Trill it as fast as you did the day you said you lost
Everything in a deep pulse, suspended.
Tap it out quickly now, how
All the world felt and scratched
At you because you were tawny and you sighed too loud.
Know this: we were all drenched in it,
Smelled of red rust and Fearsomely striped.
Recoiled and retching we floated until
What they saw, all they saw,
Was that we were torn and empty,
Arching in the air.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
Summer in New York
The plane ride home was...just kind of delightful. Nothing really went wrong except that Dickyi got her knife confiscated in kuwait. It felt like a really short journey back. In new york, we just got out and hopped in a cab and we were back. as soon as we got back we went to Dickyi's brother's apartment, but no one was home so we dropped our stuff off at a neighbor's place across the hall.
Entering this neighbor's apartment was my first encounter with a western home after being away for awhile and it struck me as freakishly clean. I mean, it was clean, even by western standards. But to me it was so glorious. I kept saying how clean it was, how clean it was. I think they were semi weirded out.
After we got back to the apartment (and discovered that in fact there was someone home) we went, on my request, to go to laundry. I mean I just brought my entire duffel to the laundromat. Why not. I could have stood there and watched my clothes get tossed and turned in that glorious way in which clothes get cleaned. I was like that's right rinse cycle, you mix those up real nice. That's right, you sud those up and subsequently throw them around the machine and then drain out that dirt. You drain that dirt right out. Is this making anyone uncomfortable? I could have stayed there for the whole cycle, but we walked around instead and got snacks and icecream. We caught the last part of the washing and the drying, which was also glorious because I love dryer-fresh clothes.
While I was folding my clean, clean clothes, dickyi was like "look at your ridiculous face" because I was beaming with laundry-induced joy.
wow. Ok, the next day we rested and watched friends and walked around manhattan. The next day we found out I couldn't attend action camp as previously planned because I 1) have never been to action camp before 2) am not protesting at the beijing olympics. So i had to find somewhere else to stay for three nights. I know a handful of people in the city, but I wanted to see my friend sheel, so I called him up. The bonus is that his apartment is right in manhattan at 96th and 3rd. That's right by the park and right by the shopping on madison and fifth and and right by the met and other museums. So i got to hang out with sheel and ivan, and ivan's friend dave who i'm really glad I met and, by default, sheel's other, incredibly white roommate and his incredibly white girlfriend. So white I thought about asking them if they also attended prep school in connecticut.
I got to go shopping and to the met, which was really amazing. I really enjoyed it and i think that means i'm growing up because I found museums pretty boring before. sweet. I met up with like everyone--amy and I saw danny and peter ross and peter's girlfriend one night randomly when i went with sheel to dinner with them at peter's place. Me and amy met up with danny and sheel one night for hookah and ended up in williamsburg at this harvard guy's place. random, but cool to see williamsburg.
I met up with sumi and tom, sumi's boyfriend and his friends one night for drinks and then sumi and i had dinner with doug, another hotchkiss friend. Great to see them. I saw sumi and doug again on saturday night at 230 fifth, this really nice rooftop bar. that night i went out with sheel, ivan, dave, and savi and we first went to this bar taj which was really beautiful and packed with harvardies.
Met up with jennifer one night for dinner and then the next day i met up with sarah and jennifer in the east village for brunch at 5A, which was good and cheap and apparently frequented by the hot guy from entourage. We went back to Jennifer's place and talked about people in middle school who have gone crazy.
Who else...I got to see Tim and Lindsay and Justine one day at brunch and that was great. We were supposed to see more of them, but it just never happened.
Hm what else...hit up the natural history museum on monday, which was great. Oh,sunday after the east village I went to lincoln center to meet up with sumi and tom to see a movie about a coke lord, but it was all sold out so instead we decided to go out to dinner. Tom knows this friend who is a huge foodie and can pretty much navigate you to a good restaurant from anywhere. So we found this restaurant called "Mozart" and the food was AMAZING. Really delicious. Afterwards, I went to Union square and met up with dickyi at the sft office for an sft party. it wasn't really a party for me since I was falling asleep, but the sleep was good.
All in all ny was such an awesome time and I felt good because sometimes it's hard to meet up with people you haven't seen in a long time..it's really draining. But I saw everyone I had intended to and had a good time with everyone. all the friends I've kept in touch with have kept it real so it's not all awkward like it is when someone tries to be cool or whatever.
i feel like I multifisted new york such that each of its orafices contained a corresponding one of my appendage. What I don't feel good about was that I totally forgot my sisters birthday whilst all this multifisting was going on. I felt like such a douche. Also when I was on the phone and realized it (because my mom told me) i couldn't even talk for a long time because the elevator had come and we were going out. douchey. then I talked to my cousin when she came to pick me up from the airport and she said that she forgot my sister's birthday too. Apparently the day before they were hanging out with my mom and my mom was like "i have to go get noodles for tomorrow" and erica was like wow I guess yeeyee just has a hankering for some noodles. didn't pick it up. Didn't pick it up when my sister called her twice on June 23rd and was like "hey erica, feel free to come over for some noodles". Finally erica answers the phone and is like alright i guess i'll come over. She saunters in like it's a fast food joint and proceeds to shovel noodles in her mouth, asking for seconds and thirds and also drinking all amounts of soda and intermittently consuming dumplings. Finally after she sauntered into the bedroom, she realized, from the giant bouquet of flowers, that it was emilie's birthday. my poor sister. we're going to make it up to her.
boston was great--got to hang out with dave, ryan, jackie, and of course, the last of dickyi :(. It was sad saying bye to dickyi and I am really going to miss her..have gotten used to her company and I feel like Ive gotten to know her so much better and I just feel miles closer to her than I felt before, which is pretty damn close. We agree that it'll be easy to stay good friends after this. I hope so. The good news is that I'm not afraid to stalk my friends and force them to keep in touch with me. I feel so lucky to have found someone so chill at Harvard. In the cab ride to the airport we were like how did two such chill (translation:ass-lazy like nobody's bi-ness) end up meeting each other and befriending each other at a school like harvard? pretty sure we're lazier than like 98 percent of the general population.
I'm back in toronto now, and I'm just waiting now to meet up with Tanaz, who's coming back from a cottage visit. I'll spend tonight with her and then tomorrow I'll head to ottawa to be with the fam.
Entering this neighbor's apartment was my first encounter with a western home after being away for awhile and it struck me as freakishly clean. I mean, it was clean, even by western standards. But to me it was so glorious. I kept saying how clean it was, how clean it was. I think they were semi weirded out.
After we got back to the apartment (and discovered that in fact there was someone home) we went, on my request, to go to laundry. I mean I just brought my entire duffel to the laundromat. Why not. I could have stood there and watched my clothes get tossed and turned in that glorious way in which clothes get cleaned. I was like that's right rinse cycle, you mix those up real nice. That's right, you sud those up and subsequently throw them around the machine and then drain out that dirt. You drain that dirt right out. Is this making anyone uncomfortable? I could have stayed there for the whole cycle, but we walked around instead and got snacks and icecream. We caught the last part of the washing and the drying, which was also glorious because I love dryer-fresh clothes.
While I was folding my clean, clean clothes, dickyi was like "look at your ridiculous face" because I was beaming with laundry-induced joy.
wow. Ok, the next day we rested and watched friends and walked around manhattan. The next day we found out I couldn't attend action camp as previously planned because I 1) have never been to action camp before 2) am not protesting at the beijing olympics. So i had to find somewhere else to stay for three nights. I know a handful of people in the city, but I wanted to see my friend sheel, so I called him up. The bonus is that his apartment is right in manhattan at 96th and 3rd. That's right by the park and right by the shopping on madison and fifth and and right by the met and other museums. So i got to hang out with sheel and ivan, and ivan's friend dave who i'm really glad I met and, by default, sheel's other, incredibly white roommate and his incredibly white girlfriend. So white I thought about asking them if they also attended prep school in connecticut.
I got to go shopping and to the met, which was really amazing. I really enjoyed it and i think that means i'm growing up because I found museums pretty boring before. sweet. I met up with like everyone--amy and I saw danny and peter ross and peter's girlfriend one night randomly when i went with sheel to dinner with them at peter's place. Me and amy met up with danny and sheel one night for hookah and ended up in williamsburg at this harvard guy's place. random, but cool to see williamsburg.
I met up with sumi and tom, sumi's boyfriend and his friends one night for drinks and then sumi and i had dinner with doug, another hotchkiss friend. Great to see them. I saw sumi and doug again on saturday night at 230 fifth, this really nice rooftop bar. that night i went out with sheel, ivan, dave, and savi and we first went to this bar taj which was really beautiful and packed with harvardies.
Met up with jennifer one night for dinner and then the next day i met up with sarah and jennifer in the east village for brunch at 5A, which was good and cheap and apparently frequented by the hot guy from entourage. We went back to Jennifer's place and talked about people in middle school who have gone crazy.
Who else...I got to see Tim and Lindsay and Justine one day at brunch and that was great. We were supposed to see more of them, but it just never happened.
Hm what else...hit up the natural history museum on monday, which was great. Oh,sunday after the east village I went to lincoln center to meet up with sumi and tom to see a movie about a coke lord, but it was all sold out so instead we decided to go out to dinner. Tom knows this friend who is a huge foodie and can pretty much navigate you to a good restaurant from anywhere. So we found this restaurant called "Mozart" and the food was AMAZING. Really delicious. Afterwards, I went to Union square and met up with dickyi at the sft office for an sft party. it wasn't really a party for me since I was falling asleep, but the sleep was good.
All in all ny was such an awesome time and I felt good because sometimes it's hard to meet up with people you haven't seen in a long time..it's really draining. But I saw everyone I had intended to and had a good time with everyone. all the friends I've kept in touch with have kept it real so it's not all awkward like it is when someone tries to be cool or whatever.
i feel like I multifisted new york such that each of its orafices contained a corresponding one of my appendage. What I don't feel good about was that I totally forgot my sisters birthday whilst all this multifisting was going on. I felt like such a douche. Also when I was on the phone and realized it (because my mom told me) i couldn't even talk for a long time because the elevator had come and we were going out. douchey. then I talked to my cousin when she came to pick me up from the airport and she said that she forgot my sister's birthday too. Apparently the day before they were hanging out with my mom and my mom was like "i have to go get noodles for tomorrow" and erica was like wow I guess yeeyee just has a hankering for some noodles. didn't pick it up. Didn't pick it up when my sister called her twice on June 23rd and was like "hey erica, feel free to come over for some noodles". Finally erica answers the phone and is like alright i guess i'll come over. She saunters in like it's a fast food joint and proceeds to shovel noodles in her mouth, asking for seconds and thirds and also drinking all amounts of soda and intermittently consuming dumplings. Finally after she sauntered into the bedroom, she realized, from the giant bouquet of flowers, that it was emilie's birthday. my poor sister. we're going to make it up to her.
boston was great--got to hang out with dave, ryan, jackie, and of course, the last of dickyi :(. It was sad saying bye to dickyi and I am really going to miss her..have gotten used to her company and I feel like Ive gotten to know her so much better and I just feel miles closer to her than I felt before, which is pretty damn close. We agree that it'll be easy to stay good friends after this. I hope so. The good news is that I'm not afraid to stalk my friends and force them to keep in touch with me. I feel so lucky to have found someone so chill at Harvard. In the cab ride to the airport we were like how did two such chill (translation:ass-lazy like nobody's bi-ness) end up meeting each other and befriending each other at a school like harvard? pretty sure we're lazier than like 98 percent of the general population.
I'm back in toronto now, and I'm just waiting now to meet up with Tanaz, who's coming back from a cottage visit. I'll spend tonight with her and then tomorrow I'll head to ottawa to be with the fam.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
I remember when we were driving
I left work on Friday and got to the bus depot where the car usually drops me. Tenam was already there and Dickyi was there too. It was funny because we hadn't officially made plans but I guess we all just kind of fell into the routine. We went to Western Union to get money for Dickyi, where the guys were kind of assholic and refusing to give her any American money, but I guess that's the policy. While she was waiting for the money me and Tenam went to get the Mandala. Again, it was awesome being with a local because he knew this little hole in the wall where they sold them for a reasonable price and we would know that they were hand-drawn. His dad is also a high lama so he can tell if the mandalas are complete or not. I was happy because I was planning to give it to my dad.
We split up after that and me and Dickyi went to her momo's house for the last time. We also went to visit Dickyi's friend, a fellow teacher she met in Tibet. Then we went to Tenam's house so he could take us to Dharamcode on his bike. The weather was perfect for going--we drove up and then walked for fifteen or so to a restaurant that is good for pizza. We had this yummy cake and pizza and while we were eating Khewang called and said he was in Dharamsala (he came to take us to Bir the next day) and he joined us. T and K spent awhile trying to decide where to sleep, again because 10 random people were at T's house just hanging out and playing playstation. You see how nice people are in this kind of situation...I proposed that he just tell them to get out because he needed to get sleep and that statement was met with horrified eyes. Apparently you can't just tell someone to get out. They slept at someone else's house that night. After dinner they dropped us off at Hotel Tibet, because Tenkyi was there with a bunch of people she did not want to hang out with and we had to come and get her. Again, too nice to not hang out. Dickyi was on an important call, so I hung out with Tenkyi and pretended I had to take her away. Dickyi was still on the phone so me and Tenkyi just walked and talked and we went to Last Chance and just talked and hung out. It was really fun and I was glad I could hang out with Tenkyi.
The next day was so amazing. We got up early, around 6:30 or something, and met Khewang and Tenam downstairs. I was riding with Tenam and Dickyi with Khewang. There are seriously no words for the trip. It was totally amazing. It was awesome to be driving so fast on a bike and the mountain roads were incredibly beautiful. The trees and the rivers all looked so pristine and kind of sublime. I thought I would be scared, but I wasn't at all. I had a helmet on, and Tenam is a really experienced driver, who is used to biking around in Delhi, and I really expected to be more worried than I was, which was not at all. Even on the curvy, narrow mountain roads or when we were passing trucks that were centimeters from us. I was surprised, since I am usually much lamer and scared. The drive was about two and a half hours to chauntara and it felt like two seconds. The weather was perfect, sometimes threatening rain but for the most part sunny and cool, and the scenery was really beautiful--more beautiful than Dharamsala and less spoiled somehow. We saw winding rivers lined with smooth gray stones, mountaintops fringed with trees, beautiful tea gardens, rice paddies, and all of it was gorgeous and we were going so fast and the weather was so beautiful. And the breeze felt so good. Khewang is a bit less experienced than Tenam so my job was to make sure they were sitll behind us, until it got a little exhausting and we just rode behind them. When we got to Chauntara, we went to Tenam's house and met his family and ate breakfast. Tenam's house was huge--pink and the biggest I've seen yet in India. They are well-off because his dad is a high lama. It was cool to meet his dad, and Dickyi got her prayer beads blessed. Tenam's older brother was there and he is so funny--he's the opposite of Tenam. He's kind of a thug and wears shirts that say things like "hustle 2 get paid 4 life" and doesn't work and just kind of hangs out. Apparently everyone loves him though--Tenam says he is very popular. He was just very funny. They took us to a big monastery there and it was really cool--we got to see thousands of little stupas in the making. Kunjodorje met us there and we all hung out for a bit. We also went to Khewang's house, which is at a TCV nearby. His mom works there and has worked there for 30 years, teaching Tibetan.
Khewang has a very sad story--his father died around three years back. Tenkyi and Dickyi say that Khewang's parents' marriage was the best they had seen among their friends. Their parents were very much in love and Khewang absolutely adored his dad. K went to Delhi U also and every break, he would go and be with his Dad, who was a high ranking army officer, wherever he was stationed. Three years ago, K had a break from school and wanted to go visit his dad, but his dad was like no, you stay in Delhi and do your school shopping. During that break, there was an accident and K's dad's car fell off the edge of a cliff. K told Dickyi that if he had gone to visit his dad, he would have died too, since he always went everywhere his dad went.
Anyway, Khewang's mom is so nice and loves Dickyi and Tenkyi and she loves her teaching job. She's worried about Khewang right now, because I think he has kidney problems and he also has had recent problems with his stomach and feeling sick. Before we left I left him the Tums I brought along with me, in case those help. When we were there, she was all in a tizzy because the next day was the school fair and she had to run a pancake selling booth.
We left K's house after a short time to go to Pandoh, which takes about 2 and 1/2-3 hours to get to. Pandoh has a Tibetan settlement in it/is a Tibetan settlement (not sure)and we were going so that Dickyi could visit her grandfather on her dad's side and Khewang has some family there. Me and Tenam had no business there whatsoever, but just went along. The ride was, as always, amazing. They said that our bottoms would hurt from sitting on the bike and that our legs would cramp up, but nothing of the sort happened. I think it was around this time that we decided (or the boys decided) that it would be best to stay a night in Chauntara and head back in the morning in time for our bus to Delhi, since it would be too hard to drive all the way back. We would stay at Khewang's house.
When we got to Pandoh, it was kind of hot and kind of in the middle of nowhere. The community was walled and contained. It took us awhile to find Dickyi's grandfather's house, but it was such a small settlement you could just ask around. We weren't planning on spending a whole lot of time in Pandoh and we didn't--probably around an hour and a half. We visited Dickyi's grandad for about 30 minutes, some aunt and uncle for 20 minutes, and then Khewang's relatives for like 20 minutes. Then we hit the road back to Chauntara.
The ride back was CRAZY. It started raining/mnnsooning incredibly heavily and we were kind of run off the road. One minute we were driving along and the next we were soaking wet and couldn't see anything. It was too dangerous to drive that way. We found this little shelter thing on the roadside to wait in until the weather cleared up, which happened pretty fast. While we were waiting we ate Maggi and I thought of that poem, "When it Rains in Dharamsala". We got back on the road, thanking god that Tenam's brother gave us raincoats to take along, and made it back to Chauntara, but I was still freezing. We stopped at this roadside place close to Tenam's house and had tea and paranthas. I've never been so glad to have chai before. Me and Dickyi and Khewang then went to Khewang's house and then met up with Kunjodorje and Tenam for dinner at this roadside place where the food was pretty gross and there were incredibly huge bugs of an incredibly gross nature landing on you every couple seconds. Didn't really have much of an appetite. Dickyi hung out with Kunjodorje after that and me and Tenam and Khewang went back to Khewang's house and hung out with his mom and watched TV. Tenam went home and me and Khewang went to sleep. At around 1:30 I let Dickyi back in the house and we went to sleep--it was a good sleep.
In the morning we woke up early and helped Khewang's mom make paranthas. Tenam came over and after we ate breakfast, we went back to Dharamsala. The ride was beautiful but the air hung with a bit of sadness because we were leaving that day. When we got back to Dharamasala, we visited some people and rested and packed. When we headed to the bus depot, all Dickyi's relatives were swarming around helping us with our stuff. Tenkyi, Khewang, Japan, Tenam, and this other friend of Dickyi's were all there and everyone was giving us white scarves, that are supposed to make the journey safe. It was really sad, but no one cried except for Dickyi's cousin. I was reminded again of how kind everyone was. The goodbye was especially sad because it lasted about an hour and a half--the bus was late in leaving and it was just a very prolonged departure.
The bus ride started out horribly. The roads were very curvy and very bumpy and I threw up out the window within the first twenty minutes. I had to suffer through Lower Dharamsala without throwing up because I didn't want to throw up on anyone. As soon as there was a clear spot with noone around I would hurl. But I went to sleep right after that and woke up 11 hours later! Someone had to wake us up in Delhi because we both slept right through everything. It rained in Delhi that morning so it was nice and cool. We hung out with Youdon, Neema, Tum Din, and some other people in Delhi. The main thing we did was see Fantastic Four--we didn't do too much else. Tum Din's friend has a car, so they took us to the airport.
We split up after that and me and Dickyi went to her momo's house for the last time. We also went to visit Dickyi's friend, a fellow teacher she met in Tibet. Then we went to Tenam's house so he could take us to Dharamcode on his bike. The weather was perfect for going--we drove up and then walked for fifteen or so to a restaurant that is good for pizza. We had this yummy cake and pizza and while we were eating Khewang called and said he was in Dharamsala (he came to take us to Bir the next day) and he joined us. T and K spent awhile trying to decide where to sleep, again because 10 random people were at T's house just hanging out and playing playstation. You see how nice people are in this kind of situation...I proposed that he just tell them to get out because he needed to get sleep and that statement was met with horrified eyes. Apparently you can't just tell someone to get out. They slept at someone else's house that night. After dinner they dropped us off at Hotel Tibet, because Tenkyi was there with a bunch of people she did not want to hang out with and we had to come and get her. Again, too nice to not hang out. Dickyi was on an important call, so I hung out with Tenkyi and pretended I had to take her away. Dickyi was still on the phone so me and Tenkyi just walked and talked and we went to Last Chance and just talked and hung out. It was really fun and I was glad I could hang out with Tenkyi.
The next day was so amazing. We got up early, around 6:30 or something, and met Khewang and Tenam downstairs. I was riding with Tenam and Dickyi with Khewang. There are seriously no words for the trip. It was totally amazing. It was awesome to be driving so fast on a bike and the mountain roads were incredibly beautiful. The trees and the rivers all looked so pristine and kind of sublime. I thought I would be scared, but I wasn't at all. I had a helmet on, and Tenam is a really experienced driver, who is used to biking around in Delhi, and I really expected to be more worried than I was, which was not at all. Even on the curvy, narrow mountain roads or when we were passing trucks that were centimeters from us. I was surprised, since I am usually much lamer and scared. The drive was about two and a half hours to chauntara and it felt like two seconds. The weather was perfect, sometimes threatening rain but for the most part sunny and cool, and the scenery was really beautiful--more beautiful than Dharamsala and less spoiled somehow. We saw winding rivers lined with smooth gray stones, mountaintops fringed with trees, beautiful tea gardens, rice paddies, and all of it was gorgeous and we were going so fast and the weather was so beautiful. And the breeze felt so good. Khewang is a bit less experienced than Tenam so my job was to make sure they were sitll behind us, until it got a little exhausting and we just rode behind them. When we got to Chauntara, we went to Tenam's house and met his family and ate breakfast. Tenam's house was huge--pink and the biggest I've seen yet in India. They are well-off because his dad is a high lama. It was cool to meet his dad, and Dickyi got her prayer beads blessed. Tenam's older brother was there and he is so funny--he's the opposite of Tenam. He's kind of a thug and wears shirts that say things like "hustle 2 get paid 4 life" and doesn't work and just kind of hangs out. Apparently everyone loves him though--Tenam says he is very popular. He was just very funny. They took us to a big monastery there and it was really cool--we got to see thousands of little stupas in the making. Kunjodorje met us there and we all hung out for a bit. We also went to Khewang's house, which is at a TCV nearby. His mom works there and has worked there for 30 years, teaching Tibetan.
Khewang has a very sad story--his father died around three years back. Tenkyi and Dickyi say that Khewang's parents' marriage was the best they had seen among their friends. Their parents were very much in love and Khewang absolutely adored his dad. K went to Delhi U also and every break, he would go and be with his Dad, who was a high ranking army officer, wherever he was stationed. Three years ago, K had a break from school and wanted to go visit his dad, but his dad was like no, you stay in Delhi and do your school shopping. During that break, there was an accident and K's dad's car fell off the edge of a cliff. K told Dickyi that if he had gone to visit his dad, he would have died too, since he always went everywhere his dad went.
Anyway, Khewang's mom is so nice and loves Dickyi and Tenkyi and she loves her teaching job. She's worried about Khewang right now, because I think he has kidney problems and he also has had recent problems with his stomach and feeling sick. Before we left I left him the Tums I brought along with me, in case those help. When we were there, she was all in a tizzy because the next day was the school fair and she had to run a pancake selling booth.
We left K's house after a short time to go to Pandoh, which takes about 2 and 1/2-3 hours to get to. Pandoh has a Tibetan settlement in it/is a Tibetan settlement (not sure)and we were going so that Dickyi could visit her grandfather on her dad's side and Khewang has some family there. Me and Tenam had no business there whatsoever, but just went along. The ride was, as always, amazing. They said that our bottoms would hurt from sitting on the bike and that our legs would cramp up, but nothing of the sort happened. I think it was around this time that we decided (or the boys decided) that it would be best to stay a night in Chauntara and head back in the morning in time for our bus to Delhi, since it would be too hard to drive all the way back. We would stay at Khewang's house.
When we got to Pandoh, it was kind of hot and kind of in the middle of nowhere. The community was walled and contained. It took us awhile to find Dickyi's grandfather's house, but it was such a small settlement you could just ask around. We weren't planning on spending a whole lot of time in Pandoh and we didn't--probably around an hour and a half. We visited Dickyi's grandad for about 30 minutes, some aunt and uncle for 20 minutes, and then Khewang's relatives for like 20 minutes. Then we hit the road back to Chauntara.
The ride back was CRAZY. It started raining/mnnsooning incredibly heavily and we were kind of run off the road. One minute we were driving along and the next we were soaking wet and couldn't see anything. It was too dangerous to drive that way. We found this little shelter thing on the roadside to wait in until the weather cleared up, which happened pretty fast. While we were waiting we ate Maggi and I thought of that poem, "When it Rains in Dharamsala". We got back on the road, thanking god that Tenam's brother gave us raincoats to take along, and made it back to Chauntara, but I was still freezing. We stopped at this roadside place close to Tenam's house and had tea and paranthas. I've never been so glad to have chai before. Me and Dickyi and Khewang then went to Khewang's house and then met up with Kunjodorje and Tenam for dinner at this roadside place where the food was pretty gross and there were incredibly huge bugs of an incredibly gross nature landing on you every couple seconds. Didn't really have much of an appetite. Dickyi hung out with Kunjodorje after that and me and Tenam and Khewang went back to Khewang's house and hung out with his mom and watched TV. Tenam went home and me and Khewang went to sleep. At around 1:30 I let Dickyi back in the house and we went to sleep--it was a good sleep.
In the morning we woke up early and helped Khewang's mom make paranthas. Tenam came over and after we ate breakfast, we went back to Dharamsala. The ride was beautiful but the air hung with a bit of sadness because we were leaving that day. When we got back to Dharamasala, we visited some people and rested and packed. When we headed to the bus depot, all Dickyi's relatives were swarming around helping us with our stuff. Tenkyi, Khewang, Japan, Tenam, and this other friend of Dickyi's were all there and everyone was giving us white scarves, that are supposed to make the journey safe. It was really sad, but no one cried except for Dickyi's cousin. I was reminded again of how kind everyone was. The goodbye was especially sad because it lasted about an hour and a half--the bus was late in leaving and it was just a very prolonged departure.
The bus ride started out horribly. The roads were very curvy and very bumpy and I threw up out the window within the first twenty minutes. I had to suffer through Lower Dharamsala without throwing up because I didn't want to throw up on anyone. As soon as there was a clear spot with noone around I would hurl. But I went to sleep right after that and woke up 11 hours later! Someone had to wake us up in Delhi because we both slept right through everything. It rained in Delhi that morning so it was nice and cool. We hung out with Youdon, Neema, Tum Din, and some other people in Delhi. The main thing we did was see Fantastic Four--we didn't do too much else. Tum Din's friend has a car, so they took us to the airport.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Last day at work and incredibly bored
Cathy--bikes are motorbikes..sorry.
It is officially monsoon season. It rained yesterday on and off, and it was raining at 5, which meant hellish traffic getting back up to McLeod and also several death scares. After work we went with Tenkyi, her cousin, and like 18 of her cousin's friends to Hotel Tibet, my least favorite restaurant here. The food was pretty good. Then we walked her cousin's friends back down to Ghangyi, which was also marked by several death scares. Me and Dickyi went to the Jungle Hut, which is this cool restaurant by Last Chance that is on a cliff's edge. Really good pakoras. Unfortunately we were harrassed by Punjabi tourists, who wanted to take our "snap" and subsequently got into a physical fight in the restaurant. It was kind of scary, since we were the only other people in the restaurant, but kind of interesting. We got home at 10 but it felt like 3 am. I had to do some work on my report, so I settled down with it in bed and fell asleep in like two minutes. We set the alarm for 6:15 because we wanted to go for Koras this morning before work. at 6:15, it was absolutely pouring so we went back to bed.
When it rains here, there's no way to describe how gross it makes me feel. Everything feels damp. The clothes you hung don't dry properly, your skin always feels moist, everything is just wet, wet, wet and sticky. Shudder.
This morning I finished my report and handed it in. I hope it is not a piece of crap, which I kind of feel like it is. I got permission to go to the library so I went and poked around the reading rooms and the museum. In the museum, there was a group of girls from Tulane. Tourists always look at me twice because I look Tibetan but I dress Western and if I'm with Dickyi or other Tibetans they're even more confused. These girls cracked me up. They kind of poked around the museum a little bit, not really looking at anything in particular, and then stood in a huddle talking about how long their mothers took in labor with them and childbirth in general. Unusual. At lunch I met up with Tenam and he took me to go see his office, which he shares with this white lady who is working here temporarily. They're both contract workers for the library. Tenam just finished proofreading this long book about I don't even know what. I was annoyed to have to go back to work because I obviously have nothing to do, but I have to wait for my letter from the director.
Today we're going to go buy a painting of a mandala for my dad and then who knows, maybe Dharamcode. Tomorrow we will leave EARLY for bir, chandigar, and now we're going to this one other place where Dickyi's grandad live and khewang is from. Sunday we'll leave for Delhi and then back to NY.
It is officially monsoon season. It rained yesterday on and off, and it was raining at 5, which meant hellish traffic getting back up to McLeod and also several death scares. After work we went with Tenkyi, her cousin, and like 18 of her cousin's friends to Hotel Tibet, my least favorite restaurant here. The food was pretty good. Then we walked her cousin's friends back down to Ghangyi, which was also marked by several death scares. Me and Dickyi went to the Jungle Hut, which is this cool restaurant by Last Chance that is on a cliff's edge. Really good pakoras. Unfortunately we were harrassed by Punjabi tourists, who wanted to take our "snap" and subsequently got into a physical fight in the restaurant. It was kind of scary, since we were the only other people in the restaurant, but kind of interesting. We got home at 10 but it felt like 3 am. I had to do some work on my report, so I settled down with it in bed and fell asleep in like two minutes. We set the alarm for 6:15 because we wanted to go for Koras this morning before work. at 6:15, it was absolutely pouring so we went back to bed.
When it rains here, there's no way to describe how gross it makes me feel. Everything feels damp. The clothes you hung don't dry properly, your skin always feels moist, everything is just wet, wet, wet and sticky. Shudder.
This morning I finished my report and handed it in. I hope it is not a piece of crap, which I kind of feel like it is. I got permission to go to the library so I went and poked around the reading rooms and the museum. In the museum, there was a group of girls from Tulane. Tourists always look at me twice because I look Tibetan but I dress Western and if I'm with Dickyi or other Tibetans they're even more confused. These girls cracked me up. They kind of poked around the museum a little bit, not really looking at anything in particular, and then stood in a huddle talking about how long their mothers took in labor with them and childbirth in general. Unusual. At lunch I met up with Tenam and he took me to go see his office, which he shares with this white lady who is working here temporarily. They're both contract workers for the library. Tenam just finished proofreading this long book about I don't even know what. I was annoyed to have to go back to work because I obviously have nothing to do, but I have to wait for my letter from the director.
Today we're going to go buy a painting of a mandala for my dad and then who knows, maybe Dharamcode. Tomorrow we will leave EARLY for bir, chandigar, and now we're going to this one other place where Dickyi's grandad live and khewang is from. Sunday we'll leave for Delhi and then back to NY.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Approaching the End
We are very fast approaching the end of our stay in Dharamsala and it feels sad. Yesterday we bought our tickets for the bus back to Delhi on Sunday. My last day of work will be Friday--me and Tenam took leave on Saturday so that we can all go to Bir. They have work here on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays. My work is going quite well and I am just proofreading and adding bits to my report. I've enjoyed it.
Looking back on my blog, I realize that I left out something that has been great during our time here, which is that Dickyi has been kind of involved with someone during our stay here--a very good friend of her brother's who is a doctor in Dharamsala. Anyways, I won't say too much more because I don't want to embarrass anyone, except that I think everyone involved was glad that it happened. But that kind of thing makes it even harder to leave.
Yesterday I ate lunch in the office, like I do everyday, and they had this dish that looked like green beans and tomatoes and onions. I took a little and ate what I thought were a couple beans. Turns out they were very hot chillies. I eat lunch quickly and then I go to the cafe in Ghangyi (I think that's the right spelling) to hang out with Tenam and sometimes Dickyi. Tenam's friend was there. He works in parliament full-time and he was cracking everyone up. He just had really funny mannerisms. I am seriously amused by certain mannerisms here. The other day we were hanging out with SFT people, and the head of SFT here, Chou Ying (sp), who is such a cool person, turned to me and said "You know, music is a particular passion of mine", dead serious. It really wasn't that kind of conversation and it was just really funny because it seemed like he was taking himself so incredibly seriously. Also I'm pretty sure that music is a particular passion of everyone's. Chou Ying has a Canadian girlfriend who is going to U of T also next year. She's nice and we're going to see both of them at SFT camp when we get back to NY.
Me and Tenam made plans to go to Dharamcode (sp)with Dickyi yesterday, which is apparently very beautiful, but it started raining at around 4:40 and just kind of kept going, on and off. Dickyi, who had spent the day with someone who had come up especially from Bir to see her ahem just missed the rain when she came to pick me up from work and it wasn't raining when we walked home. The walk back is long and steep and kind of like mountain climbing and Dickyi was tired, but we had a lot to talk about so it was fun. When we got up to McLeod we shopped around a little bit and then went home. Last night, we made dinner for the family. It was almost a disaster and the power went off a few times, but it turned out well in the end. After dinner, we met up with Tenam and Japan and Tenkyi at Mcllo, which is like the cool restaurant to hang out in here. It was raining while we were inside, but it was like as soon as we stepped out, the sky cleared. Crazy. The bad thing about Mcllo is that it is kind of sketchy because it is where Tibetan guys go to try to pick up injees, or foreigners. I had Gulab Jamun which is so very good there because they heat it up.
Everyone here assumes that if you are foreign, you are a slut. Apparently lots of foreign girls come here and have affairs with Tibetan guys. It's fine for Dickyi because she is Tibetan, but everyone knows I am injee so I have to be paranoid about what people think and it's a bit annoying because Dickyi said people think things immediately if you even talk to a guy. I have to turn down perfectly good bike rides to and from work from Tenam because I don't want people to think that we are more than just friends. I've ridden his bike other times, not to and from work, though, and it is really really fun. I've never ridden anyone else's bike except for Japan's last night, but Dickyi is addicted to bike rides and rides on anyone's bike (jk, but not really), but it is OK for her because she is Tibetan. Anyways, there's a reason I was talking about bike rides and it is this: last night, after mcllo, japan and dickyi wanted to go swimming so we decided we would go to bhagsunad, the pool. japan and tenam both had their bikes but tenam had to go back and get something so japan gave me and dickyi a ride back to the house to pick up dickyi's swim stuff. No sooner had we turned the corner from Mcllo than we were stopped by indian police officers. Japan, like all Tibetans in Dharamsala, is fluent in Hindi so we watched him talk his way out of a ticket for having three people on a bike. He was dropping names, he was really working it. The police officers not only let us go, but said that we could all ride on the bike. Apparently the restaurant that Japan's family owns, which is like one of the top restaurants in Mcllo, is landlorded by this very powerful Indian guy so all Japan had to do was keep dropping his name and talking about how they were very good friends.
We all went to the pool and D and J went swimming, which was crazy because the water was way too cold. Afterwards they were of course freezing, so we tried to find somewhere that was still open to have tea. We went to one place, but it was closed. We went to another place and I am telling you I could not believe my eyes. It was an outside cafe jam packed with rasta foreigners beating drums in a circle and dancing like tribal African dances. WTF. This Israeli looking guy was outside, welcoming us, telling us to have a seat and relax. Me and Dickyi just burst out laughing--it was too funny. I don't know where these people come from and how they think it is ok to be so ridiculous in a public place. I also don't know how this place hasn't been burnt down by the neglected, lit ends of joints. So we left and went to this other place that was also for rasta foreigners but not as much. I avoided eating anything there as it was probably laced with hash. I was so sleepy by this point because it was 1 and I was falling asleep at the table. We left soon after and I almost fell asleep on the bike ride back, except that it was such a beautiful night and I was kind of scared that someone would come up behind me from the pitch blackness. Shiver.
One interesting thing happened last night. As we were leaving the cafe, Dickyi and Tenam and Japan were talking animatedly about something to do with Indians and Tibetans. I couldn't understand, but when me and Dickyi got back, I asked her about it. She said that Japan was talking about how Indians are so rude here, and how at his restaurant, Tibetans always say "Thank-you" when you give them their food and Indians never do. Dickyi pointed out that Tibetans only do that to other Tibetans and not to Indians. Tenam said that Indians don't say thank-you to other Indians either. This dynamic between Tibetans and Indians is very weird here. Tenam says that although Tibetans have more money in general (in Dharamsala at least), Indians have the legal advantage because they are passport carrying citizens. It is hard for Tibetans to get an Indian passport here because of the race factor. The best place to get one is Shillong or Dharjeeling, which is where Japan got his. This is because these areas are in the Northeast, so people look asian, and also because many of the natives there have Tibetan names because they are Buddhist. Japan says that he has a very hard time with his Indian passport because of his looks. People give him trouble. Japan seems really affected by racism by Indians towards Tibetans while being racist against Indians himself. Mysteres et boules de gomme.
Anyways, it looks like the monsoon season has started early here and that is what everyone is saying. That makes it a little bit easier to leave.
Looking back on my blog, I realize that I left out something that has been great during our time here, which is that Dickyi has been kind of involved with someone during our stay here--a very good friend of her brother's who is a doctor in Dharamsala. Anyways, I won't say too much more because I don't want to embarrass anyone, except that I think everyone involved was glad that it happened. But that kind of thing makes it even harder to leave.
Yesterday I ate lunch in the office, like I do everyday, and they had this dish that looked like green beans and tomatoes and onions. I took a little and ate what I thought were a couple beans. Turns out they were very hot chillies. I eat lunch quickly and then I go to the cafe in Ghangyi (I think that's the right spelling) to hang out with Tenam and sometimes Dickyi. Tenam's friend was there. He works in parliament full-time and he was cracking everyone up. He just had really funny mannerisms. I am seriously amused by certain mannerisms here. The other day we were hanging out with SFT people, and the head of SFT here, Chou Ying (sp), who is such a cool person, turned to me and said "You know, music is a particular passion of mine", dead serious. It really wasn't that kind of conversation and it was just really funny because it seemed like he was taking himself so incredibly seriously. Also I'm pretty sure that music is a particular passion of everyone's. Chou Ying has a Canadian girlfriend who is going to U of T also next year. She's nice and we're going to see both of them at SFT camp when we get back to NY.
Me and Tenam made plans to go to Dharamcode (sp)with Dickyi yesterday, which is apparently very beautiful, but it started raining at around 4:40 and just kind of kept going, on and off. Dickyi, who had spent the day with someone who had come up especially from Bir to see her ahem just missed the rain when she came to pick me up from work and it wasn't raining when we walked home. The walk back is long and steep and kind of like mountain climbing and Dickyi was tired, but we had a lot to talk about so it was fun. When we got up to McLeod we shopped around a little bit and then went home. Last night, we made dinner for the family. It was almost a disaster and the power went off a few times, but it turned out well in the end. After dinner, we met up with Tenam and Japan and Tenkyi at Mcllo, which is like the cool restaurant to hang out in here. It was raining while we were inside, but it was like as soon as we stepped out, the sky cleared. Crazy. The bad thing about Mcllo is that it is kind of sketchy because it is where Tibetan guys go to try to pick up injees, or foreigners. I had Gulab Jamun which is so very good there because they heat it up.
Everyone here assumes that if you are foreign, you are a slut. Apparently lots of foreign girls come here and have affairs with Tibetan guys. It's fine for Dickyi because she is Tibetan, but everyone knows I am injee so I have to be paranoid about what people think and it's a bit annoying because Dickyi said people think things immediately if you even talk to a guy. I have to turn down perfectly good bike rides to and from work from Tenam because I don't want people to think that we are more than just friends. I've ridden his bike other times, not to and from work, though, and it is really really fun. I've never ridden anyone else's bike except for Japan's last night, but Dickyi is addicted to bike rides and rides on anyone's bike (jk, but not really), but it is OK for her because she is Tibetan. Anyways, there's a reason I was talking about bike rides and it is this: last night, after mcllo, japan and dickyi wanted to go swimming so we decided we would go to bhagsunad, the pool. japan and tenam both had their bikes but tenam had to go back and get something so japan gave me and dickyi a ride back to the house to pick up dickyi's swim stuff. No sooner had we turned the corner from Mcllo than we were stopped by indian police officers. Japan, like all Tibetans in Dharamsala, is fluent in Hindi so we watched him talk his way out of a ticket for having three people on a bike. He was dropping names, he was really working it. The police officers not only let us go, but said that we could all ride on the bike. Apparently the restaurant that Japan's family owns, which is like one of the top restaurants in Mcllo, is landlorded by this very powerful Indian guy so all Japan had to do was keep dropping his name and talking about how they were very good friends.
We all went to the pool and D and J went swimming, which was crazy because the water was way too cold. Afterwards they were of course freezing, so we tried to find somewhere that was still open to have tea. We went to one place, but it was closed. We went to another place and I am telling you I could not believe my eyes. It was an outside cafe jam packed with rasta foreigners beating drums in a circle and dancing like tribal African dances. WTF. This Israeli looking guy was outside, welcoming us, telling us to have a seat and relax. Me and Dickyi just burst out laughing--it was too funny. I don't know where these people come from and how they think it is ok to be so ridiculous in a public place. I also don't know how this place hasn't been burnt down by the neglected, lit ends of joints. So we left and went to this other place that was also for rasta foreigners but not as much. I avoided eating anything there as it was probably laced with hash. I was so sleepy by this point because it was 1 and I was falling asleep at the table. We left soon after and I almost fell asleep on the bike ride back, except that it was such a beautiful night and I was kind of scared that someone would come up behind me from the pitch blackness. Shiver.
One interesting thing happened last night. As we were leaving the cafe, Dickyi and Tenam and Japan were talking animatedly about something to do with Indians and Tibetans. I couldn't understand, but when me and Dickyi got back, I asked her about it. She said that Japan was talking about how Indians are so rude here, and how at his restaurant, Tibetans always say "Thank-you" when you give them their food and Indians never do. Dickyi pointed out that Tibetans only do that to other Tibetans and not to Indians. Tenam said that Indians don't say thank-you to other Indians either. This dynamic between Tibetans and Indians is very weird here. Tenam says that although Tibetans have more money in general (in Dharamsala at least), Indians have the legal advantage because they are passport carrying citizens. It is hard for Tibetans to get an Indian passport here because of the race factor. The best place to get one is Shillong or Dharjeeling, which is where Japan got his. This is because these areas are in the Northeast, so people look asian, and also because many of the natives there have Tibetan names because they are Buddhist. Japan says that he has a very hard time with his Indian passport because of his looks. People give him trouble. Japan seems really affected by racism by Indians towards Tibetans while being racist against Indians himself. Mysteres et boules de gomme.
Anyways, it looks like the monsoon season has started early here and that is what everyone is saying. That makes it a little bit easier to leave.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Ghosts and apples and leopards, oh my!
I am so relieved that I wrote that long entry and now I can go into a bit more detail about things that happen. I wanted to write about the nunnery Dickyi and I went to visit because it was very touching. We went there because Dickyi had a specific nun that she had been very close to as a child. We asked all around for her when we arrived at the nunnery and we waited on one of the walkways in the nunnery compound for her to come out. When she came out, she was so happy to see Dickyi, but sad somehow, maybe because Dickyi couldn't stay for long. She was crying and I wondered what her life is like there, at the nunnery. And I wondered what her life was like before that--if it had been soaked in sorrow and what it was like now. Dickyi told me later that she had had a hard life and didn't have a family. I wondered if entering the nunnery was one of many choices for her or if it was her only choice. Another nun was very sad because she missed Dickyi's father, who used to run the nunnery. She said she couldn't eat because of it. While we were there they gave us mountain dews and bowls of vegetable with rolls that are ubiquitous in northern Chinese cuisine as well.
The food here in McLeod Ganj is different from in the rest of India. At TCHRD, they have a cook that makes everyone lunch. We always have dal and rice, some kind of salad made from cucumbers or onions, and either a potato or a meat dish. They often use turnips in their cooking, like us, but their spices are different. A Tibetan dish that I've had few times is this noodle soup. The noodles are shaped like flat nuggets and there are vegetables or meat in the stew. It's pretty good. Dickyi's cousin cooks at home and she cooks really well. The only thing is that I can't eat onions or too many beans, which kind of limits the food I can eat. I also stay away from curd and raw foods. Some things I really like here are the breads--I love Tibetan bread which comes round and flat but not without yeast--it is a very simple bread, but very good. I like the parathas, especially those made by Dickyi's cousin. Again, though, the parathas tend to have onions in with the potatoes. I really love the momos, or dumplings, here. That's probably my favorite. They have potato momos which are delicious and of course the meat momos are really good. The other thing I always get here is hot honey lemon ginger tea. It is the tourist drink because it's good for your throat but it's really good.
Sometimes Dharamsala feels kind of ghostly. There is one murder story in particular about three Punjabis that were beheaded at this hotel that is right by Last Chance. This actually happened not too long ago. Apparently the girl who was beheaded (along with two guys) was a prostitute. And there are a lot of ghost stories here that were, I guess, spread among the kids in boarding schools. There are a lot of stories here in general. People really like telling stories about how they got in trouble as kids and what kinds of beatings they were given and it's pretty interesting. Kunjodorje (sp), Dickyi's brother's best friend, told us a story about when he was small at TCV (the boarding school here that everyone goes to). There was an apple orchard near them where they used to go pick apples illegally all the time as young boys. One time, he and his friend went to go steal some apples and the owner of the orchard ran after them. K. kept running, but realized he lost his friend when he got back to the school. He was missing during class and at the meeting. The teachers kept asking K. where he was, but he didn't say anything. Finally, at night, I guess he told the teachers and K. and a couple of the teachers went back to the apple orchard. And strapped around a big tree in the middle of the orchard was K.'s friend. He had been there the whole time. Some punishments I heard of are literally picking you up by your feet and hitting you every which way, making you rub stinging (REALLY stinging--I know because I was stung) nettles all over your body. People were beaten arbitrarily for playing marbles outside or something ridiculously innocent. Nowadays, they say that there are nowhere near the number of beatings there used to be. But you kind of get a sense of how these people were brought up and why they are so like whatever and rarely surprised or pained by things.
But back to ghost stories--A couple days ago we went to the waterfall and after that me and Dickyi went to buy momos and noodles to take to Tenam's house to eat while we watched Pirates 3. T. made shakes and we just watched the movie. Then afterwards we were sitting outside and we were telling ghost stories. Tenam had like 900 ghost stories at the ready. He told this one story that is from a Korean horror movie he saw where this guy has a pain on his neck and no one can figure out what it is except when someone takes a picture of him and there's this like freakin scary looking girl all in white crouched on his neck all the time. There's another one they used to tell in boarding school about a teacher at the school who walked down the road and saw a student crying. He shook the student and asked why he was crying and when the student raised his head, the teacher saw that he didn't have a face. The teacher ran away as fast as he could to the gate of the school. He was so relieved when he reached the gate and he told the gatekeeper about it. When the gatekeeper looked up, he didn't have a face too! I was totally freaked out. There's one more--the story is that someone is walking down athe road and stops in at this house. While he's eating dinner, the lady of the house sits down and she starts telling this story about a lady who died and was buried. Her husband, for one reason or the other, dug up the grave and cut off her finger with her marriage ring on it and then threw her into a well. The person listening to the story realizes that the lady is dripping water and missing a finger and the lady grabs you (the person telling the story grabs you here) and is like "why did you take my ring?" There was this other story where a guy gets out of bed at night to go to the bathroom and when he gets back, there is someone in the bed and it's himself. Then we started imagining what would happen if you were walking down the road at night and saw yourself. Needless to say I was totally freaked out by this point.
Then Dickyi suggested we all take a walk and that it was light enough not to have a flashlight. Meanwhilst it was pitch black. And the walk was kind of scary, but it was ok. When we got back Tenam gave us a ride back to our house and we were like omg what if you were all alone on the bike in the dead of night on these mountain roads and you turned around and there was someone on the bike behind you?
It was surprising that I could sleep at all that night, but I slept fine.
Yesterday I met up with Rinzin to walk down to work and in the middle of the morning it started raining so heavily it was crazy, but it really cleared the air because it had been oppressive. We were a little disappointed because we were going to go to the waterfall yesterday after work. We left work fifteen minutes early. I didn't know why we left work so early, but I was told later that someone died in Ghanki yesterday so all the governmental offices got the afternoon off. After work I met up with Tso mo, Dickyi and Japan at a cafe but I was tired even after drinking tea so I went back to rest, but instead decided to do all my laundry. So let me just describe the layout of the house. Our floor, like all the floors has a little balcony where there's a clothesline. We face a little ravine and a small hill. After the small hill there is a road and then a continuation of the hill, which is where Tenam's house is. This whole area is a bit bizarre because in the middle of all this trash and stuff in the middle of the hill is this old Indian guy's like shanty house, where he's always banging around on pots or something. It's odd. That road below Tenam's house is the most dangerous one, he says, in McLeod. And one night, I heard all this commotion outside. There's always commotion because there are giant packs of wild dogs all by our house, but this was human commotion. Dickyi wasn't in so I was scared to go out and check, but when I peeked out, I thought I saw people in a fight. The next day I asked Tenam and he said that actually someone on a motorbike had fallen down the hill. He wasn't injured, but he was very worried about his bike. Typical. Ok, anyways, this Indian guy has a little shack and a little makeshift fence that I guess encloses a kind of backyard in the ghettoist sense of the word. So i was wringing out clothes over the balcony when I saw A LEOPARD prowling around this guy's backyard. I think it was a leopard. It was a sandy color and its spots weren't totally bright, but they were there. It was not a dog, but more like a cat. But it was like nothing I've ever seen. It was the size of a large dog, but flatter and longer. It was stealthy, oh it was stealthy. I was totally excited and ran into the room to get my camera. Of course it was out of batteries. When I ran back outside, the leopard wasn't in the backyard anymore and I thought I had imagined the whole thing. I was tired and I hadn't taken a nap like I was supposed to. But then I saw it again! It was winding up the hill in its stealthy fashion. I ran downstairs and told Dickyi and we tried to see it again but couldn't. Momo wasn't sure it was a leopard because there were dogs nearby and they hadn't run away, but Tenam said that leopards come down here sometimes and if they are very quiet, the dogs don't know they're there.
The food here in McLeod Ganj is different from in the rest of India. At TCHRD, they have a cook that makes everyone lunch. We always have dal and rice, some kind of salad made from cucumbers or onions, and either a potato or a meat dish. They often use turnips in their cooking, like us, but their spices are different. A Tibetan dish that I've had few times is this noodle soup. The noodles are shaped like flat nuggets and there are vegetables or meat in the stew. It's pretty good. Dickyi's cousin cooks at home and she cooks really well. The only thing is that I can't eat onions or too many beans, which kind of limits the food I can eat. I also stay away from curd and raw foods. Some things I really like here are the breads--I love Tibetan bread which comes round and flat but not without yeast--it is a very simple bread, but very good. I like the parathas, especially those made by Dickyi's cousin. Again, though, the parathas tend to have onions in with the potatoes. I really love the momos, or dumplings, here. That's probably my favorite. They have potato momos which are delicious and of course the meat momos are really good. The other thing I always get here is hot honey lemon ginger tea. It is the tourist drink because it's good for your throat but it's really good.
Sometimes Dharamsala feels kind of ghostly. There is one murder story in particular about three Punjabis that were beheaded at this hotel that is right by Last Chance. This actually happened not too long ago. Apparently the girl who was beheaded (along with two guys) was a prostitute. And there are a lot of ghost stories here that were, I guess, spread among the kids in boarding schools. There are a lot of stories here in general. People really like telling stories about how they got in trouble as kids and what kinds of beatings they were given and it's pretty interesting. Kunjodorje (sp), Dickyi's brother's best friend, told us a story about when he was small at TCV (the boarding school here that everyone goes to). There was an apple orchard near them where they used to go pick apples illegally all the time as young boys. One time, he and his friend went to go steal some apples and the owner of the orchard ran after them. K. kept running, but realized he lost his friend when he got back to the school. He was missing during class and at the meeting. The teachers kept asking K. where he was, but he didn't say anything. Finally, at night, I guess he told the teachers and K. and a couple of the teachers went back to the apple orchard. And strapped around a big tree in the middle of the orchard was K.'s friend. He had been there the whole time. Some punishments I heard of are literally picking you up by your feet and hitting you every which way, making you rub stinging (REALLY stinging--I know because I was stung) nettles all over your body. People were beaten arbitrarily for playing marbles outside or something ridiculously innocent. Nowadays, they say that there are nowhere near the number of beatings there used to be. But you kind of get a sense of how these people were brought up and why they are so like whatever and rarely surprised or pained by things.
But back to ghost stories--A couple days ago we went to the waterfall and after that me and Dickyi went to buy momos and noodles to take to Tenam's house to eat while we watched Pirates 3. T. made shakes and we just watched the movie. Then afterwards we were sitting outside and we were telling ghost stories. Tenam had like 900 ghost stories at the ready. He told this one story that is from a Korean horror movie he saw where this guy has a pain on his neck and no one can figure out what it is except when someone takes a picture of him and there's this like freakin scary looking girl all in white crouched on his neck all the time. There's another one they used to tell in boarding school about a teacher at the school who walked down the road and saw a student crying. He shook the student and asked why he was crying and when the student raised his head, the teacher saw that he didn't have a face. The teacher ran away as fast as he could to the gate of the school. He was so relieved when he reached the gate and he told the gatekeeper about it. When the gatekeeper looked up, he didn't have a face too! I was totally freaked out. There's one more--the story is that someone is walking down athe road and stops in at this house. While he's eating dinner, the lady of the house sits down and she starts telling this story about a lady who died and was buried. Her husband, for one reason or the other, dug up the grave and cut off her finger with her marriage ring on it and then threw her into a well. The person listening to the story realizes that the lady is dripping water and missing a finger and the lady grabs you (the person telling the story grabs you here) and is like "why did you take my ring?" There was this other story where a guy gets out of bed at night to go to the bathroom and when he gets back, there is someone in the bed and it's himself. Then we started imagining what would happen if you were walking down the road at night and saw yourself. Needless to say I was totally freaked out by this point.
Then Dickyi suggested we all take a walk and that it was light enough not to have a flashlight. Meanwhilst it was pitch black. And the walk was kind of scary, but it was ok. When we got back Tenam gave us a ride back to our house and we were like omg what if you were all alone on the bike in the dead of night on these mountain roads and you turned around and there was someone on the bike behind you?
It was surprising that I could sleep at all that night, but I slept fine.
Yesterday I met up with Rinzin to walk down to work and in the middle of the morning it started raining so heavily it was crazy, but it really cleared the air because it had been oppressive. We were a little disappointed because we were going to go to the waterfall yesterday after work. We left work fifteen minutes early. I didn't know why we left work so early, but I was told later that someone died in Ghanki yesterday so all the governmental offices got the afternoon off. After work I met up with Tso mo, Dickyi and Japan at a cafe but I was tired even after drinking tea so I went back to rest, but instead decided to do all my laundry. So let me just describe the layout of the house. Our floor, like all the floors has a little balcony where there's a clothesline. We face a little ravine and a small hill. After the small hill there is a road and then a continuation of the hill, which is where Tenam's house is. This whole area is a bit bizarre because in the middle of all this trash and stuff in the middle of the hill is this old Indian guy's like shanty house, where he's always banging around on pots or something. It's odd. That road below Tenam's house is the most dangerous one, he says, in McLeod. And one night, I heard all this commotion outside. There's always commotion because there are giant packs of wild dogs all by our house, but this was human commotion. Dickyi wasn't in so I was scared to go out and check, but when I peeked out, I thought I saw people in a fight. The next day I asked Tenam and he said that actually someone on a motorbike had fallen down the hill. He wasn't injured, but he was very worried about his bike. Typical. Ok, anyways, this Indian guy has a little shack and a little makeshift fence that I guess encloses a kind of backyard in the ghettoist sense of the word. So i was wringing out clothes over the balcony when I saw A LEOPARD prowling around this guy's backyard. I think it was a leopard. It was a sandy color and its spots weren't totally bright, but they were there. It was not a dog, but more like a cat. But it was like nothing I've ever seen. It was the size of a large dog, but flatter and longer. It was stealthy, oh it was stealthy. I was totally excited and ran into the room to get my camera. Of course it was out of batteries. When I ran back outside, the leopard wasn't in the backyard anymore and I thought I had imagined the whole thing. I was tired and I hadn't taken a nap like I was supposed to. But then I saw it again! It was winding up the hill in its stealthy fashion. I ran downstairs and told Dickyi and we tried to see it again but couldn't. Momo wasn't sure it was a leopard because there were dogs nearby and they hadn't run away, but Tenam said that leopards come down here sometimes and if they are very quiet, the dogs don't know they're there.
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