By tierneybb
Today our independent study research period ended, and as we regroup in Boudha to franticly put final touches on our papers and find somewhere able to produce color printing, I find myself in the inevitable slide into reminiscence about times when I didn't have forty page papers due (especially ones I'm so far from finishing). I guess the my study abroad program's first week was different than the overwhelming feeling of arriving in a foreign city and having to set yourself up, because it's SIT everything is managed for us, and the first week was a lovely retreat to welcome us to the city, I think I might have gone crazy if it had just been me landing at the airport, sans bag, and setting up for a semester of school. Kathmandu's chaotic cluster of humanity now feels comfortable to me, I'm not sure if this is because I have imposed that order or found what was hidden beneath a completely foreign surface, but I am able to work with it all the same. Compared to that first week in Pharping I am now able to casually navigate the city, find local or expat friends, and while I can't speak Nepali or really enough Tibetan to shoot the breeze people are always looking to practice their English with a brief conversation in line or as you walk somewhere.
That first week I had no idea what to expect, I honestly wasn't sure if the homestays would have their own bathroom, as I had seen communal ones for apartments in India in high school. Considering such, it's been a cushy ride, and at times it can feel a bit like summer camp, getting taken care of and roaming around the subcontinent in a group of students, but that dynamic has enabled me to do so many things I could never have done, and some I would never have tried. A 17 day trek would have been beyond my imagination, but Tsum was amazing, and with the organization behind it staying in rural homestays and interviewing for ghost stories was probably my favorite experience of the semester. I definitely would not have been able to do the same amount/ quality of field work as I did this semester on any other type of program. The sheer independence of ISP makes me certain that now, if dropped off in Nepal or almost any other country I could get by just fine. And I'm really excited to hear all the other students' adventures, from visiting the exile government in McLeod Ganj Dhamsala,to being incorporated into a wedding at the Everest base camp, investigating the role of UNESCO in the valley, or writing poetry with a new generation of artists; our group was incredibly diverse in their interests.
This is not to say that I've mastered Nepal by any means. I am still embarrassed on a daily basis by some small failure to meet with cultural expectations, or just get so lost/confused that someone has to point out the obvious. I've just accepted that as a normal part of life, and the prospect of returning to the US where I know what's going on, don't accidentally walk through the altar set up in the street, and people understand me when I pronounce names of people and places Is a little too strange for me to handle right now. But that's why after ISP presentations we have reintegration and leaving Nepal discussions (/training. Our advisor joked that we will be dropped off in the giant supermarket and have to shop for several hours before we are let out. Ohmygod. Facing Christmas season shopping craze in America? I will be mentally and emotionally trampled even if my body survives the masses). As we're back in Boudha I plan on soaking up as much culture as I can during this last week of school. Doing kora till I'm dizzy and having as much momos and thukpa as my meal stipend can bear (which in the local "curtain" restaurants we've been going to, where there are no menus just tables and food, is a lot of momos and thukpa. Yum).