all of a sudden, three days ago, the weather decided to get cold. i woke up in the morning and immediately reached for my sweater. at breakfast, instead of drinking sweet tea (tea with milk and lots of sugar), everyone instead went for the tibetan tea (which is basically milk with salt and lots of butter), because it's more filling and keeps you warm. everyone was amazed at how cold it turned so suddenly, and that's all that anyone was talking about. then i went to jojo's room and looked at her thermometer. it was 79. i was amazed that (a) it had finally dipped below 80, and (b) that 79 degrees would make me reach for my sweater and want to drink hot butter.

it's really nice though. i don't have to use my fan, people are in better moods, and everything is just a lot more comfortable. it's just like somebody hit a switch and turned off the heat everywhere. i love it.

i started teaching my english class on friday. it's strange because the students treat me like i'm a real teacher or something. they all kind of bow when i walk into the room, and whenever they answer a question, they stand up. but i've learned that the way of learning here is basically this: the teacher lectures at length, and the students do nothing but sit and listen. they don't even take notes. i want my class to be discussion-oriented, which i'm afraid is going to be like pulling teeth.

it's good though, in a strange way. seeing the tibetans' self-consciousness about speaking english makes me feel a lot less self-conscious about speaking tibetan. and i've met a few more folks. friday after class, my friend lhamo and i went to the tibetan restaurant in town for momos. we were able to speak (mostly) in tibetan for the entire rickshaw ride there.

after we sat down, one of the boys from my class came in and addressed me as "miss connie," which i thought was hysterical. he told me that he's going to new york this summer, and he was asking me all about america. the tibetans here seem to have this fascination with hip hop (which they pronounce, "heep-op"). and they are convinced that everyone wears baggy clothes and says "yo yo yo" all the time. it's strange.

they also have really weird misconceptions about black people in america (that they're all poor, and that's because they're lazy) and about muslims (that they're all terrorists who sacrifice animals). i don't know where they get these ideas, but it's really strange and kind of upsetting.

in other news, applying to grad school from india is hard, and i think it was a dumb idea to wait until i got here to start filling out applications.