photos etc.

Seeing as how I'm back in America, I don't really have much of a reason to update the blog anymore. I have a LOT of stories to tell about my time in Kinnaur, but to write it all in here just wouldn't do them justice.

I put a few photos up online at http://photos.yahoo.com/ckassor , if you're interested.

I'll be in Ohio and western Massachusetts at various points this summer before moving down to Georgia, so if you're around, drop me a line and we'll catch up!

wow.

well, i'm back from kinnaur. (back in shimla, that is. i go back to the u.s. on friday.) of my entire trip to india, these last six weeks have by far been the best part. and, at the risk of sounding hyperbolic, these last six weeks have quite possibly been the best six weeks of my life. really.

there's too much to write about to go into much detail, but the hilights of kinnaur included:
- learning traditional kinnauri dances and songs;
- an impromptu 4-day trip to kanam, in upper kinnaur, where i spent 2 days with a lama and his wife and son (!) chatting about selflessness, equanimity, and jesus and the catholic concept of transubstantiation in a strange combination of broken tibetan and hindi;
- trekking around the mountainside, picking wild mushrooms and almost getting stranded in a thunderstorm 2 hours from the nearest shelter;
- trying to talk to old ladies who speak no english and no hindi (the kinnauri language is completely unrelated to any other languages in the area);
- laughing until my stomach hurt literally every single day;
- and spending time with some of the kindest, most amazing people i have ever met in my life.


yesterday, saying goodbye to all of the jomos (nuns) was really, really hard. when i left varanasi, i was ready to go, ready to say goodbye, ready to go back to america. but yesterday, i was incredibly sad. one nun made me some socks, others cooked my favorite foods, and they all wrote letters or drew pictures for me. after tea, each jomo placed a garland of nuts around my neck. (this is the kinnauri equivalent to tibetan kata, or hawaiian leis.) as each nun approached me to say goodbye, they started to cry. this made me start to cry, which made them all cry even more. even "api", the 75-year old nun with whom i could only communicate via sign-language, was crying.

i took lots of pictures, and when i get back to the u.s., i'll put them all up online. i've been out of email contact since i went up to kinnaur, and i'm going to be travelling from now until i get home on friday night, but within the next couple of weeks, i'll catch up on all my emails, etc. so if you haven't heard from me in a while, i promise i'll write/call soon!

in shimla

last night i said goodbye to jojo in delhi and got on a "bus" for shimla. apparently i'm officially missing tourist season in shimla by 5 days - instead of a bus, the only thing that was available was essentially an oversized van that held 12 passengers. it was a really pleasant journey for a bus ride: i got on board at 9pm, slept, then woke up as the sun was rising over the himalayan foothills. i made it into shimla at 6:30am, checked into the YMCA here, and have spent most of the day wandering. it's a cute little town, but not too different from darjeeling. i have a feeling that all hill stations in india are essentially the same - crumbling colonial architecture, streets lined with overpriced shops, and and a population consisting of about 75% tourists. it's nice though, and the cool weather is a welcome change from the varanasi/delhi heat.

today has been a frustrating day, as it seems like every other man i come across on the street tries to either leer at me or touch me. i slapped one boy who grabbed my leg, though, and that made me feel a little bit better. dealing with sketchy guys has been one of the hardest things to get used to this year, and even though it's pretty commonplace (especially in varanasi), some days it's just more annoying than others. right now, i'm looking forward to hanging out in a nunnery for a while.

tomorrow morning i'm taking a taxi up to tapri in kinnaur, where i'll hopefully be met by some of the nuns i'm teaching. i called to let them know when i'd be arriving, but due to my rudimentary hindi and their rudimentary english, i'm not entirely sure that we were able to understand each other. that's the best thing about traveling in india, though - you don't have to plan things too far in advance, and really, you can't plan things too far in advance. somehow, though, everything always works out. i can't explain how or why, but it always does. it's one of my favorite things about this country.

delhi day #2

yesterday was amazing. the best way i could have spent my first full day away from sarnath.

jojo and i spent most of the day wandering around connaught place, the fancy shopping area in the middle of delhi, then we took a rickshaw outside of the main part of the city to see a new film called "banaras: the eternal love story." the film itself wasn't that great, and the songs were mediocre at best, but the entire thing was shot in varanasi and sarnath. throughout the entire film, jojo and i kept smacking each other, whispering, "hey! i know where that is! hey! i was inside that building last week!" it's not a great movie, but i really, really recommend it to anybody who has spent some time in varanasi. it's pretty exciting to see aarti on dhasasvamedh ghat, or the stupa at sarnath, or the steps down from assi ghat, portrayed on the big screen in a big bollywood film. the greatest part of the whole film, however, was right after the intermission. there's a scene in sarnath, at the archaeological ruins next to the stupa, where a tour guide is leading a group of people around. for about two seconds, a tibetan girl's face popped up on screen. it was my friend pamo from the institute! she lived 3 doors down from me all year. when she came on screen, jojo and i simultaneously jumped out of our seats and screamed, 'oh my god! pamo!' i'm sure that everyone else in the theater thought we were idiots.

after the movie, we stopped in a swanky lounge next to our hotel for a drink. the evening's entertainment was a skinny indian boy who played covers of guns 'n roses and the eagles on his electric guitar. the scary part was, he was actually really good.

today i'm leaving for shimla at 8:00, and hopefully before that i'll get to meet up with my smith friends, marilu, tatjana, and aditi, before i take off for the cold white north.

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.