Friday, October 19, 2007

I love teaching!





oxoxoxokt

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Weekend trip to Xiahe

My first weekend trip was a doozy - Xiahe (sheeya huh). Four hours southwest of Lanzhou is a small town that is 50% Tibetan, 40% Han and 10% Hui and home of the Lebrang Buddhist Monastery. Currently 1,800 monks live there. The monastery is enclosed by a wall of prayer wheels and covers 3 square miles. The town is nestled in a valley almost 10,000 ft above sea level. We took a tour with a monk that spoke English.

We got to see the main meditation hall which can fit 800 at a time. The place is amazing, as you would expect, but the feelings of sublime internal silence I was not prepared for. Like Telluride, Camp Agape, the yoga retreat I did in Nederland, Varanasi, and other places that shut me up, this one did the trick. I was feeling a little agoraphobic back at my campus - thinking that China was so big and so imposing and so insurmountable. One weekend and two buses exorcised that phobia for me. It was cold as you would expect, but the thing that killed me was that we didn't get as many stares as we usually do in Lanzhou. It was liberating, not to have so many eyes on your every movement. You relaxed in your own space.

We also went across the bridge and hiked along a dirt road, past yaks and sheep grazing, past yurts with their stoves heating up dinner. It had been ages since I roamed. And that is what we did; just walked around, sat down and were just still - nothing to think about, nothing to translate, no eyes on us. The food there was amazing. Tibetan meat dumplings, steamed (momo) and fried (paale), yak milk tea, yak butter, yak burgers - all so very very good and satisfying and belly warming. We left early in the morning to grab our bus back and as the overcastsky brightened, everywhere was dusted with snow. Snow has an effect onme - it stills me, warms me, again shuts me up. I like being silenced. My brain welcomes the shoxi (break).

Funny story: I was planning on buying this wonderful handmade boiled wool coat with decorative trim. In China, bartering is required,expected and actually quite fun. The tailor started at a price that was way more than what I had. We proceed to ping pong back numbers (in Chinese of course, last time I'll say that). When I was getting flabbergasted that he was so rigid and wasn't playing the game I said,"Wo shi laoshi, mei you qian!" (I'm a teacher, I have no money!). That stopped him. He said he will give me my price because I am a teacher and in a profession that is highly respected. He kept saying "FeichangHao" (excellent). No I am back, feeling rejuvenated and ready for another week of classes, which are going well, Chinese language tutor sessions and time to find ways to shut my brain up myself. Check out photos at picasaweb.google.com/macdirty

Nothing but love to you, Katie