What was really great about this trip was getting to spend time and get to know Kalpana’s family. Sometimes you don’t realize the things you have in common because languages and cultures are sometimes very different. While we do have different languages and cultures, Kalpana’s family has been very accepting of me. This picture above with Kalpana’s grandfather is one great example of this. This man was 97 years old in this picture and here he is with his arm around me, accepting me as a part of the family.

The day after going to Pokhara was pretty relaxing. We mostly hung out around the family home and visited with some neighbors, including the family of Bijita, who currently lives in New Bern, NC, only a 40 minute drive from my mom’s house. Below is a picture of Kalpana with Bijita’s family.

The next day (#10 in Nepal, I think) was when we went shopping and then went to dinner with all of Kalpana’s family at the home of Prakriti (a cousin) and her in-laws. They were very nice people. Her father-in-law, Shree, is a professor of computer science, I believe. He spoke pretty good english. He’s a very devout Hindu and is also vegetarian. It was cool to get to talk to him. Below is a picture from the dinner with everyone together.

Prakriti (not pictured above) made some excellent chicken. I ate so much good food! Unfortunately I feel like I’ve eaten too much curry and I can’t eat anymore. Hopefully that will pass before we go back to Nepal again! I ate a lot of vegetable curry (lots of homegrown cauliflower). But because I’m a special guest they also cooked meat for me. Like I said, they were really great to me!

Just a random fact: on the drive over to Prakriti’s house we drove through this forest area that felt a lot more isolated than other areas. They shared a story about how a few years back a man on a bike who was riding in that area got attacked by a tiger. Sadly I didn’t get to see any tigers when we were in Nepal. But that also meant we weren’t attacked by any tigers. So there’s that!

Oh yeah, I forgot to include my favorite picture from shopping:

We were getting close to the end of our trip, which was honestly pretty sad, but we tried to make the most of it. I think that’s enough for this post. On to the next one!