By tierneybb
Friday was indisputably the best Nepal day so far. We have been warned of "bad Nepal days," when the chaos and clamor and complete otherness of this city will break us down, and we will want nothing more than to find a couch (a considerable task, especially if you expect it to be comfortable) and demand a mocha and faster internet. But after Friday I will take those blows knowing that this semester is more than worth it.
By tierneybb
By jfbarszcz
Hey there! I was pretty sick last weekend, so I didn't write an entry last week. But I'm back now! So while this might be the fourth week of blogs, it's only my third post, but I'm going to call this Week 3 (because the first one was Week 0, remember?). Don't bother looking for Week 2. It doesn't exist.
When I saw the prompts for this week's entry, one jumped out at me immediately. "Tell us how to get around your city! (Describe how to take the bus, ride a bike in the city, etc.)" This is because one of the most wonderful things about Prague is how easy it is to get around! While I love DC, its public transportation, by comparison, is honestly crap. The only American city I've been to with a comparably extensive mass transit system is New York, and if you've ever been there you know that besides its extent the NYC Subway lacks in pretty much everything else... besides character, of course. It has loads of that. But really, if Prague is any indication, Europeans have the public transportation thing WAY better figured-out than us Americans.
By rlubitz
Alas! I am here in London after boring everyone for three weeks writing about vanities like watching TV on your computer sans pants and panicking about leaving Taco Bell.
Leaving the country for three months didn’t really hit me until my friends started sobbing at Whole Foods. It’s organic! But also humiliating
But I am here and they didn’t remove me from their country (so far) and I finally feel like a real adult person. Getting here was tough, harder than I thought it was because I had what I think was the most talkative airplane seatmate. Was he the air marshal? Probably. Actually…yes. Most definitely.
...continue reading "Jetlag: How To Wake Up In A Room And Have No Idea Where You Are"
This advice was given to me by an employee of the Egyptian Museum as I was attempting to cross a busy street downtown. I have been getting around Cairo either on foot or in a cab. Navigating the city requires vigilance, speed, and patience. Sidewalks cease to exist, only to re-emerge a block later. Occasionally trucks are parked on them. Cars will always honk obligingly, but rarely slow down. It is usually easy to catch a cab, and it has been great for practicing my colloquial Egyptian. Boys take the front seat and girls pile in the back. I’ve been tempted to hang my head out the window like an excited puppy, the better to enjoy the breeze, but don’t for fear of decapitation by the motorcycles that dart between the gaps in traffic.
...continue reading "“Close your eyes, say a prayer, and run.”"
By tierneybb
For the next two and a half weeks I will be trekking through the Tsum Valley, along the Northern Border of Nepal. Featuring the famed Mt. Manaslu, we are headed into this remote valley in order to do research on the Tibetan(iod) peoples there. Only recently made accessible to a group of our size by the government, there are no "proper roads" (as in motorable) into Tsum from Nepal, and only one from China. Instead, after a ten hour car ride to the bordering state, we will have a six day trek into the valley, three days of homestays in remote villages, and a five day hike out. That's seventeen days, eleven of which will be spent hiking, some for an estimated six hours a day, which for me, means more. I would say I'm more outdoorsy than most of my D.C. friends, but that mostly just requires having pitched a tent at any time in your life. Compared to my Colorado friends... well I have other interests. In vague preparation I camped out a night with friends before hiking a 14'nr (Mt. Bierstadt, elevation 14,065 ft, and named after a painter, so I could tell art history stories the whole way up). But I'm concerned. I've already asked our house manager Rinzi to bring an extra donkey along to carry me up the mountain, and despite his laughed agreement, I think I will be alone on this one. Well, alone with twenty other students, nine program staff, and a large group of sherpas doing the actual heavy lifting and camp setting. So, alone like the Tim Curry (King Arthur) song in Spamalot, mostly just in self despair.
By tierneybb
Traveling by road in Nepal is not for the light of heart , but mostly it's not for anyone prone to motion sickness, acrophobia, or concerned about a head on collision in cars that have mysteriously been stripped of all the padding from their frames. Barring such concerns its easy to enjoy the jolts and jarrs of the rough road and the scenic views provided by steep drop-offs overlooking the valley. While this had a number of the students clutching the stripped frame of the land rovers in which we rode up to Namo Buddha, the professional drivers here are probably just as skilled as any Nascar driver, and collisions are incredibly rare despite the harsh road conditions.
...continue reading "Namo Buddha, Outside the Kathmandu Valley"
We in the U.S. are lucky to live in a country that enjoys freedom of speech and of the press. Anyone can write an article or make a video, and then turn it loose onto the internet. Unfortunately, this means that lots of ignorant, hateful, or simply stupid material makes its way around the world, such as the anti-Islam movie that has inflamed ill-will across the Middle East.
By rlubitz
I knew it was gonna happen but I just didn’t think it was going to happen to me. Because I am a stressmonster and have a habit of freaking out for hours at a time, I thought by now I’d be all set, just waiting for the plane to get here, just waiting for the time that I have to actually physically leave Washington, DC. Instead, it’s one day before I leave for London and I’m still configuring bags and giving clothes away and realizing that I’m definitely not going to be wearing three different black sweaterdresses while I’m there because I’m lazy and I never wear dresses.
In these hectic days, I’ve had to rely on humor to not shut my entire world down. For instance, I created a Saturday Night Live skit yesterday while I was lugging my bags across town and it’s called “Rachel Throws A Bag Bigger Than Herself Down Three Flights Of Stairs.” It’s hilarious.
By rlubitz
Will everything even work?
Starting about two days ago, I realized that “oh, all of my technology can’t work in the UK” and thus ensued a mini panic attack because I prepare for nothing until the last minute. I know everything will be fine and I’ll be able to plug in with an adapter and I know they’re like $10 but that doesn’t stop me from imagining my laptop bursting into flames.
Just a few weeks ago my mom sent me an adapter contraption from the 1970s. Last time she used it was legitimately thirty years ago. If I had, indeed, plugged my phone in using those adapters, it would have burst into flames and my face would have been scalded off as a result of those flames and then I wouldn’t have been in any of my friend’s STUDY ABROAD YOLO 2012 Facebook albums because I would have looked like Darth Vader sans helmet.
Do you see how my mind advances on things like this?
But I WILL be getting an adapter this week and calling 19 different people while I’m in the store because that’s just how I work.
As a Gen Y-er, I expect a full meltdown for myself while trying to set up wifi that won’t work when I get there or forgetting to pack a charger.
Will people hate me because I like Coldplay?
...continue reading "In Which I Freak Out About Technology and Taco Bell A Week Before Arrival"