September 28, 2008 8:45 p.m.

Well, my time is short here. Very short! I am missing so much of this place already!!! Today I was thinking about home and this place. I was talking a while back with one of my teachers about how I didn’t think I could move away from Washington. He had said that we lived in a unique area where we were cradled between the ocean and the mountains. This is the first time in my life where I feel that same cradled feelings, except this time I am being cradled by mountains on all sides.

I have not seen the actual Himalayans. It is the wrong time of the year for that. The fog/clouds are hiding the true mountains behind the mountains you see in so many pictures. I am sure they are breathtaking!

This morning as I was doing kora, just a refresher for those who have forgotten kora is when you say prayers or mantras while walking around the Stupa, a large procession joined up with me. This procession was led by monks playing trumpets and then a long line of monks following.

After I finished kora, Tinley (the Tibetan teacher) joined me for coffee as I waited for the power to come on so I could get on the net. Tinley said that the monks had just finished their summer retreat and this procession was a way to announce they were completed. It was wonderful to walk with the monks.

I returned to the monastery to find that Tom had been by and had grabbed Ani to extract 2 teeth that were very infected. I watched as Kunga and Dechen’s father placed incense, mantras, and mandala offerings within statues. I then helped Dechen package up the tsog. Then it was lunch time and Tom joined us.

I then went out with Tom as he did some quick shopping. He is hoping to return home tomorrow. We met up with his lama, Lama Kunga. He was a very nice man and spoke English to some extent. There was another monk with them named Tenzing. He spoke English very well.

Tom had a huge ziplock bag full of toothbrushes he wasn’t sure what he was going to do with so I made the comment that he could hand them out while shopping. He thought that was a great idea and gave me the task of handing them out. It was so much fun!!! It felt so wonderful to hand them out to children. I had a gaggle of kids following me for quite a while. They were very excited by them.

I decided to remain in Boudha as Tom headed off to do some other tasks. Bad idea! Tim had mentioned that he would like some Free Tibet items. Well, the monsoon rains kicked into high gear. At home, this would be flash floods! Many of the shops had packed up a lot of their stuff so I didn’t have a whole lot to choose from. I got him a couple embroidered t-shirts, a couple flags, stickers, and a magnet. I then ran to my café and got a mocha as I waited for the rains to calm down a bit.

I then ran back to the monastery as it is a bit of ways off and I didn’t want to hike through the rains in my tank top. I finished watching the movie I had started the day before while working on a hat for Anna. I hope I can finish it in time. I’m not even 1/3rd of the way done with it yet. I hope to knit on it a bit more.

Then during dinner Lama-la was asking some questions, like who is from what lineage. He asked if I was from Ngingma (sorry about the spelling). I answered “I’m from Lama-la.” He thought that was pretty funny.

I may or may not be on the net tomorrow. Lama-la is doing puja elsewhere tomorrow morning and Dechen asked me to ride with them, she’ll drop him off and she is going to get her passport renewed. Then we are going to get momos. Yeah! Tomorrow evening my shirts will be finished.

At some point I need to have Lama-la bless them and the thangkas. And I need to give my dana (offering) for inviting me to stay with him. I have to finish packing as well. Wish me luck! Not sure I’m going to be able to pack it all! And I remembered tonight I have more stuff than I remembered as I have my damaru, bell, dorje, wooden tea cup that Lama-la gave me and a few other things in the gompa that I need to pack. Gompa is the ritual area.

Have I told you how much I love Tibetan puja? They begin the puja by blessing their instruments each time. I love that!

Tomorrow is my last day here. Oh my goodness! I don’t know where the time went! I still haven’t taken down the photos to get printed yet. I have to do that tomorrow some time. If I don’t I will have to have them printed at home and pay a fortune for it. I am only printing a couple for the monks. But I said I would so I really need to do that.

I reviewed my flight information. Ugh! I have a 10 hour layover in Delhi and a 6 hour layover in London. Not good! And none of my flights are scheduled for when I should be sleeping to get back on U.S. time so that stinks. I think it is funny how I’m leaving London around 1 p.m. and land in Seattle around 3 p.m. and my flight is almost 10 hours long.

Anywho, it is getting late here and I have to get up early. I won’t be knitting any tonight, just some mantras and then to sleep for me. 4:30 a.m. comes awfully early!