Lunch Time

It's lunch time right at the moment but they give us about an hour to eat but as you know I only need fifteen minutes - so I'm currently borrowing a friends computer to email and blog.

My Tibetan family is really great. I have a father, an aunt, and a little sister. My little sister is 10 and she is really great. She speaks practically fluent English and was my mini guide for my first couple days with the family. My aunt (Sumila) and father (Pala) also speak English pretty well. They are letting my live in the alter room - so I have to be super neat :). The only problem is that the room is right on a very very busy road with lots of honking so I've been having trouble sleeping in the early morning hours and in general. They like to watch a lot of Indian soap operas which is pretty entertaining (they lived in India so they also speak Hindi). The food is pretty good - butkinda  greasy. I got to help Sumila make momos last night which was really fun and I'm working on the folding technique so I can make them at home. My family loves animals - they have a little dog and cat that live on the porch and then just the other day they bought a parrot that lives inside. My family keeps trying to make me have seconds and even thirds at every meal despite my protestations.

So we are living in Boudha - which is in Kathmandu but not at the center of the city. The community surrounds a huge stupa that is really beautiful and my favorite place to go so far. The tea here is great - they serve a ton of this really delicious milk tea - which is wonderful.

School is pretty good. We have an intense Tibetan language classes in the morning for three hours - it's really crazy. Then after lunch we have a couple of lectures with different speakers which have been really cool - there have been a couple really great ones. The group of students is really pretty good we're still figuring out group dynamics but I don't think there will be any problems. Everyone has a lot of interesting ideas and stories. There is only me and one other girl who didn't bring a computer and I kinda wish that I had brought it or at least my ipod but I also think I'm probably getting a better experience.

Its only been a week but it feels like an eternity!