[ The Halfway Point! (And in Which Some Things are Unbelievable) ]

It has been exactly one month since I left home, and I have exactly one month until I leave Kathmandu!
Can you believe it??? ME. NEITHER. 
It has also been a week since I last posted what I've been up to!
Can you believe it??? Haha, neither can I (sorry about that folks!). :)

I'm still harboring a twinge of guilt about not including any pictures in the previous post on culture, so, for your viewing pleasure, this will be an entirely picture-lead tour of the past week! The story is in the captions, please enjoy. :)

This seems like forever ago! Aditi is back in the office (woohoo!!!) and she brought chocolates for everybody (which were placed   right   in    front   of   me   (not complaining)).

I have started going out with Olivia and Nick to "get facetime" with major players in the area of stone spouts. Here, I am talking with the chairperson of Urban Environment Management Societs (UEMS)! They had great stories related to water spouts in the valley!

MANGOES. Why did I not have one of these before?? This is the first time I have actually eaten a mango "straight up." Can you believe that?? Yeah, me too, considering we don't grow them in Iowa. :) But mangoes here have earned the title of  Sweetest Fruit Ever Consumed by Abby Snyder.
I've also had one every day since...a trend not likely to stop soon. :)

Wednesday night, Barbara and I went to Bhat Bhateni. This is a four-story supermarket about 15 minutes away on foot. Like roadside stores, everything is on display. 

I thought this was hilarious. I shall deem it "The Aisle of Snuggles and All Things Plush!"

Seriously! So many bowls! It is difficult to determine the patterns on some because they are all stacked up!

Ssssshhhhhhoooooooeeeeeeeesssssssss.
They had every kind here, aisle after aisle, lined up against the wall. 

But this is what I really came for! :) And some of what I didn't come for...
Note those two Dairy Milk Crackle bars; they were used for celebrating on the 4th!

Happy Thursday! This is one of two major signs at
ICIMOD
For Mountains and People

After work I went to a talk about Bahas and and Bahis that also hit on Buddhist Newar traditions! The man presenting, Bruce McCoy Owens, was a great speaker and obviously passionate about the physical transformations of these places. A lot of it was above my understanding of the caste system and religion here, but it was still really entertaining and interesting from the parts I could gleam. :) 

Friday (the fourth of July!) I was having a really rough time with homesickness. After work, I didn't want to sit around the guesthouse, so I went to a bakery and bookshop up the street, then turned back and went to a kurta shop down the street! Even though I only have a month left, I'm really excited to get some use out of these. :) And the ladies there were so helpful. After this excursion, I bought a cheeseburger at the Sing-Ma food court with the money I had left (I was left with 3 whole rupees (3 cents) in my wallet. I couldn't have done that if I tried!). 

As the final step in getting over my blues, I collected all the candles in the guesthouse and went up to my little balcony. This makeshift-solo-romantic-pretty-dark-yet-really-lovely dinner was also unbelievably delicious! :) The cheeseburger was really great, even by American standards. I had managed to capture a little bit of the sight, smell, taste, and feel of the 4th of July. :)
I felt so much better afterwards; it is really reassuring and part of the growing experience to know that you can straighten yourself out. 

Saturday morning I had breakfast with Margaret and Cecilia. They are two professors from the U.S. working on a human trafficking project here; they are also really sweet and really cool! :) We sat around for quite awhile at breakfast until they had to head out for the day. I was originally going to have Ashok take me to ICIMOD (I wasn't very productive on the 4th and want to make up for it (although technically I could have taken the day off as a holiday anyways (but there is still a lot of work I want to do))) but instead of bugging him to drive me there, I went across the street to Cafe Soma to work! It is really quaint and seems to be a hotspot for expats (people not from Nepal). This picture was stolen from their Facebook page, but it is the view that I have from my current perch! :) 

This beautiful sandwich and potato fries and ketchup and peach iced tea were AMAZING.

This is what I was looking out on while working; the blue gate at the far left is the gate to my guesthouse!

That wraps up my work week!
On a side note, I've had three more spiders in my room this week. My lint roller has proven exceedingly effective with regards to destruction and deposition of said spiders.
I hope everyone else survived the fourth as well. :)

Peace and love (and independence),
Abby (the Arachnid Assassin)