I MADE IT!!!!
I arrived well I forget what day it actually was… I arrived on the 26th and ran into about half my group on our flight to Nepal. Walking off the plane you go outside and chill while a bus comes and picks you up and drives you to the visa area. I got my visa for Nepal and then Trekked to customs where me and my new friend Erinn felt like Reese Witherspoon in Wild trying to put our gear on to meet up with the group. Of course we were the last ones … Once we found our group we were greated with a white scarf which is symbolic but of course at this time I cannot think of what it’s called. Then the half of us got on a bus(which was weird because the last time I was on a bus like that was with my teammates) but the ride was long I think a couple hours.. We just kept driving up and up to higher elevation I believe I’m at 5,500 ft right now.
Day 1: We woke up well others woke up since I could not sleep due to the time difference … Anyways I got to see Nepal in the daylight for the first time and looking at the mountains with the prayer flags hanging, the multi colored buildings, hearing the crazy toylike horns was beautiful and it made me more excited for what’s yet to come but also relaxed from my stressful flights. We then had breakfast, typical orientation stuff like ice breakers and a syllabus go over but my first Tibetan class was so much fun and so interesting. We also have Tibetan native speakers who take 2 of us and practice our Tibetan with us which is extremely helpful and very fun. I also got to venture out on a mini hike around where I am staying, the name still escapes me, I was surprised by how well everyone speaks English here. We ran into some kids walking home from school on our way to see the Hindu temple, they told us they started learning English 5 years ago and they had to be maybe 11 so they must learn early. My first night was extremely surprising, it was the first time I slept with my winter coat, hat and mittens on along with 4 layers underneath. This is my first time sleeping without heat and I think thanks to my awesome sleeping bag I am handling it alright. It is hard being super cold all the time, and the indoors is worse than the outdoors. So there is no escape.. Not until India 🙂 OHHH AND I GOT A LETTER FROM MY HOST FAMILY WHO I GET TO MEET ON SATURDAY!!!! I am so stoked to meet them and spend the 4 day Tibetan new year with them!! I was told some host families dress up their American and parade them around for the new year so I hope I’m one of those. My host family has 3 children two which are studying in India and one new born baby boy who they said was 12 days old!! So I’m excited to meet the Tibetan version of Z Baby!
Day 2: We again had breakfast and they had omlettes my favorite! So I ate 3. Then we had our Tibetan class which was very confusing and I’m already lost… Surprise surprise… But the one on one learning with the native speakers help me out so I’ll be alright… I hope. Then we went on a drop off which is basically a scavenger hunt and we all had a paper in Tibetan and we had to ask around the locals to find this temple, with finding out information of our place, and really anything we could. Basically practice field work methods. My group and I got lucky and found a munk who could read the Tibetan ( because most people we ask don’t speak Tibetan, Nepali is their language) but he walked us up to the area where we had to climb up steep .. Steep very steep steps to where was a small cave with the forming of footprints out of the wall, I’m learning about it more tomorrow so hopefully I can update you guys with what it was. Then we had to purchase something and a man offered us prayer flags and since we were only given 100 ruppees( 1 ruppee is like 1 penny usd) and we had to barter him down from 1,000 to 100 rupees. Then we ran into a trekking guide who gave us some information and had us hike even higher to the Asura Cave which was so tiering, but worth it because once we got to the top we were able to hang our prayer flags, and he had us hold on to individual flags while he prayed and he said while I pray just pray for success . So I prayed for multiple things but it was very cool to see the millions of prayer flags up close, and to have ours added to them was exciting.
The plague:
I guess it’s normal for people to get sick due to the foreign bacteria, so with that said about half my group is sick right now one went to the clinic in Kathmandu, but I have been lucky so far. I am beginning to feel ill but most of it is the jetlag that is incredibly hard and annoying I don’t know how people do it.