Bouda, The Theater, and Meredith Gets a Staph Infection

Meredith Gets a Staph Infection

staph·y·lo·coc·cus n (aka staph)
A bacterium that typically occurs in clusters resembling grapes, normally inhabits the skin and mucous membranes, and may cause disease. Genus: Staphylococcus

We didn’t want to tell you, but Meredith got a staph infection. Don’t worry, she’s better now. It all started as a weird bump on her back (maybe it was a bug bite or maybe acne…) that caused her whole back to ache. She took matters into her own hands and decided to treat it with hydrogen peroxide. Really that did nothing but sear her skin and make everything worse:



This “treatment” happened at night, so instead of a doctor we got to take our first trip to the emergency room! We’re so lucky. Actually, we are because it was my favorite experience at a hospital. We were there so short that our taxi waited for us.



The only weird part is that it’s a really small hospital and nothing is very private. Here’s Meredith getting examined. She loves it:



The doctor facetiously asked her if she was training to be a doctor since she had decided to treat herself. HAHA, no she wasn’t. He prescribed her some antibiotics, we paid about $20 in all and went home. She’s all better now:





The Theater
(This part is altered from an email I sent someone...)

I went to the theater I'm going to be working for. They are called Aarohan and are super political and socially conscious, but not in an annoying way that makes you want to never vote again. Here’s the welcome sign:



They seem excited to have me there, but I don't think they know how best to utilize me. For now, I’m going to do a lecture on arts management for some of their students and also help out with their website. Unfortunately, both of these duties are very short term, and I want to be more involved. I think the more I’m around there, the better they'll know how to use me. I’m most excited about their international theater festival in November. There are, tentatively, 10 different countries coming so far. Including two from the USA.

Also, they do this thing called Legislative Theater. It’s a kind of theater that helps the people create laws. A man named Augusto Boal created it and used it in Brazil. Look it up...it's ridiculously awesome.

Also, they idolize Henrik Ibsen...

Guess what I’m not excited about? That lecture. In fact, teaching is probably my least favorite kind of job. I will suck it up and do it anyways.



Bouda (aka Bodhinath)

Lastly, I went to a place called Bouda a few days ago. They have one of the biggest Buddhist stupas in Nepal here. Here’s me standing awkwardly in front of it:



Most importantly, I watched a cow pretend it was a pigeon:



And then I ate some Tibetan food and went home.