Dharamsala

In order to get to Dharamsala, we were told that it was a 12 hour train ride followed by a 3 hour jeep ride. Seemed simple enough. It definitely didnt turn out that way. The train car was a second class sleeper car and i had a lower bunk. My big trekking pack on one side and my back pack on the other about halfed the space left to sleep. We talked with an Indian family in the compartment next to us that was heading to a wedding and was very interested in what we were doing as well as who we are. They were most surprised by the fact that i didn't know what i want to do in life yet, im evidently way behind. I tried to sleep, and succeeded for 2 hours, but the train was really, really cold and i couldnt have enough on top of me to stay warm. Tinley woke up my car at 5 am, saying that we needed to get ready pretty quickly as we were about 45 mins out and that we would have one, maybe two, minutes to get off the train. Well 45 mins turned into 3 hours and 1-2 minutes turned into 20. I think Tinley just wanted someone else up to talk to.

Once off the train we jumped into small suv-like cars and headed out. Driving in India is crazy even outside the cities. I think we had about 6 near-death experiences. As we headed up, clouds turned to rain which turned to snow about 7km south of Dharamsala. Since snow is rare for the lower elevations, no one knows how to drive in it and cars are not adequately equipped. To make a long story short, we ended up pushing our van and the van in front of us the last couple kms. Half the group wasn't so lucky, they got stuck 6km below and had to walk , with all their stuff, up the rest of the way. Beautiful walk, but hard nonetheless.

We are staying in Hotel Tibet, one of the nicest hotels in town, which is an experience. There is no central heating anywhere in the town, and electricity outages are common. There is also no hot water in the room, which is better than the rooms that dont have running water. It isnt like the water is tepid, its himalayan cold. Washing my hair in the sink was miserable, and left me with a headache.

Since it hasn't snowed in Dharamsala for 3 years, the snow is pretty exciting around here. The younger men show their excitement by throwing snowballs at the women, especially liking the foreign targets. Even worse, you cant retaliate, since thats what they want, so its a bit frustrating walking through town as a moving target. Overall though, the Tibetans have been very welcoming and warm, are overall extremely nice and helpful, and the monks love to practice their English as much as possible.

We watched the Super bowl this morning (4 am) and ate pizza at H.H. the Dalai Lama's temple this evening, so even though we are in the Himalayas in a small community, you are never far from home in this modern world. The pizza was awesome, the closest i've ever come to homemade.

We meet and move in with our homestay family on wednesday, something i am really looking forward to. I requested a family with kids, the more the merrier.