winter

it's getting pretty cold here. during the day, in the sun, it gets up into the low 70s, which is nice, but inside and in the shade it's always a few degrees colder. at night it dips down to probably about 50. now, i know that everyone reading my blog (except for karla in sunny florida) is suffering through either a midwest or new england winter right now, and probably hates me for complaining about the low 50s. BUT, the girls' hostel has no heat and no hot water. the door to my room opens into a courtyard, so essentially there's no difference between 'indoors' and 'outdoors' - the temperature is the same no matter where you are. it's not too hard to get used to, but it's forced me to alter some of my habits.

i remember the last time i came here, it was january, and every time i'd walk into the girls' hostel, there would be a crowd of five or six girls around the faucet outside, washing their hair. i was staying in the guest house at the time, where we had private bathrooms and hot water for showers, and i didn't understand why the girls would all be squatting on the ground outside when they had perfectly good bathrooms inside that they could use. but now i know. when there's no hot water, getting your hair wet is a LOT more tolerable when you're in the sun.
and, starting a few weeks ago, i saw some boys at the chai stall wearing gloves with the fingertips cut off. i thought that this was just another strange appropriation of bad western fashion trends from the early 90s (because many of the boys seem to really like bad fashion from the early 90s), but as it's gotten colder, i've realized that it's really the only way to keep your hands warm when you're studying.

when jojo and i first got here, whenever something happened that we didn't understand, we would just shrug our shoulders and say, "tibetans are weird." it became our mantra for a while, while we were still figuring out how things worked. but the more time i spend here, the more i realize that people have reasons for the things that they do. now, i too am washing my hair outside and studying with fingerless gloves.


i still think that tibetans can be pretty weird, though.