today i did my most mindful act yet: deleted all my photos in my camera. luckily all the new ones were only from today and zoë took similar ones, so i'm going to steal a few! i did get a few nice shots this evening though, including one of the bathroom at the restaurant. it was epic in a way, so incredibly india. when you flushed the toilet water would run out on the floor from the pipe that fed the bowl water. next to the toilet was an open fan and under it if you look closely is written: "danger! danger! do not touch!" what really made it tasteful was the sink did not run though the faucets on the wall did and there was a massive pile of wet laundry in the sink. zoë dashed out of the restaurant while we waited for our food and got some hand sanitizer.
on the way home from dinner we bought some milk which came in a plastic bag. every time i see these bags of milk i have a flashback to first and second grade when oakhurst dairy temporarily packed their milk in bags like this.
earlier today zoë had a hindi class which was great. the teacher whose name is rita is very impressed with zoë and told her she knows too much and needs to forget. We met three other students who will take the class for only 15 days all of whom seem quite nice, especially our new australian friend mel. we continually run into her especially in the main square where there are coconut cookies more addictive than most hard drugs.
today we finally went to where the dali lama lives. it is a big temple built fairly recently. it is really nice because it is built around the trees or there are holes for the trees to grow through. the top floor is the temple area while the rest of the building is meeting rooms, housing for the monks, kitchens, etc. it also has a fantastic 360 view. we did not see the dali lama this time but there were plenty of monks.
we did a lot of walking around town today and we've covered all the main roads. i would say about 80% of the roads, if not more, are foot paths here in mcleod. we have definitely seen most of the stuff here, but done very little of it since none of it has been open. when we walk to our house, (we joke and call it the palace since it is the nicest place we have stayed at yet,) we pass cows as we walk along high ledges, then walk in between donkeys, pass a spring where everyone is washing their clothes, and go over 3 bridges.
we were excited to go to the chocolate log, mostly for it's name. we were a bit disappointed. they had a great quiche and their baked goods looked pretty great. their coffee however was not that great, it was pretty acidic. also despite having the name the chocolate log they did not seem to have a bathroom which was slightly annoying considering how much (bad) coffee makes zoë and me pee.
so then we went on retreat at tushita. it was great, the teacher had a crazy amount of enthusiasm for tibetan buddhism. her name is robina courtin. check out her teaching in the video bellow. 5 days of her yelling at us, it was so great. snow monkeys came halfway through the course to eat the young leaves off the trees. snow monkeys are awesome and have a totally different manner. some were as big as zoë.
after we got out of the course we got our papers sorted out to see the dali lama speak tomorrow and the day after. check out our new id's. i remember when we got these photos taken we duct out of the blazing hot weather of kochi into a photography studio to get passport pictures. you go in and say 5 minute photo and you get 5 passport pictures for something like 400 rupees. it's so funny, you need passport pictures for everything, including getting a cellphone.
on the way home from dinner we bought some milk which came in a plastic bag. every time i see these bags of milk i have a flashback to first and second grade when oakhurst dairy temporarily packed their milk in bags like this.
earlier today zoë had a hindi class which was great. the teacher whose name is rita is very impressed with zoë and told her she knows too much and needs to forget. We met three other students who will take the class for only 15 days all of whom seem quite nice, especially our new australian friend mel. we continually run into her especially in the main square where there are coconut cookies more addictive than most hard drugs.
today we finally went to where the dali lama lives. it is a big temple built fairly recently. it is really nice because it is built around the trees or there are holes for the trees to grow through. the top floor is the temple area while the rest of the building is meeting rooms, housing for the monks, kitchens, etc. it also has a fantastic 360 view. we did not see the dali lama this time but there were plenty of monks.
we did a lot of walking around town today and we've covered all the main roads. i would say about 80% of the roads, if not more, are foot paths here in mcleod. we have definitely seen most of the stuff here, but done very little of it since none of it has been open. when we walk to our house, (we joke and call it the palace since it is the nicest place we have stayed at yet,) we pass cows as we walk along high ledges, then walk in between donkeys, pass a spring where everyone is washing their clothes, and go over 3 bridges.
we were excited to go to the chocolate log, mostly for it's name. we were a bit disappointed. they had a great quiche and their baked goods looked pretty great. their coffee however was not that great, it was pretty acidic. also despite having the name the chocolate log they did not seem to have a bathroom which was slightly annoying considering how much (bad) coffee makes zoë and me pee.
so then we went on retreat at tushita. it was great, the teacher had a crazy amount of enthusiasm for tibetan buddhism. her name is robina courtin. check out her teaching in the video bellow. 5 days of her yelling at us, it was so great. snow monkeys came halfway through the course to eat the young leaves off the trees. snow monkeys are awesome and have a totally different manner. some were as big as zoë.
after we got out of the course we got our papers sorted out to see the dali lama speak tomorrow and the day after. check out our new id's. i remember when we got these photos taken we duct out of the blazing hot weather of kochi into a photography studio to get passport pictures. you go in and say 5 minute photo and you get 5 passport pictures for something like 400 rupees. it's so funny, you need passport pictures for everything, including getting a cellphone.
this is where we live! if you can see the building with the green roof, we are renting a flat in the building behind that one, you can see the roof, it has solar panels on top.
here is a wider picture of the valley. it's so bright, if you squint you can see all 3 peaks that tower over us. maybe i will go hiking soon. it is tough though, lonely planet warns hikers about getting mugged in this area.... luckily the walk back to our "palace" is very safe.
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