hello from delhi

yesterday was a long morning of saying goodbyes to everyone at the institute. between 9am and noon, i think that i must have been given over 15 kata (traditional tibetan scarves) by friends and staff there. jojo and i went to see the director one last time and he gave us really long, fancy kata (it has a special name, but i can't remember what it's called right now). he sent for a car for jojo and me, our luggage, and 5 students who insisted on escorting us to the train station. i just kept thinking that the whole situation would be good material for some kind of funny joke: "how many tibetans does it take to drop off some inji at the train station?" anyway, after a long, drawn out goodbye to our friends at the train station, jojo and i said goodbye to sarnath and goodbye to varanasi (and goodbye to the best chai i've had anywhere in india) for a while. i think the best thing about leaving varanasi is that it's a place in which i know i'll end up again at some point in the not-too-distant future. 'you can take the tibetan studies student out of varanasi, but you can't take varanasi out of the tibetan studies student.'

this morning jojo and i arrived in delhi. i'm in the process of booking my bus ticket to shimla for tomorrow night, and then we're going to take the metro to a movie theater that's showing a new film called 'banaras.' tonight will involve lots of lounging and eating. delhi is a weird place - coming here from sarnath almost feels like going back to america. everything around here is so westernized, it's like going through mini-culture-shock every time i come here. it is nice that everywhere is air-conditioned, though.