Hello everyone!

Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve sent an update- my life here has been very busy and often without wifi! Since I last wrote, I spent two weeks traveling in the mountains of northern Nepal, and two weeks back in Kathmandu for my last few classes and a week of exams. According to the result of my final language exams, I am officially an ‘Intermediate’ Nepali speaker… which doesn’t really feel accurate to my experience here since sometimes I feel like I can barely get around. But, I also know I have learned so much in these past two months, so I guess it’s true!

I have also spent these last few weeks planning for my Independent Study Project (ISP), an integral part of the study abroad program I am doing. During this time, each student has a month to conduct an individual research project of their choosing. In my program, students can go anywhere in Nepal and are pretty much on their own schedule during their four weeks of research. For my ISP, I am planning on returning to Chitwan National Park in order to study the agriculture and environmental conservation practices of a local indigenous group there. I visited Chitwan National Park with my program about a month and a half ago and I absolutely loved it. Now, coming back in mid-April, there will still be the same amazing wildlife like elephants, rhinos, and tigers, but it will be much, much hotter. From what I understand, I will be spending three weeks living with a tropical, 100°+ F high during the day, and a barely 75° F low during the night. So, I’m sure this kind of heat will make me miss the cold of the mountains even more! Still, I’m so excited for the opportunity to conduct my own research for the first time.

Speaking of the mountains, I’ll share a bit more about my time there. I spent one week traveling between a few different places, and then one week living with a host family in a rural Himalayan village. I absolutely loved this experience and I felt so grateful to be able to visit such a special part of the world. During our first week, one of the highlights was visiting a tea farm, which I was told is one of the only places where tea is commercially grown in the western half of Nepal. We also spent a few days visiting small towns and hiking a few hours between them. We were in a region known as Mustang, in the Gandaki Province, which borders Tibet. This region is home to thousands of Tibetan refugees and aspects of this culture was visible throughout our time there, in Tibetan architecture, food, and writing seen in public spaces.

The second week was spent in a village called Thini. Only a few hundred people live in Thini and it is a close-knit community. The village has had established homestays for tourists for over 15 years, and the community welcomed our group with open arms. Thini is nestled in the shadow of various famous mountains, including the 7th highest peak in the world(!) called Dhaulagiri. My Thini host family was so kind and I loved spending the week with them. My older host brother in Thini is a Buddhist monk and although we only spoke in my very broken Nepali, I was able to learn so much from him about the religion and his life as a monk. He took me to visit the monasteries around Thini because he knew I would love the artwork inside (pictures below!). During this week, my group and I took our daily Nepali classes, hung out with our host families, explored the village and mountains around it, and had an incredible time overall.

Thank you for reading this update and don’t forget to scroll down for pictures from my trip! I hope my photos will be able to do the Himalayan mountains justice, although I doubt it. The next time you'll hear from me, I will likely be sweating buckets down in Chitwan National Park!

- Maria