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.