You Are Now Running on Nepal Time

One of my main reasons for taking on this trip was to extricate myself from the North American model of relentless scheduling and stress.  That said, this place is sometimes on the complete opposite end of the spectrum.  It's a really huge adjustment to not have a strict timeline for things.  I find myself asking everyone what we should be doing, or what's next a lot, when there really is time to just sit and enjoy.

We went to the reception for the wedding (it's a 4 day affair) last night and had a true traditional Nepalese meal.  There must have been around 200 people, and we all sat cross legged on the ground while a parade of people put food into our dishes.  I have never had so many different kinds of beans and lentils in one sitting.  The bride ends the dinner with the pouring of wine into everyone's cups, then the real party begins.  I thought Nepal would be a calm place, but these people really like to party.  You drink a lot of "rice beer", and that magic lamp liquor which I've learned is called raksi, which is definitely an awesome name.  The night turned into a Bollywood dance party!

Thankfully Alina prepped me in the morning during our language class.  I learned bhoj (feast), mitho cha (very tasty), pugyo (enough - they are constantly offering you more food), and some other choice phrases.  We work a lot on phrases to do with bargaining and ordering taxis, and I think I'm almost ready to try it on my own.  You can just use the word mahango (expensive) when you don't like the price of something.  We use mahango a lot.

Learnding

I'm starting to understand the very basics of this difficult language.  The hardest part is the subtleties in the slight variations of vowels.  There are a few "a" and "ah" sounds, and some vowels that have a longer duration.  There's also this soft "j" sound instead of a "ch" that for the life of me I can't get.  The grammar isn't so bad even though the sentence structure is different from English.  It's easiest to learn in phrases.  Luckily I have some patient teachers and have been practising translating English/Nepali with our cook, Sita.

I eat my momos off a golden platter.

 The food at the BaseCamp house is also incredible.  It's a mixture of traditional dishes and things we westerners will like.  Some concepts of western food are a little strange, so I did go to the tourist grocery store and purchased some Nutella and Diet Coke for comfort foods - hallelujah :)

Tomorrow I continue my orientation and language preparation and plan to venture a little farther out of our neighbourhood on foot.  I've already been lost a few times since the streets have no names and everything looks the same.  You start to figure out how it all works pretty quickly when you don't have a choice.

Shubaraatri! (Goodnight!)