Saturday Cafe - on Sunday

I miss you guys so much!!! But everything is pretty good here. Mom how is your hearing?!?!?!? I never thought it was that bad over the summer. As for a phone number they gave us phones but I don't know if its international or what the fees are. The best way to go would probably be to figure out a time that I could borrow a computer and we could chat on gmail and work it out with the time change ect. And a light at Port Washington oh no! That's so sad. 

 

My classes thus far haven't been that hard but it is really hard balancing family time with school and friends and exploring and simple alone time. And learning tibetan is crazy hard - we have a quiz on monday that I'm pretty sure I'm gonna fail. I also really wish that I had my computer with me but luckily there are some really great people on the trip who are letting me use theirs a lot. My main problem right now is that I don't have any money - I though I had taken some out while putting the rest in the safe at the school but it ends up I didn't so I've been borrowing from people all weekend which I hate doing. A cousin of the family I'm staying with arrived a couple of days ago and will be staying at the house till around december. Her name is Sangel and she's 21 so its really nice to have someone around my age to talk to. 

Yesterday a group of us went on a serious adventure. We all got in taxis and took a crazy 45 minute bus ride to this national park that one of the guys in our group had heard of. Driving through the city was crazy! It was some sort of Hindu festival for women yesterday - so the streets were filled with women wearing traditional clothing and dancing and celebrating. Once we got in the park we went on an intense hike up a mountain in what was practically a rain forest. There were beautiful flowers and all different kinds of plants. The hike was for the most part entirely stairs until we made our way around to the other side when we entered into a cloud - it was really amazing. Everything was covered in mist and fog and the trees were an intense green. All in all we hiked for probably 3 hours or so before heading back to Bodha. 

Once back at Bodha a couple of us walked around the stupa and discovered a wonderful little cafe called Saturday Cafe - it has free wifi and an awesome menu. Laura and I split a mango sorbet and I got some delicious ginger lemon tea with honey. I tried to just stop by the family restaurant on the way home but Pala made me sit and wait for someone to come and walk me home - I honestly don't know if he thought I was lost or if its a cultural thing cause it was getting dark and you're really not supposed to walk home by yourself as a woman after dark - which sucks cause it gets dark around 6:30 and then I'm stuck at home. And nobody lives really close to me or even in my direction so I don't feel like I can stay out late with the group. But oh well, I'm accepting it as all a part of the cultural experience. 

Anyway I'm just hanging out at the cafe with Laura - hopefully gonna get some work done after getting my internet fix.