We are now into our 2nd Month and I now feel that I'm starting to understand more. India is a completely different country to Britain. That's why I came but it's not without it's struggles. If you are offered a drink in an Indian household it is impolite to refuse. However the chances are that the water hasn't been sterilised and you're likely to get ill which I can assure you is not at all pleasant. A delicate situation but also so worth it to see how other people live. Yesterday Kancha a lovely 24 year old Indian lady took me Sari shopping. It was very exciting and I now have 2 being made for me which will be ready the day before my Birthday! (For anyone who doesn't know my Birthday's on the 8th October :-P) I also went to look at jewellery, which is huge, golden and very tacky but a must have for Indian dress. We then stopped at a little roadside place for something to eat however as it was 7pm and already dark she was a little worried as her mum would wonder were she was. Here women don't stay out after dark. They also don't usually lock their front doors and each house has a shrine to their Gods. Ideas which in Britain are unusual but are such a strong part of the culture here that just questioning it is thought of as a wee bit strange. Last week we went to a teaching held by the Dalai Lama. It was an amazing experience being immersed in a sea of red and tourists. He is actually a very funny man even though he's been through so much in his life. They serve food and Tibetan tea during the talk and then when everyone's been served he brakes off mid speech to say grace and then everyone eats. It's very chilled out and yet there is such a strong sense of awe as he is the closest thing you really get to a God on earth. He spoke mainly in English and we got a crackly radio to listen to the translation when he spoke Tibetan. Although I didn't understand that much it was fascinating watching the faces of the people that did. Very often laughter would ripple round the Temple following a joke he had cracked. School can get quite frustrating as a lot of the kids just aren't that motivated. They flit from one thing to the other without really finishing anything. The cause I believe is that school is very strict and by the time they come to our after-school school they've used up all their attention span. Some of them however are absolute gems and all of them when taught in small groups they can be very cooperative. I've almost finished knitting the rabbits with them. I think we might make a giant colourful pom pom snake next. As we had lots of spare time in the mornings we've taken on teaching 5 Tibetan women English twice a week. We've only done it once so far and it was quite a challenge. We'll see how the next lesson on Friday goes. Some of them speak quite good English they're just really shy. We need to try and agree on a lesson plan which is not so easy as we all have very different ideas on how to do it. We'll see... I bought my first Tibetan dress today :-) Apparently it's only for married women but tourists are allowed to wear them anytime. They're really beautiful. I'll take some photos of them soon. (At the moment my hairs too greasy as our hot water is like gold dust and therefore my hair suffers) Well got to go. If anyone wants to know more, write to me via the contacts section and I'll reply with a more personal e-mail:-) Miss you all lots! xXx