Time To Relax

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I wrote this whole damn blog a few days ago, only to have the computer crash minutes from completion; such are the woes of computer technology.
So, Aimee left 2 weeks ago, leaving me homesick in her wake. Traveling on your own is (unsuprisingly) very lonely compared to traveling 24/7 with one of your best friends so i was feeling a little sorry for myself when i turned up at the Dorje Chang Institute. Its a Tibetan buddhist monastry in the suburbs of Auckland and one of the most relax places i've stayed at since i arrived in NZ.
To give you a brief run-down: there are 4 monk and nuns, 1 teacher (an abbot i guess you'd call him), 11 permanent residents (including one tri-lingual 9 year old) and 3 wwoofers. Including myself there is an American, - Hilary and a french Canadian - Bastian. We arrived pretty much on the same day (all seperately) and are leaving on almost the same day. We get on fantastically well and it's been nice to remember that just because i'm not with English friends i'm not going to be friend-less. A typical day here begins with us getting up about 8.15, breakfasting (we buy our own food here, in exchange we get to go to the Buddhisty teachings for free) and starting work at 9. We garden until 12 or 1 and then have lunch; i make all our lunches and dinners from the food the 3 of us buy communially. We spend the afternoon reading from the buddhist library or hanging out in Auckland city centre. In the evenings i take my time making a large meal for the 3 of us, then we generally head upstairs for the evening's teaching (i've discovered, after a great deal of research, that Buddhism just isn't for me). I've also spent a few evenings at really interesting gigs with a resident of the monastry. Turns out Auckland has a large scene of exceptionally esoteric and avant-garde music that combines performance art with improvised jazz and wierd soundscapes. It's been interesting and a big change from the punk gigs i ususally frequent. A couple times i've been able to flex my culinary muscle making food for the monks/nuns or the entire institute (21 on a good night). It's been very enjoyable and is a big change from the tent-cooking i've been doing for the last 6 weeks.
Last sunday,m however, us 3 wwoofers were hanging out in the centre of Auckland. I wandered off on my own and chanced apon Queen street, where something in the area of 500 people were walking and driving up and down as part of the pro-China rallies going on world wide at the moment. In my wanders i chanced apon about 40 people in a semi-circle outside McDonalds, in the middle of this were 3 maori people. The atmosphere was intimidatory, with everyone screaming abuse. I hung out for a couple minutes and it all just seemed to be brovado and everything was gonna be fine. I was about to leave when the Maori guy lamped one of the Chinese guys who got too close. A couple seconds later 6 or 7 chinese guys fall on him and it gets ugly. At which point i waded in and started pulling guys off him (7 on one isn't fair) someone tries to hit me, they dispese and then these 3 maoris, another guy and myself are in a semi-circle of 50 or so Chinese students screaming abuse at us. I couldn't quite work out how i'd got myself into such a stupid situation (the 3 maori women were still provoking the crowd). But i hung out until the cops arrived a few minutes later. On an interesting note, even though there were 4'000 people on a political march almost not a single cop was seen. What the hell?
Anyway, i leave the institute tomorrow to go fruit picking, although i haven't quite worked out where yet, keep your fingers crossed i find a cushie job to pay for my 2 months in Asia

Chris xx

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Comments

[Frog]

Oh my.
Dude! Scary scary! Fights? Sugar brah! Maybe its a good thing for my sanity that I only just started reading this thing, but now, I do hope you know - I am going to FREAK OUT BIG STYLE until you get back this green and pleasant land. B