next day we were going down, ultimately landing in the Markha Valley, a very treking spot. We did a day hike in the Markha, and then on the last day he hiked to our pick-up spot. Now for some highlights. Firstly, the stars. The stars were so bright and so clear. We could see tons of shooting stars and satellites. Then on the last night of the trek, we all dressed up in costumes and took ridiculous photos. Amanda was a yedi, Josephine and Jen were Free Tibet superheros, and I was our fearless leader Peter, or Kushok, as we like to call him (which means monk in Tibetan). Then after dinner, we lit a bonfire and danced Ladakhi style with the whole crew before making everyone s'mores, a treat that seems to appeal only to Americans.

Bee, Free Tibet crusaders, Kushok, and Yeti, respectively:)

Piu and Piu aka Free Tibet crusaders aka Jennifer and Josephine

Check this yeti out! Scary, I know.

The Fearless Leaders: Rainbow Brite and Kushok Bumble Bee...buzzzzz


Now we are about to embark on the student-led portion of the trip, which we are spending in Varanasi. I am responsible for health and safety as well as communication, which means I have to make sure people post on the blog. So you can definitely expect to hear from us during this last week of our trip. I will make sure you guys have blogs to read!

But it's strange, not waking up to that crazy feeling of being around mountains. They were so close. They just kind of appear out of wrinkled plains. They were so big and bright and beautiful and blinding. The clouds would hang over mountain peaks- where does the snow stop and where do the clouds start? It was a lot quieter and colder up there. I had to remind myself we were still in the same country, still in the same world, looking at the same sky. Holy skies. The nights were drawn by stars, the silhouettes of mountains, and us, the observers- tiny, empty gazers looking up at spirals and galaxies, the River Ganga (commonly known in the west as the Milky Way), the constellations... all so clear and nowhere near.

Up north we'd gone from the town of Leh, to Domkar, a village hiding in dust, growing out of the fields by the Indus River, and then into the wild for a week of tramping and trekking.... through valleys and up to a pass at 16,000 feet. In between there have been some Bollywood slumber parties, a steep and slick mini-hike to a peak by secmol, and for me, an evening getting re-hydrated on a bed in the IV room. Yesss.

And now for a little fun or "time-pass" as they seem to say around here... hows about some Peterisms, classic phrases from our favourite Tibetan Kushok-la.

-shouting "Tee, sa wa sap!" as we're wildly dancing around a bonfire, pulling out Ladakhi moves we didn't know we had
-"Actually, it's sort of chilly up here!" referring to the Himalayan nights
-"bzzzzzmmm" as a mantra mumble-bee in his Bee costume
-"Pyu is become pyu again!"...(the name I've adopted)
-"... or somesing like that"
-"hwhaaaaack!"
-"this can be really good for you guys"
-"this is sounds good?"

Okey, time to go out Ganges style. Whaaack. This is sounds good?.

A glimpse into the graceful chaos of Indian streets

So today I 'favorited' India (re. the facebook function of 'liking' something, i.e. a photo, comment, or status [for the social networking inept]). We're in this place, Varanasi, where the smell is like that of and actually of burning bodies along the Ganges, and the colors are like drippy and ancient.

Something I've been enjoying is 'zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance' which is contributing greatly to the black bike im visioning parked outside my jazzy, worldly, eclectic college pad as close to water as possible. Dont worry, I'm actually going to buy and ride a vintage and dangerous bad-assmobile. For real. Actually.

Anyway something I'm missing is like social incongruity and challenge, obviously that comes with a pretty specific level of investment/immersion with your environment that I lack. I'm keeping my month alone in india absolutely planless and everything is becoming cake right in front of

It's like yes, i am missing real and bitter and stimulated rationale and the right, of course i have to make money, shut up, grow up. Dont start with yourself Amanda, it's stupid. Buuuuuuut right now, being here, the 'planning when I'll be there or anywhere' thing is another world, again, point repeated. It's like yes, I am romanticizing things but maybe I just experience the world more romantically than everyone else or just most people. I see that. Don't give me that Billy Downing.

But the moment that I put a fat old inky mental stamp on and racked my brain to keep a vivid memory of came when we were walking down the local tacky-shit road and saw a windy little alleyway that people were shoving themselves in and out of and was the shadiest looking place around. It was like kind of damp and smokey and got crazy fast. And we were just funneled into this shoulder-to-shoulder movement of saree bargaining and spinning chai cups and banging plates into shape and measuring spices and holy bells ringing off the walls of this upsidedown, like, creature. and it was all beneath the cover of these batik tarps and sheets and the dampness of the humidity in the shade was like fuel. So we were getting lost in this labyrinth where turning around was never the way out and all of the buildings felt like they were falling in on us and of course there were monkeys on the walls like stratling the air and stealing food and we turn a corner to see a smooth and huge tree trunk weaving through the buildings down one of the like, tunneling black holes. And the leaves were in windows and branches were shooting through the sheet metal roofs and this whole entire section was shaded by the invasion of this tree. But we kept winding and asking and looking for a light at the mayhem's end and finally popped back out on a different street probably an hour later and only a half kilo down from where we'd entered.

The interaction with India-India is coming to a slow halt. But there in that maze for that one moment the contact between us and it was almost aggressive it was so full. Although it's all softening off at the edge of this journey, I never cease to be amazed. Richness is something this culture will never be short of. The sparse and visceral permanence, our impermanence, it makes these pieces of the world and our lives so hard to let go of.

href="http://global-lab.org/mt/BBSpring11/Bloggin%20005.jpg">
Hitting up the Mango Duet stand....our new obsession in the blazing 115 degree heat

Time is really just a what we call the movement of change. And in Varanasi, the moment of change is a bit different.

It's a little more the pace of a boat ride along the ganges. The river pushes you one way but with a bit of rowing it moves the way you want. Although the current is too strong (sometimes), its steady until you run into other boats; its never too steady because if india were steady it would be called steadystan not hindustan. (ha.ha.ha)

But it could also be the pace of a tuk tuk, which has a slight hint of ($&^%*$&^#%%^#&^$ im going to die) and a spit here and there of fresh paan. The ride always gets you there though. Where ever "there" is there is room for interpretation.

I think my answers went to Varanasi to get some chai because among the holy bathers and beautiful saris i found some answers, well i really found shadows of answers. I suppose Varanassi has what i am looking for, that place had "it". As far as what "it" is.....i have no idea. It was there though, that i know.

Maybe it has something to do with the glow the buildings had at night. The glow from the lights that allowed the fire pujas at night. Or maybe it was our waiter who served us apple pie and ice cream every night. Perhaps the little begger girl we baught ice cream for?

Or it could of been "it" all, because "it" all was in this time thats movment is so much different from that of the blandness we usually encounter in everyday life. There, movment was shaped with stories that were embedded in the walls, lined the streets and stuck to peoples shoes, and that flowed in the river.

Time can pass any way you make it. maybe. that thought isn't quit developed. There is always time for chai. always. We discovered that people brush their teeth with trees in varanasi. i still dont know why, a lot of vitamins in the bark i suppose.

Varanasi allowed me compleatly surrender to the rhythm of india. I think the trick is you gatta move like indian, which is hard to do when you've never heard the essence of the beats. I could hear them in varanassi, or i would like to think i did, i could of just been the two fans in our 250rs room, or the wedding across the way.

Phir Milenge Varanasi, see you soon my friend.

Remember, this blog will stay up and can be utilized for communication and also remembrance. Feel free to post comments on the blog about how you are doing and feeling at home. This site is for you to connect.

Also, if you are feeling a bit lost at home, please check out these online resources for reentry. Reverse culture shock is very real and it there are tools you can use to help with this process. Perhaps these documents can help shed some light on a new world:

• SIT Study Abroad Reentry Toolkit

• Transitions Abroad: Coming Home from Study Abroad

• University of Missouri International Center: Coping, adjusting and getting involved

• Middlebury: Re-entry Resources