Love for Nepal

Day 278-307- This post will encompass the entire last portion of our trip. We moved back into our cozy apartment and spent most of our days doing the same thing, living. Yoga, breakfast, blog, volunteer, workout, shop, dinner, sleep. We put a lot of our usual exploring on hold and decided not to visit many of the more well known tourist attractions. Any of the sight seeing we did was limited to the routine of our everyday activities. This was in part due to budgetary restrictions but it was also due to fact that Mike and I had been on the move for the past 10 months steady! The most time we had spent in one place during the 10 months was 5 days and Mike had been begging me for some down time before we stepped back into our Calgary lives. 

After hearing back from my work, we regretfully learned that we would have to cut our trip short in order for me to have a job to return to (mandatory orientation). Although I struggled greatly with the reality of returning home, I made my best efforts to 'live in the now'.  With my 'live in the now' attitude, I hoped to enjoy the last month of our trip with immense gratitude and love. 

Below I return home with groceries in hand, after an incredible morning yoga class. Can you see my 'yoga glow'? 

                        

I feel like the luckiest girl in the world getting to hang out with this guy all day everyday. He feels the same way for his iPhone games.

                        

We spent a lot of time in our home to work on the blog, work out, play cards, read books, listen to music or just to enjoy the peacefulness of having nothing to do. 

Indian Takeout. Nice posture Mike!

Doing our nightly Gorilla Workouts. 

Survivor night!!

We found a yoga studio where we spent most of our mornings or evenings. Pranayama Yoga Studio offers a great variety of instructors and classes for any level of yogi. Below is a 4 minute video of our walk to yoga every day. It has been great having a routine in Thamel and we will definitely miss these walks.

                          

We also spent a good portion of our days eating. Some of our favourite restaurants are listed below! 

Revolution Cafe was an everyday visit for us and they make amazing western and Nepali styles dishes. We frequented this lovely establishment daily, eating, working on the blog, reading books and drinking large amounts of delicious organic coffee. We were as much a part of the restaurants decor as the photos on the wall. 

                     

They make the best dal bhat in Kathmandu!!! UH-Mazing!

A band plays jazz fusion music every friday and we never missed a show. 

OR2K is a middle eastern restaurant with great humus and falafels. 

Western Tandoori and Naan House restaurant is one of the main restaurants for backpackers as they make incredible indian food at amazing prices. Mike and I would get two entrées, rice and butter naan, all for $3.50!!

                   

Momotarou was another favorite. Japanese fusion food at reasonable prices, perfect after those late night yoga classes.

                 

Walking was our only mode of transportation so we spent many hours walking the streets of Kathmandu, shopping and people watching. 

                        

A temple in one of the many Kathmandu shopping districts.

Below we are returning home after meeting an interesting character at the Indian restaurant. After sharing a table and some conversation with him over dinner, we headed to Revolution for some evening jazz music. He was an ER doctor from California and was very informative as to the benefits of  vegetarianism and he said, 'human's have always been opportunistic hunters throughout history and are not set up to metabolize meat on a daily basis'. After going six weeks without any meat while in India, I had already committed to changing how I eat, while in Nepal and going forward in Calgary. After our conversation with Jerry, I just might rethink meat all together. 

One day while walking home from the school we were volunteering at, we found a lane full of the beautiful beads that you see below. It was incredible. Beautifully displayed in this hidden alleyway were thousands of them. I found out that they are used for traditional Nepalese weddings. This went on for half a block with barely enough space to walk past another person in the narrow space between the stalls. 

Puppy snuggled into his mama. 

Every district is a shopping district. It never ends. 

Awkwardly aligned stairs.  

                                

The destruction from the earthquake is still very apparent. Much of the money that was donated to the country was not put to proper use and  has yet to find its way down to those who need it most. It is sad to see people still living in tents one year later with their entire families. 

                      

Frogger. Annnnnd go go go, STOP, GO, stop, waaaaait, go go, back a step, go go goooooo...

Distracted driving in Nepal?...no never. Watching a Bollywood film while driving doesn't count does it?Plus who needs a rearview mirror. 

Our visit to Patan, one of the oldest cities in Nepal.

                       

                     

I love the little details. 

Peek-a-boo, I see you.

The city of Patan was full of color.

                        

I just finished reading 'Shopping for Buddhas' and now I search for my own perfect Buddha. 

                        

I saw another bright wall and felt the need to make use of it. Dancers Pose is one of my favorite standing postures but also one of the most difficult, for me. Although it may not look like much, I have come a long way in this posture. A little more hinge of my hips and it could have been even better! 

And of course the end of our trip wouldn't have been complete without a deluxe visit to the spa!!! How can we say no to four hours of treatments for $70 Canadian dollars? The answer is, we didn't, and it was awesome. Oh boy... Mike what happened to your face? How embarrassing. 

                   

We left fresh faced, relaxed and with the cleanest toes in town. 

                    

And best of all, our entire motivation for coming to Nepal, was to finally meet Nischal. Some of you may know and for those who do not, I have been sponsoring Nischal for the past 5 years to attend a private english school. It is a modest annual fee in comparison to the opportunity it provides him and others at the school and if anyone is interested in getting involved, please contact me for details. It is truly the most direct route to making an impact in ones life, that I have ever seen in action. 

He was also my inspiration for raising money last year, by selling rubber bracelets for those effected by the devastating earthquake that shook Nepal. After years of school reports, letters and more recently, facebook updates, I finally got to meet my shy little Nepali boy, Nischal. Not so little anymore, he's taller than me!

We surprised him at school and I needed to contain my excitement, for this young man is quite shy! 

After our initial visit, much of our time was spent riding the local bus to the small town of Kirtipur to volunteer at Nischals school. The local busses are a riot and people can literally be seen shoving riders into the bus then slamming the door shut as quickly as possible before their behinds poke back out the door. People sit on strangers laps and the ride can get very intimate. 

                  

Our first volunteer day at the school was quite funny. We had asked to come help out at the school and the man in charge was happy to book us in for multiple visits. In many schools back home, volunteering usually means sitting in the back, cutting out activities, helping students with difficulties as they read and write and perhaps reading the kids a story. However, Creative Academy had never had volunteers before, so they had their own idea on how to best put us to work. When we showed up, we were given a white board marker each and escorted to a classroom. Knowing Mike was an Engineer, he was brought to a Math class. Myself being a language teacher, I was brought to an English classroom. When we walked into the classroom my teacher left the room leaving me at the front of the class. Mike had a similar experience except the teacher took a position amongst the students suggesting that there was so much he could learn from Mike. Yup, it was just us and 25 interested faces to teach. But... what grade is this? What are they learning? What have they learnt up to this point? What is the level of their english? After a short introduction and some back and forth discussions with the kids, I discovered that my class was learning about trees and Mike found out his class was learning geometry.  I was quite excited to have the class to myself but I couldn't help but wonder what Engineer Mike was up to in his classroom. Although, from my own math tutoring sessions with Mike, when I was in university, I knew he would make an amazing teacher. 

The first class ended and I went to find Mike to see how it went. YUP! Just as I expected. He used the same icebreaker that I used with my junior high kids back home and it broke the ice all right! Good ol' Clash of Clans always knows how to bring people together. See wasn't Mike made for this? Teaching math... not Clash of Clans. I need to watch what I say. 

                  

Before one of our other visits to the school, Mike had promised Nischal that he would teach a math lesson on Clash of Clans. See I knew I spoke too soon! He used the popular game to teach geometry and it was hugely successful. They used a grid system and two attack strategies to optimize their 'raid'. The teacher ended up sitting in on the lesson and continuously took the calculator from his students to work out the problem on his own. At one point Mike was asking which defensive structure the giants would move to next and after calculating the shortest distance, I heard the teacher yell out, 'the wizzie tower!!'.  

I was so proud of Mike for his well thought out lesson plan. Maybe one day he can volunteer in one of my classes to teach some math. 

I also had the pleasure of meeting the little girl that my friend sponsors, which was an honour. It was my friend Brooke who introduced me to the idea of sponsoring Nischal many years ago and on her annual visits to Kirtipur, she would always take the time to visit my sweet Nischal. So I was ecstatic to meet Rebecca. 

The students get Saturday off so Mike and I went to Kirtipur to visit Nischals family. His dad was anxiously awaiting our arrival and his mom cooked us the most amazing dal bhat. It was a great moment for me when I got to to hand Nischal one of my rubber bracelets, explaining to him that he inspired me to raise $2000 Canadian dollars for the Red Cross earthquake relief in Nepal. 

                          

We visited the temple below during our our trip to Nischal's village. It dates back to 1100 AD. Incredible that it still stands after the 7 magnitude earthquake that hit Nepal one year ago. Even more incredible, is how this ancient architecture is integrated into their community and is still used as a common area and place of worship. It is as old as the ruins we visited in Cambodia yet it is used like any other building in the area. Amazing. 

Nischal once told me on facebook that his home overlooks Kathmandu Valley. Kathmandu valley is huge so I didn't quite understand what he meant until I saw the view with my own eyes. It was quite spectacular. 

With two days left on our trip we had the pleasure of going to Nischals home to celebrate his 13th Birthday. His family kindly welcomed us into their home once again. They fed us delicious local Nepali food and made us feel like a part of the family. It was one of the most authentic, real and warming experiences of my life. HAPPY BIRTHDAY NISCHAL!

                         

Below is the Director of Creative Academy and her husband who is also one of the founders of the school. 

Mike and I got a cake made for Nischal with his favourite flavors! 

Nischals parents dobbed cake icing on his face, blessing him.  And Mike... well no they didn't bless him, he was just hiding some cake in his beard for later.  I think he is due for a trim and haircut when we get home. 

Nischals parents gave us both a lovely gift. Mike got the traditional Nepali hat that you see below and I received a brightly colored silk scarf!

The view of Kathmandu Valley by night.

Our time in Nepal was the perfect ending to our amazing 11 months of travel. Not only did we get to spend quality time with Nischal but we also slowed down our lifestyle and enjoyed being stationary. We put a focus on our health, working out or going to yoga everyday as well as developed strategies on how we could keep some of our good habits going, when we got back home. We enjoyed some of the little things that we know will be more difficult to find time for when we get home. Things like, reading, listening to podcasts, enjoying afternoon coffees and walking around the city with no where to be. I'm not sure that I can say with confidence that we are ready to come home but we sure are ready to see our loved ones and that will be enough to get us through the reverse culture shock of returning to Calgary. 

Only one blog post to go... but first, check out a before and after photo of Mike and I to see how much we've changed in the past 11 months.