Free Tibet!

Hello out there! I realize its been a long time since I last wrote... So its been two weeks of independent study, and we have three more to go. Its a totally different pace from the rest of the semester where every second was planned for us. For all of ISP time we're completely on our own doing research. Of course, there are 15 other students who came to Dharamsala with me, but we're all doing our own things. Its a nice change of pace to be able to schedule myself and really enjoy this experience. Needless to say that we've been watching a lot of movies and I'm halfway through season 3 of Scrubs :)

Anyway, my project is on activism and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Lhadon and Tendor from SFT HQ in New York were here for a while but they're gone now. Its been a lot harder than I thought to do this project. I'm looking at basically profiling the Olympics, why they are historically political, why it is so important for Tibet, and then ultimately trying to figure out what needs to be done to make it a catalyst for Tibetan independence. I don't know how great its going to turn out, but I'm working on it..

I really like this portion of the program, its really cool to do two months of intense academics and then have 5 weeks to just experience the culture and live in this part of the world. Its also nice that I still have a month and a half left in India!

Happy thanksgiving!
Sam