Here are some older pictures. It's taken me a while to get them all online, but here they are...


As promised, pictures of me washing my clothes. I seem to be in the process of washing my socks. Also that’s Will behind me


My clothes drying


My friends the explorers. That’s Will, Julia, and Lucy. We went for a walk one afternoon and just kind of wandered around.


This picture is from the same walk. This man was walking his goats, and when we walked past, one of them came up to Julia and nuzzled her leg. It was maybe the cutest thing ever


Will playing with a cow (I think this picture is from when we were walking up to Lower Dharamsala)


This is from the lake and bird preserve, the name of which I have forgotten. He’s bailing water out of our boat. I admit it made me a little nervous


Some of the other boats


Passing food between the boats. In the boat I’m in you can sort of see Palkyi on the left. She’s Marissa’s roommate, and she’s teaching Julia and me how to play the dranyen (I don’t know how to spell that). On the right is Jampa, Julia’s roommate. In the other boat, there’s Eva in blue.


Marissa and Julia riding a bike with Sherab Dawa and Taylor chasing behind


Will and me on one of the bikes. This picture is deceptive in that it kind of looks like I could actually make the bike move. I didn’t have the leg strength or length to actually peddle the bike. We spent most of the time falling over


Pictures from the party. Here’s one of the groups playing human knot. On the far left in the green jacket is Taylor. In the middle in the green skirt is Kendell. On the right are Will and Taylor’s roommates.


The girls getting dressed up in chubas.


The gate to a Mahadevi temple that we visited on the way to Bir. From left to right, that’s Hanuman, Krishna, and Siva


On the left is Kali standing on Siva (I think), and on the right is Ganesha


At the temple, this monkey came right up and stole this bag out of Dan’s hand, and then proceeded to eat the contents.


Kali and Durga


This river ran through the middle of the temple area. While we were there, they were setting up for a funeral (two separate funerals actually). This picture is from before the funeral had come, but later it was taking place here.


This is the front of the Sherabling temple at Bir. Sherabling is a Kagyu temple (there are four main sects of Tibetan Buddhism: Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu, and Gelug). While in Bir, we actually saw a Nyingma temple, a Sakya temple, and a Kagya temple. Also, while we were in Bir, we stayed at the Sherabling guesthouse


We went to see Ani Tenzin Palmo while we were in Bir. She’s starting a nunnery there, and they took us on a tour of it. Some of the boys found a shortcut back by climbing this wall. Up at the top is Geshe-la (not the same Geshe-la as one of the other earlier pictures. Geshe-la is an honorific title. A geshe degree is a degree a monk can receive; it’s kind of like a Ph.D.), and you can also see Taylor and Tom.


This is Ani Tenzin Palmo. Also, that’s Justin’s back and Amber is the one filming.


Prayer flags at Tashi Jong, another monastery that we visited. It was really windy while we were there.


A stupa at Tashi Jong. It’s actually really cool, because you can see a tree growing out of the top of it. After they put someone important’s (I don’t remember who) ashes inside, the tree started growing. They kept trying to cut it back, but it kept growing, so now there it is. I think I may have overheard someone saying that that’s the kind of tree that the historical Buddha was enlightened under, but I’m not sure if I heard that correctly.


Monks on motorcycles (enough said)


This is Bubu, a dog from Sherabling that followed us all the way to Bir (it was like an hour walk). Some of the students later brought her in the car with us to bring her back to Sherabling.