Disclaimer: This is going to be long.

Mero naam Hattie ho. Mero ghar America ho. Mero amaa ra ba hununcha. Mero bhai cha. Ma dal bhat khanne.

I’m learning Nepali! Or at least the basics. You all have probably already figured this out, but it means, “My name is Hattie. My home is America. I have a mom and dad. I have younger brothers. I eat dal bhat (rice and lentils).” Impressive right??  I’ll be having my third intensive language course today. The English Teaching Assistants are taking language lessons at the Fulbright Commission. Gita has been working with four of us, me included, and she is great. Despite having only had eight hours of lessons, I feel like I could make a (very small) bit of Nepali small talk without falling on my face. Progress! We’ve started to learn the alphabet as well, which might be my favorite part. The characters are beautiful, much prettier than the Roman alphabet. Of course, a lot more confusing, but… we’ll get there.

I really cannot believe it’s been a week today since I left the states. We were discussing it last night, but time moves so strangely here. In some ways, days seem to fly. It doesn’t feel like it could already Wednesday, the week should just beginning. But, at the same time, it seems like it’s been ages since I left the states.  I’d guess that the days are flying because we’ve been so busy. We’ve been given a lot of free time so far, but there is always something else to fill it with.  And, conversely, the US is just really far away. It took two whole days to get here. So I think that the geographic distance and the cultural distance is being translated as a time difference in my head.

So, what’s actually been happening? The travel to get here was definitely intense. The journey to Kathmandu is not the kind of trip you take on a whim. It takes some serious stamina. I flew from Philly up to EWR and then from EWR to Delhi. The flight was about 14 hours, longest flight of my life, and my television was frozen. This could have been really awful except that I am the worst procrastinator in the entire world and, luckily, I’d only gotten three/four hours of sleep the night before. I slept probably 10 of the 14 hours, so the flight actually flew. After a ten hour layover in Delhi flew to Kathmandu and arrived at about 9:00 AM, so unbelievably confused about what time it should actually be. Jet lag is only really wearing off now, so we’ve been crashing 8:00 PM every night. But that also means that I’ve been awake at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning. I end up reading or journaling until the day starts.

Saturday we went to Durbar Square, probably the biggest collection of temples in Kathmandu, for Teej. Teej is a woman’s festival. Women gather at temples, dressed in their wedding saris of red and gold, to pray for their husbands and celebrate marriage. The festival involves fasting and praying and dancing. We got henna and made a few friends, it was a lot of fun.

Sunday was relaxing. Didn’t do too much except go to a Tea Tasting at a French restaurant in the tourist district. I’d always been curious about tea, but I didn’t know much. The tea making process seems about as complex as the beer brewing or wine making process, and I had no idea. I also learned that all the different types of tea come from the same kind of plant. Who knew?

Monday and Tuesday have been spent mostly in language class. We also had a security briefing yesterday, to learn about all the horrible things that could possibly happen while we’re in Nepal. But otherwise, uneventful. Nothing else earth shattering to report.

This post feels kind of long and rambling, so I’m going to try to stay away from the “things I did today” sort of lists. I felt like I needed to do a quick summary of everything that’s happened so far before I move on to anything else. We begin our home stays in the city on Saturday, so I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to share soon.

Consumer Markets, Ganesh, and Why I Love Elephants

I love elephants; I have for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I wasn’t one who begged for a cat and I was terrified of dogs. Instead, a baby elephant seemed to be a friendlier and much more exciting choice of pet. My parents didn’t take to my proposals of keeping one in the back yard, though, and a stuffed elephant named Charlotte had to suffice.

Still, my fascination with this beautiful animal never really subsided. The first time I happened to cross paths with an elephant in India, when I was coming home from work, I had a hard time not jumping up and down.  The locals, who see elephants all the time, thought I was crazy. But I couldn’t help myself. And so I also couldn’t help but get excited as I prepared to leave for Nepal, when I seemed to be finding elephants seemed to be everywhere – from Wikipedia articles and youtube videos to pajama pants at department stores and calendars at the local printing shop. Although these coincidences probably have more to do with things like the current consumer market and advertising campaigns, I still enjoyed pretending that all of the elephant sightings were a good sign.

But the funny thing is, upon my arrival into Kathmandu, the elephant sightings haven’t stopped. In fact, depictions of the animals are everywhere. Beautiful scarves and purses covered in elephant motifs line the streets and elephants decorate the 1000 rupee bills here. Their silhouettes are spray painted on the sides of buildings and depictions of Ganesh cover some of the most ancient temples. 

Ganesh, one of the most popular gods here in Nepal, is often shown with the head and torso of an elephant and the legs of a man. He is worshipped as the god of auspicious beginnings and the remover of obstacles, both of which I can appreciate on my third day here in Nepal. My arrival two days ago marked the beginning of my year here, and I am quickly realizing that I really cannot fathom what it will bring. I do know that there will be obstacles, but Ganesh and the many other elephants I am seeing are becoming happy reminders that this is part of the reason I am here; to deal with the challenges and to learn. So I can even get excited at the prospect of frustration, the prospect that I might spend ten months without indoor plumbing.

These past couple days have been great. I’ve really loved exploring this vibrant, diverse city. Looking forward to what will come next. And I’ll be posting lots of pictures and stories, about elephants and everything else, soon!

In Kathmandu!

Made it to Nepal in one piece. Luggage and all! After 16 or so hours of flight time, and 12 or so hours of lay over, I'm pretty worn out. I'll actually write once my brain has bounced back from jet lag.

But I will say that I am so, unbelievably excited to be here!