On the Road Again… So far my travels have been relatively easy. Despite the fact that I have flown halfway around the world to a country that is fraught with corruption and poverty, I have still managed to retain all of the necessities, and even some of the luxuries, from home. While it is true that the showers are nefariously cold, and the guesthouse is without power for at least 12 hours of the day, I have still enjoyed things like pizza, Gatorade, a Western style toilet, television, and a reliable internet connection day or night. And though my in-country coordinator [View Full Entry]

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Last Week in Kathmandu: Prior to this journey the longest vacation I’ve ever taken was 3 weeks. Normally I’m conducting a whirlwind tour of Europe; dashing from city to city while barely taking the time to snap the obligatory pictures of all the “must-see” tourist traps. At the end of the vacation I’m left feeling exhilarated yet exhausted, able to check off an impressive array of places from my list and yet feeling as though I didn’t really see any of them. One of my goals for this trip was to break this trend and to take the time to trul [View Full Entry]

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Weekend Trekking Trip After breathing in the city smog for a week, we decided to go on a weekend trekking trip to see a bit more of the “real” Nepal. It was also a good test to see whether we were all fit enough to handle our big treks later on in our stay. Elizabeth is planning on doing the Everest base camp in mid-February, Katharine is doing the Langtang trek at the end of January with her boyfriend, and I’m heading over to trek the Annapurna region next week. We had arranged for Dhilip, my guide from Durbar Square, to [View Full Entry]

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Teaching and the Monkey Temple Due to an innumerable number of obstacles, ranging from transport strikes, school holidays, and pesky visa trouble, my first solo teaching day at the Monastery was Friday. I couldn’t believe that I was already halfway through my volunteer placement term with only 1 day in the classroom under my belt. I was feeling rather guilty at this point and very anxious to begin. I determined that NOTHING was going to keep me from the Monastery today. It ended up being a rather difficult resolution to keep. I was still trying to get my Indian visa [View Full Entry]

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The Nepalese Way This was it. I woke up on Wednesday morning eager to fly solo at the Monastary that day. I had laboured diligently on my lesson plan the night before, creating flashcards and a detailed breakdown of the following day’s activities. I was ready to spread my wings and begin giving back to the community. Lesson #2 from the Year of Jen: The world doesn’t follow the same clock or calendar. At about the halfway point to Bodor, Helena got a call from our in-country coordinator to let us know that it was a school holiday that day and [View Full Entry]

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The Beginning of the End On Saturday January 3rd, at high noon, I officially left Canadian soil to begin my journey overseas. Exhausted from a whirlwind of last minute details and emotional goodbyes, I climbed aboard the plane that would take me further from my home then I've ever been before. I had hoped to sleep away the majority of the first 15-hour leg of my journey, and in fact stayed awake pretty much all night to help me do just that, however unfortunately it was not to be. Lesson #1 from the Year of Jen: Never request a seat at [View Full Entry]

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Time for a life change A few months ago I celebrated a birthday. Not just any birthday - my 25th birthday. While I'd always joked around with my parents about oncoming mid-life crisis symptoms in the past, all of a sudden I was experiencing my own quarter-life crisis and it just didn't seem so funny anymore. Where did the time go? When people ask me how old I am, 21 still rolls off the tip of my tongue. It seemed like over the course of a day I moved from being a marginally responsible young adult without a care in the [View Full Entry]

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