Final week in Nepal

I have only just realised that I haven't blogged about my final week in Nepal yet; I have written notes but not gotten as far as typing them up.

My last week was spent teaching and I loved every minute of it. The Friday we were made to feel so very special by the entire school and we were all given a 'token of love' to thank us for our time with Riviera. It was sad to say goodbye to so many wonderful people; especially my teacher Kanchan. I think I will miss her most; she is just such a beautiful, wonderful, happy person who deserves the best in life. I gave her a few farewell presents and she in turn gave me a wonderful wall hanging of some Hindu gods (which are already up in the living room). The final assembly felt quite emotional and I was lucky enough to be able to give a farewell speech on behalf of our group, as follows;

Respected Principal, Vice Principal, Teachers, Staff and Students. On behalf of all of us from CSU I would like to extend our gratitude to Riviera International School for being so very welcoming to us. 

Although we only shared one week with you (thanks to the strikes) we all leave here with many fond memories that will last a lifetime.

As we are all teachers in training, I can say that the experience we have had here has been invaluable and it will make us better teachers in the future.

To our partner teachers; thank you for allowing us to take over your classes and practice our teaching in this environment that is foreign to us.

To Principal Prajwell and Vice Principal Rajesh, thank you for giving us a chance to improve our skills, even though it might seem we do things a little differently.

To the various other staff in the school, you have all been so friendly and helpful to us and have made our experience better. We thank you for this.

Finally, a HUGE thank you to each and every student here. You are all amazing in your own special way and we are so very thankful that you have been so polite, respectful, fun and welcoming to us. You are a credit to Riviera and from the bottom of our hearts we wish you all the very best for your future.

Thank You. 

Final day at Riviera

After school on Friday, myself along with 7 others from our group boarded a plane for Nepal's second largest city Pokhara, for our final few days. Pokhara is such a beautiful city and is much cleaner and greener than Kathmandu. When we got off the plane we all just soaked in the clean(er) air and marvelled at how green the countryside was and how close the snow capped peaks were compared to Kathmandu. We spent our time here just chilling out as friends; a last hoorah before heading our separate ways in Australia. On the Saturday we took a relaxing boat ride to Tal Bahari Temple in the middle of lake Phewa. We then continued to the opposite side of the lake where we climbed a small mountain to reach the World Peace Pagoda.

Bits and pieces from Pokhara

On the Sunday morning, I faced my fear of heights head on by paragliding from Saragkot. To say I was petrified would be the understatement of the century, just ask any of the others I went with. I initially chucked a tantrum like a 3 year old child saying that I wouldn't do it but was eventually roped in to it (and I use the term 'roped' lightly; it was more blackmail - hahaha). My tantrum did garner me the most experienced pilot, so that was a plus. It's funny, because once I was at the top of the mountain I wasn't as nervous as I had expected; this may have been because there were so many paragliders up there (or it could have been because of the almost whole bottle of calming oil I drank earlier). Turns out it was actually fun. We soared above the mountains at around 2,300 meters and had terrific views of the Himalayas, Pokhara, Lake Phewa and the beautiful countryside. Apart from a little motion sickness towards the end, I would say that I enjoyed it (but once was enough).

The mountains in the distance seemed so much closer to me. Breathtaking!

After a great weekend in Pokhara we headed back for one more night in Kathmandu. We all did our last minute shopping for loved ones and then headed out for our final dinner at the Mitrataa Hostel. It was so much fun because the kids put on a bit of a concert for us with singing and dancing. We reciprocated by putting on a pretty awful rendition of 'Home Among the Gum Trees' with our own Nepali twist. We were fed some delicious Dal Bhat Thakari as our final meal. It was especially sad to say goodbye to the Mitrataa family as we bonded with them so well on our first 2 weeks in the country.

So that is my trip to Nepal but stay tuned for my final reflection :)

Farewell Mitrataa