Wednesday, June 30, 2010

woohoo!!!!

hello girls! i have passed my buddha face today! now i am on to buddha's body! which is soooooooo difficult.... i guess it would be buddha body all the way till i leave end of july.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

the other place i hang out at..

today is a holiday. morning i stayed at home and practised on out-lining which i find most difficult. then Acha-la asked me to join her for lunch so i walked to her shop which is just 5 mins from the house and we went for chinese food with her friend. i feel so bad becos she insisted on paying. the meal should be around 250 ruppees and on the average she earns about 350 ruppees a day selling 'laughing' noodles for 35 ruppee each plate. before i go, i am going to bring the whole family out for a good dinner.

then i went home for a nap. drawing from 8am to 4:30pm in a 5 and half day week is really tiring. hazel and i often joked about our efficiency rate. there is no way we can survive in hong kong at this rate we are going. we often only do one thing in a day after school. i remember there was a time, when we need to get a couple of things at different places. but instead of getting them all at a time, we decide to spilt them up, concluding that if we do everything today, we would have nothing to do tomorrow. so it would be better if we just do one thing a day after school. haha... today she went to extend her visa, and i came to saturday for internet. and this is the most major thing i did today. this is where i am now. at boudha stupa, 5 mins from home and school. i can hear crows crying, dogs barking, chanting and bells ringing in the background. most of the monasteries are located here. its about 7pm now, there is still light. the tibetans are all coming out to do their evening walk around the stupa. the atmosphere is really nice... oh actually i did more than one thing today, i also bought fabric for my chinese style collar (upper body) and tibetan style skirt (lower body) combination chuba. hee... the nepalese shop owner is really nice and polite, he gave me discount becos he said i have nice face. oh (blushing...) and when i am about to pay him, he gave me another 100 ruppees off. and i wish him good business. i want to get it made for my trip to india in september.

OK! going to introduce some more of my tibetan friends here today. i usually have my meals either at home or at tashi's house (which is actually rinpoche's house). tashi is rinpoche's nephew. and this is tashi. and this is gombo, rinpoche's dog. rinpoche has many dogs. rinpoche also has a mouse!!! tashi is not only dog sitter but also mouse sitter! amazing guy! haha... tashi and tenzin giving santro a bath. tashi in his favourite attire, gloves! tashi cleaning again... very serious cleaner. toothbrush for the switch. we are all so impressed! haha...

OK i need to go! miss tenzin yangkyi should be back from tuition now. time to play a bit with her before dinner. ok write soon! see you!

Monday, June 28, 2010

auspicious weekend!

tashi delek everyone! monday start of the week, tomorrow is yet another holiday for me. there are so many holidays here, since i arrived, there had been already 3 holidays. they all love it but i dun. haha.. i just want to draw and draw. i am settling in really well, adapting well to my new family life. haha just 2 days ago, tenzin yangkyi came home crying becos she was naughty and her mom was disciplining her and she hid behind me and held my hand. for an hour, i stood there in between her mom and her, trying to figure out what happened. haha.. this is an experience i wont get if i stay on my own. there is one time, when miss tenzin's uncle (who is my friend) came and asked me if miss tenzin washed her hair. haha.. now i find myself saying things like 'come miss tenzin, let me check if you really washed your hair', 'quick wear your uniform, you are going to be late for school.' haha...

saturday was 17th Karmapa's birthday so we went to his monastery here to join in the celebration. check out the braids. everyone was dressed in their best. i need to get a short sleeve summer chuba made. HH Dalai Lama's birthday is coming up next, i want to be in a chuba then! hee... then yesterday hazel and i took an our walk to pullahari monastery up in the hills to see the beautiful wall painting. it was so inspiring! and here is hazel taking a photo of 'pata' (decorative patterns) as she is learning how to draw them now. i really like this photo. and as for me, i need to study the buddha's face! i am still drawing buddha's face. my teacher said draw one more, and i can move on to learn buddha's body! YES!!!! i cant wait.. enjoying drinks at the cafe. feels so good looking at the huge clouds and cast sky...
and guess what! when we left the monastery, i saw my first rainbow in nepal! so very happy!!! its an auspicious sign! you can see each colour of the rainbow here so clearly and they are really fat. so nice.... it then started to drizzle and then pour! and we were still up in the hills... haha.. we were drenched despite having an umbrella each. but we had to walk before it turns dark as it takes an hour to get down. i really dun want to be walking in the dark. i really enjoyed the wet walk. getting my feet all dirty with mud and sand. haha.. oh have to show you this. living in countries like nepal, this is another common sight. its dead. its hard to eat meat here seeing all these on the streets... oh and this, this is what i was greeted by early in the morning as i opened the gate to go to school. haha.. she is licking herself. she and her baby are always roaming around the area. to be honest, i was a little scared. i was thinking which way i should walk, left or right. finally i chose to go my left. as i walked by slowly, nearer and nearer to her, i was looking at her.. but she isnt even a bit interested in me. haha.. phew... and her dung is everywhere. and they are huge! i have to be really careful especially in the evening, its pretty dark. acha-la stepped onto one the other time. haha..fits the size of your foot nicely! haha.. ok i am having my lunch now. mash potatoes and fruit salad. half an hour later, i will be back in school. its a cool day here today. it rained during the early hours of the day. the air is fresh. i wish all of you a fantastic week ahead! love you all...

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

school days again

hello girls, how are you doing? i am really enjoying myself drawing and painting everyday. this is my new friend, hazel. from hong kong. she has been travelling in india, sri lanka for more than a year now. she arrived in nepal in apr and is now studying thangka too. she will be here for 2 months before travelling to bhutan. this is where we usually hangout when we need internet at saturday cafe, enjoying cakes and sorbet! the weather is so hot here. today i am having lemon sorbet. haha can you see what i am wearing today. hee... yesterday we decided to cook ourselves lunch. we have a 2 hr break you see.. and i was craving so much for bee hoon soup. the instant bee hoon i brought along with me. and hazel's friend brought her some lee kum kee sauce. oh this reminds me so much of my uni days in melbourne. haha.. we had beehoon soup with a pot of vege. we need lots of vitamin c. and my cheapo 3-in-1 coffee after lunch! YES! very important! we always feel so sleepy after the 2 hour lunch. so happy! oh btw, i am still drawing the buddha face. its my 8th day drawing buddha face. the more i draw the more difficult it gets. teacher said they used to draw buddha face for a month. tough tough... so i shall continue.. perfecting it. the path leading to the house i am staying. its about 7pm now.. i am going to my friend, tashi's house for dinner tonite. everyday is a simple day.
ok thats it for today. have a relaxing evening ahead. hugs. talk soon!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

life in nepal begins..

hello girls, how are you doing? i just finished class, i continued with the buddha face. drew my fourth buddha face this morning. i showed tenzin the headmaster and he said out of all of them, the first attempt is the best one! the shape of the face is good. actually its funny how the more i draw the more difficult i feel it is.. every single little detail counts. i find the jaw and the little chin most difficult and also to get the both eyes of the same size. oh i cant wait to start class again tmr!

anyway ok! today i thought i would introduce my tibetan family a bit more. Acha-la still has 5 other kids who are studying in dharmasala, india. tenzin yangkyi is the youngest of the six. and this is drolma the 9 yo famiy dog. to tenzin, its her siste

i pretty much have a schedule now. i wake up at 6:45am every morning, by then miss tenzin and her mom are already up, they wake up at 5am. haha.... people here wake up really early. we will have breakfast together at about 7:15am. its usually roti (like pita bread) and an omelette and tibetan milk tea (its salty tea. haha) this morning we had tsampa. then i will leave for school at 7:45am. about 5mins walk. passing by lots of rubbish... and stray dogs. two very common sights in nepal. after acha-la sent tenzin yangkyi off to school at 8:30am, she will go back home to prepare the rice noodles to bring it to her little street store to sell. its bascially sliced rice noodles with soya sauce and chilli. it is actually a snack introduced by the chinese in lhasa. its called 'la-phing' (i duno how to spell it but my friend told me its pronounced as 'laughing') haa... sometimes after school, i would drop by. and miss tenzin would be there after school to help her mom and also to play with the other kids. however, now when i am around, she can go home with me and we will have afternoon tea and play a bit. yesterday i bought a little cake, oh she really loves it. seeing her eating so happily, makes me really happy. lately we play a lot of colouring and 'photo-taking'. she would make a paper origami camera and pretend to take a photo of me, and then she would draw me and give me my 'photo' haha.. this is a nice drawing of me. haha.. to meifang, i have stopped using mineral water to wash my face and rinse my teeth. haha... you see, the bathing water in the house is yellowish, its earth water. and there is a smell to it. haha.. hm it doesnt look so yellow on the photo. so the first few days i was using mineral water for my face and teeth. however i stopped last weekend, well so far my face is fine, and i feel fine. so touch wood. this is the toilet. reminds me of my grandparents' house where i spent my childhood. excess water is always saved in pails to be used for different purposes. how lucky we are yeah, living in the rich countries. there are so many moments when i just feel so moved by the way the joy and innocence of the people here, and it feels especially touching when i am living with them. and i am living with baby cockroaches, and some mice in the kitchen. however the way acha-la says it, it seems perfectly fine to have mice in the kitchen. well, they are everywhere. even in the guesthouse i used to stay in, you can hear them sometimes but you duno where they are. haha... and there are 2 spiders in my room. my pet spiders. i keep saying out loud, as long as you guys dun harm me, dun come near me, we can live happily together. no problem. haha oh my dad and mom will faint if they know where i am living in now. i dun think everyone can 'tahan' this. this is the kitchen.
last nite i was lying on my bed, i am thinking maybe i am really crazy. what am i doing? haha.. but i am happily crazy or crazily happy. i feel at home. this is going to be my home and family at least till my exam next year.
ok! its about 6:40pm now, i want to go drop by acha-la's store and pick up miss tenzin to go home. ok thank you girls for reading! you have a great week ahead! i will blog again on fri. i think every tues and fri i will check my emails and blog. je-la-je-yong (see you soon in tib)!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

tashi delek girls!

hello girls how are you all? i miss the internet and blogging! look my first buddha face! my first day in class, my teacher gave me buddha face to draw! i am so happy! i thought i was doing more clouds or fire... when miss yangzom said 'ok you do buddha face' i was thrilled!!!! this is my new home here. i am staying with tenzin's sister and her 6yo daughter. this is how a typical tibetan house looks like. lots of thangkas and dalai lama's photos. : ) and this is my no.1 tibetan teacher, miss tenzin yangkyi. haha.. her english is sooooo good i am so impressed. she is also my translator (for her mom) haha. girls also wear pants to school. looks very smart. we always have breakfast together before school, she leaves at 8:30am, i leave at 8am. in the evening, she comes back at 4:30pm, i get back around 7pm (after hanging around with my other very 'professional' tibetan teachers at the other house, will blog about it later). watching cartoon and plucking vege. good habit.
my blue room. wall is blue, curtain is blue, bedsheet is blue. so i also bought a blue trim brocade table cloth for my little table. yeah! matching! plus that blue floral chiffon dress! haha.. oh today i get my first taste of tsampa! barley grinded into power, then mix with butter and tea, and you eat it like a dough. or like porridge. you can also put some sugar or grated cheese or curd (yogurt). it is the staple food for the tibetans. here you see, achala (meaning sister in tibetan) mixing the barley flour with cheese and sugar and butter for me. and then you use your hand and squeeze them into small bite size doughs. very fun food. it tastes like unbaked cookie dough. haha looks like meatball on this photo! haha.. ok i dun think i am going to get wi-fi at home. but i found this cafe, saturday cafe, which great view of the stupa and relatively fast internet connection. so i am happy. i will blog every tues during my lunch time. we have 2hr lunch, from 11:30 to 1:30pm. so thats good. please stay tuned!

ok i guess thats about it for now. you girls, cha po nang! (take care in tibetan). i am studying tibetan every nite, i have to. actually. i just asked my other teachers to teach me how to say 'i am not coming back for dinner' and 'i am coming home late tonite' and 'i have enough' that sort of things so that i can communicate with achala. lately i am having an overdosage of tibetan milk tea haha, when i say no, she thinks i am being shy (becos in tibetan culture its like that) so she start pouring again and again. so now i have learnt to say 'i am full, i cannot eat anymore' in tibetan. haha...

ok talk soon! jey la je yong! (see you soon!) love to all......


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