Welcome to Nepal

This is the first blog I'm typing on a handheld device so bear with. The ending cuts off and I'm having trouble going to the end to finish it, so you get to make up your own. Happy July!


I'm currently in a place that I never thought I would be both geographically and personally. Do you ever imagine your current self talking to a younger version of yourself telling them of things you will (are) do (doing)? In my high school yearbook from senior year my life plans were to "go to college, major in Elementary Education, get a teaching job, get married and have kids." I've been pondering over that for a while wondering why I wanted everything so clean and tidy (and safe) then, and when that changed. When did I decide to do other things in life before settling down into teaching and/or married life? While that's a fine and dandy option for many people, I thank my lucky stars, and more realistically the people I've known and experiences I've had, that my mindset changed.


For me, going overseas is both a selfish and giving thing. One of the biggest reasons I ever left America was so I could broaden my horizons, see the world, learn about different places, make money (in South Korea), and overall try and make myself a better person. While in Nepal I am doing all of that, except making money, so now I'm tapping into the giving part of the plan.


Let me get less abstract about all of this and get started on the concrete experiences. I arrived in Nepal just over 2 weeks ago, leaving behind South Korea and what she gave me; a well-paying job, housing, familiarity, friends and my lovely partner. I arrived in Kathmandu in the evening and was picked up and taken to my hotel a bit outside of the city in Bhaktapur, which is a wonderful and very old town. The next day I went into Kathmandu, which is a hot, large, loud, and bustling city full of crazy drivers, with farm animals everywhere. My eyes were big on the drive in. I meandered around braving some taxi cabs and exploring museums, Durbar Square, temples, and had the best lunch ever. In my limited experiences traveling around, I find that I like major cities much less than small towns. I'm glad to have seen Kathmandu but was equally glad to leave.


The next day I flew into Lumbini, which is about an hour drive from my school, Lumbini Boarding School. It is also the birthplace of Buddha and very close to India, so there is some contention about whether he was born in India or Nepal. Every Nepalese person has adamantly told me, "It's Nepal!" Personally I vote for Nepal though I'm quite partial to the country now.


The greeting I received there was unexpected - I thought my friend Tuk was just coming but along with him he brought five young girls dressed in traditional wear with lots of make-up bearing flower garlands and scaves. There were also school teachers present and many people snapping photos, including people that had nothing to do with the school. Tuk is the reason that I am in Nepal, well he and Marianne. The long and short of how I got here is that someone I went to high school with works for a non profit, which Marianne is the CEO of and Tuk is affiliated with.


After the drive I was put up in a nice hotel for the night and was fetched the next day, which was Friday and a half day of school here. The husband and wife who drove me to the school are just two of the many people here who either worked to get me here, aquired amenities to aid in my comfort, or who feel responsible for my safety and well-being. One of the many.


Once I arrived at school I was stunned and overwhelmed by the reception. The typical greeting in Nepal to people they respect or are thanking is to give them scarves and flowers. I stood outside of the gate of the school and saw the entire student body and staff lined up in a circular pattern in two lines with an aisle down the center, just for me. I had to wait a few minutes before entering the throng of people and I kept thinning, 'Holy moly' (perhaps a little.less PG) and 'This is certainly nothing I'll ever forget.' and like the little girl on the Magic School Bus, 'They never did this at my old school.'


Finally I got the go-ahead and walked down the aisle, first being presented with some garlands of flowers (like Hawaiian leis) and a few scarves, and was then walked down the aisle of excited, screaming Nepali children. A woman followed me with a tray because I was being presented with so many bouquets of flowers they just kept falling out of my hands. The children would look at me, nervously, shyly, excitedly, say Namaste (the traditional greting here) and hand me the flowers. The procession of children even went upper on the second floor balcony. I said Namaste so many times it started to sound weird. I stopped to look around at one point and was awestruck at all the people smiling, cheering and looking super psyched just because a foreign volunteer arrived. It was exciting yet daunting; would I live up to this seemingly high expectation they had set for me? The answer is of course what it always is, I can only do my best.

I was then led to the principal's office for a chat and a sit down with the important men (no women) of this school and some surrounding schools it's connected to. I was given a refreshing glass of Mountain Dew and then was brought to the room where I would spend the next month residing. It's a very basic room with a bed, desk, ceiling and extra fan, and a make shift couch in the corner. Perfect for my current needs.

Once I was settled in, there was an official welcoming ceremony for me with all those important men (just men) making speeches where I believed they welcomed me but I was unsure due to them being in Nepali. At one point while I was scanning the room I looked behind me and saw a huge banner with my large face on it stating, "We heartly welcome Miss Katie Kearney!" I try not to be too outwardly vain, but woof to that picture. Its not my favorite and quite frankly startled me quite a bit to see myself that big that close.

Well this is all just the beginning and I will write more later. I get a lot of time here to do a lot of things I missed doing on Seoul, namely reading and writing. To wrap it up I will say this about the whole experience. It's wonderful, hard, confusing, thrilling and b

Loved My Time Here, Didn’t Know ‘Til I Was Gone

The end of my time in Korea is leaving me with all sorts of mixed emotions; a roller coaster of emotions if you will.  Have you ever been somewhere that you liked but you also wanted to leave, and then when it came time you suddenly realized everything that you would miss?  Sometimes I feel like experiences I am in will never end, and I get surprised when they do and suddenly feel nostalgic.  I blame time.  When I put a time stamp on something, it seems SO LONG or SO SHORT, but if I can just focus on the moment all the time spent doing that thing is quite jolly.

Now that I am leaving Korea in a month and a half (!!!) I’m appreciating Korea in the same way as when I first got here; full of awe and wonder.  I also get nostalgic for my ‘beginning times’ when it gets warm here because I first arrived in the hot summer, which was full of smells, and there is nothing quite like a smell to activate a memory.  The warmth of spring hits me, the smell of flowers assault my senses, and all of the sudden I’m walking to school for the first time on my own feeling very different feelings compared to now.  It all makes me quite reflective.  Seoul to me then was HUGE and unknown, as was the culture and the people.  I was amazed that all of the colors of the cars were white, black, or gray (conform!); I couldn’t believe how often they used toilet tissue for napkins; squatter toilets were something new and made me giggle; the smell of dried squid made my stomach turn (and is now oddly comforting); cars that drove around yelling out of  loudspeakers what they were selling seemed like a North Korean attack; sitting on the floor eating galbi (Korean BBQ) was confusing; the crowds on the subway made me giggle then have a mini panic attack; the sight of the ‘new’ generation with high heels and mini-skirts walking by the ‘old’ generation dressed in old simple clothing, bent over picking up the gingko tree fruit off the sidewalk astounded me.  Everything was new, exciting, confusing, and scary.  Sometimes things are still new, exciting, confusing, and scary but not as often.

This is my first and probably last time living abroad for a significant amount of time.  I’m not exactly sure why Korea lost its vim and vigor in my eyes; perhaps it’s because the society is so materialistic/consumeristic/environmentally unfriendly, which is frustrating; or because I teach BOOKS all day to kids while I believe that kids should be outside learning and using books only as a resource; or because of the transience here – once I get close with a person they tend to go back home; maybe it’s because Korea is a small ocean locked place so you can only fly to get to other locations;  or maybe because the country of Korea seems so similar no matter where you are – nothing like America; perhaps it’s because it’s not America – no common language, food, or grocery store contents; or perhaps it’s because I never had a desire to go to Korea before – what mainly drew me here was money.  So all in all, here I am at 28, with the lesson learned that money sure as hell does not make one happy, and never will I ever do a job that I dislike just because I can make some cash doing so.  

However, I have become a better-rounded person (or so I’d like to think, otherwise what the hell was I doing for two years??)  I can cope in most any situation with pantomimes if necessary.  I’ve learned what it’s like to have someone be racist against me, and it does not feel good.  I know not to take things personally when someone pushes me out of the way, steals a seat from me on the subway, or won’t sit next to me on the subway.  I know how to travel better and smarter, and how people of all walks of life live in some Southeast Asian places.  I know how to teach better, how to incorporate music into the classroom, how to make boring lessons more fun, what is unmotivating for me as a teacher, and how to speak up so I can get some help.  I know how to work with a variety of different co-workers, and an (often) infuriating owner/principal.  I understand that cultures differ, but we’re all humans and have the same basic needs and desires.  I am slowly learning how to be a good partner in a relationship and therefore how to be a better person in the world.  I know that while I didn’t always have the best time here, I wouldn’t trade in this experience for anything.  All the clichés are right – you learn and grow from the hard stuff.  At least, that’s what I’m hoping for.

While I am having a newfound appreciation for Korea, I am also having a hard time staying in the moment at work.  I’m making a lot of plans for after Korea, which makes me feel checked out, so staying focused and ‘in it’ at school every day is a difficult task.  Also the method and content I have to teach is very much against my basic teaching principles.  I have five books to teach five-year-olds with, while most of them don’t understand what I say, and half of them don’t know how to turn pages yet.  My daily tasks include things that I know are not right for children, yet it’s what the parents want so it’s what I have to do.  I get frustrated when my students can’t do what I ask them to, yet I know deep down that they are not mentally/physically/emotionally ready for it yet.  It’s a lot of confusing emotions for me, but I am glad to see this way of teaching.  I don’t agree with how Korea teaches their children or the insane pressure they place on them, but kids really step up to the task when you set high expectations on them.  I know that there can be a balance between Korea’s education system and America’s.  Quite honestly, this is all fitting in with my plan of observing as many different educational models as possible before I delve into changing public education in the United States.  A naïve pipedream for sure, but per my plan of not becoming a burnt out teacher plugging it out until retirement, I would like to get into educational policy in my later years.

Once Korea is finished, I am very excited for my next adventure – going to Nepal to volunteer for a month.  More on that later.

It’s been a long time since I’ve written – it feels nice to be back at it.  I hope all are well back at home, and come mid-August, I’ll be seeing you!  Holy Moly!