Temples and momos and tikka, oh my!

Namaskar (= namaste),

Wow, I've only been here for 4 days now and I'm already feeling so at home and so settled into the household routine. Our days have been packed, but never dull - there are new and fascinating experiences every day.

Yesterday was quite busy - we had another four hours of Nepali with Anjala-ji in the morning after a delicious breakfast of fresh local sunthala (oranges), a type of roti (bread) spread with honey which reminded me of a crepe, and chiya of course. Chiya means tea, and I've been drinking at least 3 or 4 cups of it every day. It's made by boiling whole milk and loose black tea leaves, sometimes with a bay leaf and/or a couple of cloves, and it's delicious at 8 am in a cold ground floor classroom! Did I mention that none of the buildings here have central heating or air conditioning? We have little propane space heaters, but it gets quite cold, particularly because there are no chairs - everyone sits on cushions around low tables on the floor. I'm going to be the master of sitting cross-legged for hours on end by the time I get back to the States.

So, at 10 as usual we took a break for morning daal-bhaat. Yesterday we had a delicious curried split pea and coriander dish, tomato chutney, greens, basmati rice, dal, and oranges. The program staff - all of whom are incredibly nice and attentive - keep popping out of the kitchen to offer you more of everything, sneaking things onto your plate. You have to be attentive and say "Pugyo" (enough) or you'll end up with a bunch of food you have to eat, since it is considered polluted once it has touched your plate and can't be saved for leftovers! People here seem to eat pretty quickly, or maybe I'm just slow, but everyone hangs out at the table afterwards and talks until 11 when classes start again. It's really neat to sit and eat with our teachers and get to know them outside of the classroom.

After two more hours of Nepali with Anjala-ji - in the last few days we have already reviewed most of my one semester of Nepali and are ready to move on to new stuff - we headed out with our roommates to go kurta sarawal shopping! One of Banu-didi's* nephews is getting married in late February, I think, so we all needed to get fancy kurta to wear. The "kurta" is a long tunic between calf and knee length with slits up the sides about to your waist. "Sarawal" are the pants one wears underneath them; the style here is to wear them much tighter than one would in the States. Finally, you wear a matching scarf across your shoulders, with the ends hanging down your back, for modesty. We split up between two stores since there were so many of us, and the stores were tiny, maybe 15 feet square. Every wall has floor-to-ceiling racks filled with fabric in every imaginable color and pattern, with all sorts of embellishments like sequins, beads, embroidery... After about a half-hour of deliberation, I decided on a bright pink fabric with gold embroidery and pink and white jewels on it. My roommates decided that my pants and scarf should also be pink. Leila choose a gorgeous black fabric with multicolored sequin designs along the bottom, with red pants and a red scarf to pick up the color in the sequins. While we were there, we each decided to get another kurta for everyday wear, in plainer fabrics. Leila got a beautiful white fabric with pink and red flower embroidery, with pinkish-red pants and scarf to match the flowers. I chose a sky blue cotton with little diamondy studs sprinkled all over it, and a few tiny silver flowers embroidered on it.

Then the fun began - our roommates, Reka and Papiya, started bargaining with the shopkeeper! I can understand bits and pieces of what people are saying, but they talk so fast, and this was no exception. I heard the word "quality" get thrown around a few times, and a lot of numbers, and our roomies were definitely making some awesome "are you serious?!" faces at the shopkeeper. The whole process seemed really lighthearted and fun, and I'm excited to try my bargaining skills on someone soon. They finally settled on 1600 rupees for my fancy kurta and 500 for the everyday one - 2100 rupees being what, about 30 US dollars? I still can't get over how cheap things are here, though Beth (our program coordinator, who was a student here herself a few years ago) tells me soon enough I'll be saying, "1600 rupees?! Ridiculous!"

So, after like an hour (apparently the four other girls got theirs in half an hour, so we are now the princesses of the group?) we brought our fabric to the tailor, got measured, chose our patterns, and our kurta will be ready on Saturday. I'm so excited to start wearing one around - even though we are dressing quite conservatively by American standards, we still definitely stand out in a sea of kurta and sari. Most men seem to dress in a more Western style, though (Nepali dress is a kurta with a vest over it, and a topi, or tall fez-like hat). Our roommates then took us into a little store to buy us chura, bracelets. They spent about a half-hour choosing colors to match the kurta we ordered, so Papiya got me some beautiful pink and gold ones and a few sky blue ones. They are difficult to get on, though, being made of glass. I already broke one before the Nepali girls informed me I need to put lotion on my hands to help slide them on. People generally wear a whole pile of them - I am right now - and they make a faint little jingling noise every time you move. Maybe they put something crazy in my daal-bhaat, but I find it pleasant.

We had to rush back for kajaa and were already quite late - but it's a good thing we rushed, because we had pakoras (battered and fried vegetable cakes)! A few of the Nepalis then took us up the road to the old part of Kirtipur - most of the buildings and temples up at the top of the hill where we went are from the 1600s and 1700s. It was so beautiful and peaceful - the streets were very narrow and had no cars, just motorcycles. There were far fewer people than in town, and they were very friendly and curious, unlike some of the city people who follow you around very persistently trying to get you to buy purses and Tiger Balm, or to give them money. While we were up in old Kirtipur we were able to watch some Buddhist monks doing pujaa (worshipping) in their temple. They were chanting, beating drums, and playing cymbals, and that plus all the incense they were burning plus the incredibly ornate decorations everywhere made for an overwhelming experience (the good kind).

Soon after we returned home we headed over to the main building (we have 3 - the boys' hostel, the girls' hostel, and the main building where we eat and have classes, and where many of the staff live) for daal-bhaat. The Nepalis organized a huge welcome party for us, and it was amazing. They set out fried lentils, cashews, bread, and drinks for us to snack on while they put on a culture presentation for us. First, we all received Tikka (a dot of red rice powder on the forehead) and a beautiful garland of marigolds and silver tinsel to go around our necks - and then we gave them to our Nepali roommates (all of whom were dressed in incredible native costumes, by the way, depending on where in Nepal or India they are from). Then, several people performed dances or sang songs. One of our language teachers, Sunita-ji, even performed a song she wrote, recorded, and had played on Nepal radio! Everyone in the house seems to be a really talented dancer, singer, and/or poet - it's a big part of the culture here, to create your own material and share it with others. Somebody's niece performed an incredible Tamang dance, and at the end we all got up and danced around for a long time to crazy Nepali folk music. After a huge daal-bhaat buffet (special rice with veggies in it, bhaat, spicy and non-spicy green chutney, fried paneer with veggies, salad, and cake), we all sat around and talked for a while, and sang American and Nepali songs for each other. I was too wound up after all that amazingness to do much homework, but I managed to get some done before passing out around 11. Everyone here goes to bed fairly early and is up by 6 or 7, by the way. Unfortunately, the street dogs outside were louder than usual, and I slept really poorly.

Today we woke up to croissants and fresh pomegranate seeds and chiya, went to class, toured the nearby historic town of Patan with our awesome culture teacher Dambar-ji, and ate momo and pakora and french fries in an outdoor cafe on top of a tall building with an amazing view. Dambar-ji is the man - he offered to pay for our meal, so Beth jokingly called him "chini baa" (a poor Nepali translation for "sugar daddy").

So, I'm here in a tiny stall in a Kirtipur internet cafe now, excited to be able to check my email again. The shop is going to close soon and the other girls here would like to head back, so I should head out. Now that I've found a good cheap 'net place nearby, though, I should definitely be able to post 2 or 3 times a week like I'd hoped.

Time for evening daal-bhaat, homework, and sleep! Hope all's well across the pond(s)...

Love and pheri bhetaulaa,
Rani

*One of my favorite aspects of Nepali culture is the way everyone addresses each other: you can add -didi or -dai (older sister or older brother), -bahini or -bai (younger sister or brother) to people's names when greeting them. Middle-aged women in particular love it when you say something like "Namaste, didi", because it makes them feel young. If someone is much older, say old enough to be your grandparent, you can say "baa" or "aamaa" (father or mother).