Into the wild

By this time tomorrow, I'll be in Yushu.

I'm boarding an overnight bus in a few hours that will hopefully deposit me in the tiny Tibetan village sometime tomorrow morning. The altitude is almost 13,000 feet, and, I'm told, it's a bit chilly this time of year.

When the Shem girls heard I was going to Yushu, they looked at my knee-length quilted down jacket with the fur hood doubtfully, and said I would need to find some warm clothes to bring. I pointed to my jacket. They laughed.

One of my students stopped by yesterday and gave me a package of something that might be roots, and might be dried bits of yak dung. Make a tea and drink this, she said. It will help with the vomiting.

Er, what?

(I'm drinking it right now, though. It smells a little suspect but doesn't taste like it'll kill me. The Tibetans know their traditional medicines, so who am I to argue?)

I'll be in Yushu for a week, teaching grammar to middle school students and living with no running water, a three-walled outhouse, and no heat except a yak dung stove. And apparently the electricity is on the fritz.

Awesome.