somewhere in the middle

writing away

Today is the 16th. That means in exactly one month, I will go to my first day of college classes at UGA. This time last month, I was recovering from Bonnaroo. And then, May 16th was my graduation day from Lovett, home for the past 14 years. Meanwhile, I am somewhere in Tibet. Crazy!

We hiked back down hill. My knees are still on fire. It rained a good bit and everything got wet yet again. 

these are water powered prayer wheels- all so that the monks don't have to turn the wheels everyday

We're  sitting in the home of one of the monks in this small monastery, trying to escape the downpour outside. His walls are completely covered with posters of NBA stars, movie stars, and the Dalai Lama. He, like so many monks in China, has a big TV, motorbike, and cell phone. Not quite what I expected from the life of a religious monk. 

There are two monk boys, ages 6 and 8, who are focused on their studies and memorizing prayers. I don’t know any kids that age that could be a monk. We tried playing cards with them. They’re smart and quickly figured out how to cheat at the most simple game: war.

The government monitors every TV station so that China is always glorified and the one saving the distressed. There’s a good bit of beating and abusing women. All of the concerts are totally staged- the crowd is brought in, dressed up, and given props to wave, and the singer is some beautiful woman pretending to be Tibetan, lip-syncing and thanking the Chinese. 

tomorrow