Day to Day

New Castle Hotel

The routine here in Gangtok is similar each day.  I wake up at about 5:30 am and make some instant coffee.  The traffic outside my window and barking dogs are usually my alarm clock.  Breakfast is served at 7:40 am, so it is important to be on time.


I teach two periods a day.  The first class runs from 9-10 am.  The monks have been asked to ensure that they are on time, so I have prepared a slide show of scenes of Seattle and the University of Washington to show them before class starts.  After a 30 minute tea break, the second class goes from 10:30 am to noon.  Then it is lunch and two more classes about healthy aging taught by other people; I sometimes help with those classes if the other instructors need me.

Brain Flower?

The walk up to the classroom at the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology takes about 10 minutes.  The Institute far enough away from the hustle and bustle of the street so we class is not bothered by the noise of cars and trucks making their way up to the main part of town.  Outside of class I found a flower that I thought was shaped like a brain and mentioned it to the monks.  During tea break I showed the flower to several of them and commented how I thought the folds of the flower looked like the folds of the cerebral cortex that we had talked about in class.  They all agreed. 

Do Drul Chorten Monastery

A short walk up from the Institute is the Do Drul Chorten Monastery.  I was able to visit this monastery after lunch one day.  The monastery is not very large, but it has a set of prayer wheels in the center of the buildings.

 


Class is over at 4 pm.  Everyone walks back down to the main street to have a rest after a long day of science.