gregoryandlauren's Xanga

Our Other Blog

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:36:46 GMT

Hi friends. Most of you probably know by now, but we had to change over to blogspot since we can't access Xanga anymore from China. Right now we're out of the country, so I thought I'd take the chance to post something here just in case somebody is still wondering.

Our new site is: http://viewfromtherooftop.blogspot.com/

Tashideleg!

Students

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 02:47:51 GMT

We received a special Amdo treat from Gregory's tutor/my student. Wrapped in a stomach and sewn together, it contains tsampa, Tibetan cheese, sugar, and we're sure something else. He told us to cut it, pour hot water over it, and eat.

At the end of Gregory's first week of full-time teaching, he co-taught a class of Tibetan students. We like to get pics of the students to remember their names. So he called five students at a time up to the blackboard, asked them to write their names up high, and turn around and face the camera. The following is what happens everytime with a new group of Tibetan students (mostly the girls as you will see):

They would NOT turn around.

These ladies turned around at least, but still are doing the hand-on-the-head, head-down thing. Surely there was an enormous amount of giggling going on, too.

We get the same responses for the first while when we ask students to come to the front or to stand up and perform a dialogue with their partner. There's almost nothing to be done about this except to keep trying. We try to ease them into it. Eventually, they feel comfortable enough to stand up in front of their classmates (at least most of the time). What's funny is that a lot of these students will get up on a stage and sing and dance in front of the entire school! But stand up in class? No way!

Back to School

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 15:34:26 GMT

We've just wrapped up our first week back at school. I have mostly the same students this term and all but a couple were ready to speak English again.

Gregory is glad to be back in the classroom full-time.

When we came back, folks here were still celebrating Losar--lots of incense coming off Pumburi Mountain lately and plenty of firecrackers. The decorations stay up in homes for 20 extra days this year, so we got to learn about those in D's home on Monday.

We watched another great Chinese movie tonight:

Thailand

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 13:44:01 GMT

Thailand is our third home. It's a real joy to go back each year. This year we decided to spend some time in Bangkok near the hospital we stayed at last year.

We found a real gem of a hotel called The Atlanta which is right in the heart of new Bangkok--an area I would've hated just a couple years ago. I've found plenty to enjoy on this side of town, though, and was happy to show Gregory around this year. The Atlanta is quite an establishment--you should read about it on their website, especially if you ever go through Bangkok (like a lot of us teachers do!). We payed a lot more than we usually pay for a room here ($15-$18), but we were happy to get away from backpacker land for a while.

The Lobby

The Diner

The Atlanta has the first ever hotel pool in Thailand which we enjoyed in the middle of the blazing hot afternoons. It's also close to the BTS (Skytrain) and some canal taxi stops are not too far away. Here ends my advertisement.

A shrine (Buddhist) in downtown Bangkok

We had an afternoon at the Jim Thompson House, which my parents and I enjoyed last year at this time.

Pad Thai with shrimp at a sidewalk restaurant for lunch. Thai tea, too! Less than $2.

We also got to visit with Christina and Gabriella in Bangkok. We had (sort of) met Christina last year while Gregory was sick--we actually only talked on the phone once and never saw each other. But we heard alot about her and communicated with her through some Christ Church folks. We emailed some this past year. Her home ended up being just a couple of blocks from where we stayed this year. It was great to finally meet her.

The escalators at Siam Paragon Mall. We enjoyed the bookstore here--wonderful selection of English books, especially Asian literature, travel, and stuff on SE Asia.

And our most favorite dinner--beef shwarma for 50 Baht at a Lebanese restaurant in "Little Arabia". We sang about these shwarmas, we liked them so much. A lot of people would come and get big take-away orders for friends or coworkers--it's no wonder. And the guy who worked here was always smiling even though it was terribly hot. He got going about dinner time and would sell shwarmas until the meat was gone--about 3AM or 4AM. He addressed Gregory as, "My friend", after he saw us the second, third...times.

And then we headed down to Koh Chang:

And Mama, these are some things we ate on Koh Chang:

Fish and asparagus, sticky rice, and Thai tea with lime

Red curry soup with seafood, sticky rice, and Thai tea with milk (about $2.50)

Back in Bangkok before heading to Myanmar:

Banana mataba and coffee for breakfast

G treated himself to a shave and a haircut

And he enjoyed some sushi for lunch

Gregory didn't take any pictures of me while we were in Thailand this year. But I was there with him.

About Myanmar next time. This is one book I read during our time in Thailand. Watchman Nee is my favorite spiritual author--maybe partly because we live in China.

Nepal

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 15:37:58 GMT

Well, I told you about our trip overland to Nepal already. Here are some photos from that:

Pilgrims making offerings at the last pass before the border

Kasa (or Zhangmu)

The Border

Waiting in Drum, Nepal

Some of the TaTa trucks we admired

Lunch with fellow travelers

Simple dahl baat and masala tea

Practicing Tibetan

Our first stop was Boudha, a Tibetan area outside of Kathmandu.

We visited the brother (a monk) of a friend here last year, too. This year they were working on a sand mandala at his monastery.

They use this colored sand in the mandala. It would take three days to finish.

We noticed more Maoist posters in Kathmandu this year. The owner of the Chinese hotel where we have stayed told us that some of the Maoist rebels came around demanding money from each of the hotels and restaurants in the city. The owner said, "I'm not giving you any money! I'm a Maoist, too!" Instead, the rebels settled for bowls of noodles and that's all the owner has given them since. Most businesses in Kathmandu have been badly affected from the unrest and the subsequent decrease in tourism in the past year. Except for this man's hotel--it's full every night--all Chinese tourists and Chinese business people.

Coins are nailed onto this lump of wood in offering to the toothache god. Lots of dentist offices are nearby.

Nepal is colorful:

Saris for sale

Offerings for sale at Pashupatinath Temple--the most important Hindu temple in Nepal

Busy street in Kathmandu

A temple and a souvenir shop

I took a Nepali cooking class one day at the Via Via Cafe'.

I helped cook this dahl baat--mmmm! The typical Nepali meal. The veggies (and less often, meat) vary, but there are usually certain components: vegetable (and/or meat) curry, pickle (achar), dahl (sometimes fried), a green vegetable, yogurt (dahi), and rice.

I didn't help with these fried momos. It's a Nepali-style Tibetan dumpling made with veggies or "buff" (water buffalo, not beef, since cows are sacred.) We love these things! Buff or veg--with a special masala sauce. Only 20 Nepali rupees!

We went to Pokhara intending to do a trek, but the weather was terrible. So one afternoon we rode bikes out to the International Mountain Museum where we particularly enjoyed the section about the yeti.

This Japanese man swims in a high altitude lake every New Year (if I remember correctly). I really like this picture for some reason.

We returned to Kathmandu and ended up meeting some wonderful people. First, a couple of our city teammates showed up and we shared some meals together and stayed at the same hotel. Then we met some Chinese folks who took us out for hotpot. Two of them had stayed in Lhasa for a while. Another of them we had met last year at that Chinese hotel where we've stayed. He's been studying English the past year and spoke to us almost completely in English this time. This time last year he didn't know any. One day I enjoyed a long talk with a shopkeeper and later, a talk with one of her employees. We also got to see some other buddies (Nepali and Tibetan) we made last year. One them came running up as we were getting into our taxi to go to the airport.

From there we flew to Bangkok. We had a great view of the Himalayas from the window. In the middle of the window are snow-capped mountains, not clouds!

More to come.

Here's one book I read during this part of the trip:

We're Back

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 15:30:46 GMT

We just arrived in Lhasa again after a 36 hour train ride from Xi'an. So we're home and healthy! I intend to post plenty of pictures from our travels, but thought I'd give you a couple now to tide you over.

Honestly, we've always been somewhat reluctant (maybe a bit afraid?) to talk with sadhus, but these men were rather pleasant and amicable. The man reaching into his jacket was about to exchange money with me--Chinese yuan for Nepali rupees (he had the yuan!).

Here we are in Macau (at the ruins of St. Paul's Church) near the end of our trip. Just wanted everyone to see that we are happy (and healthy!!). More later...

The Journey to Kathmandu (the Sequel)

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 15:19:42 GMT

Gregory & I have arrived in Kathmandu--as of a week ago. We had a rough ride from Tibet this year. We were on a bus full of Tibetans (all on pilgrimage to Nepal and beyond), but this year the bus was really packed. We got to practice Tibetan with an Amdo family who we sat shoulder-to-shoulder with in the back of the bus. The closeness helped us stay warm (we never felt cold) and kind of helped us stay in our seats on the bumpy roads. Kind of. Sometimes we bounced up about a foot or more as the driver sped over holes and hills. At least more of the road was paved this year.

We thought we'd stop in Tingri for the first night and get to Kathmandu the second night. However, when we got to Tingri, the bus driver kept going after getting a Red Bull for himself. Everyone shouted "Whoa!" and he stopped and said, "You don't want to go on?" A Tibetan lady, who often took charge on the trip, said, "Driver, are you OK?" And he said, "Yes!" So everyone said, "Let's go!" The foreigners were outnumbered. So we didn't get to see the Himalayan view we saw last year, but we did get to see a spectacular amount of stars on that same pass.

We got to Khasa (Zhangmu), the border town between China and Nepal, very, very quickly.

The next day we were held up at the border because, for some reason, the guards wouldn't let our bus through. We spent the time watching masses of Nepalis crossing the border with goods purchased at the Chinese market on the other side. Common purchases were thick blankets, DVD players, and televisions. Some Sherpas (we guessed) would buy a load and try to come back to Nepal by sneaking through the gates. People who bought just a few things got through without any trouble. But it was a game between the Sherpas and the border guards. Everytime a truck would be allowed to pass through, some ladies with heavy baskets strapped to their foreheads would try and run through the gate without being caught by the guards. Of course, most of the time the guards would catch them and send them back to the China side. Sometimes, though, the guards would pretend not to see. One Tibetan woman from our group (who turned out to be a relative of someone we know in Lhasa) tried to help a lady by lifting her load over the gate while she got through without the load. The guard caught her, though, and made her go back to the China side. The Sherpas seemed to be enjoying the whole ordeal, but the guards were not amused. We've noticed that the blankets in hotels this year are all those same thick Chinese blankets that people were buying.

After waiting around by the dusty road for six hours, watching the Sherpas and admiring the art on tractor trailors that passed by, we finally were put in a jeep and driven to the Tibetan settlement of Boudha (outside of Kathmandu).

Traveling overland is worth it, though--the whole experience of overlanding is wonderful, we think. We see so much more and pay so much less!

I got a book at Pilgrim's Bookstore here in KTM that I'm reading now. I wanted to buy it last year and didn't because it's only available in hardback here. It's about a British woman who married an Amdo nomad from Machu in the '90s (I suppose). She lived with him in his tribe in the grasslands for six months (or more) before settling down in England again. It's not coming up on "xangazon", but it's called Namma and is written by Kate Karko.

More Parties

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 12:28:52 GMT

As promised...more pictures from parties, etc. The pictures from our party with teachers didn't turn out--they're all fuzzy. Our party at Eat Lover was great again this year. More of us wore Tibetan clothes. The Tibetans usually don't--they feel too embarassed to. But we seized the opportunity again. So here are the ladies with Mima:

And the guys:

Our friend, D, came as Gregory's guest and enjoyed the time with our young teammates:

Our friend, T, who was also my Tibetan tutor for a while this term, was my guest:

We were also celebrating an upcoming marriage of one of our teammates, Mindy. Her fiance', Phil, came to Lhasa this week from Xinjiang. He helps with agriculture there. They'll get married in January in Canada.

The Eat Lover kids (they are the children of the owner--they're all from Amdo and so cute!) wore Santa costumes again and gave us little presents at the end of the party:

Saturday night we had students at our home. At the end of the night, the boys came. Most of them ended up singing for us. This fella, SG, sang a nomad song for us. He's from Nagqu--nomad country. It's north of Lhasa. Later he led us all in a circle dance in our tiny living room.

Gregory and I had our own little Christmas party last night. And we happened to get a lot of packages in the mail yesterday, so we had plenty of surprises.

Thanks to everyone who sent us packages this year. We loved the stuff!

Also this week, we saw an old friend from XY, who is a teacher there still. XY has changed a lot since we've been gone! We're hoping to visit at the end of our holiday though. We introduced her to some Tibetan dishes.

That's all for now. We've had a great semester.

We leave tomorrow for Nepal. We're going by bus again this year.

Butter Lamp Festival and Christmas

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 17:13:55 GMT

Last week, as I mentioned before, was the Butter Lamp Festival. This festival really felt like Christmas to all of us! Tibetans put butter lamps in their windows for a couple of nights to remember Tsong Khapa. It happened to correspond with our annual Christmas sleepover and breakfast this year. So that evening, after eating hotpot at another foreign teacher's house, we walked to the Barkhor with a group of friends. The Barkhor was teeming with people--more than I've ever seen before out there--and the butter lamps were beautiful! (Our teammate, Bitsy, took all these pictures.)

a butter shop with butter lamps

We walked around just once, so we could get back and sing carols and watch It's a Wonderful Life. As we were waiting for everyone, Gregory met this Khampa. By the way, if you haven't noticed, Gregory is obsessed with Khampas--their accent, their jewelry, their hair... (Notice our new coats in the following pictures.)

The next morning, we woke up late and we all made a big breakfast. I made homemade sausage and gravy and biscuits--yes, we have to season our own sausage here. No Jimmy Dean in Lhasa!

I'm very excited about breakfast!

We also had pancakes with strawberries (they're available right now!), eggs, bacon, pumpkin muffins, granola, yogurt....Mmm-mmm!

We watched old Little House on the Prairie episodes that afternoon (thanks to K's mom!). Finally, we made our way back home for a party with teachers at our school. More to come...

An Article and a Day with a Friend

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 05:33:05 GMT

I ran across a great article in The New York Times today about travel in Tibet. Especially check out the audio slide show. I love that the commentator on the train says, "Dear guests, you better have done some sports before you came to Tibet."

Yesterday I had lunch with my friend, S, at the Korean BBQ (A Li Lang) place that's mentioned at the end of the article. The other places mentioned are way too expensive. It was sooo good. Mmmm kimchi.... We even received aprons and sleeve protectors to wear.

We ran into Gregory in front of the Jokhang and all walked together around the Barkhor. The mountains are covered in snow in the background--we actually had a good snow yesterday. That's unusual for Lhasa.

Afterwards, we went to the Panchen Lama's garden (which was basically closed down for renovations). We saw his new house--I had no idea it was there.

Then we went to the Norbulingka. We got in for free since her friend's boyfriend works there. I didn't realize how religious S was until we got to the Summer Palace. She didn't hesitate to prostrate in the rooms where it was appropriate. The Norbulingka is right in front of her home, so she went there a lot as a middle school student to study in the gardens.

I had the same feeling as the writer of the article when he said that the kettle on the mantle made him feel as if the former resident would be coming right back for tea. In the Summer Palace we walked through his bedroom and then through his mother's bathroom and living room. There were a couple of old radios in glass cases. It felt similar to walking through the Carl Sandburg house in Flat Rock, NC--uh, but a lot more Tibetan.

Then her friend drove us to the Potala where I got to go inside the front gate and see the area that used to be a prison. I've never been inside that part before--it's not officially open. Her friend works there and says that this new part will open on May 1. This friend was also a student in XY, but was in a different department.

They drove us downtown where S and I ate some yogurt at a little ice cream shop that seems to be quite popular.

We were going to come back and make Christmas cookies, but her mother called and asked her to come home for a special dinner. Yesterday was the beginning of the Butter Lamp Festival. S said that her family would eat a special meal, then drink barley beer mixed with tsampa and droma and recite scriptures together. Finally, they put butter lamps in the windows of their home. The Barkhor is supposed to be full of butter lamps for the next few days.