Engagements

We went to Anne-Julie's apartment on the IISc campus last night for her pre-farewell party. She is heading north to meet her boyfriend and trek, and she'll be back here for one week to pack up. We are sad to see her go - we haven't known any of our friends here for too long, but it still feels strange when they leave.

We may see her in two weeks though, if we manage to make it to Yad's engagement party in Chandigarh. We have been told that Punjabis know how to party, so I'm sure it would be fun. Chandigarh is India's master-planned city - designed by Le Corbusier - so we are curious to see it. It's only a few hours from Delhi, so maybe we will fly up for the weekend.

This week we are going to try to head down to Bylkuppa, one of the areas granted to Tibetan refugees. There is a large monastery there and they will be celebrating the Dalai Lama's birthday this week. The francophones of Bangalore were invited by a Swiss monk-in-training who was here while we were away. We haven't met him yet, but he seems like quite a fun guy for a monk.