on sunday i spent the day in varanasi.
i took a cycle rickshaw into the city, which took a long time, but i went with my favorite rickshaw-wallah (who all of the tibetans call 'bob marley' on account of his dark skin and long hair). i bought a sweater from the tibetan refugee market, and while i was there, i ran into the postmaster from the sarnath post office. after that, jojo and i went to arun's silk shop. arun is a friend of jay (the professor who brings students here every january), and he remembered us. we spent a good portion of the day with him and his family, flying kites on the roof. when we tried to haggle with an autorickshaw-wallah to get back to sarnath, we ran into a friend from the hostel who lives a few doors down from jojo, so we shared a ride back with her.

sometimes i want to wander through sarnath singing the theme song to cheers... "where everybody knows your name." granted, most people around here don't know my or jojo's name - they just know us as those two white girls who go to the tibetan institute. but still. when you're halfway around the world from everything that's familiar, it's nice to have some connections.