Prisoner of Shangri-la

So just a quick update, things are getting busier and busier by the day. Only 12 days left in Rebgong! I went to Northwest Nationalities University in Lanzhou, Gansu and successfully procured a student residence card which lasts for 9 months, all for a measly $50 US. Whether or not I’ll go there as a student (or even possibly as a English teacher) is still up in the air, although I like the campus with its high stone buildings with traditional Chinese roofs. It almost felt like Columbia as it’s also in close proximity to downtown Lanzhou. So for now, visa troubles solved.

And finally to complete the Tibetan dancing trilogy, I present Tibetans breakdancing…or rather my students breakdancing. Amazing how pop culture finds a way into almost every nook and cranny of the known world…”everywhere the light touches”. Currently reading The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman….scary scary book.

Main Classroom Building, originally uploaded by grimlockq.

Follow the link to see a photo tour of the school. This large imposing white building is where most of the classes are held. Directly behind it is Rowong Monastery, a famous Geluk monastery.

My first week of teaching done! It’s early evening as I write this in my “fly” pair of 5 kuai slippers I bought at the supermarket matched in style only by a skimpy (or mid-thigh length) pair of boxer-briefs. To much information you say?

But I digress…I have to say that this will be a pretty relaxing job, I think. I’ll only have between 12-14 classes a week of 45 minutes each with plenty of free time to read, do yoga, cook my own food, learn Tibetan/Chinese, meditate (fingers crossed), and generally establish a life here. Though I haven’t really made any friends yet, I hope I will once I start learning the language. My first Tibetan class is this Sunday morning and I’ve been trying to study some Amdo dialect on my own. The central Tibetan that I studied in school and the Amdo dialect spoken in Tongren are mutually unintelligible.

Plans for the weekend? No clubbing here. Might wander around the town and the monasteries snapping photos and buying some odds and ends to fix up my apartment.

ETP A Close-up, originally uploaded by grimlockq.

These are some of my students from ETP A, the most advanced class.