Namaste!!!
I have arrived safely in Nepal and have internet access for the first time. I hope to post soon with some photos and commentary on all that has happened sometime soon. I have much to update y'all on -- from the longest plane ride of my life on which half of the passengers were infants to my experiences here in Nepal in Pharping and Kathmandu and my struggles with Nepali. I will meet my homestay family tonight armed with very basic Nepali and useful phrases like, "is that my book on the table?", "this is a pen", and "my name is Roz" (which is a mans name in Nepal, thanks Mom) and "Mt. Everest is not in Vermont." More soon. Love and kisses to all.
-roz
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 9, 2009
Namaste
Hi Friends, Family, Middlebury Ballers, etc. etc.,
As I prepare to depart Middlebury and venture off to Nepal I wanted to make sure I had an easy way to be in touch with everyone who wanted to hear about my most recent adventures, thus I decided to start my first blog. I can't promise it will always, or ever, be interesting, exciting or well written, but I will try to update it as much as possible (mainly for my Mom's sake).
So, here's the deal, as most of you are probably know I'm going to be spending the second half of my junior year abroad in Nepal through the School for International Training's Nepal: Culture and Development Program. SIT is based in Brattleboro, Vermont, and students from any college or university can apply to their programs, so I will be traveling with 15-25 kids from all over the United States. The majority of our time will be spent in the capital city of Kathmandu where we will each be living with different homestay families and attending classes at the SIT program house during the week. We will take a Nepali language class, field methods course and culture and development seminar. These courses help to prepare us for the last 5-6 weeks of the program when we will each travel to different parts of the country to work on an independent study project of our choosing. During the time that we are all together in Kathmandu we will take a few week-long trips to different parts of the country as a group. We will likely trek into the foothills of the Himalayas, and travel to the Terai - the southern, tropical region of the country. I've been fiddling with googlemaps lately and have created an experimental map of some of the places we will likely be, it can be seen here, check it out and let me know what you think.
It is unclear what the living conditions will be like with my host family and I have no idea how easy it will be for me to find internet access as the country is currently in the midst of an electricity shortage. As of this week the the country has instituted 16 hour blackouts each day, thus it will be even more difficult than usual to find internet access and my updates could be quite infrequent. The blackouts occur mainly during the middle of the day which means that all internet cafes are closed and there are rumors that the blackouts could increase to up to 20 hours per day.
While it will be hard to leave Middlebury and miss the remainder of our basketball season, I cannot wait to embark on my first real, extended journey and I hope that this blog will enable me to share some of my experiences with you. Email me your contact info if you wish to receive a postcard of some sort from Nepal, it might get to you by the time I get home.
My address where I can receive all your letters (!!!) is:
Roz Vara
c/o School for International Training
Box 1373
Kathmandu, Nepal
-roz (rpvara@gmail.com)
As I prepare to depart Middlebury and venture off to Nepal I wanted to make sure I had an easy way to be in touch with everyone who wanted to hear about my most recent adventures, thus I decided to start my first blog. I can't promise it will always, or ever, be interesting, exciting or well written, but I will try to update it as much as possible (mainly for my Mom's sake).
So, here's the deal, as most of you are probably know I'm going to be spending the second half of my junior year abroad in Nepal through the School for International Training's Nepal: Culture and Development Program. SIT is based in Brattleboro, Vermont, and students from any college or university can apply to their programs, so I will be traveling with 15-25 kids from all over the United States. The majority of our time will be spent in the capital city of Kathmandu where we will each be living with different homestay families and attending classes at the SIT program house during the week. We will take a Nepali language class, field methods course and culture and development seminar. These courses help to prepare us for the last 5-6 weeks of the program when we will each travel to different parts of the country to work on an independent study project of our choosing. During the time that we are all together in Kathmandu we will take a few week-long trips to different parts of the country as a group. We will likely trek into the foothills of the Himalayas, and travel to the Terai - the southern, tropical region of the country. I've been fiddling with googlemaps lately and have created an experimental map of some of the places we will likely be, it can be seen here, check it out and let me know what you think.
It is unclear what the living conditions will be like with my host family and I have no idea how easy it will be for me to find internet access as the country is currently in the midst of an electricity shortage. As of this week the the country has instituted 16 hour blackouts each day, thus it will be even more difficult than usual to find internet access and my updates could be quite infrequent. The blackouts occur mainly during the middle of the day which means that all internet cafes are closed and there are rumors that the blackouts could increase to up to 20 hours per day.
While it will be hard to leave Middlebury and miss the remainder of our basketball season, I cannot wait to embark on my first real, extended journey and I hope that this blog will enable me to share some of my experiences with you. Email me your contact info if you wish to receive a postcard of some sort from Nepal, it might get to you by the time I get home.
My address where I can receive all your letters (!!!) is:
Roz Vara
c/o School for International Training
Box 1373
Kathmandu, Nepal
-roz (rpvara@gmail.com)
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