It was not a life changing experience to see the Dalai Lama yesterday, though certainly a life enhancing one. Wandering through the crowd with our robed friends, Sonam, Lobsang, and Tensin, I felt extremely grateful to sit next to them while watching and listening to the most important person in their lives. As Thane described, the Tibetan people amaze and inspire us both with their optimism and selflessness - to be able to share a friendship with these monks has been my favorite experience thus far and I will miss them greatly. The Dalai Lama's welcome procession as well as the dances and ceremony were quite impressive. There was one performance in which over two hundred school chilren's movements were synchronized to the beat of drums. Their bodies tensed and relaxed in almost perfect unison, creating a crisp, vivid, and mesmerizing wave of different colors appearing and dissapearing with only a slight movement. They also spelled out LONG LIVE HIS HOLINESS, providing an explanation to the LONG LIVE design we had witnessed a few weeks earlier upon visiting the school. The traditional dance and clothing entertained us as well, i viewed the majority of the performnces through my camera lens.

Last night the monks treated us to dinner at Lhasa restaurant and we followed the meal with some fruitella( a tasty strawberry chewy candy that Thane can't stand but i find divine ), some chocolate and a movie. We have been trying for over a week to take them to a movie only to be disappointed night after night. Finally on Sonam's last night , as he travels to the Delhi hospital tonight for a checkup, we got to see the long awaited Walk the Line. I think they really enjoyed it.