Can you believe its nearly two months since I left work and I've been here for 6 weeks already ?? Wow, time is flying and I thought things were going to slow down...
I'm settling in well, but to be expected, with all the moving I did as a kid it generally doesn't take me long to adapt to a new environment. There are always going to be things I miss from home, especially my sons, my girlfriends, my family, a night on the town with said girlfriends ( eyah .. wait till I get home girls, we are gonna have some night out ), a nice meal of fresh ocean fish and salad with a Margaret River white and add bonus points for one with excellent company, but there are so many benefits, even in this relatively short period.
Lets see, what do I think I've learnt so far ( in no particular order );
- I have nearly mastered the art of going anywhere on my own, including restaurants and bars. The self confidence is growing day by day as I am put into situations where I am totally out of my depth and its sink or swim.
- By meeting and interacting with so many people, from many different places and with different backgrounds, my world view has considerably expanded and I am very aware that this is only the beginning.
- I'm definitely adapting to taking things as they come, but I am also learning how to say 'no' and to set my boundaries. This is not something I have been very good at in the past and again I have a long way to go, but even though in general the people here are wonderfully supportive and friendly, being a newcomer, there are many that would take advantage of this. If I don't set those boundaries I will definitely get walked all over. (A very persistent guy on Friday learnt some new choice English words, I even quite suprised myself !!)
- I have the freedom to try on different 'me's .. Being an unknown quantity and with no expectations of how I should be, I can experiment with different looks and personalities (You know I'm a Gemini, theres plenty of them to test out :-) ) ... I also have the advantage of choosing whether I feel like dressing Nepali or Western style, I love both and its great to choose depending on my mood.
- In a country this poor, you have to be very sensitive to the extreme poverty that a lot of people live in. A lot of tourists forget this and its really like rubbing salt into the wound. There are no government benefits or state housing and its not hard to understand that tourists can be seen as targets for easy money. I try to be very subtle with my 'toys' ... just one of them is worth more than a lot of families annual income. Thank goodness hardly anyone here knows what an iPod is, I always leave it in my bag and thread the ear plugs through, they just think its some sort of wierd phone. If I'm going out, I never take anything of value with me.
- Without a weekly trip to the hairdressers, my hair is totally unmanageable ...
- I am amazed at the different foods I am eating, even when I have no idea what it is (not bad for a fussy eater), and I actually even ordered chilli chicken last night. I'm not sure I will ever be able to go back to bland food again.
- I always knew in my heart that 'people where people' no matter where you go, but it amazes me that I see Nepali versions of people that I know. This is both in looks and personalities, the only difference is the skin/hair colour. It cracks me up no end that they are obsessed with whitening creams and getting lighter whilst our society is obsessed with tanning and getting darker and yes, heaven forbid, with my glow in the dark complexion I am always getting told I am beautiful. (Won't it be thump back to earth when I get back to a western society !!! )
- Which also brings to mind that someone should come over here and give some of these guys 'dating' lessons .. Lawd, they are so desperate to get out of this country to the 'rich western world' that within 5 minutes there are already heavy hints about marriage and/or commitment. That means that within 4 minutes, I am nearly ready to RUN up Everest ... they've seriously been watching way too many 'D' grade American movies to learn their dating English as well, its very hard to be polite while you are trying hard not to kill yourself laughing ... I take it all with the proverbial grain of salt and put the dampners on any such notions pretty much straight away.
- We have an amazing lifestyle in Australia with so much diversity and freedom, this should be cherished and never forgotten.
- I'm really glad someone taught me how to eat with chopsticks BEFORE I left Australia.
I could ramble on forever, so I will leave it there .. (for now).
The rest of the week has been pretty routine, but today I finally made it to my first AWON meeting. It also happened to be the Annual Membership afternoon tea, so it was a flash affair at the Hotel Yak & Yeti Ballroom. The hotel is absolutely spectacular as it used to be a royal residence. I decided to go very western today and felt like dressing up, so it was my one and only good outfit that I brought with me, which is the purple silky long skirt and chinese style top. ( I am also getting very good at handling being stared at, and when I dress up its way worse than usual. ) I met all sorts of interesting people and had a fantastic afternoon. I also met the Australian ambassador's wife and I got the strangest invite. Would you believe they are looking for some aussies to come and vote at the Consulate as an aussie newspaper (we got interupted so I didn't find out which one) is doing a story on Australians voting overseas and they want to take some pictures ... I'm still thinking about that one, I'm not sure that I even want to vote but here's my shot at fame ...
No great plans this weekend so far, will just slack around, do some more walking .. no doubt I'll end up at Kilroy's and Sams Bar at some point. I will also more than likely spend some time with the guy from the shop next door. We often have a chat when I'm in there and he wants to improve his English and I want to learn some Nepali, so we decided to do a bit of 'cultural exchange'. He's also going to show me around some of the good hidden spots in Jawalakhel (where I live). I have found a lot of them in Thamel but its a fair distance from here, so will be nice to know the local 'places to go'.