It's Good to be Back?

Well I'm back everyone. Luckily my parents were nice enough to come pick me up in Chicago when my flight to Detroit was cancelled. Right now I am trying to figure out where in the world my luggage is. Hopefully it is not still in Detroit and at the Lansing airport instead. We shall see won't we. Well beyond the last leg it was a nice trip back, it's nice to see everyone again. I suppose this is proably the end of this blog to. So I thanks everyone for your support and it's been fun. I'm glad this worked out well and I could keep in contact with everyone during the experience.

You Can't Always Get What You Want

Hey all, well this may or may not be my last post in India. I might get on in Delhi. Tommorow is my birthday which I suppose is exciting but not because I am leaving Bodh Gaya. I don't know how I feel. I am happy I will see my family but not that I have to leave India to do it. I don't know what it's going to be like to be home. I'm a little scared frankly. Not only that but I am really going to miss the people I have lived with here. I am going to miss them like crazy. I have to say goodbye to most of them tommorow which is going to be very hard. Very very hard. I'm going to try my best not to cry. This week has gone by so fast! By the way we had a meeting with the Karmopa the other day which was cool. Plus now I have blessed pills to aid in meditation. Yep, I'm going to miss things like that. I am going to miss seeing monks and making friends with them. I'm going to miss being surrounded by Buddhist temples. I am going to miss being woken up by Burmese pilgrims hawking up phelgm to spit every morning. I am going to miss a lot of things but it will be nice to be home. I think that will be my mantra for the next few days, "it will be nice to be home." I won't cry tommorow hopefully. Damn I'm turning twenty but that seems to be mute in response to all the other changes going on tommorow. Well I hope this finds you all safe and sound and possibly I'll be writing from a computer near you at my next entry. Well I'm missing a party so I'm going to sign off. Love ya!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Hey everyone! I'm back in Bodh Gaya! The travel with nice, happy to get back. Everyone here has some great stories! I can't beleive it's only a week until my birthday which is the day I leave Bodh Gaya which is sad. I have one week though to cherish the moment. Well it will be intresting seeing everyone and being back. Being back I am still a little torn about leaving. We got off the plane and the taxi driver pulled one of those games and I was pissed because we were too tired to deal with in but then my favorite Bollywood song came on and I had to dance and it was like I was back into India mode and I LOVED IT! Man okay seriously I'm just going to travel after college. I'm just going to show up every four years or so say hello and then I'm gone. It will be amazing. I mean I am looking foward to coming back I just really love it here. It will be fine though. Yey!

The Beach!

So this is my last post in Thailand and proably there are only a couple more until I'm home. I went to the beach which was frickin' amazing. Seriously hard to come back. Tommorow I leave for India which I have mixed feelings about. I mean it will be very nice. The one nice thing is the closer the looming date of my departure back to the real world comes the better I am about handling it. I think I will be okay coming back to Michigan and then in two weeks moving back to Baldwin. It should be fun. It will at least be nice to see everyone. My mom is in Staunton this past weekend and she's bringing back choclates, it's a small thing but it made me think about the stuff I miss, the Visulite, the Woodrow Wilson, Blackfrairs, Shanandoah Pizza, Celebrate, Cranberries, etc. It will be nice I think. I don't know we'll see when I get home whether I die of culture shock or I'm relativly okay. I mean I'm not going to be old Robyn anyway but it would be nice to be the Robyn who can just cope with living another few years in the place she was born and raised. Anyway it is only a few years. No problem. So it will be nice. I actually too am looking foward to being back in India. I miss Bodh Gaya. Kolkata is going to be nice and I have a day and a half. Maybe I'll go to the Kali temple or the Mother Teresa house. Something cool like that. I'm going to miss Bangkok though and Thailand in general. Great place. Oh man I can't beleive I will be leaving tommorow. Should be interesting. The beach was amazing though. Some intresting adventures on the way there and back that I will share at a later point in time. The beach was beautiful, white sand, aqua sea. Laying out on the beach in December is not something I have ever done and it was really really nice. Swimming too! Oh I miss swimming so much and it was so nice just to lay in the surf. I love water. It was so relaxing and carefree. I really wanted to just live in a hut forever but now I'm here and it's good. The next few days are going to be crazy but it will turn out fine and before you know I will be in Bodh Gaya again! Yey!

Chillin' in Samsara

Well the King's Birthday was yesterday and it was fun and crazy. I got up around 9am to work on my paper and to figure out what was going on. I found out the king is giving a talk at the Grand Palace at 10:30 and rushed over to see him. Well obviously you can't just walk in and see the king but I found out you could see his car as he was leaving so I staked out a place. To bad it was in the wrong place so I didn't get to see him. Oh well it just means I have to go back to Thailand some time in the near future to finally see him. Or I have a few more days in Bangkok and crazy stuff happens to me here all the time. Like during my time waiting to see the king a woman sat down next to me. She spoke English and talked to me and we had a conversation. She was so happy I was interested in Buddhism, not paticularly surprising most Thais are. Then though as we were walking to get a better seat to see the King she told me today was also her daughter's birthday who was the same age and that I must have been her daughter in a past life and thus I have come to her when she needed me. Crazy huh? Well anyway the fireworks were great and it was a splendid day. Yesterday I finished seeing everything I wanted to see in Bangkok like the National Gallery and I saw the Buddha movie which was really disappointing and there were no nuns in the entire movie. WTF! They didn't show the beginning of the order even though Maha Pajapati was displayed throughout. I couldn't beleive it, I really couldn't. Anyway I'm running out of time. I'll be off to the beach so next time I post I will proably be back in India!

The Dhammaraja and I

First really big event I've attended of the King's Birthday was tonight which was a lot of fun. There were all these stands set up along the main street and you got this little booklet and you went from stand to stand and they stamped your booklet and gave you a picture of the king. I got nine pictures total! How cool is that? I know it's really cool. Anyway I got all nine and I bought a CD of the King's favorite Jazz music preformed by Thai people and I actually go it signed by one of the artists. I'm going to go searching for a schedule to figure out what exactly is going on these next couple of days. Friends of mine are coming back in to Bangkok tommorow for the celebrations and it is all and all going to a blast. I mean last night was so much fun! It was great running from place to place with these Thai people to get pictures of him. I can't really explain what was so fun about it but the energy. It's going to be a great couple of days, I can tell you that. I went for a little bit of Christmas shopping yesterday. I didnt come back with too much but it was a lot of fun. I'm waiting to hear back from my mom on a couple of things and then I'm going to hopefully finish up shopping. It should be really amazing. I love Bangkok shopping malls. Anyway things are superb here, really. I did hurt my elbow really bad falling of a moving bus but it is healing, I think and it's not too serious. Tonight I think I'm going to go out with a friend to a Mexican Resturant in town that I hear is good. It will be a adventure either way. It's always a adventure in Bangkok.

There and Back Again

Hey everyone. Well it's been very crazy couple of days. Last weekend was Loi Krathong which is where they pay respects to the river and they but these boats made out of banana leaves in with little candles. That day I went out with Bea, a friend who I met in Bodh Gaya and now is here in Bangkok, yeah it's a small world, to a concert at cool little section of one of the shopping malls. The guy was half American and half Thai and a DJ and a acuoustic musician. He started by playing the guitar and sang songs from Death Cab for Cutie and tons of other American band which was really surreal. There is are so many American things here. Not only are 7/11 at every cornor but all sorts of American chains. The new Celine Dion song plays at all the bus stops and most theaters show more Hollywood movies then Thai. It's kind of sad. However it is Bangkok and once you get out of the city it is a little better. Well the guy at the concert was good and we got a signed CD and now I have some funky Thai music. His Cd is a mix of his two passions which is every bit as wonderously strange as it sounds. Anyway afterwards we got some cheese and crackers and we were just going to have picnic when we stumbled upon a beauty pagent. The ushered us in because we were Western and we were treated to feed food and drinks while we watched the most bizarre beauty pagent I have ever seen. It was intresting though. After that it was getting late so we went to a interesting resturaunt in our area and then to bed. I woke up nice and early to go back to Ven. Dhammanada's monestary which was very nice. I got to have some good discussions with her and with the other bikkhunis, samerinis, and maechi. I only spent one day though because I stopped there enroute to Petchaburi this province to the south of Bangkok known for it's temples. I arrived there late and met a German girl who was also looking for a room. So we spent a couple days there and I did see a lot of people there but translators were hard to come by and I only met 2 monks who spoke English. If I do decide to come back and do research in Thailand I am most certainly learning Thai. I feel so awkward not knowing the language. Anyway it was fun, I met some other travellers and it was a nice little vacation from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. It was not a good couple of days for my project but I'm ahead of schedule anyway. So it's one of the people I'm travelling with's birthday today so I think I will go out and celebrate with him and then tommorow I will get back into the project. Actually I'm really excited for Sunday because I'm going to go on alms rounds with the nuns at Ven. Dhammanada's monestary which should be a very intresting experience. Intrestingly enough even though I spent the last months surrounded by monastics I haven't actually seen any go on alms round so that should be very interesting. Well that's it, sorry I had to be a little short and sweet, I'm trying to finish up my paper by Tuesday so I can spend the King's Birthday without worrying so I want to get a little typing in today.

Adventures and Misadventures

Hey all welcome to the contining saga... so I arrived safely at the monastary where I was greeted by barking dogs. I stood for a moment stunned as the dog surronded me and I thought "Okay this is it, I'm going to get bitten by these dogs and spend the rest of my stay in a hospital." There was no one around until out of the cornor of my eye I see a women in white who motioned to me. I walked slowly while the dogs continued to bark towards her and she told me "Make friend! Make friend!" So I do my best to buddy up to the dogs but they pretty much just hate me but I survive the journey to the doggy gate surronding the dining area and office. I get in and find a samerini (a bikkhuni in training) who informs me the Ven. Dhammanada, the women I have came to Songdhamma Kalyani to see, will arrive later that night from Cambodia. So I hang around and chat a little with Dhammamitta another Bhikkuni there. I went to meditation and afterwards the samerini called me over to give insence to the devas so I could have a good night sleep. Well I stumbled over it and somehow managed to upset them and then did more things to appease them but all and all it was fine. The next morning I met Dhammanda who was very nice and I had another awful adventure home. I'm back though and it's great. We did some site seeeing the next day and then Thanksgiving. I googled and found a Mexican Resturant in Bangkok for lunch which was great. Then we went out to the Hard Rock and really drank more then we ate. Well we only had one round at the Hard Rock because it's way expensive and then we went to a small little bar by our hotel. It was fun. Today I went shopping for a new yellow polo and I started writing my paper. Tommorow, hopefully I will be on my way back to the monestary though I might stay in Bangkok one more day. We shall see. I really love this place even if it is breaking my wallet.

One Night in Bangkok...

Hey everyone I'm in Bangkok and it has been a pretty interesting first few days. Well we first had to get to Kolkata. So our train was supposed to leave at 11:30 so we get there at 10:30 just in case. However a different train to Kolkata comes at 11:30. All of my travel mates think this is the one while me and one other person assure that's it not. Then some panic about it being on another platform and so I have to calm down the masses while me and my travel buddy Rob go to find out whats up. Well first we wait a bit but after a hour the train hasn't showed so Rob goes to check but the man refers him to the "Inquiry Office" which he can't find. More waiting then I go with him to find the office. No luck. More waiting then we go again and find it is actually outside the train station but Westerners can actually go in the back door to inquire which requires stepping over the sleeping masses. We find out our train is delayed until 2:30. So we wait. I try to sleep book ended by two Indian men but it's way to creepy so I stay up. Gaya station is shifty during the day. It's not somewhere you want to be at night. Motto creepy. Anyway 2:30 roles around and once again a different train shows up. Back to the inquiry office. Turns out it's the next train which they were unbeleivably right about and we get on and off we got. I slept all right on the train but I woke up early to make sure we got off at the right stop. We did which was great and we had the Taxi take us to Flurries a fancy restuaraunt. Flurries is Pink and a recipient of the MTV Style Awards. They play 80s and 90s pop and apparently who ever chooses the music is a big fan of the Backstreet Boys. The food was yummy, well much like home. Had I gone to a American Resturant I would say my grilled chesse sandwhich and french fries were subpar but I was in India and it was great. Plus they had cheesecake! So it was yummy but really expensive. Okay so I paid less then $10 for my meal but in India that is fancy. I then went to a bar with the boys while the girls went to a internet cafe where we played poker until we met back up with the girls and left for the airport. After finally finding our room we settled in then went on a misguided quest for a Dominos we saw on the way that ended up leading us to a swanky rooftop bar called O2 where we treated ourselve to another fine dining expereince where we celebrated leaving for Thailand (and being out of a monestary) with a bottle of Champagne. We got back slept and woke up at 4am to go to the plane. More waiting, "Wait, is that us?", "No", Run! that you usually expereince when you travel in India but we were on our plane in on the way to Bangkok. The flight was undersold which meant I had a row of 3 seats to myself which I took advantage of to fall into a deep sleep. The stewardess apparently couldn't even rouse me for breakfast. Once we touched down we spent hours in customs then to our destination! Our hotel is nice and surrounded by 3 MALLS! We wideeyed went around and realized we are not in India anymore! Woah, it's like being at home. Only we're in Asia. We also went to the weekend market which I think has gone upscale since my Dad has been there. Actually I think Bangkok in general has changed a ton. Like I remember him saying how shady KFC's were and how you couldn't eat the meat. Well many resturants in Bangkok are cleaner then home and KFC's are nice places and EVERYWHERE. One of the malls by us has 3 MacDonalds, 2 KFCs and 1 Pizzza Hut all in the same mall So we went to the market and looked around in vain for a Santi Asoke Resturaunt which like most of our project inquires turned to be a fruitless effort. So then we retired. I woke up early to go to the monestary where the women my project is based on live. Getting to the town was simple but once there NO ONE knew where this monestary was. That is no one except the motorcycle taxis which I have been warned are death traps knew where it was but I broke down seeing it as my only means of transport to the place and I hopped on one which sending the driver metta and chanting in Pali until I arrived safe and not dead. I'm out of internet time so this story will have to be TBC.

I Still Have Three Fingers Left From Last Diwali

Hey all! This is going to be a short post because I am pretty much exhausted from this week. Finals in India is grueling because nothing is simple. Oh well. I leave for Kolkata (Calcutta) at 9:30 tonight. Well I leave for Gaya at 9:30 then we get to wait around at a shifty train station and board the train at 11:30 and get to Kolkata six hours later, if the train isn't late. Which it could be and we end up waiting until 2 in the morning. Sound like...fun. Anyway it should be all good. We have a day in Kolkata and then we fly out to Bangkok bright and early Sunday morning. I'll proably update once I'm there. I'm doing fine though. India is great. I'm great just really really tired. Pujas have been keeping me up all night including Diwali which is celebrated by giving a bunch of young boys gunpowder with a fuse in it and seeing what happens. It's like fourth of July if you were in a Redneck town with lots of fireworks, no laws, and no manufacturing codes. Yeah...that's India for you.

I Love The Smell Of Burning Trash in the Morning, it Smells like...India

Well I officially can not speak, I've completly lost my voice, go me. This week is going to be crazy. Well especially these next two weeks because I pretty much have to pack up my room, finsih my preliminary research, take finals, finish other corse work, back and prepare for Thailand, and everything else that pops up all in the next two weeks. It is not a time to get sick for six days straight now. Anyway life is going really great in spite of all of this and it is kind of nice to be silent for a day. Being sick has forced me to rest, not as much as I should but some. Tibetan practice is going better with a new teacher. I must and that as awful as my last post made Chokyi Nyima sound he really was a cute guy and he did say some valuable things it's just complicated... I don't know I suppose I'll have to wait until I'm home before I can accuratly describe it. Ah, I totally don't want to think about home now. My hair is growing back and making weird shapes. It naturaly makes a faux-hawk and no I'm not kidding. I debating shaving it my birthday but we'll see how I feel when the time comes. Tommorow I am going over to this big festival at the Thai temple across the river where I am friends with the abbot. There are supposingly 200 Thai pilgrims arriving which will be crazy! Anyway it should be fun, I can't wait. I need to interview some of them for my final project for Anthropology so hopefully I will be able to talk! Anway I don't think I mentioned that at the Chod ceremony a couple of days ago where 1500 Bhutanese came. They had these horns they used made of real human femurs! It's awesome! Anyway I hate to cut this short but I mean you guys got a good long post a few days ago so I'm off.

So They Dress Up Like Animals and Dance Around Like Crazy People?

Well the internet has been down for a week. It just got back up and running yesterday and it went down last Saturday. Yeah that was fun... As a result the Post Office and Bank have been closed for most of the week, yeah that was fun too... So communication was shot. It was fine though and I survived. Let me tell you though that was the only weird and slightly crappy thing that happened this week. First Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche was here this week along with 24 followers, all Western. We all watched almost with our jaws dropped when jeeps pulled up and 24 white people moved in the Burmese Vihar. I am usually surrounded by white people but they are the 33 students of my program. Usually when I walk out in town and I see a white person I either know them personally or have seen then before. Plus the 33 people I live with have all just spent the past two months living here in India so we are kind of a different breed then the new 24 who dropped in. We called them the entorage. They were people just here to listen to Rinpoche speak. My friend Chris described these followers best when he said "It looks like they drank the Kool-aid". Nice people really but they were so enamored of this man it was a little creepy. A Rinpoche is usually a toku which is a reincarnated lama. Chokyi Nyima is from a family where all his brothers are rinpoches and one of his brother's children is a rinpoche analyze that as you will. I didn't really make a connection. I usually one who likes to veer away from hype. Plus my expereinces with Tibetan Buddhism isn't that great. Well okay really I love Tibetans but it's the Westerners who follow who I have a problem with. Not all of them some of them are loyal practioners but there are some who I feel chose the religon because it went with the color of their new shoes. These are the people, like the women I saw today who come into the Mahabodhi temple in clothes that I wouldn't wear back at home and expecially not to a holy site and never ever in India and absolutly possitivly never where to a holy site in India where there are monks. They come with their cute little mats to do prostrations but they have absolutly no idea about their religion. It's worse back at home. I don't know why, maybe it's because of the popularity of the Dalai Lama but these people always seem to choose Tibetan Buddhism. So a combination with this view and the shock of the entorage I was either expecting something really profound from this rinpoche or I was done. Well many people might argue with me but my first impression of Chokyi Nyima was not profound. He is a intellgent man but there is nothing more mystical about him then any of our other teachers. I have to say that I was doing the sound system so I sat in the back for most of his lectures so I didn't have a really good oppertunity to make a conection but I think he was the teacher I had the worst connection with. This is resulting from a combination of things: 1) The hype and perceptions that I got before I met him 2) We just left Zen and our Sensei really hit a bone with me. I loved the man and I really think I will go to Australlia sometime soon to study with him. The man bought 5 kilos of cheese from Australlia to make grilled cheese for all of us on his birthday. Is that not a man after my own heart? So I was really sad to see him go and I realized that I was constantly making comparisons between the two which is bad because they are both trying to different things and in different situations. 3) I couldn't make a connection and I constantly felt distant from him resulting partially because I always ended up sitting physically distant from him. 4) I only had a week to get to know him which was difficult because there was no time to give up my first perceptions and foster a grass roots relationship. 5) I got very sick which is my next topic of discussion. So over half of us got sick. It started on Wednesday when we made a impromtu trip to Rajgir, which I will talk about in a second. Several people got sick the night before then several more were sick on the trip and several more were sick the next two days. I got scik the day after the trip. The night we got back I threw up three times from midnight to 2am. The next day it became a game show: What can Robyn eat that she won't throw up in one to three hours. The answer was dittly squat. I am serious. I at a orange for breakfast and it came up, I had to leave Anthropology class. I threw up and went right back to learning. The thing is I didn't feel really exhausted I just was hurling all the time. At night I ate two saltine crackers and just that was enough to wake me at night to commune with the toilet. The next day though I kept down breakfast and I was fine the rest of the day. The day before a bunch of people took Bodhisattva vows and commitments to Rinpoche as a teacher. I usally jump right into expereinces like this but I really didn't feel anything for Rinpoche or the tradition so I didn't sign up which means I didn't get a TIbetan name but it also means I don't have to stick around until all sentient beings are enlightened. I was going to go to the ceremony but I threw up lunch right before I went so I stayed behind. Like I said I was fine the next day then Saturday, the day after I woke up and my lymph nodes had swollen to twice the size. It hurt to swallow and I was not feeling to hot. It was the day of our Halloween party so I got up and ready and was active anyway. I took my tempture because I felt a little warm and I realized that I had a fever of a 100.8 degrees. Didn't stop me though took two paracetamols and was fine and went off to partyh that night. Before I get into that on Wednesday Rinpoche took us out to Rajgir and Nalanda. We were told about it literally less then 24 hours before we went. Tuesday morning they told us in our meditation lecture, "We're going on a field trip tommorow we leave a 5am wake up is at 4:30. We are moving classes back so you'll have class on Saturday." No I'm not kidding I had class on Saturday. So it was fine but once again I'm going to make a comparison with Sensei and Rinpoche. So I talked earlier about going to the mountains, well Sensei was there and he was just along for the ride. We had ask him to lead us in meditation. He was one of us. With Rinpoche it was like "Okay, let's go to Vulture's Peak okay you have five minutes to explore then lets listen to RInpoche recite the Heart Sutra which we've heard litterally fifty times before during Zen (we chanted it in CHinese every night) and then talk for a hour. Okay that's finished no more time to look at this cool mountain let's go." Nalanda was the same way which was more of a pity because it is the ruins of this beautiful university and it was amazing. Yet we had ten minutes to explore, well really just follow Rinpoche while he explored then we sat down and listened to a Theravadan monk talk about the ruins then here Rinpoche ask him questions then listen to another hour long talk. I mean it was very nice but I really wish, since we spent two hours in a jeep there and back battling car sickness that we had more time to see the sites and less time hearing a dharma talk that could have been given when we were back at home. One cool thing, well strange thing is at Vulture's peak they had like chairs where two men carried you up the mountain. We walked but we saw a bunch of Thai pilgrims do it. Oh! About my sickness and everyone else getting sick. People said (and in this context by people I mean the Kool-aid drinkers) said that people often get sick around Rinpoche and that it is because you are cleansing you body and getting rid of negative karma. Let me say this, if I man gets people sick just by being around I don't really see that as a good thing. The more likely scenerio that someone suggested is that the entroage all coming from Chokyi Nyima's temple in Nepal brought down some crazy illness. Or we just all got sick. It's fucking India it breeds illness like rabbits! Anyway, we had our Halloween party and it was so much fun. I dressed up like a Moghul Princess and everyone else had crazy costumes. We had dinner and then hours upon hours of sober dancing that was just down right fun. It was seriously the best Halloween party I have ever attended. The second to last song was "I Beleive In A Thing Called Love" and I squealed with delight hereing the first guitar riffs and everyone laughed. It was amazing. Man! I'll have to continue this later because I have to get going but I love you all. Two weeks until Thailand!

Zen Mind, Travel Mind

Well I've got the weekend off and I decided not to travel and bum around Bodh Gaya for the weekend. Today we went to Gaya to go to a movie theater to see a Bollywood movie. That was a trip. Theaters in India are huge! The balcony is about the size of a normal American theater and those are the good seats where we sat. There is a huge floor on the bottom which are the cheap seats. In India there are no rules about talking during movies. Not only can you answer your phone you can have a fifteen minute coversation on it. People yell at the screnes and hold normal conversation while the movie is going on. The movie was a horror movie, I think, with more attractive Bollywood men. It was so much fun and they gave us free sodas! This week I have been doing a lot of prep work for Thailand. That means interviewing monks and finding monks to translate for interveiws with other Thai monk and currently I am searching for Maechii which I am assured exisit here though I have not yet found one. I have also been reading a lot. My hope is that I will be able to get a lot of work done now so I am have more time for myself in Thailand. Speaking of which I got a yellow shirt made today to wear on Mondays and I will be there for the King's birthday which is one of the biggest holidays of the year. They are releasing a animated movie of the life of the Buddha that day and we have been given the name of a movie theater that will for sure show it with English subtitles. What a better way to celebrate the Thai monarchy then to learn about the Buddha. It makes sense to Thais beleive me. Anyway I've been buying gifts and hanging with the friends I have made in Bodh Gaya. One firend left for Bangkok this week and I went to goodbye dinners three nights in a row. It's great to be away from people on the program. I've found the place where cool Western or non-Indian locals go to hang out and now I am one of them. It's great. I also got offered a job to manage a store where I could get free room and board and Hindi lessons along with a stipend of 100 rupees which is only like two dollars but a lot of money in India. I said no though because I have made myself promise that I will finish up my degree before I go running off to be the Western local in some third world country. Our Sensei left yesterday and it was sad to see him go but I am assured a place to stay should I ever end up in Melborne Australia. I love Zen a lot and if I find the time and money I am totally there. Plus I've never been to the land down under so it gives me another excuse to go. Oh, I've got to get going, it's a full moon and there is a festival at the temple. I love being in Bodh Gaya!

Note for Nick (because I can't figure out how to comment on comments): I beleive the Cusack movie was called Bull Run or something . I don't know how familar you are with Buddhist meditation but I'll be detailed anyway. We first started with Vipassana using the Mahasi Sayadaw techniques for the first three weeks. Our teacher was taught by the same man who taught Joseph Goldstein, well one of his teachers. We then moved to Zen, our teacher was kind of removed from the Japanese system but he most closely identifies with the Soto movement. We will start Tibetan tommorow but I haven't really figured out which style though we are have a Rinpoche teach us which is pretty cool even if you don't beleive all that crazy Tibetan stuff. I have to save the paticulars of the Zen retreat for our discussion when we get back.

Raise Your Hand If You Like Effigies

Hey all! Well I've bought my tickets to Thailand so I suppose it is set in stone. I am loving Zen though I think I'm allergic to something at the Japanese Temple. I got to speak to our Sensei in Japanese and it made me realize how much I miss Japan. I thinking somewhere in my near future I will be making another trip but a much longer stay. It's still so much fun here. This weekend in durga-puja which is a HUGE festival in Northern India, Robert compared it to Christmas so you can imagine the craziness. In Varanasi and Calcutta they make a huge effigy of Rama and fill it with fireworks and light it on fire. They might do that here but we don't know yet. Speaking of effigies there was a huge protest the other night. We were at a travel agent figuring out Thailand stuff with the six students going and two of our professors and they locked us in as a huge mass of protesters with torches walked by and the burned a effigy in front of the Mahabodhi. The government has been pulling down shops on land any government owned land which means the pulled down a large number of shops here making it very empty. They shop keepers are protesting and hear there is talks of a strike. See I don't have to be in Michigan to witness a good union strike. So yeah that's crazy. Tonight is Bollywood movie night which is going to be a barrel of fun. This weekend I am going on a 24 hour silent Zen retreat which I think I will actually enjoy. I never realized until we started Zen that meditation could be fun. By the way I am lately bruising easier then normal so I am trying supplements my health advisers are giving me. Sensei hit me with a stick and it wasn't incredibly hard but a bruise took over about a quarter of my back. A couple days after it had time to heal I measured it and it was still four and a half inches. Pretty cool huh? I know you all are jealous. Beyond that it is fun as always and the Queen song "Havin' a Ball" is playing in my head right now. Love you all and talk to you next time I go into town to do some good modern-fashioned internet research.

Oxbridge School of English and the Other Six Wonders of India

Today has been absolutely fantastic! This morning we went to a holy cave. According to Theravadan tradition this was the cave where Buddha meditated for six years before coming down to Bodh Gaya. The Tibetan Buddhist and Hindus have different stories as well. Regaurdless this cave is in a mountain (not a very high one) which we climbed up. Doing Zen meditation on top of a mountain was amazing. Getting there was a adventure. We rode over to this "shallow" spot in the river but we still got wet up to our thighs. It's funny Robert, the program director, is always warning us about not touching anything and walking seldomly etc. etc. but he was perfectly fine allowing us to wade a Indian River. I don't know what I was stepping on and I don't want to. We could only hike up our pants so far so we ended up all getting wet. It was tons of fun. We also walked through rural India which was a lot of fun and astoundingly not many people asked for money. The walk was great until after all of that we had to walk part way up the mountain which was tiring but we all survied. We saw the cave and our Tibetan teacher told us all the stories related to the cave. Then we hiked up the rest of the way and it was as I have kind of already said: blow-your-mind astonding. We spent about a half an hour exploring and meditating. Most of us have decided we are definatly going back. It was just was the most amazing experience thus far. As I said I was at peace for the rest of the day. Even the boy coming around me asking for books and biskets didn't bother me. I went to this shop called the Kudrun Bazzar to exchange something and I met this really terrific lady who will be in Bangkok the same time as I will. She was fasinating to talk to and before you know it 2 hours have passed by. I was going to see the Thai monk again but I spent way too much time there but there is always tommorow. I went to the Taiwanese temple today which was and saw a lady who didn't speak English but I assume she was Tiawanese and she showed me around the temple. It was small and it I know now why I didn't see it before. I met a Japanese monk the other day who was pretty cool but I haven't been to the Thai forest monestary yet. I'm still looking for cool monks and other people in Bodh Gaya. I don't know if I have said this or not but I have been making it my personal mission to get out and see more of Bodh Gaya. I have done well except I got a really awful case of food poisoning which resulted in one terribly awful night by my friend the toilet and one morning where it hurt to get out of bed. I was fine by the late afternoon and my travels have continued. I am falling more in love in India as each day passes and I can't imagine at the moment how I will ever be able to return home. It's so weird my manner has changed in little way since I have left. I really now can't imagine after hand washing my clothes how having a washing machine will be. Today I have decided that if I hope for anything from this trip it will be that this manner that has resulted from my experiences here will continue has I come home. Today I realized that I don't care what I do in life as long as I can spend as much time out of the country has possible. This women I met is European and she runs a shop here with her Indian boyfriend and she teaches during the off-season. I could be happy doing that. I could teach. I could be a peacekeeper. I could be a Buddhist nun. Really the thing I have realized that really matters to me is seeing the world and I'll do it in anyway I can. Just sitting here thinking about today makes me realize how great it was and how great this trip is. I have met so many interesting people. One of those people is my Anthropolgy professor who is sitting next to me right now reading celebrity gossip and cackling. Erick is a interesting person. Ever since I decided that he would be a ideal candidate for Satan's quirky sidekick he has embodied it. Someday I will write his unathorized biography about his exploits with the devil. Speaking of which I have been writing so much this week! We started Zen meditation which is really great. Our Sensei is amazing and he has two Australain assistants who are great. Anyway they were talking about how in Zen you can make anything your practice. Peter applies Zen practices to his sculpting while Tom is apparently a absolutly fabulous Jazz pianist. So I have been making writing my practice and it is going wonderfully. On a side note yesterday we all gathered in one of the shacks that we here in India call a resturaunt and watch Ferris Bueller's Day off. I sat next to Sensei and there was something great about being in a room full of Americans in India watchig that movie with a Japanese monk giggling beside me that was a experience I will never forget. Oh India! I so look foward to my next weeks here. Watch out, I might never come back!

Hello Again!

So I am currently researching on the internet and I figured I should stop by and post while I'm online. Plus it is a much needed break from studies, and the computer froze but notepad is still working. Well next week I buy my tickets to Bangkok which is very exciting. The more exciting news is that I haven't gotten sick yet which is much cause to celebrate...not that there is much you can do to get your party on when you live in a monestary. No word yet whether my pictures are safe or not. Hopefully they are so lets cross our fingers. If not it's anicca (see the bottom of the blog for translation). If not so many people on this trip have cameras I will still be able to access a plethera of pictures. So don't worry friends you will still be able to see great pictures of Robyn's adventures in India. In other news we started Zen this morning and unfortunatly this paticular teacher will not be hitting us with sticks. I know collective sight right? Our Zen teacher is very cool along with both of his assistants all who hail from the land down under. Melborne to be exact. Tommorow I will continue my quest to meet cool and interesting monks by going to the two Japanese temples. I also have a lead, i.e. a friend who met him, who says the abbott of the Thai Forest Monestary in town speaks decent English and is pretty awesome. He greeted my friend with a machete. I wish I knew more then some Japanese and a little Hindi because I feel like I missing out by only talking to those who speak English. I am going to see if one of the Thai monks can teach me some elementry Thai since I will be leaving to go there in a little over a month. Also I have been trying to use English words in my post but I am going to make a small Pali dictionary at the end so if I use any of the original words you can understand:
Bikkhu - Buddhist Monk
Bikkhuni - Buddhist Nun
Anicca - Impermenance
Dhamma - The Teachings of Buddha
Sangha - The Community of Monks and Nuns
That's all for now I might include some more words later on but I have to go. Oh, I'll have to wait until next time to rant about tourists who go to the Mahabodhi and decide after reading on book they are Buddha scholars!

Well That Was Fun!

Well I am back from Varanasi. I didn't realize how much Bodh Gaya has become a home to me until just the sight of the numerous monestaries brought me the comforting feeling of home. Varanasi was fun. I bought tons of gifts and ran out of money way too quickly but it was worth it. I didn't swim in the Ganga but I did put my hand in it. I had it all planned out, how I was going to do it, but my plans were thawarted by my mind and my friends. I'm sure my parents are happy about that. The first morning we went on a river boat tour at dawn all the was up from Asi Ghat, the southern most ghat where we were staying to the main cremation ghat. We got out and had a tour of it and I saw my first dead body out of six in the three days I was there. One was floating only a few feet from out boat on the way back. We went shopping which was fun and I got some gifts and we did a lot of just plain old good wandering around Benares. We went to Saranath with Pat which marks my second out of the four main Buddhist pilgrimage sites. I got a Bodhi leaf from the tree there which was great because it takes mad skill to get one from our tree in Bodh Gaya because there are so many others including monks lying in wait for one to fall. What surprised me about Varanasi was how remarkably not modern it was. The ghats were mostly in disrepair and the hotels and shops were only small step above our own in Bodh Gaya. Plus the power still went out. It was for no more then 10 minutes and happened rarely but it was very surprising. India has made me realize how funny it is that Americans are so used to their rich lifestyle that after three days without power we were rioting in the streets. People can be so uncivilized. I watched some Indian tv and I saw a Western with John Cusack in it in English but the Audio wasn't synched with the Video and Hulk Hogan show in Hindi. Well I have to get going but all and all it was a good trip away from the Vihar but I'm happy to be back. Oh I didn't get any comments in my last post, this isn't me being vain but can someone comment so I know I have fixed the problem.

Hey Again

I realized that somehow my comments were turned off. They are back on. I am leaving today for Varanasi AND I now know what I am going to do in Thailand. I will be studying the women's bikkhuni movement there. Hopefully I will be staying with Chatsumarn Kabilsingh who is simpley amazing a leader of the movement. If that goes through I will be staying in a monestary (all women so perhaps you would prefer I call it a nunnery but I hate that term) near Bangkok. So I've got that going for me. Beyond that I've been working on school work and harboring a theory that you can't reincarnate as a inverterbrate. A theory which was destroyed by a Jataka tale involving a crab...oh well. I am very excited about leaving today it is going to be SO MUCH FUN! I can not wait! Beyond that life in India is going great but I can't beleive how much time flies!

Well That Was Fun...

So I am out of robes after 8 days of nunhood. My feelings are mixed. On Saturday I went to this Thai monestary across the river to talk to the abbott. Me and a friend had to interveiw him for a assignment so we asked all sorts of questions about the monk hood. He started talking about his first month and such as a monk and how hard it was. I realized that What I was experiencing was just the adjustment period which of course is going to have a lot of setbacks and I started feeling bad that I am not going to have a chance right now to get over it and just experience being a nun. SO with regret I disrobed today. Perhaps another time will call me to ordain again. Perhaps not. I am glad that I could leave it all with a positive. On Sat. I was like "Yeah it was nice but I'm never doing that again" and now I'm considering ordaing again. So we'll see. I mean it is difficult at first. I can't handle money so buying anything is out of the question. I can't touch men. I can't eat after noon. I can't sing, dance, or listen or watch any form of entertainment. Those are just the rules for a novice. "Real" nuns have to take over 200 precepts. So I don't know how I feel about it all yet. I do know that even if I do decide I didn't enjoy the experience I have some great stories. I mean how many of your friends can say "This one time when I was a nun in India..." It is pretty awesome. As a result of the ordination last week was touch and go. There were times where I was ready to move and live here and others I was asking myself what possessed me to go to India. I feel that's to be expected. I can't beleive however that is is October! How did that happen? I am leaving Thursday to spend the weekend in Varanasi with some friends here. There are about 12 of us going along with Pat our history teacher who is simply amazing. She is going to give us a tour of Saranath which is about a half an hour from Varanasi which is where Buddha gave his first sermon. Also don't worry folks I will not be swimming in the Gangha...well at least not in Varanasi but I may or may not make a detour to a safer part because it is the freakin' Ganges! If I come back with five arms I'll kind of look like a Hindu god so it will be cool. You will all still love me...right? Well I am for sure going to Thailand from Nov. 17 until Dec. 11 so that will be fun. I have no idea what I will be studying there yet. I hoping to find that some crazy man will stay next to me in my hotel room and give me a map to a secret island. That way I could do my experience on "When Utopias Go Wrong: A Investigative Report." I really wanted to go to Cambodia to study reconcillation practices after the Khmer Rouge but it's still too dangerous to go. I really wanted to go to Burma but then...Oh man I'll have some interesting "This one time I lived with 100 Burmese pilgrims in a Buddhist monestary when monks were getting shot in their home country..." stories for when I get back. So I'm off to Thailand and hopefully I can study the same subject in the Cambodian refugee communities. If not maybe Political Legitmacy and the Thai Monarchy or How I Got Thrown in a Thai Jail for Speaking about the Goverment. Or perhaps I could become a school teacher for the King of Siam...How My Uneventful Life With the King Became a Musical. Yeah really I've got nothing except I know that Thailand is going to be fun and I'll figure out what I'm going to do sometime between now and NOvember. In other news I am enjoying classes and I have no idea how I will ever be able to return to normal college after this. It is strange though when you live with your proffesors. You have to make sure you do the readings. Not that I didn't do all my homework right on time before...*nervous laughter*. This weekend most people went on a meditation retreat and the few of us who stayed behind and bonded. Other then that last week I pretty much did nunly things and I did lots of homework an reading and hung out with a Thai monk who spent four years in Queens. Ah I love the things I can do in India. Oh one note. I have been using way less internet time then expected so I think you guys need to send me way more emails.

New Developments

Hey all! I'm going to be quick but I wanted to drop by and give another update. I will be ordaining as a Buddhist nun on Sunday so I won't be updating next week because going into town as a westerner in robes is...complicated. I will be shaving my head for a second time which is a little sad because I kind of like the little fuzz that grew back. Classes are going well though I have a ton of homework. Meditation is...well um...a half hour of sitting and concentrating on breathing in and out which is hard when my mind goes EVERYWHERE! I'm getting better though. I have been practicing walking meditation at the Mahabodhi which I am MUCH better at. I can't get into my MBC email account not that I need to check it but it is a little frustrating. I beleive I will be going to Thailand at the end of November and I will be going to Varanasi in a couple weeks. I buy my train tickets for the latter trip tommorow which is very exiting. Beyond that things have really settled down. I am still loving Bodh Gaya and I really don't want to leave...ever. Okay when the power is down and there are no fans to break the heat I do have spurts where I wish I was home but only for a working fan. If I found a battery powered fan I would be set. A few days a go there was a puja which was a big festival and it was for the God of workers so everyone blessed their tools and by tools I mean anything from horses to phones. We got to paticipate in a puja for some of the people who live in the monstary's cars. It was a lot of fun. We got to put incents under the cars hood and eat sweets. Life is good!

A Whole New World

Well I have a surprise for everyone. I shaved my head. It was the most liberating experience, I feel like a new person and as I am experiencing new spirtual sensations my head is experiencing new bodily sensations. Feeling the wind on my head for the first timed was incredible. I also have this very cool birthmark on my head that I never saw before. I feel more alive and more in touch with everything. I went to the Mahabodhi where the Bodhi tree is yesteday and I almost cried. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Also I have a chance in a couple of weeks to ordain as a Buddhist nun and I might do it. On a side note today was the first day of classes. My history class is amazing but I might switch from Hindi to Anthropology because I feel it is more along the lines of what I feel I should be learning right now. These three days have been a beautiful spirtual experience unlike anything else I have ever felt. Bodh Gaya is beautiful and the place where I am staying is incredible! I am staying in a single for the moment because I wanted some private time. My room is so cozy and being able to finally unpack has been amazing. Also the food here is very yummy we have five meals a day the usual with the addition of two tea times. I feel surrounded by happiness. Oh! I realized it's been a while since I have posted. I bought four sets of Indian clothes in Delhi. We went to this store called Fab India and it was great! It was pretty expensive but when you think that I got four whole outfits for under $150 it is pretty amazing. I look very stylish. One of them is embrodered all over and the craftmenship is great. It was so much fun shopping for new clothes. Also on the way to Bodh Gaya our train was stopped by protesters. We waited for over two hours while the police negotiated. Their we actually a bunch of army men on the train with rifles and it was pretty scary. Nothing harmed however. It's been an incredible experience, I know there is so much I have yet to tell everyone but I feel a little overwhelmed at the moment. I'll be back in less then a week to tell you how I am still feeling. Right now I can think of no other place in the whole world I would rather be then in where I am and it is a great feeling. I know this will totally rock my world.

TII: This is India

So I am in India. Currently I am am in Delhi. People told me that India would be a emotional rollarcoaster ride and these few days have been living proof. I have never felt such a combination of crying one minute and total joy the next. Actually I have only cried once and after a long cry I think I am better. Yesterday I wasn't really in touch with my emotions. I kind of was in a daze. I hurt my ankle my last day in London which no one should worry about but I have been a little self-conscious about my limp. It's a little painful but not so much. The worst part was as we landed all the tip-tip birds as my family calls them (better known as the people who want to hall your luggage for a fee) flocked to me because of the limp. It was not a great introduction to India. That day we went to a bazaar and to the shopping district to look. There were hawkers everywhere. I was groped by a man along with several other girls. That is one of the worst parts of going to India. I have never been so aware of the fact that I was a woman and in such a negative way. There was this body building competition and it was outside but women were not aloud to go near it. Having to watch something from a window because of your sex is a little frustrating. I know I will get used to it but it is a big change. I guess my first day in Delhi was not fun but I was in such a daze from shock and exhaustion that I didn't notice how I was feeling. I knew I was not doing amazing but I wasn't prepared for the rush of emotion that hit me when I called my dad. I tried not to cry but I immediatly teared up when I heard his voice. I got off the phone and I went to my room and I cried for a while then got in the shower and went to bed. It was the best thing I did because I was able to deal with my bad first image of India up in personal and the sleep it off. I feel so much better now and I can officially report I love it here. I feel bad because I don't want my father to think I am having a awful time now. I will call him and perhaps Alyse later but it's really hard to call home. I am realizing now why they say it is better to minimize contact. I just need to get a better footing in India before I call again so I can handle that enomorous rush of homesickness that I get when I call home. Delhi is great though. We went to two Mehrauli Archaeological Park and the Baha'i Temple today. Both of them were very cool. The Mehrauli was interesting because it was originally Hindu then torn down and rebuilt as a Mosque then changed by rulers throughout the centuries like the British. It's interesting to see the layers of history. Our guide was Hindu and he had a different spin then others. The Baha'i Temple looked like a cross between the Sydney Opera House and the Durian shaped building in Singapore but it's designed to look like a Lotus flower. It was a nice tour and we saw the India gate as well as the British built goverment buildings. We had a really yummy lunch after and we exchanged money so now I have a huge was of Indian cash. Tommorow we are going shopping for clothes which will be nice because I didn't bring many and they are starting to get smelly. We go to Bodh Gaya on Tuesday which is very exciting. I am learning to like Delhi but I feel once I get into the routine in Bodh Gaya I will really learn to love India. I might post later while I am in Delhi but I'm not sure. I hope everyone is having a truely wonderful time!

London Calling

So I wasn't going to post for a while but I had to get my calling card information and I have like 40 min. left of internet and I have already gone through my email. It is a really slow computer but I suppose it is getting me prepared for the world of blogging in India. So I am writing to tell you that I saw We Will Rock You because student rush tickets rock seriously. Plus I went to the National Potrait Gallery, the National Gallery, and the Royal Academy of Art. I have met all the cool people I am going to India with and many of us have hit it off. We had a very long orientation today and I learned all sorts of new things like most of us are scared to death of getting sick. I leave tommorow evening for India which is just absolutely spledid. London has been great though and I really have forgotten how much I love this city. Tonight I am going out with the group to get Indian food which is weird since we are going to have a lot of that coming up. We also went to the British Museum and I saw some things I didn't see before and realized that there are a lot of artifacts there from Bodh Gaya. One thing I am not looking forward to is the 100 degree heat and 100% humidity where I am going. It will be fun though we have all sorts of plans to see festivals and the Dalai Lama might make a apperence in Bodh Gaya this November which would be thrilling. I am so looking forward to it even if today they prepared us for the rough time ahead. That's all for now. I'll be spending a few days in Delhi before I finally get to my destination so I will try to write again then. Until then cheers!

London Musings

Hello everyone! I am in London now. The trip was nice except the Tube isn't working and it took me little to handle the bus system. However I am here and I have already been to the British Museum which was my 1 goal for yesterday. I didn't however get to the National Portrait Gallery but perhaps I'll have time today. If not I can handle not spending £5 to see pictures of Nell Gwyn. I did see the house where Peyps lived which was exciting since he is my best friend and all. I have met one person from the trip, a girl named Rose and I have been hanging out with her. It's been tons of fun. Others should be coming in today so I can meet everyone coming with me. London is very fun and I went to the West End to look though I can't afford to go see We Will Rock You, darn. I have done a lot of wandering and walking. I wanderend into the Blackfrairs district and even though I know the original is long gone it reminded me of home. No Globe for me either. Unfortunatly there is not the time or budget. I am saving money for India. Good thing the British Museum is free. I will be going there again today with others who haven't seen it. Oh, I saw the Rosetta Stone there, which I forgot was there. It was awesome. Hopefully I'll get some art in today but if not I suppose I can live with that. I am going to be in India in a few days and that is exciting. This post is all over the place, sorry. I slept like 15 hours last night because I didn't sleep on the plane and I bought cheese and crackers for dinner because I know there won't be much cheese where I am going. Next time I post I will be at my destination. Also I have desided that I am going to post every Tuesday, god willing but my Tuesday might at times be your Monday. Okay I have been random enough so I am going to end and hope everyone is having a great time at home! I don't have spell check so I hope this post isn't to awful to read! Have fun and I will talk to you all in less then a week!
-Robyn

Getting Closer

All right so the trip is getting closer! I'm in Staunton right now visiting people before I leave in just a couple of weeks. Today I am updating with more about the trip, my progress and updated contact information.
I wanted to give some quick information about the trip because I have realized that many of you don't know much about where I'm going. I'll start with the obvious: I am going to India for the fall semester. I am leaving for London on Sept. 3 where I will have an orientation and then leave for India on the 7th. I will be back in the States on Dec. 22. During that time I will be living in Bodh Gaya, India. I am going through the Buddhist Studies in India program at Antioch . I will be living in a Buddhist monastery there and I will be taking classes on Buddhist History, Meditation, and Hindi. At the end of these courses we have a period of independent study where we go out and learn on our own and come back with some form of project. Bodh Gaya in the northern region and a famous pilgrimage town, its claim to fame is the Bodhi tree that Buddha became enlightened under. While I am there I will be getting used to cold water showers, Asian style toilets, purifying any water that comes in contact with my mouth, hand writing essays and frequent times without power. All of which will be so worth it for this experience.
I am pretty much prepared to go, I got my shots. It's always scary going into a travel appointment because basically they sit you down and tell you all the things you could die of where you are going. Always a great place to learn new facts though like did you know you can get Herpes from a monkey bite. Fascinating. Only four shots before I could get out of there and lots of pills and only one bad reaction. Not a bad trip really. I'm getting really excited about going and I'm sure there will be way more exciting things to write about then my adventures in packing a bag with everything I need that weights only 40lbs.
The most important reason I'm updating is to give you the low down on how to contact me. Which you can do in three ways:
Blog: This blog is made so that you can just check at your leisure and I can update at mine. I'll have detailed updates about once a week. Internet is sketchy at best so I can't make any promises but this blog will be my first priority once I get on the computer. Also I will be checking comments and I will ever so grateful to see your smiling posts of support.
Email: I do have an email address specifically for this trip. I'm doing that to avoid spam and emails and updates that I really don't have to worry about until I get back. My email address is robynindia@gmail.com. As I said internet is touch and go and I will not be spending more then an hour a week online. My first priority will be updating this blog. My second will be to check email. What I'm getting at is though I will look forward to your emails I will not be prompt in responding so don't be surprised if it takes at least a couple of weeks for me to respond if I get a chance to respond at all.
Mail: Snail mail is slow but effective. As far as private correspondence goes it is the best way to reach me. It takes about a week to get here and I about a week to get my response back to the States. If you want to talk to me one on one this is the best way. Again I might not have time for emails but I can write letters anytime. If you email me at the aforementioned email address I can get you the address.
As you have probably seen from the description above contact with me while I'm in Bodh Gaya will be limited and slow. I am going to try to do my best to keep everyone updated while I am gone. Until then I will be anxiously awaiting my departure date and clearing up my last duties here in America.

An Introduction

As many of you know I will be leaving Sept. 3rd for India. Some of you might know that communication is limited and at best I can expect email once a week. That being what it is I decided to create a blog where I can update every one a lot easier then trying to respond to emails or relying on people to update others via word of mouth. Yey for technology. I'm going to try to update once a week but I am told the internet is slow and unreliable at best so I am warning everyone in advance that this is a experiment and I have not promising that it will work out well. If this does not work just imagine I am having fun in India and having the time of my life, which I will. Before I leave I will be posting some minor updates throughout the summer to keep everyone posted. Until then have fun!