Jan 15 & Jan 16

Jan 15 (Fri) 7:45 PM
Today was a very nice day. It is still cold and foggy in the mornings like it has been for the past two mornings. I am surprised how much my ability to handle cold has diminished since I’ve been here. T-shirt weather back home has become long-john, sweatshirt and sweatpants weather here. That may have something to do with being sick, though. I have a cough and runny nose and am tired all the time. I slept for 10 hours last night, took an hour nap today and could go to sleep right now. I hope I am better for the festival tomorrow!

Today I hand-washed my clothes. It took a very long time and they are still drying. Unfortunately, that means I will probably be wearing my dirty sweatpants to the festival tomorrow. I won’t ever complain about doing clothes at home again! I also think that the detergent they use here may have ruined a few of my shirts. The look spotted, but it is difficult to tell until they are 100% dry. Mom reminded me today that haven’t mentioned anything about money yet. The scarves I bought yesterday were 30 rupees, or not even $0.50 each. The purses were 200 rupees. Right now the American dollar is 75 rupees. Andrew and I had a wood-fired pizza at one of Raj’s favorite restaurants “Roadhouse Grill” for 500 rupees, including tax and tip. Taxis cost around 200 rupees during the day and closer to 400 at night.

Jan 16 Saturday
Happy New Year! (year 2137) Today we celebrated Lhosar, or the new year for my host family. The morning started early for the family preparing the house for company. I am not feeling well today (just a cold) so I slept in until around 9:30. My clothes still weren’t dry so everyone was in their nice clothes and I was in sweat pants and a sweater. Nobody told me it was dress-up day or I would have bought something new. Oh well, I look so different anyway, it doesn’t make much of a difference. The entire family gathers for brunch between 10 and 11 and we all eat a lot of food. Then the men (including me today) go around to everyone’s house to do a prayer and song. The first song is just singing (more chanting, really) the second song ends with roksi in the hand and then, I think after a prayer, we lick it off our hands. The third ends with throwing rice and flour into the air. Beer or wine is drank at each house so the fourth house was more of a party with throwing flour at each other and a lot more laughing in their conversations. They insist I drink roksi when I cough and it actually does help a lot, which is great. I don’t like sitting and cough and sneeze and sniffle so close to everyone. I got noodles for dinner ( much like top ramin) since I am sick. Thank you, Lisa for the NyQuil and DayQuil!