Thursday, August 27, 2009

Currently in Ladakh...

My Ladakhi students are insane. Probably the naughtiest kids I had ever taken care of. When they stand up and walk around during my teaching, I tell them to sit back down (with my “I’m serious” face expression). Instead of obeying, they smile at me and shake their heads ‘no,’ and start to run out the classroom, and when they see me chasing them, they run faster! Our school property is big, so imagine me chasing a little kid in circles, not to mention that I’m pissed off and the other kids are laughing at me through the window. I know they’re chanting his name “Stenzin! Stenzin!” I am officially the teacher they like to mess around with.

Ah hah! Not anymore! I figured out a way for them to listen to me without hitting them with a stick (very normal here), like the other teachers. By the way, I am completely against the idea of abusing children in school, especially someone else's kid. Anyways, I use an empty water bottle. Sometimes when I play with the kids, I use the empty water bottle and bop their heads for fun. But when they’re being rude, or hitting other kids, I bop their heads just a bit harder. The look on their faces is priceless, a confused expression like “hmm...that kind of hurt.” Now, they do their work, less screaming, less violence with other kids, but still…they’re untameable. I only use the water bottle method when they punch their classmates, which I have grown to not tolerate at all. Also, their farts smell horrible.

I saw the Dalai Lama 4 times. I went to one of his teachings not too far from Leh. The rest of the sightings were of him walking out of mosques, or drive-bys. I carpooled with some people to his teaching session and got to sit in the front of the stage, which is reserved for foreigners. I know…it doesn’t make sense. But anyhow, it was a great view and learned a lot. It was freakin cold in the morning, even raining, then around 8:30am, it got HOT. All in all, it was an interesting experience seeing the Dalai Lama, I saw a living God, I SAW GOD!

DSC_9602he's so adorable.

Just to add something little to this post, and a shout-out to my homie Sal (send me a scan of those polaroids) , is a mini-feed of our gmail chat.
Sal: HOT WINGS! i passed by it yesterday and thougth of you
haha
me: oh god, i'm having great food here, but i miss it so much
Sal: i was like...when steph gets back, we're going straight to hot wings from the airport
me: i'm eating REAL indian food, kinda cool


1 comment:

  1. Bad ass to get to see one of your heros! I'm still looking for the latin Madonna down here?

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