More Than Mountains

When my plane touched down in Nepal, I knew three things about the country: Nepal had mountains. Kathmandu was the capital. "Namaste" means "hello." I knew virtually nothing about the country I was about to spend the next eight months in.

I had decided to take a gap year between college and grad school. I wanted to live in a new country and fully submerse myself in a new culture, something I hadn't taken advantage of during my undergrad. I chose Nepal mostly because of the Himalayas and my love of trekking. After much consideration (and budgeting), I decided to do my first three months with a gap year program, then travel on my own after that. Dragons gave me all the resources to prepare myself for Nepal: book titles, phone conversations, and even a copy of the Lonely Planet guidebook to Nepal. I could've prepared better, but I didn't. So it was that I found myself on the other side of the world in an unfamiliar culture with a group of strangers that were about to become my family for the next three months.

Those three months were beyond anything I could have imagined... Sitting cross-legged on a mud floor drinking sweet masala tea with my aamaa. Dancing with my homestay family on a balcony in Kathmandu while the city sparkled with millions of lights. The chanting of fifty monks, young and old, echoing in the cavernous puja hall. The burning of my lungs as we crossed Gosainkunda Pass and the sea of clouds on the other side.

The mountains were incredible, no doubt, but they aren't what I will remember most about Nepal. As I said goodbye to my the fellow travelers at Tribhuvan Airport in Kathmandu, I had tears in my eyes. It was these people along with many others that had made Nepal beautiful. I would be spending another five months in Nepal, but unlike the last time I arrived at the airport, I was ready.