Morning Walk and Afternoon Lesson

I've now added pictures to this post and to two below.

Monday morning I walked with Claire to Naxal, where she studied when she first came to Nepal as an international student, and where Antonio and I will have our language lesson this afternoon. I walked from there to a clinic near the Indian embassy to get a typhoid vaccine (forgot to check on these before leaving home), which was very easy and western. Then was walking back home when I ran into the Garden of Dreams, a large 1920s sort of Mediterranean, sort of Japanese, sort of Nepali garden filled with little porticoes, fountains, benches, and ponds with water lilies. I walked around and then stopped in their café for latte and croissants (about $4 for it all, served at a little table under the trees overlooking a large pond, the latte in a footed glass cup with sugar cubes and tongs, and the croissants hot in a basket with marmelade and butter, and a cloth napkin, very Continental) and watched a group of kindergarteners coming on a field trip to the garden.

Walked to meet Claire at Dilli Padu’s little store, which is modeled after a 7-11, even to the green painted sign out front (that says “since 1989 department store”) and the combination of food, toiletries, and paper supplies that is sold. His nephew Susaan (spelling?) was at the cash register, and recognized me right away as Claire’s mama (I stand out a little bit here). It is his wedding that we are going to next weekend. So we chatted till Claire arrived, and Claire and I walked back to the apartment so she could pick up her computer and go back to work.

Later in the afternoon Antonio and I walked back to Naxal to meet our Nepali language teacher, Mina. She was Claire's teacher nine years ago when Claire first came to Nepal as an international student from Wooster. We met in the building where Claire took her classes. Mina is very energetic and an excellent teacher. We spent a very full hour with her. One thing I learned that is very interesting is that there is a Nepali word for one's daughter's parents-in-law, and that that title is what we should call one another: to me, Bhuwon is "samdhiji" and Rayjashree is "samdhiniji."