Eating sugarcane (see Friday’s entry)
My sisters sitting in the cab during out day out on the town (see Saturday)
At Mahendra Pul (see all entries, though this photo was taken on Saturday
Well, I am winding down a wonderful 4 day vacation. Yes, I have not been to school since Thursday – and I gotta say, though I do love the kids and what I’m doing, I love vacation just as much! I got to spend so much “me” time, and it was great!
Friday I woke up at about 8:30 and spent the morning cleaning and organizing my room, sitting outside reading the newspaper (it was quite a nice, sunny morning outside), and writing that massive blog entry about school. In the afternoon, I went to Mahendra Pul (the big market) with my sister Jyoti. I bought a few necessary items, like bleach (for the many white shirts that Nepal has ruined) and candles (for all the power outages of late- yes, we are up to 6-7 hours of power outages each day). I also bought several pirated movies – at 70 cents a copy you can’t go wrong! I bought “Chocolat”, “Dreamgirls” (starring my beloved Beyonce), “My Super Ex-Girlfriend”, “Marie Antoinette”, “Dreamland”, and “Journey to the End of the Night”. I don’t know anything about the lat 2 movies, but again, at 70 cents a copy I can afford to take such risks! Friday evening we celebrated Shivaratri, the whole reason that today was a holiday. It’s one of the many Hindu festivals, this one (obviously) in the name of Lord Shiva (the main God that my family prays to). It didn’t seem like an extra-ordinary day at all (except for that each member of the family did puja rather than just one person doing it for the entire house). But at night it’s a tradition to roast sugarcane by a fire until the tip has been lit. Then, you bash it onto the ground and it makes a popping sound (not unlike gunfire, that’s how loud it is!). I’m not sure why all this is done, but at the end we get to eat the sugarcane, which was kind of fun and interesting. I have never tried sugarcane before so I was eager to do so. It tastes sweet like an apple, but you can’t swallow the pulp which is kind of annoying. Also, it’s a complete bugger to open up – we had to cut it with a knife that Aartee so gently told me they use to slaughter sheep – and eat – at one point I felt like I’d ripped the roots of my teeth out of my gums. But, my teeth are still solidly in place and I tried sugarcane so it was a successful day!
Saturday I did much as I had done the day before, except that instead of writing my blog entry, I uploaded it (and man, that took a good chunk out of the morning). In the afternoon I went to Mahendra Pul again, but this time with both my sisters and sano baudjou. We went shopping for vegetables, did a little window shopping, and had a nice kaja at a restaurant (samosas, yum!). Baudjou also took all of us to visit Gupteshwor Mahadev Caves, a stalagmite worshipped as a shiva temple. After walking down into the humid cave and covering my just-washed-and-not-entirely-dry hair with my jacket to avoid the drips coming from the roof of the cave (yes, I am that vain) we looked at the temple, put tikka on our heads, walked around, and emerged 5 minutes later. It was a bit anti-climatic, but the tourist shops outside of the caves had fun cheap jewelry and other souvenirs to look at and pretend to be interested in. When we came home from our outing, I watched one of my recently purchased movies with my sisters. The only American movie they have ever seen was “Babe” so “Dreamgirls” was a bit of a cultural shock for them, I think.
Sunday was by far my most active day. I woke up and was out of the house by 10am, whereby I walked to Lakeside by myself (a one hour walk). Originally Jyoti was going to come with me but she wasn’t feeling up for it. That was fine by me – I actually enjoyed the solitude, and realized that I haven’t really been out in Nepal by myself since I arrived here 2 months ago (except for school). So, even though I’ve been to Lakeside many times before, it was nice to be doing so on my own. I went to a bookshop and exchanged the books I’d bought there last time for some new ones – “Seven Years in Tibet” and “Beyond the Devil’s Teeth”. Then I sat at “Boomerang”, a restaurant with a beautiful view of the lake and mountains. I drank a beer, listened to the birds, soaked up the incredibly warm sun, and read the newspaper. For 2 hours I sat there, completely content. I wish I could have frozen that moment forever. At the very least, I wish I could have stayed all day. But I promised my family I’d be home by 2pm, so I knew I had to get going. On my way back, I stopped in a music store and bought 2 Nepali flute music CDs. I know I got ripped off, but the owner was so nice and I got to practice my Nepali for a while with him, so I felt it was an almost-even trade. When I got back home, I ate lunch quickly, and all of us went again to Mahendra Pul. You must be wondering why we keep going there – all I gotta say is it’s an excuse to get out. And besides, it really does have absolutely anything you could want or need so every day is a new adventure. By the time I got home from the market at 6:30pm I was rather exhausted. I don’t remember what I did until 8:30pm, when I got to speak to my mom for an hour! That was a great time, and so I was in a great mood when I went to sleep that night.
Today was back to business because I have school again tomorrow. I still woke up slowly (9am – the latest I’ve slept since I arrived in the Acharya home), ate toast and read the newspaper, but by 10am I was outside doing laundry until noon. After lunch, I sat outside in the beautifully warm sun with my sisters. They had a day of beauty (putting henna on one another’s hair, plucking their eyebrows Nepal-style) while I studied Nepali and prepared my courses for tomorrow. Tonight I will go to bed early because I feel a cold potentially coming on. Three people in my house are sick and Nepalis don’t seem to have the Western concept of covering their mouths when they cough or sneeze, so germs have inevitably been running rampid at home.
Friday I woke up at about 8:30 and spent the morning cleaning and organizing my room, sitting outside reading the newspaper (it was quite a nice, sunny morning outside), and writing that massive blog entry about school. In the afternoon, I went to Mahendra Pul (the big market) with my sister Jyoti. I bought a few necessary items, like bleach (for the many white shirts that Nepal has ruined) and candles (for all the power outages of late- yes, we are up to 6-7 hours of power outages each day). I also bought several pirated movies – at 70 cents a copy you can’t go wrong! I bought “Chocolat”, “Dreamgirls” (starring my beloved Beyonce), “My Super Ex-Girlfriend”, “Marie Antoinette”, “Dreamland”, and “Journey to the End of the Night”. I don’t know anything about the lat 2 movies, but again, at 70 cents a copy I can afford to take such risks! Friday evening we celebrated Shivaratri, the whole reason that today was a holiday. It’s one of the many Hindu festivals, this one (obviously) in the name of Lord Shiva (the main God that my family prays to). It didn’t seem like an extra-ordinary day at all (except for that each member of the family did puja rather than just one person doing it for the entire house). But at night it’s a tradition to roast sugarcane by a fire until the tip has been lit. Then, you bash it onto the ground and it makes a popping sound (not unlike gunfire, that’s how loud it is!). I’m not sure why all this is done, but at the end we get to eat the sugarcane, which was kind of fun and interesting. I have never tried sugarcane before so I was eager to do so. It tastes sweet like an apple, but you can’t swallow the pulp which is kind of annoying. Also, it’s a complete bugger to open up – we had to cut it with a knife that Aartee so gently told me they use to slaughter sheep – and eat – at one point I felt like I’d ripped the roots of my teeth out of my gums. But, my teeth are still solidly in place and I tried sugarcane so it was a successful day!
Saturday I did much as I had done the day before, except that instead of writing my blog entry, I uploaded it (and man, that took a good chunk out of the morning). In the afternoon I went to Mahendra Pul again, but this time with both my sisters and sano baudjou. We went shopping for vegetables, did a little window shopping, and had a nice kaja at a restaurant (samosas, yum!). Baudjou also took all of us to visit Gupteshwor Mahadev Caves, a stalagmite worshipped as a shiva temple. After walking down into the humid cave and covering my just-washed-and-not-entirely-dry hair with my jacket to avoid the drips coming from the roof of the cave (yes, I am that vain) we looked at the temple, put tikka on our heads, walked around, and emerged 5 minutes later. It was a bit anti-climatic, but the tourist shops outside of the caves had fun cheap jewelry and other souvenirs to look at and pretend to be interested in. When we came home from our outing, I watched one of my recently purchased movies with my sisters. The only American movie they have ever seen was “Babe” so “Dreamgirls” was a bit of a cultural shock for them, I think.
Sunday was by far my most active day. I woke up and was out of the house by 10am, whereby I walked to Lakeside by myself (a one hour walk). Originally Jyoti was going to come with me but she wasn’t feeling up for it. That was fine by me – I actually enjoyed the solitude, and realized that I haven’t really been out in Nepal by myself since I arrived here 2 months ago (except for school). So, even though I’ve been to Lakeside many times before, it was nice to be doing so on my own. I went to a bookshop and exchanged the books I’d bought there last time for some new ones – “Seven Years in Tibet” and “Beyond the Devil’s Teeth”. Then I sat at “Boomerang”, a restaurant with a beautiful view of the lake and mountains. I drank a beer, listened to the birds, soaked up the incredibly warm sun, and read the newspaper. For 2 hours I sat there, completely content. I wish I could have frozen that moment forever. At the very least, I wish I could have stayed all day. But I promised my family I’d be home by 2pm, so I knew I had to get going. On my way back, I stopped in a music store and bought 2 Nepali flute music CDs. I know I got ripped off, but the owner was so nice and I got to practice my Nepali for a while with him, so I felt it was an almost-even trade. When I got back home, I ate lunch quickly, and all of us went again to Mahendra Pul. You must be wondering why we keep going there – all I gotta say is it’s an excuse to get out. And besides, it really does have absolutely anything you could want or need so every day is a new adventure. By the time I got home from the market at 6:30pm I was rather exhausted. I don’t remember what I did until 8:30pm, when I got to speak to my mom for an hour! That was a great time, and so I was in a great mood when I went to sleep that night.
Today was back to business because I have school again tomorrow. I still woke up slowly (9am – the latest I’ve slept since I arrived in the Acharya home), ate toast and read the newspaper, but by 10am I was outside doing laundry until noon. After lunch, I sat outside in the beautifully warm sun with my sisters. They had a day of beauty (putting henna on one another’s hair, plucking their eyebrows Nepal-style) while I studied Nepali and prepared my courses for tomorrow. Tonight I will go to bed early because I feel a cold potentially coming on. Three people in my house are sick and Nepalis don’t seem to have the Western concept of covering their mouths when they cough or sneeze, so germs have inevitably been running rampid at home.
