Saturday, February 28, 2009

Losar la tashi delek

Happy Tibetan New Year! This year celebrations were minimal as to commemorate those who have suffered in Tibet in the last 50 years and especially in the last year. They had a hunger strike and protests in Dharmasala and only the spiritual rituals were carried out.... I heard that the New York Times had an article about Losar this week... go check it out if you can. Again, I look forward to talking to you about this when i return...

OK. SO... stories...

After i wrote my last post I was sitting in philosophy class which was being held at the monastery and I was half asleep... dozing off as i tried to wrap my head around tantric teachings... and then this guy who works at the monastery popped his head into the class and said "sorry, monkey go into window room 304". I grabbed my key and RAN upstairs and opened my door to find a monkey sitting in my bathroom... Sitting down this monkey was about 3.5 feet tall... we eyed each other down and then i stomped my foot and he jumped out of the window... it was the funniest and scariest 5 second eye to eye I have ever had with a monkey ;)

A lot of my friends traveled this week but I stayed around and I am happy that i did because i really did get to spend a lot of time with the kids here and so a lot of my 'we only say hi to each other acquaintances' turned into good friends... so nice but also a bit annoying because we leave this campus in one week from tomorrow. :( When we arrived 6 weeks ago the students put on a talent show for us and now we are surprising them with a little show and party... My friends and i are doing a Tibetan dance to the song "Come on Eilleen"- yeahh... hopefully that will work out.

All i did this week was relax... I spent hours on the roof listening to music, reading, dozing in and out of sleep and just talking to friends... I was able to talk to Raia and Elan for the first time since i left and that was amazing... (Oritt, if you're reading this, i will call you soon miss sorority girl). I played a LOT of basketball with new friends... new monk friends... ;) and visited peoples' rooms- this week we were allowed to go into the boys dorm!! HUGE DEAL!! Remember how I keep talking about this 6th grade level of boy/girl interactions?? Well, i invited two of my guy friends to my room and i told my roommate and she freaked out!! She got so flustered and was running around back and forth trying to make everything perfectly clean and she fixed her hair and it was just the sweetest thing... We had a Dance Party which was the first time in the past month that i felt like i could really relieve all of the energy I have pent up in me... I love relaxing 24-7 but sometimes I just miss the fast paced BAM of life back at home... We had a bonfire two nights ago which was also a lot of fun... it was interesting though because i stopped and looked around at one point and noticed that the boy who was maintaining the fire was my one friend who was raised as a cowboy in east Tibet... so I was sitting there thinking "wow, cool, a fire! how nice... what a fun thing to do with friends...I am going to throw leaves in the fire and see what happens to them" and he was probably not thinking about the fire because he grew up making fires all the time so that he could stay warm at night as he herded his sheep. I love having those random moments of "holy shit, we are so different" because i have these random spurts of "oh my god"nesses as I am sitting and just hanging out with these people... we enjoy the same music, have the same sense of humor (when we understand each other) and get along really well... we are all just people.

Another example of an ohmigod moment... I went to go get tea from the canteen during a tea break and I was walking with my mug in one hand and my laptop in the other and the women standing in front and behind me in line were holding a mug in one hand and had a basket of laundry resting on their heads... these moments are priceless because again, we are all just people... and the funniest part of all is that i look a LOT like these women... I'm just the one wearing black and they are decked out in the most beautiful and luscious colors... welcome to my life.

I visited Daramkot for the first time. It is a village about 20 minutes up and around the mountain from Mcleod Ganj.. this village might as well be called Mini-Israel... they have a Chabad house and Israeli flags and signs in Hebrew everywhere- I felt like i was in the Twilight Zone.

I am moving into a home stay next week... this is my first time doing this and so I'm definitely anxious to see how it goes... it will be interesting because some of the kids are moving into houses with families and they get their own room and then some will be moving into one bedroom homes with families and so will be living in a kitchen with the family... we wont know where we are living until we get there... OH the possibilities!! I am just laughing on the inside because I know that if i don't laugh then i will be nervous... so yes, ill keep you updated.

Oh... a few of my friends expressed a few concerns about me losing too much weight and becoming a nun... first of all about the weight loss... DO NOT WORRY- well worry, but not about the weight loss, you should probably worry about the weight gain... i feel like a bag of rice/i am a bag of rice. And as for becoming a nun... it's not going to happen for the simple reason that i cannot sit with my legs crossed for more than 20 minutes... ha ha ha right? not so much... i almost dread going to audiences because mid way through i have the awkward "i cannot feel my left leg and its starting to burn" face on and then i always have that one second eye to eye with whoever is giving the teaching and my fake smile just screams "I am suffering!! I now understand the 1st Noble Truth" (sorry, my Dharma jokes are getting out of hand.. i swear, if you dont get it, they are kind of funny)...

C'est tout!

8 comments:

  1. el-

    i love reading your blog, and i can't believe i haven't spoken to you in so long!! i love the details you are describing and hearing about your spiritual/philosophical journey, such a different experience from mine here in rome. keep up the posting and hopefully i can talk to you soon.

    love love love you

    Jes

    ReplyDelete
  2. chabad house? can you go there for the first seder - april 8th?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am having so much fun and laughing out loud (lol) at your comments. These are experiences you'll never forget....and I can hear you say, "welcome to my life."

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. So I read that India is producing a pop called "Gau Jal" or Cow Water if your Sanskrit isn't up to date. It is a cow urine soft drink that is supposed to be good for you and compete with Coke in India. They say it doesn't smell like urine and is pretty tasty. Can you make sure to bring me back a couple cases? I've been a little low on my daily intake of urine lately...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Elinor,

    Your words are so captivating and touching your writing brings tears to my eyes. Not only are you able to capture and describe these surreal experiences so vividly and gracefully, your writing boldly conveys your maturity and identity; I call it Elinoresque.

    I am so proud of your for taking on this life changing experience. I was with Raia and Ariele the other day and we were all laughing about how you took one for the team. We can all now live vicariously through your prose.

    Oritt is heading to Mexico tomorrow on Spring Break, and in the spirit I thought it may be appropriate to ask you for the Sanskrit translation of, "I'm wasted in Acapulco, another round bartender." Maybe they would just say, "pass the Gau Jal"

    Love you, miss you, was so excited to speak to you last week. Be safe and continue doing what you do.

    Elan

    ReplyDelete
  7. on your next post i want to see a video of the tibetan come on eileen dance...maybe it will give me inspiration for our fergie video ;)

    love you/miss you,
    m

    ReplyDelete
  8. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/world/asia/11tibet.html?hp

    What a ridiculous time to be in Dharamsala. Go you, Dalai Lama!

    Ok Elinor--we need a new entry telling us about what it was like today! Were you at the march?!

    Miss you will all my heart xoxox

    p.s. I want in on the Gau Jal

    ReplyDelete