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!!!