two important things to report today...

first:
on friday, my philosophy teacher managed to compare candrakirti's philosophical strategy to the british occupation of india. it was brilliant.

second:
i've lost quite a bit of weight since i've been here, and my hair has grown almost to my shoulders. this makes me feel very, very strange, but my friend pema thinks it's wonderful. she keeps telling me that now i need to buy some tight pants and short shirts so that when i get back to america, all of the boys will follow me around. when i tell her that i don't want all of the boys to follow me around, she grabs me by the shoulders, shakes me, and yells, "why not, connie? WHY NOT??"

and the other day, pema and i were talking about how much longer we're both going to be in school. i explained that i'm planning on going to graduate school in the fall, and that i'll be studying philosophy for a long time to come. she thought about this for a while and said, "connie, you should become a nun. you're not interested in finding a boyfriend, and you like to study. if you're not going to have any fun in this life, you might as well work on having a good rebirth."



i've been thinking about what pema said, and if those are the criteria for entering into monastic life, i think that smith should just put a stupa on the campus center lawn and call itself a nunnery.