Golden Week = Catch up time

All right, I know I've been a little lax about updating my blog. Luckily, this is Golden Week, one of them, anyway. This week was turned into a holiday week in order to celebrate October 1, or National Day. October 1, 1949, Chairman Mao took power in China. So, it was decided that a week was needed so everyone could go on vacation--except store owners/workers, restaurant owners/workers, bank employees, street cleaners, university staff, etc. And, since this week falls directly after the first week of the semester for us foreign students, it is the perfect opportunity for those of us who are new to catch up on the school work done by our colleagues who have been here a year already.

This past week and a half has provided a wonderful opportunity for me to gain a great deal of patience. Now, everyone reading this knows that I am not a skinny person, by any means, but in America, people more or less forget that, since there are many others like me. Here, however, there are very few people that a anywhere near my size. Tibetans in general seem to be healthy weights. They are not generally skinny in the Western supermodel sense, but many are just physically small, and not many people seem to carry much extra weight. While I expected to be stared at as a rather white foreigner, I did not expect the number of people that just outright say I am fat, and believe me, there are a lot of people that comment on it, or take their time staring, while my friends and I are in the Barkhor. There seems to be a distinction though. The people who are city dwellers, and the elderly women, in particular, disapprove. One woman walked beside me, said I was too fat, hit my backside, and said it again, all the while with a rather sour look on her face, tsking at me. On the other hand, those who are coming from outside the city as pilgrims or nomads, (of which I have been told there will be an ever increasing amount as we make it through October and into November) tend to give me a thumbs up. In fact, the other day, two rather tall young men came back for a second look, and a day later, Doris and I ran into one of them again, and he wanted to take a picture with me. So, while it is good for my patience and character development to deal with staring people every day, I will be very glad when I have lost some weight.

As for visiting some of the beautiful places here, it is outside of my budget to travel this week, although many of my new friends are, and it is generally agreed that waiting until tourist season is over, is the best option for seeing most of the famous places in town, such as the Potala. Even though winter weather may make it a bit unpleasant to go sightseeing, an hour in the Potala (which is the time allotted during tourist season) is not nearly enough.

After my rather horrid sunburn last week, I purchased a hat from a vendor outside the Jokhang, for about $3.25, so now, I can keep the sun off my face and head, and look like a cowgirl.

I would like to take this opportunity now to share the wonderful feelings I had when I discovered that since I was in China two years ago, they have discovered hair conditioner and have their own version of Windex. While we take these things for granted in the States, imagine for a moment attempting to clean a rather dirty apartment with hot water and...a rag, and then, running out of conditioner, but, oh no!, the store no longer carries any--what do you do? Lucky for my family they have started selling it here, although it is rather expensive.

Despite the lack of altitude sickness, it has been rather tough adjusting to the climate. It is soooo dry. Seriously, the humidity must be 0% every day. It's hard on the sinuses and the lips, elbows, knees, etc. I think I've gone through half a stick of chapstick in the week and a half since I arrived.

Some of the good things are that there is a thug-pa (Tibetan noodle soup) restaurant across the street with pretty good thug-pa for 2 yuan, or $.25. It is pretty darn tasty. No vegetables, other than green onion, in it though, just noodles and yak. But, it is still good.

If any vegetarians ever happen to be in Lhasa, there are a couple of places we have found with good food. I've heard there are two vegan restaurants, but I'm not sure how "vegan" is defined here. At one of the two restaurants, Doris and I met a very nice Tibetan man, visiting Lhasa, who took it upon himself to walk with us, in part to protect us from not-nice men. He didn't speak English, but got some free lessons. During our walkabout, he took us to a little tea house to drink Tibetan sweet tea, or cha-ngar-mo. I think it is fairly safe to say that Doris and I were the first westerners to drink tea in this place. She and I were sitting against one wall, facing into the room, while our host sat facing us. Shortly after we began drinking out sweet tea, made with sheep milk, Doris had to excuse herself to visit the restroom, such as it was. Our host went with her--why, I'm not sure, but that left me alone facing a room full of mostly elderly Tibetans, who were all staring, of course. I took a few sips of tea, smiling at people while they stared. Then, I said "Tashi Delek" (Hello) to everyone in the room. Well, that was a big hit. Everyone started laughing, and next thing I know, a couple across the room had brought me a small round of dry bread, which they insisted I dip into my tea before eating (this, I discovered was necessary, because otherwise, there was no way to swallow the bread). Then, finally, Doris and our host re-entered and someone else gave us more bread to eat with our tea. So, what started out as an uncomfortable experience for me turned into a rather fun one.

Another thing I would like to note is the way family dynamics seem to work here. It is wonderful to see parents taking so much interest in their children. It is not uncommon to see several children playing in the street in front of the small shops, but they are being supervised, not only by their own parents, but by others as well. Many parents seem to walk their children to school, home from school, help with homework, and give lots of hugs as well as discipline. Children definitely seem to be safe here, as does everyone, except when there are pickpockets around. I personally have not encountered one, but one of the other girls here had her camera stolen the second day she was here. I think the trick is to not go out alone in crowded areas.

So, not only have I been learning a great deal about Tibetans (who I definitely think are have a better sense of humor than many Chinese I have met), but I have also been learning quite a bit about myself as well.

Unless something terribly exciting happens, my next entry will probably be next week sometime, after classes have started again, and I have more to say about them.