Meredith and I have officially moved to a new apartment (see above – we’re on the top floor). It is a little south of Albert’s apartment in an area called Sanepa. It was actually a really random find: one day I was napping and Mer was working and this little man named Binod came in to Albert’s apartment to say hello. Turns out he delivers newspapers and is a realtor. So, we got on his motorbike and looked at five or six apartments. Two days later we got this lovely thing. It has a really awesome windowed room, an office, bathroom, kitchen, and good-sized bedroom. It had a huge layer of dust and grim on it that we spent the first day cleaning with Shusila. Meredith pretends to be a bandit while she cleans:
It’s really good to have our own place. The day before we left Albert’s, Meredith had resorted to throwing things at the next door neighbors dog to get it to shut up. She pegged it with a lemon first and then created a stock supply of tofu balls in case it started up again. Turns out Meredith is really sensitive to barking dog noise. A few times in the middle of the night a dog would be non-stop barking, and she would get up all disgruntled, run outside and shout: “Shut Up Dog!!” She did it so scarily, so I just pretended I was still sleeping. The sad part is the dog wouldn’t stop. Lemons and tofu balls were far more effective.
Yesterday we went swimming at the Hardic fitness center. We’ve gone there on a few occasions; the first time we got a massage, the second Meredith tried to do a sauna but they had lost the key to the sauna room. That gives you a good idea of their operations. This time, apparently, the four Nepali boys swimming had never seen Western women in bathing suits. We were pretty amusing to them. Let me just say, it’s creepy to have a 30 year old man in a donut floaty paddling two feet away from you in circles. Also, there was one cloud in the sky and it was right above the swimming pool. We left. Here’s Meredith, she’s psyched to be leaving Hardic.
That evening we went to Shusila’s apartment. She invited us for dinner and to see her place. Many of her family members were there because a. They live there b. it is the evening before a Hindu holiday called Teej. Shusila’s cousin and our Nepali language tutor, Sauroj, picked us up at our apartment. We took a bus to Ratna Park (the main bus drop-off and pick-up area) and then walked to Samecusi (sp?), Shusila’s part of town. Sauroj said our walk would take 20 minutes. This is funny because it took at least an hour. In our apartment search we learned that when Nepali people give you an estimate of how long it takes to walk somewhere, they leave out the words: “times three.” So, it’s good to know when someone says they live “ten minutes away”, they mean “ten minutes away times three. I live thirty minutes away.”
On our twenty minute times three walk:
I know irony is not cool anymore, but I got an ironic Christina Aguilara. This is one of three really popular shirts in Nepal, the other two have Avril Lavigne and Britney Spears on them. I will try and collect them all because they are seriously so ridiculously awesome. Here’s me so excited to have mine on (I even put on red underwear to match):
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