Dharamsala, my love

The view from the rooftop at Lha

My first two days in Dharamsala have been a total success.

I arrived in a daze yesterday morning and found a guesthouse in which to stay temporarily.  I had the amazing chai that I described to you with the ginger bits that looked like chicken.  

I walked around the town in the Sunday morning quiet.  This place is so stunningly beautiful, it made me cry.  I spent my waking hours (i.e. before I retired for the evening at 1pm) taking care of business.  The schools were closed so I couldn't arrange any volunteering just yet, but I managed to get a SIM card and also to find a nice room to stay for the month!!!

I really messed up.  You know I'm a planner, I like to book ahead.  All the forums said to just show up and you'll find something.  Most places don't even take advanced bookings.  The only time where things fill up is if there's an event on or the Dalai Lama is visiting.  Well, His Holiness is arriving next Monday.  So it would have been plenty easy to have my pick of a guesthouse until next week, but what would I do for the 3 days when HH will be in town?  There is a solution to this problem though.  Certain guest houses in town don't take advanced bookings under ANY circumstance.  And I found a great one right in the middle of Bhagsu Rd, 1 minute flat walk from the main square (very important to me that I don't have a climb up a hill 5 times a day).  It's a nice double room with my own bathroom and hot water!!  Ah, the simple things in life.  It was 300Rs/ night (approx $6.60) but the lovely manager said that since I'm staying a month, he'd discount it to 250Rs/ night (approx $5.50).  I didn't even have to ask!!

What else what else?  The weather is perfection.  Cows roam the street, as well as dogs and donkeys.  Goats and monkeys are a bit more elusive, but abound nonetheless.  The Tibetan people remind me of Lao people-- always smiling and saying hello but never hassling you about anything.  There are more Indians here than I expected.  They are great too!!  I've already got some familiar faces who recognize me too.  The hairdresser that I promised I'd go to, the guy at the phone shop who spent an hour sorting out my SIM card, I've even got a favorite MOMO lady.  What a wonderful place to be a regular. 

I woke up this morning and went straight to the Lha office at 10am.  They said they could use me as an assistant in the 10am computer class.  And so I started my volunteering!!  It was mostly internet skills like using Gmail, chat programs, and attaching photos and files.  All things that I am suddenly very grateful to already know so well.  After Lha I got some momos for lunch and headed down to the Volunteer Tibet office.  I'm going to be assistant teaching in computer classes with them as well (mostly Microsoft Office skills) from 2-4pm.  A few schools in town have conversational English classes from 4-5pm, but it's casual and English-speakers can drop in any day, so I can switch it up a bit.  Then there's the Clean Upper Dharamsala Project, which will have a big clean-up event I want to help out with on 10/10/10... Oh, so many things to do!!

Besides volunteering, I'm trying to find time to try out the meditation and yoga classes and I've also got to do a Tibetan cooking course while I'm here so that I can make you momos next time I see you!!

Oh, and did I mention that the Dalai Lama is coming?!?!  He's here for 3 days next week doing a teaching on some topics of Tibetan Buddhism...  it's free, I'm registered, I'm going to see him.  In person.  Oy vey.