2011 was probably the most interesting year of my life, immersing myself into a completely foreign environment and adapting to a different type of lifestyle. Among the things I have learned...
Street Savviness: Spending my adolescence below the Mason-Dixon line instilled
the basic tenets of southern hospitality; I took cotillion classes, learned to foxtrot and waltz, started saying 'sir' and 'ma'am' to my elders and became generally polite to everyone to the point of being passive. Acting this way in Nepal will get you chewed up, spat out and broke faster than one can say 'namaste'. I've learned to be assertive and headstrong and don't accept rudeness from people anymore. I will cross the street without waiting for cars to slow down (playing lots of Frogger as a youth has paid off), aggressively haggle with cab drivers and merchants and have learned how to handle rude people. I used to allow the bank and immigration people to speak in their brusque, vulgar manner but have learned that almost everybody will become timid and withdrawn if you fire back at them. I previously blogged about some teenagers 'siccing' a pit bull on me as I ran past; the next day, I walked up to the leader of the pack and silently stared into his face without emotion until he apologized. There's a small chance that my newfound courage will lead to me being mugged and shanked but I've learned that it's the only way to be.
Eating with Hands: Lots of Nepali people eat their meals sans cutlery, preferring to eat foods such as rice with their hand. Having large fingers made this a difficult skill to master, but I am now fairly adept with eating meals by hand. The trick is the scooping motion from hand to mouth. I still prefer to eat with forks and knives though, as curries will stain your fingernails.
Multi-Tasking: Women often complain that men are incapable of doing multiple things simultaneously and I used to easily fall into this stereotype, but teaching a room full of 7-8 years for the past several months has empowered me with multi-tasking skills that I used to think were impossible. I can handle a disagreement, teach a new subject, prepare a lesson plan and check papers all at once without blinking an eye.
How to Stay Warm: Long Johns, a new scarf and hot-water bags have proven to be essential commodities to wintertime survival. I recently have been spending more time outside in the blazing winter sun, thinking that absorbing some rays and getting some pinkness would keep me warmer at night, but found that getting sunburnt only led to shivering chilliness. Spicy food offers temporary reprieve but not as much as you would think. I always weigh the pros and cons of showering at night, as the five minutes of intense warmth are heavenly but not worth the limb-chattering coldness that sets in as soon as the water turns off. Getting into bed and clutching my fancy hot-water bag has become one of the highlights of my day.
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After a fairly complex ordeal at the Indian embassy with an extremely rude secretary who refused to answer my questions, I now possess the coveted Indian visa and am flying to Delhi with Shehrish on the 14th of January. Americans and Russians have to pay twice as much as any other countries to go to India but whatever. Planned excursions include everything worthwhile in Delhi, visiting Rajasthan and possibly Agra, site of the Taj Mahal. The latter is out of the way and will be costly, but I'm leaning toward making it happen as it's the bloody Taj Mahal and I'll likely never get a chance to see it again. I am really looking forward to the food, as I trend toward more Indian dishes than Nepali and I have been told that the biryani in Delhi is fantastic. Contact me if you have any suggestions as to what to do in and around Delhi.
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New Year's Goals:
I prefer to make goals as opposed to resolutions as they're more attainable. For example, I could resolve to be more organized and less slobbish but I'd likely fail, as altering behavior can be difficult. So my goals for 2012 include (going from easiest to hardest):
Reading at least 50 books: I estimate that I read about 35-40 books last year but still waste a lot of time at night during the week feeling my brain atrophy by watching shows like Housewives of NJ and Kardashians when I could be reading instead. Setting the bar at 50 would be an improvement and is attainable with minimal effort. I made an organized list last June of things I wanted to read, and the next 10 up are..:
Ajax, the Dutch & the War by Simon Kuper
Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Persig
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
The Evolution of God by Robert Wright
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Shaq Uncut by Shaquille O'Neal
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
Breaks of the Game by David Halberstam
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
...all of which I would recommend from having read previous stuff by most of the authors.
Running a Half Marathon: A preemptive effort to mitigate the inevitable weight gain upon returning to the land of obesity and cheap, unhealthy food. Setting a running goal is daunting as I usually just jog for around a half hour but I have recently been extending my lengths and made it a good 50 minutes this morning before calling it a day. It's only 21 km; I prefer thinking of distance in metric terms as I grew up dreading having to 'run the mile' in PE class. I don't care about speed, I just want to finish it. This goal is less likely to happen than reading 50 books, but more likely than...
Learning to Cook (some stuff): From living alone in an apartment, I tried some things out but my cooking prowess is pretty much limited to boiling pasta for the proper length and microwaving the accompanying sauce, perhaps chopping up some onions and garlic to give it some panache. Every other cooking endeavor I underwent was mediocre to disastrous in quality. I don't think I'll go back to eating meat and really enjoy the foods I eat in Nepal, which means that I'll have to learn to cook them. Rice is easy enough with a rice cooker and I'm going to set the bar low by making it a goal to cook dal (lentils), tofu, vegetables and paneer the way l like it. It will be trial and error and I'll likely have to stomach some horrible results but am looking forward to trying. Real men can cook.
Publishing unedited due to lack of power, please excuse poor grammar this time. Happy 2012!
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