September 17, 2008 8:25 p.m.

What a day! What a long day! Today was the 49th day of the American woman and Tibetan man’s death. So we had a tsok puja for them. All day.

I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and got ready. Headed down at 5:30 a.m. for morning puja which ran from 5:45 a.m. till 7:30 a.m. I washed my clothes and got dressed up for the day’s puja. The tsok puja started at 8:30 a.m. and we had our first break at 1:30 p.m. for lunch. We had lunch break till 3 p.m. Then we didn’t finish with that puja until 7:45 p.m. Ate dinner and came to my room.

Interesting this woman’s death. She and her boyfriend were walking by on the day that Lama Wangdu returned from the U.S. At the moment he returned even! So she took lots of photos of him. She had never met him before that day. Later that day they drowned.

I don’t have a lot to say about today as it was a puja day. A long day. And now I am tired!!! There are no breaks here, except for me. I can skip out of puja if I want. But why would I choose that? I did skip evening puja once because the sleep deprivation had caught up with me on like day 3 or 4 after I arrived.

I have 12 full days left here. Betsy and Tom should arrive day after tomorrow. Anna said today that she couldn’t sleep last night. She was thinking about me and how much she would miss me. It feels like I have always lived here to her. I told her I would return, but she said not soon enough. She is so sweet to me.

Today the monks were telling me how much they liked me. I am so glad to hear that although by the end of today I was a bit tired of their attention. Today I was a hang on toy. Talking to me about this and that every chance they got. There was no down time at all for me or even alone time.

They were amazed at how much money I had spent on my tattoos and piercings. Here they ask how much you spend on everything. I purchased a bracelet for Dechen yesterday. She immediately wanted to know what I spent. It was only 100 rupees so very cheap.

And it is funny how everyone wants to know what I bought. Even Lama Wangdu looks through my purchases. Hehehe. Dechen thinks I’m a fabulous shopper! I appreciate the compliment from someone who’s hobby is shopping, hehehe.

Tomorrow is going to come way too early! Hopefully I can get through morning puja and then run to Boudha to hop on the internet. Tim will hate me if I don’t. Hopefully he doesn’t have anything going on that will interfere with an early morning chat (for me, early evening for him).

Well, that’s all I have to say for today. Night all!