Fun with friends…..and Fiancés!

Dear all,

Today, I’ve a small confession to make. There’s been a lot I haven’t been telling you about my life here in Nepal. And there are a couple reasons for this; mainly that I don’t really know who reads my blog, but also because I try to keep this blog from getting too personal, too often. After all, I started this blog to tell my friends and family about my life in Nepal, but also to keep them updated on my work. But in light of the adventures I want to share with you today, I think it’s time for the big announcement: I’m getting engaged!

You may ask, what do you mean getting engaged? Here in Nepal, engagements are usually formal organized parties, almost like a mini-wedding, and therefore, the engagement itself takes planning from both the bride and the groom’s family. And today, Buffalo and I (perhaps I should start calling him Fiancé) headed out to Bhaktapur in search of engagement rings. Like most things he and I do together, we made as much of an adventure of it as we could and we had a wonderful time. So here’s the run down:



Buffalo picked me up around 11am this morning, and we went and had lunch at his house, with his mom, dad, and his older sister (who happened to be visiting today). Lunch was delicious as always, and his sister made sure to give me extra potatoes in my curry because they all know how much I love potatoes. It was a small gesture, but it made me happy all the same. I feel so fortunate to be welcomed into such a warm and loving family with such open arms. But the littlest rascal of the house, Buffalo’s nephew, wasn’t home and somehow it felt just a tad too quiet. All the same, it was a nice peaceful lunch with family.

Then we hopped on the bike and headed out to Bhaktapur. Bhaktapur is an ancient city just outside Kathmandu. It took us a good half an hour to get there, but there was a light rain falling so the dust and the heat were both much more manageable than they have been of late. We chatted the whole way out, and by the time we reached the jewelers, I was giddy with excitement.

The jewelers (we met with two of them) are both childhood friends of Buffalo’s and they were among the sweetest guys I’ve ever met. They were a bit surprised by our news at first, but within minutes, they were teasing me as if we’d been friends for a long time, and I felt right at home with them.

To my own surprise, I’m being a little picky about my ring, but the boys were very patient and they are going to do everything they can to get the design just as I’d like it. But in order to do so, we have to go see a more experienced goldsmith tomorrow. I was a little disappointed, because I was in such a hurry to order the ring and just being at the shop was so exciting. But Buffalo teased me today that he has a big “American” proposal planned, though I have no idea what that means, so it could be a long while before I get to see my new treasure.

The good news is we found a ring he liked a lot today too. I’m going to tweak the design of it a little, and then order it from the jewelers when Buffalo isn’t around. There’s a picture of the ring he likes in the slideshow, so feel free to make suggestions if you have any.

The other good news, at least in my opinion, is that stones are ridiculously cheap here. My ring is still going to cost far more than I would like, because of the high cost of gold here, but it looks as though the white topaz I’ve chosen will cost less than a dollar! ( I refuse to wear diamonds because of the many well known evils of that industry.) I know some brides-to-be may not think that’s something to brag about, but I’d much rather spend that money on plane tickets for Buffalo and I, so I’m thrilled.

Ok, but enough about the rings themselves. As much as that’s exciting to me, it probably isn’t so much so to all of you, and it ended up being a small portion of the day anyway.

After the ring business was taken care of, we sat in the shop and sipped sodas and chatted with the jewelers for awhile. Then they sent us off to do some exploring throughout Bhaktapur, but not before promising to give us a guided tour later in the afternoon. So off we went, giggling at the people who mistook Buffalo for my guide, taking pictures of “tourists” and wandering through centuries old streets enjoying the chance to live among the ghosts of that place. We particularly liked an old well whose edges now appear scalloped, not by design, but because the stone had been worn into that pattern as people leaned over the edge year after year, pulling water up for their homes.

We stopped for a quick snack in one of the most touristy (True story: spell check is recommending the phrase: touristiest!) restaurants in the whole city, and Buffalo was very taken with the couches. (He owns a furniture shop, and hopes to open another soon.) It made me laugh to see him taking pictures of the furniture in the café, especially when only minutes before he’d been snapping shots to use in his sketches and watercolors. But perhaps it’s not a good idea to laugh at him when he’s being responsible. Still, I can’t wait to bring him pictures of IKea from home!

Then it was time to catch back up with the jewelers. As we headed back to the shop, Buffalo realized he’d misplaced his bike key. Panic should have ensued, but instead, I went back to the jewelry shop and he set off with the jewelers in what was now a slightly heavier rain to find the key. While I sat at the shop, one of the jeweler’s assistants asked me if I was worried, but I told him that I knew Buffalo and I knew exactly where he’d left the key and that he’d be back with it in a few minutes. And as I predicted, Buffalo and his friends came back a minute later on the bike laughing because the key was still dangling in the ignition when they got to it. So from now on, I am the key keeper!

Now that we had the bike and the key, the four of us headed out on a quick motorbike tour of the city. We stopped and took pictures here and there, but then the off again on again rain started to get the best of us, so the jewelers head back home. Buffalo and I had planned to go home too, but as we got near another of the big sights in Bhaktapur the rain cleared up again, and so we decided to make one more small stop.

There is a huge, beautiful fish pond just outside of the main city and we finished our sightseeing there. We took silly pictures, fed the fish, and relaxed as the sun went down. After that, Buffalo and I grabbed a quick dinner on the way home; where we talked about things big and small, (yes, mom that includes your babysitting comments!!) and then he dropped me off at my flat. After spending the whole day with him, it felt a little strange to have to say goodbye at the end of the night, but I can’t complain too much because the alone time has given me the chance to write to all of you.

Anyway, I must confess to feeling that today’s post is probably very boring to those of you who are not happily enjoying the love bird stages of your life right now. If that’s the case, I do apologize. But I know others of you are curious about this mysterious seeming new man in my life and I thought that seeing some pictures and hearing about what was actually a pretty normal day out for us was like might put you a bit at ease. And even if the post is a little boring, the pictures are cute, so maybe that’ll balance things out.

As always all my love..because there will always be enough of that to go around!!!

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My New Roommate

Dear all,
Today, I’m writing with a guilty heart. Not because I’ve done anything terribly wrong of course, only because once again, I’ve gone so long between posts. Fortunately, this time I have a more legitimate excuse; I’ve been busily preparing for a presentation I’m giving this coming Monday to overview the work I’ve done as a Fulbright scholar. Surprisingly, I’m enormously excited to talk about my work, and I’m even fairly proud of the work I’ll be sharing. I think it’s going to be a decent presentation, and I’m sorry I can’t share it with more of you. I will try, (though this does not constitute a promise) to write up a summary blog post after the presentation for those of you who may be interested. Anyway, if you’ve a moment to spare on Monday, being the good Irish girl I am, I’d appreciate any luck you send my way.



In other news, I now have a new roommate. His name is Babu (which is a term of endearment for little boys in Nepali), and he is a big, white, south Asian house cat. I “inherited” him from a friend who needed a place to put him up for a year. And fortunately, he suits me quite well. He, like me, is a bit of a traveler. He was born in Bangladesh, and traveled with a previous owner first to Cambodia, and then here to Nepal. He’ll be staying with me for this year and then he’ll be headed to Canada to be reunited with his very first owner. He’s a very particular and vocal cat, and (also like me) he gets a little cranky when things don’t go exactly his way. Fortunately, he’s also a lover, and I think he’d spend the entire day on my lap or in my arms if I’d let him. In fact, he’s at his grumpiest when I wake up from our cat nap earlier than he’d like me to. I like having him around, and I love that he slows my days down a bit and coaxes me into sitting and doing nothing on occasion rather than rushing around as I’ve been prone to do as of late.

In fact, life has been very hectic, and looks as if it is only going to get more so. Soon I’ll be starting Nepali classes at a local college here, and then I’ll also be teaching English (potentially as many as five classes a day). And of course, I’ll still need to find time to write and research, be a friend to my cat and my buffalo, an Auntie to my baby, and a younger sister to the rest of the family. It’s a little daunting but also exciting. It’s also helped to distract me from some serious hurdles I’m facing at work as of late. I’m really trying to find a better way to do my research and to structure my “research days”, but it’s a bit of an uphill battle and at times, I’ve found myself feeling decidedly dejected. Fortunately there are a slew of people who believe I have “talent” and their faith in me keeps me going. Still, I’m trying to sneak in a day or two break between the presentation and the big EVERYTHING. Ideally, I’d like to spend a day or two meditating at a nearby Buddhist monastery, but that’s still to be determined.

I’ll keep you posted. And of course, I’m sending all my love back home to you all!
me

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Can miracles be made of sugar? I think they can!

Dear All,

So once again, it’s been a little while since I’ve written. It’s not that I didn’t want to write, it’s just that as every day becomes more everday-ish, I find it harder to think of things to write to you about.

Lately, my life has been very full of planning. Planning my trip to the states (WOOHOO!), planning my upcoming presentation, planning my next year here, planning one last Fulbright sponsored trip to the field, and above all, planning the deep breathe I’ll take when all the planning is done.

Mostly, my plans are progressing nicely. For a bit, I was in quite a funk, and I had difficulty accomplishing much of anything. Fortunately, life didn’t let me stay that way for more than a few days, and now I’m both busy and productive. My trip dates are set (Aug 28^th through Sept 14^th). And my flight details are in progress. My presentation is all but done, I’m registered for my class, I’ve got a decent (and perhaps even fulfilling) teaching job lined up, and my visa is taken care of. Looking back on it, it seems like a long string of small miracles.

Of course, life isn’t all work, so I’ll just finish briefly with my “sweet shop” story. I apologize for those of you who may have heard this already, but frankly, it continues to make me happy (and fat) so I keep talking about it! So there is a sweet shop very near to my house that I occasionally visit. The sweet shop sells all sorts of delicious Nepali and Indian treats. But for weeks, I’d only order one thing, the julabi. Finally, the very friendly shop owner asked me, “Why do you only order Julabi?” and with no small degree of embarrassment, I admitted, “because it’s the only thing I know the name of.” The owner chuckled, handed me my snack, and asked me to come back tomorrow.

Because I would never dare upset a sweet shop owner, I dutifully appeared the next morning. He smiled, and instead of heading toward the case where the julabi usually sits waiting for me, he ushered me to a table. In a matter of moments, I was surrounded by sweets of all kinds, each arriving with a polite introduction. I was absolutely giddy. 30 minutes later, I was absolutely roly poly, but still just as happy. And I can now say, with certainity, that dudh malai is my favorite south asian sweet, followed closely, by my old friend julabi. Now whenever I visit the sweet shop, the owner gives me a little something to take with me. Buffalo is very lucky I’m not too fickle, or I may have been swept away by sugary goodness.

Of course, this new found friend is quickly helping me recover all that weight I’d lost from being sick, but I’m taking the advice of my favorite priest, and not fretting over it too much. Once I had begun to tell say, “Well, if I ate chocolate as much as I’d like..” and he quickly chimed in, “you’d be happy.” And I think it’s an excellent point. So, in short, if you’re wondering what I’m so busy doing as of late, I’m planning, planning, planning, and eating chocolate and sweets!

Oh and in completely unrelated but equally exciting news, I’ve just received a manuscript of another much more established anthropologist’s upcoming book (yes, it’s the anthropologist’s equivalent of getting to walk the red carpet at a world premiere). Thus far, it is fantastic, and it’s both fantastically exciting and humbling to have the privilege to work with such great minds. If you ever wonder why I’ve moved to Nepal, the simplest answer is because of manuscripts like this!

Still missing you all! But I’ll see you soon.

All my love,

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