It's May, and this was sadly the first time Big Purple has touched H20 since... November? How sad. I guess that's what's necessary when you chose not to work on your masters of engineering project for the majority of the year. Yesterday was my final presentation, so now there are many paddling trips in the works (in my mind...).
Anyways, Rob and I met up at East Shore Park at 8 am. We were on the water by 8:10 am, paddling North along the familiar east shore of Cayuga. Although my project had me out on the lake in a motor boat many times this spring, it's just so much better in a kayak! :)
Soooo.... I got a new computer, and I've been converted to Mac, so I'm playing with the fun picture settings :)
As we were passing Bolton Point (a little over 2 miles up the lake), we decided to aim for Myers Point. It was a slightly ambitious goal since Rob had to back at COE for a meeting at noon, but we were keeping a good pace, so we went for it anyway. Ten minutes later, the wind naturally started to pick up from the South. This helped push us along to Myers Point, but it certainly made the paddle back feel like a kayaking treadmill.
Nice lighting on Salmon Creek
Around the point the lake was completely calm, and we went for a short exploratory paddle up Salmon Creek, which runs along the northern side of Myers Park. Rob spotted a very cute family of Mergansers:
The paddle back felt very long (it took about 45 minutes longer than the paddle out!), but we managed to make it back by 11:45 am.
On the radar for the near future: a day paddle on Skaneateles Lake, a sunset paddle from Long Point on Cayuga Lake, and a day paddle on the northern end of Cayuga Lake by the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge in Seneca Falls.
Upon arriving at the Keflavik International Airport (about an hour southwest of Reykjavik, the capital) at 6:30am, we made our sleepy way to the rental car counters. An arbitrary decision to choose Hertz resulted in a very expensive rental of an automatic car (I recommend you learn to drive manual before renting a car in another country). We headed out to the parking lot and wandered around for a while until we found the corresponding license plate. Our first impression was "wow! this is fancy/cool. woooo heated seats!". (This did not last long once we realized the ground clearance was very very low... more on that later.) It also managed to make itself look like a car commercial in every location we parked it. I'm not sure whether this was a function of the location or the car.
In accordance with my favorite writing style (lists), these were our first impressions of Iceland!
Somehow everything in Iceland looks epic. It seemed like every landscape, waterfall, mountain, beach, and herd of horses we encountered was very visually dramatic. Maybe it was the stark contrast between the snow and black lava, or maybe it was the way the sun would shine at an angle through the ever present layer of clouds. I'm not a particularly good photographer, nor is my camera very fancy, but my ratio of exciting to boring pictures was much higher on this trip...
Iceland smells like sulfur. We noticed this as soon as we left the airport. Now that I think about it, we must have gotten used to it because we stopped noticing it after about the first day. The hot water in Reykjavik smelled very strongly like sulfur though...
Anywhere outside Reykjavik feels very deserted - at least in the winter time. Every once in a while we would pass a car driving by on the ring road (the road that goes all the way around the island), but it wasn't a common occurrence. For the first few days, when we were traveling along the southern coast, we actually had a hard time finding food. The only places that are open reliably in the winter are convenience stores on gas stations. This impression may have been exacerbated by the fact that we arrived at 6am on a Sunday, and everything was closed all day...
This is one of the few countries where we could pass as a natives.Although nearly everyone speaks English, we were almost always first greeted in Icelandic, after which an awkward look of confusion quickly converted the conversation to English. I guess I have to go to 65 degrees north - one parallel from the Arctic Circle - a place where people are incredibly pale and light-haired, to fit in.
It kind of looks like the moon (or Colorado in the winter time...). Big expanses of very level yet bumpy lava fields punctuated by nearly vertical cliffs down to the ocean and up to the mountains.
Traffic lights make sense!In addition to having a single yellow light as a warning to slow down for the upcoming red light, they use the yellow light when transitioning from red to green by having both red and yellow illuminated. This makes it so there isn't as much of a lag time from when one direction of traffic stops and the other starts.
On a similar transportation note, HUGE tires (and studded tires) are very prevalent.These can be very helpful when getting around anywhere outside Reykjavik in the winter. More on that later...
The yogurt is amazing.I was recently informed that Icelandic yogurt is the next yogurt rage after Greek yogurt, and I'm in full support. The brand that's popular there is Skyr. Yum!!
The dried fish is not so amazing.Found in any convenience store, these bags of fishy smelling strips of haddock make you feel like you're chewing on leather that tastes like rotten sardines. We had to be really hungry to try these.
This last impression wasn't really a "first impression." It was more of a conclusion that we came to with some other travelers in our hostel. Iceland does an amazing job of screening the photos you find online so that you manage to (wrongfully) convince yourself that it never snows there.There is snow in Iceland for most of the year! Don't let your Google image search for Iceland convince you otherwise...
It's been a while. I've been a terrible blogger. It's been a very strange couple months -- maybe it's because I haven't been doing the outdoorsy things that I love nearly enough! But I'm hoping to be back in full force for a while, at least until my master's project takes over my life in April.
I'm happy to be back with news of some upcoming adventures. In the works is a 5 week summer roadtrip with Marika, my best friend from high school. I am ridiculously excited to finally get to explore the middle of this country! I'll post more details about the route/plans soon.
The adventure that currently has my full attention is...
Iceland!
Yep, my trip to Nepal revived/reminded me of my excitement and interest in traveling, so I spent some time searching for plane tickets to cool new places over spring break. Here's a really neat section of the kayak.com (the website that I usually use to buy my plane tickets... it's just a coincidence that it happens to be named the way it is!). This page lets you type in a starting airport and shows you the prices of all possible destinations with ticket prices. This led me to realize that Iceland was a very convenient 4 hour non-stop flight from Boston for only ~$450! After talking with a few people about their trips to Iceland and only hearing good things, I decided to buy a ticket.
I'll be heading over there in less than a week with Simon, a Boston friend from my New Hampshire internship last summer. We are currently discovering that traveling in Iceland in the off season will certainly be an adventure. The roads can be in terrible condition, making travel outside of Reykjavik a nightmare. We're hoping to venture out of the city during the first half of the week, and explore the city for the last few days. Hopefully this will give us enough of a time-cushion when we get stranded on a glacier somewhere.
Some items on the very tentative agenda include:
Lots of hiking/walking around
Checking out the cliffs/fjords on the coast
Finding a volcano (and hoping it doesn't explode and keep me from getting back to my graduate project...)
Seeing the northern lights (assuming the stars align... or something)
Visiting Gullfoss - a huge touristy waterfall!
Geysers!
Visiting a geothermal power plant, because we're nerds like that.
Visiting the famous Blue Lagoon for an afternoon
Museums in Reykjavik
Staying at farms around the country. They have a really neat program that lets tourists stay in farmhouses - all you need is your sleeping bag. I guess it's the Iceland version of a B&B?
Kayaking?????? Still looking into this option since I can't imagine I will be dragging all my kayak gear over there.
If I told you it was like Frogger, I'd be lying. Crossing the street in Kathmandu is much scarier than crossing the street in Frogger. What we learned was to gather in as large a group as possible and cross together as soon as there was any semblance of a gap in traffic. Once you start walking, keep your head down and keep a constant pace. If you stop suddenly or speed up you might confuse the oncoming traffic. Don't make eye contact with the drivers - this tells them that you're going to let them pass. This is a fairly simple process when there are only a couple lanes... it's a different story when there are 6!
Driving is also terrifying. There are no lanes, stop lights, or police to enforce the laws (which may or may not exist). Hypothetically, one should drive on the left side of the road, but this is somewhat optional. There are less than 5 stop lights in the entire city, so the most complicated (4+ lane) intersections are sometimes manned by a policeman standing on a concrete pedestal (specifically for this purpose) in the middle of the intersection, wildly waving his hands.
The system almost works, in a strange, terrifying way. Rather than blindly following laws while talking on their cell phones like we do in the U.S., they pay very close attention to the roads and use their horns liberally. Rather than using it to angrily complain when someone is driving too slowly, they use it as a means of communication. When passing another vehicle the driver always honks as they drive by. As you can imagine, this makes for some very loud streets.
Single 'lane' mountain roads are also great places for horn usage. Every time our bus was approaching a turn at a terrifying speed the driver would honk the horn (which was usually some ridiculous ring-tone sounding song) to notify anyone coming around the corner to slow down.
Most of the buses we drove on had a neat system where one helper would hang off the back of the bus and tap it loudly to send messages to the bus driver. Another helper would take people's money and tap on the side of the bus to tell the driver when to stop and pick people up.
Speaking of buses, they certainly pack them efficiently. There were a number of times when we were all piled on top of each other. Here's a picture I took after I managed to get out of this bus (there were still a few of us trying to get out while all these people wanted to get in!):
Private cars are a rarity. When you do see them, they're usually pretty fancy/un-dented, and are driving very cautiously. Finally, when walking on the street in Kathmandu, the best way to avoid getting clipped by a motorcycle - I'm pretty sure we all got bumped at least once - is to stick as close to the side of the road as possible!
What you're probably thinking is this: "Oh man, it must have sucked to shower without clean or hot water for 3 weeks." Well, that's not entirely true. Bathing in the village was a life-changing experience for this reason:
Sunrise at the public water tap: A breathtaking view!
Bathing in a Nepali village goes something like this (yes! back to lists):
Gather all the necessary shower items into a bag.
Take a gander (ha! I never use that word, but it's perfect) down the hill to the public water tap (hereafter referred to lovingly as the Big Tap).
As you get closer, you slow down once it comes into view down the steep hill ahead. One of two things happen: (1) You (a woman) see men bathing. This results in immediate return to your house until later. (2) You see no one or only women at the Big Tap. In this case we experience option 2.
Walk down the remaining trail (equivalent to 10 flights of stairs) until you arrive at the Big Tap.
You have arrived at the Big Tap. This tap is basically a parking spot-sized slab of concrete with a 3
inch metal pipe sticking out of a side wall constantly pouring ground
temperature water onto the concrete slab. There's a drain in the corner
that drains to who-knows-where.
Now it's time to shower. Since you're a woman, you take off all but your bottom layer of clothes (usually pants and a shirt). Now put on your lungi. Lungi? What's that? A lungi is basically a sarong. It's a tube of fabric that you step into and tie off at the top so it doesn't fall down. Once that's on, take your remaining clothing off from under it.
Approach the big tap, trying not to slip on the incredibly slippery/algae-covered concrete floor. Wash your hair first because once your lungi gets wet, you want to get out of there as fast as possible.
Now, get under the tap and completely soak your lungi with soap and water. Use the lungi like a giant sponge. Rinse.
While you're there and already drenched, you might as well do some laundry.
Squeeze as much water out of the lungi as possible. Repeat previous de-clothing process backwards. Yes, this results in very damp undergarments - hopefully you have a dry set to change into once you get home.
Return all your clean, wet laundry and lungi to your bag and start heading home.
Walk up the giant hill.
Yes! You're finally home, and you are even more sweaty/smelly than when you started this whole adventure.
And that is why bathing in Nepal is so wonderful. Don't forget about the incredible view of the mountains! Also, when men bathe they don't use a lungi. Don't ask me how they do it - I was a strict follower of the rules as stated in Step 3 above.
Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the Big Tap or lungis, but here's a photo to give you the idea:
As requested, a post about the delicious beverage that is omnipresent in Nepal. We had this multiple times a day for three weeks, and I still loved it at the end. I think that's a good sign...
Here's the step-by-step process that our host father (Rajendra-dai) taught us. I brought the tea and powdered milk back from Nepal, but I'm hoping that I can get a hold of something similar in the US. Powdered milk is powdered milk, right?
Step 1: The fresh spices are my favorite part of this recipe. Bring a saucepan of water (~ 4 mugs worth) to the point where it's just about to boil -- when spirals of bubbles start to come to the top, but it's not rolling yet. Crush ~ 5 cardamom pods between your fingers and drop them in the water followed by a few cloves.
Step 2: Bring the water to a boil and add a few tablespoons of the powdered milk mix (pictured below). The water will get frothy and try to boil over, so make sure to keep stirring.
Step 3: Once the milk is all mixed in, add a few tablespoons of chiya. The chiya seems to be crumbled up black tea leaves, so it kind of looks like coffee. I'm hoping that just using black tea will produce the same results, so stay posted for an update about that! After this step the liquid quickly becomes a beautiful rich brown color:
Step 4: At this point the tea is full of all kinds of crunchy things that you probably wouldn't want to eat, so the next step is to pour it through a very fine strainer. I went on an adventure in Kathmandu specifically to find this strainer, but it ended up being a 1-minute-adventure because Urja, the trek leader, came along with us and found one in the first store we went to.
Step 5: Enjoy! Preferably sitting next to a campfire watching the sun set next to a snow covered mountain. Or just in your apartment in chilly Ithaca, NY with a good friend!
** Disclaimer: At least half the Nepali words below are spelled incorrectly! If you speak Nepali and happen to be reading this, feel free to send me a message with the correct spellings! **
Namaste! Tapaii lai kecha hincha?
Hello! What can I get for you?
Sahuni/Sahuzi, malaii iota unda dinus.
Shopkeeper (female/male), give me one egg.
Iota matre?
Only one?
Malaii ioda unda dinus.
Give me one egg.
Iota unda linus.
Take one egg.
Iota undako koti porcha?
How much does one egg cost?
Iota undako ath rupeea porche.
One egg costs 8 rupees ($0.11).
Tick che.
Okay.
Paisa dinus.
Give money.
Das rupeea linus.
Take 10 rupees.
Ek chin porkhanus ... peerta paisa linus.
Wait one minute... take your change.
Danyebhad.
Thank you.
Peri aunus!
Come again!
Huncha.
Okay/Sure.
Karla and I spent one evening with our host sisters practicing this dialogue. The grand plan was for Karla to spontaneously pretend to want to buy something from me, the storekeeper, when our host father arrived home from working at his store. He would immediately be impressed and offer us the opportunity to work in his store. That was the plan.
The result was a lot of giggling while trying to remember our terribly pronounced conversation and Rajendra-dai (Rajendra is his name, dai means father) laughing and looking confused. However, we managed to convince him that we were competent enough to help out, so the next morning we trudged up the hill to the one main road that runs through town. Rajendra-dai's store is located right by the bus stop. Here he is giving a woman her change:
This photo captures almost the extent of the store. Customers approach the window and ask for the items they'd like to buy (usually only a few items at a time). It was interesting to see the types of things purchased. In the hour or so that we were working, we sold 2 toothbrushes, dried soybeans (weighed out on a big metal scale with weights!), a pouch of ramen-like noodles, an egg, spices, candy, and 3 individual cigarettes. They don't have any fresh produce or meat since everyone grows/raises those themselves.
After receiving the customer's money, Rajendra-dai goes to his cash register to get their change:
When I had to get customers' change, I had a really hard time finding it! All the bills seem to be a different shade of red, all mixed together, and Nepali numbers don't look like Roman numbers:
In the end, I think they all just thought I was terrible at adding and subtracting...
Here's a video of Karla restocking the light bulbs:
The store has a few regulars who just sit on the bench outside and watch other people buy things. Across the road from the store is a table where men sit and play cards (I'm pretty sure some gambling was involved). Next door is another store owned by the local women's group where they sell pretty much the same items. We asked how they both stayed in business and found out that Rajendra-dai's store is a bit more expensive, but open for longer hours (7am - 6pm) and more days every week.
This was definitely one of my favorite days of the entire trip because we had the opportunity to interact with many people from the village who we otherwise wouldn't have met. For example, we asked a passing girl if we could try carrying her rice basket. Here's a video of me attempting that!
This post is to share some of the beautiful scenes we witnessed during our 7-day trek. Below is a map of the route. The river on the right is the Trisuli River.
Balche
(Night 1)
Gonga
(Nights 2, 3, and 4)
After the first night we decided to move our tents to a spot that was more sheltered, but the morning view was almost worth the cold, windy night! Photo by Rabindra Parajuli.
Porters staying warm around the fire as the chilly clouds breezed through the pass.
Sunset over the camp
Sunset through the trees
Phyukhri
(Peak of trek at ~ 12000 ft on day 5)
Me at the top! The above photo was taken by ??? (not me).
The whole group together by the prayer flags. The above photo was taken by Katie Walker using Rabindra Parajuli's awesome camera.
Here's a video from Phyukhri. There wasn't much of a view from the top since a big cloud decided to roll in just as we were summiting. It does, however, give you an idea of how out of breath we were up there! The altitude definitely made it noticeably harder to get enough oxygen (and colder!). Okay, feel free to make fun of me now.
Jhyawati
(Night 5)
The above photo was taken by Ryan Arams using a timer shot with her super sweet camera. We were enjoying the sunrise before the second-to-last day of the trek.
One of the porters heading into the kitchen tent before breakfast. Langtang Ri in the background.
Here's a short panning of the site at sunrise:
Tower
(Night 6)
I don't have any special pictures of our last campsite, but here's one from the walk:
Heading back to Mhanegang after night 6. This photo was taken by Rabindra Parajuli as we headed down into Satdobato.
A typical day on the trek... it's a long one, I apologize!
"Chiya! Chiiiyyyaa!"
After a few days on the trek I've become accustomed to waking up as quickly as possible when I hear those words. Ratna and Sarita, the Nepali students I am sharing my tent with, are rustling out of their fluffy down sleeping bags, which are about 2 feet too long for them. I hesitantly unzip the tent to see two blurry smiling porters handing me a metal cup filled with steaming Nepali chiya, a delicious black tea that Nepalis drink multiple times per day. "Namaste didi!" (hello older sister!) they say. I take it with my right hand and pass it to Sarita on the far side of the tent (which isn't very far since the three of us are squeezed into a 2-person tent for warmth). After handing another to Ratna, I take my cup and try to find a place to set it to cool as quickly as possible since the metal sides heat up ridiculously fast. Finally, a metal platter covered in biscuits comes into focus and I grab a bunch of those to share. We ate these Good Day cookies twice a day for the entire trek, and I'm starting to believe the name!
I reach into the tent pocket for my watch and glasses. It's about 7am (in Nepal, time doesn't really matter - all that matters is that we just had morning chiya). We start packing up our sleeping bags and getting ready for the day. We leave the tent two at a time so the third person can change inside -- it's not appropriate to change in front of anyone, regardless of whether they are male or female. I don't really mind though - the time passes quickly when the view from your tent looks something like this... This mountain is Langtang Ri.
Once we're dressed and have had time to use the latrine (see below), we head over to the dining tent to wash our hands for morning dhaal bhaat. See this post if you're curious about what we ate!
After breakfast we pack up our tent, which has hopefully dried in the strong high-altitude sun. We put the tent on the pile of tents for the porters to carry to our next campsite. They are responsible for carrying our shelter and food. We just carry our personal belongings and a few group-gear items in case of an emergency. I really can't complain about the set-up - my pack feels heavy enough already without adding a tent, a huge bag of rice, and a couple fuel bottles!
We meet in a central location with the rest of the group. By now most of the porters have packed up their baskets and left for the next campsite. The leaders of the day tell us the plan, and before we depart Alex (American student in charge of all things medical-related) facilitates a pulse check. We've been checking our pulses a couple times a day, at rest and during times of exertion, to gain an idea for what each person's normal pulse is. If Mike gets injured on the trek, for example, we will know that his resting pulse of 50 isn't abnormally low!
The first half hour is always the hardest. Our packs feel so heavy, and the uphill is so steep! We walk slowly though. The leaders of the day are in charge of maintaining a good pace that keeps the group together. On the uphills, especially on the snowy and higher altitude days, we only go one or two steps per breath. Every half hour we stop for a pee/snack/water break. This continues for 3 to 6 hours, depending on the day. Along the way we pass locals carrying huge loads of fodder, packs of firewood, and freshly chopped logs for building houses.
Even though it's cold out, the sun is ridiculously strong at higher altitudes. I was initially skeptical when told that it's because there is less atmosphere for it to penetrate, but a couple migraines later I was convinced! Mid day attire included sunglasses, a baseball cap fitted with a bandanna to protect my neck and cheeks, and multiple thick layers of sunscreen (especially on the backs of my hands!). Somehow I managed to avoid getting burned, which I rarely achieve at low altitudes...
Some time in the afternoon we arrive at our new campsite, where we are welcomed with a steaming cup of chiya or hot chocolate and more Good Day biscuits! We search for a flat spot to set up our tents, which is not always easy - everything in Nepal seems to be on a slant.
After a couple hours of relaxing, taking pictures, playing cards, or exploring the campsite, the sun starts to set and the temperature drops significantly. Frost forms on everything that is exposed to the sky, so we learn quickly to put everything in the tent! Chilly clouds form and sweep through the pass:
We layer up - swapping sun hats for wool ones and adding a couple layers
of long underwear, top and bottom. It's time for evening dhaal bhaat. The porters did a great job of including some variety in our evening meals. Some examples include pasta with tomato sauce, spring rolls (hand made!!), other beautiful filled pastries, potatoes at almost every meal (sometimes as french fries), ginger soup, noodle soup, and sometimes veggies. It was all very carb-intensive, but we definitely burned it off during the day! Yum!
After dinner we gather around the campfire (well, more like blazing bonfire) that the porters have set-up. They are singing our favorite song - Resham Firiri - and we join in. It's fun because the chorus stays the same, but people make up the verses and usually say something funny or tease someone else in the group. It usually resulted in a lot of laughing with very little understanding!
Soon we hear a call for tato paani! It's time to take our BPA-filled nalgenes to the dining tent and fill up with boiling hot water. This serves two purposes: treated water without the nasty taste of iodine treatment and even more importantly, sleeping bag heaters! During the entire trek I consistently got the best sleep from bedtime until about 2am, right around the time my water bottle failed to be warm...
We dash from the warm fire into our warm sleeping bags. After a few minutes of reading or journal-writing, we are exhausted.
Did I mention it's about 7:30 or 8pm?
P.S. Post soon about the route we trekked and a brief description of each campsite!
P.S. (again) Thanks to major jet-lag I'm actually writing these posts at about the rate I'd hoped... Alright, time to go back to bed (it's 3:45am).
Tarkari - Vegetables
These were pretty much omnipresent in our daily dhaal bhats. The mixture of vegetables varied from day to day, but almost always had potatoes as the base, with guest appearances from cauliflower, green beans, green leafy veggies, and tomatoes.
Since I love cooking, I spent a lot of time with my family learning how to cook veggies, buffalo meat, chicken, and chiya (tea). Here's a video where I am prepping the veggies and talking a little bit about them! That's my host-mom and her son Susil in the background.
How to make tarkari:
(in our household -- others might have varied a bit):
Chop potatoes and other veggies with sickle (another post soon about how the blacksmith makes the sickle!).
Heat a good amount of sunflower oil in wok-shaped pan over fire.
Add methi (fenugreek seeds) to oil. They should pop if the oil is hot enough.
Add a handful of roughly chopped shallots. Stir well as they fry to golden brown.
Add a bunch of aloo (potatoes) to the hot oil, stir, and cover with lid to allow the potatoes to cook through without burning.
A bit later, add the green beans, a good tablespoon of turmeric, some paani (water) to keep from sticking, and stir well.
Add lots of salt! (Way more than I would ever use... but now I understand why this was so tasty!)
Add cauli (cauliflower) and stir.
Add approximately equal amounts of cumin and cayenne pepper (less than the turmeric). Stir together and cover.
A few minutes later add the tomatoes and chopped scallion leaves.
Add the very end add a handful of chopped cilantro.
I apologize if the quantities are very vague! They measured spices out using the lids of the spice jars, so any amounts I tell you would be very inaccurate. I think it's a pretty resilient recipe - adding or removing a step shouldn't affect it too much. These are so delicious! Tarkari and chiya (future post) are the two things I think I couldn't get sick of!
It's about time, I'd say. Over the three weeks the group changed, depending on the activity (trekking or not trekking), the state of our stomachs, and of course flight delays. In total we had:
8 Cornell students (Morgan, Ryan, Alex, Alberto, Mike, Jen, Karla, and me)
4 Cornell instructors (Dave, Jim, Katie, Zac)
1 Urja (awesome trek organizer and leader of the porters)
6 Nepali students that joined us for the home-stay and trek (Kusum (Karla and my homestay friend!), Ratna, Sarita, Ashwin, Ruby, and Shiba)
Lots of porters on the trek (whose names I sadly do not all remember, but Karla does!)
Our own homestay families
In mine, Karla, and Kusum's case our home-stay family in Mane Gaoun (Mane Village) consisted of our Shoba didi and Rajendra dai and their two kids (daughter Soni Bahini, 7 and son Susil Bai, 3), our dai's mother (we called her ama, grandmother). We also had two Bhutan refugees living with us named Sita and Januka, who were probably a few years older than us. Here's a picture of us with our home-stay family (missing Rajendra dai and Januka):
Below are the Nepali students that joined us. They all study (or studied) in Kathmandu and speak English very well (which was super helpful during our home-stay!). Most of them were doing their Master's in botany, sociology, or anthropology, and they all had some connection with the Cornell Nepal Study Program in Kathmandu. They were all really fun, interesting, and smart! We had a great time together. Thanks to Facebook we will keep in touch :)
From left to right: Ratna (we shared a tent on the trek), Kusum (home-stayed together), and Sarita (she squeezed in with me and Ratna when it was soooo cooollllddd on the trek)
From left to right: Ashwin (full name Obindra), Shiba (short for Shibaraj), and Ruby (short for Rabindra)
Here's a picture with almost all the Cornell students on a day hike from the village to Satdobate:
From left to right: Ruby, Me, Alex, Jen, Mike, Morgan, Karla, Kusum, Ratna, Jim, Ashwin, Sarita, Zac, and Ryan. The only one missing is Alberto, who decided to stay in the village for the trek and study architecture (he's an architect at Cornell).
Here's a group picture of everyone that went on the trek. It was taken by Katie Walker on Rabindra's camera.
What's incredible is that for typical treks there are WAY more porters that go along. Since we weren't expecting them to carry our clothes/personal items and since they weren't dragging along all kinds of luxuries like chairs and western food we could have a smaller group. All the porters were really nice and fun to hang out with!
How do you feel about the card game Spades? There's a game that's super popular in Nepal (even some of the villagers knew how to play) called Call Break. It's basically like Spades, but with a few modifications to make it a bit more luck-dependent. For one, players play individually rather than on teams. Second of all, if you can play higher on any given trick, you must (unless someone has trumped, or you have no higher trump). Basically, you have to try to win every trick rather than saving your good cards. Also, Nepalis deal and play in a counter clockwise fashion. This took a few turns of shuffling to get used to. They also allow you to play the trump before it has been broken, which I decided to veto because that's. just. not. cool!
(Look at that. Although my goal was to not make a list, I just ended up making one in the paragraph instead! It's hopeless. I will never be an eloquent writer.)
We played this almost every day during the home-stay and trek. It was great fun! Since it's only a 4 player game, we tended to partner up, making it even more fun! This first movie features Kusum & Mike, Ruby & Zac (the too-competitive ones), Ashwin (the one who always wins), and me & Karla.
This second one is from the time we played into the dark. I'm really just posting it because... well, it's amusing. That's all! We got a bit competitive at times...
