Politely Eating with my Hands

I woke up much later today, which was good because I needed the sleep. Unfortunately I think I was overzealous and overslept, which made me feel kind of sick all morning. That could potentially be me just getting some sort of cough, or the air pollution, but I’m hoping I’ll feel better by tomorrow. I’ve been taking vitamins regularly to ward off sickness, but being exposed to all new germs is pretty hard on an immune system.

For breakfast my Aamaa had made scrambled eggs and toast, which was delicious. I almost confused the scrambled eggs for cereal because they were in a bowl and very scrambled, but the cooking Didi helpfully corrected me before I put milk on them. One of the nice features about living in Nepal is the fact that most houses have a Didi, who is basically a housekeeper who comes every day to help cook and clean. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship because job prospects are very limited in Kathmandu, especially for uneducated women. In some houses they’ll actually live with the family and actually sort of be adopted, as is the case with Yanik’s Didi who has been working for them for something like fifteen years.

The language class went fine, although because I went out the night before I didn’t practice as much as I should have. Still, I kept up with the lesson pretty well and remembered a surprising amount from the earlier lessons. I learned some helpful phrases like ‘I am hungry’ and ‘I am tired’ but am still too shy to try them out in public. Maybe next week.

I got to RHEST a bit late, but no one seemed to mind. While I was waiting for my work I wandered around the office for a tad and spotted a picture of Bill Clinton with the founder of RHEST. How cool is that? Also one of the girls I was helping told me I might get to go out into the field sometime next week. I'm really hoping that things will work out! Because I was a late I ended up finishing my work late, so the language class got postponed to tomorrow.

Considering how much I’m dreading it I did not mind at all. But I think there are only going to be six people in the class, and one of the women seems to have a clear idea of what they want from me, which is a relief. Mostly it seems like they want to have conversations and then have me correct them. Whew! That is much easier than me coming up with lesson plans.  I’m a little apprehensive, though, because usually they will say things just fine but it just won’t be how people would normally phrase something. Should I correct them?

After RHEST I wanted to go out and explore the area but it was still raining heavily. Oh well, I guess I’ll try tomorrow.  I really want to get to know this place, people keep telling me that there are a lot of good shops and restaurants but I haven’t seen that many.

 
Tomorrow is my bhaai’s last day before he has to go back to boarding school in India so we all went out for his favorite meal, traditional Nepali food. It was quite yummy and I got to try eating with my hands for the first time. Traditionally that’s how you eat Nepali food, and I must say it was extremely satisfying. It’s basically like you’re expected to play with your food. I’m not the best at it, but I’m sure I’ll get better with time.

Live Jazz and Networking

I started the day at 7, which was much earlier than I probably should have because I was tired the rest of the day. My Aamaa told me that breakfast was in the kitchen, but when I looked it took me a second to figure everything out. I understood the cornflakes well enough, but there seemed to be a pot of something sitting on the stove. After a failed attempt at locating the milk I realized that it was in the pot. I guess Nepali’s enjoy eating their cereal with warm milk? I’m still not really sure. It was okay, but I must say I prefer cold milk in my cereal.

I practiced my Nepali for awhile and watched some television with my bhaai(younger brother). It’s a good motivator to be the only one in a language class, because I really didn’t want to look like I hadn’t been practicing. The class went well; it was a bit easier this time now that I had the basic sentence structure and pronouns down. An hour and a half can definitely seem like an eternity, but I think I’m starting to get some of it down.

After class I walked to the RHEST office, taking pictures of my walk. It’s nice to be living in Baluwatar instead of Thamel because I’m not hassled at all here. Granted I do get a lot of stares, which I don’t remember happening as often last time I was here. This is probably more due to faulty memory than a change in attitude, though.

RHEST office

I walked into the RHEST office, unsure of what I was supposed to be doing. One of the employees pulled out a chair for me, so I sat there for what seemed like an eternity but was probably only fifteen minutes. It was one of those awkward times when I wasn’t sure if there was something I needed to say or do, or if they would tell me. Finally after some confusing questions from the staff members(I need a letter of intent from my school? Wha?) I was given two papers to compare and make sure the names on them were on both sheets. I compared them incorrectly twice, but finally on the third try managed to get it right. The other employees kept making comments about how boring I must find this work, which was sort of confusing. I’ve held a job before, it’s not like every minute is supposed to be flashy and exciting. I actually sort of enjoyed doing the comparisons, it feeds my inner OCD. The only frustrating thing is because there is usually no standardized translations for names sometime you just have to assume the two are the same, because if you were to sound it out phonetically they would be similar.

Tomorrow I start a language class, which I’m pretty confused about. I don’t have any experience, and it’s not like teaching school children who just need the basics. They seem to want lessons in professional sounding English, which I don’t think I know very well. The lessons are also an hour long, and I have no freaking clue how to fill up an hour. I’m sure I’ll figure it out, though.

For lunch we had something called beaten rice, which I’ve never seen before, spicy potatoes, kurd and some spicy something. It was pretty yummy, although no one had a drink during the meal which seemed kind of strange to me. Afterwards I went back to work and they brought tea to everyone. Hooray for the amount of tea people drink here, it is great. I swear they probably drink it about four times a day.

I went home around four because I didn’t have the language class today and took a pretty awesome nap. Maybe awesome is a strong word, it was more like a two hour nap. Luckily my Aamaa woke me up at 7 or I might have slept all night. It was her sisters’ birthday so they were going to Jazz Upstairs, and they wanted to see if I wanted to come along. I took a shower first, overpaid a taxi cab driver, and made my way to the bar to listen to some live jazz music.

 
I love Upstairs, it’s probably one of my favorite places in Kathmandu. The atmosphere is great, a rum and coke is about three dollars, and the live music is awesome. I was introduced to these two girls by my Aamaa who work in the development industry in Nepal. One of them, Amy, works for USAID. How great is that? We chatted for awhile and she gave me her card and told me about this Fourth of July party on Saturday. Apparently the Ambassador is going to be there, it’s free to get in, and there’s a pool. I’m crazy excited to go! Also, it was really cool to talk to someone with the job I want. The people you meet here are so amazing. It was also really nice to hang out with my Aamaa, she is one cool customer.

Home to Stay

I woke up early so I could pack up my suitcase and leave for my homestay house. I had taken out a surprisingly lot of stuff, so packing took much longer than it should have. I was a bit sad to leave my hotel, as it was super nice, but glad that I could finally unpack everything and set myself up for the next two and a half months.

My room!

After arriving at the homestay and throwing my things in my room Yanik and I walked down to a European bakery for some breakfast. I had a delicious cup of coffee and a cheese croissant, which was warm and gooey. The food here is simply amazing! When my language teacher arrived we walked her to my homestay so she could figure out where it was, and Yanik left so I could have my first language class.

The living room

Having a one on one language instruction is really interesting because there is no way to slip under the radar. You have to repeat every phrase almost perfectly before moving on, and she expects you to be able to come up with the phrases on your own pretty quickly. She seems like she’ll be a really good teacher, and that I’m going to learn a lot. Afterwards my brain hurt a little, though. Hopefully it’ll get easier as time goes by because the first class took a lot out of me.

After the language class was over Yanik came back and we walked over to the RHEST office. It’s a short walk, and pretty easy to figure out thankfully. The office itself is really nice, and I met the office manager and the woman I’ll be working under. I’m still not quite sure what I’ll be doing exactly, but it seems like I’ll be helping the employees with their English in the late afternoons. They eat lunch at 2, and seeing as it’s about 70 cents a day I think I’ll probably eat with them most of the time. It’ll help me practice my Nepali, and it’ll be nice to get to know the other employees.

After walking back to my homestay I spent the rest of the day relaxing and hanging with the family. I bonded with my brother over are mutual love of Glee and Castle, and we watched the Disney channel together. It’s amazing how widespread American media is. You hear a lot of American music playing in shops, and most of the movies at the movie theater were from Hollywood. I had a chance to unpack too, which was nice. I really like my room, and am excited to live here for the next few months.

Lemon candy

Dinner was delicious! I’ll have to remember to take a picture next time. It seemed like it was pretty standard Nepali food, with dhal bhaat, rice, pumpkin leaves, and spicy chicken. Super yummy. My stomach is still adjusting to being in a new time zone, so I wasn’t able to eat as much as I wanted, but it was still an awesome dinner.  

Day Two in Kathmandu

I slept surprisingly well, only waking up a couple of times and was able to get back to sleep pretty easily. Yanik knocked on my door around 10, and we went downstairs to wait for my language teacher to come by. I ordered a coke in the meantime, which ended up being complementary by the hotel. The soda here is really interesting; it tastes slightly different than the stuff in the US and is a lot more carbonated. It also comes in glass bottles which you return to the people when you’re finished drinking. It makes the soda a lot cheaper, because you’re only paying for the liquid itself. It’s also environmentally friendly, which is definitely a plus.

My language teacher is a very nice woman who seems like she’ll be tough but fair. After chatting for a bit she got out the book we will be using which caused me to double take. I had bought a Nepalese language book in the US to prepare me for my trip(I should have studied much more before I left but was lazy) from Amazon. Turns out, she wrote the book! I couldn’t believe it, out of all of the Nepalese language books on Amazon and all of the language instructors in Nepal I had ended up with her. The coincidences get stranger, it turns out she had taught a New College student a few years ago so New College was mentioned in the book! Our 800 student college mentioned in this Nepalese language book. It’s a small, small world.

New College!

My language teacher

After she left Yanik went to meet a friend to discuss a restaurant he’s planning on opening, so I went to a café to steal their wifi and drink some scrumptious coffee. I’m not much of a coffee person, but the stuff here is DELICIOUS! I’ve only had it this good in one other place, and that was in San Francisco with my sister. Everything is organic and done by hand here, no Starbucks or mass production. They were also playing football(soccer to you Americans) on a big screen tv which was fun to watch.

I managed to get myself lost walking back to the hotel because all of the stores in Thamel look exactly the same, so I got to enjoy the constant solicitations of merchants trying to sell me pretty much everything. Walking to the café I didn’t really experience that, but maybe it was the look of bewilderment on my face that was taken as a sign that yes, I really did want to by a knockoff North Face jacket. After walking up and down the street a bunch of times I finally found my way back thanks to a shop called ‘Black Pashmina Outlet’, which I remembered because I thought selling only one color of pashiminas was stupid.

Yanik came back and I hopped on his bike and we left for my homestay house. Driving in Kathmandu is kind of like a video game, but I’ll need to dedicate a whole post to the chaos to do it justice. My homestay house is really nice, and my homestay Aamaa is awesome. She’s super sweet and warm, exactly the type of person you’d want to take care of you for three months. Her partner seems really chill too, and her son is really cool as well. He enjoys watching tv and playing video games like God of War, so he’s totally my kind of kid. I’m bummed that he’s only going to be here for four more days; he goes to school in India and will have to return.

My homestay Aamaa's partner and son

After meeting them we went and met up with some of Yanik’s friends who are currently living at his house at a cool little restaurant in Thamel. One of them, Megan, is actually a fellow Passage alum as well. Her friend, Ruth, is 18 and has just graduated High School. They’re both from Maine and were super nice, and really down to earth. Ruth actually left the next day, but Megan will be here for another month. I ordered a mango lassi at the restaurant, to continue my quest to drink as many as possible while mangoes are in season.

After leaving we went to see Cars 2 in 3D with a few of Yanik’s other friends(Yanik, btw, seems to know everyone in Kathmandu). They had just built the mall around 5 months ago, and everything was still shiny and new. In Nepal when you buy your movie ticket you buy it for a specific seat, like when you go to a play. The screen went dark about halfway through the movie, which I thought meant that the projector had died, but was merely an intermission like they have for Bollywood films. Cars 2 is a pretty good film in my opinion, but has a lot less heart than some of Pixar’s other works.

To give you an idea of how cheap this is it's about 70 rupees to 1 dollar

After the movie we went to a bar called Jazz Upstairs and listened to some live Bluegrass music, which was really cool. I got to meet another girl doing a Passage program that has been here for about a month. Megan and Ruth were also there, and I had a great time hanging with them. At around midnight we left the bar, and I passed out in the hotel after watching the Britney Spears episode of Glee. Some things never change, I guess. I’m excited to move into my homestay tomorrow and get to go to the NGO where I’ll be interning.

French Pop Bands and Delicious Pizza

I arrived at the Kathmandu airport around 830 AM. The flight was beautiful, the(what I would call mountains but Nepalis would call hills) were verdant and I’m sure the view from the houses nestled on top was amazing. I waited for about 15 minutes by the incorrect conveyor belt for my bag before someone came over and helpfully corrected me. So I waited another 15 minutes before all the bags had been claimed. More annoyed than panicked, I picked up my stuff and began looking for whoever was in charge of missing luggage. Luckily we had tied a neon yellow string to the top of my bag, so I spotted it sitting next to a few other bags by some men speaking rapidly in Nepalese. Walking closer, I looked at the tag and after the men confirmed it was mine, walked out of the airport. I guess someone took it off by mistake and then failed to replace it, but I’m not sure. I’m just glad it wasn’t lost so I wouldn’t have to come back to the airport.

Yanik, my Passage coordinator, met me outside the airport. He had been a counselor the last time I was with Passage, but is now in charge of the whole thing after his Mother passed away, who had founded Passage. I’m not sure what it is about Nepal, but somehow everything smelled the same. It was almost surreal; memories of my last trip came flooding back in sharp focus. I felt ecstatic, if jetlagged, to be back.

View from my hotel room

I’ll be staying at a hotel for my first two days before moving in with my homestay mother. It’s a really awesome room; with a tv that has satellite cable, a cool view, and hot shower.

Abandoned stupa

After I settled in we walked to a restaurant owned by Yanik’s friend, which is in the process of being renovated. There was a really neat abandoned stupa in the courtyard, which I believe they’re going to put tables around. A stupa is basically a Buddhist temple used as a place of worship. They range from being very large to just being used by one family. This one was probably used by a few families before the houses surrounding it were turned into restaurants.

View from Yanik's window

Yanik's garden

Yanik's garden

Yanik's garden

After saying hello to his friend and looking around we went and hung out at Yanik’s house for a bit, which is about a 20 minute drive outside of the main city. It is stunning there, with a lovely garden and awesome view of the hills. It’s far enough away from traffic that it’s actually quiet, which is a nice respite from the constant honking of taxi cabs and motorbikes.

Yes, the drummer is 13

I didn't catch their name, but they seemed cool

I took a very necessary short nap before we returned to the city to see a French pop band perform. They had come to Kathmandu for international music day after touring India. Before they went on a local Nepali band called Blue in Silence preformed, and were surprisingly awesome. Considering the members were all around 17 they played their instruments really well, and had all original songs. After performing around six or seven songs the French band came on and they were also really good, but a little too soft for me, I kept almost falling asleep.

Made with real mango!

We then had some delicious pizza for dinner, and I ordered a mango daiquiri in celebration of my early 21^st birthday. I can’t wait for tomorrow, when I’ll get to meet my language instructor and homestay mother!

To see all of my pictures you can go to my picasa web album- https://picasaweb.google.com/115165015182735784481/KathmanduJuly2011 

Delhi Airport

This may sound rather obvious, but fourteen hour flights are long. There’s something that happens when you hit the seven hour mark and you realize that you’re only halfway there that makes you begin to curse all flight travel and yearn for a bed. Luckily I had spoken to the ticket agent in Chicago before I left and he switched my seat from being in the middle to an aisle much further up in the plane. I was also located next to the bathroom, so it was nice that I could just turn around and scope out the line before getting up. I was seated next to a very nice gentleman who was also going to be stuck in Delhi for twelve hours. I had a hard time understanding what he was saying, so we didn’t speak much, but when the duty free cart came around he bought two bottles of whiskey and two watches, which peaked my curiosity about who exactly this guy was. I thought about striking up another conversation but he replaced his headphones almost immediately afterwards, so we continued our journey in amicable silence.

When I was checking my bag in Tampa the woman at the ticket counter seemed to imply that I would be stuck in some sort of transit area in Delhi that had no food, water, or bathrooms. This, thank goodness, turned out to be totally untrue and instead I’m now residing in a pretty typical international airport, with a food court, shops, a couple of restaurants and some nice lounges. They even have free wifi if you have a cell phone they can send the information to. I’ve set myself up in a nice little corner behind a staircase, and have gotten around four or five hours of sleep.

There are a few things, though, that divulge the fact I’m not in Kansas anymore, with the clothes and the language being the two most obvious. I love the kurta’s and sari’s the women wear here. Kurta’s(I think that’s what they’re called) are the outfits with the long shirts, matching pants and a matching scarf. I love how bold they are, the colors choices are always bright and because they’re generally one color they stick out nicely in a crowd. What’s odd about the language is that while most people are chatting in Hindi/whatever Indian language they’re speaking, all of the signs are in English. Even the television I’m watching that is streaming some Indian news station has all of the writing in English. From what I understand about India, this is because with the plethora of different languages spoken on the subcontinent English is sort of a lingua franca, a leftover from the colonial days when everyone had to speak it.

Most of the restaurants at the food court had their menus separated between vegetarian and non vegetarian options. None of them served beef, as cows are sacred in Hinduism, and some of the places served sea food like fried calamari and tuna flakes. I broke down and bought a mango lassi, which is like a mango smoothie made with yogurt. It was delicious! The mango they used to make it was HUGE.

Finally, the air conditioning here isn’t set on winter in Antarctica like it is everywhere in the US, and I’m actually sweating a bit waiting for these twelve hours to be up so I can finally make my way to Kathmandu. Thank goodness this is only an hour long flight. It’s so close I can taste it!

 
(Sorry no pictures this post, there are a lot of security people wandering around and I suspect they wouldn’t be thrilled if they saw me taking a bunch of photos)