Jaymasi!
I feel a little like a drifter or a hobo...I am in the process of house-sitting for a few different people here in KTM and that means I have been living out of a backpack for the last couple of weeks. Now I am "permanently" at a friend's apartment for the next month while she is gone for work - her flat is at the very top of a six-story building, which means lots of stairs :) I'll be there by myself, which means I get lots of practice in learning to live alone in Nepal! I get to deal with water shortages, installing new gas cans, killing giant roaches and spiders all by myself (well, I don't know about that one-I might be calling someone for assistance, especially if the bug is a spider), and working with a Didi (house-help) who speaks NO English. It will be great language practice I suppose!
...speaking of language: classes are going very well. Klaas, Dineke, and I are learning lots of vocab and key phrases for functioning on a day-to-day basis in Nepal. We are enjoying getting to know our language teacher's family more, and even went to a Nepali wedding with them yesterday. The wedding was beautiful - the couple were a Christian, so they mimicked a western wedding ceremony. The bride chose to wear white instead of red, the traditional wedding/marriage color for a bride's clothing. The food was incredible, including a dessert of fried syrup with yogurt (SO GOOD, trust me). However, a storm hit before the festivities had finished, and since everything in Nepal is done out of doors, we all go soaked :) But it was still a great time!
Earlier this week I experienced my first "bundh", or strike. If any of you like to follow world news, you may have heard that Nepal is in the process of re-writing its constitution, and there a few different people groups who would like to have certain legal rights included. However, their wishes have been largely ignored, and thus there was a strike. I went out at 6am with a friend for our morning bike ride and there were NO VEHICLES OF ANY KIND on the roads! It was crazy, there were just a few people out walking, where as normally the city streets are already full of people and vehicles, dust, honking, etc. As we headed back to our neighborhood we noticed military guys stretching barbed wire across the main roads; therefore I decided to take a vacation from language class and my other commitments and spend time at home. It was really nice - is it weird to hope for another bundh? Maybe....but a forced vacation day is SO nice and guilt-free :)
When I have a better internet connection I will upload a video from language class, as well as more pictures....pheri beTaula!
I feel a little like a drifter or a hobo...I am in the process of house-sitting for a few different people here in KTM and that means I have been living out of a backpack for the last couple of weeks. Now I am "permanently" at a friend's apartment for the next month while she is gone for work - her flat is at the very top of a six-story building, which means lots of stairs :) I'll be there by myself, which means I get lots of practice in learning to live alone in Nepal! I get to deal with water shortages, installing new gas cans, killing giant roaches and spiders all by myself (well, I don't know about that one-I might be calling someone for assistance, especially if the bug is a spider), and working with a Didi (house-help) who speaks NO English. It will be great language practice I suppose!
...speaking of language: classes are going very well. Klaas, Dineke, and I are learning lots of vocab and key phrases for functioning on a day-to-day basis in Nepal. We are enjoying getting to know our language teacher's family more, and even went to a Nepali wedding with them yesterday. The wedding was beautiful - the couple were a Christian, so they mimicked a western wedding ceremony. The bride chose to wear white instead of red, the traditional wedding/marriage color for a bride's clothing. The food was incredible, including a dessert of fried syrup with yogurt (SO GOOD, trust me). However, a storm hit before the festivities had finished, and since everything in Nepal is done out of doors, we all go soaked :) But it was still a great time!
Earlier this week I experienced my first "bundh", or strike. If any of you like to follow world news, you may have heard that Nepal is in the process of re-writing its constitution, and there a few different people groups who would like to have certain legal rights included. However, their wishes have been largely ignored, and thus there was a strike. I went out at 6am with a friend for our morning bike ride and there were NO VEHICLES OF ANY KIND on the roads! It was crazy, there were just a few people out walking, where as normally the city streets are already full of people and vehicles, dust, honking, etc. As we headed back to our neighborhood we noticed military guys stretching barbed wire across the main roads; therefore I decided to take a vacation from language class and my other commitments and spend time at home. It was really nice - is it weird to hope for another bundh? Maybe....but a forced vacation day is SO nice and guilt-free :)
When I have a better internet connection I will upload a video from language class, as well as more pictures....pheri beTaula!
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