Be the Change: Randoms

When I first entered the country, they wrote the wrong expiration date on my visa. I arrived in Nepal on Sept 22 and they wrote that my visa expired on Sept 20th...ummmm am I missing something here? Note to self and everyone else, always check your visa before leaving any airport! In order to fix my visa, I needed to go to the immigration office which supposedly "opened" at 10:30am.....and by that they mean maybe 11:00-11:30am, or whenever people decide to start strolling in to work. These immigration "officials" will literally show up for about 20 minutes and then disappear again, only to be found somewhere sipping tea when there is still a super long line of people. I think it goes without saying that going to the immigration office here in Nepal is an adventure in itself.

Pretty sure I still can't understand this

I'm sure I've already mentioned this before, but every morning the Nepali people eat dal bhat for breakfast. And in actuality they eat that for every meal...breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Which yes, also means that I am eating it for almost every meal. Bhat means rice in Nepali and dal means lentils. So it's rice with lentils usually accompanied on the side with some curried vegetables and a tomato based sauce called achar. And I'm not gonna lie, I love it. Even for breakfast. :)

Typical Dal Bhat plate

If people here aren't eating dal bhat, they're eating momos. Which are my all time fave! They are just like a dumpling with your choice of meat or vegetables and then they're steamed. Everyone's favorite are the buffalo momos. SO.GOOD.

Momos with achar

The Nepalese also drink on average AT LEAST 3 cups of tea per day. Everyone is always, ALWAYS drinking tea. But I do have to say, although their masala milk tea is probably not the healthiest and doesn't always make me feel the greatest because they use WHOLE milk...it sure does taste amazing.

On some occasions, if you visit someone at their shop, they will usually offer you tea. So obviously, I of course say yes...not to mention, I usually don't have a choice. :) If they order from a shop, I sometimes find myself wondering why it takes so long for our tea to come....and then I see the owner of the shop moving ever so slowly, coming back with the milk that he just went out to purchase to make our tea. I wouldn't be surprised if the place where he got the milk from had to quick go out and milk their cows. There is no such thing as people being in a hurry here. If you accept a cup of tea from someone, be sure to have at least 45 minutes. :)

Sharing some tea with some of my faves :)

The culture here is very relaxed...I've learned that when someone says they'll be gone for an hour...that usually means it will probably take anywhere from 3-4 hours.
When someone says see you tomorrow...that could mean see you next week. There isn't much sense of time here. Except when it comes to the kids. They DO notice. A lot of them have these cute little watches that they are constantly looking at and adjusting to get the time right. During one of the basketball practices we had, I accidentally ended the practice 3 minutes early....but was soon reminded once one of the girls looked at her watch and said "Teacher, Teacher it's 3:57...we have three more minutes still!!! Needless to say, we did another few activities. :)