A couple of weekends ago we put on our tourist hats and went on a trip to the Royal Palace.
It's been about 3 years since the monarchy of Nepal was abolished, and so what was the home of the royal family up until about 2008 (I think) is now open to the public to look around.
It was super-interesting.
There were loads of rooms you could go into and look at, including the bedrooms for visiting heads of states, where the British Queen will have stayed when she visited Nepal and the bedroom of the King of Nepal himself.
Interestingly, the room for the visitors was much grander.
The king's bedroom just looked like a fairly normal 50s bedroom!!
One of my favourite things was all the paintings of the previous kings. They were huuuge and the kings were always dressed in their proper king-gear with feathers coming out their hats.
Other interesting things we saw in the palace:
Two stuffed tigers in ready-to-pounce-positions. We took turns standing under them and imagining what it would be like to be mauled by a tiger. Conclusion: scary.
Gifts from various other countries - so basically lots of pretty ornaments and things from looooads of other countries.
A very grand staircase.
Paintings from Scotland of Loch Lomond and Loch Katrine. (Christine reckoned these may have been painted by Princes Charles - did you even know he paints?!)
And then there was the garden.
In 2001 there was a massacre of the royal family, where one of the crown princes shot the rest of his family.
The building this took place in has been taken down, but we could see where it was that it happened.
And there were even still some bullet holes in another wall from the incident.
I can't really think of a suitable word to describe this/what it was like to see this...
The history of Nepal is pretty fascinating.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Earthquake
Which city do you not want to be in when you experience your first earthquake?
I'd be guessing you might choose to avoid any of the top 20 most earthquake-vulnerable cities.
I'd be guessing you might especially not want to be in the one ranked number 1: Kathmandu.
http://rosemary-e-bachelor.suite101.com/worlds-20-most-earthquake-prone-cities-a209850
It took us a few moments to really realise what was going on.
Several of us in the Guest House were in the communal area, making dinner, putting on a film, using the internet...then Whitney was like "is that an earthquake?"
There was a little bit of flapping and the conversation went a little bit like:
"should we put shoes on?"
"do we have time?"
"do we do the triangle thing?"
"do we just get out of the building?"
"is there time?"
"no - let's just get down"
And we all found refuge under the dining room tables and next to kitchen cabinets.
The shaking lasted around 30 seconds (it felt longer) and in that time we prayed and then we giggled about how we'd knocked stuff over in our haste, making it look like a more dramatic earthquake!
After it stopped, we got out and went down the street to our nearest family from school (the Secondary Principal's family - they've been in Nepal for years, and so we felt safe with them!). There were lots of people out in the streets discussing what had happened.
I'm not gonna lie - the whole experience was pretty terrifying.
Kathmandu really is expected to be brought to the ground in the event of a major earthquake.
Thankfully, the epicentre, although hitting up to 6.9 on the richter scale, was 169 miles east of the city.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14965598
Everyone here is fine, and everyone at school was fine.
The kids were pretty much just excited the next day, greeting each other with overdramatic "YOU'RE ALIIIIVE"s and wanting to tell everyone exactly where they were and what they were doing when the earthquake hit.
So there you have it.
I've survived an earthquake.
My major faux pas in the whole experience, however, was the fact that I'd been mid-facebook-conversation with a friend when it hit.
And so I typed to that friend "gotta go. um. dude. pray. earthquake" then disappeared offline.
Way to worry someone...
But hey, prevent a friend from worrying, or get them praying for the situation.
I now know which one I choose under pressure!
I'd be guessing you might choose to avoid any of the top 20 most earthquake-vulnerable cities.
I'd be guessing you might especially not want to be in the one ranked number 1: Kathmandu.
http://rosemary-e-bachelor.suite101.com/worlds-20-most-earthquake-prone-cities-a209850
It took us a few moments to really realise what was going on.
Several of us in the Guest House were in the communal area, making dinner, putting on a film, using the internet...then Whitney was like "is that an earthquake?"
There was a little bit of flapping and the conversation went a little bit like:
"should we put shoes on?"
"do we have time?"
"do we do the triangle thing?"
"do we just get out of the building?"
"is there time?"
"no - let's just get down"
And we all found refuge under the dining room tables and next to kitchen cabinets.
The shaking lasted around 30 seconds (it felt longer) and in that time we prayed and then we giggled about how we'd knocked stuff over in our haste, making it look like a more dramatic earthquake!
After it stopped, we got out and went down the street to our nearest family from school (the Secondary Principal's family - they've been in Nepal for years, and so we felt safe with them!). There were lots of people out in the streets discussing what had happened.
I'm not gonna lie - the whole experience was pretty terrifying.
Kathmandu really is expected to be brought to the ground in the event of a major earthquake.
Thankfully, the epicentre, although hitting up to 6.9 on the richter scale, was 169 miles east of the city.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14965598
Everyone here is fine, and everyone at school was fine.
The kids were pretty much just excited the next day, greeting each other with overdramatic "YOU'RE ALIIIIVE"s and wanting to tell everyone exactly where they were and what they were doing when the earthquake hit.
So there you have it.
I've survived an earthquake.
My major faux pas in the whole experience, however, was the fact that I'd been mid-facebook-conversation with a friend when it hit.
And so I typed to that friend "gotta go. um. dude. pray. earthquake" then disappeared offline.
Way to worry someone...
But hey, prevent a friend from worrying, or get them praying for the situation.
I now know which one I choose under pressure!
Unrelated Subjects
I spent most of my final year of school trying to figure out if I wanted to teach science or if I wanted to teach music.
Music won.
However, in my time at KISC I have been teaching science to year 8 and 9.
This has been loads of fun – re-living my school days in the science lab from the other side. Experiments are a lot scarier when you feel a degree of responsibility for them!
So I’ve been teaching 2 fairly unrelated subjects: music and science – so unrelated that one of the pupils realised during WEEK SIX that I’m the same person teaching him in music and in science.
That's six weeks it took him to figure it out!
Sadly, I missed the opportunity for a classic “no, that’s my twin” joke…
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Multi-tasking
On Monday night, while I was getting carried away and writing 3 blog posts in a row, I was chatting to my dad on Skype.
After my blog splurge, I told my dad about the new posts and asked if he'd check them for me.
(That's what my dad does* - he checks the stuff I write...unless I've left an essay until the night before and haven't left enough time to ask him to check it. A regular occurrence...)
He asked when I'd written them.
I said, "Just now, while we've been talking"
He asked how I'd done that.
I said, "multi-tasking"
But I had an even more impressive multi-tasking moment last week...
For the past couple of weeks I've been covering all the primary music classes at KISC whilst the primary music teacher was away.
This has been lots of fun. It meant I got to know the younger kids in the school and, let's face it, singing songs with little kids produces some seriously cute moments - especially when actions are added!
It did, however, make for a somewhat busy timetable. I still had all the secondary music classes to prep and teach, several science classes to prep and teach, and several science classes to TA in.
The timings of the school day are well worked out to prevent the primary and secondary kids having break or lunch at the same time.
(Some of the year 1s would get squished, I'm sure...)
And so this meant that primary music is often timetabled during the secondary lunch.
So basically I was very busy for a while, dashing around and having very short lunch breaks.
Last week, one period just before lunch, I had Year 11.
During this period the principal came up to see me, and we discussed something to do with the junior classes - probably assessment or something teachery like that.
And I was going to be teaching during lunch, so had collected my lunch to eat during this period, too.
So I ate lunch, had a meeting with the principal, and taught a class.
All at the same time.
To be fair, there was only 1 pupil in the Year 11 class (the other half - yes, half - of the class was off).
And he was just working on some composing.
But still.
It sounds impressive.
*My dad does more than this with his life. He is also an excellent minister. Which involves more than just the Sunday gig. Just sayin'
After my blog splurge, I told my dad about the new posts and asked if he'd check them for me.
(That's what my dad does* - he checks the stuff I write...unless I've left an essay until the night before and haven't left enough time to ask him to check it. A regular occurrence...)
He asked when I'd written them.
I said, "Just now, while we've been talking"
He asked how I'd done that.
I said, "multi-tasking"
But I had an even more impressive multi-tasking moment last week...
For the past couple of weeks I've been covering all the primary music classes at KISC whilst the primary music teacher was away.
This has been lots of fun. It meant I got to know the younger kids in the school and, let's face it, singing songs with little kids produces some seriously cute moments - especially when actions are added!
It did, however, make for a somewhat busy timetable. I still had all the secondary music classes to prep and teach, several science classes to prep and teach, and several science classes to TA in.
The timings of the school day are well worked out to prevent the primary and secondary kids having break or lunch at the same time.
(Some of the year 1s would get squished, I'm sure...)
And so this meant that primary music is often timetabled during the secondary lunch.
So basically I was very busy for a while, dashing around and having very short lunch breaks.
Last week, one period just before lunch, I had Year 11.
During this period the principal came up to see me, and we discussed something to do with the junior classes - probably assessment or something teachery like that.
And I was going to be teaching during lunch, so had collected my lunch to eat during this period, too.
So I ate lunch, had a meeting with the principal, and taught a class.
All at the same time.
To be fair, there was only 1 pupil in the Year 11 class (the other half - yes, half - of the class was off).
And he was just working on some composing.
But still.
It sounds impressive.
*My dad does more than this with his life. He is also an excellent minister. Which involves more than just the Sunday gig. Just sayin'
Monday, September 5, 2011
Wearing Purple Pants
*Disclaimer: 'Pants' in this context is being used in reference to trousers.
The use of this word is due to living with several Americans, and the enjoyment of alliteration.*
To match a couple of my kurta tops, I got some purple pants made by the tailor, in a punjabi style. That is, puffy.
They are a fairly bright lilac kind of purple.
I am pretty sure I love them.
They're comfy, they're bright, they match the tops - it's like wearing pyjamas out!
I kind of felt a bit self conscious about them at first.
They really are bright for a pair of trousers.
But the love for them has blown that out of the water.
I was wearing them yesterday for the first time out, and sadly got caught in a MASSIVE BURST OF MONSOON RAIN.
They got very soggy at the bottom which made me sad.
But my washing day is Wednesday, and so soon I will be wearing purple pants again.
The use of this word is due to living with several Americans, and the enjoyment of alliteration.*
To match a couple of my kurta tops, I got some purple pants made by the tailor, in a punjabi style. That is, puffy.
They are a fairly bright lilac kind of purple.
I am pretty sure I love them.
They're comfy, they're bright, they match the tops - it's like wearing pyjamas out!
I kind of felt a bit self conscious about them at first.
They really are bright for a pair of trousers.
But the love for them has blown that out of the water.
I was wearing them yesterday for the first time out, and sadly got caught in a MASSIVE BURST OF MONSOON RAIN.
They got very soggy at the bottom which made me sad.
But my washing day is Wednesday, and so soon I will be wearing purple pants again.
Bartering
On Saturday a group of us went to Thamel, the tourist district of Kathmandu.
We did some shopping, which involved a fair amount of bartering.
There are several joys that come from bartering.
The first is the chance to use some of the few words I have learned in Nepali.
"Oho! Muhungo! Dheri Muhungo!" means "Wow! Expensive! Very expensive!"
It's fun to say.
And there is nothing quite like being understood in a foreign language - the sense of achievement!
The second is when you succeed and manage to get the price of something down.
This is often a necessity when you're being charged "tourist" prices and you fully know you're being ripped off.
For example, on our way back we got a taxi, and we asked for it for 250Rs, which the driver agreed to, then upped to 300. We knew we didn't have to pay that and could just try another taxi, so started to walk away, which made him agree to 250.
He asked if we were volunteers, which we said yes to, and he was like "yes, obviously volunteers, asking Pulchowk for 250"!
The ridiculous thing of it all is that the amounts we're often bartering over are literally pennies! Most things we bought were under £5!
For a good portion of the time we spent in Thamel we were followed by some men trying to sell me a sarangi (a Nepali bowed stringed instrument)
This was my own fault for showing interest.
And really I was a bit interested...
I managed to get them to drop their price from 1500Rs to 500Rs, but decided against the purchase anyway, because as cool as the instrument is, it's not got the most beautiful tone in the world...
We did some shopping, which involved a fair amount of bartering.
There are several joys that come from bartering.
The first is the chance to use some of the few words I have learned in Nepali.
"Oho! Muhungo! Dheri Muhungo!" means "Wow! Expensive! Very expensive!"
It's fun to say.
And there is nothing quite like being understood in a foreign language - the sense of achievement!
The second is when you succeed and manage to get the price of something down.
This is often a necessity when you're being charged "tourist" prices and you fully know you're being ripped off.
For example, on our way back we got a taxi, and we asked for it for 250Rs, which the driver agreed to, then upped to 300. We knew we didn't have to pay that and could just try another taxi, so started to walk away, which made him agree to 250.
He asked if we were volunteers, which we said yes to, and he was like "yes, obviously volunteers, asking Pulchowk for 250"!
The ridiculous thing of it all is that the amounts we're often bartering over are literally pennies! Most things we bought were under £5!
For a good portion of the time we spent in Thamel we were followed by some men trying to sell me a sarangi (a Nepali bowed stringed instrument)
This was my own fault for showing interest.
And really I was a bit interested...
I managed to get them to drop their price from 1500Rs to 500Rs, but decided against the purchase anyway, because as cool as the instrument is, it's not got the most beautiful tone in the world...
Rice Pudding
Whenever I try something new in the kitchen I always end up respecting my mother a whole bunch more.
This evening's attempt was rice pudding.
The proper nice kind of rice pudding my mum made when we were little - with rose water in it.
Rose water is readily available here in Nepal, and I bought rice the first week I was here thinking "that's a sensible staple food to purchase" and hadn't actually used any...
It was an obvious thing to attempt to make.
I emailed my ma asking her for the recipe.
She gave me 2 different ones with various different forms of measurement.
This did cause much of the confusion and google searches for "how many ounces in a cup" and "how many cups in a pint"
But sense and measurement and reason are always trumped in the kitchen by rash decisions to just add a wee bit more, anyway...
Disaster number one was boiling the milk over the edge of the pan in a somewhat dramatic fashion.
(You need to boil milk in Nepal...or buy UHT...or get ill)
Disaster number two was the electricity going off just before it was time to put it in the oven.
It's an electric oven.
But disasters were dealt with and cleaned up.
And so we had rice pudding after our Bible study this evening.
(Good stuff, by the way - learning new things from Bible stories you've heard so many times before is always an eye-opener and a reminder of the good things God wants to teach us!)
It wasn't quite like how mum's used to be, but it was tasty!
Kitchen success.
This evening's attempt was rice pudding.
The proper nice kind of rice pudding my mum made when we were little - with rose water in it.
Rose water is readily available here in Nepal, and I bought rice the first week I was here thinking "that's a sensible staple food to purchase" and hadn't actually used any...
It was an obvious thing to attempt to make.
I emailed my ma asking her for the recipe.
She gave me 2 different ones with various different forms of measurement.
This did cause much of the confusion and google searches for "how many ounces in a cup" and "how many cups in a pint"
But sense and measurement and reason are always trumped in the kitchen by rash decisions to just add a wee bit more, anyway...
Disaster number one was boiling the milk over the edge of the pan in a somewhat dramatic fashion.
(You need to boil milk in Nepal...or buy UHT...or get ill)
Disaster number two was the electricity going off just before it was time to put it in the oven.
It's an electric oven.
But disasters were dealt with and cleaned up.
And so we had rice pudding after our Bible study this evening.
(Good stuff, by the way - learning new things from Bible stories you've heard so many times before is always an eye-opener and a reminder of the good things God wants to teach us!)
It wasn't quite like how mum's used to be, but it was tasty!
Kitchen success.
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