My blog has been quiet for a while, as I waited to come back to Beijing for Internet, and get settled in. Many more blog posts on the Silk Road to come. Stay tuned and enjoy!
Day Eight:
Today has been rough, to say the least. This morning I woke up to discover that the high altitude did not agree with me, and my body retorted with painful cramps lasting a large portion of the day. On top of that, the congestion and coughing has worsened.
We dressed in our conservative wear to visit the Tibetan monastery. Unfortunately that’s where the worst of the cramps hit me, so I walked around slightly doubled over in pain as we toured the different temples.
We learned about the old Dalai Lama of this Labrang Monastery (/surrounding area?), and the new 8 year old one. Monks don’t really like their pictures taken but they like to talk on cellphones, use taxis, and do other things that challenge my American perception of monks.
The coolest part was at the end, as we sat down to watch monks of all ages gather in front of the main temple, sit next to each other and sing notes of prayer. After ten minutes a bell rang so they got up, left their shoes, and entered the temple.
After the monastery, we walked over to a school for Buddhist art. We walked into a room where ten teenage boys were sketching and painting various Buddhist murals. The process was extremely impressive. Watching one boy paint grass on a one-centimeter segment for five minutes, I can’t even imagine how long it must take for them to finish one painting.
Buddhism for me is a very interesting religion, and I’m sad that my not feeling well took away from my experience today. After lunch, I was still not feeling well and decided to skip out on visiting the nunnery.
For various reasons, nuns don’t get as much support/recognition/money as monks do. It would have been nice to visit and learn more about Tibetan nuns, but as it was, sleeping and working on tomorrow’s presentation was the better choice.
After spending the afternoon in the hotel room, I was feeling better to go to the Sangke Grassland and hang with some Tibetan nomads. (Whoa, read that sentence again.) Unfortunately it was cold when we got there, and freezing once the sun sank below the horizon. We huddled in small clusters for warmth. It made me feel like I was an extra in “March of the Penguins.”
The land was very flat, and mountains bordered on both sides. People were riding horses, and others were eating a hot dinner. Some drunken Chinese men came over and bothered my friends and me for pictures. By now I’m getting pretty used to this (doesn’t mean I like it though).
The bonfire didn’t start until it had gotten much darker, so they offered a house made of fabric for us students to huddle in while we waited to warm by the fire. Eventually they called us back out, and we joined a bunch of Tibetan singers dancing around the bonfire. Incidentally, there were a large amount of Chinese tourists from Lanzhou there, so it was a lot more crowded than it normally would be.
I was still pretty cold by the fire, but soon we went inside to watch the Tibetans perform for us. Not going to lie, it was pretty strange. They did karaoke and chose Chinese pop songs with a heavy beat. There were a couple different singers, but mainly it was this one guy who unbuttoned his shirt by the third song. He wasn’t a particularly good singer, but he had stage presence and the Chinese tourists seemed to enjoy him.
After a couple of songs, it was our turn to perform something. We all looked at each other for a good five minutes, none of us having the courage to go perform without backup music in front of a room chock full of strangers. Eventually a few people swallowed their insecurities and went to the front. Unfortunately they chose a Journey song that every American knows but completely forgets the lyrics, so we couldn’t really sing along. Also, Journey in acappella…not so good.
Later when returning to the hotel, we found out by singing on the bus that the song we should have chosen was “I Want It That Way” by Backstreet Boys. It seems that my entire generation has a thorough knowledge of ‘90s boy band lyrics.
Moral of the Story: When all else fails, go with the Backstreet Boys.
Susan says: 
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