I think I'm in the wrong country...

So, I arrived in Dharamsala this morning at 6am after a 12 hour bus-ride (not air-conditioned, and no bathroom) and got dropped of at my home/work for the next three weeks.

So far I think is by far going to be the most rewarding experience of the whole trip. I am teaching English at a school for Tibetan refugees, most of whom are adults in their twenties and thirties. Basically, a lot of these people walked for up to three months through the Himalayas as refugees from Tibetan China to live in India. They were then placed in "Tibetan Transit" schools which are supposed to help equip them to find jobs, but after years at these schools their English still isn't good enough, so they have come here where they eat, sleep, and breathe English all day, every day. They live here at the school for up to two years and attend 5 hours of classes a day and have 2 hours of English study time in the evening. I have only spent three hours with them (one hour in each of three classes) so far, but it is so amazing how dedicated they are to learning English.

I have my own little room in the woods behind the school and have to wash (myself and my clothes) in a little spring about a 2 minute walk away. This place is beautiful - haven't had a chance to take any pictures yet, but they're soon to come! Basically, we are in Dharamsala which is about half way up a mountain and a 5 minute drive from Mcleod Ganj, where the Dalai Lama lives (yes Mom, I saw his house today). Actually, Phillipa, the other volunteer here, attended his birthday party last month. Anyhow, I live between the Dalai Lama, and another Lama who is the second in command, so I am surrounded by holiness.

Back to geography, I am halfway up a mountain in Northern India - Kashmir to the north, Tibet to the east, and Pakistan to the west. Almost everyone in this area is Tibetan, so I really feel like I left India and am on a whole new trip - the difference between here and Delhi is huge. Delhi was...well you've read the blogs and seen the pictures. Here I am basically stranded up in the mountains where I have to bathe in a spring (this is also where I get drinking water). I am not being sarcastic when I say this is awesome!

Another plus to this place is a much-needed change from Indian food, which I got in both Delhi and Tanzania. In Tibetan food, their carbohydrate overload includes noodles as well as rice, bread, and potatoes - so I am really expanding my menu.

There are about 35 (?) students here, all with names I can't pronounce, but am working on it. As I said, I think they are all in their 20s and 30s, both guys and girls. All morning I taught classes (informally, since I just got dropped off 4 hours ago), and they were all so interested in learning everything about me. Somehow the hardships of graduate school don't seem to measure up to the perils of crossing the Himalayas by foot, but I did my best.