The plan

So, I'm sure most of you have heard something about what I'll be doing this summer. I'll explain it all now.

It all began in Paris, and I started thinking about what I wanted to do with my summer. I knew that I wanted to have an internship that was interesting and related to my interests. My interest lying in education, pretty much all internships are unpaid, so I looked to my school for funding. Then I began looking at the internships that they offered, and just browsed through the international internships. And I found a few that looked very interesting. I applied, had an interview over Skype, and a few weeks later was informed that I had an internship! Then I told my parents about it.

I'm interning with the Jamyang Foundation (www.jamyang.org) which is a U.S. based non-profit that supports women's education in the Himalayas, where there is a strong Buddhist culture. I'll be living in a monastery with the nuns, and I'll be teaching. I'm not positive yet what I'll be teaching, but I'm assuming English, and I would be open to math or social studies. We'll see when I get there!

But where is there? I'll be in the Himalayas, in the northern part of India. I'll be in the region of Zangskar (there are various spellings), but I'm not sure yet which monastery I'll be at. There are two or three in that region. I know that the monasteries are all located in small villages, and I may have to hike a bit to reach the monastery. It will be remote, that is for sure.

My trek begins Saturday, when I leave Portland at 7:30am and fly to Delhi, with a stop in Newark. I'll be traveling for about 25 hours. I arrive in Delhi at 8:15pm on Sunday, and the next morning I have a flight to Leh at 5am. Leh is the capitol of Ladakh, a neighboring region of Zangskar, and the closest airport. From there we travel two days by taxi to Zangskar. That's about all the information that I have right now. Someone associated with the Foundation will be meeting us in Delhi and assisting us in our travels within India. There is another Mount Holyoke student who is interning at the site with me, and we will be traveling together from Delhi. I don't know her, but it'll be nice to have another MHC student there with me!

I think that's enough for now, maybe too much. I might post more before I leave. We'll see, this whole crazy blogging thing...