Namaste!

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post.. the last two weeks have been incredibly busy! After a full 48 hours of travel (including a 13 hour layover in the Hong Kong airport, which, let me tell you, is NOT the ideal place to spend a day), we (myself and eleven other American kids taking gap years before college, or just random years off in the middle of college) arrived in Kathmandu extremely jet-lagged and a little nauseated (from the large amounts of airplane food that had been consumed). We headed straight to Dhulikel (a really incredible little town on the outskirts of the Kathmandu valley. You could see the Himalayas from our guest house if you woke up before the fog...), where we spent 5 days becoming best friends, learning basic Nepali, studying cultural do's and dont's, and generally preparing ourselves to be immersed in Nepali culture. We did a lot of hiking, a lot of meditating, and a lot of tea drinking. (Tea here is made in milk and then filled with sugar. IT IS DELICIOUS. Although, I recently learned that there is a Diabetes problem in Nepal, for which my host family blames the dudh chiya, though it has not stopped them from consuming it in enormous quantities)

Then, after becoming thoroughly acquainted with each other and Nepal, we moved to Patan (a small city, famous for it's art, on the outskirts of Kathmandu), where we met our host families and began our daily routine of morning meditation, language class, lectures/discussions on poverty, politics, and religion, and lunch. Afternoons are occupied with our independent study projects (My host father, Rajin, is a prominent precious stone carver, so for my ISP I'm studying with him. So far, though, all I've done is practice drawing straight lines on paper. The first day, after a solid 2 hours of drawing straight lines, Rajin assured me that "the line is the artist's greatest masterpiece!" He says that we will start working in stone later this week. I cannot wait!) Sometimes, there is time to explore Patan before dinner, which is always an amazing experience. (Patan is full of really incredible stupas and monasteries, just scattered throughout the city. Giant golden Buddha statues can often be found at the end of tiny, winding roads barely wide enough to walk down. The lack of space does not stop motorcycles from cruising around at high speeds, dodging pedestrians, stray dogs, and piles of trash. Navigating the city on foot is one of the most exciting/nerve wracking things I've ever done. I literally see my life flash before my eyes so many times a day it is ridiculous.) Dinner is always a family affair, which at my house is extremely overwhelming: there are at least 35 people in my family, and all of them come in and out unannounced. I only know 3 of them by name. Dinner is also always a daal bhat (rice and lentils) affair, which I somehow am not sick of yet. (I don't know how.. SO MUCH DAAL BHAT.)

We are only in Patan with our homestay families for one more week, and then we head to a week-long meditation retreat at a Buddhist monastery in Pharping. I'll try and post again before the meditation retreat (hopefully with pictures... I have a lot, I just haven't figured out how to put them on the computer yet. I keep trying to ask the owner's of the various internet cafe's that I've visited, but my Nepali skills are severely lacking. Much confusion and laughter always follows any attempt to speak.)

I want to hear from everybody, so e-mail me!