Nepal: the last word.

Welcome to the final installment of my series on our trip to Nepal! Now you know more or less where we went and what we did, but there's more to the story than that. In particular, there are a few impressions, stories, and factoids that don't fit prettily into the main narrative, but are important nonetheless. Traveling from Korea added a whole new element to an already exciting trip, making things even more exciting but also occasionally confusing. So here we go! The very last word(s).

Last Word #1: Questions
For a pleasant change of pace, we heard a lot more English in Nepal than we do in Korea. We had plenty of opportunities to chat with people, from shopkeepers to missionaries to curious children on the street. Naturally, one of the questions we got a lot was "Where are you from?" I doubt anyone would believe that we're from Korea, but that's technically where we came from on this trip. The quick answer was the US, of course, but if possible I preferred to say more than that. Korea is my life this year, and simply saying I'm American isn't the whole story these days. We usually ended up looking kind of shifty, then saying America or Korea depending on how long we expected the conversation to be. Perhaps we could have figured out something more eloquent, but it was certainly an interesting problem to have!

Why are these Americans taking this picture? Do I have a story for you!

Last Word #2: Hospitality
One really delightful thing about Nepal was the hospitality we experienced during our trip. I mentioned this briefly in earlier posts, but I want to emphasize it again. While in Kathmandu, we decided to try and find the apartment where Uncle Simon and Haejung Imo lived during their time as missionaries there. We found it, which was so exciting. We immediately started taking "ID pictures," as Uncle Simon calls them, which are pictures of us looking really happy in front of important things. While we were snapping cheesy photos, we saw someone peeking through the window.

Can you see her?

Before we knew it, the owners of the building came out and said hi! They had rented the apartment to Uncle Simon and Haejung Imo, and everyone was so excited to see each other after seven years. They invited us inside to look around - they had done lots of renovating since then - and sat us down for tea and conversation. After reminiscing for a while, we left with the promise that we could all come back any time we were in the area. This sort of welcome happened all over the place, with old friends of the Parks and people we had just met. It was a little silly - "Sure, see you next time I come to Nepal!" but it seemed genuine and I felt very welcome during the whole trip.

The owners were so nice ^^

Last Word #3: Adapting
I was really impressed with how things just kept moving in Nepal - even when everything was stopped. Occasionally, someone will call Bandh, or strike. Everything in Nepal shuts down, including transportation. That's right, everybody walks. Everywhere. For some this means not coming into work for the day, as we learned on our tour of Kathmandu missions. Regardless, it's a stressful interference for many people. Another thing people adapt to these days is electricity, or the sometimes-extended lack thereof. We experienced power outages quite frequently during our trip, and apparently the problem has gotten worse since Simon and Haejung were there. Now, I'm not saying I was happy to experience those things, or that it's exciting to go unexpectedly without transportation or electricity. What I do want to express is how impressive it was how things simply kept going in the face of all that. (It also made me much more curious about the political history of the area. Being in Nepal definitely made me want to learn more things.)

Ordinary traffic conditions. We probably could have walked faster.

A similar road during Bandh. No choice but to walk.

The Very Last Word: Homecoming
After such an amazing experience, I was exhausted and pretty much ready to go home... to Korea. And believe it or not, we had plenty of reminders of "home" during our trip: a North Korean restaurant here, a Korean missionary family there, even some weirdly familiar Korean-style coffee shops. There was a very small-world feeling to the whole trip, emphasized when we saw something Korean in what was generally a very different part of the globe.

Believe it or not, this is in Nepal. They served pretty good coffee, too!

Coming back, this was my second time flying into the Incheon Airport... and  the feeling was very different compared to last September. What had been strange and intimidating a few months before was suddenly familiar and comforting, and it was so good to be back. Our trip to Nepal was a phenomenal experience (in case I haven't made that clear, ha~) but one of my favorite parts was the homecoming. It solidified for me that this is exactly where I'm supposed to be right now, and Korea really is my home. At least for now ^^