This past week has been pretty busy with a language exam and 2 papers due. I thought study abroad was supposed to be less work than real college. Lies.
Last week my class went to Bhakatpur's Durbar Square - one of 7 World heritage sites in Kathmandu. There are 3 big sections/districts of Kathmandu: Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur. They used to be separate kingdoms, but grew into each other, like the Twin Cities. A Durbar Square is an old palace. According to our prof, Bhaktapur's is the largest.
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| Oops....can't remember what this is. I'll find out. I just remember walking through an archway and finding this surprising view. There are catfish in the water, which we fed. So creepy, their mouths look like spiders. |
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| One of the courtyards |
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| Tree that has grown over a mandir. Kids charge a few rupees to pray for you because they can fit into the hole between the tree roots. |
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| Detailed wood carving - very old |
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| A kiln. They fill up the entire room then some how heat it enough so that the clay gets baked. |
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| Bhaktapur is famous for it's yogurt, and for good reason. I'm not usually a yogurt fan, but I went back a couple days later to shop around and bought a tub to share with my host family. I think my family really enjoyed it. |
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| BAM! another spider pic. Documenting my phobia. I saw this just before going to bed and had to give myself a pep talk as to why I shouldn't wake up my aamaa for help, put on my big girl panties, and ignore it and go to bed. Day one in Nepal, I am 100% certain I would have woken up my aamaa or thrown my water bottle at it. Progress. Speaking of phobias, one girl is afraid of bridges, someone else hates knives, and someone else hates ketchup (weird, but it actually bugs her). If there is a situation where there are hanging knives and spiders crawling all over a ketchup painted suspension bridge we have to cross, most of our group would probably choose to swim across. |
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| nothfield restaurant in the tourist district |
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| not just northfield, but Carleton's Northfield!! Jesse James and nofo is not a coincidence. We asked to talk to the hakim (boss), but something was lost in translation. Good food though. |
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| Happy Dashain! People build these big swings and go swinging during Dashain. Also, many goats are eaten. My current headless goat count is 5.5 when walking to school. I came home the other day and my helping didi was cutting up tons of meat and there was a bowl of intestines, a liver, and a heart. More about Dashain later! The big days are coming up. |
Highlights from this week include:
-Learning how to make daal bhaat
-teaching the language teachers slang like "take a chill pill" and "make like Tom and Cruise."
-dealing with housing upon returning to Carleton (thanks Ives!)
-2 really late nights of writing
-eating lots of goat meat
-discovering good youtube videos from class mates: A really cute kid and "Banana Frustration"
wait for the whole video to load first!
Feeling a little burnt out! Looking forward to Annapurna.
AHHH HOUSING. hahaha we'll see how things go. you ran off just when things got interesting/confusing. but its all good.
ReplyDeletealso way to go on the spider phobia, that thang is huge! Hope you're having fun in no internet land. Enjoy the lack of technology. Hard to come by nowadays.