Chocolate barfi and making friends with the wild animals

Namaste, y'all,

Well, yet another busy week is coming to an end here at C.N.S.P., and we are all starting to feel more pressure to get things done before we leave for research on April 9. We've finished our study tour reports and research proposal drafts, so only our final Contemporary Issues papers, final proposals, and 1.5 weeks stand between us and research time!

Speaking of research, I can post my draft proposal later if anybody is curious to see what I'm doing in more detail. I met my translator Shanti yesterday, and she seems really enthusiastic and wonderful. I'm excited to start. I will be living in a rural homestay for 2-3 weeks near Swayambou (about 40 minutes from CNSP on the outskirts of the city). "Rural", by the way, probably means an outhouse, communal village bathing place, and the exact same daal-bhaat twice a day, every day. It will be a wonderful learning experience, though, and I'm excited to improve my Nepali (I told Banu expressly to find me people who would refuse to speak English to me!)

Despite the seriousness of our academic undertakings, however, we are still managing to find plenty of time for fun and humor. We've all been getting lots of clothes tailored because you can get beautiful fabric and decent tailoring for cheap right in our neighborhood. A few of us also went into Kathmandu yesterday to eat at Beth's favorite vegetarian South Indian snacks place (the first full meal I had had in a few days due to round 2 of sickness, although this time I got better without medicine - "score one for my intestinal flora and fauna", as I wrote to my friend Andy in an e-mail). The restaurant was so clean and our food came so quickly that we were reminded of an American fast-food restaurant. The food was SO much better, though. Being, er, hearty eaters, we ordered the following:

-dosa (a very thin, crispy square pancake the size of a large cookie sheet) with a savory spiced onion, potato, and pea filling
-aloo paratha (flatbread stuffed with mashed potato and herbs, a.k.a. the best thing ever) with channa masala (spiced chickpeas)
-buttered naan and naan stuffed with paneer cheese
-daal and another type of soupy bean thing with coconut in it
-tandoori vegetables, potatoes, and paneer
-lemon sodas (Emily's and my favorite: seltzer with lots of fresh lemon or lime juice squeezed in)

We also went upstairs to the restaurant bakery, where they had the longest case of Indian pastries I had ever seen. Even though we were stuffed we really wanted to try some, but it was hard to tell what was what since the labels only had the Hindi names. After we saw the "chocolate barfi", though, and finished laughing for about 5 minutes while the people behind the counter eyed us warily, we knew we had to order some of it. It was quite tasty, actually - a layer of sweet cashew paste, a layer of chocolate, and a tiny thin layer of edible silver on top. I also ordered some pistachio barfi and this amazing dried fruit thing whose name I can't remember. It was a fancy slice from a big roll, with fig paste on the outside, ground pistachios in the middle, and a mysterious yellow substance binding everything together. Sounds interesting, I know, but it was delicious.

I ought to go start my Contemporary Issues paper now before yoga class and Nepali culture night. For some parting humor, one of the English language dailies here has been running profiles of Miss Nepal candidates before the big beauty pageant this month, and we greatly enjoy making fun of them every day at daal-bhaat. Here are some of our favorite quips from the past few days:

One thing you can't do to save your life: "Fly."

One crazy thing you'd like to do someday: "Make friends with the wild animals."

Person you'd like to date: "Osama bin Laden."

Actress you'd choose to play you in a movie: Amitabh Bachchan (a Hindi movie actor who is approximately 65 years old and has a giant gray goatee)

Best one-liner you've heard recently: "Oh, you've gone fat."

Pheri bhetaulaa,
Rani

P.S. Happy almost-Passover!, link courtesy of my Mom...

Photo: hiking through beautiful mustard fields on our way to Dakshinkali in February.