Namaste

Trip Start Apr 03, 2007

Trip End Jul 31, 2007

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Flag of Nepal Kathmandu, Nepal
Friday, April 6, 2007

I have now started to (somewhat) settle into a day to day routine here. Up early of course, as we have usually a nine to five schedule here everyday for the next week or so and then our orientation is over and we will be heading to our placement schools. Almost every day starts out with two hours of language trainning... It is so hard to learn another language at this age! But so far I have definetly learned a lot of vocab, numbers, etc. and some sentences and verbs. I find it so hard to adapt to the sentence structure because the verb is at the end of the sentence. But our host families speak fairly good english and do help us out. We also have lectures on religion, culture, etc. Today we had a great lecture on history and politics which brought me back to university and made me want to go back to school. Yesterday we went into the city (on a field trip I guess) to visit some historical sights and tried momos (I was the only one who found this name funny!) which is a traditional Tibetan dumpling stuffed with veggies or water buffallo

Durbar Square

. We opted for the buff (as they call it) and found they both look and taste like japanese gyozas. It's awesome going around with Rajesh our director because he drives us everywhere, knows where everything is and shoos the street hawkers and beggars away. I feel so spoiled after experiencing traveling on my own where every simple act is trial and error. This is obviously more structured but also easier and I feel like I am learning so much more about everything than I would on my own. There will be time after the program ends to go on my trek, plus we do have our own time as well. Today we had classes all day but tomorrow we have a day off so we are probably going to head to Thamel which is the main touristy area in the city. We are gleefully planning all the indulgences we will find there, especially cold beer. Yay! The other girl in the program arrived yesterday, a Canadian girl from a town of three hundred in Alberta. She shares my manner of speaking and the British girls laugh at our expressions...They seem to find the use of the word "dude" hilarious...Can you imagine!?!?
At the end of our day we head home to our families. Power is usually out from 6-8 so there is not much to be done but sit around and drink tea. Our family consists of two parents and two brothers. Mostly we hang with Yugesh who entertains us by singing tragic Nepali songs and playing the guitar. Then sometimes we help with dinner; I attempted to make roti the other night (Indian bread like Nan)

Fearful Image of Lord Shiva

. You have to roll it out with a rolling pin but it is actually a lot harder than it looks and mine kept turning out square...oh well we all know I'm not a much in the kitchen, somethings don't change! The staple food here is called daal baht and is eaten two to three times a day. It's basically rice, lentils and curry veggies. It's very delicious, my only issue is with the amount of food served and the speed that you are expected to consume it. Wasting food is frowned upon but they serve you like a mountain of it and eat it in three minutes flat. They eat with their hands here (or I should say right hand only) so maybe I just haven't mastered my technique. But its a little unerving when everyone is just waiting for you to finish and you are so full you want to burst. My english friend Amelia and I joke that it is the next hardest physical challenge in Nepal after Everest. For breakfast they serve us two eggs and four pieces of toast each! Today we convinced them to let us split a breakfast and though they looked at us very strangely they did comply...
I am excited about all the things coming up.... We are going hiking soon, and after our work at the school is over we get to go trekking in eastern Nepal and visit a bunch of villages. We also are going to the Chitwan region which is down south towards India for a white water rafting trip, canoeing and a jungle safari and elephant ride. I am still not sure how long I will be here for... I really want to visit Pokhara (another tourist and trekking start off point) after the program is over but I don't want to cut into my Europe time too much. But it is soooo cheap here! The money I have could go much further! We shall see.....