Sunday Fun-day!

Namaste friends and family!

We began our day with a lovely breakfast at 8 AM. We had eggs, homemade bread, and parantha. Today also happened to be laundry day! So, after breakfast we all went to our rooms to sort through our clothes to choose what we wanted to wash.

At around 9:30 AM we boarded the bus and headed to McLeod Gunj where we spent most of our day. The route was stunning. We traveled through the mountains, and we were able to look over all the buildings below us. We were so high that we were literally in the clouds. At on point, all we could see was a bright white light. We were so distracted by the beauty of the mountains we complete forgot that the roads we were traveling on were so narrow. 

Once we arrived at McLeod Gunj we met with a Tibetan man who is with Students for a Free Tibet in India. He educated us about the Chinese occupation of his homeland and shared his inspirational story. His parents sent him to India by himself when he was four-years-old in hopes of a better future. He was taken in by a Tibetan orphanage and school in India where he grew up and graduated from school, college, and graduate school. 

After our talk, we had lunch at a small, local Tibetan cafe. We ate very well. I have to say (and I think I speak for the majority of us) that the grilled cheese was heavenly. 

Once we finished our meal, we split into three groups of three girls and one adult to divide and conquer the local shops. We all shopped for about 2 hours, so expect lots of gifts. It is safe to say that we definitely strengthened our bargaining skills. 

When we returned to the hotel, we all had about 2 hours to chill out and regroup before hearing from our second speaker of the day. At around 6 p.m. Tenzin Tsunde, a Tibetan freedom fighter and speaker, arrived. We had an amazing two-hour discussion about Tibet, dreaming big dreams, the meaning of freedom and happiness, and so much more. He was truly inspiring. He shed a different, yet positive, light on life that many of us were unaware of. It was difficult to put into words what it was like to be part of the that conversation. 

For dinner, we ate mixed vegetables, potatoes, fried chicken, spaghetti, and plain rice. Prachur surprised us with ice cream sundaes and brownies for dessert. Dinner was a great time and we had a lot of laughs. 

-Alexis