Videos from Nepal

I found a bunch of videos from Nepal! Unfortunately, several of them that I'd like to share are too big for blogger to upload... But I'll figure out a way. Here are some starters though.




First, a video of Nepali traffic. This was taken on my second day in Nepal, and from what I know now, it isn't really that bad at all. But if you get lucky, around 26 seconds you can see a dog laying in the middle of the street. That's pretty standard.


Here are some videos from Dolpo:



This was during the first weekend we were in Dolpa--it was a local festival where a boy became a Goddess. We were confused too. he's the one dressed up in a skirt, of course, and in a trance.






Here's one of our culture days at school, where the kids danced and sang for us... and we were expected to do the same. The little girl on the far right was amazing!!






Last, a video of the Dashain festival in Dolpa, where there was more dancing and giving of strings.






This is just an example of a class at Bigu. This particular morning, Rob and I were reviewing the subtle differences between the sounds "and", "ahn", and "een", and the meaning of the corresponding words.

End days

The lights on Carnaby Street

Our time in England was much too short. During the two days we were able to get out of our hotel room and enjoy the town, Mum and I joined Lucy and her parents, Cat, and sometimes Whitney (who stayed with us in our hotel, yay!) in London to do fun things. On Saturday we met Lucy and fam for lunch in Belsize Park, then did a little shopping before staying in for fish and chiips for supper and playing dreidle games for the “last night“ of Channukah. They were soooo much fun. On Sunday we had a late start, but went out to a “slow food” festival and after supper, went to Carnaby Street to see the cool Christmas lights and have some hot cocoa. Then, unfortunately, it was already time to pack and depart early the next morning. After a very full day of flights (430am in London to 730pm in Indiana… so that’s more like 130am in London, nearly a full 24 hours of flying) we made it back to a wonderful reunion with Ben, Kim, Drew, and Emma at the Louisville airport. Happy (and terrified) to be back home, and my journey across the globe is officially finished… for now.

Berlin x 2

May and I at the Potsdamer Platz mall with all the Christmas decorations

Well, we made it to Berlin, and all we could say was “How glad we are to be here!” We had to shorten our trip by two valuable days, but we packed the two days we had chock full of fun things to do. The first day with May we had to wait for our lost luggage, but we still squeezed in a trip to the top of the Reichstag, a visit to our first Weinacht’s Markt (Christmas Market), a choir concert, and a jazz club. The Reichstag was full of information and had fantastic views, the Christmas Market helped us spend some Euros, the choir concert (with May’s younger brother Magnus) was FANTASTIC and made me miss choir so much, and the jazz club was lovely and located under the train station, so I felt totally Chicago every time a train rumbled overhead. What a day.It snowed!!!

The inside of the top of the state building, the Reichstag.

Some of the corny gingerbread hearts at a Weinachtsmarkt.

The next day we headed out after a breakfast at the neighborhood coffee shop to the big Christmas Market, where May and I rode on the big Ferris Wheel. Then we went to the Altes Museum, which has a great collection of ancient Greek and Roman works. We had some spiced wine, a specialty of the Christmas Markets, took a bus ride around town to see all the sights, and then stopped by one last (seriously, how many more could we go to?) Christmas Market before heading to supper at May’s mum’s house. It was lovely, she cooked all kinds of delicious food for us, we got to visit with May’s family, and she presented us with fantastic presents: jam, and scarves. The best. What more could you ask for? We had a wonderful time in Berlin, and now of course, Mum knows she has to come back to visit some day. Especially since I’ve decided I’ll be living here at some point in my life… two days is definitely not enough.One of the Christmas markets from above.

May's mum, her sister Clara, and May at our supper!

Last days in Abu Dhabi

Christine and I on our camel ride in the desert

On Thursday we had the day to ourselves, and it was quite slow and nice--a trip to the Corniche (the beach) and then a trip to the Abu Dhabi Mall (mall three in three days!) But our Friday and Saturday were wonderful. As the Emirati (Islamic) weekend is Friday and Saturday, Chris and Randy had the days off and really treated us to *real* Abu Dhabi experiences. On Friday we got up early and headed out to the racing track… that is, the camel racing track. There were no big races on when we were there, but we got to drive around the practice track and the real big track and watch the men running their camels for practice. It was preeeetty cool to see, and all the camel jockeys really liked seeing Anastasia hanging out the window too; men love babies here… what gives?

The sign that says "Camel Races". Lol.

A big pack o' camels racing

That evening we gathered along with a few of Christine’s friends from school and a lady came to do henna for all of us. Mum and I both got a foot and a hand done… maybe you’ll get to see it at Christmas! It was nice to have a girly evening and chat.

My hennaed hand in the desert.

On Saturday we started the day out by going to the Grand Mosque built by Sheik Zayed. It was absolutely amazing. It’s made of marble from Greece, and all of the columns have inlaid stone. All of the decoration is marble, precious stones, or gold; there’s no paint. Plus, the central area (the men’s praying room) has the world’s biggest dome (I’m not sure about that… maybe the world’s biggest mosque dome?), the worlds largest carpet, and the world’s biggest chandelier. It was all pretty big. And absolutely beautiful. Oh, and we had to wear abayas and shelas into the mosque, so I got to try out the traditional dress. Woohoo!

The worlds biggest chandelier under the world's largest mosque dome... and over the world's largest carpet.

In my abaya and shela in front of the courtyard of the Grand Mosque.

In the evening we got to go on a desert safari with Christine and her friend Leanne; it was action packed: we petted camels, we went dune bashing (scarier than a rollercoaster, but not like riding on top of the buses in Nepal), we rode camels, we smoked shisha, and just chilled listening to Arabic music and drinking tea and eating dates.

Chris and I in the desert after dune bashing
Me and a camel do the myspace thing.

The camp at night with the dunes and nice lights.

However, during all of this, Mum had gotten all wonky and sick; we ended up spending the night in the hospital, but the doctor gave her antibiotics for an infection and she’s so much better today. Oh, and I must note that it has been raining the past three days we’ve been here! It’s usually a one-day-a-year event, and so the streets are flooded and it’s quite cool outside; Mom wanted the coolest time of year, and not only have we gotten the coolest time of year, we got a flood to go along with it. What a trip! Now, after letting Mum spend the day resting, we’re ready to head on to Germany!

A jeep drives through the flooded streets outside Chris and Randy's apartment... since there's not much rain in the desert, the drainage systems aren't really built for it. eek.

Dubai!

Me in front of the Creek in Dubai.

Our second day in UAE we took a jaunt (and by jaunt, I mean 4 hours in a bus there and back) over to Dubai. Dubai is very spread out, and very interesting to see--there are cranes EVERYWHERE! There’s always a lot of construction going on… even through the financial crisis, there’s still lots of building to be done, apparently. We first walked through the Bur Dubai district and went to the Dubai Museum--I really liked their display on archaeological finds (of course) but also their facts about camels (they can go months without water in the winter!). Haggling with some mannequins in the Dubai Musuem.

The Bur Dubai fabric souk.

We walked through the Bur Dubai souk, which had Mum goin’ nuts--it was a fabric souk! After briefly viewing the Creek (this was a creek on steroids, I would have called it a river, but apparently the Emiratis think otherwise) we took a taxi to the Burj Dubai and the Dubai Mall. What is a Burj? you might ask, and I would answer, I have no idea, but maybe it’s Arabic for “The Tallest Building in the World” because that’s what the Burj Dubai is. The Dubai Mall is also the world’s largest mall: it’s four storeys high and has an ice rink, an aquarium, a fountain and waterfall, a food court complete with the UAE’s only Taco Bell, and not to be left out is Fashion Avenue, replete with stores like Hermes, Jimmy Choo, Dior, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Louis Vuitton, Roberto Cavalli, etc etc etc and some of them even had their doors closed and probably wouldn’t have let me and Mum in if we had tried. I was kinda intimidated. I did buy some clothes there, so I feel minorly fancy. It was really neat to see all of these things, but I was not unhappy to say “bye-bye Dubai” at the end of the day--my bank account was shakin’ in it’s 2nd hand tennis at the sight of those Jimmy Choos.

The Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world at nearly a kilometer high.

Inside the Dubai Mall, looking at part of the aquarium and three of the four floors.

Arrival in Abu Dhabi

The Emirati's Palace... pretty much allll gilded.

We left Nepal on Monday evening, and arrived in the capital of the UAE, Abu Dhabi, just a few hours later. I can’t describe how I feel… even on the plane I got good food, Baileys, and was able to watch two awesome movies of my choice because I had my own TV screen. Then after Chris met us at the airport and we started on our way toward the capital, we saw all kinds of Christmas lights (not for Christmas, but for the country’s national day) and huge buildings lit up, and a line of trees each watered by their own little irrigation hose. Talk about a change of scenery.

Monday was near the most awesome day of my life, and the coolest I can think of for a first day out of Nepal. I took a shower. I washed some clothes in a washing machine. I went to a grocery store that had at least 17 aisles (I lost count after that… and I seriously got a little dizzy looking around in there. Don’t make fun of me), located in a mall that had 3 levels!!!! And then… oh, then…. We went to a spa. We got Morroccan baths where this lady scrubbed every inch of me. I got highlights. There were mani-pedis and facials for Mum and Chris. And lots of tea or coffee, whatever we wanted. We spent almost 4 hours in the spa. It was perfect.Me at the spa!!

After lunch, we headed to the Emirati Palace to meet with Sam for tea. Emirati Palace is not only a palace, it’s a huge hotel and convention center (Sam was there to see the Killers); if the royal family wants to use it, everyone is out by the next day. Cray-cray. It’s covered in gold lief mosaics and has intricate floor and ceiling designs in its four storey dome; it’s quite lush all around, really. We had delicious Afternoon Tea (complete with scones and clotted cream) in good company before looking around a bit and heading home to bed. A perfect first day out of Nepal and into the richest country in the world… I feel like a princess in a fairy tale!Sam and I having a good time at tea.

Who put the Kat in Kathmandu? ME!!

Mum at Bouddha with all of the prayer flags.

Mum arrived safe to Nepal on Thursday, and we had an awesome time. There was a bandh (strike) on transportation one of the days, but we used that day to help move the vounteers into their new and improved home and play with the kids. We did the classics, visiting Bouddha, Thamel, Swoyambunath, Pashupati, and the Durbar Square. On Saturday we got to visit all the kids at Papa’s House (all 140-something now, and we witnessed the arrival of three new girls! It was soooo cute, everyone ran to the gate to cheer them in!) and deliver some books, two of my favorites from my childhood: Our World and Our Universe. They’re excellent books, and the kids immediately loved them. They also loved the photos Mum brought from home of the family--a lot of you are now famous in Nepal. We said our goodbyes on Sunday night, and I think that Mum is convinced already that she needs to come back… multiply that by four months, and you’ve got what I’m feeling.

Mum braiding the girls' hair before school.

Helping out at Pashupati Ashram. The old lady was singing while Mum rubbed her head; it was pretty cool.

Some of the boys looking at the "Our World" book Mum brought.

Chillin at Papa's on my last Saturday with the kids.

my photo on natgeo!

National Geographic online has a link where you can submit photos, so I sent one in, and they picked it as one of the "Daily Dozen"! Wasn't expecting that! Here it is:



You can see it on National Geographic Online with this link, where you can also vote for it... two photos are published fr0m the Daily Dozen every month!


Enjoy!

Myriad events in the Bigu general metropolis

This was when my eyes started tearing up on the way out of Bigu.

On a couple of my nights in Bigu, we were invited to supper with a nun. Whlie that may sound really boring to you folks, it was a blast. My first night Narjin and monkette Somden Wangmo made me supper. I had a fantastic time, speaking Nepali, teaching English (ke kam gar chha=waat du yuu du?), slicing mountain squash, and drinking coffee. Narjin is from Nepal and has lived here in the monastery for 28 of her 42 years. Somden is young still, only 13 I think. We had a “tomato-ey” (it tasted like a persimmonpeachthing) goodness that I would have gobbled up if it weren’t so spicy. We learned the difference between “I have a cold” and “I am cold”, how to ask about what people do and where they’re from, and that the Tibetan word for nun (“ani”) is the name of a Western musical. They took good care of me.
The second time I had dinner with the nun who looks like Gail (Tsering Chenzum), and three mini-nuns (Jangchub Chodon, Serap Dolma, and Loden Wangmo). We had the best Nepali tea I’ve had--lots of cinnamon and cloves… mmmm. Then I got to help make some potato balls… did you know that if you mash boiled potatoes for long enough in a giant wooden bowl with a giant wooden stick it will turn doughy? I thought you didn’t. Then you roll it into balls and boil it in a savory soup. It was delish, and again, I had a wondrous time. I loved both of my evenings with the nuns, and it was an experience I can never forget.

Tsering Chenzum, Serap Dolma, Jangchub Choden, and Loden Wangmo, clockwise from left.

The next week the nuns celebrated the death day of the founder of their gumba. There was a GIANT puja for this which lasted two days and cancelled classes. On the second day the nuns fasted from food and speaking. Sarah took part fully in this, but I can’t really be a good person without food, so I ate. I did go the whole day without talking though! Ok, well I slipped up once and talked to Rob about art, but if you get me started on art… and then I did catch myself speaking aloud twice when there was no one else around. If you know me, you know I talk to myself. I’m not sure if this counts or not. Anyways, the puja involved drinking saffron water (which tastes a lot like camphor) and lots of prostrations. It was a nice break that allowed us all to meditate and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

The fancy things all set up for the death-day puja.

On our last day, Patty and Sarah threw a tea party to which all the nuns were invited. It was a wonderful celebration. They practiced their Enlgish, Patty and I entertained with Disney songs and a horrific rendition of the American National Anthem. It was nice, because it gave us a chance to be as hospitable as we could to the women who had made our stay amazing. The next morning we had to head out, and we were bombarded with katas (journey scarves) and walked all the way to our jeep by nunkies who wouldn’t let us carry our heavy bags. These women were amazing, and I plan on keeping the promises I made them to come back within the next years.

Sarah serving tea to the nuns!

Going to Tibet

On the first Saturday we spent in Bigu, I was up bright an early at 430am (like I am every morning) and we left by 5 to head up the mountain behind us. Dawa (the volunteer Tibetan medicine doctor who fixed my sinuses and hung out with us all the time) organized an awesome trip for us.There is a mountain behind us, and it’s ridge very very high up. And very steep. So we climbed. I didn’t like it. But we got to a chorten near the ridge just in time for sunrise, and we stopped to build a fire and have some coffee and biscuits. Then we continued up to the top of the ridge and to a clearing with a view of Tibet and a giant mountain. We spent hours running around the mountaintop meadow, having photoshoots and just peering at the beautiful scenery around us. We put up a prayer flag signed by all, and eventually Dawa made us a fantastic lunch (especially since he had carried pots, pans, utensils, tomatoes, and ingredients for soup up in his backpack) and after a short nap we were ready to head back down. I’ll let the photos do the rest of the talking for this one.

Sunrise over the mountains.