Page 31

After a month or so, an Indonesian student, Anna, got permission to set up an informal pop-up café during breaks. Anna was a beautiful young woman with long dark hair, a caramel complexion, and prominent cheekbones. She used beans sourced from Bali and would grind and brew the grounds. The coffee was spicy and sweet and she would sell it at 1 to 2 yuan a cup. From time to time, she would bring homemade cookies and snacks, also for sale. I later learnt she had done something similar in Lhasa. She and another student, a blonde Scandinavian, had spent time in the Tibetan capital quietly missionizing.

As the semester unfolded, I discovered there was in fact a Kham dialect class. I came upon it accidentally. It was in one of the lesser used classrooms off to the side of the students’ common area, away from the other classes. As I walked by one day, I realized I could hear something that sounded like Tibetan. Surprised, I popped my head in and sure enough, it was the Kham dialect class! The class was working through basic grammar. Frustrated, I questioned the people in the class and later the staff at the department office. By this time, however, it was too late to enroll. I did however manage to buy the textbook.