Final teaching day at the American Language Center
One month ago I actually finished
teaching my 2 classes at the ALC here in Kathmandu. It was a really fun time
and I loved my students.
On my last day, one of my students told me:
“Teacher, we did not only improve our English with you but you taught us how to
be more confident!” Wow, I was impressed and almost speechless. That was such a
nice compliment!
Have a look at the pictures of my two
classes :)
 |
| Fly like an eagle, flying so high, circling the universe, wings of pure love! |
 |
| Pokhara Phewa Lake |
I decided to leave Kathmandu and to head
towards Pokhara to have a few days to relax and to celebrate my birthday there.
Had a lovely time and decided to go
Paragliding for my birthday!
Wow, that was such a nice experience. I felt like
an eagle flying above Pokhara Lake. How stunning it would have even been if you
could have seen the full Annapurna Range. I cannot even imagine how impressive
that must be ;) Maybe another time! We flew around 30min and the guy I flew
with was from Rumania. He definitely had experience and I felt really safe. We
did an amazing landing on our feet, no falling around or any other incidences.
Stunning, I loved it!
 |
| Evening light at Pokhara lake! Beautiful :) |
 |
| My birthday :) |
Serious
Meditation Experience – Vipassana for 10 days
Well and the real reason why I came down to
Pokhara was that I actually registered myself for a 10 days Vipassana course in
Begnas Thal, 18km outside of Pokhara. I have done some meditation in Plum
Village last year, but this was a completely different set-up and very serious!
Reflection
of Vipassana August 2012
This was the hardest thing I have ever done
in my life!
I was thinking back when I did my Degree in
Marketing, the Diploma in FM in Ireland, the IBM Sales School, the CELTA
Certificate – this wasn’t a challenge compare to what I went through these 10
days, well actually almost 12 days! If you were wondering if I wanted to leave
– YES, I was asking this myself a few times. People, who know me know, that I
am a fighter! Usually I never give up. But these 10 days showed me my personal
boundaries. I’m not made or the purpose in my life is not to live like a nun or
be kept like a prisoner. I need the possibility to walk, go, run and move –
just being free! Exercise wherever or how often or whenever I want!
You know what kept me there? Curiosity and
the beautiful location!
 |
| Outside the meditation hall |
 |
| Our garden |
We had really heavy rainfalls on the first
day and the second day in the morning it cleared up and you should have seen
that Panorama! This was even better than on any postcard! I have done 3 Treks
now in Nepal, but this was the best view I had onto the Himalaya’s by far!
Beautiful, gorgeous, breathtaking, inspiring, lovely, fantastic! We had a break
between breakfast & the 2nd meditation, so I sat on a bench and
glowing in amazement at these mountains! These pictures will stay in my head
forever. Unfortunately I cannot share it with you, as we weren’t allowed to
keep our cameras.
Day
0 – Check in/Chitchat
We had to arrive latest at 12 noon to
check-in and we were allowed to talk to the other students for a bit. This was
nice, as we got to know each other at least a little bit until the noble
silence was starting. I chatted to a lovely girl from Holland and another woman
from France. We were a really multi-cultural group, which felt nice. Men and
women were strictly separated for 10 days. We were 30 people in total, 13 women
and 17 men. The men were half Nepali and half Western. The woman were 80%
Western and only 20% Nepali!
 |
| In front of our room |
I shared a room with a French girl called
Amandine. We got Dal Baht for lunch (typical Nepalese food for lunch and dinner),
which consists of rice, lentil with some sauce and vegetables and a tiny dinner
this evening. Then the first meditation started and bedtime was at 9.15pm –
lights off at 9.30pm.
 |
| My bed with my mosquito net :) |
Day
1 – Starting with the actual course at 4am
Yes, we had to get up at 4am and the first
Group Meditation sitting was at 4.30am for 2 hours. Then we got breakfast at
6.30 and had time to rest until 8am.
Another 3 hours of meditation until 11am,
when it was time for lunch!
Some more time to rest until 1pm and then
4h of meditation until 5pm. This was the hardest time for me indeed. I missed
my Café Latte to stay awake for sure!
Dinner at 5pm and they officially called it
tea break, which was maybe a better description! We got a tiny little bowl of
dry rice crisps (no milk or anything to add) and 3 tiny slices of Mango! This
was all :( I was starving every single evening, as I was just not used to eat
almost nothing. I usually have my main meal in the eve! At 6pm another
meditation for one hour and then we were allowed to listen to some DVD Dharma
talks for one hour! That was almost my highlight of the day!
You cannot imagine how often I was asking
myself that day if I should maybe just leave. I had problems to sit for so long
in one position. I felt uncomfortable to not move, exercise or walk for a
longer distance.
 |
| Our meditation hall |
Day
2 – Dutch girl left
The timetable was the same for every single
day. However today around noon, the place next to me in our dining area was
empty. The Dutch girl, whom I was chatting to just 2 days ago, had left. I felt
awkward as she was even sitting directly in front of me in the meditation hall.
This made it even more difficult to stay. But today I felt a bit better and
thought I will give it a go until day 3!
The meditation technique of Vipassana
actually starts only on day 4. The first 3 days are just used to focus on your
breath! Yes, you read correctly! You do nothing else all day than focusing and
concentrating on your breath. It changes a little bit day by day, but not
significantly really!
Day
3 – Serious struggle
Everything felt just uncomfortable today
really. Too much sitting, I felt like I was locked up behind bars! Yes, it did
feel like you were in prison. I think the only thing, which kept me there was
curiosity. They told us Vipassana would start on Day 4, so I thought I would
give it a try! My roommate struggled as well. She even talked to the teacher
about leaving. I thought, if she is going I’m going with her. Thank god she
stayed!
Day
4 – Another person left
This day was a bit more exciting I have to
say as we finally started to practise Vipassana. You need to observe all your
sensation throughout your body by not judging them. It sounds easy, but it
isn’t I can tell you ;) You should think or judge that they are good or bad.
Imagine you have serious pain in your legs as you were sitting in a meditation
position for hours and you are not allowed to judge the pain that it is bad or
feels bad?! Difficult thing I can tell you.
This afternoon another person left, the
French girl I was chatting to on the first day and I liked her. Pity really,
and it always affects you, when people are leaving.
Day
5 – Yoga & Misery
Memories were starting to come up and ideas
about the future! I actually went through lots of happy memories, not really
bad one’s.
Another beautiful view onto Macchapuchhre
(Fishtail in English)! My favourite mountain so far in Nepal :) When I was
looking at Fishtail a thought came into my head! Imagine having a Yoga Studio
with a view like that onto Fishtail. Even a name popped into my head!
 |
| Fishtail - so beautiful!!! |
However the whole day the Vipassana
Meditation was about misery and I don’t like to be miserable. I’m a very
positive and happy person in general and thinking and listening to these CD’s
where they were always talking about misery was a bit annoying really. That’s
why I was actually close to leave even on the 5th day! But then I
thought it is almost half time and I decided to stay on more day ;)
Day
6 – First serious meditation
Nothing major happened on Day 6 except that
I had my first serious meditation, where I was able to concentrate for a full
hour not moving any parts of my body. I was impressed an a bit proud of myself
that I was finally able to do it. Maybe this gave me the strength not wanting
to leave!
Day
7 – Homesick “Irish flashbacks”
Wow, what a day really! Can you believe it,
but I actually felt homesick!!!
When I meditated from 4.30am until 9pm this
day I had millions of flashbacks about my life back in Ireland. This day was
somehow devoted to Ireland and it just didn’t seem to stop. I was simply and
clearly homesick that particular day! Missing the beautiful West Coast,
Donegal, Westport, Achill Island, beautiful white sandy rocky beaches,
Clontarf, Howth, the tasty food in the Sand Bar, Cottages, the blowing wind,
wearing woollen hats, my apartment, friends, colleagues, neighbours, favourite
coffee places, a run in Phoenix Park, a swim in Portmarnock, my favourite Irish
ring, which I had to give up going into this course.
If you think this stopped on the eights
day, no it didn’t. Only slowly in the afternoon of the 8th day it
started to get weaker…what an experience really! Not sure what to make out of
this, but seems like Ireland has made quite an impression on me!
Day
8 – Another 2 men left
Nothing major happened on that day except
that after lunch 2 more men were gone and our two so called servers as well! I
couldn’t believe it really! Why would you leave 2 days before the course is
over when you already made it to Day8?!
After the course had finished I heard, that
these guys were actually caught smoking and speaking, so it seems like they
were asked to leave!
Day
9 – Thoughts about the future
It seems like that day was devoted to think
about the future. Things I wanted to do or accomplish or experience.
The first thing, which came up, was I really
wanted to volunteer for Room to Read to teach the staff there. I already
prepared my lessons in my head, which I was supposed to teach for Room to Read.
Then I was having the craving to do more
Yoga – so maybe 2 more months in India somewhere.
Before that I still would like to trek the
Everest Base Camp as I’m still here in Nepal, but I need to wait until the
monsoon is over! Only one more month to go :)
Finally surprise surprise, my deepest
desire for years and years came up – to finally travel to Australia & New
Zealand! So I was thinking about finally celebrating New Years Eve in Sydney
with a view onto the Harbour Bridge to celebrate into 2013!
Then I could travel onwards to New Zealand.
Maybe some fruit picking in-between ;)
Day
10 – First words spoken again
Noble Silence was over at 10am! We were
finally able to talk after 10 days. But you know what, it actually felt so
difficult. I guess it took a while to find your own voice again. As female and
male were strictly separated throughout the entire course, today was the first
day they opened one specific small area to meet up altogether and to talk to
each other. As we didn’t know much about each other it was a bit of an awkward
situation at first, and some people were more hesitant to share their
experiences or thoughts than others.
I had a bar of Milka chocolate in my
backpack, even if we were not allowed to bring any food. But just in case I
thought for emergency situations ;) I didn’t touch it until the 10th
day, when the noble silence was over I opened the bar of chocolate and ate it
with Fiona and Amandine! We all enjoyed every bit so much!!!
Day
11 - Day to leave ;)
I’m
a free again!!!
This is the website if you want to find out
more about Vipassana Meditation:
They are having Vipassana centres all over
the world.
When in our life’s are we really given the
opportunity to stay with ourselves for 10 days? I certainly never before had
been with just myself for 10 days, not being able to talk to anyone, no reading
or writing and just meditating.
Now even after finishing the course I
didn’t have an urgent need to talk to people somehow for the first 2 days. It
felt completely ok to stay just within myself. Very interesting observation I
think!
It is a good experience, but if you think
that it is a walk in the park, think again! It isn’t really, at least not if
you take it seriously!
 |
| Meeting some Vipassana people in Pokhara for dinner |
Back
in Kathmandu
After another week of relaxation in Pokhara
and reflection on my Vipassana experience I decided to come back to Kathmandu.
I love Pokhara, but it was just not the right time to stay there any longer.
Even if I loved my AM/PM coffee place and the locals there, it was time to move
on. Lovely people and greatly missed here in KTM. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about my Leeches attack!
Leeches
bites
One morning in Pokhara I decided to walk up
towards the World Peace Pagoda. As I didn’t want to take a boat again over the
lake I decided to walk the other way from Damside. A local Nepalese showed me
the way a day beforehand where I could start. So I did and I walk a small
little trail in the middle of the forest. After around 30 min unfortunately the
trail was not a trail anymore and you really didn’t know where the right way
was to walk towards the Peace Pagoda. I always found some smaller paths and
thought it would be fine. There was always the like kind of visible through the
trees to my right, so I wasn’t lost. After an hour I had to admit to myself,
that there was no trail anymore at all and I was in the middle of the forest,
with only monkeys on top of tree. I decided I need to get out of there and I
saw a boat with a local at the lake. I tried to make my way towards the shore.
I finally was there and I waved at the local over on the left side. But then
another boat came to my right, with two tourists in it. They were so kind to
pick me up! I got onto the boat and shortly I realized that there was something
inside my sandals….Oh no! Then it hit me! There might be leeches! I forgot all
about them. Well I removed my left sandal and you should have seen my foot! I
tried to get them off, at least 10 of them and threw them into the lake. Then I
removed my right sandal –OMG, so many leeches! It was disgusting, but nothing I
could do about it, I just kept on removing them as well as I could. The right
foot was much worse, at least 20 of them!!! Anyway, the Italian people on the
boat and the boatman were very nice and brought me to the small restaurant
where the trek to the World Peace Pagoda usually starts. I set down there and
got some salt to put it on my wounds. Apparently it will help to stop the
bleeding. If you remove leeches, the wounds are bleeding for a while and yes
they did!!!
Almost 2 weeks later you can still see the
red dots on my feet and I finally decided to get some cream from the pharmacy
here in Kathmandu! It seems like they get better slowly but surely! What a
stupid adventure that was in the end ;) But anyway, sometimes we have to learn
some lessons and that was one for me. So I decided to only go trekking after
the monsoon has stopped, as I don’t want to have more leeches on my body
anytime soon!
1:1 English
student
After being back in KTM for 2 days, the
American Language Center rang me and offered me to teach a 1:1 student for 4-5
weeks. I had exactly 4 hours to decide what to do and I decided to go for it!
It is only Mo/Wed/Fr for 2 hours, but I like the new challenge and experience.
I actually started today, and it is a woman
from Tajikistan. She can hardly speak any English, but we had a good start. I’m
looking forward to help her to get more confident and fluent :)
What
will the future bring?
Well, in 4-5 weeks time I’ll finish teaching my private student. It will be almost End of September and the right
time to finally trek the Everest Base Camp!!!
That might take around 20 days I
think as I don’t wanna fly into Lukla. Instead, I’ll take a bus to Jiri and
trek straight from there.
What will happen after that? Let’s see,
maybe straight to Australia or a stop in India? Nothing is set in stone yet.
 |
| Hope I can celebrate New Year's Eve in Sydney! |
If
you have any tips for Australia and New Zealand, how to travel on a budget, cheap
accommodation, where to go to and if it is possible to find some work even
without a work visa it would be greatly appreciated! As I’m already 39 years old, it’s not possible to apply for a
Working Holiday Visa – this is only valid until 31 :( Pity really, but let’s
see if anything else might come up!
Please let me know if you have any idea’s
or thought on that!
 |
| New Zealand |
