Now that I am back in Nepal, I have to say that the last month at Jacobs was not child’s play. Covering up for missed classes, going on detours to the embassy to prepare my travel document (since I lost my passport), making up for the homeworks that I lost and the midterms that I rescheduled, etc. So I had 3 weeks to, as one of my mathematics professors there told me, to get my life together. To add to that, since I was taking third year courses, most of the classes that I was taking voted to take the final exam on the last day of class as opposed to having a month to prepare. Challenge, yes, come my way!
And so I did. In 3 weeks, I managed to cover up for my classes, finished all of my exams on the last day of class and booked my ticket back to Nepal for December 15th.
On the day I left, my dear friends at Jacobs were there to say goodbye. We went to the one and only local pub in Vegesack, a town close to campus, had a few drinks, came back for a group picture as we had never done so, and helped me pack. Yes, I have always been a last minute packer and its something to be proud of I guess. We called our group “The Jacobs Exchange Group + Ese” (there was one freshman from Guatemala, a wonderful guy). As a goodbye gift, they stole a picture from the college dinner and pasted their heads on top of everyone else who was not in the group. My head in the picture was left untouched though which was very funny. After a few drinks, the pack of the picture was filled with “10 Shree Moments”, among which one was the invention of the verb “shreeing”, which my friends used so wisely when someone did something silly.
On December 16th, I was back. There is no place like home. After catching up with missed conversations with my family and meeting some relatives, it was time for me to welcome two of my friends from Jacobs who were coming to visit Nepal on December 22nd. From then on until January 2nd, I took my friends around Kathmandu city visiting temples and bars, to visit my grandmom in Nuwakot, and to Pokhara where we had a fun time. In some ways, a part of Jacobs came along with me and it felt good having them at home and making them experience, at least to some degree, how it feels to “shree”.