We Got Our Chinese Visas and We Are Off to Tibet!

We just got the call from Roger, the man who is arranging our trip to Tibet and we were given our Chinese visas and itinerary was approved, so we are leaving Kathmandu on Saturday morning for a few weeks in Tibet! We are meeting the others in our small group tomorrow afternoon, but not before Luke and I go to get our passports and head to the US Embassy to proudly caste our votes for Barack Obama for president of our home sweet home.

Luke is feeling about 95% again, still needing to sleep a little more than usual, but otherwise, good as new. We were invited to lunch at my teacher's home by him and his wife last week. We had a good time and it was great to be in home with food being cooked and with shoes piled by the front door. Their young daughter played around us while we talked and ate on the living room floor. Even though our hotel here is very homey, it is not the same as a home.

Most our locally made friends have all past through now, but on Monday we had a great day hanging out with a Luke's high-school girlfriend, Nicole, and her boyfriend Ian. ( It really isn't as odd as it may sound---honestly! ) Like Luke and me, Nicole and Ian had also spent the spring and summer unloading many of their possessions and a home to make room for their own trip. The similarities and common interests don't stop there, not by a long shot actually, so we had a great day enjoying all of the same things and also sharing in profound disappointment when we found out that all of amala's apple pie was gone. Luke and Nicole had not seen each other for over 10 years, so to meet-up again here in Kathmandu, and for she and I to also meet for the first time here, was really sweet.

I have been reading and studying quite a bit during the last few weeks while Luke has been healing up and working. We have a nice little routine of life going here in Boudha and friendships with some of the locals who we see everyday. I made 2 CDs of new music for one cafe who has yummy food and the coolest kids working there. They were so happy to have some new tunes and I was happy to have something new to listen to there! Music has been the best gift to share so far. For about $0.25, I can buy a blank CD and with my laptop, make a gift of one of my favorite things, music.

This morning they washed the stupa in saffron again, like in our earlier photos. Right now, I am watching the teenage monks do their exercises, as our hotel balcony mirrors their monastery windows which are open this afternoon.

I am going to have some new clothes made because, well, I am sooooo tired of my own and they are stained a bit now from hard traveling. I found a fully cooperative shop that also trains their members in Europe so the stitching and finishing is excellent and the prices are fair-trade and set, so no haggling, yeah!

This post is lacking a bit on the excitement scale, I do realize this, but life has been laid back here for us. It has been about getting Luke well, getting some solid work done on his project and giving me time to study before we leave for Tibet and then back into India. It has been a comfortable place to do all of those things, plus it has given us the opportunity to enjoy where we are at in a more intimate, day-to-day way. On our honeymoon, we moved so fast; staying 10 days at the most in any one place, so this has been nice to just settle into a place.

We will add more details about our trip into Tibet after we have our meeting tomorrow afternoon.

oxo