Nepal!

Wow, Sundes! Cairo sound's like its going to be amazing, I can't wait to see pictures/hear more about your discoveries there.

I've been in Nepal now for... about 10 days now. The first two days were a little weird, because my program hadn't started yet, so I was all alone in Thamel (the super turisty part of Kathmandu). It was kind of good though, to give me time to adjust to the craziness of the city. I just kind of wandered around, too afraid to go into any of the shops because I knew I didn't want to buy anything yet but all the shop keepers are super aggressive about trying to sell you anything. I made a friend on my first day though -- a jeweller guy who noticed my necklace and called me over. We ended up talking for a while over some tea (OMG THE TEA HERE IS AMAZING), and he was pretty cool. He is Muslim & Indian so it was interesting to talk to him about Nepal. Even more interesting now that I actually know alittle about the relationship between India and Nepal. I want to visit him again since he was so kind to me, but now that my program started and we got all our little lectures and introductions about Nepali culture..... heh, I am pretty sure he was hitting on me, and kind of inappropriately. Well, at least, my language teachers (who are AMAZING and adorable and I love them, they were trained by the peace corp & are all Nepalis) said that it is really inapproprate for a guy to ask a girl to be their friend, and he definitey asked me exactly that....which I thought was totally cool, of course I'll be your friend! I love friends! Haha.... well, anyway, he also showed me a really cool hookah bar, and one of our first nights I stayed up with a few of my classmates having intense philosophical debates (though no where near the profundity of our brunch/hallway talks), so we decided to have a weekly philosophy and hookah night.

There are 11 of us in the program, but next week 14 more are coming from the SIT Tibet program, because they can't be in Tibet due to political instablitity.... but our classes will stil be separate and stuff. The program house is awesome, and WE HAVE A DOG!!!! holy shit he is amazing! His name is Singe (sing-gay) which is tibetan for lion. You know how we teach our dogs to shake? Well, here, they teach their dogs to Namaste! SO CUTE!

Our teachers so far are interesting... its mostly like a bunch of guest lecturers, but they are all pretty amazing. Sometimes we get to even have our lectures in the field. Two days ago, for instance, we went to a HUGE amazing ancient temple (Im horrible with names, especially in a different language, but I think it was Pashpavari temple - sound familiar?) ---It was absolutely breathtaking to see all the incredible historic buildings and art and tradition going on all around us as our teacher explained it all to us. Imagine jumping into your text book and actually interacting with everything you read about -- YES. For example, our teacher JUST finished explaining to us the Hindu belief that the best way to die is with one foot in the river and some gold bits put in your mouth. Next thing you know, we look across the river and there is a group of people standing around a dying family member, who is covered in colorful tapastry-like covers, which children running naked, swimming and laughing around the dying body. Just down the river, they are burning another body in the cremation fires, and going through the rituals to prepare a fire for another family's passed. Death, here, is not something horrible or frightening -- it is necessary. The belief in reincarnation, too, helps to ease any fears. ... it was just... I have no words, it was unbelievable.

Before that, on our second day here as a program, we went to Daksan Kali - it was a saturday, the day when many people go to the goddess temples to pay their respects.

Wow.

SO many colors and sounds and scents -- the tradition is to engage every sense when you go to temple, and only taste was missing for me (but those participating did not miss that sense!). The only thing that was a little difficult for me was the animal sacrafices, but I know it is for a good cause to them, and it was just very very interesting. They eat the meat, too, after they offer it (Kali gives it back), so its okay. It was just weird because it was the two animals I've raised (goats and chickens, with the occasional duck). But it was still absolutely mindblowing to see. And to think, this is just everyday life here, for those practicing the Hindu tradition.

Yesterday, we went to the Kumari Jattra, which is the festival of the living goddess. The living goddess, the Kumari, is chosen when she is about 4, and remains a goddess until she gets her period. We didn't actually get to see her, because it rains were a downpour and it was getting too late... but we did see some of the other festivities, and the old Kumari is going to come talk to us for one of our lectures!!!! So excited.

Oh man, I could go on forever about everything I've seen and done here already. I really like everyone in my program, they are all pretty awesome so far, & I am interested to meet the Tibetan students. OH and my family!! My homestay family is so wonderful. I have a baa, an aamaa, a bhaai and a bahini (dad, mom, little brother, little sister -- practicing my nepali! its kind of amazing how much I know already, though still not nearly enough to get around!) My baa and aamaa don't speak very much english at all (like. hardly any), but my bhaai and bahini do, so they have been somewhat of lifesavers, not to mention they are so cute. My bhaai is 14 (he told me, he was like, "14.....a teenager *big smile*" SO CUTE). They are all helping me learn Nepali, and later today we are going shoping for cortaas (the traditional dress). I adore them.

Okay. So, like I said, I could go on forever. I haven't even begun to decribe some of the thing I've been learning in class (basically, Nepal has EVERYTHING i've ever been academically interested in going on here -- from culture to religion to transitional justice to race/caste/class/ethnicity to gender to aaaahhhhhh EVERYTHING. This place is amazing, and so much is going on right now politically [i.e. they are in the process of writing a new constitution for peace] that its so exciting to be here right now!!!]

So, point being, I will write more later! And when I figure out how to get my computer up and running, I will post some pictures (I have a trillion already).

<3 <3 (oh, one last thing, my Nepali name is Barsha (which means monsoon!), and it already feels really weird to introduce myself as Briana, haha. Ridic.)

<3Barsha