Evening Excitement: Part 2, Discussion

Tonight was our (physics instructors at Drepung) discussions with the Geshes (senior monks).  After dinner we headed up to a classroom, where recording equipment was set up.  I had sat in during the philosophy discussion, so I knew what to expect.  The conversations will be made into a book, and are used to influence future ETSI activities.

I opened with a question about conservation of energy (and other conservation laws) and whether there was a Buddhist parallel.  I can't quite do the discussion justice, but it seemed like there were some parallels - though not all aspects are agreed upon.  That transitioned into a conversation about the beginning of the universe.  The Geshes had an interesting point arguing that the universe can't have a beginning from the point of causality, unless new universes are always being formed.  They later said that Buddhist posits multiple universes.  Exciting, there are physics theories that match these ideas.  No real experimental tests exist, but it is a nice parallel between the science and Buddhism.

The conversation ended with a question regarding whether they use (or value) the experimental method in their studies.  They explained their approach to observation and logical analysis.  Had the conversation kept going (we were supposed to stop at 9 PM), I think we could have found some interesting middle ground.  In my mind, what we find with experimentation are the pieces of information that can be used for the logical analysis.  Otherwise, how do you know what statements to use as foundational truth?

I would be interested in doing more than one of these conversations, but it is too difficult to set up that frequently.  Some monks come to listen, there is recording equipment, and a translator is needed.  Poor Tsondue is always up to bat!  He had to work on updating one of the translated tests, so someone else translated during my second afternoon session today.  Tsondue is an incredibly important asset to this program - both for his languages and knowledge in science - but it does seem like some monks are improving their science skills to serve as translators.  

Evening Excitement: Part 1, Storm

After class today I poured myself a cup of coffee and was about to start working, but I heard thunder and went outside.  The storm clouds were incredible - we could see the convection currents; clouds traveling in opposite directions and colliding.  Occasionally the wind would pick up and die down - the temperature dropped at least 10 degrees suddenly.

The front was right over us and we saw frequent lightning, but a few miles away.  The wind brought some raindrops, but fairly few.  I took pictures and a few videos, and then the crazy clouds passed and it just looked stormy.  One of us (probably me) said something doom-laden, like "that wasn't much rain".  The rain began in earnest, the first few drops leaving splotches on the cement with diameters of an inch.

We stayed under the roof of the guesthouse, watching the rain, wind, and lightning.  The rain came off the under-construction hall in torrents.  Since these waterfalls were evenly spaced, we assumed they were intentional.  However, the wind brought most of that water into the hall anways.  We questioned weather the feral dogs cared about getting wet, and were happy that we had 30 minutes until we needed to leave for dinner.

Unfortunately, we were then told that dinner was earlier than normal and we needed to leave.  We questioned how dangerous this actually was; walking with umbrellas would keep us a bit drier, but some of the lightning was striking within a mile.  And there was very much lightning.

We departed with our umbrellas, planning to cut through the construction area since our "normal" path would (literally) be under water.  The first path towards the construction site ended up becoming a small river; I doubled back and finally gave up and splashed my way under the roof of the hall.  I realized that the standing water and questionable construction practices might create a greater risk of electrocution than the lightning.  We made it under the roof (the construction is very far along) and walked in a dry environment most of the way.  The few Indians also in the building looked as us strangely.

We had one final dash from the construction area to the main building.  One of my sleeves ended up fairly soaked, but otherwise I was fine.  I purposefully bought shoes for this trip that could handle this. I had just gotten very comfortable not needing to cope with storms and the rain.  It looks like this might be the beginning of monsoon season, or it could still be a few days off.

Successful Lab, Thankfully

I had some information on what lab equipment they had here before I arrived, but I wasn't sure how I was going to put together lab activities for the monks to do.  I requested that spring scales (specifically the ones that can measure both a push and a pull) be bought, knowing that I could do multiple labs with them.

It turns out that the monastery already had a number of spring scales, but all of them were only of the pulling kind.  Additionally, they ranged in how many Newtons they could measure, and the newer ones could only measure 5 N.  The spring scales that were brought (for me) from Emory can measure 50 N.

The lab that used these was very successful.  Students were able to test Newton's 3rd law, looking at pairs of forces when pulling and pushing on each other.  This is a challenging topic, and during the lecture they hadn't really believed me.  Students usually think that one person will be able to push harder than the other.

I also wanted them to drag objects to learn more about the friction force, but I wasn't sure what sort of objects could be pushed or pulled.  I hadn't seen anything here that would work.  The monks assisting me came up with the idea of using reams of paper tied with string - it worked great!

Pushing a mass at different constant speeds and seeing the force is the same.

A little tug of war - it isn't possible to pull on another person harder than the person pulls on you.

  My lab activities are getting better - some of it is finding better structures and realizing what types of questions go better than others.  The final question I put on this lab wasn't very good, but the others were quite successful.  I'm especially glad that this lab went well, since I had demanded this equipment.

Today's lab will explore what affects the motion (period) of a pendulum: mass, string length, and starting angle.  I am not going to have them do any calculations with it.  Tuesday will be a variation of the "static equilibrium" lab that we do at Agnes Scott, where students balance different masses to see the torques balance.

Experiments in Food and Drink

I've been trying to be "adventurous" in what I eat here, with a mind towards avoiding foods I think could make me sick.  For instance, I haven't eaten the apple slices since they might be washed in "normal" water, and not drinking water.

The Indian food (and few Tibetan dishes) has been very good.  I've eaten some of the "Western" dishes, like pizza, and have discovered that pizza is delicious, even when the toppings are baby corn and peas.  Many of the Indian dishes are variations of each other - we frequently have the same red sauce (which is spicy and delicious) on different veggies.  The first time it was red sauce on small round mushrooms, so the second time I assumed it was the same thing.  I bite in... and meatball?  I was a little concerned, since the had the texture of raw meatball.  It turns out it was made of cabbage (they do a good job of posting a sign "non vege" when a dish has meat in it).  We've also had red sauce on cauliflower and baby corn.  There is an orange sauce, tonight with paneer, that is amazing.

I'm still not sure about bitter melon.  It was served for dinner the other night, and I tried a small amount (and then had a second small serving).  The bitterness is mostly in the aftertaste, and some bites are much more bitter than others.  Today I had a big serving... and in the end, wasn't sure if that was a good idea.

I've now tried all of the herbal teas available.  One tastes like a fairly "normal" herbal tea, another (loong tea) is a bit bitter and tastes decidedly medicinal.  I rather like it.  Today I tried the remaining tea - a "skinny" tea.  The instructions recommend exercise and eating healthy, so it seems like a legitimate "weight loss" tea.  I was surprised when I opened the small packet and there were granules, rather than a tea bag.  The granules only partially dissolved in the water.  The instructions recommended to add honey, which I didn't do.  The ingredients all listed the Latin names of the plants, so I wasn't sure what was in it.  I think the tea is made of bitter melon!  I like bitter drinks (like Campari and mate), but this was far too much for me.

At dinner, John passed out some mangoes he brought back from a different monastery.  It smelled amazing and felt very ripe.  I'm used to getting unripe mangoes in the US that are still half-unripe when the other half has rotted.  This mango was unlike any I have ever eaten - I practically inhaled it, getting juice all over my face and hands.  I'm fairly sure it was safe (unlike the apple) since it was peeled.  I even washed my hands between peeling it and shoving it in my face.  Even if I get terribly sick, it was worth it.  

My Classroom at the Monastery

I'm fairly satisfied with how I have replicated my classroom environment here.  I do have to "lecture" more, since they aren't doing the readings ahead of time.  This also means I need to do more example calculations for them - and they would benefit from even more examples.  I am managing to have many conceptual examples, demonstrations, and questions for them to work on.

Monks using color-coded cards to respond to a question.

My "think-pair-share" questions have gone fairly well, but could be improved on.  Some of the questions are too hard, and don't quite match the content.  I'm having difficulty "enforcing" the idea that they first answer the question on their own, without talking to others.  Many of them talk a little to the people around them, but I don't know if they are asking for minor clarifications or fully discussing the problem.  When I have them discuss after the first vote, they really have a discussion.  Interestingly, they tend not to switch their votes - I don't know if everyone is more sure (such that the wrong answers don't change) or if everyone is less sure (such that the correct monks aren't convincing), compared to my normal students.

The colored note cards are working reasonably well, but I do prefer the clicker system that I use at Agnes.  I can only estimate the percentage of different answers for the notecards, while the clicker system will tell me exact percentage.  More importantly, students vote "secretly" with the clickers, so no one knows what others have said.  Sometimes the answers are very uniform here, except for the people at the front who can't see what everyone else is voting.  Finally, I can "enforce" answering.  I think only about 60% - 70% of the students are typically raising their notecards.  However, they tend to raise their notecards at different times so I might only be seeing a fraction of the ones who have actually voted.

One big difference between the classroom here and back at Agnes - other than the number and type of students - is that here I get to use a microphone!  I don't usually feel like a pop star when I'm teaching.  At one point I tried lecturing without it, since I can be pretty loud, but the microphone really is needed.

I've realized one aspect of my teaching doesn't really work here: I tend to use my body and gestures to demo different motions and forces.  I do the same thing here, but many of the students don't know enough English to understand what I am saying.  I think they just see me dancing around, making funny motions, and don't know why I am doing it.  Tsondue tends to be more conservative in physically demonstrating motion and forces.  I'm basically a crazy person.  When I jumped on a chair to drop things, the students here looked as concerned as my students at Agnes typically do when I do similar things.  I was a little more cautious in my demonstration of Newton's 3rd law and Friction.  When I did the demo at Agnes I really pushed against the wall hard enough that my feet slipped and I fell down.  The students were very concerned and I assured them I was ok (I actually had hurt myself).  Here, I just slid a little but didn't push hard enough to fall down.  While the demo is less effective, I had already fallen down once today...

I do think my class is going well.  It has gone fast - I only have two days of lecture left!  One of the monks who is assisting (who went to Emory in the past to learn math and physics) said that the monks like my class and that he hoped I would come back next year.  I'm taking notes on things so that I can do better next year; I hope that I will be able to come back to this monastery and teach the same topic.   Given that this is the "swankiest" monastery and I'm teaching the "easiest" course, I might have to fight for that.

Mosquitoes, and other Problems

I finally have seen some mosquitoes - after two days in a row of evening storms, things are a little more wet and the bug are coming out.  There are also a number of adorable little frogs - flashlights are necessary for the walk back from dinner to make sure we don't squish any.  I got out of the habit of putting on bug repellent (and I brought so much!) after not seeing bugs the first few days.

The big problem today was that I fell.  I managed to get through an area of mud by stepping on big rocks (there for that purpose), and then I failed to make it up the stairs.  Not because the stairs were slippery, but because I am incompetent.  My pants ended up quite muddy, so I went back to the guesthouse to change.  Sadly, I was unable to get the mud out (washing them in a bucket), but maybe my American washing machine will do better when I got home.  My knee will end up with a wicked bruise, but that isn't unusual for me.

If muddy pants and a bruise are the worst that has happened so far, I think I am doing pretty good!  I think my "normal" life results in more frequent (and larger) disasters.

First Tibetan Lesson

If there is one thing I would do differently for next year (and yes, that is how I am thinking already), I would learn some Tibetan.  Of course, I'm fairly sure that all of the monks know more English than I could ever learn of Tibetan, but I would like to try.  I feel very ineffective when trying to help them work on calculations and activities - a few words would possibly go a long way.

Tsondue talked me through the alphabet today.   I had made an initial attempt a few weeks ago, but quickly decided it was too hard for me.  He broke it down in a way that seemed much less intimidating.  It is a tonal language, but I can hear the difference between some of the tones.  Listening to the language, I have an easier time picking out the different sounds - it reminds me of Japanese - compared to French.  I have a sneaking suspicion that it sounds "easier" since I am totally missing some of the different sounds.

I'd like to learn the names of the numbers, some basic polite phrases, and some helpful teaching phrases - "do you understand?", "that is correct", "do you have questions?", etc.  I have been working on my Italian for the past few weeks - there is a flashcard app that I use on my smartphone.  If I loaded in some Tibetan flashcards (and worked with a Tibetan speaker, like Tsondue), I could probably learn a few phrases for next year.  My Italian deck has about 1200 cards from when I took Italian. Of course, Italian pronunciation is much easier.

The first line is an Indian language, the second line is Tibetan.

Awesome Questions

Today I taught about gravity.  I had hoped to teach other things as well, but the units of acceleration - especially the "seconds squared" - took far longer than I anticipated.  I eventually assured them that "square seconds" isn't a thing that can be conceptually understood, but that if they figured it out they should let me know.

The discussion of gravity resulted in many of the conceptual issues that "my" (Agnes) students have as well - acceleration and force at the top of a path, a "force" from the throw after the ball has left the hand, etc.  I did get some excellent questions during this discussion.  One monk asked, after I stressed that all objects fall with an acceleration of g, why smoke rises.  I made an attempt, in some very general hand-waving terms, to explain buoyancy.   I made analogies to things floating or sinking in water.

My favorite question today was why gravity doesn't affect light.  Tsondue and I are using laser pointers, so it was a straight-forward question as to why the laser pointer dot doesn't "fall".  I spoke a little bit about light not having mass, but then I talked about General Relativity.  Yay!  I explained that Einstein theorized that light would get bent by the sun and that this was experimentally verified about 100 years ago.

In the first year class, where they do a survey of multiple physics topics, students are asking a wider range of questions.  Apparently they asked about water evaporation, why water sticks together, where water goes when making bread, and what is lightening.  After a discussion about water pressure, they asked how deep-water fishes survive.  I'm glad I have the easy kinematics questions!

Laughs, finally

While I am enjoying teaching, I've found some difficulties in not being able to talk to many of the students directly.  My co-teacher and translator is excellent, so I certainly trust the physics concepts are being communicated correctly.  But, I can't tell jokes.  Or at least, I am not being successful in telling jokes.

I know that the monks will laugh - Tsondue says things that make them laugh, and occasionally a student will ask a question that others will laugh at.  I've attempted a few jokes, but they did not results in laughs.  I don't know if Tsondue didn't realize that I was attempting a joke, and didn't translate it that way, or if it was just too subtle overall.  For instance, I had a picture of a hanging chimpanzee and sketched out the forces by drawing a box, saying that it is as close as I can get to drawing a chimp.  No laughs.

Today there were laughs, caused by me!  Of course, it was primarily because my demonstration failed.  I brought my parachute ball: a tennis ball with a small parachute tied on.  I stood on a chair and dropped it at the same time as a normal tennis ball, explaining that the parachute ball has more air resistance so it would hit second.  I have done this demo many times... and this time, they hit the ground at the same time.  I tried again, and the parachute ball seemed to hit first.  Laughs.

I told them that if they didn't trust me, they could borrow the parachute ball and drop it from much higher up - this got more laughs.  So even if my jokes are quite making it through translation, at least "physics is hard" seems to be making it.

Mixing of Cultures

When I prepared for this trip, I was unsure how much I would be immersed in Indian vs Tibetan culture.  It has been quite a mix, but primarily Tibetan (with Western influence).  I'm not sure if the Western aspects are particularly for us visitors, or if they are also due to monks who travel and return liking certain Western things.

The food has primarily been Indian, with a number of (approximately) Western dishes.  There has been more food that is influenced by Chinese cuisine than Tibetan, if I understand the cuisines correctly.  The monks try to make Western dishes for us - there has been pizza, spaghetti, and penne pasta.  In addition to chocolate cake at breakfast, they have also made grilled-cheese and vegetable sandwiches (which are really good).  These are made on "normal" white bread, which I haven't otherwise seen used in the cuisine, so I think it is intentionally a Western grilled-cheese sandwich.

I wandered into the town that the Monastery is in - most people I saw were monks, but there were some Indians and Tibetans (not in robes). The writing, decorations, and architecture all looked Tibetan.  At the monastery everything is beautifully painted and there is amazing metalwork.  I didn't see this elsewhere in India (though what I have seen is very limited).

Everywhere the metalwork and painting is beautiful - this is in town.

I don't know if I could really tell the difference between Tibetan and any of the Indian languages only by hearing it, but I think everyone here is speaking Tibetan.  The writing at the monastery is always Tibetan, sometimes with English.

There are a number of things here, other than the food, that are more "Western" than I expected - I don't know if this is due to my expectations being wrong, or if they just make a special effort here to accommodate visitors from around the world.  All of the rooms - guest rooms and classrooms - have air conditioning.  My understanding is that one of the nearby monasteries (where ETSI also provides classes) does not have air conditioning, so this may be more about size/wealth.  There are many Western toilets (and toilet paper!) at the monastery; this was certainly not the case at the small airport we flew into.

The tea here is mostly "normal" black tea, though most everyone makes it with lots of hot milk (and possibly no water).  There hasn't been masala chai (spiced Indian tea), or the Tibetan butter tea.  There are some Tibetan medicinal herb teas that I tried; they were good, and quite different from what I am used to.  Given that I am not sick (yet?), I can't critique their medicinal qualities.

The biggest contrast between the Tibetan and Indian communities is at the construction site next to our guest house.  A new hall is being built - it has open sides and a roof, and will be used for debates and other activities.  It appears that it is built primarily by Indians, who live at the site.  They live in shacks made out of corrugated metal and cinder blocks.  The construction has been underway for at least a year, so I'm guessing that many have lived here for at least that long.  The shacks stand out among all of the Tibetan splendor.

View from the main temple building towards the construction site, showing the shacks the Indian construction laborers live in.

Sounds of the Monastery

In the future, I want to bring some sort of good microphone to record what it sounds like here.  The pictures can give you some idea of what it is like, but the sounds are far more amazing:

• That annoyingly loud bird that sings every (early!) morning in our courtyard clearly sounds "exotic".  While I imagine a toucan sitting somewhere in the tree, it is probably something that looks like a sparrow.
• The cows look a little unusual, but they sound much stranger.  It took a while to realize that is what I was hearing - the "moo" was much more like a roar.  Maybe it was a "I am so hot please bring me water" moo.
• In the evening, some monks are practicing musical instruments.  I have been told that a group of them will come and tour the US through Emory.  They have horns, drums, and cymbals.  I'm not entirely sure where they are practicing, or what it is supposed to sound like, but it seems to come from a nearby field.
• During class, when the students are reading the Tibetan text on slides or on the lab activity, they quietly read it aloud.  Having 100 students whispering Tibetan is incredible - since they aren't reading it in sync, it ends up being a continuous murmur.  
• The most amazing sound, which I can barely describe, is the chanting from the prayer hall.  I walk by open doors on my way to lunch when everyone is assembled.  Sometimes it sounds like singing - many voices on pitches that vary in time.  What is most incredible is the low notes that come out - we had to ask whether it was due to instruments or whether the monks themselves were singing that note.  They do throat-singing, where they are able to use resonance in their throat to produce more than one pitch at the same time.  Hearing this from the outside is indescribable, and I'm dubious that a microphone could truly capture it. 

Failure of my usual technique...

I had been concerned that I knew so little of what to expect here - in terms of students, structure, equipment - that I didn't think I could really prepare all of my slides ahead of time.  At Agnes, I have a fairly good rhythm where I can use previously-created slides/examples/images and pull together lecture in about 2 hours.  When the previous year's lecture was good, it can go faster.  This means that I can adjust to what the students are having difficulty with (as reported on the warm-up) and what there questions were in previous lectures.

I'm attempting the same rhythm here and having some difficulties.  Primarily, the issue is that I am lecturing 3 hours (180 minutes) a day, when I am used to prepping 50 minutes for lecture.  Even allocating for translation, that is much more content.  It is also much harder to make lecture, since I want to avoid putting words on slides.  I'm trying to find pictures to use as examples and express all of my ideas.  This is taking forever!

I had the majority of the math prepared before I came, and had notes on the physics, but no physics slides.  The math actually went slower than anticipated, but the first day of physics content went faster than expected.  This is good, in that it means I will be able to get to some content that I thought I wouldn't have time for.  This is bad, in that I think I spent 4 hours preparing slides yesterday, and they were not quite enough for today's lecture.  I ended by covering something that I hadn't had time for yesterday.

Unfortunately I am afraid I now need to spend almost 5 hours making the next day's lecture.  I do my best when I have a plan and organization, and I really do want to show pictures.  I also need to plan out demos and the afternoon activities.  Besides being more efficient in finding images, I'm not sure how to speed up the process.  This is hard since tonight we have a discussion with some senior monks; I'm looking forward to it, but I will have little prep time until after 9 PM.

I hope to keep finding time to blog, but it looks like I am in my normal academic pattern of barely having enough time to sleep.  Oops!

Measuring circles to determine pi from radius, area, and circumference.  So far my labs have seemed successful!

First lab=fun!

The lab sessions in the afternoon went fairly well.  There were a few issues, but mostly the same issues that I run into at Agnes Scott.  First, my instructions and figures weren't clear enough.  It could have been worse, given that this was a lab I was making up out of thin air.  However, the second lab group received clearer instructions.  There wasn't quite enough equipment, so we had to re-arrange some groups.

I was very impressed with the creativity and resourcefulness of the monks.  I asked them to use a vertical string to align two numbers - multiple groups found objects (pens, etc) to tie to the bottom of the string to make a plumb bob.  They found better ways to make the second measurement, compared to how the lab instructions were written - and both lab groups, independently, found some of the same solutions.  Of course they are smart and mature, but I wonder how much of this is not having the experience of American schools where students are repeatedly told to "follow the instructions".

Calculating trigonometry ratios on a smart phone.

Finding better ways to set up this measurement than I had thought of.

I was lucky, in that most groups had at least one person who spoke significant English.  My understanding is that more monks speak English than I realize, but are shy about it.  I was somewhat helpful during the lab session, but Tsondue (my Tibetan co-teacher) was much more effective.  I also had a few monks, who have previous experience with Physics, helping as assistants.

I initially had some concerns about how large the lab groups were - 6 or 7 monks working together.  This is one way in which my American pedagogy doesn't translate over.  The monks were all very engaged, debating and explaining with the other lab members.  They seemed to be having fun.  I'm not sure that they found the math itself fun, but it might just be the act in engaging in a different type of intellectual exercise from what they are used to.  I know I loved classes when I was a few years into graduate school and only did research all of the time...

First Lecture

Last night I was quite nervous about my lecture today - and I haven't been nervous about teaching since my first class at Agnes Scott!  I'm still a bit jetlagged, so I went to sleep very early and got up early to work on prepping.  I don't have all of my slides and labs finished - I wanted to see how the first day went, since I might have needed to make significant adjustments to how I was preparing materials.

My two morning lectures went great!  Each was 90 minutes, separated by a 30 minute tea break.  I started with a math assessment, and then covered some basic math.  There were a few places where my slides weren't detailed enough or where I forgot to explain a topic (that they hadn't seen before).  I'm using my think-pair-share technique, but having the students respond with colored notecards.  Most of the questions were correctly answered by almost everyone to begin with, so there hasn't been much of the "pairing" step yet.

My co-teacher/translator Tsondue is certainly doing the majority of the work.  He translates everything I say, but I can tell that he is filling in further details as well.  Some of the questions that the students ask he translates for me, but he handles most of it on his own.  I feel somewhat superfluous - clearly he could be explaining basic algebra on his own.  I'd like to think I am contributing in terms of pedagogy.

This afternoon the class will be coming in two halves, and we will do a lab.  Unsurprisingly, I didn't make it as far through my slides as I had hoped to, so we didn't quite cover the math (triangles, angles, and trigonometry) that I hoped to cover before lab today.  I think i can still make this work.  

Views from the Roof

After lunch today (again, delicious Indian-style food) we had a tour of the labs and the teaching rooms.  They have 2 computer labs, outfitting with a number of computers.  I'm a bit hesitant to try to do computer-based labs (such as PhETS), since the internet and power aren't guaranteed here.  We've already lost power once today.  While they do have generators, I'm sure they'd rather not be running 20 computers with them.

They have more equipment than I expected, but it is a bit eclectic.  There are plenty of meter sticks, spring scales, and marbles.  I will go back over later today to explore more and look for some particular things.  I have my first lab written (triangles and ratios) and passed on to the translator; I'll have the second lab (circles) written soon.  I don't have a good plan for the 3rd lab yet, so I need the equipment to help me brainstorm.

The classrooms are on the 3rd floor - and I think the "ground" flood that we start on is technically floor 0.  Quite some stairs!  There is an elevator, but our previous attempt to use it hadn't worked.  It turns out that the elevator is specifically for the Dalai Lama, when he visits, since his quarters are in the top floor of this building.

The building I am teaching in, taken from the roof patio.

The left corner is where the Dalai Lama stays, when he is here.  Sadly, he won't be here while I am.

Another gorgeous building, off in the distance.  There are a number of different monastic colleges here.

Staying at Drepung Loseling Monastery

I was very pleasantly surprised when I arrived at the monastery yesterday and saw where I'd be staying. We are staying in the "guest house", a small building very close to the main prayer hall. The accommodations are very "Western Style", and they left us many supplies. Not only did they provide 2 travel adapters, but a large selection of toiletries and laundry supplies. I could have packed much less! My room has two single beds, which have a lacy-style mosquito netting. Each room has its own bathroom and air conditioning. There is even hot water!

In the center of the guest house (which has about 6 rooms) is a open courtyard.  It is lovely, but was home to a very loud bird early in the morning.  I had gotten up to make sure the bird wasn't in my room!  There is a small kitchen area, with beverages and snacks.  For meals, we go to the main prayer hall where they have a buffet for us.  Dinner last night was good - the food seemed like Indian cuisine.  Breakfast was a bit more eclectic - eggs scrambled with vegetables, cereal, and chocolate cake.  The cake itself wasn't very sweet, but the monks definitely served us chocolate cake for breakfast.

So far I haven't seen very much of the monastery, except for our guest house and the dining area.  There have been some exciting wildlife sightings - there was a small lizard in my room, a number of cows outside of the guesthouse, and a few (seemingly) stray dogs.  While I did see two monkeys on the drive here (oh my goodness no one told me there would be monkeys!) I don't think I will see any here at the monastery. 

Driving from Belgaum to Monastery

The flight from Mumbai to Belgaum was fine; nothing particularly different from how small flights in the US work. However, the Belgaum airport was incredible - a tiny runway in a field with a tiny building.

Airport.  All of it.  No security, but there was a (single) baggage carousel.  

Some monks met us at the Belgaum airport to drive us to the monastery. The drive was entirely on paved roads, at many point on multi-lane highways. However, much of it was in a particular Indian style - one lane on each side, shared by many motorcycles, buses, trucks, and the occasionally ox-pulled cart. Everyone quickly passes slower traffic by driving in the "oncoming traffic" lane, so it feels like a constant game of chicken. Very exciting.

Possibly the "Public Works" - other government buildings similarly looked like palaces.

The drive included many fields, some industrial areas, and a few larger towns (like Hubli). The larger towns were interesting - an amalgam of street vendors, small shops, Western-style shopping malls, cows, pigs, dogs, and chickens. I have a number of pictures, and some videos of driving through smaller residential areas.

They drive on the "British" side of the road, so this is a picture taken as we are driving towards oncoming traffic to pass this bus.

We could tell when we neared the Tibetan settlement - the fields starting having prayer flags on the fences, and our monk driver told us. The Tibetan area seems much less impoverished than what we had driven through previously. I'm not sure if this is really do to more resources, or just do to cultural differences.