12feb - final day of school
hello girls, how are you? after catching the common nepalese cold, i was down with food poisoning 3 days ago. bad curd (yogurt) i had from a local shop therefore i postponed my return flight to this thursday instead of flying today. i am still only drinking orange flavored glucose and taking very light food. anyway. i feel great!
i would like to share with you my first losar (tibetan new year) here! i had a most wonderful time! the timing worked out perfectly. kim finished her final year thangka on 12feb. school closed on the 13th which gave us a day to shop for sweets and chocolates and biscuits and little gifts for rinpoches and our friends.
this is me helping kim to paint her red border on her thangka. i am so nervous! i kept fighting this fear of what if the brush suddenly slipped from my hand and ended up on her thangka, or if i would go out of the line. she was so tired (she said she felt like vomitting white foam) after continuously painting for like a little over a month (to finish this thangka).
each student is given 45 days. becos she has to go back to hk for cny, she needs to rush it a little. here she is, taking a photo of the final piece.
kunga making the cut off the frame. very important step which kim has appointed kunga (a graduate student) to execute. after that it can be rolled and given to the principal. i feel so happy for kim! 6 years! finally she graduates! spending at least 6 months in a year in nepal (daily electrical breakdown, strikes, unstable government situation, lack of hot water shower when the sun is down, harsh environment) to live and paint. can i do it? 
OK! work is over! we can relax and go for lunch and also to make our shopping lists! our favourite lunch spot, garden kitchen. good food good price.
after lunch, we heard that there is a strike going on or some roadblocks going on in thamel (the main shopping area) therefore taxis are not able to go there. we decided to shop nearby at boudha for some cards. they give each other losar cards. ok. i am here, i shall do what the locals do. what a 'lovely' card shop! haha.. i havent seen such cards for such a long long time. i thought they stop producing them. but i was wrong. they are all here in nepal. so outdated! ('o-biang' in singlish and 'ho lueng' in cantonese). but yes, i am here. i accept them. soon, we fins ourselves laughing and having fun choosing them! haha... you know i havent written a card for many years!
dropped by a ready made chuba shop. i decided to get another set of chuba for second day of losar. and also becos there is a big 3day celebration in shechen monastery (where my art school belongs to) i guess i would need another set of chuba. kim bargaining for me. then we rushed off to the tailor to get it altered slightly. 
streets in kathmandu, garbage everywhere. 
there is no refuse disposal system. such basic necessity in a country. sigh... we should really appreciate our government and the clean environment we are living in. the locals here would then just burn the garbage when it gets into a pile. can you imagine the toxin of burning plastics? and they use so much plastic bags here. sigh.. it just makes me feel so sad to see such a beautiful blossom tree right next to a garbage dump. 
being in one of the poorest country in the world always makes me appreciate every little basic thing in life. a click of a button and the lights is on, the shower is hot, the water is running. lately, there is electric failure for like 11 hours. every day. as i am typing now, the electric is running on the guesthouse's small generator. everything outside is dark. and we are reminded to not charge our cameras or phones when generator is on, and to switch on only one light in the room. all lights in the corridor is off. if not it would cause a blackout. my laptop is running on battery now. i am missing luxury quite a bit this trip. becos i am planning to spend 5 mths in a year here, i think that is why this trip has revealed to me a lot of harshness about living here. having a holiday and living here is totally different. and that is why, hats off to kim and all the graduating foreign students, jerome from france, miki from japan, an italian lady and ani karma yeshe from phillippines. i really admire your dedication and determination.
i would like to share with you my first losar (tibetan new year) here! i had a most wonderful time! the timing worked out perfectly. kim finished her final year thangka on 12feb. school closed on the 13th which gave us a day to shop for sweets and chocolates and biscuits and little gifts for rinpoches and our friends.
this is me helping kim to paint her red border on her thangka. i am so nervous! i kept fighting this fear of what if the brush suddenly slipped from my hand and ended up on her thangka, or if i would go out of the line. she was so tired (she said she felt like vomitting white foam) after continuously painting for like a little over a month (to finish this thangka).
each student is given 45 days. becos she has to go back to hk for cny, she needs to rush it a little. here she is, taking a photo of the final piece.
kunga making the cut off the frame. very important step which kim has appointed kunga (a graduate student) to execute. after that it can be rolled and given to the principal. i feel so happy for kim! 6 years! finally she graduates! spending at least 6 months in a year in nepal (daily electrical breakdown, strikes, unstable government situation, lack of hot water shower when the sun is down, harsh environment) to live and paint. can i do it? 
OK! work is over! we can relax and go for lunch and also to make our shopping lists! our favourite lunch spot, garden kitchen. good food good price. 
after lunch, we heard that there is a strike going on or some roadblocks going on in thamel (the main shopping area) therefore taxis are not able to go there. we decided to shop nearby at boudha for some cards. they give each other losar cards. ok. i am here, i shall do what the locals do. what a 'lovely' card shop! haha.. i havent seen such cards for such a long long time. i thought they stop producing them. but i was wrong. they are all here in nepal. so outdated! ('o-biang' in singlish and 'ho lueng' in cantonese). but yes, i am here. i accept them. soon, we fins ourselves laughing and having fun choosing them! haha... you know i havent written a card for many years! 
dropped by a ready made chuba shop. i decided to get another set of chuba for second day of losar. and also becos there is a big 3day celebration in shechen monastery (where my art school belongs to) i guess i would need another set of chuba. kim bargaining for me. then we rushed off to the tailor to get it altered slightly. 
streets in kathmandu, garbage everywhere. 
there is no refuse disposal system. such basic necessity in a country. sigh... we should really appreciate our government and the clean environment we are living in. the locals here would then just burn the garbage when it gets into a pile. can you imagine the toxin of burning plastics? and they use so much plastic bags here. sigh.. it just makes me feel so sad to see such a beautiful blossom tree right next to a garbage dump. 
being in one of the poorest country in the world always makes me appreciate every little basic thing in life. a click of a button and the lights is on, the shower is hot, the water is running. lately, there is electric failure for like 11 hours. every day. as i am typing now, the electric is running on the guesthouse's small generator. everything outside is dark. and we are reminded to not charge our cameras or phones when generator is on, and to switch on only one light in the room. all lights in the corridor is off. if not it would cause a blackout. my laptop is running on battery now. i am missing luxury quite a bit this trip. becos i am planning to spend 5 mths in a year here, i think that is why this trip has revealed to me a lot of harshness about living here. having a holiday and living here is totally different. and that is why, hats off to kim and all the graduating foreign students, jerome from france, miki from japan, an italian lady and ani karma yeshe from phillippines. i really admire your dedication and determination.
posted by Suyin @ Kyurii.com at 9:29 PM
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