Business as Usual in Kathmandu

Hello again! The past few weeks have been business as usual here in Kathmandu, but I wanted to give you an update regarding my teaching, my new friendships, and life in general… but before I do, I just want to give a shout out to Eric: 

GREAT JOB AT PACS, ERIC! I loved watching you swim! I’m so proud of you!

Okay, now back to the update…

Getting Used to a New Routine

As I mentioned previously, I started teaching ESL to a student in Year 7. This is going really well so far and I’m really enjoying having a student who is a little older. It’s like a breath of fresh air for me. Things are continuing to go well with my primary students, though! We recently released one of my Year 2 students from ESL. I was a little worried at first because this caused me to rearrange my schedule and I now have three rowdy boys together in the same class. But, God is good and this new arrangement is working out better than I could have hoped. 

I probably shouldn't play favorites with my students, but if I had to choose a favorite, Seong-Hyeon might be it. He's the cutest and funniest little boy you will ever meet. Here he's telling me all about how he fell on the playground.

Thinking hard to tell me the story of the boy in the picture... Seong-Hyeon got to choose the boy's name. He chose to name him Hamster.

Social Life… AAAAHHHH!

In all the places I’ve ever lived and all the different friend-groups I’ve had, my social life has never been more than I could handle… until now :). There are always new friends to meet, different people to spend time with, and someone doing something that everyone’s invited to. This is GREAT… for awhile at least. I’m starting to embrace my alone time as a mental health necessity.  

I am, however, enjoying getting to know all the new teachers and other newcomers to Kathmandu. It’s so nice not to be “the new girl” anymore. I’ve also had a few special visits in the past couple of days. My good friend Stephanie’s dad is in town for a visit and it’s been very nice to meet him. This afternoon I also got to have lunch with my friend Grace’s parents. I met Grace in the TESOL program and became good friends. Grace’s parents live in Kathmandu and Grace actually went to KISC when she was younger. We had such a great visit!

Going out for pizza, Stephanie's dad's first meal in Nepal.

Looking Towards July

Even though I still have several months left in my time here, it’s already time for me to start planning my return home this July. I’m starting to look for teaching jobs back home and getting ready to book flights. It blows my mind how quickly time flies! It is, however, difficult to focus on my task here when I’m making arrangements to come back to the U.S. Sometimes I feel like I’m trying to be in two places at once.