so

next week i think that jojo and i are going to head up to darjeeling. we have 5 of 6 days off of school for durga puja (a hindu festival), and since most of our teachers are skipping out a little early, i think that we might do the same. the weather up there will be much more tolerable than here (55-65F as opposed to 85-90F), and there are all kinds of gompas (tibetan monasteries) scattered around the hills. but really, the one reason why i REALLY want to go to darjeeling, is for the tea. some of my favorite tea in the world comes from tiger hill, and right now is apparently the best time to go take a tour of the plantations. if we have time, we're going to try to get permits to go up into sikkim for a day or two as well. from some of the towns in sikkim, you can see mt. everest.

in other news, i spent an hour and a half in my philosophy class yesterday discussing the different ways that you can interpret the tibetan terms "nyon sgrib" and "shes sgrib." i think it's kind of awesome that people want to talk about that sort of thing with me.